Riverhawk Invite- Weekly Log: January 23 to 29

Another attempt at the Mile, this time at The Track. Last time at this shorter distance, will be 3K and up until outdoor. Basically the end of my "rustbuster, get used to racing month". Kind of low stakes January then really trying to get after it and run fast in February.

Monday: 7 Miles- Westerly, RI

Nowhere near enough sleep/recovery as the Sunday afternoon race in Boston makes for a later night and then I have to still get up early to run before work. As such, I felt pretty tired on this one and throughout the day. Just glad it was misting instead of pouring. Road grab in the northern high street/canal section of Westerly. 

Tuesday: 11 Miles

7 Miles- Westerly, RI

Not enough sleep again but felt better than Monday. Road grab for Forrestal/potter hill section. Right hamstring was really tight/sore, I rarely ever have hamstring issues but that's likely from exerting so hard on Sunday. Also did not have that Monday which is continuing the trend that I am more sore Day 2 post race than Day 1. Potter hill road has no shoulder but isn't so bad to run at 5:30AM in the dark. 

4 Miles- Norwich, CT

Typical Mohegan Park loop. Technical trails in the dark were a bit sketchy. It's been getting dark out a lot later (still some light starting at 5:15PM) but I got out too late to run the trails in the light. But very soon I could probably do the whole run without a headlamp. Had my snack before the run and no bonk. The downside of it getting light out is that it might get more crowded, it's usually very empty when I run in the dark. 

Wednesday: 12 Miles- Charlestown, RI

Workout Wednesday. As mentioned in last week's log, I'm trying to get some road workouts in as I'm racing on roads here and there. So road workout today- opted for a fartlek that I've done a handful of times now: 8x 2mins on/2 mins off. Ons at tempo/HM effort and then offs at moderate effort. So generally shooting for 5:20ish pace for the ons and low 6s for the offs. I do these on the Burlingame campground loop- it's completely closed in the offseason so I don't have to deal with any cars or other people, and has some small rollers and tight turns to make a bit of challenge without being too hard to maintain pace. Also just generally nice roads to run on. Workout went pretty well- felt hard but always manageable and never ran slower than 5:30 pace for an on. There's one corner at the upper end of the loop where the pace always bizarrely dips- had high 5:30s for the first rep through there and high 5:40s for the second, thinking maybe GPS is inaccurate at that short point given the thick pine cover. Ended up running 5:40 pace for the full 5.65 mile block, average 5:18 for the ons, average 5:57 for the offs. An improvement from doing the same workout in October as I was probably 5:25 and 6:05 average. Feeling generally pretty strong/fit but also like I have a lot of room to improve. Difficulty: 2/5. 

Thursday: 10 Miles- Charlestown, RI

Burlingame loop: VG plus burlingame trail with Dad and Brady. Same exact loop as last week but somehow I got an extra third of a mile. Poured overnight and some flooded sections. I felt good through 8.5 then my legs got really tired at the end and running through a lot of puddles.

Friday: 8 Miles- Westerly, RI

Woke up with some foot discomfort that was definitely concerning. The first half mile of the run was not enjoyable as I did still feel that foot discomfort and I had some shin/nerve pain in my leg. I parked on Clifford drive and did a weekapaug loop. Foot was annoying but tolerable for 4 miles then completely fine. The shin stuff was on and off. I had this shin issue in the fall/XC season of 2021 and it was quite miserable to train through. Basically a 7-8 out of 10 pain when starting to run in both shins that felt like a nerve issue rather than muscular/bone. Would only bother me for a few minutes but the first 15-30 seconds of runs were brutal. It lasted about 6 weeks but I felt it every single day. One of those ailments that I have no idea how to treat, it mysteriously popped up of nowhere and disappeared just as suddenly. I never felt this again until two weeks ago just before the Suffolk meet. That went away after just the run but then it came today. Just so bizarre. Basically resolved again as I felt it a tiny bit in the warm-up for the race and haven't since. Hoping this stays away as I have no idea how to resolve it. 

I felt good aside from the discomfort through about 6 miles then my legs got tired and achy. Had to force the strides as I was pretty bundled up and my body didn't want to move fast. That being said, the way I train strides aren't usually too comfortable anyway until I taper. Not really a good pre-meet but doesn't matter much until getting to more important races. 

Saturday: 10 Miles- Boston, MA

Boston indoor track race #3/3 for January (I'll be back 3 more times in February, although one is a road race in Cambridge). I imagine I'll end up racing in Boston more than anywhere else this year given 5 times in January and February alone and some possible road races later on. It's definitely the running capital of New England and probably the indoor track capital of the world (4 excellent banked indoor tracks is crazy). Southern NE is a great place to be located for an unattached indoor track season having access to Boston and NYC tracks, basically anywhere else in the country it'd be very hard to race with regularity on nice tracks. 

Went up with Andrew to take the subway from Quincy Adams, same as last few weeks. A bit earlier than usual and had a hard time getting up but then felt okay. The subways were a bit crowded but not a big deal as I was able to sit down. Like two weeks ago, I had to pee badly during the long time of the subway without bathrooms and the mile walk over to The Track was uncomfortable. The subway ride took longer than expected. We went over to declare immediately to avoid a mishap like two weeks. I used the bathroom and had a granola bar as I was suddenly feeling quite weak. Had to warm up right after that. 

While my legs felt fine and fortunately yesterday's aches/discomforts were quite minor, I felt really sluggish on the warm-up. While I've found there's zero correlation with how I feel on the warmup and how I feel on the race I'd definitely prefer to feel a bit better. I had a moment of panic getting back as I went to check in and was told the mile check in was closed. Turns out that I had just gone to the wrong table and was fine. But then another moment of panic when the first heat was going off as I was checking in- I thought I'd have plenty of time being 11:00 with an 11:15 start but they clearly started very early. Fortunately I was in the third heat and not the second so I did have time to get on spikes and get in a few strides but it was rushed. I'm not sure if I would have made it for the second heat though. I heard some call my name as I went up to the track and looked around in the crowd for 30 seconds only to realize it was the official checking me in. 

Being a college meet, I was the only unattached runner in the field. I got to be in the stagger again which I like. Was right next to a UNH freshman I didn't know, Zachary Hooper. Normally I'm not nervous but have a brief moment of anxiety run before the gun goes off but they lined us up and started us so quickly that there wasn't time for that. I immediately went into last on the stagger. I'm so bad at getting off the line. Hooper led our group and when we went to cut in, he ended up taking the lead whereas I was in maybe 5th or 6th. I went through a slow 35.2, probably 2 seconds slower than last Sunday and somehow feeling a lot worse/more strained. Picked it up for a 67s 409m but I was concerned about going out slower than last weekend while not feeling very good. I would get passed repeatedly until the 800m mark and was possibly dead last in the heat. I just didn't run aggressively and let all the guys past without a fight feeling sluggish. Mentally I already prepared that I wasn't going to run a PR and was expecting to run somewhere in the 4:28-4:32 range. 

But we didn't have too much left and the splits weren't that much slower than last weekend, maybe 2s at most. While I did feel fairly sluggish/tired, I wasn't exerting as much as last Sunday and definitely had another gear. Just a matter of when I'd use it. 2:13.7 through 809 and 2:47.5 through 1009 versus 2:12 low and 2:45 last weekend. Hooper fell off and I passed him. I sat on the back for the 6th lap and then started to push and move up. Different race as last weekend as I was in it here with a lot of guys just in front of me versus being dropped and running solo last weekend. It was better today to have a pack to stay with as I didn't feel great and probably wouldn't push well on my own, but it also presented an issue kicking as I'd have to pass a lot of people. I went with 350m to go and fully committed to a sprint with 150m to go. I passed a few guys but couldn't get on the inside soon enough and was stuck in lane 2 on the final bend. I gave it my all in the final stretch, outkicking one guy but just off of 2 others. 

It looked like a 4:25. I watched the results screen to see the time, guys ahead just broke 4:25. 4:25.06 for me. So I just barely got the PR, a 0.06 second improvement from last weekend. I'm glad went to the well and had guys to race coming to the finish as that ended up being the difference between PR'ing or not. 

Overall mixed feelings on the race. As small as a margin of it was, a PR is a PR so I am happy with it. My goal was probably 4:23-4:24 so 4:25.06 is still a good run. Last weekend was definitely a better run though as I was expecting 4:29 and ran 4:25. This time I was expecting 4:23 and ran 4:25. Different styles of racing as last Sunday I just hammered every lap. I felt like I ran all out and couldn't have done much more. This time feeling sluggish and the race being more crowded, I didn't run as aggressively as last weekend, allowing a 2 second deficit through 6 laps but had a bigger kick to just barely make up for it and get the PR. I think had I gone just a little earlier and been tougher, I could have run 4:23-4:24. Happy to run a PR on a day where I did not feel good, but no question that I executed the race much better last weekend. This was my shortest margin for a PR at 0.06s and likely my shortest lived PR at 6 days. My mile is now my best PR on the world athletics charts at 829 points. Hopefully I can the 3K and 5K ahead of that soon enough.

6 mile cooldown partially with some of the UNH guys and then all with Andrew. Charles river paths into Watertown/Newton. So nice to race Saturday and not rush back to work/sleep. Foot was bothersome for a few miles then not bad. 

Sunday: 14 Miles- Groton, CT

Long run with Andrew, half roads and half dirt. Did the Groton Long Point loop, much less busy in Winter and then the usual Haley/Bluff manicured paths. I had some serious foot discomfort post race and in the morning so fortunately it wasn't too bad in the run. I felt it at points, especially in the second but never bad. Hopefully that resolves soon as I hate foot issues. 

I believe both the foot discomfort and achy legs are due to not getting enough sleep between Sunday's race and Monday's run + work day. Not much I could have done differently as I went to bed as soon as I could, but low sleep after hard efforts is really not good for the body. Hopefully I don't have too many situations like that and can recover/sleep better after Sunday races. 

Weekly Total: 74 Miles

Weekly Highlight: Not an excellent race, but a nice to run a (very small) PR again in the Mile. My speed in that event is well ahead of where I've been in the last few years and should help quite a bit for some 3Ks and 5Ks coming up. Concluded my January race season and overall I am pleased with the results- every single race was faster than the last one. Just need to keep that momentum going for another 2.5 months. 

Weekly Lowlight: The shin achiness and foot discomfort. Really frustrating to deal with this stuff. Should be minor hopefully. 

Movies Watched: Glass Onion, *Manchester by the Sea, *Prisoners

*Rewatch

Assuming the foot issue isn't a real problem, next week I'll try to finally cross off my 6 year old 3K PR of 8:44 at the Armory. Even though it feels like it just started, indoor is coming to close soon enough. I have a road 5K the following weekend then only two more track races indoors. Also I was considering doing the Fastrack Last Chance meet at Ocean Breeze on 02/24 but looks like they don't have a 5K so I'll hope to race at BU that Sunday instead. I would really like to race at Ocean Breeze at some point. 

GBTC Invite- Weekly Log: January 16 to 22

 Mile at Harvard's track this week at the GBTC invite.

Monday: 12 Miles- Burrillville, RI

With Monday off from work (MLK day), Dad and I checked off the first section of the Midstate trail in Douglas State Forest. I'm actually shooting to finish the Nipmuck trail next as the Midstate will be a longer project (92 miles, finishes at NH border) but the next leg of Nipmuck was significantly harder (2,000 ft of elevation vs 1,000 ft here) and I wanted to make sure my legs weren't trashed going into the workout Wednesday and race Sunday. Started at Buck Hill to do the final 3 miles of the NST. We had done this before in May 2020 but it's the easy way to access the start of the Midstate which doesn't have any direct parking/roads there. Plus it was nice to do the final section again after finishing the trail in November. There was an inch of the snow on the ground here which made the technical sections a bit slippery and slower. I had opted for tights which was a good decision solely because this part was really overgrown and the legs would have been scraped up horribly with shorts. 

Crossing the border in MA, the first 1.5 miles of the midstate trail was not good- just very washed out, flooded and often with beds of rocks from erosion. The midstate trail and douglas state forest is very well marked- yellow triangle plastic marking throughout for the Midstate trail and the forest having plenty of signs with mileage and maps. This is one aspect of trails that Massachusetts and northern New England does much better with than RI- clear trail markings, maps, signs and good maintenance. Many of the RI aren't marked well and maps/signs are rare. After the 1.5 mile crappy section, much of the remaining run was quite nice through pine forests with a mix of singletrack and doubletrack trail. Really impressive that all 9 miles in MA on the this run is in the Douglas state forest. Got weak towards the end and rolled my ankle pretty hard on a rocky downhill- but otherwise a good run. Fortunately these hard ankle twists don't seem to do any long term damage: just have to move it around a bit and then have some stiffness but is back to normal by the next trail run. The next section won't be great as it's mostly road, but looking forward to much of this trail. Will probably aim for doing Nipmuck in the future then get going on this one. 

Tuesday: 7 Miles- Westerly, RI

Would normally double but usually go short on Monday so I basically swapped the two days (usually do 7 then 11, did 12 then 7). OAB run with dead ends/road grab on route 91. Started work an hour later so it was nice to do the second half in the light but being later it made the roads quite busy. Only actually finished 3-4 new roads, mostly just covering the distance on this busier road that I had never run before. 

Wednesday: 11 Miles- South Kingstown, RI

Usual Wednesday URI workout. Did the OAB on the bike path for 4 mile warm-up, unremarkable and felt neither good nor bad. Went to workout and the softball team was not only running in the first 3 lanes but a curtain was put down which also completely blocked the first 3 lanes. Had to change up my planned workout of 4x1600m as I couldn't run in lane 1. It's pretty frustrating given this was 12PM and open track hours were shown as 11:30-2:30. Doesn't feel very open when a huge team is using the track and 3 lanes are blocked off. 

I found a website that calculates the distance for the outer lanes and that 28 laps would be give me my desired 4 miles of work in lane 5. Thought I would do 7x(3 laps on/1 lap off) but it felt too hard after 2, people were starting to invade the outer lanes and I realized I could do full 200m reps and start at the lines used for racing. So I then I thought I'd try 16x200m but I was breathing too hard after 8 and got 9 in. Almost just quit there but did another 2x3 laps and finished with my usual 4x200m, this time in spikes. Improvised unfocused workout but at least got some work in. Really the only options were fartlek/effort based longer stuff or 200s so I did what I could. 

Summary of workout:

1. 2x3 laps in lane 5 in 2:12 (roughly 5:05-5:10 pace) on 1 lap jog. I think 1 lap wasn't enough which is why I quit there, although a bunch of people were walking towards lane 5/6. 

2. 9x200m on 60s rest- first in 36, rest in 33. 

3. 2x3 laps in lane 4 in 2:06 (about the same pace as before). Felt tired and took probably 3 minutes recovery. Really just trying to get the full distance in at this point.

4. 4x200 in spikes on 90s ish rest- 31, 31, 30, 29. 

Difficulty: 3/5. Didn't feel very good but not brutal as I never did more than 3 laps continuous. Guessing the air quality is a bit off in there as every track workout has felt bad but my races and road workouts have been just fine. 3 mile cooldown exploring the campus. Going to do some road workouts going forward given I've been suffering to finish what should be manageable track workouts and I'm doing 2 road races so getting in some hard efforts on the road would help without really hurting any performance on the track. 

Thursday: 11 Miles

AM 7 Miles- Westerly, RI

Last long/busy stretch of road to cover in the road grab doing route 91 from oak/spuchy to pound/fieldstone. I thought this section might be terrible to run with the lack of shoulder and blind corners but wasn't too bad. Unsure of whether I was trespassing to do Larry Hirsch drive but the gate was open so I didn't feel like I was doing anything wrong. Much of the run was on pound road and roads off that- mostly quiet and nice. Ran past some pigs and cows and then did the short OAB on the land trust trail which was nice. Legs felt fairly heavy and flat throughout. 

PM 4 Miles- Norwich, CT

Typical Mohegan park loop in a cold (39 degree) steady rain. I remembered to have a snack before so I wouldn't bonk and I held up fine. Fortunately run was short enough that the rain didn't make me really cold. 

Friday: 10 Miles- Charlestown, RI

Soft surface afternoon vin gormley plus burlingame trail/wildlife. Kind of the perfect non technical but mostly singletrack loop. Raining on the drive over and back but barely during the run. Wooden bridges were slippery and some standing water in the second half, but overall mostly runnable. First all trail run since ankle roll Monday and zero problems whatsoever so I think these hard twists shouldn't really be an issue or set me back, might just take a few days to regain full strength and stability. I have some trail/mountain running plans for the summer and am unsure where I'm at right now. I've definitely come a long way since the June and September ankle sprains but I don't know if I'd be ready to run hard on technical stuff. Easy runs on moderately technical trails seems okay though. 

Saturday: 8 Miles- Charlestown, RI

Ninigret pre race, somehow the first run here of 2023. Felt reasonably good but legs a bit tired. 

Sunday: 12 Miles- Boston, MA

Race in Boston. At 1:30PM this time so didn't have to wake up too early. Same routine as last week, went up with Andrew and took the subway. This time at Harvard. Raced here in 2020 for the USATF-NE champs and the track is really nice. I got into the "invite" section of the mile, barely as I was seeded 10 of 12 and my 4:25 seed was just under the 4:27 cutoff. Unsure what to expect with that being in a heat with a handful of guys seeded at 4:10. I figured I would want to go out in around 2:12 and hope to be strong enough to hold on for a PR (4:27) but would be okay as long as I was under 4:30. 

We got to the facility maybe 2 hours before the race. No declaration for this one although we did wear bibs. The time went by quick enough and we did a 3 mile warm-up 45-50 minutes out. Felt okay on the warm-up, not good and ready to go but not bad either. I kept having to pee and got a bit confused on the schedule unsure of whether the open (slower) sections would go first. Turns out they wouldn't and it was slightly rushed for me but I still had time to get in 3-4 strides before we went off. 

These open meets are odd as I had only heard of/recognized one guy in the heat because he is a very good HS runner (14:30ish for 5K) but didn't have a clue about any one else's credentials. Just a different environment from HS knowing just about everyone's PRs or in college where I still had heard of many of the runners or at least could figure something out something based on their team. The slower seeds and I were put in the outside stagger as the hip numbers were done in order of seed rather than putting the faster runners in advantageous positions. The stagger is kind of nice as it keeps you of trouble only having to deal with 1/3 of the field and then basically getting to pick your position when you cut into lane 1. 

The moment just before the gun goes off is a unique experience. Just so much anxiety, mind flooding with thoughts and anticipation of being about to put yourself into a really hard race. I was a little nervous to run so much faster/harder than the past week but also was glad to take a break from doing the 3K which is so many more laps. 

I fell into 3rd or 4th of the staggered group right away as it felt we went out at a fairly comfortable yet appropriate pace. While the stagger is nice to be in to stay out trouble and avoid getting boxed in, it's somewhat uncomfortable to be so high up on the bank. It was almost comical for the rest of the field to blow by us before we even hit the second curve while we were three lanes to the outside. The leader of our group noticed this, surged and when we could cut in had made up the ground to the leaders. I went through in 33 seconds feeling comfortable but probably a full two seconds back from that top group. I made a move around the guy leading our chase pack group which is hard to do but I figured he was only going to slow further and I'd be better focusing on trying to make up that ground. Running solo or at least leading a group (unsure if anyone was on me) I ran reasonably even 33s for 66, 1:39 and 2:11 high/2:12 low at 809m just as I wanted. The "easy" part was done, now I had to dig deep and close. 

This is definitely the hard part of the mile with 4 laps still to go. The sub-4:30 feels locked in but really isn't at all as it could be so easy to slip up. After all I went through 809m last February in 2:10 but faded horribly to 4:37. Here, it felt pretty hard but I wasn't completely gassed. There were some stragglers falling off the lead group so I tried to maintain pace and push around them immediately. The full third quarter I repeatedly tried to pick up the effort and push, knowing it'd be very easy to fade off this pace and the race was coming to a close. 2:45 through the 1K. Some guy who had been in the lead group but was falling off a bit dropped out at 6 laps which was bizarre. My close was nothing impressive. I tried to change gears but my final gear was just sufficient enough to hold the pace I was running and not have much of a pick up. I felt like a ultramarathoner trying a sprint for the first time as my legs got really heavy and my cadence increased but my speed didn't. Got passed and outkicked easily in the last 100m but I appeared to crossed the line at either just under or over 4:26. Somehow it ended up being 4:25.12.  

Walked away pretty happy with that. My fitness is generally strong now but it's hard to know where my speed is at. I would not have been disappointed or surprised to run 4:29 today so to get a 2 second PR and run strong/tough throughout was very pleasing. A good step forward from the last few weeks- felt like I went from mediocre to good today for my level of performance. Ended up 7th overall. A great step up from my 2022 indoor season where I ran a 4:37 mile. Feel like I am way ahead of where I was in indoor or outdoor track last year. Full results. 

Throat absolutely burned post race so after watching Andrew race, I took my time and had a snack out on the Harvard stadium rather than sticking inside and breathing the indoor air. Andrew and I did an 8 mile cooldown so I could get 12 miles on the day- it's tough going so "long" after a race but really the only way to maintain mileage while racing short distances Sunday afternoon. Felt pretty tired but it wasn't terrible. Checked out Fresh Pond in Cambridge. 

Weekly Total: 73 Miles (same total as the last two weeks I think). This is right where I want to be right now and probably through end of February. May or may not increase after that. 

Weekly Highlight: It's a great feeling to go update my PR page. It's been disappointing how little I've PR'd in the last few years so it's great to do that now in January as I still feel like I am in my "rustbuster, get used to racing again" portion of the season until the end of the month. Overall, I feel like that was about the best I could do on that day and hopefully I can keep up the good performances. 

Weekly Lowlight: Settling for an improvised bizarre workout at URI. I had bigger plans for that day and showed up during the open hours so it's frustrating not to be able to actually use the first three lanes of the track. I will be alternating road and track workouts going forwards for several reason- 1) these disruptions of workouts I've had because the track is being used by so many people, 2) I've been really struggling with the indoor workouts, even manageable ones, and 3) I also have some road races in there so I don't want to do everything on the track. 

Movies Watched: Goodfellas, A Bronx Tale, Bridesmaids, Spy, Knives Out

All Rewatches

I'll be back at The Track at New Balance next Saturday and give the mile another shot. Would be great to take a few seconds off what I just did and cut down the PR a little further.

2022 Year in Review

After really struggling in 2021 with injuries, consistency and racing well, 2022 was definitely a step in the right direction. It was far from perfect as I certainly dealt with some injuries and my outdoor track as well as summer results were far from what I wanted. But overall, the injuries didn't take me down too much, I remained mostly consistent throughout the year and finished up with a pretty good fall road racing season that I'm happy with. It's probably not a year I'd be thrilled with under normal circumstances but after struggling in 2019 and 2021 and not having many races in 2020, I feel I am at good point in fitness and racing going forward. 

No goal review for this year as I didn't post any goals for last year. I feel goals are more season based than year based so I didn't have anything concrete at this point last year. I think I intended on making a separate 2022 goals post but I never did. I'd say probably my two goals of the year were breaking 15 in the 5K and breaking 1:10 in the half marathon and I didn't do either.

In last year's post I mentioned that it was the first time I failed to break 9 minutes in the 3K since first doing it in 2016 and the first time I failed to break 16 minutes in the 5K since first doing in 2017. 2021 was a bit of a rough year as neither is particularly hard for me to do in shape (not easy, but a decent race should be well under both) so fortunately this was not a continued trend for 2022. I broke both in the first 2 months of the year (which ended up being my best times)- 8:53 and 15:31. 

Race Ranking

I thought about doing a top 3 and bottom 3 but I like to look back and reflect on everything. Here is my full race ranking of all 25 I did in 2022. It's nice to look back on this with some sense of accomplishment versus 2020 and 2021 really only having a few races I was happy with. 

Unrated race- DNF at GBTC 5K. Obviously a DNF is not good at all but this was completely due to injury so I'll leave it out of the ratings. 

25. Pineland Farms 25K- May 28th in New Gloucester, ME

Ironic as this was my #1 race of 2021 and I was hoping to have another good one. It simply did not go well at all. I cruised and felt fantastic last year- this year I fell off the leader immediately, stopped several times for breaks and my pace completely crumpled in the second half. I did not have any aerobic strength to keep it going at respectable pace the last 5 miles, gave up for the battle for 2nd, and ended up running a full 11 minutes slower than 2021. Yikes. 

Grade: F

24. New Haven 5K- September 5th in New Haven, CT

I think after a few months of training and getting some races out of the way, I should at least be near 16:00 for a fast road 5K. Yet I was 16:23 here, well over that and running 5:20s pace for a good chunk of this (a pace I held for half marathon later in the year). Poor fitness is one thing, but my tactics cost me greatly here as I sprinted out the first half mile in first place, completely ran out of gas and died the last 2 miles. This was an ugly one and was really the result of poor racing.

Grade: F

23. America East 10K- May 7th in Burlington, VT

On paper this was by far the worst performance- first time getting last place, lapped by every single other person in the field and running a very slow 33:48 on a track. But in terms of effort, I put myself out there and just did not have it at all. Which is more than I could say for the last two. This was the most I've mentally struggled in a race- getting dropped with 16 laps to go, more laps than I've ever raced outdoors but I at least found the grit to stay in the race and finish it out. 

Grade: D

22. UVM Mile- February 13th in Burlington, VT

This was a rough one- running 4:37 in the mile the hard way with a 2:10/2:27 split. Just went out hard and died hard. 4:37 is what I'd expect to run after a lot of time off but it's what I raced in the middle season after running respectable 3K/5K times. I feel I gave up a bit in the last 400 and could have cut some more seconds off. Not a huge deal (the 10K was very disappointing) but also not a time I ever should be running on a track. 

Grade: D

21. UMass Invite 5K- April 30th in Amherst, MA

This was another performance that is really bad on paper, but I simply had nothing on that day. Felt bad very early and just had to gut it out. 15:54 is the worst ever track 5K I've run and a very disappointing run for late April. A poor result, but a race where I felt I did nothing wrong and just didn't have it. 

Grade: D+

20. Whiteface Mountain Race- July 2nd in Wilmington, NY

This one, as with the case with many of my summer races was a poor result but one where I simply didn't have the fitness to succeed. I'm trying to improve my mountain racing so it was not a step forward to be over 10 minutes behind some of the Master's mountain runners like Steve Brightman, Tim Van Orden and Jeff Walker. Just so far out of this one and not competitive in the slightest. Easily my worst mountain performance by far but comes with the qualifier that I missed a full week of running shortly before after a horrible ankle sprain. So the expectations were low, but not quite that low. 

Grade: C-

19. America East Indoor 5K- February 25th in Boston, MA (BU)

A disappointing race where I was shooting for a PR but faded badly to 15:42 and near last (7:25/8:17 splits- so 14:50 5K first half, 16:34 5K pace 2nd half). Really haven't figured out the 5K at all. That being said the hot early pace was definitely too much for my fitness at that time and it wasn't a huge failure- only 11 seconds slower than the previous 5K. Not a good run by any means, but not as bad as I initially thought. 

Grade: C

18. Detroit Half Marathon- October 16th in Detroit, MI

This was disappointing as I was hoping to hold 5:30 pace but completely fell apart in the second half all the way to a 6:01 mile 9 split. Just an ugly second half that I wouldn't have expected on my worst day. Also a dud of a performance in a otherwise strong fall season. This would be well worse on this list but I've bumped it up with the consideration that it's technically my debut half marathon. If you've never done something before, there is a bit of learning curve and plenty of room for growth. But unexpected after doing a lot of what I felt was quality training. 

Grade: C

17. Beach to Beacon 10K- August 6th in Cape Elizabeth, ME

This was not a good result- I was shooting for 33:30 and completely fell off the second half to finish in 34:49, not even a road PR which is not a good PR for me. But this was my first road race in nearly a year and I knew my fitness had a long way to go. So it wasn't where I was hoped to start, but a starting point nonetheless. 

Grade: C+

16. Bottone Mile- August 10th in Westerly, RI

My goal was to break 4:40, I ran 4:39. Not a good race- I barely got under and I believe it was due to a timing error. I also got destroyed by Jake the last quarter mile. I also ran 6 seconds slower than last year, slower than 2020 when I was alone and the same time as 2018 where I was doing it as a workout. But I met my goal and was not in shape at all at this point, so hard to expect much more even if what I did run was not impressive. 

Grade: C+

This is the divide in quality at this point- every race going forward was not necessarily great but I could find some positives in and were at least decent. So to have 16 races being at least solid was a good indication of the improvement from 2021 with only 5 races I'd consider solid from that year. I found most of my races fell in the B rating category- good but not quite great and something to improve on. 

15. George Davis 2 Mile- April 23rd in Lowell, MA

This was an okay run- 13 second PR (bad/outdated PR) but made some poor tactical decisions that prevented me from running faster. Overall a decent run as I did get the PR but could have gone better and probably under 9:30 (ran 9:32). 

Grade: B-

14. Dash to the Finish Line 5K- November 5th in New York, NY

This race felt like a step backwards going from 15:36 at Hartford to 15:57. But looking at the conditions- hot day, uphill course and felt very flat I think it was respectable to break 16. Really did not feel strong at all at this so glad to gut it out enough to prevent a bad time. 

Grade: B-

13. UNH Outdoor 3K- April 2nd in Durham, NH

Raced this one pretty well in some big winds- 15mph on the very open UNH track. Stayed in the race, took over pacing duties when it got too slow and kicked as hard as I could on the last lap. But I did go a little too late and lost to some people I felt I should have beaten. 

Grade: B-

12. UNH Indoor 3K- January 22nd in Durham, NH

This was a solid first race of the year. Nothing impressive in a 9:03, but a nice start after losing some time to injury and being my first indoor race since Feburary 2020. Generally executed the race well with a few minor mistakes, just not ready to run much faster.  

Grade: B

11. Falmouth Road Race- August 21st in Falmouth, MA

On paper this wasn't a great performance- fell off the pace hard in a relatively flat second half and couldn't even average sub-5:30 for 7 miles. But it was an absolutely brutal day weather wise and just about everyone outside the top 5 blew up, many far worse than me. I was happy with the improvement ( a few seconds faster/mile) over Beach to Beacon given the slightly longer distance and worse weather. 

Grade: B

10. Loon Mountain Race- July 10th in Lincoln, NH

This was not as good as my 2018 Loon, but I got out just as well for the first half/more runnable section and tried my best to gut out the steep parts. I struggled on the really steep sections but was happy with my overall time and was a huge step up from getting crushed in Whiteface. For my level of fitness going into the race and recovering from the ankle sprain, it's about as well as I could hope to do and a good point to work off of headed into the next mountain season.

Grade: B

9. Manchester Road Race- November 24th in Manchester, CT

This felt like a poor result while running the race- felt bad early, calves seized up during the downhill and just got passed repeatedly in the last mile without putting up any fight whatsoever. When looking at the result- 5:16 average for nearly 5 miles and a pretty big hill, it's a solid result and would easily be a PR for 5 miles. So not quite my strongest fall race, but pretty good for an "off" race. 

Grade: B

8. Sharon Triathlon- August 14th in Sharon, MA

While I go into these triathlons doing them for fun and completely undertrained (only doing 1-2 tune up bikes/swims), like Appleman last year, I surprised myself with what I was able to do. While my swim and T1 leg were slower than I hoped for, this was my fastest bike ever at 19.6 mph and the run was great averaging 5:30 pace for 4.4 miles- by far the fastest I've done off the bike. It felt like a pretty good sign that I ran faster in my run leg of a triathlon than I did at Beach to Beacon. 

Grade: B+

7. Ocean Road 10K- October 2nd in Narragansett, RI

The pace for this one was far from impressive- 5:40 pace for 6 miles. But it's worth qualifying that the entire race (point to point) was going into a 25mph headwind. With a open and unprotected course next to the ocean, the runners definitely felt the full force of those winds at several points. Brutal dealing with that but kept the gas on and ran a strong race for the conditions. Very hard to analyze as it's impossible to know how much that is worth, but I felt that it was a pretty good effort and nice opener to my true fall racing season. 

Grade: B+

6. New Englands Indoor 5K- February 4th in Boston, MA (Reggie Lewis Center)

One of my best efforts of the year, stuck in this well, ran tough and made all the right moves to narrowly win the slow heat. This was on poor preparation as well as we got there 40 minutes before the race and had to skip a chunk of the warm-ups as well as making for a nerve-wracking pre race but I didn't let that affect me. Just disappointing to run strong throughout to still run a slow 15:31. One of those races where I can't fault anything I did in the race but the time wasn't quite there. 

Grade: B+

These last 5 races I feel went very well with little room for improvement. I was quite happy with the result for these. Another big improvement from 2021 with only 1 performance meeting that criteria. 

5. Maine Indoor 3K- January 30th in Orono, ME

Like the 5K, I felt I raced this one quite well in non-ideal conditions (woke up at 5AM, 3.5 bus ride and didn't race until 5PM). Got out strong, stuck it out in the middle and then closed very well (2:52 last 1K with a 30s last 200) for a 10 second improvement over the last weekend. 8:53 is ultimately not an especially memorable time but I feel I was mentally tough, tactics were on point and can't imagine doing much more at this specific race. It also felt great to close that hard as a good finish is rare for me. 

Grade: A-

4. Big Steps 5K- November 13th for Needham, MA

This one was a little disappointing at the time as I wanted to break my 15:36 from Hartford, but looking back it was a strong run. I really went for it and had by far my best ever 2 mile split in a 5K going 4:48 then 4:56, but just couldn't quite bring it home for a PR. I think if I had felt just a little better this could have been the best race of the year for me, so it'll have to settle for 4th. It's also worth putting in context that it was only disappointing because I ran so well at Hartford. Without that performance, I'd be thrilled with this. 

Grade: A-

3. Holy Cross 1500m- April 26th in Worcester, MA

Went into this one with low expectations- random just announced weekday meet, just raced hard on Saturday three days prior and didn't not have the speed to do well. I felt I could exceed my 4:37 indoor mile (about 4:19 for 1500m) but did not have any expectations to break 4:10. So to run hard and tough throughout and come away with a 4:06, just a second away from a PR when I had far superior speed was a great surprise. Was suffering and in oxygen debt for this one not being used to the faster pace, so when the speed comes back I should be ready for a PR. It was pretty nice to run 4:06 in one of my worst years for speed. 

Rating: A

2. Philadelphia Half Marathon- November 19th in Philadelphia, PA

My biggest goal of the year was to run a good half marathon, specifically at this race and I feel I did that. It feels great to cross off a sub-5:30 pace for the half marathon distance after a lot of uncertainty and really not knowing if I could deliver that day. It's not my best of the year as I feel sub-1:11 was achievable on my best day, but a great step forward in the longer distances. 

Rating: A

1. Hartford 5K- October 8th in Hartford, CT

This was probably the single most surprising race result of the last 4 years. I came in with what felt like an ambitious goal of breaking 15:50 but expecting to be just under 16. Went out there and executed the first 2.5 miles to perfection, running fast even splits but never digging a hole to struggle later. I didn't quite have the gas for a big kick but was thrilled to cross the line in 15:36, well under my expectations and road PR. Shows that the door is definitely open to get under 15:30 or faster at some point as I don't feel this was me at my fittest, just me executing the race near-perfectly which doesn't come often. 

Rating: A+

Season by Season Analysis

I'd break my year down into 4 distinct seasons, with the summer being almost two parts. I had the traditional indoor and outdoor season, then a messy summer season being banged up from ankle sprain and out of shape into a two month road racing season.

1. Indoor Track (January and February)

Indoor was fine. Not really what I wanted or particularly impressive but I came off a injury that cut my volume back quite a bit and took me until mid to late January to be completely healthy and feel confident racing. My first three results were solid and encouraging- 9:03 then 8:53 for 3K and 15:31 for 5K but the next two races fell short with a 4:37 mile and 15:42 5K. I feel I did the best I could with limited fitness. The last two were just too fast for me and I fell apart. I was fine with how it went, if mildly disappointing but felt I was set up well for outdoor. Really only one effort that I could call bad or had to question if I gave it my all. 

2. Outdoor Track (March-Early May)

Outdoor was a disaster, easily the most disappointing and poor season of the four. I didn't have a low fitness excuse that I had in indoor and the summer. I was in a fantastic place coming off March running upper 70s for mileage each week and getting in some solid workouts. Ultimately, the coaching situation was quite poor and the distance program really suffered for it as there was no communication with the head coach and the longer distance athletes were withheld from many meets with zero explanation why. The season was really frustrating dealing with this. I was really stressed out and considering quitting as I would get better opportunities. I decided to stick out and I don't know if it was the best decision. When we finally got opportunities, it was really windy and I didn't have the kind of workouts behind me to meet my goals. Ended the season with two really rough races where I completely fell apart and then had to bow out early with an achilles injury. 

3A. Mountain Racing (May to July)

This was fine. I was hoping to do well at the two USATF mountain championships at Whiteface and Loon. I finally started to come around fitness wise before spraining my ankle horribly on a mountain run and missing a full week. This was just two weeks before Whiteface and it was a small miracle that I was able to race Whiteface at all as this easily could end any summer racing at all. My Whiteface results were poor and my Loon was just okay. But I was happy to race at both after the horrible ankle sprain. One of those where I wasn't happy with the results but happy to be there given the circumstances.

3B. Summer Road Racing (August to September)

This was the get fit by racing and get used the racing burn again season. I didn't have great fitness and it showed, being a full minute plus off my goal at Beach to Beacon. I ever so slowly improved and got to a decent place fitness wise but this was really just a group of mediocre performances. I got to do some pretty cool events though. Season 4 was supposed to be cross country but I had to drop out of my first ever race after spraining the opposite ankle during my XC opener. Like the other sprain, I came back very well from this as I was back to long tempo workouts by the next weekend and was ready to race again come October. 

4. Fall Road Racing (October and November)

After a disappointing season where things just didn't go well and a disappointing season due to a lack of fitness, I approached this season reasonably fit and feeling ready to go. And it mostly delivered- I raced 7 times with only one race in there that wasn't at least decent and had several races that went very well. I ultimately feel I came out with a 5K and Half Marathon that I am happy with and the only successful season of the year without having to qualify that by any means or make excuses. 

Takeaways

1. I was much healthier than 2021, but not as healthy as I'd want. I successfully dealt with a minor knee injury in January which went away quickly enough. I was 100% healthy for a while in the winter/spring before straining my achilles and having to end Outdoor on a poor note finishing dead last in the America East 10K (in pain) and missing the New England championships. The biggest injury was spraining my ankle horribly in June. I recovered pretty well from this only missing a week but it took until late September to get really fit. I then sprained my ankle in September having to drop out of my first XC race. Relatively non-disruptive though as I was back at full volume/working out by the end of the week. Then in late October and November my knee flared up which was tough to run and work out with. But fortunately never bad enough to drop the volume and I made it through the fall season in one piece. I ended up missing 3 races- New England Championships for Outdoor with an achilles injury, Gunstock Mountain Race and Stavros Beach Run with ankle sprains just before. I never missed more than a week of consecutive running. So overall it wasn't ideal and there were some struggles but a big improvement from 2021 where I was basically in pain/barely running the first three months and it took a long time to fully recover from that. 

2. Ankle instability continues to be a problem. After having a fantastic year on trails in 2020, running mountains frequently, trail races and FKTs, 2021 was a disappointing step back as I had many painful ankle twists and sprains which prevented from me having a big year in the mountains. After having no serious sprains from January-May this year I thought I was on the right track after getting through two technical mountain runs just fine. But I landed wrong in mid-June and had a horrible ankle sprain, unable to even get back to the parking lot (my Dad picked me up on top of the auto road). I was able to get back to running much quicker than possible but could feel the lack of stability and had to use an ankle brace on future mountain runs that summer before spraining the other ankle in an XC race in September (nowhere near as bad). Writing this at the conclusion of the year, I only have the occasional painful twist that I can shake off but it's disappointing that I had bad ankle problems in 2022. I've been doing band work daily for them which seems to be a big help. So hopefully 2023 my ankles can be strong and sprain free again.

3. I failed to have a running streak. While the above injuries again were relatively mild compared to 2019 and 2021, it did stop multiple running streaks. I had a 39 day streak going in June before the ankle sprain. I then got going again and ran every day of July and August to have a 79 day streak before another sprain in September. The September one was disappointing as the streak was longer and I hoping to go until the end of the season in late November. I'd like to run every day of 2023 but I'd have to be extremely healthy to actually happen. 

4. The Exit From UNH TF was poor. I've already written a bit about this in weekly logs and above in the outdoor season section, but it was a very disappointing senior year as part of the UNH XC/TF programs. The first three years had already been disappointing as I had so many injuries and struggles that I only raced 2 full seasons of 9 possible. I felt like while the coach was a nice guy, his training wasn't right for me at all and he wasn't willing to change that. So I was excited for a change as he retired but then the replacing coach ended up not only continuing a poor level of training but conducted himself in a very unprofessional manner that made it an unpleasant experience for many of the distance athletes. In the end, I had a negative experience being an athlete as part of the program and unfortunately would advise incoming athletes to look elsewhere. At this point it's in the past and I'm happy where I'm at with my training now, but it's hard to not to think about how college running could have been drastically different. 

5. The knee was very unpleasant to deal with. Despite keeping the workout intensity to what I felt was moderate, I developed knee pain and irritation towards the end of October that made for unpleasant weeks. It's pretty much resolved now but it's always scary to deal with new pains where you don't know on a day to day basis if you can continue running on your current schedule. Fortunately, I got through the fall season okay but a big part of running is having fun with and this period was not fun at all. 

6. Racing in and exploring big cities. Having never raced on the streets of a major city before it was a lot of fun this year to compete on the roads of New Haven, Hartford, New York City, Detroit, and Philadelphia. There's something really cool being part of large competitive events down closed roads through the heart of a major metro. Enjoyable and something I'd like to do again. It's also fun to explore the urban and culture rich sections of the United States. 

7. Visiting Europe. Getting to go to Iceland and Scotland this summer was a real delight and easily one of my favorite trips ever. Scotland (and England) is personally one of my favorite places I've visited as the culture and cities there are just incredible. After not leaving the United States since 2019, it was great to finally get away. 

8. Cross Country was a failure. After many disappointing cross country seasons in the last 4-5 years, a major goal of the goal of the fall was to have a strong XC season, specifically targeting sub 26 in the 8K at the Franklin Park course. Instead, I sprained my ankle not even 400 meters into my opener, dropped out and never stepped foot on an XC course since. It was a disappointing way to go out and with plans for a potential fall marathon, I likely won't have an XC season in 2023. I hope I can find room for it in the future as I do feel I have unfinished business and several meets I'd like to take a serious shot at. 

9. Other Miscellaneous Thoughts. Just addressing some of 2021 takeaways and what changed. Achilles- this has been a real issue in 2019-2021 but overall wasn't too bad in 2022. The rough part was banging it up at the end of outdoor and being so bad I had to shut down the season early and take a forced 4 days off. But after that, I only had some slight discomforts here and there and nothing I couldn't work through. Sickness- I avoided sickness pretty well. Other than getting fairly sick and feeling terrible at the end of Scotland trip, I never had any major sickness and it never ended up affecting a race. I'm also done with the NCAA which I'm mostly happy about. There's too many uncertainties going to a new coach and I feel I will do a better job keeping myself healthy than most coaches would. Plus I like to race road and trail and the NCAA is exclusively XC and track. I would like to improve in those as well, but not limit myself to just that.

Mountain/Trail progress

Westerly Road Grab. I'm actually getting towards the end of this one. Been using work mornings where I'm short on time to get this done which has been great as the town is dead at 5AM so no one minds me running on their dead end rural streets and I otherwise probably wouldn't be interested in these monotonous routes. But I'm over 80% completed now- a big step up from being around 50% when started in July/August and will likely finish in Winter 2023. It's been fun tracking down the roads and areas left and see them slowly disappear off the map. The only disappointment is the tracking website I've been using, Streetferret, has many roads on the list that are actually private driveways/don't exist so I can't get credit for them/complete 100%. 

+ 4 NH 4,000 Footers. This one is actually a little disappointing. Marginally better than 2021 which had 2 but I was hoping for more. I did cross the halfway marking as I'm now at 27/48. I was hoping to get up to the White Mountains 1-2 more times and possibly get up to 30 but it just didn't work out with frequent racing and then hurting my ankle again in September. 

+3 Catskill High Peaks. Doing the Catskill high peaks wasn't something I intended on doing but I'm now at 10/33. Not being so far up or alpine means the snow and ice has completely melted there in late Spring while the White mountains haven't. This was by far the best mountain of the year for me as my ankles held up fine whereas I'd deal with sprains and weakness during the rest of the summer. There's a few more loops I'd like to do and getting in 2-3 high peaks in late May/early June each year is a trend I hope to continue. 

+2 Adirondack High Peaks. Unlike the last two, I'm not actively going for these as the Adirondacks are considerably further away and not doable for a day trip like the others (I'm at 3/46). But they are a beautiful and extremely remote area worth checking out. It worked out for this year as I was there for Whiteface and got to do the fantastic hike of Cascade and Porter. I'd like to do more of these down the road but will wait until I finish the NH and Catskill peaks. 

North South Trail- all 78 miles complete. I finished the North South trail in November on Thanksgiving weekend. This had been somewhat of summer and fall project for me, doing certain sections of it and eventually completing it. I had never really thought about doing the whole thing before but realized it wouldn't be too hard given it's only 78 miles and it was fairly satisfying to finish the trail spanning across Rhode Island. As mentioned in posts previously, it's not a great trail with so many road sections or simply lousy trail sections but given I've been a RI person my whole life and enjoying exploring trails, I was happy to finish this one. 

+ 1 Acadia National Park Peaks. Only up here for one day and settled for making a neat loop in the main area rather than doing a bunch of OABs to bag peaks. It was a fun day and I always love coming here, one of my favorite places I've been anywhere. Definitely in 2023 or very soon I'd like to come back for several days and finish all the peaks as there isn't too much left. 

Went to All 6 New England states. A small accomplishment, but with races going on often and visiting other places it's not always easy to get around to all 6 New England States (Vermont and Maine are really the only two harder ones). So it was good to do that in 2022, as well as racing in all 6. Looking at my 2023 plans, I don't know if that will happen.

0 High Points. Overall a solid year for exploration and going to cool mountains, but the one major component I missed was high points. After a great trip in 2021, I had to step back a bit and wasn't able to do any high points. The problem is such an exhaustive trip with constant driving and hiking is that it's very difficult to keep running as a priority. So I probably won't high point again until I have the time/money for it and not have to sacrifice any quality running (so fit in a down/off period). I'm thinking 2023 won't quite work for that but hopefully I can pick it back up soon enough.

Top 3 Local Running Spots of 2022

3. Arcadia Management Area. Awesome place to go for a quiet run in the woods. I like to run on the dirt roads as well as the singletrack trails, both are great. I run here quite a bit in the summer as the shade and solitude is welcome. 

2. Ninigret Park/Wildlife Refuge. Great local spot only 15 minutes away. Aside from when some bigger events are held which is rare, it's very quiet here. Excellent place to run soft surfaces without going out for a while as nothing is technical at all. Just nice groomed paths all to myself. 

1. Burlingame State Park/Management Area. The Vin Gormley trail is ideal singletrack to me for easy running- very quiet, well marked and easy to follow and most of it is non-technical dirt. No slower slogging through technical bits and the lacks of rocks/roots make it a viable option for a wet day as well. Local and a great way to go for a run in the woods. There's also many side trails off the VG- several dirt road options in the Northern section, some nice pine forest trails in the south, Sammy C's if you're looking for something more technical and the campground roads are closed in the offseason and great for a quiet road run or fartlek workout. 

I certainly enjoyed running in some other places- but these are the three staples. Always enjoy runs in these places. Honorable mention to Bluff Point/Haley farm which is nice but a bit harder to make a full 10 miles and gets significantly more crowded than any of these three. 

Stats

Total Yearly Mileage: 3,378, PR. Cut it very close as I only ran 31 more miles than 2020. But I don't think I was expecting to PR (maybe I was originally going to lay low during the summer) as I put my strava goal as 2,600. 

Highest Week: 84.5 Miles, PR (September 19th-25th)

Lowest Week: 12 Miles (June 20th-26th)

Longest Run: 18.7 Miles (Natchaug Trail, November 27th)

Highest Month: March, 341 Miles, PR

Lowest Month: June, 207 Miles, PR

Monthly Mileage since 2018. Similar year to 2020 except my high months were a bit higher and low months a bit lower. PR for that specific month is highlighted- PRs for March, April, August, September and October.

Mileage chart comparison. Consistent but not as consistent as 2020. No majors dips unlike 2021.

# of Days Running: 344 (94%), PR 

# of Days Off from Running: 21 (6%)

# of Days Active: 350 (96%), probably a PR

# of Days Off from Exercise: 15 (4%)

Elevation Gain: 203,000 ft (just missed 205,000 from 2020 but my watch is probably much more accurate now so likely a bigger gap)

Most Elevation Gain in a single run: 4,531'- Ben Nevis, July 23rd. Down quite a bit from last two years.

# of Mountain Runs: 13 (+ 3 hikes). Similar to 2020 but feels like a lot less for some reason.

# of Mountains Summited: 22 (Down from 51 in 2020 and 33 last year)

Highest Mountain Summitted: Mount Hancock, NH, 4,420'

Longest Running Streak: 79 Days, probably a PR (Late june to Early september)

Longest Non-Running Streak: 5 Days (ankle sprain injury late June)

Coldest Run: 10°F, feels like 1°F- Charlestown, RI on January 16th

Hottest Run: 83°F, feels like 83°F- Edinburgh, UK on July 18th (probably, I'm not going to check every one. This one is weird because Scotland is generally much cooler than New England but we went during a heat wave.)

# of Races: 26 (up from 13 in 2021 and 10 in 2020, although those were due to COVID cancellations and injuries)

# of Races Finished: 25

# of Wins: 0

# of Races Where I Got Last: 1

Terrain Breakdown:

Road- 11

XC- 1 (which I did not finish)

Trail- 1 (hopefully get this up in 2023)

Mountain- 2

Indoor Track- 5

Outdoor Track- 5

Triathlon- 1

# of Countries Run In: 4 (US, Iceland, UK, Canada)

Movies Watched: 141

Video Games Completed: 2 (!)

# of States with Strava Activities (includes biking, hiking, etc.): 11

I did not include warm-ups/cool-downs as separate activities nor did I include very brief activities. Also based off starting location (hence why there is no Canada below).

Rhode Island- 179 Activities (46%)

New Hampshire- 99 Activities (26%, this unfortunately will likely never be this high again)

Connecticut- 48 Activities (12%)

Massachusetts- 17 Activities (4%)

United Kingdom- 14 Activities (4%)

New York- 9 Activities (2%)

Maine- 8 Activities (2%)

Vermont- 3 Activities (<1%)

Iceland- 3 Activities (<1%)

Pennsylvania- 2 Activities (<1%)

Georgia- 2 Activities (<1%)

Michigan- 1 Activity (<1%)

Ohio- 1 Activity (<1%)

# of Municipalities with Strava Activities: 73 (starting location only and only incorporated places)

*New Municipality in 2022 (on strava)

Durham, NH- 73 Activities

Westerly, RI- 65 Activities

Charlestown, RI- 58 Activities

Stonington, CT- 17 Activities

Richmond, RI- 14 Activities

Groton, CT- 11 Activities

South Kingstown, RI- 9 Activities

Exeter, RI- 9 Activities

West Greenwich, RI- 9 Activities

Dover, NH- 9 Activities

Narragansett, RI- 5 Activities

Voluntown, CT- 5 Activities

Municipalities with 3 or less activities:

*First time in 2022

Connecticut- *Ashford, East Lyme, *Greenwich, *Hartford, *Killingly,  *Ledyard, Manchester, New Haven, *Norwich, *Rocky Hill, *Union, Waterford

Georgia- *Hapeville

Maine- Bar Harbor, Camden, Cape Elizabeth, New Gloucester, *Orono, York

Massachusetts- Amherst, Boston, *Carlisle, Falmouth, *Hadley, Ipswich, *Lowell, Lincoln, Needham, Newbury, *Sharon, *Waltham, *Worcester

Michigan- *Detroit

New Hampshire- Franconia, Lincoln, Madbury, Newfields, Newington, Newmarket, Northwood, Portsmouth, Rye, *Stratham, *Waterville Valley

New York- New York, *Shandaken, *Stony Point, White Plains

Ohio- *Lakewood

Pennsylvania- Philadelphia

Rhode Island- *Bristol, Coventry, *Foster, Hopkinton, Jamestown, New Shoreham, Newport

Vermont- Burlington

Iceland- Reykjavik

United Kingdom- *Edinburgh, *Glasgow, *Musselburgh

States Run in for the first time: Georgia, Michigan and Ohio

Favorite City Visited: Queensferry, UK

Favorite Big City Visited: Edinburgh, UK

2022 Strava Heatmaps

I really like the strava heatmaps that come with the premium and seeing where I've been. Here are my 2022 heatmaps, with a New England view, U.S. view and world view.

Pictorial Highlights

January: First race of the year, last time racing on the Paul Sweet Oval (NH)

February: Car getting stuck behind some pretty thick snow (NH)

March: Exploring Willowdale State Forest (MA)

April: Holy Cross 1500m in the rain (MA)

May: One of the few photos I took (RI)

June: Cool view off Wittenberg Mountain (NY)

Photo overload for July- by far my most exciting month

July: Awesome views off Cascade Mountain (NY)

July: Wild and beautiful trail running in Thorsmork (Iceland)

July: Massive walls of Edinburgh Castle (UK)

July: Cool water crossing in Queensferry (UK)

July: Eilean Donan Castle (UK)

August: Got to check off a bucket list race at Beach to Beacon (ME)

September: Easton's Beach in Newport (RI)

October: First time racing in Canada (ON)

November: Wrapping the season up with Manchester Road Race (CT)

December: Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan (NY)

Goals

Unlike 2022, I have plenty of goals for the new year. I also assigned a goal difficulty. This doesn't reflect my confidence in being able to achieve the goal- I wouldn't set a goal that I don't think I could hit, but just reflects the amount of things in running that would have to go right to get them done. 

1. Maintain health and consistency throughout the year

This is my number one goal each and every year and should be every runner's. Without this, it's extremely difficult to perform or meet goals unless a runner has some unbelievable talent behind them. The biggest factor preventing from me doing well in the college year was injury and lack of consistency. Putting in months and years of good, consistent training and mileage leads to great fitness gains and overall racing much better. On the opposite side, taking time off to deal with injuries is a major disruption in fitness and can be a weeks long or months long setback while also just being depressing to deal with either being in pain or unable to run. In order to meet any time or PR goals, I'll need to avoid any major disruptions in training and be pretty healthy throughout the year. It's nearly impossible to be 100% healthy all the time, especially when training hard but I'd be really happy to be healthy enough not to miss any races or cut back on workouts/mileage significantly. 

Difficulty of goal: 9/10

The next two goals are related to the above points:

2. Run every day of 2023

Another goal that will be very difficult as any serious injury can be really hard to run through. Getting a running streak is really satisfying and it was sad to have to end a long streak at the end of the summer due to an ankle sprain. 

Difficulty of goal: 10/10. I hope I can get through the year but this will be an extremely difficult one to pull off while doing full training. 

3. Finish a trail race without spraining my ankle

 My ankles have been a source of anxiety and depression over the last 2 years after being able to run in the mountains and trails in 2020 carefree and happy. That hasn't been the case the last two years with many painful ankle twists and sprains which has made it a major risk to run hard on trails as it's so easy to resprain and set myself further back. I do really enjoy trails and haven't done a hard effort on singletrack since May 2021. It takes a long time to fully recover from that, but I'm hoping to return to hard trail running in 2023.  

Difficulty of goal: 6/10. Hard to say, I've put in a lot of work to recover ankle strength but it takes a very long to have 100% healthy/strong ankles that aren't prone to spraining. 

Note: In a poor scenario, I can get through trail races with the use of an ankle brace but I do think it sacrifices some of the smooth movement needed to run technical sections fast and with how tight it is can cause problems for my achilles. I'd rather wear a brace than not race trails but it's certainly not the same as running technical trails without worry. 

4. Complete the Westerly Road Grab

Being mid-January, I'm actually almost done with this and it likely will only be a project for the winter. But it should be satisfying to finish running every road in Westerly, or at least my definition of that. 

Difficulty of goal: 1/10.

5. Finish the Nipmuck Trail

Cool rural and woodsy trail in CT, should be able to check this one off. 

Difficulty of goal: 2/10.

6. Finish the Midstate trail

 This is a 92 mile long trail from the RI to NH border that seems much nicer than the North-South trail. Likely a year long project given the distance and some of the legs being a little further away. 

Difficulty of goal: 5/10.

7. Get up to 35 NH 4,000 Footers

 I'm currently at 27, so that's not a big jump. Trying to chip away on this one and finish it in the next 2-3 years.

Difficulty of goal: 6/10.

8. Run 3,500 Miles on the Year

 I nearly ran 3,400 this year and only shot for high mileage in the fall as well as missing a few weeks to injury. If I can achieve or come close to achieving the first two goals, I think this should be manageable. I'd like to hit a 90 mile week too but it's not a major goal of mine.

Difficulty: 6/10

Time goals:

9. Break 8:40 in the 3K

This one really should have happened a while ago, so I'm going for it this indoor season. It won't be easy but I think if training goes well and I get in the right race, it's certainly achievable. 

Difficulty: 7/10

10. Break 15 minutes in the 5K 

The essential distance runner's goal for guys without a ton of talent. Something I've wanted for a long time but just haven't had the training or consistency to approach. I think if I have good training and get in the right race, it should be doable. But certainly not easy. 

Difficulty: 8/10

11. Break 15:30 in the road 5K

I ran well on the roads this past and it's not a huge stretch to go from 15:36 to 15:29 but will feel like a nice step up. The road 5K is such a common distance that there should be plenty of opportunities to check this off. 

Difficulty: 6/10

11. Break 1:10 in the half marathon

This was my big goal of 2022 but was ambitious and I wasn't quite ready for it. After running low 1:11, I think having another quality training block or two it is definitely doable. I'm just not sure if I will go for fast half marathon this year with a Spring track focus and possible marathon in the fall, but if I do I'll definitely want to be under 70 minutes. 

Difficulty: 9/10

12. Break 2:30 in the marathon. 

If running goes well through the year, I'd like to take a crack at fall marathon and try to break 2:30. I think that a reasonable yet difficult time to go for in the first one and one I would definitely be satisfied with. 

Difficulty: 8/10. 

That's a wrap on 2022. It was a step in the right direction both in terms of health and race results, but I think I can run significantly better and make progress towards some lifetime running goals. Odd years have been a bit of a curse for me so I'm hoping 2023 can be the end of that.