Tag Archives: running

2024 Recertifying

Lessons Learned & Regrouping

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I am waiting for the “New Normal” but nothing seems normal yet.

I know what I want:

  • Feel strong – able to train like I did in 2019/2020. RECERTIFY
  • Eliminate hip pain
  • Build community through gardening and music
  • Be consistent – training, reading, music
  • Become more knowledgeable to start my landscape ecology career

I know what I’ve accomplished:

  • Regularly playing with clarinet and woodwind trio – joining Hollis band after Maldives
  • Consistent at Crossfit to build strength, working hip PT
  • Improved my friends and activities with Amherst Garden Club
  • Supported my old teams by working with LG which also helped us do critical home improvements and added the big Indonesia scuba trip this year
  • Working put landscape ecology on hold – but I have signed up for classes in Oct/Nov 2025 at Native Plant Trust and designed/started my own native garden this year

I’ve been reflective on last six years and the good lessons learned:

  • Consistency in anything is key (music, training)
  • The daily hour work is more important than the long runs.
  • Running-walking is key to hip health
  • Always have spare headlamp battery
  • Lube up! I’ve been having issues with even 40″ runs without the right clothing to prevent chafing. And lube everywhere for long runs/races.
  • Poles are important for mountain work
  • Crossfit/leg strength is key – Russian split squats, lunges. I’ve been focused on this this year
  • Warmup/warmdown is important
  • I thought I had more LL than this!! Will have to come back and add more.

Issues still to solve:

  • Hips still hurt
  • Need to lose weight
  • Evaluating hormones and issues related to this as I have lost stamina. Last year, the daily one hour workouts crushed me for the rest of the day every day and I couldn’t keep it up.
  • Be more careful planning time away as we have been gone too much this year.

Is there a normal?

2024 Recertifying

Saved from Momma Bear by the Most Handsome Man on the Planet. And I’m tired. 6/21/24

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The last picture below shows debris from a significant storm the week before. I was doing the Pogue Overlook run and planning on doing a long spur from the end that goes down into the canyon to get the >1 hr I needed. I passed a guy and asked him what he knew about this lower trail and kept going. I was stopped due to the debris in the pic below when I heard a crashing behind me. He was running down the hill to stop me because he saw a mother bear and her cubs and the mother was going over the hill right where I was heading. He was trying to save my life! AND he might have been one of the best looking men I have ever seen in my life – like a real life hero! So the running adventures and exploring continue.

This is the year of the comeback and seeing what is possible. I am three months into a new training program starting from a point that I could not run around my cul de sac. Last week I did a 3.5 hr run and am deadlifting over 200 lbs so gaining back some strength and endurance. I am struggling with speed, never feeling strong in any run and having the energy to run plus do strength work. I wake up and am so tired I can barely move. Every day.

Pillars to speed and endurance I believe are:

  • Recovery: My sleep has improved but not yet great, an hour more a night on average than pre-retirement. Need to focus also on stretching and more post workout cold stream sessions like the one heading this article!
  • Nutrition: Average – need to meal prep more and measure intake. It is difficult to work so hard running, and also cut back on calories to lose the 30 lbs I know I need to. This may be a big factor into my tiredness – not eating enough or the right stuff. I am adding trying to be vegetarian plus fish, which puts a kink into my normal food.
  • Weight loss: No progress on weight loss. I can’t lose weight when I am so exhausted all the time (between traveling to TN to help mom or just the hard workouts combined with gardening which wear me out). These extra 30 lbs make everything harder. Must. Prioritize. Nutrition.
  • Well crafted workouts: I am going to talk with my coach about more strides but have been doing long runs, 3-8 min interval training (too long?), hill repeats (too long?). I give each workout my all.
  • Strength: This I am sure is a key to toughness/durability and why, even without tons of miles every week, I succeeded in the past. I need to focus on this.
  • Mental toughness: The stress of dealing with an aging parent is signifcant and perhaps worse than work because it is so personal. We are doing the best we can. During my most recent two week trip, mom went back into the hospital and all the kids got together for the first time in a while.

I read a famous cave divers’ book, Jill Heinerths “Into the Planet”. She is a true explorer. More people have gone to the moon than to the places she has been. I want to be a real explorer too! I just have to have some energy when I wake up 🙂

Becoming Badass

1/1/24 Scary Goal…Check!

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The 14,500′ elevation gain doesn’t scare me although it will be a record by 2,000′ in one race. I just have to figure out how to get the hill strength I had back in 2019 when I did the 12,500′ Killington Spartan without any issues at all (doing hills). I’ve been trying to get stronger with crossfit and will definitely do the 2x/week hill training I did consistently then also which I think made a big difference. I was out of breath doing the TMB and think it was a combination of work stress/general beatdown plus lack of consistency in fast hillwork. I had done a lot of elevation training on weekends but think I lacked consistency in the second set of hill intervals (cycling).

The 102 mile distance will be double what I have done before (record now is 52 miles at Hamsterwheel in 2022) and I have to figure out how to reduce foot swelling and do a little more prep for when the wheels start to fall off…..Talk to some folks with more experience than myself in the 100 mile distance. I am not sure the training will be that different.

19:24/mile cutoff times (33 hrs overall) is what scares me the most. I have never been slower. I haven’t been this out of shape since 2018 with weight – must drop about 30 lbs. Average pace in the relatively flat Hamsterwheel was 17:24/mile and I was slowing each 10 miles – need to figure out what to expect for slowdown and minimize that and aid station times. Back in 2019 I could run 7+ miles with 180 cadence as a “slow” run in zone 3 at 11:00/mile. I have really slowed down – not sure if it is due to weight or stress or training (not enough intervals).

Whatever the different factors are, I know consistency is key so am starting on a regular 6 day/week with one real rest day (not a Monday which is a stressful work day) including 4 strength sessions.

The other major change I am implementing is diet moving to primarily vegetarian plus fish which makes for more interesting meals. Harvey Lewis does it pretty successfully!! Limited alcohol on special occasions only.

Sleep must improve – no phones in the bed and a solid 8 hrs. Retiring and reduced work stress, better rounded life should help this a lot.

I plan to work on my ultra community so my long days/training aren’t so alone and I foster those friendships. Good thing is I have a few friends I can learn from locally and train with much more easily once retired. One of my friends who is a beast has already offered to pace me through the night during the Nobiz race! In 2022 I was getting very lonely on the long bikes/runs. Building my local community and better mental health will be key to my success this year – working remotely just doesn’t work for me and I have lost my local communities I really need for support. I spend my days in meetings all day and am still lonely without someone to talk to at work informally. A few months ago I cleaned out my contacts and deleted at least a thousand mostly from work. It felt like cleaning house and getting ready for the next chapter, which is already starting adding my new scuba contacts!

As David Goggins says, fight for each second and I am just going to start by going out for a run with a few intervals in my new shoes back on the old Nashua rail trail where I started this whole thing back in 2018 to reground. I’ll be meal prepping today to get that in order as well! Good thing I ate all the chocolate covered pretzels we got as a Christmas gift yesterday 🙂