10/7 - 10/13

10/7 Easy 65 minutes in the Vale, Indian Ridge and Baker's Meadow reservations.

10/8 Hard 64:35 for 10.8 miles rolling roads in North Andover and Georgetown. Surprised myself with this one.

10/9 Easy 45 minutes with a few strides at the end.

10/10 Planned day off. Trying to take my runs as they come. Today the best approach was to nap from 4-7 and eat a hearty dinner before an early bedtime. Perfect training for the comeback trail :)

10/11 Easy 62 minutes. Pretty low energy after the work week. Expected to feel better after a day off but I'm still getting into things. I want to do something harder tomorrow but the homecoming race looks to be a bit too early.

10/12 Opted for a morning workout. Slept in until about 9:30 which felt amazing. A few slices of raisin toast and a couple glasses of water before heading out. 28 minutes warm up. A bit longer than planned since the first track I went to had a huge game going on. Once at the Phillips track I targeted 3 sets of 5x400 @ 72-74 on 1 minute recoveries. I took a 400m jog and got water from the fountain between each set which took about 3 minutes. Tried to run relaxed and overdid it on the first one. Feeling good at the end so decided to open it up for the last one. Good workout!

78, 73, 71, 73, 72
73, 72, 74, 72, 72
74, 71, 71, 71, 66

Big congrats to teammate Eric MacKnight on his 2:22 for 3rd place at Hartford. Awesome run!! Also to UNH alum Erica Jesseman on defending her title there in 2:38!

10/13 Easy 60 minutes on trails and roads in Andover. A hair over 8 miles. Took it very easy.

Recent moves

10/4 71 minutes on roads moving well! Felt great to push a little bit.
10/5 42 minutes, 6 miles out and back on Rattlesnake Road. 

10/6 Easy longer run in the trails with Tim. Kinvara trail runners for Ward and Harold Parker worked great. A few miles opening the stride on the roads to finish up back at Phillips.

Congrats to everyone I know at Maine, Smuttynose and others! What a perfect weekend for racing, if not for football...

30" a day

Just looking to spend time on my feet over the past week. I got in a bunch of runs, feeling good, and getting into the groove again. It is pretty relieving having the clean bill of health and I'm just enjoying being out there during my favorite season of all. Lots of trail running too which is far more engaging for easy running. Past week was a big 22 miles spread over 6 days on the trails.

Good news

I'm good to go!... Apparently, my low pulse rate (33 bpm at rest) combined with pretty persistent palpitations looked pretty concerning to a couple doctors at first glance. I've never had them before, but I was told that palpitations (PVCs) are pretty common and benign. My heart is otherwise 100% healthy. The doctor believes the PVCs are connected to fatigue and that I was basically taking on too much. The major change is I have cut out caffeine completely whereas I am usually looking for two large cups every day. I wasn't too thrilled about losing my morning wake-up but it was a fairly easy change in the end. Thanks to the people who reached out in support. Now for the hopefully-not-so long road back to health. Hey, at least I'm safe to run.

Update... It's not pretty!

I had a few good weeks of training...

And then I had a sudden and severe case of fatigue. The fatigue corresponded with a pretty irregular heartbeat and palpitations. All that was followed by dizziness and nausea and I checked myself into an ER.

Things improved and I was allowed to go home wearing something called a Holter monitor. A week and a half later I learned that the monitor showed, apparently serious, irregularities in my heart rhythm. "Pauses" in the electric activity.

Since then I've had a few tests and more are coming. I called off training for a marathon this Fall (obviously) and I didn't register for Boston when I had planned to.

I can report that I feel pretty good and the PVCs I had for a few weeks are slowly but surely going away. I'm not sure what else to say! I'll know a lot more soon.

Since this blog is public, I won't go into detail. However, yes, it's all a little scary, and I'm taking it in stride. Teaching and coaching are a blast and serve as positive distractions. So are my two, thus far losing, fantasy football teams.

Yesterday was a little tough as I missed out on the Lone Gull 10k. Hopefully I'll see many of you out there on the road eventually, but at this point I can't predict when.

Friday, Saturday VT 100-on-100, Sunday off

Friday: 3.5 easy.
Saturday: VT 100-on-100. 3 legs:
5.3: 29:10 (5:30/mi);
7.2: 42:10 (5:50/mi)*;
5.0: 28:10 (5:42/mi).

21 miles including warm-up and short cooldown. I was pretty happy with each leg, *except for having to stop for a little over a minute during the middle leg to sort out some GI issues. I learned I shouldn't eat lots of raw hazelnuts and almonds before running hard... go figure. Had a really fun time with a bunch of friends and feeling optimistic about running well at Manchester. These paces certainly didn't come easy, but I have exactly 11 weeks to make something around 5:50 pace feel comfortable. Time to recover, and then go to work!

Sunday: Off; recovery day.

Total: 68 miles on 6 days. 79 miles on a rolling 7 days. Plan is to go easy this week with some light track work and and maybe to check out the Carlisle xc 6k.

Thursday, 8/15 Steady

Noon: 71:45 / 11 milesStarted steady, found a groove, couple pit stops, sub-6 for last 1.5 or so plus a short cooldown to make it an even 11. 670' elevation gain. The run came together pretty easily but still getting back to form. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/359418475. Hopefully this means I'm prepared to run around 6's for 17.5 miles (three legs) of the VT 100-on-100 Relay this weekend!!  + 3.4 mile shakeout at the Jaime's fun run in the evening. 14.4 total.

Wednesday, 8/14

57 minutes / 8 steady throughout the Ward reservation in North Andover. Fantastic views from Holt and Boston Hills.

Monday and Tuesday

Monday: 52 minutes / 7 miles on Andover trails. Tired but felt better toward the end.
Tuesday: 1:26:30 / 12.4 miles on trails at Winnekenni with Alliette and the last 6 with the varsity boys from Haverhill and Methuen. Pretty bonky near the end due to the increase in training recently but felt strong despite it. Progress!

It's been a minute! Update!

It has been exactly one month to the day since I last posted. On July 12th I embarked on the longest outdoor excursion of my life and it absolutely changed my perspective of what it means to be an everything-outdoors enthusiast! I was a youth leader for 5 boys entering the 9th grade along with two "sherpas" who led us through a flooded and confusing network of waterways. The days were long but the conversation was saturated with amazing insights and hilarious personalities. After a 3 days of paddling and a 3 mile portage, we finally arrived at Upper Lake Saranac. We paddled the length of Saranac which was breathtakingly awesome and continued for another couple of days to our eventual pick-up point. We gathered at camp for the final night which was a fun celebration for all of the groups who had been out on trip with food and festivities. And the proof that this camp has the right idea: the final morning before departure, every camper was bussed 8.6 miles away from camp and asked to run home. Obviously, I hadn't been able to run over the course of the trip, so I took the opportunity to rip it up in a pair of old Mizuno racing flats which I had been using as boat shoes. I covered the run in 51-52 minutes (nobody was there to give me the exact time when I finished). We arrived home on July 20th and I spent a few days resting on Cape Cod.

The part of the story I haven't shared is annoying. During the trip I got stung by a wasp. Said wasp proved to cause a localized reaction and an infection. Eventually I had to be "evac'ed" by car to the ER where I treated for a puncture wound and infection with a Tetanus shot and antibiotics. The antibiotics required that I not spend time in direct sunlight without risk of a "negative reaction". Well, while on the Cape I ran on a sunny day and my legs and arms broke out in a freaky rash and my throat and eyes got really itchy and my breathing became labored. I treated with Benadryl right away. I wanted to stop taking the antibiotics right then and there, but I didn't because 1) I had an infection! and 2) because my wife Lauren is a nurse and she advised me better. Long story made shorter: Carver at the end of the week was a bust because I again had a reaction to the sun before the race even started. 'Nuff said.

My moved have been infrequent since then. My knee was bugging me as I was coming back off of 8 days of no running on the trip. BUT, the silver lining is recent training is going better and better. The past few days are below:

Monday: 9 miles
Tuesday: 7 miles at the Whirlaway team practice
Wednesday: 4.5 miles with Alex in Westford

Thursday: 0 unplanned day off, but all's good.
Friday: 8 miles at 6:11/mile

Saturday: 9.4 miles roads 6:47/mile

Sunday: 10.3 miles roads with Tim Mallard 6:40/mile

Summary: 48 miles this week. Nothing crazy, but healthy and motivated!