Running, Biking and Warmer Temps

It was above 30* again this morning when I woke up for my run. Living in New England is definitely an exercise in relativity. Two months ago I wouldn't have even considered getting out of bed when I rolled over to see my window thermometer pointing to the blue zone. These days as long as it is somewhere above zero I can't wait to get out on the road because it's 'so warm out!' There as also been very little wind the past week or so which also helps keep temps up. After spending the recent winters in the Caribbean my stock of cold weather/warm running clothes has been seriously depleted. Thankfully Jules and I took a winter hiking trip to the Grand Canyon over New Years so I had two very good excuses to go shopping for some technical cold weather kit. Marshalls came through, as usual, and I found an awesome Saucony running hat, some Nike gloves with booger thumbs and some fleece lined tights and tops, all on clearance! Buying new gear is very close to the top of my ways to get motivated list.  Right under keeping a training journal blog!

With my new clothes and the spiking temperatures I have been celebrating the weather (or the fact that I've finally acclimatized to it) by running in the mornings and biking to and from work. The morning runs are ~3 miles with some hill work thrown in and the bike to work is 8.5 miles on pretty flat roads. Luckily my job doesn't require me to wear a business suit or to look (or smell) presentable at all so I can get away with arriving a little sweaty.
Doubling up with running and biking landed me in a conversation about running vs biking muscle groups, PRE (perceived rate of exertion) and AT (anaerobic threshold).  I have always maintained that biking is harder and therefore must use different muscles groups than the ones I have from running. I can run a marathon but I struggle on a bike for even a couple miles. I don't think anyone could say I have weak legs. My calves don't fit into boots or skinny jeans and my quads and butt dictate my jeans size more than my waist does! Don't get me wrong, I have always been proud of my runner's legs but what is the deal with biking? I was convinced that there must be some other muscle group that bikers develop. Apparently, I was wrong. A friend of mine tried to convince me that there was no secret biking muscle group, that you use your legs, just like running, to push a bike forward. So we both went home and did what anyone else would do to prove we were each right, GTS. According to this article on livestrong.com the same muscles are used, just in slightly different ways. Push vs pull and four stages in running to only two in cycling. This abstract points out that the PRE is higher and the VO2 max and AT happen earlier in biking, however, and that's why I feel so out of shape on a bike. Any cyclists feel the opposite is true when they hit the road running?

Either way, it's been a pretty great start to the week. Hopefully the weather holds through the week. Here's to lots of miles, get out there!

Running Naked

I have been running naked since October.
It has been ages since my last blog. After 30 for 30 summer was in full swing and between getting up to speed running my new boat and logging lots of miles, blogging got pushed to the back burner.

I have been running consistently and ran the Newport marathon in October. I was training for Newport pretty hard and may have even 'over trained' as the race didn't go as well as I had hoped. I felt stiff and tired for a lot of the second half. Thankfully, I had a great running buddy for the whole race and her goal of finishing sub 4 helped us both get through and across before the dreaded 4 hour mark.
After Newport I felt a little burned out from training.  I think of training and running as two different entities. Training is great by having set workouts and times to strive towards I can focus what I'm doing and it makes it easier to get out the door. Running between races can be refreshing and enjoyable, getting back to the root of why we're all out there in the first place; because running is awesome.

So after Newport I took my headphones out of my hears, turned off my pace watch and headed out the door. They call it running naked in the magazines. No set workouts, no pacing or time goals. I would go out when I wanted for as long as I wanted. I threw in a few races here and there, the Pie Run on Thanksgiving and a NYE 10k in Vegas but it was all just to see how I could do, and I ended up doing alright!

Now it's time to get back in the game. May is just around the corner. I know it doesn't feel like it as we pull on our third layer and gloves and head out for a jog, but it is just about 18 weeks until my birthday, May marathon weekend and summer racing season. I would like to run Sugarbush Marathon again on May 17 but the Volvo stop over in Newport might get in the way. Either way I'll be racing 26.2 again soon.
This time I am trying to train with the Hal Higdon marathon guide and use the pace times from the Runner's World training. Hal Higdon has you running 6 days a week which is more my style than the 3 day guide. I'm traveling a bit this winter but not nearly as much as the past few years so I should be able to work more daily runs into my calendar.
The first run this morning was a 3 miler that I turned into 4 because turning around on the Cliff walk before the 40 steps just feels wrong! It's pretty warm out, somewhere over 30 anyways. The roads and sidewalks were a little slick this morning with a film of ice but it was a beautiful morning for a run. I'm going to take it as a good omen towards a successful training season and a sign that it will warm up eventually!

30 for 30

The Sugarloaf Marathon in Eustis Maine took place on May 18. With approximately 700 participants the race was small and personal. The weather turned out to be absolutely perfect for a run. The air was cool and the sky was clear. The promised rain showers were nowhere to be seen. The lakes were full and the mountains were vivid and green with the recent rain and snow run off. The race ran down route 27 along the Androscoggin River which was high and tumbling fast down the riverbed. The race starting on a flat, going up hill and cresting at the midpoint, and finishing downhill broke up the miles and made the course easy to break up mentally.
The best part of the race was the fans cheering on the side of the road. Since the road was open during the race cars and trucks leap frogged like the runners. Cowbells and car horns and signs and streamers were all along the course. A few clever signs made us all giggle a little and informed us that; 'You run better than the Government, Humpty Dumpty had wall issues too, and Sweat is liquid awesomeness!'

Right from the start I was leap frogging with a small group of people from Connecticut. I shared my 30 mile goal with a woman in rainbow socks who cheered me on and one uped me with having run 42 this year on her birthday! I was maintaining a 8:20 ish pace and was worried that I made my usual mistake of going out too fast. Everything felt good so I told myself to relax and keep going. Going into the hill I felt strong and thankful for all of the Caribbean island training. I knew Julia was meeting me at mile 11, after the crest of the hill. Just after mile 10 my shoulders started cramping up a little. Jules was bringing energy gummies with her. The sugar, potassium and caffeine were an instant pick me up. As the decline increased I let myself go with it and held a pace closer to 7:25. Jules dropped out before mile 14 and Reg jumped in at 15 to finish off the hill. My legs started to feel the miles around 17. My father joined me for a mile, Jen for a half mile and Julia jumped back in at 23. Doubts started creeping in just before 24. As another runner ran past, I expressed my doubts at speeding up. Before I could get too discouraged, Jules just said, "Go with her, you can do it." and as she peeled off I pushed through the tight hamstrings and mental doubts and kicked past the girl runner as well as a few guys in front of her. I had enough in me to finish the final two miles at a 8:30 pace and jogged it out after the finish until my watch reached 30 miles.

After a lemonade and some homemade granola (only in Maine) I read out my watch statistics. For 30 miles my elapsed time was 4:18. My marathon time was 3:43 with an average pace for the whole thing of 8:36 minutes per mile. My shoes, that had been holding on by a string, finally ripped apart during the race and I bought new ones yesterday. Interestingly, I had to buy a half a size larger than I did last time. I broke them in this morning with a 3 mile jog around downtown Portsmouth. I picked up the New England Running Calendar to look for the next race before the high wears off. I had a great race and was surrounded by my awesome family, I couldn't have asked for more. 

Here I go....

I’m running 30 miles tomorrow. Realistically, I should have chosen a marathon in June. I have missed some significant parts of the training due to work and life changes. I think pushing the date could get me back on track but those marathons wouldn’t be on my birthday weekend. I set out to run Run 30 miles on my 30^th birthday, happy birthday to me!

I’m incredibly lucky to have a family that likes to get together and will use any excuse to do so. We have been known to move holidays around to suit our travel schedules. This weekend we celebrated three May birthdays and mother’s day. They all decided to head up to Maine to join me in one way or another in my run. Kate hosted a pre race cookout at her house in Saco and my mom made me a wicked awesome shirt that I will run in. Julia, my father and my brother in law are going to jump in and run some of the race with me. Jen is going to run a mile with me and her kids, sort of a cool down victory lap.

My friend Jillian blogs about her running and training adventures ever since she traveled over to Ireland to run her first marathon. She’s pretty incredible and I read her blog to stay current in her life and for the inspiration it provides.  She’s not training for anything specific at the moment, but wrote, “when asked if I was training for a marathon and I thought about how even though I wasn't, I kind of was. In running or in life. We all are. In every marathon there's a rough stretch. At some point in every single race, it's gonna suck. And yet, almost always, we finish. We come back for more.” Funnily enough, some pretty amazing opportunities have come out of leaving Antigua abruptly and heading out to sea. This week I was in New York City working with The Atlantic Cup, a sailing organization that is trying to save the world by being a carbon neutral event. Last week I was superyacht racing in the Palma Vela and the month before that I had the best crossing of any of them that I have sailed.

As for running in the past month, my Nike+ gps is getting pretty tired. Linking to satellites seems to take longer when my runs are 2,000 miles apart. I hopped off the boat in Palma and ran 7 miles along the waterfront. Later in the week I ran up to the castle and back the morning after the first team dinner. Since I may have had a glass of wine too many the night before, I joined Amy that afternoon for another run. It was a beautiful run through the olive groves in Alaro. Before leaving Mallorca I ran down the waterfront again for 10+ miles. From Mallorca I flew to Charleston, SC for the start of the Atlantic Cup. The event kept me pretty busy but I managed to squeeze in some half mile intervals early one morning. Between Charleston and New York I had to drive through Beaufort, NC to meet one of the race boats. I stayed over night and, after sending the boat off the dock, I ran 12 flat miles around Beaufort and Moorehead City. This week in New York I tapered by running around the city instead of taking the subway. Am I ready? I think so. I know that I’ll finish, I’m just unsure of how I’ll be feeling when I do.

The race is in the area around Sugarloaf Ski Resort. Sugarloaf is approximately at the half way point as the course winds down route 27 from Eustis to Kingfield. The first part is flat road leading up to a hill climb that starts around mile 7. It climbs for 2 or 3 miles before heading down hill for the rest of the race. In order to bump it up to 30 miles I am going to run a 3 mile warm up on the way to the start and finish with a mile after the finish. It’s what most people do anyways, warm up and cool down, but tomorrow I’m going to count it all. I think it’s going to be a nice run. The weather hasn’t decided if it’s going to cooperate yet, it could be cold and rainy. After all, it’s a race in New England, as long as you keep running the weather will probably change. 

Atlantic crossing number 7

 This is from the end of my most recent crossing. It rambles on a bit, as the brain does at sea...

As we wrap up 18 days at sea I thought I should write a bit before my brain goes back into “normal or real life” mode. Something happens when I’m at sea for an amount of time. The way I think about things changes. My priorities change, thoughts go deeper while at the same time things simplify. Maybe it’s the lack of stimulation or some kind of sensory deprivation that does it. Maybe it’s the unavoidable realization that we are very small in a very large ocean. For a week or two we feel appropriately insignificant to the great big world. Holding on to this perspective is difficult as soon as we’re back in cell phone range and the smart phones start buzzing, but it’s a perspective that is important to have from time to time. It is equally as important to give it up and come back to land and real life. Some sailors spend just a little too long at sea and start to give up on the world on land. At sea many things seem unimportant and one can start down a long road of indifference. Though our actions, efforts and beliefs aren’t necessarily making major changes or a big difference, it is important to give those beliefs and actions their due diligence and continue to care.

On this crossing we have had relatively perfect weather. The weather pattern was different from the norm, however, and took us on a route much farther south than usual when sailing from west to east. Usually we would sail north by north east towards the Azores, stop to refuel, reprovision or just relax and continue south east towards Gibraltar. This trip took us out of Antigua and north by north east for a few days before planting a large low pressure system to the north of us. The system dictated that we stay south and ride the bottom edge of it. The breeze filled in and we basically sailed on the rhumb line all the way across with breeze abaft abeam or behind us. The breeze was on average around 20kts and we averaged a boat speed above 10 knots for most of the 18 days. Fast, great sailing at a comfortable angle, we couldn’t have asked for more. A crossing as good as this one is a pretty spectacular thing. The boat responded well to all of the conditions and was a pleasure to sail. Even as we approached Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean we had strong breeze behind us and couldn’t seem to slow down if we tried! We were sailing main only and were still well above 10 knots!

Everything seemed to align for this trip. The weather was ideal and the night sky was full of action. We left with the moon waxing and had moonlit nights for the first 10 days. The full moon coincided with a lunar eclipse that the clouds parted for and we observed the bright white fade into a dark yellow as the shadow of the Earth fell across the moon’s face just before sunrise. The sun rose before the Earth moved passed the moon and it left us pondering the basic physics and geometry that are in play when the three local celestial objects align. I’m sure I knew it all once. At least my very expensive education led to a blog with correct grammar! As with every moon phase the moon began to shrink and night watches started with darker skies filled with stars. Sailing under a full moon is beautiful and a bit easier but when the moon stays below the horizon and the world is pitch black I can see the stars. Light pollution is everywhere in our world, even on small islands in the Caribbean. Staring up at the stars and planets from the middle of the ocean can take my breath away and again I feel small, but it’s a wonderful feeling. From the boat we watch as Nature and the Universe turn and roll on and on with or without us. War, oil, climate change, politics, Nature doesn’t care about any of that. Long after we destroy the planet we live on, it will continue to exist. The wind will blow, the waves will roll, and the night sky will still be there providing a spectacular show for whoever can take the time to watch it. On and on, constantly moving. The boat keeps sailing and the watch schedule rotates. Yet another way sailing is like running long distance. I keep moving and the miles tick by. They’re not all easy miles, like a rough day at sea, but they pass and eventually I arrive at my destination, whether its 3000nm across an ocean, or 30 miles ahead of where I started.

Cardio training offshore is another story. This trip was as comfortable as one could be but it was still at an angle or better yet, rolling from one side to the other, making even basic squats and jumps difficult to do without falling over.  The last month before a marathon is pretty important for training and heading offshore for a three week crossing is not in any of the training guides. Though my muscles are constantly adjusting to the angle and roll of the ship, it’s not quite like running for hours on end. Most days I would run up and back on the windward deck for as long as my ADD would allow. When the wind did die down and we had to resort to using the engine I ran around and around the deck for an hour or two at a time. With a rough calculation I determined I run about half as fast as normal when turning 180 degrees every 85 feet. People train for and set records for 1/2 and full marathons on treadmills, this was my version of gym training. Running around and around, ducking under sheets and runners and balancing when the boat pitched or rolled is the ultimate full body training. Using all my muscles for balance and resorting to catching myself on a life line when I couldn’t must be good for the core and upper body as well as the legs. The running paired with 30 minutes of team circuits at the back of the boat will hopefully leave me with some muscle strength when I step off the boat in two days.  We did the best we could on this trip and I know full well I’ll be paying for it come the 18^th, but it was worth it.

Like marathon running there is a point in every delivery that makes me think, “how long is this trip?! How much farther?” and like mile 7 that point is usually around day 7. I get offshore, usually to some slightly unpleasant conditions, hammer through it for 2 or 3 days and enjoy the reliability and comfort of the trades for a couple days after. Finally, after adjusting to the watch and sleep schedule and finishing the book I brought along, I start to get antsy. This feeling lasts for a few days, through a tv series or two and a few more books. Then, all of the sudden, the trip is over. The excitement of the next port, whether it’s a new one or one that is well known, starts to seep in. My head starts to fill with friends that I’ll see when I get there. My legs start to ache for my favorite runs. In Mallorca I can’t wait to put in some long distances out in the country, through the rolling hills and old farms. My stomach starts to rumble for whatever local cuisine is best. In Spain it is the datilles con bacon tapas, the bocadillos jamon for breakfast, and the red wine! I look forward to and dread at the same time, signing back on. Checking email and Facebook, finding the next job, making travel arrangements and packing. A good crossing, like a good run, has a little bit of everything in it and leaves me wanting more. I’m excited to tie up the boat and run around and I’m excited to jump back on board and head off again. Just keep moving, I guess. 18 days at sea with nothing to do but sail the boat and nothing to see but the sea and the sky, gone by in flash.  Let’s hope the marathon feels the same way!

Fueling?

I managed to hit the 22 mile mark today but it was not pretty. Even with being out the door at 6:30 this morning it was already hot. There hasn't been a whole lot of wind for a week now and everything was pretty stagnant as I ran out of the marina. Since I haven't put in any big miles recently I decided to run this one mostly to prove to myself that I could do it. I took it slow and stayed on the flat roads. To run 20 miles in Tortola you have to do some hunting for flat roads. Even with the flat course I was looking a lot in sweat. From Nanny Cay I ran toward Road Town, through the waterfront and to the roundabout heading out of town. There is a 5 mile turn around there and a gas station where I fueled up with a water and an apple juice. I can't drink Gatorade or sports drinks primarily because I don't like them but I also because when I drank them in high school for soccer games I would cramp up afterwards. I choose to drink juice, usually apple, because its full of sugar that's easy to burn. I ran the 5 miles back to Nanny Cay and decided it was really hot and dealing with finding water on the way was a pain that I didn't want to deal with. I headed to the little gym at the hotel and set up to run the next 10 on the treadmill. Being Tortola the treadmill was pretty old, squeaking and the belt kept slipping. This is not how I wanted to spend the next 10 miles. I debated about waiting for the afternoon to finish the remaining 10. As a squall rolled through and rain came down I made up my mind to head back out on the road. I had saved the better half of the run for the second part anyways and took a left out of the driveway this time. Soper's Hole Marina is 6 miles down the coast road and is a good refuel and turnaround spot. I ran down with a water bottle strapped to my wrist with a hair band. I bought another juice and refilled my water bottle for the 6 back. I finished and felt ok but I am curious about what I should be fueling with during or before.
The water bottle on my wrist thing is working pretty well but it can't be too big or it gets really heavy to have on my arm. I am not doing any kind of food fuel and I think I need to figure something out.
What do you use to fuel before or during a long run? Do you stop and drink and move on or keep running? What do you do for food? Candy? Gu's? 

a little appreciation

sting ray in Cuba

Parrot fish have blue lips!

Cayo Largo, Cuba

BVI Sunset

I’ve been thinking a lot about appreciating what I have. In a Superyacht event sailors get flown into whatever island the event is at, put up in a villa, fed and entertained all while getting paid to sail the boats. Some of the sailors on another boat were overheard complaining that the guests on the boat get the nicer sunscreen and the race crew only get the cheap stuff. My eyes rolled pretty hard at this and made me think hard about the silly things I’ve been complaining about. Since the grass is always greener, or the water is always bluer, I often complain about traveling so much. This winter I thought long and hard about moving to New England full time and giving up life on the water. I thought ‘I’ve done this and I’m ready to give it up.’ The truth is that I really enjoy all the bits and pieces my life ends up involving. I get to live in places when the good stuff is happening, the Caribbean in the winter during race season and Newport and New England in the summer. And I get to do some pretty random and interesting things. Spending 20 hours in Istanbul or sailing to Cuba for the second time. This week I stayed in a villa in St. Barth’s for the third time!

A friend of mine, who is a pretty inspiring runner, busted his ankle recently and it made me think a lot about appreciating what I have as a runner. I don’t have a marathoner’s physique to help with striding out over 26 miles but I have strong legs that can go forever if I work up to it. Thanks to the volcanic islands I live and work on, I’m becoming a much stronger hill runner. I’m trying to focus on the positive point in my life and in running because my motivation has been lacking in the past month. I just looked back

at my Facebook posts and realized it has been more than 20 days since I ran 18.5. That doesn’t seem right to me but I’m pretty sure Facebook doesn’t lie. That also means there are less than 40 days and four 20+mile runs until I run 30 miles. My mileage drop is my own fault, because the thing about running is everything is your own fault, the good and the bad. I can blame it on work, small islands with impossible hills and travel schedules, but let’s face it, my motivation has lacked this month. Here’s a recap of what I’ve been up to, the miles I’ve run and the places I’ve sailed.

A couple of weeks ago I delivered a boat to Cuba from Virgin Gorda. It was a 5 day trip of motorsailing dead down wind for 1000 nm. We had a pretty good sail for the 12 hours that we were between the Dominican Republic and Cuba, where the wind funnels through the two islands. We arrived in Cuba at an island cay off the south shore called Cayo Largo. Sailing to Cay Largo you can guess which song was stuck in my head for days! Cuba is a fascinating and beautiful place. You can see my photos from my trips there last year here. I didn’t get any time to explore this year since traveling back to Cuba is neither fascinating nor beautiful, just a planes, trains and automobile puzzle that takes some time. Though planes fly from Havana to Cayo Largo multiple times a day there are no planes that fly from Cayo Largo to Havana. A travel agent had booked myself and the other crew flights from Havana for the next morning and we had to get to the main land, 30 miles away, across the island that is 50 miles wide and to the big city by 5 am the next morning. We managed to find a flight to Varadero and convinced a taxi driver when we landed that he wanted to drive us the 2 1/2 hours to Havana. After a quick sleep in a nameless hotel we hailed a noisy 1950’s cab to the airport at 5 the next morning. From Cuba we flew to Panama City (sometimes you have to go left to go right, right?) back to San Juan and finally to Tortola. All in all I was pretty impressed that the agent was able to piece a trip together that only took 1 day. I even made it back to Tortola for Friday night pizza at the Watering Hole with Meredith and Ashley! 

I had a weekend on Tortola before heading back up to the North Sound for the YCCS Superyacht Regatta. On Sunday morning I managed to find the public track in Road Town. I know that Road Town is not very big and finding a quarter mile track and sports complex should not be very hard but the track is completely enclosed and it took a few laps of the area to find where it actually was. Next step was finding a way in. It’s pretty typical in the Caribbean to build a shiny new facility and then lock it up so that no one can use it. I finally found a torn down fence and an unlocked gate and let myself in. It was hot and sunny but with a bit of breeze that made the middle 200m of the 400m repeats I was doing more enjoyable. I decided to do two of the speed workouts that I’ve missed and started with two sets of 6X400 with a 90 sec rest interval. I took a solid break and continued with and decreasing intervals of 1200, 1000, 800, 600, 400 with 200m rest intervals between. It was really nice to have a proper track to run on. Repeats on a track make it easier to track how I’m doing, when I’m slowing down, ect. I ran 7X800 this morning and am really starting to enjoy speed work.

During the YCCS event I ran the hills in Virgin Gorda and the Oil Nut Bay run a few times. We sailed to St. Barth’s for the Bucket Regatta and I found a cool trail to run on, though it wasn’t very long. The run home from the harbor every day included, you guessed it, more hills. I’m looking forward to getting back to Tortola and putting in a 20 miler on flatter ground as well as a speed work out on the track.

I think I have decided on which race to do for my 30 miler day. The Sugarloaf marathon is on May 18, the day after my birthday. It looks like a beautiful course and is said to be slightly downhill the whole way. I figure if I’m going to throw in a couple extra miles, a downhill race wouldn’t be so bad.

Here’s to a more motivated April, which is, scarily, the month before May!