Back on the Mountains- Tecumseh

It’s already the end of June. It occurred to me earlier this week that I have not been making much progress in 2015 on my goal of knocking down the 48 high peaks of New Hampshire in the White Mountains (for which this blog was created for).

Looking at my summer research schedule, I find myself with Thursdays mostly free. This Thursday just happened to fit the bill nicely, and I decided that I’d make a trip to knock off one of the smaller, easier peaks- Mt. Tecumseh.

This week, I worked my legs. Tuesday with a hard swim (53 laps in an hour) & Wednesday with a full stadium tour and bangers run. Also, biking at least 7 miles each day. I went to bed last night after hanging out at the Drop with sore legs. My calves were aching the most- from going downstairs at the stadium. I figured I would be fine hiking the parts I can’t run and just relaxing, letting Sky run free.

I chose Tecumseh because it is the shortest of the high peaks, it’s hike is about 5 miles round trip, and it’s very simple with a view at the top. I don’t know when else I’d want to do it, other than when my legs need a break, which makes this mountain the perfect candidate for today.

5:30am- wake up hard to my alarm, question my sanity for waking up at this time every morning, crawl out of bed, feed Sky, pee, change, and head out.

6am- in the car, on the way. Sky passed out in the back. Stop for gas and a doughnut.

8:30am- parked at Waterville Valley Ski resort, any other cars? Nope. Let Sky out, decided that she is so fracking well behaved that I didn’t bring her leash. I wouldn’t need it.

I found myself shouting from time to time “GOOD GIRL SKY!!!” very loudly and enthusiastically even when Sky was only being mildly good. I was hoping to scare off any lingering bears or moose that might be around. I am going to proclaim that it was a success because we did not see a bear. I do not want to think about what would have happened with Sky off leash if we had– although I think she would respond to me yelling at her to stay. Who knows. Let’s hope we never have to.

9:45am- Found the summit.

On the way up, we passed a clearing for a ski slope and took a nice photo.

From the summit:

I hung around up there for maybe 15 minutes, taking photos and just sitting with my best friend.

10:00am- Start to descend.

Cooling off in the brook.

11:00am- Found my car.

Short successful hike/run. Just short of 5 miles and just short of 2200ft elevation gain.

This is my 16th high peak of the 48 and Sky’s FIRST peak! I made it home in time for my doctor’s appointment this afternoon and feel glad I went. Yeah, it’s a lot of driving for not so much trail time, but what else am I doing that is so important??

We only ran into 3 others on the trail, all on the way back down. Sky was so well behaved off leash. She stayed on trail, never ran too far ahead, always was looking for where I was. She stopped when I stopped and when we did see others up ahead, she just sat down and waited for me to catch up and give her a command that she could go. She’s so athletic and so smart, I am truly proud of her for how well she has adjusted. She is my best friend, my co-pilot, and I want to spend as much time with her as possible.

On a side-note: I am getting 2 new tattoo pieces next week– a bear and a wolf. Today, I thought a lot about the wolf, as I do while I am in the woods. I’ve written about my ‘lone wolf’ mentality before so I won’t repeat myself, but I felt it in me today. I had myself, my ambition, and my dog. I didn’t want anything or anyone else. It wasn’t a long or arduous adventure today, but I felt complete in who I am and what I am doing. Lone Wolf.

Ascutney Mountain Challenge vs a Summit Ave repeat workout

Mountain Goat Race series continued this past weekend at Ascutney Mountain in Windsor, VT. This race is coming just a week after the Pack Monadnock 10 Miler. And for me, it was an eventful week. I swam a few miles, biked a few miles, and saw my parents as they came up for a visit, I went to Portsmouth, and I even got a 9 mile trail run in the day before the race with some friends in Framingham. Not exactly taking it easy, but I don’t like sitting still!

The Ascutney Mountain Challenge is a short race, 3.7 miles. It is up the entire auto road on the mountain, climbing about 2300ft to the top of the road (which isn’t even the top of the mountain, unfortunately). Ascutney is in Windsor, VT.. where Harpoon’s second brewery is as well. To take on this race, Matt (fellow Banger) and myself decided to go up Saturday and camp overnight, thus avoiding a LONG sunday of driving in the heat. So Saturday we headed up, Matt volunteered to drive which makes him one of my favorite people immediately. We stopped at the liquor store, then at Matt’s parent’s house real quick, and then beelined straight for Harpoon. Harpoon in VT is nice, it is located right next to a cheese shop (among other things). We startled our waitress by asking her for samples and descriptions of everything and she didn’t seem too on top of her game but she came through with everything in the end. We both got this amazing Vermont style burger and relaxed after driving. The campsite is only a few miles from Harpoon so it was nice knowing it wouldn’t be long until we were there.

Eventually we got camp all set and made a fire and drank some more beers around it, just hanging out. Matt is great company and it’s awesome that he is doing this series. Around midnight, I was slowing losing consciousness, I excused myself and went inside, lied down, and read maybe 6 pages of my book before I passed out. I didn’t open my eyes again until 8 am! I couldn’t believe how well I slept camping, I don’t think I’ve ever slept that well outdoors before. We woke up, walked in our PJs to the start to get bibs and whatever. There I saw Erik– the boy from the woods in the first race. He and I went out again Friday night and I had a great time so it was great to see him, too! The race started at 9am so I had to get ready though..

The race itself was okay for me. I ran pretty well for the first mile, but the second mile was a lot of “run 2 minutes, walk a minute” and I was okay with that. The grade of this race is pretty consistently steep, with most of the climbing occurring in the beginning. I knew the distance and where I was the whole time so I kept steady with equal effort for most of the race. The final mile and a half I managed to run more as the climbing evened off just a little. There was one final big climb to the finish which I ran in. I was happy with my time, but I still think I can do better. I don’t know why but I feel like I hold back in races, like I’m saving something in the tank for after or for more? I don’t know why, I think that is a product of doing numerous mountain runs by myself, for fear of running out of fuel and dying on the trail. That won’t happen to me during a race. I might blow up, but I won’t be in mortal danger alone in the mountains so I think I need to push more, and leave myself completely spent. (At the top of Ascutney, after just relaxing for 5 minutes, I felt almost fresh again). I felt this at Sleepy Mountain also… something to learn from!

Anyway, after the race, Erik, Matt and I walked down, crushed a beer. Then Matt and I cleaned up the site, met Erik at Harpoon for lunch (we had the same waitress, it was pretty awkward and pretty funny). Then Matt and I made the drive back to Brighton– playing everything from Andrew WK to Sunset Rubdown to Elliott Smith to Run the Jewels. Oh and of course we listened to the Mountain Goats to be appropriate… Matt’s iPod is nearly identical to my own weird taste in music and that just makes me think he is even more awesome. Good to know good people.

Matt, crushing it!

That elevation gain, though!

So.. that was Ascutney this weekend. Today, because I am a bit of a masochist, I decided to run Summit Ave repeats. It has been a while since I’ve done that specific workout. I like to do full repeats of both sides of the climb, so from Corey Rd, up over Corey Park and down to Beacon St. Then turn around and go back over. This way I get the big .4 mile climb and the shorter climb from Corey Rd. Last time I did this was maybe May, possibly even April, and I was tired and intimidated by the last side of the Beacon St. climb… today I did not feel any kind of fear. Yes, my butt is sore and my calves are a little weak.. but I was able to mostly run up everything and when I did walk, it was brief and it was mostly to prevent overdoing it. I listened to my ipod as I ran through some light rain and I felt really good. I averaged out to just under 10min/miles and that wasn’t pushing it at all. I think I can start to increase distance and intensity over there and will hopefully get some good hill sessions in before Loon and Cranmore (I’m really excited for Cranmore.. Sarah is going to race, too!)

Repetitive enough?

Okay, so I still want to make sure that I am learning and growing from every experience, so let me reflect..

• Equal effort on uphills, but make sure that the effort level is high
• Camping before a race is great
• Train on tired legs, push your body and then recover
• Try to really race… leave the place completely spent (although I don’t know if Loon is the place to do that…)
• Always enjoy the view on the way up 🙂

Pack Monadnock 10-Miler

On Sunday, I ran in another NE USATF Mountain Goat race– the Pack Monadnock 10-Miler. Pack Monandnock is a mountain just east of Mt. Monadnock (which I summited earlier in the year on a hike with some friends) in New Hampshire. Pack Monadnock is the tallest mountain in the Wapack range and one location of the gnarly TARC race “Wapack and Back” which goes along the 22 mile Wapack trail.

Pack Monadnock is a point to point 10 miler race that starts with 8.5 miles of rolling uphill on roads and dirt roads and ends with a 12% average grade 1.5 mile climb on the autoroad to the summit of Mt. Monadnock… with the final section climb being a sustained 20% grade.

Being a point-to-point race, fellow Brighton Banger Matt and I coordinated cars such that we could catch a ride with each other.. so Matt drove to Miller State Park in the lot at the bottom of the gnarly summit auto road and I grabbed him and we went back to the start line at the local high school.

Matt is coming off injury but he’s an experienced racer and has logged way more miles in an average week than I would in a strong week. It’s fun to know that he is competing, be it with himself or with others and I’m learning a lot about approaching races from him.

I’m also coming off injury. After the Sleepy Hollow race, I spent a week in NJ and while running on my favorite Sourland Mountain trail, I turned my ankle pretty badly. I’ve had a lot of experience with turned ankles thanks to my many years as a competitive soccer player, but I knew this one was going to be a problem. I felt it, I could hear it tear. I sat down on the trail, with trail dog licking my face. Eventually, I bushwhacked my way down and out, thankful for my acute sense of direction. After that turn, I was out of running for a while… Leading up to the race, I was spending a lot more time swimming/biking. For the first time since sophomore year of college, I jumped in the pool with the intent of working out. Since then, I’ve regularly mixed swimming a mile into my routine.

Prior to the race, I had only been on 2 runs. One was 10 miles broken into a couple of 5 mile sets (plus Harvard Stadium sets with November Project) and the other run was an AWFUL saturday brunch run where my legs felt heavy and my attitude was even worse. I was not enjoying anything about that run and it did not encourage me for my race.

I know part of coming back from injury is mental, but honestly I have been struggling with running lately. My motivation is down and I’ve been trying more and more to mix swimming and biking in to keep my mind fresh. I think it is helping and it’s certainly helping my running. I’ve also started going to November Project and that is more motivating than running on my own as well. It just seemed like everything leading up to the race was negative.

Anyway, the race started at 9am on the money. The temperature was 60 and it just seemed to get cooler the more you climbed! It was perfect and despite being in NH in June.. there were no bugs.  I tried to just zone out and cruise. I found myself really zoning out much easier than anticipated thanks to the BEAUTIFUL course. The shaded roads were so quintessentially New England. My miles were all over the pace (see what I did there?!)– I was going anywhere between 8 or sub 8 min miles to 9:30’s… and all this is BEFORE the massive final climb. I don’t really know why, I think some of the fluctuation was caused by my concern for my ankle.. the dirt roads were not free of loose rock. Anyway, it has been a long time since I’ve race paced for more than 6 miles so it felt good to know I can suck it up and keep pushing.

Once I hit the final hill, my ankle was screaming. It was specifically screaming something along the lines of “hey fuck you”. I ended up run/walking up the final climb–which I didn’t mind because I ended up talking to a few people and meeting some new friends and getting some intel about other races and trails in the area. I finished with an average of 10 min miles, mostly due to that final 1.5 mile which took me a long time. Once at the top, the views were breathtaking and Matt and I climbed up the observation tower and could see our quant city of Boston way on the horizon. We could see the white mountains to the north and a very close Monadnock to the west. We hung out for a while, discussing food and then finally decided to walk down that steep road. It was so painful going down, we both took off our shoes!

Going forward, I’m going to incorporate more cross-training. I think my schedule will be M-W-F I’ll bike and run/whatever with November Project, plus a Wed night bangers run and the bike commute to work. T-Th I will bike to the gym and swim a mile before work and then bike home. Maybe Friday I will take off from work a bit and hang at home and rest/recover from summit ave repeats and Sat-Sun I will race prep or train on trails.

While I still want to do well in the Mountain Goat races, my sights are beyond some of those races. I want to use this elevation training to prep for the TARC fall classic, MDI Marathon, and possibly before all that… a one day Pemi Loop with some trail animals. The Pemi Loop would be my crowning summer achievement, a new distance PR, and probably an absolutely beautiful and breathtaking day.