Category: Run

Vermont is a cult

We’ve been summer-vacationing up in Stowe for, oh, let’s call it three years. Absolutely great – few mosquitoes, great hiking, spectacular views, good food, great roads for riding, good paths for running. We dig it. I’m tempted to buy 15 acres and start raising organic goats and sheep, making cheese, and growing my hair long. Go off the grid, and all that sort of stuff.

My brother-in-law says “Vermont is a cult.”

Ah, so be it.

But it’s been good up here so far. The boys are having a blast riding the bike path – Jake made the entire 11 miles on Sunday, and Nate’s cranking on the trail-a-bike, such that I really don’t have to push other than to go up and over hills. Pretty stinking cool.

Running is good. Sunday morning, I did 9 miles, looping through Moscow and back through the village to pick up the toothbrush that I inevitably forget when I go on travel. The upside is that I’ve now got a toothbrush in pretty much every bag I travel with, provided I don’t clean out the bags before I go.

Yesterday, 45 minutes, or 5.1 miles on the path. I didn’t really want to push myself, so I didn’t. Nice how that works. We then drove over to the Cabot Creamery, getting only slightly lost along the way. On the way home, we stopped at the Green Mountain Club headquarters to pick some maps. One of the guys stopped me on the way out, and pointed me towards the Short Trail, a quick 1 mile loop behind the hiker center. The boys had a blast.

Have I mentioned I love my wife? She sent me out fishing last night. Two stocked rainbows on dry flies. Cannot beat it.

Vermont is a cult.

———

Postscript: I’m kind of surprised – “Vermont is a cult” seems to be an original phrase. I could have sworn I’d at least seen it on a t-shirt before my BiL said it.

I Was a Monkey

Hi.

Man, what a couple of great weeks I’ve had. Off to Glasgow for a conference, where I gave a paper without dropping a single f-bomb at the podium AND got intelligent questions at the end. Stopped by the place where the pedal bicycle was invented. Then down into England to visit with a couple of vendors. I highly recommend the United Kingdom for a running vacation.

Extremely highly recommend it, especially if you can get the aMAZING hIP to show up. We headed into the Peaks District, just outside of Manchester, and the Hip mastered the hills and rocks with such aplomb that the sheep ought to have been scared, were it not for the kindness of the Hip leaving his wellingtons back down in the car.

But, the run was amazing. The UK’s built with the car as an afterthought, an inconvenience, really. There are amazing public footpaths EVERYWHERE. Just be considerate and shut the gate after you.

Yesterday was jet-lag day. Waking up was fine, as long as you’re allowing that 4 AM and wide awake is a good thing. Only lost one bag. Fell asleep in meetings, so I bailed early from the office. The airline had lost my backpack with my shoes, so I picked up a new pair, and did 5 miles on Jamestown in a glorious, sunny day.

Cannot wait for the weekend.

San Antonio, Girls

Well, the deed is done. Missy and I are registered for the San Antonio Marathon in November. Plane tickets are bought. Plans have been laid.

I’m pretty excited. As I was looking back through the blog, I noticed that I’d forgotten to post results for the Oklahoma City Half – 1:53, which isn’t exactly shabby. Sure, there was injury at Bluff Point a couple of weeks back, but that looks to be all better now. AND, I’ve got exactly enough time to train.

So, I’m struck by Lyle Lovett’s immortal song, “San Antonio Girl”, and the thought that

He ain’t exactly bright, but he’s a little bit pretty

may be a pretty good description of myself.

So, let’s head to Helotes, Flores Country Store, out Highway 16, to hear some Robert (Earl) Keene. There’s no more hotels down on the RiverWalk, at least not at which I’ve got frequent stayer points, but that’s all right.

Whew – this is going to suck.

Vermont City Marathon and Y.A.M. Scram

Memorial Day Weekend ended up being the first (in hopefully many) Jank family long weekends. Dunno why, but we’ve been kind of remiss in taking short trips – possibly partly ’cause we live in Mystic, and possibly partly due to lack of time etc.

Anyway, the trip was amazingly great – Burlington may be the perfect town, even more so than Mystic, in that it’s big enough to have cool stuff like theater and arts, but small enough for normal people. We had a great balance of stuff for all of us to do, and the races were Amazing.

Saturday was races for the kids, the YAM Scram. Exceptionally well organized, and amazing in that the race announcers featured Bill Rodgers and Bart Yasso. I ran the half mile with Nate (the 4 year old). Highlight of that race – as we reached the first turn, in heavy traffic, Nate looks up at me and says “Daddy, I’m never going to quit.” Man, I just wanted to grab him and hold him right there forever.

Jake did the mile race, and did really well. His 8 year old legs pushed out a 10-ish minute mile. We saw him at about 1/3 mile looking like he might want to walk, but then he finished the rest of the race REALLY strong. Missy and I were exceptionally proud of the kids.

Sunday was the Marathon. Again, well organized. We dropped Missy off near the start and parked down by the lake. After picking up bagels and coffee (me) and juice (boys) for breakfast, we went and parked ourselves a block from the starting line. The start was incredible to see – I just can’t comprehend exploding out of the start like the leaders did. Turns out that the eventual winner didn’t need the jump, but he was the leading full marathon runner when the pack came past again at mile 3.

We headed off to find sunscreen, and to park ourselves at Mile 9, where we finally were able to see Missy. She looked strong, didn’t actually need anything from us, and gave us a smile and a wave. Between mile 9 and 14, we wandered around a bit, and set up the fishing poles. Missy passed mile 14 looking good, and about 10 minutes behind the guy in the banana suit.

After mile 14, the race headed out north of town. We decided to just wait at the waterfront park for the finish instead of trying to fight our way to see again in the next 12 miles. Right after Missy passed, we headed to the park, and watched the winners come in. Then, we drowned cheese for a little while – couldn’t find anyone selling a worm to save our lives – though we didn’t catch anything.

Missy finished right on schedule at 4 hours – cutting more than 8 minutes off of her time at Hartford. I was amazed, thrilled, and generally felt luckier than i usually do.

Sunday afternoon I got out for a run again, at long last. 4 miles, and it all felt good. The run was a fallback, though – I tried to bike, but came up with a flat inside the first half mile. Monday, I woke up early and went fishing. Didn’t see any trout, didn’t actually see ANY fish, but it was amazing to watch the world come alive on a river again.

So, I think I’m putting the house on the market. We’ll buy a trailer in South Burlington; I’ll take a job as a barrista while i’m working on a PhD, and life will be good.

Twilight Trail Run 2008

So, the Bluff Point Twilight Trail Run was tonight.

And aside from the classic mistake (Never, ever, ever change shoes for a race), it was another classic race.

The race was good, aside from the shoe mistake. I broke out my trail shoes for the first time in a long while. Turns out they’ve got no arch support, and I’m guessing they are what gave me issues last spring. Hmmm.

The best part about the race is the weather. May in New England is either incredible – sunny and perfect. Or, it’s awful – cold and wet. Today was a cold and wet.

Yet, there were a hundred or so folks toeing the line in the intermittent rain again this year, driven by the promise of chowder and massages at the end.

There’s not a whole lot to say – the first three miles of the race were miserable, as my legs adjusted to the lack of support in the shoes. Once I passed the original governor’s mansion, I managed to run most of the rest of the race, finishing in about 70 minutes. Nike+ said 69 minutes, the woman at the line said 73 minutes. I’m pretty confident that I set Nike+ at the start and the end, but who knows.

Some guy tried to pass me at the end. Probably I should have let him go; not played the jerk, but I still had a little bit in me and sprinted it out. Loss of style points, I suppose.

Chowder was wonderful as always.

Anyway, I still love the race. Soaked, cold, and hurt from the shoes, and I’m counting down the hours until next year.

The more you drive ’em

So, I’m making a couple of concessions to age.

First, I’ve realized that I actually need sleep. And I’m getting it (kind of). 11 is late now, as opposed to 1 or 2 AM.

Second, I’ve realized that my metabolism is slowed way, way down. I can’t eat like I used to. If I do, I get fat. Even if I run.

Lastly, if you don’t use it, you lose it. When I run – the joints feel great. Take more than 2 days off, and they start getting rickety again. I’ve been taking a bit of glucosamine and chondroiton – snake oil to be sure, but it seems to work.

I’d been having a great run of sticking to the schedule, until this week life got into the way a bit. I missed two runs earlier this week (4 miles Tuesday and 2 miles yesterday). Surprise, surprise – my legs started getting creaky, I started getting cranky, and I REALLY needed to run.

So, the wife gave me the kitchen pass tonight, I stayed after work, and made 7 miles in 61 minutes. Felt good, felt great. The first 20 minutes sucked, and then suddenly – running was good.

So, I was like all ready to be excited…

Today was the semi-annual Physical Readiness Test (PRT) for the Reserves. I was all ready to be psyched when I got home to blog about the run, ’cause I was pretty happy with my placing. I’m drilling with a new unit (Believe it or not, they do transfer us around in the Navy Reserve), and there’s a lot more like young people here. So, I figured there’d be more runners.

Yeah, not so much – there’s a lot of folks in grad school or law school who are too busy to run.

Anyway, I was happy – after the start, there were like three skinny types who pulled away from me. Then me, then the rest of the pack I hit the halfway point at 5:15, did the mental math, and decided that 11 would be a good showing. Finished in 10:52, and was pretty excited about the whole deal.

Until I went and looked at the last time I ran it. Ouch.

Actually, not so “ouch” as much as a nod ot weight being my achilles heel. I need to get serious about diet, ’cause running isn’t doing it.

This week ought to be good – the weather’s starting to come around, and I’m getting back into a groove. All I need to do is add some cross training…

Still Alive, Kicking, Whatever

Hi.

It’s me. You know, me – Jank.

I just wanted to let y’all know that this isn’t a dead blog.

Life is good. I’ve been running (made my long run the last two weeks in a row, and actually haven’t missed a run in two weeks). Missy’s been running. The boys have been running. I’m very hopeful about the whole OKC Half Marathon thing (which reminds me – I need to register)

Blogging? Not so much.

But there’s interesting things afoot here.

I dig me some spring.

Ah, Amigos, Rest Assured I have not forgotten about you

Boys and girls, interesting times are afoot up here in Mystic. Spring is always a good time to be in New England, and an even better time to be a runner.

I had a whirlwind trip down to DC early last week, in which I got to catch up with my brother-in-law and his wonderful wife, and got to head up to the Sausage Factory (eg the Capitol, from the immortal quote which I’m too lazy to google, which goes along the lines of “It’s terrible to see what goes into both sausage and laws”). I managed to stay downtown, and got in a transcendent dawn run on the Mall, and tried as to be as loud as possible in the hotel hall, as it was full of whipper-snapper teens down for one of the many “see how government works” programs, which, near as I can tell, involves a lot of running between rooms and giggling at about midnight. But I had beer with the brother-in-law, and a good walk, and it really didn’t matter.

Saturday was Pinewood Derby, and it was outstanding. Jake’s (mostly) self-made car (I will dig up a picture, but all I did was rough out the shape with a table-saw and do a little light soldering) came in 5th out of 8, and that was without him doing anything to the wheels or axles. “But daddy, I want to paint it!” We also headed out to check out the YMCA camp over by Burlinggame State Park in Rhode Island. I’m sending the kids for pretty much as long as they want to go. The camp’s got all the cool “camp” stuff, like swimming and canoes and sports and lanyards and musty cabins, and none of that modern stuff like PowerPoint and DVDs. I’m sold.

The boys and I followed up a little time in the woods with a hike over at the Ninengret National Wildlife Refuge, and a trip up to URE outfitters to buy a fishing license. The hike rocked – it was brisk and windy, but there was no whining by the boys, and on the way back,

Jake said “Dad, can I run back to the car?”

“Sure”, I said, “just turn around and run back to us when you get there”.

Off he went. Nate and I continued to stroll, and Jake met up with us a little quicker than I’d expected. “Did you make it all the way back?”

“Yep. I did stop to read the sign for a while, though, so I didn’t run right back”. Man, fast, and honest, too.

I finished up Saturday with 5 miles. It was supposed to be 4 miles in preparation for a long run on Sunday, but I took a new route, took a different turn to do some exploring, and added another mile. I didn’t make the long run on Sunday, but I did a bunch of walking after church, so I think it’ll all come out in the wash.

Now it’s Monday, and I’m feeling rested, excited, and pretty fired up about being able to get back on track. I hit the gym with my officemate at lunch. Calisthenics and some time on the exercise bike are good for what ails you.