Ocean State Rhode Race 1/2 Marathon and Jamestown Classic Gran Fondo

It's October! I haven't posted in awhile because this summer was so hot and humid that I was too sweaty to type! I don't know why it hit me so hard, I've trained for marathons in the Caribbean after all, but the humidity here in Rhode Island was a struggle for me this summer. There were times that I seriously doubted my ability to hydrate and rehydrate after relatively short distances. Needless to say I am very happy with the arrival of fall and all that comes with it! The changing season brings a new energy to running and training. I don't know if it's the need for long sleeves, the great excuse to wear neon, or the Facebook feed full of marathon news, I just know that I get a bounce in my step every year around this time.

A few months ago I decided to curb my training towards pushing my half marathon pace, instead of going for another full. I have never been a particularly fast runner and finally decided to get out of my comfort zone and see what happens with more focus on speed and tempo training.

My brother in law signed up for the Rhode Island Triple Crown half marathon series this summer and the Narragansett race was the last in the series. I was out of town for the Jamestown Half so I didn't qualify for the Triple Crown but wanted to run Narragansett with him. Sunday morning arrived with perfect weather for a run. The course was windy and up and down, which is my favorite type of course, there's always something to focus on and I never get bored. For all the little ups there was a good down and there were plenty of turns to keep me entertained. The pack was small, just over 450 runners, and the front group was just my style. I had a goal time of 1:38, knowing that holding onto a 7:30 pace for that distance was going to be uncomfortable but hopefully doable. From the start I had a pair of leggy guys behind me that I wanted to stay in front of. We did some leap frogging and I put some distance on them when one of them stopped for the Porto at mile 7. (Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go). As I approached mile 10 they caught back up and we exchanged the running equivalent to a passive aggressive high five.

Me- "Oh, you're back."
Them- "Yea we are, you're motivating the shit out of us."
Me- "Yea, ditto, but I think I'm about to get passed!"
Them-"Keep it up, we'll see you at the end."

They took off and I churned through the next couple of miles trying to push negative thoughts out of my head and fatigue out of my legs.
Inner dialog went something like this;
Challenge to overtake people in front. Focus on passing one at a time. Focus on the girl. Ok, not catching that girl, passed another one though. Breath. 25 Mile marker for the marathon, that's 1 and a bit for me, go. 1 to go, push. There's always more left. PUSH. Hey! The fam! Finish strong.

I glanced up at the finish clock as I approached the finish and for a quick oxygen deprived moment I couldn't figure out what it said. 13.820? huh? It wasn't until after I crossed and got through the tent did I process what the clock said. My watch was set to pace and distance, not elapsed time. I finished in 1:38:17 and it felt pretty good. And by pretty good I mean uncomfortable and hard the whole way, just what I wanted.

My brother in law finished, completed his Triple Crown and knocked 10+ minutes off his previous time!

This morning was the 40th Annual Jamestown Classic Bike Race and Gran Fondo. One lap around Conanicut Island, 19 miles. It was my first bike race in a big crowd. Being a runner and just a little stubborn I struggled with the concept of not riding my hardest the whole time. The fast pack pulled away very quickly and I ended up with some stragglers in the second group. I picked up a girl happy to have a free ride around mile 4 and carried her for longer than I was psyched about. We broke apart and I pushed the rest of the ride with two very tall men in orange jerseys. It's completely foreign to me to allow someone else to work hard and push past them at the end. I knew that I should slow down and hang on someone's hip but couldn't figure out how to do it, especially with my pride in the way! I'm sure I worked a hell of a lot harder but beat both guys at the end, and the girl from the beginning of the ride. I finished in 57 minutes and a new game to learn!

All in all it was a beautiful fall weekend and now it is time to enjoy one of the other perks of fall, Pumpkin Beer!!

Just two tens...

I spent the first part of this week up in Maine. I am incredibly lucky that my grandparents got tired of traveling around at the Army’s whim and bought an old inn in Five Islands, Maine in the late ‘60’s at which to spend their summers. The harbor is full of lobster boats and the early hours of the morning are filled with gulls calling and diesels coughing, both looking for today’s catch. At 5:45 this morning I woke up to the sun streaming into my eyes and the gulls cackling in my ears. I knew I needed to get out early in order to run a few hours before the hot, humid weather that has been unrelenting this summer made it unbearable, so I crawled out of bed. Armed with my fancy fuel belt full of water and a couple sticky Chomps I headed out the door.  Route 127 is a winding, rolling coastal route with little to no shoulder that runs out along Georgetown Island to the Route 1 bridge in Bath. It rolls up and down past the various harbors, bays and inlets that connect the Sheepscot and Kennebunk River. It is a beautiful place to run.

The first 10 miles rolled along with little traffic and a pretty good pace. Ten miles is my favorite distance to run and to get through today I kept repeating, “It’s just two tens…” but it’s not really. Just like the halfway point in a marathon or any long distance isn’t really half way. As the miles behind you increase, the remaining miles get exponentially harder. Two tens would be fantastic if they didn’t follow each other. The second ten miles is always going to include the fatigue and strain from the first ten. We train in order to build the muscle strength and memory required to get through the fatigue and on to the finish. Every middle distance, midweek run is building towards a more solid long run and the ability to finish a distance not previously run. Increasing what we run increases what we have the ability to run. Last week everything hurt at 13, this week it was 15. Endurance, like anything, needs to be built up slowly.

After running my Father asked me to take the little boat that I learned to sail on around to the boat ramp to haul it out. Though it’s not more than 10 miles to the boat ramp the trip around runs through some pretty strong tidal rips and narrow bays. I always remember a particularly bad trip from when I was very young and we were sailing the boat around. We must have timed the tide wrong and not checked the weather because when we rounded the corner for halfway we sailed straight into a building southerly and ebbing tide that prevented us from making any windward progress. My father was a pretty new sailor and the weather was more than we had seen up to that point. Thinking back now we did everything wrong. Our experience with the boat and sailing was limited. They say there are few things more dangerous than a sailor that knows a little! Like running, we get better at things the more we do them. Experience is key. Just like runners need to build muscle memory, sailors need to build tiller time.  Mistakes are the best teachers. Heading out the door without enough water (for a run) or without checking the tide (in sailing) can have a massive effect on the outcome of the day.

Taking the boat around to the launch this time seemed like a walk in the park. A few years, plenty of experiences and just a few mistakes have made me into a boat captain with 80,000+ sea miles. As I rounded the corner with a full running behind me I watched a small sail boat tacking it’s way out of Robinhood Marine. They were not making any forward progress, the tide was against them and the wind was light. It reminded me that there are always going to be people who are just starting out. Starting to run starts with a few steps, starting to sail starts with a few frustrating days on the water. But what’s important is that we keep moving forward. In the case of trying to make way against an incoming tide, however, move backwards, go back to the dock and wait it out!

A 20 miler is never easy. It gets less painful with proper training and gradual increase of miles. No matter what your long distance is right now, it’s probably going to hurt because it is more than you have done before. Amazingly, though, our muscles adapt and get stronger.  Human physiology proves that we are made for running. We sweat instead of pant and we have lots of sweat glands, more than we would need otherwise. Our joints and limbs can take more impact and shock than required for a species that just walks. The body is a pretty incredible thing and though nothing in my body felt incredible for a day or so after the run, it will be stronger next time. 

So go a little further than usual this weekend and take in the view as you do!

Fuel belts and a Boat Full of Girls

So I bought a fuel belt. I avoided this moment for as long as I could. Fuel belts look uncomfortable and just ridiculous. In order to avoid the ultimate running geek purchase I bought a hand held 8oz water bottle and ran with that, refilling it when I could. Then I bought another one and ran with two. I planned my long runs around public restrooms and water fountains. Finally, after being thirsty for a 15 on a pretty average weather day (not too hot, not too cold) I decided that it was time. Thankfully a trip up to Burlington and the Outdoor Gear Exchange was well timed and I found one on the 'I thought I was going to become a distance runner but then I realized it was really hard and gave up and bought a SUP' rack. I tried it out on a hot and humid Tuesday last week. The humidity has been brutal the past couple weeks. My mileability lessened with each passing one. Intending to go out for 10 I ended up with a very sweaty 7 and appreciated having plenty of water to get me through. It wasn't too uncomfortable, surprisingly, but I still looked pretty silly. 

I gave it the ol Sunday morning long run test this morning and it proved pretty essential in a 17 mile out and back. I ran my usual long route from Kelley's house to the beaches and back. Starting from Portsmouth in the morning is great. The first two miles of any run from here winds through a farm and down across a gully that has a secret path to the beach.The route runs along the Sakonnet and to the Middletown beaches. It is off the main road and so far away from the chaos of Newport in the summer. On the way home I run down Wapping Road and between Rocky's Orchard and Glen road I feel like I'm getting a wapping! It just keeps going.....and everything hurts and I'm dying.... but then I turn back onto the dirt road and through the farm once more and I'm back! A hard finish to 17 that probably should have been 20. Marathon in October?? 

As for Sailing:

I sailed on this new boat/work of art in Martha's Vineyard last week. Funky stuff designed by Frank Gehry. We raced in Edgartown Yacht Club Race week which was a pretty small event. The RC insisted on starting us early each day and we sailed short windward leewards in light, shifting breeze. The boat is heavy and feels heavy especially in light air. The last day was a Round the Island race with 12-15knots of wind. We managed to put up most of our sails and had a great sail around the course! 

The next weekend I made my way to Camden for the Annual Girls Team race on Sapheadra. This year we allowed one male to join the crew, Sharkbait, the boat cat. We competed in the Camden to Brooklin Feeder race and the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta on Saturday. The weather was fantastic both days with no fog and wind from 10-20 knots. It's a great race with a wonderful crew of amazing women. It is one of my favorite weekends of the year! 

                                      

Early run in Camden before the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta

Sailing Sapheadra in Brooklin

Track Tuesdays

After a pretty relaxed spring of running what and when I wanted it's finally time to get back into it. The Bristol Half was a good kick in the butt to get started. I'm trying to turn Tuesday into Track day because alliteration makes for good blog titles if nothing else. The Gaudet Middle school is a couple miles from the house and who doesn't like seeing their name on a huge sign as they pass through intervals? (Even though they use a soft T here in RI, Gaud-ehh). I started last Tuesday with a 400 ladder (4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 12, 8, 6, 4) and put in 5X1000 yesterday. Track Thursday also has a nice ring to it if you're too tired on Tuesday morning...

As for distance, I covered 15 miles on Saturday after the half and took last week off to discover the thrills of road biking. I'm loosely basing my distances on a potential full on October 11. It is crazy to think that I'm in the middle of a 16 week program for October! Where did summer go? The fight between the Newport Marathon and the RI Rhode Runner Marathon continues and they have scheduled both for the same day in the fall. Do we really have that many runners in this little state?

In more exciting news downtown Newport has a running store! It's not great and they only carry Brooks, New Balance, Asics and a hand full of Run NPT t-shirts but it's exciting none the less.

Have a great weekend! Get out there, drink water, hit the pavement and then hit the beach!

Maybe it IS about the bike...

I started road biking. Though I've been told that I would probably be a strong rider I have never taken cycling very seriously. I bike to work and back and have an old aluminum hybrid that has always suited me just fine. It is increasingly rusty because of the salt air in the yard and though I have very good intentions to fix it up the state of if has gone downhill. My roommate now used to be a bike mechanic for a bit and looks at the bike deploringly. After finishing every ride I took with a flat, he spent some time looking at the rims and bearings and decided that the thing was taking up too much room in his garage and had to go. I could trade up for his finance's old road bike as long as I took my old bike to pasture. (Don't worry, it will live out it's days as a yard bike at the boat yard...)

Kelley and I have been going to a circuit class 2 or 3 times a week and last week we decided to bike to class. It's just under 10 miles to town and usually takes me about 40 minutes. Wednesday morning we jumped on our bikes, Kel on her new fancy road bike and me on my old bike, and headed to town. And then Kel was gone. I couldn't keep up with her at all. Granted she has been riding a bit more than I  have but it's mostly flat and I should have been able to hang. We made it to the gym, 10 minutes late, and she reiterated that this bike was finished. We were planning on a weekend away on Lake Champlain that weekend that included, among other activities, a lot of biking. There was a 22 mile fundraiser ride on Sunday that we had decided to participate in as a group.

Friday night was a small town 5k that I entered in and finished 3rd across the line and first female. I ran a 21:05 which I was pretty happy with. I didn't have anyone to pace against and should have pushed harder at the end but it was a nice run. Saturday morning we hopped in the ski boat and did some early morning wake boarding and skiing in the lake before getting suited up for a training ride. Ben also had a new bike that he hadn't ridden and it was my first time on a real road bike. The country up there is stunning. The wide roads run along rolling fields and picturesque farms. It was a perfect day with a little south wind that we rode into on our way back home. I was pretty nervous about riding the road bike but adjusted pretty quickly and loved the feeling of flying down the road. My GPS watch beeps when you pass a mile marker and this thing was going off every few minutes! Imagine if it was measuring in kilometers! We finished our ride in 81 minutes and covered 22 miles. A pretty solid start! That afternoon we hopped back in the boat to chase the regatta that was going on on the lake. It was pretty nice not to be sailing all day, I have to admit! After the race finished we anchored off an island and swam and sunned. I imagine this is what most people with boats do but it feels pretty foreign to just hang out on the boat, for fun, without working. We watched the fireworks that night and headed to bed to get ready for the morning ride.

Sunday morning was another perfect day. There was a 70 miler and a 50 miler that headed off early along the same route that we were doing. We signed up for the 22 and headed out in a pack of slightly less competitive riders. Our bike gang was 4 up, Ben, Kelley, Brad and myself. After following a local through town we hit the bike path and took off. The route was rolling with a few up and downs on the road along the lake. We turned around 11 miles out and retraced the way we had come. A few miles form the finished I started to pull ahead thinking Kel would come with, since she never lets me go for long! When I finally turned my head around I realized I had lost the others and was about to get back into town and about to get lost. I didn't know my way back to the hospital that was the start/finish and the signed route ended at just the wrong time! I stopped and asked for directions and made my way back, not all that directly. The others had finished, though admitted getting a little lost as well, and we had a high five and a selfie to celebrate!

We had an epic weekend and I have a new sport. This is probably not good for my social life or my wallet! Anyone want to go for a ride?

Race Recap: Bristol Half Marathon

The Bristol Independence Half Marathon was run on Sunday morning in the tail end of a passing low that dumped buckets of rain and some pretty strong winds on the Northeast. Just over 450 runners showed up because we’re New Englanders, after all, and what’s a little rain? The wind had pretty much died down by the time the race started though the rain kept up for the entire time we were out there.

I had a total girl moment when I woke up and thought, “I don’t know what to wear!” I had planned on running in tights and a t-shirt but thought the rain might make my tights wicked heavy. The choice is to wear lots of clothes to keep warm and deal with the extra weight or wear very little clothing and hope it’s not too cold. I left the house in tights and a tshirt and changed my mind by the time I drove to Bristol.  It wasn’t very cold out, thankfully, and shorts and a long sleeve worked out well though both soaked up plenty of water. The sopping wet pile in my sink after the race felt like it weighed 8 pounds!

My race plan was primarily to run with a race plan since I haven’t done it before. I wanted to see if I could set a plan and stick with it. Not go out too fast, drink water every couple miles even if I didn’t want it and push harder every mile.

The course in Bristol is flat with lots of corners. I like corners, it breaks it up. We were running around the down town area and then out through Colt State Park and back to the start/finish. I intended to split the race into four segments of three miles each. The first three I wanted to run 8min/miles and try to whittle 10 seconds or so off in each of the next segments. I ran with my Garmin watch that I’m still not totally stoked about even after updating the firmware. It seems to read out a high end average pace and I only get an accurate idea of what I’m running at each of the mile marks. The first three miles I stuck to my guns and ran flat 8s. As I started to move forward into mile 4 I felt pretty good and kept thinking about the phrase ‘on the edge of comfortable.’ I felt good, could definitely maintain that pace and could start to push it as the race went on. Around mile 6 a young girl running her first half caught up to me and we fell into sync. We ran together for three miles or so and it was really good to have someone to pace off of. I would have probably slowed down if she hadn’t been right there stride for stride. We were maintaining 7:53 or so and the rain was coming down harder. I broke away from her just after mile 9 and told myself to push for the next 3. What’s a 5k? NBD. You’ve got this. It was a hard push at the end and I ran the last 3 over the edge of comfortable into uncomfortable but doable. As I approached the 12 mile marker the guy next to me commented about the last mile. I looked up toward the finish and it seemed like an awfully long way away! When I mentioned it he calmly reminded me that it was more than a mile, 1.1. We started kicking in down a flat straight bike path, neither of us letting the other get in front. Silently egging eachother on. That’s a great part of racing, the unspoken comararderie paired with fierce competition. He outstepped me just at the coral but it was a good strong finish. 

My chip time was 1:42:58, not quite the sub 1:40 I was aiming for. I know that I haven’t been focusing on training and have done very little speed work so it was as I said it would be going in, a base line for the next two this summer. I’m happy with the result, I liked how I ran and didn’t fall into my normal trap of slowing down in the middle miles. And since it started at 6:30 in the morning I was home and showered and ready to go sailing by 9!  What did you do this morning?!

The end of the VOR and the start of the Triple Crown

It's been a pretty cool couple of months of sailing and travel so far this spring. May brought around the launch of my boat, a run stopping injury and the return of many friends to the Newport area. The Volvo Round the World Ocean Race had a stop over in Newport which brought huge crowds of people into town to watch sailing! I love my sport but let's be honest, it's not exactly a spectator sport. Sail Newport and the VOR did an amazing job with the race village. With interactive simulators and a half hull of a Volvo 60 people could climb around and experience what life on a boat might be like. Having so many people excited about sailing was pretty neat.

The presence of the SCA sponsored team made up of women sailors has opened up some interesting conversations regarding bias in the sport. I've thought about this a lot and for the most part have kept my opinion off of the Internet but I'm pretty sure the only person that reads this is my Dad so I'm safe. After many conversations, articles read and drunk rantings and ramblings, I'm going to go with I don't think the issue is whether or not women as a whole are strong enough or good enough. I am concerned with wether or not I'm strong enough and good enough.  I can't do anything about the lack of opportunities for women to race except try harder to get myself on race programs. Reality is that there are few positions that need to be filled and those positions are being sought after by everyone. Even if you get the job there is no guarantee that the program will last. Yachting and racing are recreations to the billionaire owners of the boats. That doesn't lead to a whole lot of security in the job field. Trust me, I've cried about how unfair it is and yelled at my teammates for not supporting girls in sailing but it comes down to the fact that it's an industry of sailors looking out for number 1. So thank you to my teammates who listened to my bitching and gave me the advice I needed. Sailing, like running, is a sport that will only carry you as far as you push yourself. Just because you have a gig doesn't mean it's going to last and just because you've run something before doesn't guarantee success a second time.

Now we can talk about running. 
(See what I did there with the sailing is like running segway?)

Last week I ran my favorite loop in Palma that takes me gradually uphill to the Belver Castle along with some half mile repeats along the coast. Back in Newport on Monday I ran 10 around Ocean Drive on tired legs and I feel pretty good about my pacing. This weekend is the Bristol Half Marathon in Bristol RI. It's the first race of the RI Triple Crown event since I missed running Providence. Training has been pretty unfocused but it will be a good baseline for the other two races. I'm not looking at a PR this weekend, more using it as a long distance tempo training run.The hardest part of distance racing is the pacing and I struggle with keeping calm in the first few miles. My goal this weekend is to stay just over 8min/mile for the first 3 miles and crank it up slowly from there. I know that I can maintain a 7:40 pace for many miles but have yet to run negative splits for a distance race. I usually end up with an average pace of 8 and slower miles in the last third of the race. My friend Jillian always runs with a race plan and as yet I haven't really made one for any of my races. This is my first race this summer so as good a time as any to change some things up and see what happens. 
My math teacher in high school always said, "if you alway do what you always did you will always get what you always got." This doesn't make a whole lot of sense in math teaching because I certinly never "got" math but for running it's pretty a propos.  So get out there this weekend and make a change. Do something a little differently and see what happens. Also, if you know any biionaries looking for a way to spend money tell them to buy a race boat and hire me!

Leaving Sardinia

It's always a good Tuesday night with the Avalanche V crew

12M Class start at NYYC Annual Regatta

Palma Windmill

Everyone needs a cannon