Memorial Day Weekend

This just in

http://www.theday.com/article/20130528/ENT18/305289991

Article from New London Day – about Mike C and his trail - nice job Mike

Friday - little over 4 miles with the 4:45 club (first of the year for me, renewing my membership). Woke up to pouring rain and thought what the hell I’m I doing. By the time I pick up Jeff and we arrived at Tom5k house the rain stop. Good run and the rain held off. Later that day I went on a school field trip with my daughter – fell asleep on the bus, wonder why.

Saturday - North Stonington Education Foundation 5K

Rain, wind and cold but I like this race. Started out in the back as I was not sure how I was going to feel. The gun went off with a little hitch and racing instincts takes over passing the kids that all go out fast – EXCEPT little gazelle junior (Matthew). Settled in few second behind him in 6^th place with a kid on my back. At the turn around gazelle senior (can’t wait until next year when he will be a senior, turning 50) was in the lead with the hunt on. Shaping up to be a good finish, unfortunately I faded on the hills on the way back as I still have not gain stamina from being out for 8 weeks. So my battle/race was the kid behind me who was on my back the entire time until the last ½ mile when I decide it was time to go. Finish strong in 6^th place. The senior won so I was able to take first in age group along with other WTAC members. Did a cool down with both senior and junior gazelles – Mathew never stop talking, it may have been raining, cold and miserable but you would have never notice that coming from him on the cool down – until a late finisher happen to see us talking and having a good time and she yelled out – show offs – what the #$%& - really, that made senior angry.

Sunday – 33 mile bike ride with gazelle and Tom5k Met up with them behind CC’s in Pawcatuck. They ask me to put together a 30 miler. So we went to Mystic were we stop for a coffee and into the borough for a quick loop and back to River Road. Very windy ride but good company and a good pace. Both Tom and Jeff are reading for TRI season as they smoked the hills – waited for me – than I smoked the down hills with gazelle in the hunt right behind me – funny how you can actually hear someone on a bike right behind you – very cool sound.

Monday – Bearathon 5k in Mystic / This race supports the sophomore and senior class at Stonington and with one in high school and another going soon – I have to support – so twist my arm to do a road race. Ran a warm up with Mike C. This race is anther out and back on Mason Island, twisting and turning into cul-de-sacs. The thing I like with this race is you get to see the field multiple times, good cheering and giving high 5’s on the way. Took 10^th overall and ran a good time as this was the fastest I have run since surgery. No pain later in the day and all felt good – until WE showed up at my house and had to cut the lawn and wash the cars…………I hate WE like I hate winter. I have to meet this WE person someday.

Summary – great 4 days of running, racing and riding. Looking forward to the hot and humid weather later

In the week – bring it.

Photo by Jana Walker Sport Photography / NSEF5k

Weekly Log 19-May to 25-May

Monday – 5 mile run from work, feeling it this morning with that ride from yesterday.

Sunday – Bike down to gazelle’s (6m) to meet up with Tom5K and gazelle for a ride through Charlestown beach area then up to Burlingame and back to Dunns corners (28m). This was the route Tom5K help train gazelle for Boston. The bike down to gazelle was all downhill – easy / bike home was uphill and not fun plus the traffic through downtown Westerly. This was the second ride of the year and with the new clip-on bike shoes. I struggled on the hills, not sure if I should have eaten something before this ride of just out of shape. The last climb of the day – up Burdickville Road (biggest hill of the day). They had to wait for me at the intersection of Route 91. When I stopped at the intersection I forgot – to clip out – when I realized what I just did I knew I was going to fall – funny how you know you’re going to crash but you don’t know the outcome. Fell to my right on to grass – all was fine – hurt ego but everyone falls at least once or twice with clip-on’s. Told the wife this story – hasn’t stop laughing yet. I hate being the subject of her enjoyment. With the bike down and back from gazelle’s plus the ride - ended up doing 40m total – the was by far the most ever I have been on the bike. Good company plus the scenic ride in early morning made for a challenging workout.

Weekly Log 12-May to 18-May

Sunday - Mothers Day - pulled a double

6.3 Run - Went out for a run early morning in the light rain down to Wilcox Park back up route 2 – not bad, very little traffic and no one in the park. Nice run as everything is in bloom and green.

Bike 13 - In the afternoon when the sun came out it was time to try the bike. This was first ride of the year, plus first time I had a chance to try my new bike shoes. I was old school and had cages so this was quite the experience trying to get on the bike. Sucks walking in these shoes – sounds like a horse walking on asphalt. Rode down to my favorite place, Greenhaven - roads were very busy with traffic. Usually when I ride this route no one’s on the road because I go out very early, so I had to pay attention to my surroundings on this ride. Struggled little bit on hills but still fun to get out and ride. No time for a swim, but I did get wet from washing the cars.

Monday: Just over 6 miles, usual route from work, little chilly this morning. Legs were hurting from the double yesterday.

University of Connecticut, Avery Point – Gorton CT

Seeing that the days are getting longer and it’s not winter I thought I would share some pictures where I run so early in the morning on week days.

I run from Pfizer south gate down along the water of the Thames River to the University of Connecticut, Avery Point. Once I enter into the property I like to take the trail along the water, cliffs and rocks. At this time of year with the sun coming up you can see Montauk/Fisher Island, NY. No one but the UCONN security guards are around – I have the place to myself. I than run to a section called Juniper Point, this is just a street with a small turnaround but when you add Avery and Juniper Points you can see 5 light houses.

The first picture below is an aerial view. Notice the trail along the water, cliffs and rocks. In addition, on the left side of the picture you will notice a road that turns around that almost goes out to the water. This is where I do my speed work – this turnaround is 200m according to MapMyRun.com and has a small hill so it makes for a little challenge. I run at 5:00am, so I can run down the middle of these roads with no traffic. Depending on wind, weather and how I’m feeling I run in either direction along with going down other streets – summary, I have options.

 

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Rhode Island State Police "Foot Pursuit" 5K

This is the first race recap I have done since I created my blog – remember I been injured

First I would like to congratulate Tom5k for winning the prestigious race – great job Tom and he didn’t complain about any injuries. In addition, big shout out/nice job to Mike C who the day before ran 20 miles and injured his toe while doing a trail race – he completed the 5k and cool down. Can’t forget Matthew who had a PR as well and I actually had a conversation with him on the warm up in the trails – it’s amazing what he says when his dad is not around (dad stop for a pit stop).

Showed up about an hour and 10 minutes early as this is a big participate race (over 800) and parking can be difficult. The weather was great, sunny with temps in the 50’s with little wind. Great to hook up with the gang again (Gazelle, Tom5k, Muddy, Matthew, John H, Mike C and Jana from Jana Walker Sports Photography LLC). Went for a 1 mile warm up on some trails (Canochet Farm) just across from race start where we ran into some birds Muddy was – very excited about and couldn’t wait to tell John H – turn out to be glossy Ibis – ok, whatever.  Got back to the start line in plenty of time where the jockeying for position began. Since I was only running for about a week from coming back from surgery I decided I would start about 15 feet back from the front – I was pushing Matthew to get up front as he wanted to go for a PR. The shotgun went off and the mayhem began. Instinct kicks in and I started to pass people until the first turn, I realized I’m in no condition to race hard so I found a comfortable pace and settled in. We came to a 4 way intersection where a state trooper is holding up traffic. I make the right hand turn and get into the left lane of traffic with rest of race when I hear the trooper say – you can go. I figured he let a car go on through which means I will have a car to my RIGHT when all of sudden I SEE a gray eco friendly Toyota Prius on my LEFT side INCHES away from me and then the passage side mirror hits my left hand. I panicked, I just got back for surgery and I get hit - really, I was speechless or in shock when I took my hand and slammed the mirror back into the car. A few runners behind me began yelling out a few F-bombs at the driver. I looked into the car, it was an old guy with a handicap parking thing hanging from his rear view mirror – I almost became handicap. Was this the work of my wife – hmmm? I settle back into my pace and felt better when those other runners that did the F-bombing came up on me asking if I was ok. We just past mile 2 and we are about to turn left along the ocean when I caught up with some teenagers. I started to yell out pace and distance to them when one of them says, I feel like I’m going to puke. Ok, I’m not handing around for that, started to pick up the pace. I make the last turn into the finish and starting sprinted – haven’t done that in awhile. I finished strong with no pain in my knee. My time was 21:09 – I was very satisfied seeing I just starting running again 8 days ago. This race has one of the best post race gatherings around, hung out for a few and I happen to see old high school friend. Walk up to see who won what when the announcer announces the team award – NRA – What; is this the work of Turtles? We (WTAC) took 1 (Tom), 3 (Muddy) and 6 (Jeff). Then he announces GYM team award – which WTAC took.  Not sure why were in the GYM category

Summary – good to be back and see everyone

Pictures below are from Jana Walker Sports Photography LLC

I survived

Mike C trying to figure out which toes hurts - and we are all waiting

GYM team

Weekly Log 21-Apr to 27-Apr, 2013

Never mind the physical pain of the injury, the psychic pain of not being able to run can sometimes be even worse. Force yourself to tough it out. It’s very important to come back slowly from an injury, and you shouldn’t rush the process. Cut way back on running – or eliminate it entirely – until you recover from the injury. This is what the doctors/physical therapist and advice from on-line reading tells you. Really, what do they know?

Your body, unfortunately, is a fickle creature. Like marriage (just kidding Julie, little sarcasm). After all the time and energy and miles you have invested to get it into shape, your body will thank you by forgetting it all at the earliest opportunity. It’s a difficult truth; you lose fitness quickly when you stop all training. You can, however, take up to a week off without losing any ground. Three or four days of rest can even improve your performance (Jonny, you getting this). But after a week, you will quickly start to lose your edge – a lot faster than it took you to build it up.

After a long layoff, even with some core work, I was bound to lose at least some fitness and gain a few pounds. Then I had to convince my ego that I shouldn’t immediately try to run as I did before my injury – this all started with and email on Friday about a Saturday morning “fat guy from Wal-Mart” run. I was so excited to go out with the group again – than I notice they were going to do 6 miles. I only had run 2 miles from when I got green light to run which was that Friday. How can I do 6, what if I can’t keep up, what if I reinjure the knee, I know Muddy the drama or how did you put it – pussy. My eyes were bigger than my belly as the saying goes. After rethinking this I decided I would run 4 miles from my house instead at my pace. I ended up running at a 7:45 pace with hills – not bad. Everything felt great, had little trouble breathing and I even got a little cramp. The coolest part of the run was when I was on North Anguilla road when 10 Harley-Davidson bikers passed me head on all giving me the thumbs up sign – how cool. Like they know the psychic pain of not being able to run that I went through. Sunday, I decided I would rest this day and see if anything hurt. I ended up doing much needed yard work all pain free – except for the occasional WE need to do this and WE need to do that comment from my better half. Still haven’t been able to meet this WE guy. Monday, I ran 4 miles from work in the early morning – what the hell happened to spring – it was little chilly. Funny how you get out of the routine, forgot my space watch, gloves and WTAC hat. I force myself to tough it out with the chilly 33 degree temperature – I hate winter. I hope this will be the last time I say that for awhile.

Tuesday - 4 Miles, another cold morning with head wind
Wednesday – 0 – decided rest the legs this day as I have been told to take it slow on recovery. Little do they know, only for this week ;) 

Thursday – 4 miles in the parking garage at work as it started to rain early in the AM. You had to be up early to notice that it did rain – sleepy heads. Felt great running today

Friday – 4.5 - after a late night with fellow WTAC board members Muddy & Mike C going over applications for scholarships and drinking, this light weight had trouble getting up at 4:20 to go running. Stop at DD to get a coffee to wake me up - had a very enjoyable run with the full moon out this morning. This was the longest run since I went out on surgery. First 2 miles go great – 7:30 ish than around just after mile 2 I start to feel fatigue 8:30 ish – man, I have to work on the base. Found out that Muddy & Mike C like to drink (a lot) nasty beers that taste like tree park and wood chips.

Update/Recovery

After still having pain in the knee and not believing my primary care physician on the ageing comment (shut-up Muddy), I decided to go see an orthopedic doctor at South County Orthopedics. They treat URI athletes, plus I don’t trust the doctors in Westerly these days – they are too old and not up with the times. I was referred to see Dr. Coppes. Very popular guy as I had to wait a week to see him. They day had come for the appointment – I was hoping for a cortisone shot. After telling him how much I run in a week and how miserable I was not being able to run he asked were the pain was –  he then put his thumb right on the pain (on the inner meniscus) and pushed in. WOW the pain, OMG I wanted to hit him back it hurt SO MUCH. Than the words I did not want to hear – looks like a torn meniscus, let’s schedule a MRI. By the way when I left the doctor’s office I was limping because of what he did. After going for the MRI, I had to go for consultation with Dr. Coppes who said – yup, torn meniscus, so we need to schedule surgery. I commented - what are you doing this afternoon or tomorrow. This is how fast I wanted to have the surgery. We schedule for the following week. So the day had arrived for surgery at South County Hospital. I was prep for surgery and then the anesthesiologist (thanks for spell check) asked me which one I wanted – summary, do I want to watch the surgery or be put out. I mentioned whatever way is best for coming out of surgery, another words, fastest way to get out of the hospital. I awoke in recovery with my wife holding pictures of my meniscus. What the hell do I want pictures of my meniscus or is this some plot that my wife is up too – I happened to have 2 tears on my meniscus, one for an old injury I can’t recall – the MRI did not catch that one. Left the hospital on crutches, never been on crutches before so my wife had a good laugh. Asked to ice it for 2 days keep it elevated and use the crutches for a week until he can evaluate me. Bandage came off and Dr. C said everything looks good. Looks like you can do 1 physical therapy session and I will see you in three weeks and more than likely you can go back RUNNING. Summary, green light to run on 19- April and winter is over with finally. Might sign up for Foot Pursuit on the 28^th and run with Mike C