Motivated to Succeed

6:30 PM - Hot, around 82 degrees with some torrential rain when I got out of work today on the way home. Did not bode well for a run outside so I decided I needed to make the most of it and jog inside. I grabbed a snack and then went downstairs. Watched an episode of "Seinfeld" and drank some Powerade. No real soreness in my legs. They're just fatigued and a bit "blah" feeling.

Total Time: 38:00 Total Distance: 4.25 miles Average Pace: 8:56

7:00 PM - Long day a work. Had to proctor a state test for the first time and it was actually kind of fun - - not at the time but in retrospect. I got placed in a room with 7 of my freshmen and they each had about 7 accomodations. The only casualty I had was an exploding highlighter from a student that was frustrated with the Biology test and then the same individual at the end of the test was huddled under his desk "bombing drill" style. But I made it through it :). Was stoked about that. Temperature was a high of 85 degrees today, and very very humid. Highlight of my commute was my Chevy Prizm ticked over to 170,000 miles. Still going strong and no major repairs! (**Knock on wood**)

I drove to Taconic High School Track tonight. Emm wanted to go running at her work. I got to the track and stretched and started jogging. My legs felt really heavy and I felt like I was barely moving. However looking at my splits, I was going faster than I thought. Mile splits were:

• Mile 1: 8:16
• Mile 2: 7:53
• Mile 3: 7:45
• Mile 4: 7:28

7:45 AM - The Northeast stinks as far as humidity is concerned! Tossed and turned all night because I kept waking up sweaty and uncomfortable. Wide awake at about 7 this morning. Temp was about 70 and rain. I had read thunderstorms were expected today so I bagged my run and started on the treadmill. Ended up doing 10.1 @ 2% incline in 1:35:50; changed and went to the track but it was just too humid! As soon as I got out of the car and walked to the track I was already sweating again. Only did 2 and change at the track between 7:40 and 8:20 pace. Then came back and switched into my Vibrams and jogged another 3.5 miles on the treadmill in the basement. Legs feel good. I am ready to ramp up training again. My only concern is trying to fit in long runs during the end of the school year and during the summer when it's going to be hot, hott, hotter! I sweat profusely and it's not a good combination. As it was today I changed my shirt 3x!

Total Time: 2:25:23 Total Distance: 16 miles Average Pace:  9:05

Hard to believe this time last week I was running a 20 mile race!

10:00 AM - Overcast and humid, temperature around 73 degrees. Emm went with me to the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail. First time here in probably close to 3 weeks. She was away this weekend at her cousin's high school graduation, so it was nice to get a jog in with her today. We headed out at an easy pace and went out about 2.6 before turning around and coming back. Splits were pretty consistent. My goal was to run the first 4 relaxed and then run a tempo mile at the end to see how I felt. Legs were surprisingly fresh considering I logged 16 miles yesterday. Splits were: (9:05, 8:55, 8:50, 8:33, and the TEMPO MILE was 6:40!) This 6:40 mile felt much easier than the 6:38 and 6:39 I ran a few weeks ago at the gym. My goal is to consider working on speed since I have good endurance now at least once during the week. I think it will help break things up as well. I will alternate between 800m repeats and then 1600m repeats the following week. We'll see how it goes.

Total Time: 43:27 Total Distance: 5.20 miles Average Pace:  8:21

3:00 PM - I went and had lunch with Emmy at Panera after going to pick up some necessities at Walmart. We just missed the rain yet again (a theme for the day). Came home and after a little cleaning I jogged 2.25 miles on the treadmill in my Vibrams. Everything feeling good. Now time to do some homework and think about school tomorrow.

Total Time: 20:46 Total Distance: 2.25 miles Average Pace: 9:14

6:30 PM - Sunny and temperature around 72 or so. Actually "cool" for once. I have been downright sick of all of the 80+ degree days. Emm met me after work. The kids had a half day but I had to stay the entire day to grade the junior portfolios. We went to the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail and went jogging from LuLu on the Lake. I owe Emm $1 because I was afraid of this Momma Goose and her geeslings and I bet her she wouldn't go near them. The Momma Goose was all "hisss hissss" at me so I figured would be the same for Emm. But not so. Momma Goose must have realized Emms good intentions. Stretched afterwards.

Total Time: 25:34 Total Distance: 3.02 miles Average Pace: 8:28

5:00 PM - The kids had another half day today. I stayed until 3:45 and then headed home. Emm had just got out of work at the gym too. We decided to go for a jog together. I should probably mention that Emm had a job interview yesterday at a spa as a receptionist. She found out she got the job and she starts tomorrow! We went running up on the trail across from Olivia's Lookout. Emm did one loop and then went walking/jogging on the road. I did two. Plan was to go faster on the second loop but there was a guy with a yellow lab that was running in front of me and I let him stay ahead. The dog was off a leash and ever since the dog bite last year I am afraid of any dogs not on leashes. Splits: 

• Mile 1: 11:48
• Mile 2: 9:39
• Mile 3: 9:33
• Mile 4: 12:03
• Mile 5: 11:20
• Mile 6: 9:30

6:30 PM - I had a long day. Thunderstorms rolled through this afternoon and at times were quite fierce. When I came home I waited for Emm to get out of work. One of her last days working at the gym. She did Power 90 upstairs while I went on the treadmill. Field Day is getting ever closer and looming on the horizon and I wanted to start working on trying to increase VO2 Max. I did a warmup mile and then 1 x 800 and 2 x 400 with a jogging lap in between all @ 10mph and 2% grade (5:52 mile equivalent). I was pretty beat afterwards. I'm not joking when I say that a 2-3 hour jog is much easier than a fast mile or 5k. Woot for weekends!

Total Time: 25:00 Total Distance: 3.10 miles Average Pace:  8:04

7:00 AM - Woke up early because Emmy had to get up too. She went to work at her new job at Elle Day Spa in the Crowne Plaza. I went to Olivia's Lookout and ran. Things were okay, but I ran into two significant problems that I need feedback on please! (WARNING: Parental Discretion is Advised!)

Problem 1: On lap 2 I ended up having severe stomach cramps and having to "pop a squat". Thank God for the Goosefoot Maple! I had coffee with milk about 45 mins before the run. Maybe it was the milk? I was fine after this.

 Problem 2: This has happened the last three long runs. It seems when I sweat a lot and my shorts get wet I get severe chaffing on my "nether regions", specifically the "tip". I had put Body Glide on before the run but it did not help! I heard Vaseline will just stain my shorts and I don't want that. What is a solution I can do? I never had this problem before this year! (But then again I used to wear spandex shorts under my running shorts.) Emm said I have to wear a pair of underwear or something under my shorts? They have a built in liner. PLEASE HELP!!

 Splits today were:

• Mile 1: 13:24
• Mile 2: 10:25
• Mile 3: 10:33
• Mile 4: 12:54
• Mile 5: 11:58
• Mile 6: 10:21
• Mile 7: 12:58
• Mile 8: 11:53
• Mile 9: 10:03
• Mile 10: 12:36
• Mile 11: 12:59
• Mile 12: 9:36
• Mile 13: 12:04

9:00 AM - I woke up wide awake before 6am today. I'm "trained" with school mode to get up early even on weekends. I came upstairs and had a blast reading from Ben Cheever's "Strides: Running Through History With an Unlikely Athlete". Believe it or not this is the first book I've been able to start reading since coming to BArT. It feels good to read again. I also caught two episodes of one of my favorite shows of all time, MacGyver. I didn't know they had it on SLTH network!! I'm excited to catch it again! I went running with Emm on the bike trail today before running lots of errands. We ran together the first half basically. She turned around at the bridge 2.6 miles in and I kept going until 3.0 miles. I turned and accelerated and did a progression run and really felt great considering a long run yesterday! Kicked it in the last mile and would have had a sub 7:00 if it weren't for the thick tree canopy I suspect interfering with the signal. Splits were:

• Mile 1: 9:09
• Mile 2: 9:07
• Mile 3: 8:50
• Mile 4: 7:46
• Mile 5: 7:25
• Mile 6: 7:02
  

Total Time: 49:25 Total Distance: 6.02 miles Average Pace: 8:13

Later today I worked with Emmy and Mary Rose in the garden. We're setting up a veggie garden in the FRONT yard! Setting a new trend for others to follow I think! :D Exciting to finally put our babies out front of the house!

6:15 PM - Partly Sunny. High today was 78, but projected highs this weekend should be in the mid to high 80s. Heard the weather report at 6 and it was 98% humidity. Today was my last day of after school tutoring! Only 7 more days of school this year. Getting there! Went running at Olivia's Lookout on the Burbank Trail because Emm was still at work. I did not eat breakfast or lunch today :-( but had two bagels and a turkey and lettuce sandwich about twenty minutes before the run. Just didn't have the energy I needed today. Lost over 6 lbs in sweat too. Was 202.5 at the start and 196 at the end. Yikes! Splits:

• Mile 1: 11:30
• Mile 2: 10:46
• Mile 3: 10:10
• Mile 4: 15:44
• Mile 5: 11:38
• Mile 6: 11:55
  

6:00 PM - Crunch Time! Lots going on in school right now. Final exams are due, my juniors have their gateway portfolio presentations in front of the school board (if they don't pass it then they can't become seniors!).. all equates to less than ideal conditions for training. Emm is working long hours and it is 98-100% humidity almost every day (exception being this morning when they said 97%). I was exhausted yesterday, but managed to do a short run. 2 miles at 9:13 pace (18:26) and then did 4x400m repeats with 200m "off" and cooled down. 2 miles in 15:15. (400m repeats were done at 6:00 pace and 2% grade). Trying to get in shape for the BArT Mile Race at Field Day!! Ahhh! Don't know if it will happen.

 Also, today is my brother Jonny's 18th birthday! Going to drive to NY tonight to go say hi and see the family! :)

http://runwmac.com/images/greylocktrail-map.jpg

 Above link will take you to the topographical map which I suggest before you judge too much for having a 3+ hour 1/2 marathon. Also you will see there is a 2200' elevation gain in just the first 3 hours. I am writing this race report in parts and chunks as I have been so busy with work that I have not had time to do so otherwise.

• Mile 1: 17:17
• Mile 2: 17:43
• Mile 3: 23:21
• Mile 4: 13:54
• Mile 5: 15:00
• Mile 6: 12:39
• Mile 7: 12:41
• Mile 8: 12:24
• Mile 9: 13:46
• Mile 10: 11:07
• Mile 11: 10:19
• Mile 12: 11:03
• Mile 13: 11:33
  

Total Time: 3:01:09 Total Distance: 13.5 miles Average Pace: 13:25

I got to the Glen where the Start/Finish area was about 1-1.5 hours early, so I had time to chill in the car and listen to NPR before starting my warm up. I registered and spent an extra $5 to get a tshirt. This was nice because generally the races here don't give you shirts and/or don't choose to sell them. Did about a mile warm up in 9-10 minute pace and used mother nature's facilities. Believe it or not they only had ONE RESTROOM at the start/finish area and there was a line 30 deep. No thank you!

As I was waiting for the start of the race, I saw a running friend Laura Clark who does most of the trail races in these parts. She's from upstate NY too and made the trip down. I also heard a guy talking about how he'd done Mt. Washington the day before (hardest road race in New England). He said an elite woman had locked her shoes and singlet in the car and she had to borrow some from another runner. She went on to win the race and set a new course record by more than two minutes.

On to the race report:

THE ASCENT (Miles 1-3, 2200' elevation gain)

Miles 1-3 were rough. The field started in a field and bottlenecked into a single track after only 200 yards. I find with trail races, I know that I am not going to finish up front so I like starting near the back and working my way up to mid-pack. I let the rabbits go, and bided my time. As it opened into a double track after about .25 miles I started to kick it into gear. First 3 miles were all race walk style. I passed a good 20 people the first mile, blazing with my 17:17 uphill first mile. Continue to push the pace but the last 1.5 miles up was a doozie. Deerflies were biting my back and sweat was cascading down my face. I looked like I had taken a shower with my clothes on, no joke. It was 82 and humid, humid, humid! Got to the top in 55:00 and change. Only one problem... NO WATER STATION! Thankfully as I had ran the mountain road so many times this spring I knew where a water spicket was. I went off course to briefly fill it and then DOWN, DoWN, DOWN I went!

THE DESCENT (Miles 4-13)

Going downhill is always much harder for me. As I went down I made my way down slipper rocks and single track. Tons of roots, and I almost lost my shoe no less than 3 times in ankle deep mud! It was such a great time. This one lady in front of me that let me by said, "Man! This is nothing like running on the West Coast! You can't take a break here!" You got that right Cali-forn-i-an!

I started to pick off a few stragglers. Made my way into the first aid station at mile 6, filled my bottle and off quickly, trailing a group of 4. I made it a plan to stick with them. An odd assortment we were, a geriatric, a 20-something kamikaze gal that literally jumped off the rocks going down, a guy with a camelbak, me, and another gentleman. I ended up wedging myself behind the kamikaze lady until about mile 8 where she literally must of evaporated into air. She simply disappeared!

Next aid station was mile 8. I got in there and most of the powerade was gone. One bad thing about this race, was only powerade and water on the course. Very hard to run strong without food! Must invest in a fanny pack methinks! ((HAHAHAHA Imagine the Howling Commando with a fanny pack. I almost said that with a straight face!))

I got passed in mile 9 by a young kid (about 14 or 15). I had given him a look at the mile 8 station, and I could hear him trailing me for the mile 9 going downhill along the ridge. I let him go and he caught the girl that flew down the mountain.

I started to pull them back, but I think he sensed it and he took off. I caught the girl at mile 10 and kept on running past her. She was fading fast; she was not carrying a bottle of any kind! I can't imagine running this race without a bottle or camelbak!

Miles 10-13 pretty much ran by myself. Last aid station was unmanned at mile 12. There were jugs of water on the ground. Filled my bottle and took off. I thought I had a chance in the last mile of breaking 3 hours. This is an unbelievably hard course!

THE FINISH (13.5) I came running strong down the hill and cruised through the finish. A lot of people still hanging out and bbq-ing. I grabbed a few cookies and went and changed clothes before heading out to go home. I am still waiting for results to be posted on the website.

So all in all, a fun race: 1. Would I run it again? YOU BET! 2. Was it a hard course? YOU HAVE NO IDEA!! 3. Do I love trail runs?  WWWoooOooOoo WoooOOoOOoooO  I DO I DO!!!

Recovery Run after the 1/2 yesterday. Was near 84 degrees when we went. Needed somewhere cool to go so we opted for Olivia's Lookout and the Burbank Trail. Found a plaque at the top that told us about the Pittsfield Lawyer the trail is named after. Emm was absovlutely flying on the way down. We were consistently hitting 7:00-7:30 pace!!

• Mile 1: 12:11
• Mile 2: 9:36
• Mile 3: 8:57
  

10:00 AM - The Day Has Finally Come. Mr. Griffin gets to show his RUNNiN' LEGS to the BArT kiddos. We got on the bus this morning after homeroom and rode up to Shady Pines. The kids were so happy to have a day outside of BArT, and with my final grades submitted, so was I.

If there is one thing that I have come to realize, it is that middle and high school students (especially at a school with no sports teams) have little to no concept of distance running. From the comments like, "Oh Mr. Griffin you ONLY ran 20 miles? I run that at gymnastics practice!" to "I run a 4:30 mile in gym!" to "Yeah I ran a 15:00 5k last weekend" - - and yet I kind of feed into their false sense of accomplishments, as I don't want to be 'that guy' that says, no I know for a fact you did not run 20 miles, or a 4:30 mile, and that running a 15:00 5k in high school is darn near impossible. So what they also do not realize is that despite all the miles I have logged, I do little to no speed work, which correlates to slower leg speed and hence slower short events. I told them realistically that anything around a 6:40 mile for me right now would be good.

Before the race my main two competitors dropped out opting to play volleyball and touch football instead (I think they feared the Griffinator!) The race was organized around the access road, and I was planning on doing Vibram Five Fingers, but changed at the last minute when I realized we were not on grass. The race was set to begin at 10:00 . There were two divisions, teachers and students. With about 2 mins ago, I revealed my "short shorts" and immediately the comments started: "Woooo eee Mr. Griffin! You're out of dress code!!" "Put them back on! My eyes!" "You can't be serious!" I told them to just wait and see.

The race consisted of three loops staying to the right of the orange cones they placed. I really actually liked the course! Kids have already started posting pictures and most comments are nice, though some people have said that I look "fat" in them. Blah! I need to lose some lbs!

THE RACE:

The first lap I started mid-pack. I let the "rabbits" go, because I knew that many kids have not learned the lesson of pacing yet. In addition, my legs were shot from Sunday's Race. I didn't know what to do so I didn't want to go out too fast and utterly die. There were about seven students ahead of me and three teachers. I locked into a 6:30 pace and hung with one of my 9th graders, Joe. We ran most of the lap together. I started to pick people off towards the end of the first lap.

Moving into the second lap I left Joe and started pulling back another student Dalton. Aidan was still ahead of me (both 9th graders) and I caught Aidan going into the last 150m of lap 2.

Lap 3 I started to push it. By now people had started turning out and cheering me on and I will admit that it was a somewhat surreal experience. I very rarely win any type of race, let alone a race against high schoolers, but this was nice! I pulled away and was by myself. I ended up holding the lead all the way to the tape and felt surprisingly fresh, despite my dead legs in the beginning.

The rest of the day I spent playing volleyball and basketball with the kids. My juniors ended up beating Mr. Wheat's advisory which was not expected at the beginning. We ended up losing the next round but we still had a blast.

Got on the bus and headed home. I got sunburn on my face and arms! Ow! It was overcast in the morning so I forgot to put it on. Classic rookie mistake!

6:00 PM - Later tonight I did a 4 mile recovery run on the treadmill. I did it in 37:00, about 9:15/mile. Felt really good considering the race today and on Sunday.

6:00 PM - Sunny with thunderstorms in the afternoon, humid and temps around 82 or 84. Bittersweet day today. It was my last day at BArT for this school year. Many of the kids were crying and hugging as they realized a chapter in their young lives had come to a close. In addition, several very beloved teachers have decided they need to move on and will not be returning. The awards ceremony and talent show at school were very sweet and I saw more than one student choking back emotions as teachers were recognized and students alike. I am looking forward to next year, and even though I did not really want to pack up all my things and load up my car I know I am embarking on my own chapter in my life as a first year teacher to my 6th and 7th graders. I can't wait!

Went running this evening with Emmy after she got out of work over at Olivia's Lookout. We did one loop and then I explored for about .3 miles on the Walsh Trail on the other side of the parking lot. One of these days I am going to do a loop there!

Total Time: 39:27 Total Distance: 3.5 miles Average Pace: 11:17/ mile

9:00 AM - I was wide awake at 5:30am and so was Ruby (our cat). She was meowing like crazy as she was missing her breakfast. I got up and made coffee as Emmy took a shower and got changed for work. I made her eggs, a bagel, tea and orange juice and made sure she ate before heading off to work! We have our first official date this month hopefully tonight when we are going to go see Toy Story 3 at the movie theater! Then tomorrow I need to drive to NY to go to Jonn's graduation from high school! Kind of crazy because I remember visiting him in the hospital when he was born!

Errands today.. but boy were they adventurous. Cashed a few checks but the lady realized as she was counting it out that she wasn't giving me enough. Oops! She quickly corrected it. Spent 1.5 hours at the insurance agent today trying to get MA insurance but laws are different here and I have to have the title of the vehicle in my name AND a MA driver's license before. So I went and got my MA license, only when I was walking out with the temporary I realized they'd misspelled my name. Usually people think they are doing me a favor and remove an "n" from my name, but in this case the lady ADDED a letter, lol. She spelled my name: BENNAJAMIN L GRIFFIN. I came back in, took a number (another weird thing) and got the same lady again and she goes, "Woah! Good catch!" No harm no foul. She was about the nicest lady I'd ever dealt with at the DMV.

Went running on Olivia's and then did about a .75 mile cool down on the Walsh trail going to the left and downhill. It is runnable but not nearly as fast as Olivia's. Will try to do a full loop and see how far it is later this week. Would be nice to have 2 trails to choose between and would add more adventure to the long runs if I run them here.

Total Time: 44:36 Total Distance: 4.08 miles Average Pace: 10:56/ mile

6:00 AM - Went running before going to Jonn's high school graduation in NY this morning. Ceremony started at 10am and it is about 1:45 drive from the house to there. The run went well. I was sweating a bunch. Felt really great though. Splits were:

• Mile 1: 8:27
• Mile 2: 7:47
• Mile 3: 7:15
• Mile 4: 7:57
  

3:00 PM - Temp was around 82-84 and near 100% humidity! We couldn't go running today really because of errands and it was simply dangerous out there. We opted to take Harry (my youngest brother) who is up here for a few days up Monument Mountain for a hike. We stopped at the top a bit and then Emm and I showed him where I proposed. :) We had fun and coming down we all ran and raced and just had a really fun time! Emm and Harry could both make killer mountain runners! Order of finish was Emmy, Harry a close second, and then old man Sir Farts McGee bringing up the rear. Oh to be a young whipper snapper again haha! On the way home we stopped off at Clapp Park because I've been meaning to figure out just how long their cinder track that goes around the field is. I would like to do some speed work or self-aided long runs on it. It ended up being exactly .36 miles long. Any of you ultra runners, is .36 just plain crazy to try to do long runs on? It's only a mile from the house which is nice. I could run to and from it.

10:00 AM - Long day of errands planned. Today feels like the first day that it hasn't been 90-100% humidity in like three weeks! I went with Harry to Clapp Park and we played some frisbee and then ran together. I gave him mega props since he was wearing skateboard shoes, basketball shorts and two tshirts. He did a full 3 miles with me!! So proud of him!

Total Time: 26:50 Total Distance: 3.0 miles Average Pace: 8:56

7:00 PM - Later this evening it cooled down to around 68 degrees!!! Went jogging with Emm and Harry at the bike trail. We couldn't find the bike rack to save our lives yesterday and I just sold my bike rack to Su who is moving to Florida tomorrow with Rocco. Thankfully I found our second one amidst a stack of plastic bins. Harry rode my bike as Emm and I ran. I had fun, minus all of the heartburn. Couldn't figure what it was from except the Parmesean and Herb chips that Harry and I had eaten. Blargh! I pushed through it though and ran a tempo mile the last mile. Started to pick it up and was really flying, running the last .2 @ 5:49 pace! Felt awesome.

Total Time: 45:18 Total Distance: 5.20 miles Average Pace: 8:43

12:00 PM - Went running with Harry down at the bike trail today while Emmy was at work. He rode my road bike as I ran. I told him to go off exploring and I just kind of cruised. Thought about a lot of things including a fall marathon. Decided to register for the 2010 10/10/10 Mohawk Hudson River Marathon. I love the course and it is where I ran my first marathon. I truly feel it will be the place where I BQ if I ever do. I need to get serious about training and try to push for it. I figure if I train right I will at least shatter my marathon PR of like 4:27:56. At least... I hope! I am about 40 lbs heavier than I was when I ran that marathon, but arguably about 40lbs heavier of muscle! I say.. bring it!

• Mile 1: 8:41
• Mile 2: 8:19
• Mile 3: 8:24
• Mile 4: 8:24
• Mile 5: 8:20
• Mile 6: 7:33