18 Down and Running Economy

Sunday's 18 mile run was indeed 18. No bad weather, bad kharma or lost inspiration for this run. I did hilly loop in Deerfield starting out the door at about 7:30 A.M. It was 12 degrees F when I headed out the door and 25 when I returned. A stop at Jerry's place for a bagel and coffee after the first 2 miles helped to keep me on track. I have about 8 weeks of serious running ahead of me to get ready for Boston. The last three before the marathon are tapering weeks meant more for recovery from training than any further conditioning.

Next Sunday I will make another loop on most of the same roads for 20 miles. River Road, Hillside, North Hillside, Upper Road, Lower Road., hills. Up hills, down hills. Donna and I will try again to meet at Sugarloaf at 7:00A.M..

Donna is running a 100 miler in May down in Virginia. She thinks that it will take her between 25 and 30 hours to finish this thing. I have signed on as her pacer for the last 30 miles. My job will be to run alongside her and keep her going when her body and mind say enough is enough. Donna did say that I could jump in around mile 50 for the last 50, but then I would need a pacer. This will be an adventure.

So it's freaking cold and you hate to be cold, but you gotta run, but it's freaking cold so whatta you gonna do? You have to dress for the elements. Here is observation on wardrobe that I had a while back on a long cold run. Thoreau's Economy, not in long shot. This is what it takes for me to stay warm when I run.

1. Two pairs of running tights, $40.00 * 2 = $80.00
2. Running socks (double layer), $6.50
3. New Balance 856 ( favorite running shoe in years), $75.00
4. Super Feet inserts (I have very flat feet), $30.00
5. Poly Glove liners, and heavy gloves, $15.00 + $30.00=$45.00
6. Polypro underwear, $6.50
7. Bergeline top, New Balance heavy top, and Hind Hydrator top. $30.00+$30.00+$45.00=$105
8. Poly baliclava, and wool hat, $15.00+$25.00=$40.00
9. Luminite Wool Blend Pullover Jacket, $65.00

Total so far: $453.00

Add on my Garmin Forerunner GPS, $150.00,

Grand Total: $603.00

Running suddenly does not sound so cheap after all. The one good thing about this list is that I have aquired all this stuff over the last five or six years. I couldn't cough up this much for running in one dose without feeling ill. Also you can get by with many layers of old clothing to simply avoid freezing.

Making this Short

Running update.

Boston is little more than 11 weeks away. I have serious training ahead of me. I am running well at the Y on a treadmill. I have not been on the road since Sunday, and tomorrow I am out for 18 miles.

Thurday I ran 7.25 miles at in 50 minutes on a treadmill. I started out slow, but finished the last mile and half at better than a 6 1/2 minute pace.

Donna has asked me to pace her over the last 30 miles of a Virginia 100 mile run in May. This could be fun. I have cleared this with Lisa. It will be an interesting adventure.

Keep on running,

Running Guy

Here I am in Netherlands this Fall 

Post Blizzard of 2005

I went out for a seven mile run around town Sunday morning. The wind was gusting at 25 to 35 mph, and it was about 8 degrees. I had so many layers on I could have withstood a direct hit from a snow plow and not known it. The weather was not a problem, but a longer run could have been a bad idea.

There were no cars on the road at 9:00 A. M. Sunday morning. The snow really shut things down, but there were a few people at the Deerfield Market, and a niehbor at Jerry's Place.

I went out mainly to prove that I could. Also, I needed to have some mileage to record. I am training to for the Boston Marathon, so skipping a long run on the weekend is a problem. Mostly mileage is a mental problem. I need to run to prepare for the marathon, but I need to run to simply convince myself that I can. You have to run to prepare. What ever you do, you have believe that you have prepared for this.

When I got home Ben wanted to play with me in his room with his trains. Kids are a handful, sometimes it seems that it is too much keep your cool when they are driving you nutz. Then there are times where Ben looks at me with total trust, and gives me a piece of his cookie, or toy, and I can only wonder how anyone with children could be an asshole.

Children are so precious, how can any one who has one not want to be the best person they can be? Ben is four. Ben inspires my wife and I to be better people, then there are those days where Ben is really four and we look at each other and think, "Ebay, we can sell him on Ebay."

Keep on running. I have to find out what Donna did for a run yesterday.

Maybe a long run isn't such a great idea.

Tonight I got back from the Y and my wife told me that I had a message from my friend Donna on the answering machine. It has been brutally cold here in New England, and now we have a blizzard bearing down on us.

Donna is an ultra marathoner. She runs 100 mile races and finishes in top 25% or better. The great thing about having a friend who is an ultramarathoner is that her workouts make mine look pretty reasonable. I am running two marathons a year, she runs neary four marathons in 21 hours. When I need make my training look reasonableI to my wife, I just have to point to Donna and I am off the hook.

So, Donna is tough. She is as dedicated a runner as I know and I like training with her. I have run many winter long runs with her over the last two years. The weather has never been an issue worth cancelling a run in the past. We have run in rain, snow and sub zerotemps with strong winds on top of that. She called tonight to cancell tomorow's 18 miler. She was so appolegetic for wimping out on a run in 24 inches of snow, with temperatures around 9 F, wind chills in the -20's. I was not planning on going out for 18 miles in those conditions to save my soul. I will try for 4 to 6 miles in the morning.

My last two Marathons have have included only two long runs with other people. Last February I went out with Donna and five of her running buddies for a 20 mile run throught the Pelham Hills and Mount Licoln in Pelham, MA. It was cold but the run was great. Every one on that run was planning to do the Boston Marathon in April; I knew that I was in great company.

You can run for many different reasons, but if you do you will find a community that accepts you not because your a great runner, but because you are a runner. Show up often enough, and you are in.

Getting on track.

Tonight I headed out for a Weight Watchers meeting and my Thursday night at the Y. Tonight's meeting was not too interesting, but I find that it is easier to avoid the 6 lbs. Of M & Ms under the secretary's desk at work if I go. If I don't run for several days I am not a happy person, and I begin to think that my running days are over. It's nutz, but I get over it pretty easy.

I headed into the Greenfield Y around 6:30P.M., I thought about bagging the whole thing. There were the familiar Thursday night faces in the Nautilus room, and cardio room. This was good sign. I headed down to the locker room to change.

This was a good night. I started on an elliptical trainer for 25 minutes. Did a long circuit on the nautilus equipment. Then back to the cardio room for 8 miles on a tread mill. The tread mill can be a real challenge because it is so freaking boring. The cure, run really fast. Fear of being tossed off the machine into a concrete wall does keep it interesting. I also try to visualize running my next marathon.

Tom G. (a local community theater guy) came in tonight. Except for a hello we really did not say anything to each other. Years ago I was in a production of a Christmas Carol with Tom and he totally terrorized me. Not intentionally, well maybe intentionally. I was Bob Crachit, and he was Ebeneza Scrooge. He was a very a serious local actor and singer in the regional Opera company. Every one was intimidated by him. He always sat alone during rehearsal and just scowled at the rest of the cast. I had never done any acting before in my life, and at 35 I was about to step on stage as Bob Cratchit in front of hundreds of people. The director told me that I was cast as Cratchit not because I was a great actor, but because I was Bob Cratchit. Tom was Scrooge, so he really did scare me. I acted in three more plays before my son Ben was born. When he is older I hope that we can get back to community theater as a family.

Running on the tread mill tonight was the easiest it has been in months. After I ran the Hartford Marathon in October I had a hard time getting the joy back in to my running. Since Christmas things seemed to have turned around, just as I was beginning to train for the Boston Marathon this April. I should not be too surprised, as it took me two months last spring to recover from the 2004 Boston Marathon.

The tread mills at the Y have a 25 minute limit on all of their programs including the manual setting. I cranked up the pace gradually over the first 5 minutes to a 7:13 per mile pace. Then every minute I increased the pace by a tenth of a mile. I finished the run with the last minute at a six minute pace, 3.55 miles. Then I got some water, and did another 25 minutes. I ran the most of the second 25 minutes at a steady 6:58 pace. Then I increased the speed on the machine over the last 12 minutes. I did a final mile to cool down. End of work out. High on endorphins I headed out home.

Tales of a Running Guy

This is my first blog, and it is about what I do when I am not being a dad, a husband, or a working guy. I run.

I am 42 years old, a happy father of a four year boy, well married for the last 14 years, and the greenhouse manager for a perennial farm. I can claim to have been a runner for the last 27 years, but I have really only been running seriously for the last seven years.

Being a runner clears my head, and gives me something focus on that does not involve any responsibilities to anyone else but myself. I have been running road races since 1996, and ran my first marathon in 1999. One marathon a year was my original goal, but marathon #2 did not happen until October 2003 at the Hartford Marathon. I qualified for Boston at Hartford and ran Boston this past April. The temperature soared to 86 F that day, but I ran well any way finishing in 3:20 (chip time).

Now I am in a routine that has me running two marathons a year. This past October I returned to Hartford and made attempt at a 3:00 marathon. I was on track until mile 18, then things got ugly. My legs abandoned me at the end, but I managed to stay in the race and finished in 3:09:01. This was a few seconds faster than the previous years run, and is now my new PR.

I am presently training for my fifth marathon, and my second Boston . I plan on using this Blog to record my thoughts on running, and some account of the runs themselves. I can report that this week is not looking too promising from a training perspective. It is Wednesday night and I have not run since Sunday morning. Tomorow I will be at the Y running no where fast on a tread mill.


Life is fun. We will see if reading and writing about life is fun also.