Week Ending 12.24.23

 

Week Ending 12-24-23

 

A lot going on in the sky this week.  Saw the ISS once, a couple of satellites, and even a meteor.  That is one of the bonuses of running at 4:30 am.  I bounced back a bit from the hamstring pull and managed “normal” mileage.  I did struggle a bit this week as I took ANOTHER bad fall.  On Tuesday I tripped and landed on the same arm as the previous fall.  Worse, I did something to my ribs/side and had that issue all week.  Breathing seems okay but turning at all is painful (which makes sleeping tough).  Onward!

 

Week – 83

Month – 136

Year – 2,761

Life – 158,617

Looking back - Dec 2018

5 years ago: December 2018 – I had been sidelined since the Baystate marathon in October.  I started running late in the month after 12 days in a boot with what turned out to be “just” arthritis in my ankle.  The MRI came back okay so I got back to it!

 

 

Looking back - Dec 2013

10 years ago: December 2013

I got a fair amount of miles in this month but tweaked my glute/hamstring with a slip on the ice about mid-month. That set me back some and I had to slow the pace for a while.  I started out the month with a trip to Texas with Eric Morse to bag a few peaks. We hit the highest point in the Franklin Mountains (North Franklin Mountain) as a warm-up for the big peak the next day.  On day two of our trip we headed to Guadalupe Mountain on a quest for the state high point. On the way we ran into some dense fog and as we got closer to the park, freezing fog and icy roads. Everything was coated in rime ice.  This caused us to go up the wrong trail at first, but eventually we got going the right way and once we got above the freezing fog were treated to a spectacular summit.

 We hit the 8700' summit (5 miles) in 1:40 and spent 6 minutes getting a few pictures before heading back down. The run down took 1:29 and the slightly warmer temperatures made it a bit easier. In all it took us 3:15:02 for the 10 mile round trip.

 I got back late Saturday night from the Texas high point trip and the Mill Cities Relay was on Sunday.   My goal was to run the 2nd leg (4.75 miles) in 6:30-6:45 pace. Race morning was cold and cloudy when I arrived in Nashua to pick up the relay number and meet my teammates. I headed down to the Nashua/Tyngsboro town line and then drove my route just to be sure I’d have an idea of where I was going.  Early on I tried to find a good rhythm, I was hoping I wouldn’t get caught by anyone but you never know who is tracking you down.  I was very happy with my time (28:58) which worked out to 6:06 pace. Well under what I’d hope for.

 I decided that since we got a couple of substantial snow storms (over 18” total) that the timing was right for a return to Winnekenni for a snowshoe race. The last time I tried that was five years prior (on Christmas day).

I headed out at 7am with Greg Putnam in tow and we put out about 300 flags to mark the 4 mile loop. The conditions were wet and slow and there were a couple of bare spots. I shot out to the lead with Greg and Jim Pawlicki close behind. Around ½ mile (after stopping to adjust a shoe) Greg moved into the lead and just after the mile (9:41) Jim went by me and started closing the gap on Greg. They had 40 seconds on me by two miles (10:12 – 19:53) and about 1 minute at 3 miles (11:01 – 30:54). The deep snow and tough climb to Winnekenni Castle made mile three especially difficult. I couldn’t see the guys for most of the last mile, but Jim and Greg ran together until nearly the finish when Jim put on a sprint and won by 5 seconds. I rolled in 1:35 later.

 

Looking back - Dec 2008

15 years ago: December 2008

I tried to get out and race a bit more during this month, getting in four “races”. I started with the Assault on Mt Hood XC race in Melrose. I like this race; I’ve done it a few times and it seems like every time they have a new challenging course. It was a bit icy out there, but I managed to keep my legs under me and take 10^th place in 22:33 over 3.5 (or so) miles.

1              Ryan Gattoni                         20:46.9 23M

2              Joe Shairs                              20:51.4 40M  CMS

3              Ben Strain                              21:02.3 30M  CMS

4              Henry Scoward                21:07.2 45M  CRC

5              Terry McNatt                         21:21.3 43M

6              Dan Verrington                21:35.8 46M  CMS

7              James Pawlicki            22:06.9 34M  CMS

8              Dave Hannon                         22:10.3 37M  NETT

9              Chris Van Cott            22:27.9 28M

10 Dave Dunham                         22:33.1 44M  CMS

 

A week later I ran in the very popular BU Mini meet. I ended up in the second of three heats of the 3,000 meters. I would have been better off in the third heat as I ran mostly alone and took 16^th out of 17 finishers running a 10:01 (about 10:40 for 2 miles). Since we had some snow and I was getting ready for snowshoe racing season, I decided to set up a 5k race at Winnekenni. My guess was that no one else would show up because it was Christmas morning. I designed a 3.5 mile loop and did my warm-up setting out flags for the course. No one showed up so I went out and ran the loop as fast as I could (26:39). For a warm-down I went back out and cleared the course of flags. It was a fun way to get in 11+ miles and winning a “race”. Three days later I closed out the month with the “I love Woodford” snowshoe race. I had a decent run finishing in fourth, barely holding off late surges from teammates Tim Mahoney and Jim Pawlicki.

 

1              Josh Ferenc             M27      23:44

2              Jim Johnson             M31      24:32

3              Mathew Cartier        M33      24:50

4              Dave Dunham          M44   25:15

5              Tim Mahoney           M29      25:22

6              James Pawlicki         M34      25:30

7              Mathew Westerlund M36      26:10

8              Jay Kolodzinski         M29      27:40

9              Steve Wolfe             M44      27:48

10           Ken Clark               M46      28:01

11           Abby Woods           F30       28:08

 

 

Looking back - Dec 2003

 

20 years ago: December 2003

Two races during the month as I was coming back from some injury. I started off the month with the Santa’s toy run in Merrimac MA. This is one of the better races put on by the Winners Circle. It features a 2 mile loop that you do one, two, or three times. You do not have to declare which race you are doing; you just stop at the appropriate time. I went with the 6 mile version taking first place in 34:44.  Two weeks later I kicked off the snowshoe racing season with the “I love Woodford” snowshoe race. I found myself around the top 10 early on and the pack pulled away leaving me running alone. At about half-way there is a sharp turn, which I knew from having run the course several times. I took the turn and immediately noticed that there were no footprints ahead of me! There was no one in sight so I just headed on my way and ended up taking first place. The lead pack rolled in about 20 minutes after I finished. Ouch!

 

1              Dave Dunham               39 M  27:34

2              Tom Parent                27 M  32:08

3              Wayne Stocker     49 M  32:10

4              Tom Denny                43 M  32:17

5              Chris Lanaud       36 M  32:19

The “lost” (blue = CMS)

47 Richard Bolt                33 M  46:05

48 Ben Nephew          27 M  46:06

50 Elijah Barrett       27 M  46:18

52 Greg Hammett            26 M  46:24

53 James Pawlicki                                                           29 M  46:26

55 Ken Clark                    41 M  46:33

56 Dan Verrington            41 M  46:38

 

Week Ending 12-17-23

 A much better week than expected.  Started out very tentative with the slow recovery from a hamstring pull.  Tried to listen closely to what my body was saying.  Days of 4, 4, 4, 5, then morning 5 with lunch 3.  Into the weekend feeling good.  Had a long day (12m) on Saturday but broken up as 6 easy with D-la (Petey on bike), later 2m on my own, then 4 with Perry at his birthday race running his pace (946s).  I closed out the week with my longest run since hurting the hamstring with a 7 mile (844s) on the Londonderry rail trail followed with a nice 2 hour ride.  No complaints on this week!

Week - 44

Month - 53

Year - 2678

Life - 158,554

Tom & Ellen Raffio

The race leaders (a couple of kids Perry coaches)

NHTI team singing happy birthday as Perry finishes

Looking back - Dec 1998

25 years ago: December 1998

I only raced twice but I made the most of it, with the first races as a tune-up for the second. I headed to Framingham for a 5.1 mile race the first weekend and won in 26:18. I was not happy with the result and noted I “felt crappy”. Probably felt lousy from dropping down the mileage in anticipation of the Rocket City marathon. I headed to Huntsville with Dan Verrington and Byrne Decker. CMS had some history at Rocket City and we were hoping for another team victory. I felt lousy in the early miles but better after half-way. I moved up from 11^th place at half-way to 8^th by 18 and finally into 4^th place at 23 miles. I held on to 4^th place running 2:22:35. Dan took 9^th in 2:27 and Byrne just missed the top 10 ($$$$) getting passed by a Russian in the closing stages as he ran 2:28 and change. 

1              2:19:13       28        Elly Rono                      Evansville IN
2              2:19:30       29        Pablo Sierra                  Oxford MS
3              2:20:24       27        Fred Kieser                   Cleveland OH
4              2:22:40      34        Dave Dunham            Bradford MA
5              2:25:05       33        Paul Aufdemberge         Redford MI
6              2:25:29       32        Greg Olszowik               Willowbrook IL
7              2:25:36       32        Michael Harrison            Virginia Bch VA
8              2:26:07       31        Guy Murray                   Detroit MI
9              2:27:55      36        Daniel Verrington      Bradford MA
10           2:28:42      33        Sergi Karasev                Memphis TN
11           2:28:54    31        Byrne Decker              Yarmouth ME

Looking back - 40, 35, and 30 years ago

 

40 years ago: December 1983

I missed three weeks after Cross-Country season ended with a badly sprained ankle.  No races in December as I slowly eased back into it with 250 miles.

 

35 years ago: December 1988

I only raced once during this month, I’m not sure why. I was healthy (354 miles for the month) but must not have found any races I wanted to do. My one race was the Mill Cities Relay where I ran the 2^nd leg which at the time was a 6.6 mile. I’m not sure of exactly where it went and I’m not even sure what team I ran for. I noted in my training log that my team took second place in 2:28:03 behind the Greater Lowell Road Runners who ran 2:25:27. I was racing for GLRR, so maybe I was on a “B” team? I ended up running 33:30 for 6.6 miles or 5:05 pace.

30 years ago: December 1993

I raced twice during this month mostly due to ankle woes (tendonitis). The first weekend in December found me out in Las Vegas at the USATF national convention. Lyndon Ellefson convinced me to go out there to help with the formation of a sub-committee for “Mountain running”. This would be the beginning of the Mountain Ultral Trail (MUT) council. We both ran in the delegate’s race 5km. I took 1^st in 16:04 and Lyndon finished in third place. I still have the deck of cards Lyndon gave me; on the Joker he wrote “Founding Member – Mountain council”. A week later I headed to Worcester MA for the CMS weekly 5km series. This was my 26^th time out to the series during 1993 which earned me a hooded sweatshirt. I ran 16:40 for first place that day. I was the only person in 1993 to not only win a series race (I won 17 of them) but I also finished dead last in one of them. Don Drewniak and I race-walked it on June 16^th taking next-to-last and last place respectively. I didn’t want to race that night as it was too close to the Mt Washington road race.

 

Looking back - December 1978

 

45 years ago: December 1978

I started running in during my freshman year at Billerica High school. The first two races were indoor track meets, and I ran the mile in both races. I travelled with the team to Falmouth for the Falmouth Invitational on December 10 and ended up running my first “indoor track” race on the OUTDOOR track. I guess they wanted the meet to go faster so they held the mile and two-mile outside. I got third place in my heat of the mile running 5:24. Two weeks later I took four seconds off my PR running a 5:20 in a dual meet against Central at the Methuen field house.

Training log from my first day of running – Dec. 6, 1978

Oddly, I’d actually RACED before my first “official” day of running.  The  Wednesday before Thanksgiving in 1978 was a day that was life changing.  I had done well in the President's Physical Fitness Test, but only in one thing...the 600 yard run.  Mike Granfield (the Billerica High School track coach) put on a "Pie race".  On a whim I entered the race which was approximately a mile of cross-country running behind the Middle School with a finish on the track.  It was mid-30's with a steady 15 mph wind.  I wore tennis shoes, jeans, t-shirt, and winter jacket since I didn't own anything more appropriate for the conditions.  I finished in fourth place running 5:24.  I was bitterly disappointed since the top 3 each won a pie.  Coach Granfield approached me after race and said, "I'll see you at practice".  I was surprised as I'd never considered running and asked, "what practice?" to which he replied, "You are running indoor track".  I agreed despite having no clear idea of what that meant.  So, 45 years later I'm still competing and thankful to Mike for convincing me to run.  I've even won a couple of pies along the way!  On that first day of practice he handed out photocopies of a training log and explained how important it was to keep track of mileage.  I took that advice to heart logging every day over the last 16,436 days.  The total of 158,501 miles works out to 9.62 miles per day.  Unfortunately I’ve also missed 2,032 days, which is about 44 days per year, or less than 1 day per week.

Week Ending 12/10/23

 Trying to come back from the latest injury (hamstring pull).  I started back to running with a short 2m on Tuesday but then did not feel right so I did not run again until the weekend.  I ended up running both days over the weekend which took some of the sting out of not going to XC nationals in Florida.

I put in 16 hours on the spin bike (361.9 miles) and 9:15 on the ElliptiGo (138 miles).

Week - 9

Month - 9

Year - 2,634

Life - 158,510

It all started 45 years ago today

 

My very first day of running December 6, 1978

Oddly, I’d actually RACED before my first “official” day of running.  The  Wednesday before Thanksgiving in 1978 was a day that was life changing.  I had done well in the President's Physical Fitness Test, but only in one thing...the 600 yard run.  Mike Granfield (the Billerica High School track coach) put on a "Pie race".  On a whim I entered the race which was approximately a mile of cross-country running behind the Middle School with a finish on the track.  It was mid-30's with a steady 15 mph wind.  I wore tennis shoes, jeans, t-shirt, and winter jacket since I didn't own anything more appropriate for the conditions.  I finished in fourth place running 5:24.  I was bitterly disappointed since the top 3 each won a pie.  Coach Granfield approached me after race and said, "I'll see you at practice".  I was surprised as I'd never considered running and asked, "what practice?" to which he replied, "You are running indoor track".  I agreed despite having no clear idea of what that meant.  So, 45 years later I'm still competing and thankful to Mike for convincing me to run.  I've even won a couple of pies along the way!  On that first day of practice he handed out photocopies of a training log and explained how important it was to keep track of mileage.  I took that advice to heart logging every day over the last 16,436 days.  The total of 158,501 miles works out to 9.62 miles per day.  Unfortunately I’ve also missed 2,032 days, which is about 44 days per year, or less than 1 day per week.

This would become a loop I'd do many times.

45 years