Good strides

Driving Across the Country

We are taking about 10 days to drive across the country. Our first stop was Columbus, Ohio where we stayed with my friend who is a coach at Ohio State. I found out I really like the city of Columbus. There are some great neighborhoods.

Our second stop was Sweet Springs, Missouri. We ran in weather that was 100 degrees. It was a very small town with a population of 1000.

Our third stop was and is Colorado Springs, Colorado. Our drive here was eventful. As we entered CO from Highway 70 a storm was brewing! The sky turned black and lightening bolts were flying down from the sky. Winds were swirling around my car. I am driving a subaru impreza. The rain began to thunder down and the next thing I knew the top of the rack on my car flew off and tore in two and all of our camping supplies flew out of the container. It sounded as if a clawed animal tour the rack off the car. Mark was my hero and ran out onto the highway and managed to salvage almost all of our items that were in the container. It was very scary. We did arrive in Colorado Springs in time for dinner.

We are spending five days here and so far have really enjoyed ourselves running on lots of new trails including the Falcon Trail which is on the Air Force Academy campus, going to Garden of the Gods, going to the Olympic Training Center, hiking the Waldo Canyon Trail, and traveling through Rampart Range. Tomorrow we are going to Pikes Peak and Monday we will go to Boulder for a running adventure.

We are scheduled to arrive in California the first of August. Hopefully our drive to CA will be uneventful!

The scene after the violent storm that blew the rack off my car on Highway 24 in CO.

Colorado Olympic Training Center Tour

Running on the Waldo Canyon Trail.

View of Pikes Peak from Rampart Range.

July Update

I have limited access to a computer this month as we are living at our camp on Lake Elmore. We have been having lots of fun visiting with friends and enjoying the lake. We have been swimming, hiking, and running almost every day. Last week we saw my brother Michael and his wife Tami with their new daughter Zoe. We met them in Hanover, NH for lunch. Zoe is adorable! This past weekend my sister Kate and her husband came to visit with her twin daughters - Ashley and Kailey. Tonight my Mom and her friend are visiting. It looks like my Long Trail adventure is not going to happen this year. The visitors keep arriving and I can't say no. I really hope to do the entire Long Trail one of these summers. Perhaps while in CA I'll persuade someone to return to VT with me to have this adventure with me next year. In the meantime, I am biking, hiking, and running a lot and enjoying my final two weeks in VT before our big move.

Here I am with Kailey and Ashley (Kate and Kevin's beautiful twin girls)!

Here I am with Sebastian having fun with the twins clothing!

Weekend Update

My brother was visiting me over the weekend. It was a special treat because I have not seen him in at least two years. I was able to show him many of my favorite places in VT, including Burlington Vermont, Green River Reservoir, Shelburne Farms, Stowe, and Smugglers Notch to name a few. I also took my brother to American Flatbread - my favorite restaurant in VT. We went to the restaurant in Waitsfield. The pizza is organic and local and the wait is worth it.

I had some great runs the last few days. I ran 2 hours on Thursday with a group of people on some trails in town. On Friday I ran for a little over an hour with two different people. Since my brother was in town on the weekend I did not run as much as I planned but I still had two great 1 hour runs. I ran around the school on Saturday morning and ran for an hour on trails on Sunday.

We spent most of today packing up our house and we're able to do a morning run and hopefully will do an afternoon run should and when this rain subsides.

Packing, Organizing, and Base Training

After a few very good days of running and being outside I am comfortable with the fact that I did not finish the 54 mile race. I had not truly trained properly and I wanted to have fun which I did.

The past three days I have had some great runs on trails, some great bike rides, and been able to do a track workout. This afternoon I have a two hour run planned with a combination of several people jumping in for various segments of the run. I am not sure I'd be motivated to do that had I finished the entire race.

Over the next ten days Mark and I will be moving out of our house and deciding what to sell, what to store, and what very small amount we should take with us to CA. We have decided to take only one vehicle out and one trailer. When July arrives we will be living at Mark's family camp on Lake Elmore. A picture of the lake and camp are below.

I have decided to work on my base training from now until August and focus on getting about 2 hours of running in a day or a combination of an hour of running and an hour or two of cycling. This is the luxary of being on summer vacation as a teacher. I feel like this will make me ready for some serious training once I arrive in CA.

I have bumped my Long Trail trip up to July 5th so I could have more time to sort out what we should and should not take with us to CA.

I have also been able to make a blog for my biology curriculum in the last few days. This will help me transfer work over from my current school to my new school. I am happy that I was able to figure out and looking forward to using it next year. The website is http://marysbiologypage.blogspot.com

We have graduation tonight and Project Graduation this evening. I will be up all night long playing black light volley ball with the students, tennis, and other games. Hopefully after my run I will be able to take a quick nap to prepare for tonight.

Weekend Update

The Pittsfield Peaks race was this past Sunday. I ran 37 miles and then called it quits. My legs were quite stiff from insufficient training and I was ready to call it a day. I enjoyed the scenary and felt much better than last year. I thought I would be ok dropping out but now I wish I finished. This will be a good lesson to remember.

On Sunday I hiked with a friend on the Long Trail for 15 miles. It was a remarkable day. We spent 7 hours on the trail. One high light was carrying the dogs up a ladder that was along the trail. There was no other way for the dogs to go so I put the dog under my arm and climbed up the ladder. It was quite the adventure.

Pittsfield Peaks Race This Saturday!

This weekend I will do the Pittsfield Peaks Ultra (53 miles) for the 2nd year in a row. I hope to do better than last year when I walked for a long time when I was lost literally and figuratively. Nikki Kimball will be at the race who is the best ultra runner in the country and possibly the world. I hope to have fun and be able to finish the race and feel good. I am ready for this adventure. School has been extremely busy!

http://www.peakraces.com/

My friend Jen - the artist, teacher, athlete, and more

My best friend here in Vermont has been hard at work on an amazing art project. She has been designing a trout for Monroe County PA.

http://www.trouttrails.org/

I have no artistic talent what so ever so I really appreciate and am in awe of those who have this talent.

For the past few months I have been helping her cut glass and mostly admiring her work. I named her fish - George. He has left VT and is now in a gallery in PA. I am really proud of her work. Here it is below:

Weekend Update

Vermont City Marathon

On Sunday I ran the Vermont City Marathon in Burlington. I did not really have a plan and only had some vague goals. I mostly wanted to run for fun and see what I could do on the minimal training I have recently been doing. I have been busy preparing for our move out west, coaching, and just life in general.

The Vermont City marathon is fun because there are relays happening at the same time with the potential for a team to have five relay members. During the race you constantly see relay team members and you get a lot of support. I was on a relay team with my cousins and ran the first two legs.

I was hoping to run 7 min. pace as long as it felt comfortable. I averaged about a 7.05 pace for the first half of the marathon and then my legs just felt dead. I ran easy the rest of the way and really tried to focus on being positive and finishing the race. I was so lucky because I had my own relay team members running with me and friends who were doing relays jump in and run with me. This made the marathon go by really fast. I ran 3.17.30 and was really happy to finish because I did not feel my best. My relay team finished 4th overall in a time of 3.15 which was great for us. Mark's relay team was 2nd with a time of 2.38.

Johnson to Sterling Pond Trail

On Monday Mark and I biked into the village and met some friends for an easy run. I only ran 20 minutes. My legs were really tired. We then biked to the camp for a great breakfast with our cousins.

In the afternoon I did my first practice long trail hike. I hiked about 13 miles mostly uphill from Johnson to the top of Mt. Mansfield in the afternoon. I was hoping it would take 4 hours. It took 4 hours and 20 minutes. The scenary at the top was terrific. I really love the single track trails but those are very technical. There were moments when it was raining and I was afraid it might thunder and lightening. I was able to avoid the thunder and lightening but I did not avoid the rain. When I finished I was a mess - covered in mud and pretty wet but I had fun.

I did realize I have a lot of courage to muster up before I do my long trail solo trip. I was nervous when it was getting stormy and at times I was surprised not to see anyone else on the trail. I also realize it will be very hard to get 30 to 35 miles a day.

Next weekend I have a trail marathon planned in CT. I may instead do an overnight hike/trip on the long trail to prepare for my solo hike.

This was the scenary of the last section of my hike this weekend.

Please Watch this Video and Vote

A few years ago when I coached and worked in San Francisco, I had the opportunity to help coach and get to know Shannon Rowbury. Shannon has recently graduated from Duke University and is training for the summer Olympics.

A few weeks ago Shannon won the 1500 at the Cardinal Invitational running 4.07.59 just missing the Olympic A Standard of 4.07.0. An article about her recent training and Olympic goals can be found here:

http://dailynews.runnersworld.com/2008/05/a-brief-chat--2.html

Shannon is an amazing athlete and outstanding person. Her Mom sent me this email about a documentary that Shannon made that is on Flo-track about the Duke cross-country team. If enough people vote Shannon's family can win a free trip to the Olympics.

The video itself is worth watching and voting is as easy as pressing a button. Thanks for paying attention to the this.

Best wishes to Shannon!!!

i Everyone,

Flotrack (a running related website) is having a contest...the winner
will receive a free trip to Beijing for two for the Olympics.

The contest involves uploading a running related video onto their
website. The winner is chosen based on the number of votes the video
gets.

Here is the favor we are asking...

It would be awesome if you could click on the link below which should
lead you to our video submission entitled "Blue Soles"...A short
documentary of the Duke Women's 2005 Cross Country Team):

http://www.flocasts.org/flotrack/080808.php?vid=43905

You are welcome to watch the video (which Shannon co-produced as part of
her undergrad studies at Duke)...but more importantly, we would
appreciate it if you would do the following for us:

1. Click on the "Rate this Video" button that will appear to the right
of the "tv screen" on your computer
2. There will be 5 stars immediately below the words "Rate this Video"
3. Position your cursor over the star that you want to use to rate the
video (1 star is poor / 5 stars is excellent)
4. Click on the star that you chose
5. You can only rate the video once
6. Forward to your family and friends....the more people that rate the
video...the better our chances of winning
7. Make sure you vote before June 9

We are currently in the phase two voting period which goes from May 15 -
June 9
The top 10 videos will then begin phase three voting which will run from
June 14 - 25

Spring is Here!

I am so happy that I can see the grass again and start to spend more time outside without all of the layers.

Mark and I both have secured jobs for the Bay area next year. I will be teaching at a private school in Kentfield in Marin County and Mark will be teaching at a private school in San Francisco. It is a huge relief to have jobs and to have the interview process over with. All of the flights and hard work paid off.

We are trying to make the most of our final months in VT but our every day obligations keep us pretty busy. Our school work with lesson planning, grading, and assessing is on going in addition to coaching. Our teams are doing really well. However; our schedules are quite opposite since Mark coaches the high school and I coach the middle school. We have meets on opposite days so we are rarely home at the same time.

I paced my cousin in the Boston Marathon (3.31) and had a good time experiencing Boston this way. I did not feel a lot of pressure and really enjoyed the atmosphere.

Now that the weather is better I am running more - doing some double runs and getting out on some of the dry trails. Once the trails are officially open it will be hard to keep me from running when I do have free time.

My quad is a constant bother and the pain never seems to go away completely. I am signed up for the Vermont City Marathon and the Nipmunk Trail marathon.

I did my first track workout since November last week and felt good running 6.00 to 6.20 pace but the workout was not very long. We host a Tuesday night workout which is pretty fun at the high school track especially if we get a little bit of a crowd.

I would like to run under 3.10 at VCM but a lot depends on my quad - if I have a pain free day or a pain less day. The Nipmunk Trail marathon will simply be for fun - a good way to explore my old stomping grounds in Storrs, CT. The two marathons are a week apart so I will just have fun with the trail marathon.

I have been busy planning my Long Trail solo expedition for the end of June. I plan to take about 7 days to cover the trail distance of about 250 miles. My biggest concern is the number of bugs I will encounter. This I believe could be the one obstacle that stands in my way of finishing the entire trail. I am immensely excited about the adventure and solitary time it will provide for myself.

Additionally, I am beginning the process of packing and making piles of things to keep and things to get rid of. I am very excited to return to Northern CA to be living so closely to my twin sister and her husband and their baby and to return to the amazing community of running friends I have in the area. I can not wait to share these things with Mark.

Yet - in the meantime I am taking every opportunity to explore ALL of my favorite pockets of VT and to make as many new adventures and memories here is VT as I can. We will be spending our summers in VT at a family camp so I do not have to try to do it all in the next few months.

California Update

My recent trip to California involved a whirl wind of events. I was very busy working with students along the Mendocino coast doing volunteer work for the park service as well as interviewing for teaching jobs for next fall in the Bay area.

The five days we spent along the Northern Coast were amazing. We stayed at a big house with twelve students. We spent our mornings hiking and running in a different park each day. I found myself running farther and faster than I meant the week before my scheduled marathon but was so inspired I did not mind. It was great to run on soft trails being surrounded by the red woods every day and having lots of great company to run with. Mark was able to run for the first time since October so we were really happy. In the afternoon we pulled invasive ivy and jubata grass from the forest roads. We worked with Matt an amazing environmentalist whose enthusiasm and love for the area was contagious. The time really flew by.

Mark and I spent the days before and after our trip to Mendocino interviewing with Cal/West a placement organization for private schools in California and interviewing with some individual schools who we had already been in contact with. I met with the schools I used to work and had some great conversations with these schools. The day before I was scheduled to run the Napa marathon I got an unexpected job offer from the school that was one of my top choices. I said yes to the offer at Marin Catholic in Kentfield and felt so relieved to have this decision made before I even left home to Vermont. I have many friends who send their children to this school, I know the principal, and it is in an amazing location - just about a mile away from Mt. Tamalpais where I love to train.

Once Sunday arrived I was pretty spent emotionally and physically but decided to try the marathon and see what I could do. I felt great the first ten miles and was averaging about a 6.40 pace. Once I hit ten miles my pace decreased and I found myself running 7 minutes and then 7.15 miles. I came through the half marathon in 1.28 which I thought was good except that I was really exhausted and my head was not in the race at all. I was so distracted. I could not focus at all. I ran until mile 16 where Mark was waiting to cheer for me and dropped out. I know I could have finished but by the time I got to mile 16 I was running 7.45 miles and really feeling wiped out. I just had too much going on the week before and leading up to the marathon to really be able to give it my all. I think I am strong enough to come close to my 3 hour goal but I know I need to be able to focus singularily on the race itself and have very little distraction leading up to the race, especially the week before.

Mark had some great interviews in CA while we were there and will follow up with another trip to CA this coming weekend. Our fingers are crossed that he will find something on this next trip. We have been busy getting his name out there to schools and working with the placement agency to make things happen.

Our plan is to move mid-July and spend about two weeks in CO before we arrive in CA the first of August. I am looking forward to the time we will spend in CO and my return to CA.

I really want to enjoy my running for the remainder of the spring without a lot of pressure. I am planning to pace a friend to a sub 3.30 marathon at the Boston Marathon. I will also do a leg or two of the relay in the Vermont City Marathon. The first weekend of June I want to do the Nipmunk Trail marathon in CT which has been on my list of races to do for a long time. This is a trail I used to run when I was in college at Uconn about ten years ago all the time.

Once we are settled in CA I'd like to really nail down a solid three month marathon training plan for a December marathon, Cal International. I am also going to put my name into the lottery for Western States 100 and see what happens.

This past week has been an easy week just trying to get caught up with everything again. I want to maintain my fitness in the next three or four months. As the weather gets warmer I'd like to increase my mileage but for now, I'm happy with about an hour a day and I plan to continue doing yoga and my work at the gym.

Trail Running

We had a great flight to the Bay area. For once in a long time we had no delays or no changes to our flight. We even arrived to our final destination a half hour early. It was very nice.

Friday - We were up early Friday for an interview Mark had in San Francisco. I was happy to enjoy some Peets coffee and catch up on San Francisco news reading the paper. After the meeting we returned to Marin and I did an eight mile run with Liz on the ridge near her house. I felt very tired from our travels and from the first mile of uphill running. However, the longer we ran the better I felt. It was the first time in a long time I was one step ahead of Liz during a run. She is feeling under the weather. I hope she feels better soon. In the afternoon I returned to the city for two more interviews while Mark rested at Liz's house. We went to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner and got to bed early.

Saturday - We got up early and met Frank for a run at Phoenix Lake. Mark ran the first two miles with us and then went back to the parking area. Frank and I continued on an 11 mile loop around the upper lakes and around the perimeter of the golf course. My quad was really sore for the first half hour but then I felt good the rest of the run. My leg aches now so I am hoping with some rest this week it will feel better. This afternoon and evening we will babysit for Sage my niece while Liz and her husband do a scavenger hunt contest in San Francisco. Tomorrow we drive up to Mendocino to begin our mini-course with the students for some hiking, running, and trail work. I can't wait to explore the trails and area.

Off to Northern California

Thursday - After school today I leave for the Bay Area to spend time with my sister, visit with friends, explore some old favorite trails, and work with some of my sister's students for a few days in Mendocino doing some trail work and running. I can't wait is an understatement. It has been cold and icy the last few day in VT and the winter break always comes at a good time. I'll have no time to run or do much today but that's ok because I'll be up for almost 24 hours by the time I get to CA. I'm sure I'll catch a few zzz's on the plane if I don't get too obsessed with Project Runway. We don't have tv and the last time I flew Jet Blue they had Project Runway episodes playing and I really enjoyed it and loved the creativity and pressure of it.

Wednesday - I went to Hot Yoga which is about an hour and a half. It is definitely helping my hamstrings to loosen up. After yoga I ran five miles on the treadmill and did the last 2.5 miles at marathon pace (6.52). I felt good.

Tuesday - Basically a day off but I did a few laps around the school's nordic ski trails. The conditions were icy so I did not do as much skiing as I wanted to. I also ran around the course twice setting up a scavenger hunt but it was a stop and go run.

Tomorrow - Looking forward to running on Crown Road tomorrow and visiting some of my favorite trails off of this loop in Marin County with my sister. I also have a busy afternoons with some interviews in San Francisco. In the evening I think we are going to dinner with my sister and her family. I am looking forward to spending time with my neice who is a year and a half and humming a lot these days.

Icy Roads

Monday - It was very mild on Monday - about 40 degrees. I ran an easy six miles with a student around Stowe. She wants to do a half marathon so our agreement was that she runs with me at least once a week and we'll build up her mileage gradually. She has very good endurance and did the six miles effortlessly. She is a soccer player unfortunately so we don't get to coach her for cross-country. I am really glad she enjoys running despite her choice to play soccer. It's a hard sport to compete with. After the run I went to hot yoga and then did a few sit ups and push ups afterwards.

By the time I was driving home the roads were very icy. I drove very carefully. Our driveway is very long, it adds an extra .1 to all of my runs and it is uphill. As I was driving up the hill the car slid right off the driveway and I ended up in a ditch on the side of the driveway. Mark and I worked on getting the car out for over an hour with no luck. I was very frustrated that I lost concentration once I hit the driveway and let the car slid off as it did. I am happy it did not happen on the main roads.

Tonight we are hosting a Social Ski to celebrate our nordic ski team and encourage more individuals to get involved with the sport. We will have a scavenger hunt, music, ski lessons, an outdoor slide show of the team skiing, and pizza from the outdoor brick oven to help get people excited about the sport. I will do some easy skiing tonight and that's about it. I have already asked some of the members of the ski team if they can come over after the ski event to help us lift the car out of the ditch.

Soreness

Sunday - I was very discouraged because my quad was sore all night long. It becomes inflamed and I get a little bump where I have scar tissue after I have done some effort that takes too much out of it. I met up with two friends to run around fresh pond. The first loop my leg felt horrible and I was just getting by. I did decide to run the second loop around hoping it would loosen up and it did. By the end of the second loop it felt 75% better.

We were headed to Jackson to go skiing but realized we would only have about two hours of daylight by the time we arrived. Instead we went home and Mark skied at Trapps and I went to hot yoga. Hot yoga made me feel a lot better. I was really focused and able to maintain many of the poses I usually fall down in.

I was feeling really depressed about how badly my quad hurt. Foolishly before the 20 miler I was considering running the MadCity 100k which is the USATF Championships. I was feeling really fit and thinking I could easily maintain an 8 minute pace for the entire race. Now, I know, while I may be able to cardiovascularily do this my quad will not be happy at all. Running and racing on pavement can not be my top goal these days at all. I will stick to the longer races on trails.

What happens is I forgot how sore my quad can get after running on the pavement and I think just because I am fit I can run pain free. I do realize that with a taper I should feel a lot better at the Napa Marathon.

I am very excited to be leaving for California on Thursday night. I will be helping my sister with her outdoor education course in Mendocino for four days and spending the rest of the time in the Bay Area exploring trails and visiting friends.