Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Back on the Race Circuit

     Over the past couple of months, due to my recent injury/surgery, I have missed a lot of races that I had already signed up for.  Missed the Finish on the Fifty 10k in Foxboro on July 3rd.  Love that race because you get to finish on the fifty yard line where the Patriots play.  Missed the Hingham 4 miler on July 4th.  This is a really fun race because there are so many people that I know that run it.  Then we all get together afterwards for a cookout and some drinks, a perk of all the running!  I missed some triathlons and got relegated to photographer for the boss.
     This Sunday, after a week of short runs to get back in the groove of running, I ran in the Cochrane 5k in Quincy.  Another race the boss and I have done several times. I originally going to do he 10k but since the longest run I had done the week before was 3 miles, I decided the smart move was to just do the 5k instead of overdoing it and risking injury.  I know I know, that's not very runnery of me  but I'm getting old and injury recovery time can be a killer.  I decided, run the shorty, pace myself, and just enjoy the run.
    I have a couple tricks I use to pace myself.  1. Starting position.  Normally, if I were healthy, I'd start close to the front. Instead, knowing I need to take it easy, I started in the middle/back of the pack.  It's a good way to slow yourself down if you have the patience for it.  I mixed in with the 10minute per mile runners.  Jog at the start, first 1/2 mile was uphill so it thinned the crowd out a bit. Ran passed the usual group of kids that started too far to the front and are now running 5 wide up the street.  Runners will know the kids I'm talking about.  They are at every race ;)  around mile 1 I ran into my buddy John whom I've known for around 15 years and recently reconnected with through work. Jogged easy with him and chatted for a bit.  Took off from John to pass his wife Vera a little further up the road running a a quick and steady pace. This leads to trick 2. Wear my Garmin.  I always know my pace.  Sometimes when running, I just feel so good that the pace escapes me and when coming back from an injury, that's not necessarily a good thing.  Knowing my pace helps me reign myself in. 3. Head games.  I feel like I have been running long enough that I can adjust my mentality.  I mentally told myself that I needed to run my race, my pace and kept repeating that in my head.  These three tricks worked for me and I had a great time running and enjoying the race as I went.
   I think I have rambled on and delayed getting this out long enough.  Below are some pics form a couple of the tris I took pics at for the Boss while I was injured and the pic we took at the end of this weekends race and a couple other events.  Let me know your thoughts and most important, get out there and get active!

The Boss and her Luchador, El Tubbo at Wasatch Back Ragnar

 


 Best medal I've gotten yet.

Tri pics of the Boss kicking ass and taking names









More bling!

Trithro!










Thumbs up at the finish of another tri!


1/2 marathon on a nice 90degree day!

More Bling!

Biofuel Dusty Bowl Championship Cup!

Post race crew in Quincy, Mike B, Jackye C, Robo Cop, Kauren Q, the Boss, and me  

Batman and Minnie Mouse, the Snuggies!

Monday, September 2, 2013

Back in the saddle

     I figured it's been about a year since the last time I posted and now would be a good time to start my weekend Warrior blog back up.

     You see, it was about a year ago I ended up with another foot injury that put me on the shelf for a couple months. I had a pain in my foot that was pretty painful.  Painful to the point that when I ran the Providence Rock N Roll 1/2 marathon, I thought maybe that'd be my last race.  Headed to the doctors and found out I have a Morton's neuroma.  This was 8/19 of 2012.  Luckily, 3 cortisone shots, a good pair of orthotics, a bunch of tape, constant use of my ultrasound machine, and taking time off from running until January allowed me to get back at it in 2013.  I had a pretty good 2013.  Got my weight down from 200+ to 185 and got my race pace close to where it was back in 2008 when I first discovered what plantar fasciitis  felt like. 

   Below is a list of races and results from most of what the 'Boss' and I have done this year.  I just pulled this off Athlinks.com  Some are missing Like the Cape Cod Ragnar and the Wasatch Back Ragnar(overnight relays), which BTW are a ton of fun.  Unfortunately along the way I managed to run into another injury requiring some time off.  On 8/5 I had hernia surgery to take care of something that had been bothering me for a while and needed to recover.  Whelp last week I finally made it back to the gym after about a 2 month layoff and it felt great to be back, despite the fact that it's like starting over from the beginning.  This Saturday, I made it out onto my mountain bike for the first time in over a month.  An easy 6 miles on the vanilla triangle in the blue hills.  Today I actually got out for a short 2 mile run and felt pretty good.  I really didn't know what to expect but all in all I'd say it went well.

   Anyway, since it feels like I am starting over again, I figured I'd knock the dust off this little blog thing I started a couple years ago.  Hopefully I'll get back in the groove and have consistent updates with pics and posts about different races, mountain biking, working out and the people and places that make it all work.  Thanks for reading and stay active!



  
Show Size
Event Name & CourseStateDatePlc APlc GPlc OPaceFinal
Narragansett Summer Running Festival - 5k RunMA 7/21/136/028/034/4258:3726:48
Harvard Pilgrim Finish at the 50 - 10k RunMA 7/3/1380/0431/0646/22799:1257:14
Bare Hill TriathlonMA 6/30/1320/0168/0257/2801:56:14
5th Annual M.A.D. Scramble 5 MilerMA 6/27/1311/045/061/1588:2542:06
Milton 5k and 10k Road Race - 10k RunMA 6/11/135/042/063/1687:5649:19
20th Annual Corrib Pub 5kMA 6/2/1325/0192/0231/19518:0224:59
2nd Annual Andrew D Parmeter Memorial 5KNY 5/25/132/025/035/808:0325:01
Newburyport River Run Half MarathonMA 5/19/138/044/076/3098:271:50:54
The Marine Corps Honor Run 5kMA 5/11/1318/0143/0172/15037:3123:23
James Joyce Ramble & U.S. Masters 10k Championships - 10K RunMA 4/28/1363/0361/0487/19508:0550:14
Rockbuster Duathlon 2013MA 4/21/138/024/027/601:01:42
Wrentham Duathlon 2013MA 4/14/1316/092/0115/2754:48.681:16:59
2013 Doyle's Emerald Necklace Road RaceMA 4/7/1335/0258/0345/15957:5939:57
Feed the Need 2013MA 3/30/1313/069/079/4448:2626:15
South Shore YMCA Frozen 5KMA 1/6/1313/071/0119/4448:2025:55