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Monthly Summary – November 2011

Here’s November:

Swim: 5,100 meters
Cycling (outdoors): 0 miles
Cycling (indoors): 1:30 (hours)
Run: 181.5 miles
Strength Training/Yoga: 5 sessions

Approximate monthly total training/racing time: 35 hours

Weight: ??

My training volume was down a little this month, but between tapering for the Catalina Eco Marathon, traveling to NY for Thanksgiving and now tapering for my final race of the year, the NorthFace Endurance Challenge Championship 50 mile, that’s to be expected.  I had a couple pretty weeks and feel like I trained “smart”.  I’m looking forward to spending some time on the bike in December.

The NorthFace 50 is this Saturday in San Francisco. I had a great time there two years ago and I’m really looking forward to giving it another go.

My favorite picture of the month:

Another run-focused month. Actually, another (nearly) run-only month. The difference this month was that I raced twice. I had a great day at the Catalina Eco Marathon. Actually, we had a great weekend on Catalina for the race.

My second race was the Montauk Turkey Run for Fun 6 mile race on Thanksgiving morning. Despite spending almost every Thanksgiving since 2001 on Long Island, this was the first time I ran this race. It’s a small local race around Fort Pond in Montauk, with a three mile and six mile option. Everyone starts together, the three mile race is one loop and the six mile race is two. I guess you’d call the course slightly rolling, and there’s one little climb in the second (and fifth) miles. The 600 starters were a mixed crowd – little kids, fast-looking college kids home for Thanksgiving break, families, a few serious-looking older runners. I was prepared to freeze my ass off, but it was actually a beautiful morning – sunny, clear and cool with temperatures in the high 40s. My official time was 37:25 (6:14/mile pace), which I’m happy with. If I could keep that pace for a 10K (and I definitely could), it would be a PR. I ran 10-15 seconds behind two people for most of the race and I thought I’d try to push the last half mile, but they matched my push and ended up maintaining their leads.  I ended up around eighth overall. After finishing, I ran an extra few miles to get in 10 total for the morning.

The weather on Long Island over Thanksgiving weekend was awesome.  It was sunny and relatively warm the entire time.  We took Charlie and Gus to the beach every day.

My inlaws’ Siberian Husky Neema loves playing at the beach.  Charlie and Gus warily tag along.

The other “event” this November was Movember. In case you don’t know, Movember is an annual month-long event when men grow moustaches in November to raise money and awareness for men’s health issues, especially prostate cancer. To participate, you shave your face clean on October 31 and then grow a moustache for the month. Any style of moustache is permitted, but no beards or goatees. I’ve never grown a moustache before, so this seemed like a great excuse to see what it would look like (or… how ridiculous it would look!). I went with a handlebar moustache, which seems safer than the other styles.  Here are a few pictures I took along the way:

November 1 – clean shaven:

November 9 – looks like most men’s five o’clock shadow, wondering if it will look better or worse once it’s grown in:

November 21 – growing in but much more in the “handlebars” than the upper lip:

November 27 – much more grown in, question answered, looks much more silly grown in:

Today, November 30:

I’m gonna keep the ‘stache at least through tomorrow and probably through the weekend.  It seems silly to shave it off before the race.  Maybe it will give aid station volunteers something to laugh at.