Brickyarders at a crossroads

It seems a good time to think long and hard about where we're going with the group. Recent internal events have made it clear that we are a diverse group with different needs, takes, interests etc. I've been thinking about remarks made by the "main players" and just wanted to say that I now realize things that I did not realize before and that I for one want very much for us to talk more to each other about what we want our group to be and what we should do to make it that way. So it's a good time to step back and think how important our friendships are and move forward with a new vision.

Lee

East Hartford Memorial Mile

Results

I'm out in Watkins Glen celebrating Linda's Dad's 90th today. Speaking of 90 year olds, Bill Tribou ran a
40 1/1 Bill Tribou 5 90 M Granby CT 10:26
yesterday and Tom Walsh managed a
19 6/8 Tom Walsh 44 56 M Wethersfield CT 6:31
and Ray Prest a
31 1/1 Ray Prest 30 71 M Ellington CT 7:16
I ran this last year but couldn't make it this year because of the birthday. Peter Drakopoulos, a former student of mine at Central, ran
12 4/8 Peter Drakopoulos 27 51 M Rocky Hill CT 5:53
Instead of a mile, I ran 16 in the hills of Watkins Glen. I'll be running a Brickyard-like rails to trail this morning w/ my brother-in-law.
For those of you running Iron Horse, see you there on Sunday!
Lee

Delaney Dash 2011

Click the picture to see all the pictures.

Delaney Dash

Hi All, just wanted to congratulate everyone on the Delaney Dash!!! There was some great running and racing out there, I'm quite pleased with the way everything went and hope everyone else is too! My triathlon training is ramping up again over the next few weeks so I'll be taking a bit of a break from the Brickyarders and wish everyone all the best in upcoming races.
Happy Running- Lani
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

See you all at the ...

Last year's photolog ...

2010 Delaney Dash

Save Cedar Mountain!

This has nothing to do with the Brickyarders ... or does it? I think it does. If you get the Hartford Courant, check out the lead story in today's paper

National Builder Has Ambitious Plans For Cedar Mountain, But Many Newington Residents Opposed

I mention this here because

1. I live at the base of beautiful Cedar Mountain
2. There's a huge, big, important meeting tonight
3. I've written a letter to the editors of both the Hartford Courant and Newington LIFE
4. If you want an awesome trail run, Cedar Mountain, Cedar Mountain, Cedar Mountain
5. I've posted several comments comments on the Save Cedar Mountain website

Mandy and Annie Rose finish strong at Ten Penny Duathlon

2nd 5K - click to see full size still of 3rd frame

Mandy, in her inaugural run since Annie Rose's birth, ran, rode and ran an impressive 5K, 28K, 5K in Glastonbury this morning. She has done at least two runs accompanied by future marathoner Miss Annie Rose

but this was her first solo effort. Randy and Judi cheered her on while Rose and Lee gave her encouragement in the 1st and 2nd 5Ks.

LBrad

Photos

Waydago Mandy! Welcome back!

This is what Mandy did in the 2nd 5K

Time   Moving Time  Distance Elev Gain Elev Loss Avg Pace
24:13     23:57     3.18     90        132       7:37

Update

Welcome Brent, and welcome back Kelsey. Sounds like everyone had a great run today, sorry to have missed it. Glad to hear things are moving along for Hogsback.
Today we rode over the IMLP bike course and went running afterwards. I had a truly epic experience. It involved doing the 7 mile dropoff descent (ave speed over 50 mph) into Keene- with traffic; in the rain; on roads that have not been swept from winter yet. This was followed by a real life RoadID experience when another rider was thrown off his bike by the poor road conditions, he passed out and had apparently broken some bones. His RoadID came in handy, we were able to call his wife. I lost my Ocean State Job Lot jacket in the process of rendering medical assistance as it went off the hospital with this poor fellow. Then I got lost, missed the aide station with the bags we had packed for ourselves. Had to go to a store, get some Powerade and regroup. Figured out how to get back to the Olympic arena for the start of lap 2. The descent was much more dramatic this time around as I had managed to break my derailer and could not shift properly. Then I flatted and got a fishhook stuck in my tire (back wheel of course). Then somehow the valve stem broke, but as the tire seemed to be holding air I proceeded on with the 17 mile climb back into Lake Placid. Could not believe I made it after all the stuff that happened.
It was a slow ride, and I often thought of quitting the ride and triathlon altogether. Then I remembered it's not about speed, place, fancy equipment, ect.. It's about overcoming fears and obstacles. 3 years ago, I was petrified to even get on a bike after an accident and had no idea how to swim...Will I finish or DNF this race, who knows. But I decided the operative part of the word Triathlon is Tri (think Try), and kept going today.

So we're off again in the morning with a 20 mile run.

Finally, my public service announcement for the day is don't go for a run in minimalist footwear after riding over a hundred miles in the rain. Little pebbles seem like large rocks.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Lani
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Welcome Brent!

Barbara, Rose, Lee, Brent and Kelsey 

Click the picture or link to see a full resolution picture.

Brent Stratton joined us this morning and Kelsey came too! Rose and Lee arrived early and ran about 4 before joining the group. Judi and Rose ran about 8 more together and met up w/ Barbara on their way back. We apologize to Barbara for leaving the parking lot early and thus missing her when she arrived at 8. Really sorry Barb for not waiting till 8 to take off.

Tray, Lee, Kelsey and Brent did about 12 together and talked about all sorts of stuff. What a wonderful thing we all have going here. Kelsey's trying out a completely different stride, keeping his legs closer to the ground; he's running shorter, quicker steps and also alternating between wearing shoes and bare feet. He's got Hartford full in mind and will thus join Tray and Lani (and Lee, not sure yet) at that race.

Tray had to split right after we were all done so couldn't make the photo shoot.

She gave Linda some chia seeds to give to Lee, complete w/ directions and detailed info on the benefits of these seeds. Will mix 'em into some yogurt in the coming days and when I streak by Dave, Barbara, Rose, Brent and Tray (just kidding about the Dave part) at this Saturday's Delaney Dash, you'll know this high energy food works.

Lani and Tray have been talking Hogsback and feel the director needs a co-director. I asked Tray if she was offering and she (thank you Tray) said "yes." All three of us have a director's check list (thank you Lani). I will be contacting the town officials early next week to get the needed permissions etc. I will be calling Kathy Schultz to ask her to head up the food end of things. Rose has offered her help and one thing I asked her to do is make a ridiculous amount of her ever-popular healthy oatmeal bars. No pizza this year. Bagels, bananas, watermellon will be on the menu. Linda will help with registration. If you want to volunteer (water stops, T-shirts, promotion, signage, photography, registration etc.) let me know.

Thinking of you Lani at Fireman Ironman training camp!

Lee

Lake Placid or Bust!

Hello Team, standing outside the stadium used in the 1932 and 1980 Olympic Games. Drove in over the bike course which looks very challenging. A lot of our agenda starts from the speedskating oval, and the finish is in the stadium come July. So the finish line seems like a good place to start this adventure. Going for a ride in a few minutes. It's sunny and almost 65 here so I'll send a little sun down to CT.

Lani

Performance Products

Hi All, this post comes at the suggestion of Mama Rose.

As runners, from time to time I guess we are all concerned about performance- could be a completion goal, time goal, race goal ect. That's the great part about this sport, there is always some new way to challenge yourself.

Mama Rose, for example, has just returned from Bed, Bath, and Beyond with performance bed sheets, guaranteed to bring down your 5K time by at least a minute if not more.
Lee is trying out some new plans and track workouts, courtesy of Brad Hudson, as well as dabbling in minimalist footwear. Tracy is anxiously awaiting the arrival of chia seeds from Amazon (that's amazon dot com not the Amazon) so we'll probably see her sprinting past us in her Super HI Brite shoes like she was Born To Run anytime now. Mary's got a little cross training action going on over there, with weekly swimming workouts and her stair routine. Not sure what Barb and Dave are doing at present, but we'd love to hear from our resident research scientist and her super fast husband on this matter. And, any thoughts from Judy? I am currently working with a foam roller, which seems to be stretching out my "hammies" nicely (Eddie should have had one of these things). I am also starting in a new product test for Gatorade, just got the delivery today. It's still in the research stage- no name, and in chewable tablet form at this point. It contains an ingredient called Quercitin which is supposed to make you super fast. I have to write a weekly review of the product for about 2 months. We'll see what happens. My other items for this weekend's trip include Slime tubes, a hot head, and my trusty heart rate monitor. It would be great if everyone could update the group about how these things are working for them in training and racing.

Peter and I are heading out to the West Hartford Reservoir soon for the Thursday nite HTC trail run. Nope that's not a typo, that's Peter out of running retirement!

Hope everyone has a great run on Saturday. Please let anyone who is interested know that we are in the process of forming a jog/walk contingent to our Saturday morning group, hoping to enlist Marco, Peter, Linda, Mary and many more...

-Lani
If you can dream it, you can do it. Walt Disney
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Run Faster

This is a work in progress. Isn't everything?

Brent Stratton told me the best book he's read on how to improve your 5K (10K, 1/2, full) is by Brad Hudson. I got it out of the library and have started to read it. Looks like it's going to be very useful and very good. I've scanned the Foreward and the first few pages of the Introduction. I'll scan the rest of the Introduction tomorrow but I just wanted to get this on the wire before I retire (that's rhymespeak for go to bed).

Brad Hudson

Update (5/19/2011): The scanning is complete.

Lake Waramaug Pictures from Carl Hunt

These pictures were sent to me by Carl Hunt. All participants in the 2011 Jack Bristol Lake Waramaug Ultras got a disc. I created thumbnails of the pictures that had Lani, Tray, Sherry, Rose and / or myself, and then created what's called an image map so you can click on them and see the larger image.

Please click Ms Vroeginday.

Tray at JBLWU 2011

Happy Wet Trails!

Thought I would give my brutally honest opinion of this morning's trail run with Lani and Kathy Shultz. In 2 words, "Holy cow!" These women mean serious business and while the run was no more than a walk in the park for them, I was struggling to keep my heart from beating out of my chest at times.

We started with "only 5-6 min." (Kathy's words) of uphill running. I'm not gonna lie - I was nervous about the rest of the run after that. We got to the crest of the hill and, unfortunately, the much talked about stunning view was completely whited out with fog. Oh well, gives me a reason to go back.

We ran a little more and got to a flooded area that we had to cross. The water was flowing rapidly and was ankle deep with pointy, big rocks on the bottom. Now I was having fun! The more puddles and water we sloshed through, the better. Even though there were points on the trail with many obstacles, rough terrain, and water, those were the parts I enjoyed the most. Gee, I wonder why - maybe because my poor heart got a break and now my brain had to concentrate so as not to wipe out!

All kidding aside, I had a terrific morning. It was a challenge for this newbie to trail running. But I'm game for more! Thanks ladies!

Tray

More Granby!

Lani found us on a Granby website. I grabbed six pictures. Thanks Lani. The symmetry of the six frames occurred quite by accident; she's in the middle, twice, Rose is joined by three others, twice, and Lee's paired w/ Tray in one frame and somebody else in the other. Click the awesome runner below to see.

Medal Multiples

Lani's remark

"BTW, did anyone notice that the medals given out today are THE SAME EXACT ones they gave out at the Malibu Fitness Thanksgiving 5K last year??"

got me thinking ...

Newington has used this medal for several years. I *hadn't* noticed that Malibu Fitness used it too.

The front-most medal shows my 10-year medal. Newington is only 2 deep but now we know there're several ways to skin a cat.

Click the picture for full size.

Newington Library 5K Challenge

Click the link below or the picture to see more pictures and text.

 http://primepuzzle.com/tpf/newington-library-5k-2011.html

The Hartford Track Club and its awesome spin-off, Brickyarders, were in high gear this morning at the 15th annual Newington Library 5K Challenge. Tray PR'd (3rd time this year) and placed 3rd, Lani placed 1st, was 17th overall and 5th woman, Rose placed 2nd, LBrad took awesome pix, Peter emerged from a 2.5 year Rip Van Winklesque sleep and came across looking strong, Lee still needs to go under 22 minutes, Turkington placed 2nd (Lee tried a sneak by w/ Dickie at mile 2 but that only made him run faster), Flo placed 1st and, last but surely not least, Ms Cyr placed 1st. The rain held off (but came down hard when we all finished).

One last thing. Lee wore bib number 1 (thank you Kevin Mason, race director). This was because he has run 10 Newington Library 5K Challenges. He was awarded a medal for this achievement.

Oh yeah. Almost forgot. The homemade bread is really good Lani! Thanx.

And finally, next time, let's all run even faster! Track work. Track work. Track work.

Congrats to all runners

Thanks for the race report Barb!! And congrats to you and Dave- great times. We are at D+D in Newington for our post race refuel. Rose placed second in her division in 27:22. Lee ran 22:50-ish in his 10th straight Newington Race. Tracy PR'd with a 24:01n her third straight PR in a row!!! Peter, who has not run a step in 2.5 years crusied past a group of the Couch-to-5Kers in 38. I was able to keep up my 1st in age division streak with 22:00 flat (new vibram soled shoes worked great). Linda took some photos which I'm sure she will be posting later. Mary unfortunately was fighting illness and could not make it.
Barb if you have any photos, we love for you to post them.
Kudos to all runners, and Mary- feel better.
-- Live from D+D, Lani
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

New Balance and Vibram

Hello,  hope everyone is ready for the races in the am.  My beloved black and pink New Balance Minimus shoes are getting a bit ratty- ripped and worn from 5.5 months of use.  I went to the New Balance store in Avon today for a new pair, only to find that the enterire Minimus line has gone to a nylon mesh New Balance upper with a Vibram sole....the guys at the store convinced me they're the same shoes I've been wearing just an upgrade. Somewhat skeptical, I tried on some flats but it seems as if my foot could not tolerate the wedge like sole after these months of running in the Minimus.  NB is a good fit with my lifestyle, as they tend to use less leather and foriegn child labor--- and I have loved the Minimus line so far, so I decided to go for the upgraded model.

I went straight home, called Kathy Schultz and we went out for a  1 hour test run this evening @ MClean Game Refuge.  There really is not much difference from my old pair from what I can see so far.  Afterwards I went to the pool, and then the dry sauna, where I actually ran in place for 20 minutes at 163F in flip flops.  Another patron in there asked me if I was crazy, Yup, I said.

So,  I guess I've broken all of Dave and Lee's rules for setting yourself up to run a good 5K with running twice today, in a new pair of shoes, ect.  But I sure had fun!  We'll see how running with the Vibram soled shoes go....

Tempo Runs from Tray

Best of luck to Barbara @ Avon. Looks like Lani, Peter, Tray, Lee, Rose and Mary'll be tackling Newington Library 5K. Linda will be camera-ready at the finish line.

Tray sent the following to me and I thought others might be interested. This is her follow-up on what I did yesterday on the Newington HS track (see below).

      time           distance

  1  00:01:44        0.26
  2  00:01:09        0.14
  3  00:01:41        0.27
  4  00:01:15        0.13
  5  00:01:36        0.27
  6  00:01:11        0.12
  7  00:01:38        0.26
  8  00:01:29        0.13
  9  00:01:41        0.27
 10  00:01:16        0.13
 11  00:01:33        0.26

The 6 odd-numbered splits are the "fast" 1/4s. The even-numbered splits are the slow jog 1/8ths in between.

Here's what Tray sent. Thanks a lot. These 4 different schemes are easy to remember, are good for both short and long race training and contain a really slick mixture of different challenges.


    Traditional Tempo

Begin and end the run with a 1-mile warm-up/cool-down. Run these beginning and ending miles at an easy conversational pace. Run the miles in between at a pace that's 30-45 seconds slower than your 5K race pace. (*Example:* 1-mile warm-up; 2-miles @ tempo pace; 1-mile cool-down)

    Tempo Intervals

Begin and end the run with a 1-mile warm-up/cool-down. Run these beginning and ending miles at an easy conversational pace. For the miles in between, alternate between a 5-minute fast and a 5-minute slow interval. The fast intervals should be run at a pace that's 25-30 seconds slower than your 5K race pace. Continue alternating the fast and slow intervals until you reach the last cool-down mile. (*Example:* 1-mile warm-up; 3-miles alternating 5-min fast pace/5-min slow pace intervals; 1-mile cool-down)

    Race-Pace Tempo

**This tempo run is particularly good when training for a half or full marathon. Begin and end the run with a 1-mile warm-up/cool-down. Run the miles in between at your half or full marathon race pace. (*Example:* 1-mile warm-up; 4-miles @ race pace; 1-mile cool-down)

    Negative Split Tempo

**This tempo run is great for teaching your mind and body that you can "pull-it-out" on the back-half of a run. Run the first half of the run at an easy conversational pace. Run the back-half at tempo pace creating a negative split. (*Example:* Run out 3 miles @ easy pace; Run back 3 miles @ tempo pace)

Weekend plans

Hello everyone. Hope everyone has had a great week so far. Looks like we have another great weekend of racing ahead with the Avon 5k and the Newington Library 5k. Good luck to all runners.
I ran last night the Thursday nite group at WHR. We were a collection of injured and ailing runners no doubt. Todd Brown (just off Boston and now training for Hartford in the "New England's Finest Program") ran in bilateral leg splints, Peter Hawley and Cinde took a detour due to their injuries. Kathy, Katie, Todd, and I hobbled on. At about mile 5, my stomach started to complain about the 4 am bike ride, a long breakless day at work, and then a trail run. My mind drifted and I hit the dirt in a spectacular fashion sustaining abrasions to my hand and forearm which I'm hoping don't keep me out of the pool. Found out Tracy and I did not get lost on our run last Saturday, just did not go far enough on the last trail section- we were actually at the very end of the run.
Anyway, not sure what is going at the Brickyard on Sat so may join the HTC girls for a trail run(and I hope it's running not dirt diving this time around!) in Simsbury.
Happy running- Lani
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Race in the Park

It was a beautiful day at Walnut Park; the predicted rain never materialized. Lee ran 22:38, placing 2nd in age. Rose ran 27:12, placing 3rd. Only 14 seconds behind her, Judi finished 6th. Other runners we saw included Bekkie Wright, Joe Poloquin, Brent Stratton, Jeannette Cyr (placed, probably 1st, at age 76), Tom Walsh (who crossed w/ Lee), Jerry Augustine, Chris Chisholm, Sue Leslie.

Lee ran both races but never did hook up w/ Rose and Judi. It was a crowded field; way more women ran in their race than men in theirs. Judi and Rose climbed the barrier to get onto the course while Lee entered the course from the back. He spent the whole race trying to find them. Anyway, they ran well!

Click here or the picture below to see all the pictures.

 

 Hope is like a bird that senses the dawn and carefully starts to sing while it is still dark 

Trippin' in the Trails

Lani and I had an awesome trail run this morning. What a glorious day it is! Klutz that I am, took a spill not even a half mile into the run. It was a good recovery though, if I do say so myself. Only one small scraped spot on one hand. I'm happy to say that I made it up Kilkenny. Lani glided up with ease. She had to wait for me to make it to the top and then enthusiasticly asked if I wanted to run it again. "NO!," I exclaimed. And that was that. Lani was an expert navigator - one small but short unintended detour. Total mileage was 8.5. Hope the racers had a great morning as well. Looking forward to the race report and pics. -- Tray

giving

Peter gave me this bike today. Gave. As in "How much are you asking for it?" I unfortunately can't remember exactly what he said but it all translated to he wanted to give it to me. No money. Lani and Peter, between them, own (now that I have the above) "only" definitely 4 and possibly 5 bikes. Peter's bike is a 26 pound steel frame I can't remember who made it beautiful bike which he likes because it fits him better than the one I now own which he got from a friend of his who is smaller than he is; after riding it a bit it became clear he needed a bigger bike.

This is a Cannondale R400, shimano hardware, aluminum frame, new tires, recently tuned up, about 19 pounds, clip pedals, no "kickstand." I took it out for a test ride and ... knew it was a beautiful bike, one I would love to call my own.

Thank you Peter. Thank you Lani.

Tray is funny. She writes (I sent her the above photo)

"It is an awesome bike!  Maybe we'll have to do cross-training now.  We have road bikes for the roads and mountain/hybrid bikes for the trails.  Could you imagine us on the trails with a bike? Aye.  You'd be looking behind you as you approached a tree limb on the ground, flip over the handle bars... it would be a big mess."

Hey, guess what!?!!!! I got my Saucony ProGrid Lite Kinvaras today! Rose started it. Lee became interested. Tracy got jealous. And yes, they will be on my bare feet tomorrow morning at 8 am as I attempt to break 22 minutes. Note the word "bare." Hey, with all this talk of Vibram, no shoes at all, Born to Run, Nike has been messin' with our natural self, I'm going for it. Breaking all the rules. Run a race w/ shoes you've never used and do it w/o socks. If I don't PR tomorrow, maybe next week @ the Newington 5k.

track work

Tray (aka Aly(dar)) and Lee (aka Aff(irmed)) ran the Newington track this morning. Did a mile warm up and then ran 8 1/4s. Tray was shooting for 1:49s and Lee was shooting for 1:40s. We were pretty much on the money for each loop. Finished w/ an 8:30 mile. Here's what my Garmin says for the last 7 1/4s.

6:21 pace
6:16
6:27
6:35
6:49
6:00
5:50

Goal for Race in the Park is to run both men's and women's 5k.
Goal for Newington Library 5k: break 22 minutes.

Next week we're talking 880s (1/2 mile). The only way to get a PR in the 5k is to have interval workouts in the mix. Care to join us?

Lee

Re: Plans for Saturday, May 7th

Hi All,

Just wanted to give an update on where everyone will be this Sat.

Lee, Rose, and Judi are running the CT Race in the Park (5K) in New Britain. Good luck guys!!

Lani and I (Tray) are going to do an 8 mile trail run with some additional road miles. We are meeting at the West Hartford Reservoir parking lot for a 7:30 a.m. start.

Hope everyone has had a great week. These weather extremes are driving me batty. Should be perfect running weather on Sat. though. Enjoy!

Clean Up Day!

Clean Up Day!

Click the picture or the link under it to see other pictures. 

Lani started her day with a run with Mary at Brickyard. My brother and I arrived at the Unionville counterpart to the Brickyard parking lot at 9:45. Some of the volunteers didn't come so Lani paired up with Monique and they did one section of the River Trail while Chip and I did another. I met Duane and Sam and traded phone numbers before we all split up to do the clean up job. Duane knows a lot about bikes and I told him I'd be calling him to learn more. (Later in the day Lani told me Peter has a Cannondale road bike he'll sell me for a very good price. More on this in a later post!) We worked for 4 hours and picked up an amazing amount of trash. We even pulled one of those tool containers some people put in the backs of their trucks. The guy that was in charge of our group hauled it away in his truck. The cairn shots (sometimes these are called "prayer mounds") are pretty awesome don't you think? There were I bet about 50 of them on our section. We got thanked for what we were doing by three different sets of people. Chip, Linda and I went out to Olive Garden for dinner after getting back. And then had birthday cake (Linda is awesome if you hadn't figured this out yet). Pretty much a perfect 10 day, I'd say. Thanks Lani for telling us about it.