More Stolen Photos from SMS Blog - Hannah and Cate

I've gone and stolen more photos from the Stratton blog of Hannah and Cate in the time trial running to the top of Stratton Mt. Now there is a good time! I might add that Hannah also just missed setting a new record for the course!!! I think there are 6 CSU kids at Sverre's junior camp, including Chris Stock, Chris Burnham, Hannah Smith, Corey Stock, Hamish McEwen and Cate Brams. Sorry if I've missed anyone but that is who I could identify from various photos. Again, the SMS blog is at: http://www.smsxc.blogspot.com/

Corey at Stratton Jr. Camp

I stole this photo of Corey from the Stratton Mt School blog. Go to http://www.smsxc.blogspot.com/ to read about SMS's BKSL summer camp and Junior camp, complete with lots of photos.

Juniors Sport New Vests

CSU Juniors looking good in new vests before Littleton Distance Roll

Flower Show Victory!

I was on vacation this past week at the AMC family camp we've been going to forever. One of the highlights of the week is the Cold River Camp Flower Show. I always enter some arrangement and of course take part in the Gentleman's Challenge, which I did not win. As I was hiking earlier in the week up some 4000 footer I latched on the idea of using my rollerskis as the basis of my entry this year. For better or for worse (artistically speaking, of course) I came away victorious in the floral category with my entry entitled "Camo Ski"!! Not bad for spending all of 15 minutes working on it as I was getting sucked dry by the local mosquito and black fly populations which are having a banner year due to all the rain. It also helps that several of the usual contendors for the prize were too late to get an entry in because they had stopped by the Mt Washington Hotel to sample the good life and for afternoon libations after their hike and got waylaid. Remember, showing up is half the battle!

The Blackburn Challenge

Yesterday I returned to Cape Anne for the Blackburn Challenge after a year off, along with Wes Denering. We were both competing in the Fast Sea Kayak class, one of about 25 classes of rowing boats (those people going backwards) and kayaks (those who can actually see where they are going). After the heavy rains of the night before it was pretty foggy and very humid and warm. At the gun we took off down the Annisquam River with an outgoing tide and were therefore flying along at about 6.5 - 7 mph. I had a very good start for a change and tucked in drafting a couple different boats and settled into 4th with 2 boats right there in front of me. Once we rounded the point at the end of the river we entered the fog....not so thick you couldn't see the paddlers ahead of you, but cutting across the various bays you couldn't see the shoreline and so you hoped that everyone was going the right way. One 6 person outrigger canoe apparently ended up way off course and a few of the fastest surf-skis also went around the island at the half way instead of through the cut, even though armed with GPS units. The rule in this race is turn right if you aren't sure where you are. The waves were annoying.....all over the place and I never got into a good rythm and could only rarely get a good wave to surf on. Consequently, my paddling suffered and I started fading as I spent lots of energy dealing with the lumpy seas. Two years ago by contrast had nice long rollers coming in off the ocean that you could surf on for a good stretch of the race, which is delightful as you pick up lots of speed on each wave.

After the 1/2 way point, where you must yell your number to a boat, the fog started lifting which helped navigation a lot, but now the outgoing tide wanted to push you out and you had to deal with that plus the weird waves. I stayed pretty close to several of the points, ever mindful of the surf, trying to shave distance whereever I could and trying to catch a favorable current because I was struggling. I had gone through 1/2 way in 4th place but about 2/3s of the way through the race got passed by 2 guys who put distance on me rapidly. I was falling apart and now my butt was suffering from 2 hrs of sitting and my speed was down to 5.5 - 6 mph. Finally, we came to the long breakwater at the end of Goucester Harbor and I stayed next to the rocks getting back eddies as water poured out of the harbor and then turned for the last straight shot to the finish beach. Its 1.87 miles across and the slowest part of the course.....a real slog with wind, waves and tide now squarely against you and my speed was down more to 4.5 mph......ugggggggg, what a grunt! The end never gets any closer. Finally, the finish at the Greasy Pole and you get to unwind your legs and get off your sore butt after over 3 hrs. in a boat. My abs cramped as I got out, a gentle reminder of that 8 min. abs workout at the CSU camp earlier in the week...... I never saw Wes during the race, but he was only a couple minutes back, having done a long bicycle tour the week before in Quebec, so he had even less time on the water than me, although they seemed to have missed him in the results.

This is a great event, although nicer on a sunny, dry and clear day. You never know what the ocean will throw at you from year to year, which makes it interesting. There were about 270 competitors in everything from Banks dories to 6 person outriggers, to single sliding seat shells to kayaks to the real lunatics who paddle 20 miles with their hands lying on specialized paddling boats complete with a foam rest for their chins. Crazy! Should have those guys come and do the DP test! At the end there is beer, Redbones barbecue and good live music. I missed the massage tables......

I've attached my GPS track which actually shows my 2007 track and my 2009 track, which is closer to shore for the most part. (Photos by http://pixel8er.smugmug.com/)

CSU Summer Training Camp

CSU has been holding its first summer training camp for junior skiers this week out in Winchendon with the Winchendon School as our base camp. The school is a great location, complete with dorms, dining hall, classrooms with hookups for video analysis and an outdoor swimming pool sitting up on top of a nice hill with a great view of Mt. Modadonock off to the north. Sweet! A great group of skiers has made it really fun and the good weather didn't hurt either. I documented the first couple days in photos. We've had some excellent workouts with both skate and classic rollerskiing, hill bounding on Mt. Watatic, playing Ultimate in the evening and a killer set of core exercises devised byAlex the Destroyer that tested everyone's basic strength and core fitness. Tomorrow is a long hike on the Wapack trail and Sunday will finish up with some classic intervals. This will become an annual event!

Mt Washington Hill Climb

A number of CSU skiers and runners made the trek up Mt. Washington this year with Ollie Buruss leading the charge this year in his first attempt after having a killer week of training at Craftsbury. The weather seemed to be really decent as I ran around on the Great Glen trails at the bottom waiting for Lisa. I stole Marshall's picture of what it looked like when the runners popped out of the clouds near the top....wish I'd been able to experience the sun!

Here are the CSU results with Rob Bradlee's and Jonathon Shefftz's reports:

01:21:50 OLIVER BURRUSS M 23 M2034 33 65
01:28:34 SUZY WEST F 46 F4549 2 109
01:29:13 ROBERT BRADLEE M 52 M5054 14 119
01:33:05 JIM TERRY M 58 M5559 9 157
01:34:36 SUMNER BROWN M 65 M6569 1 174
01:34:59 MARSHALL RANDOLPH M 60 M6064 3 177
01:35:24 DONNA SMYTH F 49 F4549 6 185
01:36:03 JAMES DREW M 59 M5559 12 195
01:36:21 JONATHAN SHEFFTZ M 42 M4044 24 198
01:37:56 LISA DOUCETT F 53 F5054 5 221
01:42:22 BILL COHEN M 54 M5054 35 284
01:42:47 ANDREW DONALDSON M 41 M4044 38 292 01:43:30 HENRY GEDIMAN M 62 M6064 6 305
01:48:52 NIXIE RAYMOND F 49 F4549 13 399
01:51:27 KEVIN RAY M 39 M3539 46 445
01:57:59 GAIL BRESLOW F 54 F5054 19 570
02:00:42 TYLER GANNON M 36 M3539 60 615
02:06:59 PAUL GRANT M 61 M6064 32 717
02:08:33 FREDERICK W. ROSS III M 62 M6064 33 733
02:23:44 JOSEPH LEADER M 72 M7074 10 852
02:32:52 CHRISTOPHER JON ROSS M 25 M2034 128 883

Saturday I raced for the 26th time in the Mt. Washington Road Race. This 49 year-old event goes 7.6 miles up the Auto Road climbing 4800 feet from base to summit.

This year the weather was unusual even for Mt Washington. At the base it was 60 F with cloudy skies. From mile 3 to mile 6 we ran through fog – what it turned out was a very low cloud layer. Just as we ran onto the "cow pasture", a flat section just past the 6 mile mark, we emerged into brilliant sunshine. It looked like a low-budget TV ad showing a view of heaven. We seemed to walk on top of a field of puffy white clouds.

I had started my training this spring feeling stronger than last year and so ramped up my training quickly with hopes of bettering my good time from last year. I went too hard too soon and cooked myself. For the past 3 weeks I've had trouble recovering from workouts and had many nagging injuries. All I could do was take it easy and hope I'd bounce back. The day before the race was the first time that I felt good for some time. Since I seemed to be making a comeback I set the goal of finishing under 90 minutes (last year I ran 86 minutes in perfect weather). I have a program that generates splits for each mile marker based on desired finish times. I ran the race just ahead of these splits keeping my heart rate at 92 to 94% of my max. I was able to hold a steady pace through the last 2 miles and finish in 89:13 which made me 108th male and 14th in 50-54. (Eleven seconds faster and I would have been 11th!).

I did have some extra fun this year as I did some email coaching of Bill Dixon who had never run the race, but wanted set a new record for the 60-64 age group. I sent him advice and a set of splits that would put him a minute ahead of the record. He paced himself well, ran steady splits, and took the record by 2 minutes!

So, the lesson re-iterated by this year's race – the priority always has to be good recovery from hard workouts. Doing a tough workout when you're already tired just puts you in a deeper hole. Next year I will start earlier, ramp up more slowly, and make sure to get small injuries taken care of with therapy and rest. On the plus side, I saw again that setting realistic expectations and having a well-thought out plan results in meeting goals and a great sense of satisfaction.

Bravo to Marshall Randolf who snagged 3rd in his age group and to Lisa Doucett who got 4th. I also saw Jim Drew and George Kocur there. Also running from the ski section was Donna Smyth and Jon Shefftz.
Who did I miss? I had to bug out quickly from the race so if I missed you I'm sorry.

Rob Bradlee

So this past Saturday was basically the same as the prior four years:
- Ran up the auto road as part of the race (while my extra gear was driven up).
- Hike down into Tux.
- Ski some quite nice snow, although only 305' vert since the 200'
vert above was too undermined, but the floor of the Ravine was still all filled in, so some nice length. In fact, reasonably nordic-able too. Come to think of it, I've probably done laps at Weston early season with less length. (Now who's up the challenge here!)
- Would have been fun to do laps, but after the running race, I’d have enough with vertical gain for the day, so switched back to hiking.
- Bike back (with skis and poles attached to pack!) from Pinkham Notch to the auto road base.

Random details:

- Run was almost four minutes slower than last year. But I suppose that’s what I deserve for having run outside only twice since November, plus four indoor treadmill workouts. And still, a bit faster than my debut four years ago, so I was pleased overall, plus I had a maniacal sprint at the finish which is always fun (in a way).
One of these days I'd like to get a bit faster so as to contribute to the team results . . . although check out the CSU Masters women in 2nd
place: http://www.coolrunning.com/results/09/nh/Jun20_49thMo_set7.shtml

- Inspirational moment #1 = toward the start of the race, passing what appeared from behind to be an attractive young woman (hey, I’m a happily married guy, but catching up with attractive women is a great motivational element in a running race, ya know, like the mechanical rabbits in dog races), hmm, nice legs, oh wait, make that, leg, singular, wow!!!

- Inspirational moment #2 = just when I needed some additional motivation past Mile 6, we broke through an undercast to a beautiful summit view

- Inspirational moment #3 = after hanging out at the summit for awhile, seeing aforementioned woman with the prosthetic cross the finish line at 1:57, nice!!!

- Inspirational moment #4 = reading this: http://www.seeamyrun.com/about-me “A high school track and swimming star, Amy, now a 34 year-old welder and mother of two, lost her left leg below the knee following a 1994 motorcycle accident. Three years and twenty-five surgeries later, her left leg was amputated below the knee. Following the amputation, it took 3 years before Amy could even try to run again.”

- Ironic realization = anyone who clicks through to the results from the event website (instead of going to coolrunning.com), sees me listed third, which at first greatly confused me (i.e., third in what possible category?!?), then I realized that the default sort is by zip code, and oddly enough, my hometown has the second-lowest zip code in the nation (outside of a couple things like IRS service center addresses), so . . . third-fastest for my zip code! (Do I get a free stamp out of this or something?)

- The next day I did some training in prep for Rainier with this
guide:
http://chauvinguides.com
. . . who has done the race in the past, but much prefers trail running to roads. So I was curious, what’s his fastest time for hiking the summit from Pinkham Notch via Tux and/or Lionhead? About two hours and ten minutes . . . roundtrip. (That's down hiking/ running over massive boulders.)

Jonathan Shefftz