November 2024 Newsletter

Social Calendar:

Our end of season banquet will be Sunday November 10th at the Enfield Community Center from 5-8p. We are so looking forward to seeing everyone showered (not required) and potentially not in spandex (also not required) for food, fun, and celebrating another year committed to the running game! Please join us with your significant others and children. All are welcome! 

Racing Updates: 

• The next race in the UVRS series is the Hanover Turkey Trot 5k/10k in Hanover on 11/24.
• If you’re around for the holiday, there is also a Norwich Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning and no registration is required! 

Tuesday Night Track: We’ve officially moved to our winter location at Occom! We meet at the pin here three Tuesdays a month at 5:30. On the second Tuesday of the month, we will continue our tradition of dripping sweat on Tuck Drive. On those days, we meet at the bottom of the hill, also at 5:30. There is parking available at both locations. Plan to run at these locations until the spring!

With daylight savings behind us, this is a crucial time of year to stay visible running. PLEASE run with a headlamp (at a minimum) and wear a reflective vest or other reflective clothing if you have them. Even if you can see cars coming, that doesn’t mean they can see you! Thank you to Bill Young for keeping us safe and handing out free reflective bands on our first Occom night last week! A few quick notes about TNT if you haven’t come:

• The Coach thinks of a workout that is challenging to help you push yourself
• It is a workout meaning it's a time to work on your speed and endurance. That being said, in these darker (and maybe colder, sometime, maybe?) months, it can be hard to go fast. Come ready to work on your “race pace effort” and worry less about “race pace”. The fact that you’re willing to show up and run means you’re already putting in the work. There’s no need to be a “racer” to work hard. 
• YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO THE WORKOUT AS PRESCRIBED! It is a recommendation and a good alignment point for you and your fellow runners. You can totally choose to do more or less or modify as needed. You can also come at 5:30 and run your normal run pace amongst your clubmates. 
• Show up and run even if you don’t think you can or want to do the workout! I promise you it’s easier to work hard in a group of motivated peers than to do the workout on your own
• It’s for everyone. All paces  

Runner’s Nights Out: Every Second Tuesday of the month we head over to Hanover Ramuntos for free pizza on the club! Come hang out with your pals after Tuesday Night Track, and eat FREE PIZZA!

• November 12th
• December 10th
• January 14th

Saturday Morning Runs: Saturday morning runs will continue to start at 9AM until the Spring. We meet in front of Omer and Bobs for a chiller social run. People break out into groups based on pace and route and head off. Afterwards we meet on the Leb Green for baked goods or head over to Lucky’s Coffee for some breakfast!

Volunteer Opportunities

In case you missed it we’re doing a 2024 UVRC VOLUNTEER CHALLENGE see the March Newsletter for full details! The winners of our Volunteer Challenge will be recognized at the end of the year!

THANK YOU to all who volunteered to pace the CHaD Half Marathon. We had a huge showing and helped so many runners reach their goals. I’m super proud to be part of a club that gives back to the UV! 

The October entry in the Upper Valley Running Series (UVRS) was the Tiger Run! Congratulations to all of the UVRC participants. You can see the latest participation and scoring on the UVRS website: http://bit.ly/uvrs2024.

Be sure to let me know of any corrections, especially name misspellings can lead to your result getting missed.

The next (and last) race in the series: November 24th, the Hanover Turkey Trot 5K/10K in Hanover NH; starting and finishing on the Dartmouth Green.

https://www.hanovernh.org/728/Turkey-Trot-5K-10K-Road-Race

So, what is this UVRS that you’re hearing so much about? It’s our club’s series of local road races. Full information: http://bit.ly/uvrs2024. 

Full-series registration is closed for the year, but you can still participate in the series. As long as you are an up-to-date UVRC member, you can just sign up for each race through the normal race registration (even day-of is OK). You’ll get credit as a series participant.

For 2024, you need to run 7 (of the 11) races to get the finisher prize. The Turkey Trot is your last chance to get to 7!

If you don’t want to race, or have a family member along, who doesn’t want to run, consider volunteering. Prizes available. See the March newsletter “Volunteering” article for details: https://uppervalleyrunningclub.org/march-2024-newsletter.

Until 2-years ago, I had never paced a race. I was always in awe of the pacers. Keeping a steady pace, finishing in an exact time, and carrying a sign the entire time seemed quite a challenge. In the spring of 2023, I took the plunge and signed up to pace the Covered Bridge Half. It was time to reunite with one of my favorite runs which I first ran 2 decades ago (yes, I am on the older side 🙂). In preparation, I immediately started running at my pace and went out on my next long run day and ran 13.1 at the pace I had agreed to run. Race day came and I was a bit nervous, but the pacers were amazing, the runners were super appreciative, and I was hooked.

After pacing several half-marathons, I’ve learned it is always a great time. I don’t have to race, which regardless of what I promise myself as any race approaches, when they say go, I feel the need to push hard. Pacing was liberating! I could enjoy the run, talk to those around me, and everyone was so thankful. 

So this October, I signed up to pace my second CHAD half-marathon. An amazing UVRC group turned out to pace. Everyone had a partner, we covered a wide variety of paces from 1:30 to 2:30, and a great time was had by all. The pacers killed it, all hitting their promised pace within a minute or two. Pacers were chatting with runners from all over the US, encouraging them up the long and steady climb from miles 5-7, and leading the cheers as their followers took off and beat them to the finish line.

I love the questions you inevitably are asked.

• How fast would you run if you weren’t pacing? Good question…
• How much longer is this hill? We’re almost there…
• How many times have you run this course? Before? I haven’t ever run this course…
• How do you manage to carry that sign? It looks much harder than it actually is…

Thank you to all that volunteered to pace. What an amazing group! You helped many people reach their goals. I hope you found it as satisfying as I did. And for those that didn’t pace, if you have been thinking about pacing and haven’t made the plunge, go for it. You won’t regret it!

It was probably 6 months ago when Jim Westrich first put the bug in my ear about this tiny marathon in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. He teased me with words and phrases that he knew I couldn’t resist: low-key, old-school, rural, hilly dirt roads, fall foliage, maple syrup, beef jerky, pizza, Hill Farmstead Brewery, team competition, 9 a.m. start time.

After months of feeding me a steady diet of this, I finally was excited to commit. It was going to be in the middle of a big 2 ½ months of racing for me, and I eagerly anticipated it.

However, we also needed to round up at least one more marathoner to join us in the team competition. We put out feelers at TNT, and though there were many “yeah, that sounds great”, none actually committed. Until, finally, the day before the race, I got a text from Jim to confirm our carpool meeting time and place, and he mentioned that Ryan Scelza and William Ren were also in. They were planning on running the half marathon, with William a “maybe” for the marathon, as he was still recovering from a recent downhill marathon in Utah. Well, I know that William loves to run marathons, so I was pretty sure he would be doubling his distance in the morning.

The four of us met at the Thetford Park & Ride in the fog for an easy 90 minute drive to the “fly” part of Fly to Pie: the Northeast Kingdom International Airport in Coventry, VT. The closer we got, the more the sun exposed itself, and by the time we arrived, it was out in its full glory, shining the way to a great day of running in the Kingdom. And apparently, the sun inspired William to run the marathon, giving us our 3-person team, with Ryan sticking to his guns by running the half.

The run itself was FUN! There were 3,000’ of vert, which is pretty decent for a road marathon, and most of it was on dirt roads. As I made my way through the course and admired the beauty of it all, I couldn’t help thinking how this was the stereotype that people get when they think of Vermont: rural, hilly dirt roads, peak fall foliage, farms, old trucks, older tractors, cows, mountains. It was perfect.

After 24 miles of fun up and down cruising, I faced one more good uphill mile and a final downhill mile, so I enjoyed myself a little more and pushed it to the finish. Afterall, I wanted to get to that “pie” part of Fly to Pie so I could start stuffing my face! I happily crossed the finish as the marathon champ and all was good (except for the bloody nipples!). And as a bonus, Ryan, finished with his fine running in the half, got to see him and give me an attaboy!

As I was eating plenty of pie from Parker Pie in West Glover, William was the next of our crew to come in, very happy with his finish much quicker than he anticipated, especially since that meant he had more time to eat more pizza. Not long after, Jim joined the fun and, as promised, bought a round of beers!

The awards are what really set Fly to Pie apart. My winnings consisted of a gallon of Couture’s Maple Syrup and a pound of Brault’s Beef Jerky! And as UVRC won the team competition, Jim, William, and I each won even MORE maple syrup and jerky!

As we collected our winnings and I thought the day couldn’t get any better, well, it did! Jim suggested we stop at Hill Farmstead Brewery on the way home; that was a wonderful suggestion, and a super fun way to end a most-excellent day spent running, pizza eating, and beer drinking in the Kingdom. I really can’t highly recommend this race enough.

What is Fatigue (ATL)?

Acute Training Load (Fatigue) combines duration and intensity to provide a value of how much an athlete has recently trained. TrainingPeaks calculates ATL, by default, as the exponentially weighted average of daily TSS for the past 7 days.  Note that, in effect, ATL represents the training an athlete has done in the past two weeks given the nature of exponentially weighted averages. 

Formula

ATLtoday = ATLyesterday + (TSStoday - ATLyesterday)(1/ATL time constant)

Since ATL is determined within a window of seven days and based on the moving average within it, it provides the runner with a snapshot of recent trends in fatigue comparing today’s fatigue with yesterday's.

Last evening, I participated in the Tuesday Night Track (TNT) workout at Occom Pond for the first time in years. Driving to Hanover over King Hill Road, the waxing crescent moon, a brilliant white in a red-orange sky, smiled at me as the yellow sun dipped beneath the Green Mountains on the horizon. I slowed my Jeep at the crest of the hill and let it all soak in.

Standing in the introduction circle before the workout started, I looked around and saw four runners I recognized from the past. Cara led the group. Ten years ago, I led the group and Cara humbly introduced herself. I knew immediately that she had the heart of a true runner and after introductions I sidled over to her to gauge her interest in racing for UVRC’s NHGP racing team.

Given the eerily warm temperature, the mile loop around the pond was crowded with runners and walkers, mostly Dartmouth College students. Head lamps danced and reflection vests flickered. I took my place at the back of the pack and shuffled along for five laps including 4 x 800 with 400 recovery. I pushed on the final interval until my left calf tightened, then backed off and walked down the hill by the golf course to my Jeep. There I met Tim, who served as UVRC President before my three years at the helm. We chatted happily until a chill lowered over us.

Runners streamed by, head lamps flashing as they completed their cooldown. At 74 years I was the oldest participant, and the average age of the group is now around 30. I am inspired by their youthful enthusiasm.

You have all probably done this without knowing you were "Run-Seeing."  

The UVRC Seniors Run-Seeing team first heard the term in Quebec City in 2022.

One photo is in the lower city by the St. Lawrence River. It is a steep up-hill to the upper city and  

castle like Chateau Frontenac.  Sarah stopped on a Brooklyn Bridge run in October 2024.

Pedestrians including runners own the upper board walk now that there is a designated 

bicycle lane on the vehicle deck.   Run-seeing usually involves frequent historical, scenic and skyscraper gazing stops. You are now free to run about the world.