Week ending 7/25

Monday: 2 hours of hoops. Should have run or lifted. I have a crappy cold (in the summer?) and felt lazy.

Tuesday: run 5 miles in Friedsam. No energy today - crappy cold.

Wednesday: Lifted chest and back am.

Thursday: Drove to Rhody. Ate way too much of mom's home cooking(yum:) ). Could barely move around after.

Friday: Ran 3 miles in Burlingame. Caught 4 blues and a fluke in the am. First time I've ever caught a fluke from shore.

Saturday: Sailing, clamming, body surfing. Fun, but not really running or lifting.

Sunday: 3 miles beach running. Caught another bluefish. Spent 4 hours body surfing and getting sunburned. I got my RI fix.

Total running: 11 miles

Days lifting: 1

Last Week Miles: 20

Yearly Miles: 31

Rhode Island was fun. It was great seeing family, celebrating my mother's bday, and enjoying the ocean. Now time to get back after it.

Week ending 7/18

Monday: Run 7 miles. Kilburn, Pisgah Ridge. Swam with

Greg and Griffin after run.

Tuesday: 2 hours of basketball.

Wednesday: Lifted- chest and back x2. Run 3.5 Keene Rail Trail.

Thursday: Lifted- oaken arms. Picked blueberries Pitcher Mtn. 2 hours of hoops.

Friday: Fishing, snorkeling, and blueberry picking at the Pisgah Reservoir. I fear that I might not get a run in today. I'll have to go long tomorrow.

Saturday: Run 7 miles. Kilburn, Pisgah Ridge w/Griffin. Wanted to go longer but my stomach was bugging me.

Sunday: Great run 2.5 miles, 17:47. Friedsam. Didn't feel like running-full on ice cream. Felt great once I got going. Hammered the whole way.

Total running: 4 days. 20 miles. Decent start.

Days lifting: 2. I would like my minimum to be 3 days. Need to do better.

Last Week Miles: 0/ first week of comeback!

Yearly Miles: 20

Welcome to Vermont!

Gina and I headed north up 91 to watch Greg and friends race in the Stowe 8 miler. Vermont has beautiful rustic scenery, decadent Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and absolutely no places to go to the bathroom. Normally on long car rides I use McDonalds as my go to choice for a pit stop (I worked there as a teenager, so I figure I earned a life time bathroom pass), but Vermont doesn't have such vulgar eateries. The lack of fast food joints adds to the quaintness until you have to... go.

I laughed when I called Greg half way up 91 for final directions. He was answering the call of nature somewhere on the side of interstate 89. It was funny until my medium coffee kicked in near White River Jct. I decided I would find a nice place to patronize. Not many places are open at 7am on a Sunday morning. My situation was becoming desperate. I finally found an open diner before disaster struck. Of course it was a small mom and pop place, so I felt obliged to order a coffee to go. One dollar and thirty-seven cents later plus another dollar tip (who really feels good about leaving change for a tip?) and I was back on the highway after a five mile and fifteen minute detour.

The race was fun to watch. Fyffe got second, and Greg was fifth man for CMS. Operation Magnum looked like a success. There really are a lot of fast dudes and dudettes at these New England Grand Prix events. After the race Gina and I headed up into Smuggler's Notch to stretch our legs.

We decided that we didn't want to hike to the top of Mount Mansfield. We didn't feel like driving the 2 and a half hours home with weary legs late in the afternoon. Here was the trailhead sign describing the trail we chose to explore.

We only climbed up the very steep, boulder strewn trail for about 30 minutes before we decided to head back down for a picnic on flatter ground. We ate lunch, farted around in the freezing cold stream, and headed straight to Ben & Jerry's for the tour and ice cream. By 1pm we were back in the car with our sense of adventure and appetites for lard satisfied.

We were seasoned Vermont travelers on our way home. We knew to mind our bladders and other areas much sooner than we would in any other state. I was amazed that there isn't a single rest area from Brattleboro to Stowe. We did switch drivers near Westminster at a Parking Area. This stop further revealed the state of Vermont's baffling stance on ones and twos. They think people want to pull over on the side of the interstate and simply park. It never crossed their minds that people might need to relieve themselves. This parking area was truly disgusting. I saw a few people committing the walk of shame from the surrounding woods. There was trash everywhere. Why wouldn't there be? There wasn't a trash can to be found in the parking area. Then I saw something truly horrific and worthy of documentation. I'm warning you now that the following image is sickening. If you are at all squeamish do not look at the last photo. Someone couldn't hold it and dropped one right on the sidewalk. I know it wasn't a dog because there was toilet paper revealing the criminal's species. It was homo sapiens... probably from out of state!

Warning! Image made small for your safety.

Comeback #33.

The title of the blog says it all. I have had more comebacks (attempts at getting back in shape) than years in my life. I'll be 33 on August 9th, which is one day before my wedding. I was always pretty athletic during my childhood and adolescent years. I played soccer since I was 6, shot hoops almost daily since about that age, and participated in 3 sports my senior year of high school. During my freshman year at URI, I played at least 6 intramural sports: outdoor soccer, indoor volleyball, beach volleyball, indoor soccer, basketball, and softball. Sprinkle in running and weightlifting, and I became fairly fit. I even walked onto the cross country team my junior year. I wore the Rhody Blues for one race before an injury ended my short lived career as a Division 1 athlete.

I didn't have my first comeback until I was 23 years old. I needed it. I had just quit a job where I travelled around the country, ate 20 ounce steaks, drank 100's of ounces of beer, and did ZERO ounces of activity. At this time I developed lower back problems. Over the next 9+ years my fitness would seesaw back and forth, but ultimately lethargy would always prevail.

I've done things that would make it seem like I was still an athletic and healthy guy. I've run numerous trail races, including the Pisgah 50k in 2007. I hiked the entire Appalachian Trail in 2004. Yet tremendous setbacks have been mixed in with my triumphs. In 2005, I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease, and this May, I learned my chronic lower back problems were because I have Anklosing Spondylitis.

All this has made me realize that I need comeback 33 to be the final comeback. Enough is enough. I can't even spell one of my conditions. I'm not too old and too sick to have an enjoyable life. I want to be able to live a long and happy life with Gina(my future wife). I want to be able to call up my friends and shoot some hoops or go fishing comfortably in a canoe. I want to be able to run and hike with my family...

In the past ten years I've learned an important truth about life and comebacks:

Lethargy breeds lethargy... and

Yaddaftatattin breeds Yaddaftatattin!