Welcome

I’ve been thinking about starting up a running blog for the last few months after seeing that a number of my friends from New Hampshire have been using them to log their miles and recap runs and races. Now that I feel like I’ve found a way to strike a balance between work and running and I’ve been able to say somewhat on track after my best spring and summer of running since, probably 2007 or so this seemed like a good way to keep myself honest and stick to the goals that I’ve set.

I’ve become a little more realistic over the last year and a half and I think that’s helped me a lot. Because of my job it’s difficult for me to run consistently during the fall/early winter (September to January). But it’s not impossible. I’ve been trying to keep myself in a place where when work slows down I can pretty easily ramp up and get my training going. Part of the reason it took me so long to figure this strategy out is that my professional career has had a lot of uncertainty and bouncing around. 2011 was the first time I knew that the job I had in February would be the same job I’d have the next February (provided I didn’t screw it up too badly).

Going from Massachusetts to Philly back to Mass, and then down to the Atlanta area made it tough for me to find a rhythm, but once I finally got settled in around this time last year I was able to plan out a direction for my running and get back on track. Now, I’m not going to be shattering any records but I want to remain competitive on a local and regional level and be able to hang with my friends back home, who typically rip up the New England road, trail and mountain scene.

When I was in Philadelphia in 2009 and back home for most of 2010 I ran but didn’t really do any races. I ran two 5ks in Philly but those were more because people from work were doing them and I was asked to jump it. Most of my running during that time was just to say in some kind of shape, get outside and enjoy running again. I’m not sure how I enjoyed my nightly runs through the Navy yard, maybe it was the Rocky effect or something but I was at least putting one foot in front of the other. I probably owe the fact that I’m still running to that time though. I was getting out to Ridley Creek State Park (one of my all-time favorite places to run) on a weekly basis and interesting enough, I read Born to Run, which didn’t make me convert to barefoot running but reminded me to enjoy running more and not worry about how fast or far I was going. Now I always try to remember to take the time to enjoy my runs, whether it’s freezing cold, scorching hot, I’m tired or I feel like I am running slow.

Honestly if I took the time to think about enjoying running more when I was in college, I probably would have run better. Oh well, as we mature I guess. I am excited for the new year because of the fact that I not only ran a good amount last year but I raced and raced pretty well all things considered. Luckily my apartment has an assortment of trails directly behind it, they’re not long but you can get 8 to 10 miles if you don’t mind adding an out and back to a loop, so that made it easier on me. I’ve always liked training on trails. With that in mind I found out that this area of Georgia has a plethora of mountain bike trails maintained (really well by the way) by the local clubs.

All the trails and county parks gave me a ton of places to explore and that helped lead me to my “epiphany” of a racing season. While I was googling all of the places to run in the area I found Ft. Yargo State Park and its 12.5 mile mountain bike trail. On whim and after not really running all that much, I decided to give it a go. The day I ran it was the same day of the Xterra Georgia trail half marathon and marathon. I didn’t run either race, just the trail, but I did notice the signs for Dirty Spokes Productions who put on the races. Dirty Spokes also puts on a seven race trail series in Georgia so after seeing that I decided that I was going to enter the six remaining races and see what happened.

First off Dirty Spokes is great. Tim puts on phenomenal events and everyone that runs the races make it a really fun experience. I’m actually hoping to race in one of the duathalons they put on at some point. The second race of last year’s series was my first race since running a prostate awareness race in October of 2009, I went about a year and half without racing or doing a workout. I just ran to run. Looking back I’m really glad I decided to go for it with the trail races.

The first race I ran was at the former mountain bike and equestrian center from the 1996 Olympics. I had absolutely no idea what to expect but I figured if I went out relaxed and tried to hang around with the lead pack I’d probably have a shot at finishing in the top five or 10 and maybe getting in the age group winnings. That plan went out the window pretty quickly and I had to learn a lot about racing on single track on the fly but I managed to hang on for second place. I actually finished three minutes faster than I figured after looking at the previous year’s times and Amanda missed my finish because she didn’t think I’d be done yet.

From that point on I went on to finish the series with the most points in the 25-29 age group and I even won the final two races. It probably would have been three of the last four but I invited Josh Ferenc down and naturally he smoked me. This was a great experience for me because it gave me a reason to keep running. When you are just running to run it’s easy to take a string of days off, but knowing I was racing every few weeks helped me add more discipline to my running. The one major goal I have going into this year is to run workouts. Last year I ran almost entirely by feel. I ran a couple of harder efforts but for the most part I just ran. This year I want to work in some tempo runs and even a few track sessions to go with my trail races and road races.