Last week I amassed 743.21 miles of biking. This injury has featured most of my biggest weeks of biking. I've only biked over 300 miles in a week 24 times but 11 of those are in 2021 and 8 of the top 9 are in November or December of this year. I'll be glad to be done with the bike.
I've been doing a LOT of biking during this recovery. Nine of the 20 longest rides I've done have been over the last month (including 7 of the top 11). Obviously, it is a lot easier to bike in the basement but I'm still putting in a lot of time. If I were outdoors I'd only get about 75% of the distance. I've just been getting on the bike and keeping it steady at 100 RPM and my pulse in the 120 range. Hopefully this will translate into some sort of fitness when I start running again.
1981 Loucks Games
3200 meters – 3rd place
1989 Boston
Marathon – 17th place
1992 World Mountain
championships – 9th place
1992 US Olympic
marathon trials – 20th place
1992 Rocket City
marathon – 1st place
1993 World Mountain
championships – 2nd place
1995 World Marathon
championships – 56th place
2001 US snowshoe
championships – 1st place
 |
| Mt W, BAA, Snowshoe, Loucks, World Mrathon, Rocket City, World Mountain, Oly trials, World Mtn |
Another "biggest week ever" for me with 743 miles biking. I also had my longest ride with 105.0 miles on Xmas morning. I trade it all for a run. So depressing.
Sometimes it can be frustrating as a paying subscriber to Strava. I really like the Training Log so I guess I'll continue to pay. This recent email was typical of what bugs me. The link to my year in sport stats notes that it is only available on your mobile phone. I don't have a mobile phone! Fucked again.
I entered Perry's Birthday race 4m but had no intentions of racing. I wanted to support Perry who I sometimes run with on Sundays with the Concord Group. Eric Morse decided to come down and meet me as we hadn't hung out in a while. We exchanged a few holiday gifts and took Murdock out for a mile as a warm-up at an "easy" walk (15 minute mile pace). I had fun and I think Eric did as well as we chatted for the 54 minutes it took us to BRISKLY walk the 4 mile course. We didn't finish last and had a good time. Eric didn't make it home before the snow flew but I did. Hopefully we'll meet up in a few weeks and I'll be running!
Took advantage of a nice December day with temps in the upper 50's and got in a nice trail ride (dirt). I had Friday off for my final time using up leave before the end of the year. I've ridden the Narrow Gauge (Bedford) and Reformatory Branch (Concord) before (and run it a number of times) but it had been a while. Great fun!
I'd only ever biked on Plum Island once a bunch of years ago. Since I had some time on Monday I decided it was time to head back. I parked at the rail trail parking for the Eastern Marsh in Newburyport which would give me a 22+ mile ride to the end of Plum Island and back. The ride was very scenic as the entire Island is a wildlife preserve. It was pretty windy and the last 3 miles on the island was dirt road but it was also very quiet and all of the roads had bike lanes. Great fun.
I got in 709.38 miles on the bike this week. Most of it was indoors but I did have a few pleasant excursions outside. On Sunday I got my longest indoor ride ever with 104 miles and then closed out the week with a snowy outside ride with the Concord group. As much fun as I can have without actually running...
Biggest weeks biking:
1 12/06/21 714.00
2 12/13/21 70938
3 11/29/21 700.90
4 11/22/21 609.57
5 12/02/19 552.70
Got in a really nice ElliptiGo ride on the Minuteman rail trail this week. I had never done the section in Arlington which turned out to be pretty scenic. The only bummer about the ride was a broken drive-wheel on the Go which will need to be repaired.
Averaging about one book a week. Reading three (or four) at a time to keep it interesting. Finished Morrissey's autobiography this week.
5 years ago (December 2016):
I was still coming back from surgery in mid-November so I only snuck in
one race during this month. The BU Mini meet has a limited schedule of indoor track races and
the meet is very popular. The heats are set up based on whatever times
people put in. So as long as people are honest you’ll be in a heat and
have folks to run with. I was ahead of schedule coming back to running
and felt that a 3,000 meter race would be a great chance to see where my
fitness was.
There were 20 runners in my heat with times
from 10:00 to 11:00, so it would spread out pretty well once we got going (I’d
seeded myself at 10:30). Off we went and most of the field was in front
of me 100 meters into it. I wasn’t too worried and didn’t want to push
too hard too early. I did pass a couple of runners and slowly closed on
the three Whirlaway runners (Craig Fram, Paul Hammon, and Heather Mahoney) who
were 2 or 3 seconds up by ½ mile (2:48.8) I closed the gap and just
before the mile went around them hitting the mile in 5:34.7. With a
half-mile to go I upped the tempo before getting to the bell lap. I knew
I was going to be under my seed time and pushed as hard as possible that last
lap hoping to crack 10:20. I could not have been more pleased with the
result! I was only 6 seconds slower than I’d run at the beginning of the
year but I’ve only been running for four weeks.
Results of heat 5
1 Dwyer Grimes
9:58.6
2 Meagan Boucher
10:02.5
3 James Pawlicki
10:04.0 CMS
4 Brian McNeice
10:08.4
5 Kevin Hill
10:15.3
6 Eliza Lukens-Day
10:15.4
7 Dave Dunham
10:19.4 CMS
8 Heather Mahoney
10:24.1
9 Craig Fram
10:26.9
15 years ago (December 2006):
I ended up missing half the month (and on into 2007) with a stress
fracture in my left hip. I started the month (12/03/06) at the Mill
Cities Relay. I was on the long 9.4 mile leg for a co-ed 40+ team.
As such I started well back and had a lot of fun on a beautiful 40 degree and
sunny day passing 25 teams while running a little under 6 minute pace for the
distance. We took 3rd in the mixed master and 23rd
overall in a field of 142 teams. The following weekend (12/10/06) I took on the
hilly Assault on Mt Hood XC 3.5 mile race. I managed to outkick teammate Rob
Smith for 10th place. My hip and back were killing me and I’d
be sidelined starting the next day.
1 18:37
Dmitry Drozdov
2 19:05
Scott Loomis
3 19:15 Ben
Nephew
4 19:20
Mark Mayall
5 19:22 Dan
Lounsbury
6 19:26 Joe
Shairs
7 19:35 Jim
Pawlicki
8 20:02 Dan
Verrington 40+
9 20:15
Richard Seltenrich
10 20:50
Dave Dunham
11 21:04
Rob Smith
20 23:19
Jennifer Rappaport
Finished off this week with a 76 mile indoor ride (my 6th longest ever indoors) followed by a nice refreshing outside ride of 13.8 miles to complete the week.
Total for the week was a new personal best with 714.0 miles ridden. I cannot wait for this to be over. I truly dislike biking.
20 years ago (December 2001): I was slowly coming back after being
hobbled a bit after the JFK 50 mile back in November. O only raced once (12/30/01) taking on 40
others at the Prospect Mountain 10km snowshoe race. This was a very tough 10k with some big ups
and downs. Leigh Schmitt and Bryan
Dragon took off early and I never saw them again.
1 51:28
Leigh Schmitt
2 51:50
Bryan Dragon
3 53:02
Dave Dunham CMS
4 53:04
Richard Bolt CMS
5 54:50 Ken
Clark
6 56:24 Dan
Verrington CMS
7 59:12
Alan Bernier CMS
25 years ago (December 1996): I ran 364 miles with no days off during December of 1996. I only raced once that month at the Rocket City Marathon – Huntsville, AL on 12-14-1996. Conditions were very good on race day with temps in the 40’s and very little wind.
The first 5 miles a pack of 10 rolled along running very even splits at 5:20 per mile. The pack included me, teammate Dan Verrington, Jim Flint, Jerod Neas, Travis Walter, South African Potiphar Nkhoma, and masters runners Doug Kurtis and Russian Youri Mikhailov. Flint and Neas took turns at the front leading us through 10 miles. Walter, who had finished in 6th place at the Olympic trials 10,000 meters earlier that year, then took the lead dropping Flint and Nkhoma as he upped the tempo. I hit the half in 1:09:51. Around 17 miles it was down to Walter, me, and Ben McIntosh who had been behind the lead pack until 16 miles.
The pace increased with miles of 5:12, 5:14, and 5:15. Walter threw in a 5:07 21st mile and the race was over (he followed that with a 5:04 and three 5:06’s). I kept it together but could not match that tempo. I ended up running my 2nd fastest time ever, trailing only my 2:19:28 from Columbus. McIntosh fell apart after 20 and Verrington poured it on to take third in 2:22:37. Dave Weatherbie took 20th place in 2:36:01 to seal CMS as the team champs (by 40 minutes!)
1 CMS 7:18:28
2 Huntsville TC 7:58:29
3 Birmingham TC 8:18:37
1 2:18:28 Travis Walter 27M Wilmington NC
$2000
2 2:19:50 Dave Dunham 32M Bradford, MA $1000
3 2:22:37 Dan Verrington 34M Bradford, MA $500
4 2:22:55 Doug Kurtis 44M Northville, MI
$250+$1500
5 2:23:14 Liam Collins 25M Fayetteville NC
$250
6 2:25:24 Jerod Neas 25M Lakewood CO $250
7 2:26:23 Mike Harrison 30M Virginia Beach, VA
$250
8 2:26:58 Youri Mikhailov 43M Albuquerque, NM
$250+$750
9 2:26:58 Potiphar Nkhoma 31M Altamonte
Springs FL $250
10 2:27:29 Jim Flint 36M Hollister, CA $250
20 2:36:01 David Weatherbie 28M Cumberland, ME
883 finishers
30 years ago (December 1991): Three races in December of 1991, one was a relay and one was a workout at a race. I started the month with a 5 mile race in Brockton (part of the Hockomock Swamp Rat series). Mike Woodman and I were together for the first 2 miles before I pulled away for the win in 24:44. Woody took second with a fine 25:17. Two weeks later I ran a 5.16 mile leg in the Whitinsville relay. We finished 2nd to a CMS team (1:13:20 to 1:15:33), and I ran 25:52 to run the fastest time on my leg. I finished the month with a visit to the Fresh Pond race. The race has no entry fee, no prizes, not t-shirts, but always has great competition. It isn’t hyperbole to say that some of the best runners in the country (and the world) have raced at Fresh Pond. My goal was to run 3 loops in approximately 5:10 pace which was my goal pace for the marathon. George Patriarca (a Multi-time All-American at Brandeis) took it out in sub-5’s as he coasted to a win in the 2.5 mile race. I ran alone from the start running loops of 12:42, 12:56 to win the 5m in 25:37. I continued on through a third loop of 12:59.
1 Dave Dunham 25:37
2 Brendan Culley 26:21
3 Stuart Schatzer 26:29
4 Jim Ross 28:27
5 Mike Dubois 28:29
2.5 1st George Patriarca 12:23
35 years ago (December 1986): I covered 301 miles with 1 day off (despite arch woes all month long) during December of 1986. This was the start of my final indoor track season at U-Lowell. I only raced once during this month taking 2nd place in the 5,000 meters at the Harvard Invitational on 12/13/86. My goal was to qualify for D2 Indoor Nationals which I did with a 14:15.6. Mile splits = 4:37, 4:39, 4:32 and a 27 for the final lap (short last lap since Harvard is one of the rare indoor tracks that is 220 yards instead of the more typical 200 meters). My training log noted “I felt great (for 2 miles)!!!”
40 years ago (December1981) – I started my senior year of indoor track at Billerica Memorial High School with two races and the anchor leg in a relay. I started the season with a 1st place in the mile in a meet against Haverhill high (we lost 36-50). I ran 4:32 with splits of 65/68/71/68. A week later (12/30/81) I set the then Meet & Fieldhouse record at the Methuen Invitational with a 4:28.2 which topped the field of 15 runners. That was my indoor track personal best (I’d run a couple of 4:28-flats outdoors later during my senior year). Later in the meet I ran a leg of the mile relay with a lackluster 58 as our team ran 3:53.1 or 6th place.
The last four weeks have been the most I've ever biked. I'm not sure I can top it...time will tell.
