What We Do When We're Not Sleeping

When the alarm goes off in the long days of late spring, summer and early fall, chirping birds and breaking dawn greet you at 5:30 or 6am.  Nothing but cold and dark await through the dark days of winter making it really hard to pull yourself out of bed.  Sometimes excuses are thrust upon you, as was the case this Saturday morning when Jake needed to be at Jiminy Peak for Mount Greylock High School nordic practice at 6:45am.  This winter has been brutal on all the cross country skiers in New England- grabbing sixty minutes on man-made snow before the downhillers take over is what their season has come down to.  While skate skiing is in my future, I'm not there yet so I went for a five mile run while Jake and his teammates cranked around the base of Jiminy.  Jake and I returned to the house around 8:30 with Alison, Brady and Toby surfacing for breakfast while the two early risers had checked off their workout boxes for the day.

Jake at Jiminy base before the downhillers arrive

More time on the bike

Brooks,

I was glad to see your announcement this week that you're officially signed up for the Gran Fondo NY in May. But the news also woke me up to the fact that I better start training on the bike.  My running has been going very well since the first of the year and I've been averaging 35 miles per week with some good tempo.  But I did just 79 miles on my bike.  I've never done a century this early in the season and training outside in Maine in early Spring can be difficult.  I haven't even started reading about the "timed climbs", but I'm sufficiently worried.
So last night I prepared all my gear to be able to attend an indoor training class at a local bike shop, Gorham Bike and Ski.  Everyone brings their bikes, and they supply the trainers to pop the bike into and the instructors to lead you through the session.  They hold hour long classes during the week and an hour and a half "endurance" class on Saturday.  I was a little nervous as a first timer and planned to get there 10 minutes before start time thinking that would be early enough to pay and get my bike set up.  I pulled into the lot and thought, "uh oh, there are a lot of cars here".  And as I drove around the corner, I saw a store clerk pull the door shut and put a sign up on the door.  I ran up to the door to find the door locked, and a sign reading "class is full".  Maybe I'll have better luck with a mid-week class, but that means setting the alarm for a little earlier.
Coincidentally, a good friend gave me a present last night at Walker's swim meet.  He's the one that was trying to convince me to do the Harpoon Brewery-to-Brewery ride, and we've talked a lot about the boredom of winter bike training.  You've probably heard of these DVDs, and I know Cary and Lew have used them.  They're called Spinervals. I did the 50 minute work out called the Pain Cave.  Nothing spectacular about it, but it was better than watching an old movie.  Maybe I won't still be saying that after I've watched the Pain Cave for the tenth time.  So I think I'll be getting some more and I may even have to "invest" in some better basement equipment to take full advantage of this training.  They talk a lot about heart rates and wattage and cadence, plus there is a fair amount of gear shifting and some of the drills are done standing up.  My 1980's vintage set up of bike and bike roller may not cut it.  But I was on the bike and Troy pushed me to work harder and work smarter so that was worth it.
Goal this month is to keep the running about the same but up the bike to 250 miles for the month.

Take care.  I miss you and would love to get something else on the calendar before May.

Love,  Chas

Chas = Blogger

Let the record show, as it most clearly has, that Chas has shared the first two posts of 2012 and is officially a blogger.  Little warms my heart more and a robust future for Tri and Tri is ensured!

Of greater concern is how the hell I'm going to keep up with you as this running group is clearly working at a much faster clip than me and my running buddies in Williamstown.  The bar has been set and I'll need to step up accordingly.

Thanks for your first post, Chas.  You know all sentiments are reciprocated and look forward to our adventures in 2012.  I'll sign up for the NY Gran Fondo which will be a good early season biking goal for us both with others to follow.  Would like nothing more than to do a half and full marathon in 2012 with you while upping the ante for my wife on her running, too.  Hope a half iron is in the works, too.

Last ride of 2011:  MV with Gyver, Lew, Chas and Brooks

Running Group

Hey Brooks,

I'd like to run a little faster this year, and I'd like to run more with other people, so I joined a running group.  It's about 8 or 10 guys who work downtown and meet at 12:30 five days a week.  And they are fast.  During the winter months when footing is a little slippery they "ease up" to about 7:15's.  The chatter is good and I can usually stay with them for the 4 or 5 miles it takes them to get back to their workplaces.  Most importantly, perhaps, it gets me out there everyday at noon.  Yesterday, was case and point.  We had a very welcome snowstorm that dropped 10-12 inches in Portland.  Noontime was about two-thirds of the way through that.  But I was there to meet the group at 12:23.  And as it turned out I didn't mind running alone.  I thought it might be smart to stick to a 3 mile loop, but ended up doing the usual 6.

The mileage is up since joining the group -- I've already logged about 30 miles this week, but no swimming and no biking.  I'll have to figure out how to fit those in.  For now the running group feels like a good idea.

Take care,  Chas

P.S.  For any Foehls reading this note, one of the longtime members of the group is Charlie Humphries, one of Curt's best friends in high school.

New Year

Dear Brooks,

Thanks very much to you and Alison for hosting yet another special New Year's.  We're very lucky to have such good friends and equally lucky to have access to the Brooks House on Fuller Street.  Lots of good walks, some runs and bikes, but most importantly plenty of good talk.  As in many years past, some of our talk centered around what we wanted to put on the 2012 calendar to continue this journey of adventure together. Late 90's were marathons, then onto adventure races at the beginning of the century and for the past few years its been about triathlons.  I thought the kids did a great job on this year's Show putting your Iron Day in the appropriate historical context alongside 2011 events such as the Kardashian wedding, the European debt crisis, and the death of Steve Jobs.  Before posting today, I looked back at your Iron Day journal.  Great accomplishment and equally great account.

My favorite idea that was discussed was a spring half marathon primarily because I heard Alison pipe up and say she would do a 10K if we could find a combo event.  I quickly went to work on a search and it looks like a 13.1/10K would require too much travel, but there are plenty of 13.1/5Ks to choose from.  Sara would like to do the 5K too.  The other ideas we considered are a May "Fondo" century, a July Brew-to-Brew 148 bike, an August half-iron, and a fall marathon.  Now that I've written it down we've doubled the chances of all that actually happening, and I think that stat relates to a personal paper and pencil version, not a public blog, so I may have tripled the chances.  Putting it on the calendar makes it a near certainty.

The weather on the Vineyard was possibly the best we've had in our 19 year history.  And thanks to the inspiration of Lew and the idea that we could ride with Gyv, we brought our bikes.  One of our rides took us to the highest point on the island. 

Brooks at 311'

Another ride took us toward South Beach for a nice short New Year's Eve loop.

Brooks, Chas, Lew

Most of all I look forward to the last few sunset runs of the year over some of my favorite courses where we stop to take in a couple of very memorable views. 

 Our favorite runners running away from us.  

As I look back on 2011, I'm thankful for our friendship and for we've accomplished together.  And as I look forward to 2012, I'm thankful for all the positive energy I received at our annual gathering, and eagerly anticipate this year's adventure.

All my Love, Chas