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After driving past the Alfalfa Farm Winery for 9 years, I finally decided to check out what they are all about. It turned out to be perfect timing – this weekend they invited volunteers to come harvest the grapes!

We first took netting off of the vines. It is the same type of netting my dad used to cover his cherry tree, plus they tied the sections together with twist ties and staked it to the ground with tent stakes. It seemed to work quite well, and may have also helped to keep the vines trained along the rows. This activity allowed the volunteers to work in pairs and meet one another as we rolled the netting and put it away.

Then it was time to start harvesting! We got a quick lesson from Chris, the winemaker, about how to do it. Rule #1 – don’t get stung by a bee. They always seem to loiter on the back side of the bunch, just where you’d grab it. Turn the bunch around before cutting it off, gently shake the bunch or move onto another one until the bee flies off. There were four kinds of bees, the most humorous being large bumble bees that are only a few weeks from the end of their life; imagine a grandpa bee that’s been gorging on fermented grape juice. They were slow and clumsy. I managed to avoid getting too friendly with any of the bees, in large part due to wearing gloves, long sleeves and long pants, as well as following this rule. Rule #2 – cut off all the grapes you see. At this time of year the plants need to be putting their energy back into the vines to prepare for winter. Grapes that were over or under ripe were simply dropped below the vines to serve as fertilizer. Key Technique for White Grapes – use your pruners to cut away or dig out any brown or bright green grapes. Ones that are translucent are good! If in doubt, taste them. If they taste sweeter than any store grapes you’ve had, they are right. If they are tart or sour, don’t use them. And with that, we were off to work in groups, making our way down each row with a laundry basket or shallow crate to fill with beautiful white bunches.

Once we finished the two rows of Sayval Blanc grapes, I headed up to the crushing pad to observe the next few steps in the process. First, we weighed the grapes to record the magnitude of the harvest. It looked to be much better than last year, and the winemaker thought this year might set a new record. I figure I harvested 20 lbs of grapes myself, and there were at least a dozen volunteers. Next, each basket of grapes was poured out into an automated de-stemmer and crusher. It looks a lot like a meat grinder – grapes are dumped into a slightly funnel-shaped trough that has a screw running along the bottom. When the machine is turned on, the stems are shot out the bottom on the back side and the crushed grapes and juice fall into a tub below the machine. After that, the crush is fed into a wood press, with a circle of slats through which the juice is pressed. It was a pretty neat looking old wooden press, much like a cider press. It took one person to screw down the top, another to hold the plastic pan lining that funneled juice into buckets, and another to swap out buckets as they filled. The juice was then stored in large 100 gallon barrels for the winemaker to tackle later. They put in a cup of large grain rice every so often, which was meant to serve as a natural abrasive to help extract the juice. When the press filled with skins, they were shoveled into a holding bucket to make room for more crush. The by products of skins and stems would end up being composted, though the intern said that at other wineries they are used to make grappa. He also said that for red grapes they ferment on the skins for several days before continuing on with pressing, to impart some of the tannin and provide the red color.

I received a bottle of wine as payment for my help, so of course I chose a bottle of the Sayval Blanc, so I could tasted the fermented product of the grape variety I harvested. I was really excited to take another step in supporting local agriculture – like a CSA for wine – as well as getting in some quality gardening time. I miss winemaking with friends, so this might be a good opportunity to continue my hobby without the hassle of sanitation and cleanup. The staff at Alfalfa Farm seemed very friendly and were more than happy to answer questions. I am looking forward to participating in more events at the winery – there is still racking, bottling and labeling to do, and of course tasting!

Today we ran the Around Cape Ann 25K, which we both ran in 2000 and Susan ran last year. Our goal was to run our marathon pace and consider if we could sustain that pace for another 10 miles. The math says we’re on track, but it doesn’t hurt to test out our legs on the road. We were very happy with our results, averaging 8:17s. This was a 6:42 improvement for Susan over last year and a whopping 12:17 faster for Brian than his 2000 time!

It promised to be a clear cool day – a bit warm for Brian but almost perfect for Susan. Brian tried a Lore of Running strategy to pick up water at every aid station, either to drink or to pour on himself to cool off. Between the aid stations and a few spectators who set up showers along the course, it seemed to work pretty well. Brian opted for a hand-held gel flask as his primary caloric intake; Susan wore a fuel belt with 16 oz of Perpetuem.

The course is hilly, making it difficult to set a steady pace. Instead, we opted to work on our average pace and perceived exertion. Here’s how it panned out:

Having just run the course last year, Susan remembered that nasty last hill and powered up it to a strong finish, a much prouder moment than last year’s struggle for the last half mile.

The results are posted here. Sue Donovan who finished with us is also running the Marine Corps Marathon in October – she kept a very steady pace so hopefully we’ll see her there!

So how do the numbers look?

Coach Brian’s notes:
We started too fast but once we had slowed it down by mile 6 we gradually started accelerating. The hills made it very hard to hold a constant pace but I think it was a success. My goal was to break the run down into 5 mile thirds and run 8:40, 8:30, and finish the last 5 in 8:20. Instead we ran 8:20, 8:30, 8:10 for our thirds.

The run was a little too hot for me by the finish (~75 degrees) and would have led to an ugly last 10 miles at a marathon. Fueling went pretty well, but if I’m going to run 10 more miles I’ll need to take electrolyte tablets as my calves were feeling it on the hills at mile 15.

Based on running formulas we appear to be not quite as in shape for the marathon as math would suggest (formulas think we can run a 3:30:xx) but still on target to run a 3:45:00 marathon at USMC in October. Under 8 weeks to go, but first the Reach the Beach Relay in 11 days!

August Totals: Running 174.5 miles + Hiking 15.5 miles for Beej, Su ran about 3 miles less than that over 27 days. It was a good month!

Highlights: We did a 20 mile run on 8/14 and a 22 mile run on 8/28 as our long runs – these are typically Susan’s favorite. For pure toughness training, though, the 4 miles at 6am in the driving rain on 8/25 was her highlight. For speedwork, we did repeat miles on 8/17 – Brian ran perhaps his fastest mile ever at 6:23. We are both recovering much faster from our long runs than we did earlier in the season; our main focus lately has been on disciplined pacing and negative splits (wait, am I back in high school? I sound like Coach Blosser!).

We’ve signed up for the Around Cape Ann 25K, a race we did together back in 2001 and Susan did last year, which makes it a staple as a marathon preparation event. Our plan is to make it a pace run at 8:37s, but with the hills it will be challenging. We also have the Reach The Beach Relay in just two weeks, which promises to be really fun!

This weekend we decided to tackle Mt. Willey (4302′), a short but steep hike. Unlike our last hike, we knew this one would climb right out of the parking lot – no warmup, and not much change in grade, just an efficient walk up the mountain followed by retracing our steps down.

We set off from the Mt. Willey Station parking area on the Ethan Pond trail, and then continued up the Willey Range Trail. We encountered the promised ladders on our way up!

We were met with nice views on a few lookouts on our way up, and a great view at the top of Mt. Washington (in the distance on the left) and the steep cliffs on the side of Mt. Webster.

We enjoyed almost 30 minutes by ourselves at the top, plenty of time for a few more photos of the notch.

We also had a visit from a fearless bird who really wanted us to drop some of our lunch.

We chatted with another couple about running, hiking the 4000 footers and enjoying the beautiful day before continuing down the mountain – for some reason the ladders seemed a little tricker on the way down.

We dubbed this hike “the stairmaster” due to the steady grade and the well-cut steps in the trail. Except for maybe 100 yards of loose gravel, it was all rocky, rooty, soft trail steps – or of course the “treehouse ladders” – up and down.

Here’s our favorite shot from the day – we are happy hikers, and Brian only has 10 more peaks to go!

8/2 week: Mountains and Hills
Susan and Beej’s weekly mileage: 33.1 miles run and 9.8 miles hiked.
Highlights: the hike (see prior post), and the odd feeling running around Maudslay on Sunday that our legs felt better while running than any other time the past 24 hours.

8/9 week:
Beej’s weekly mileage: 51.2
Susan’s weekly mileage: 47.8
Highlights: having completed a strenuous hike just a few days prior, Susan didn’t feel ready for Tuesday’s 10 x 800m repeats due to stiff calves. And, it was Beej’s first track workout in 20 years. But, we were so proud to nail them! 3:43, 3:41, 3:43, 3:42, 3:43, 3:45, 3:44, 3:42, 3:41, 3:39 (and Beej did a 3:30 for the last one) – woot! Also, Beej topped 50 miles in a week for the first time ever!!

Another general highlight is our foot health. At this point in the summer, the miles usually take their toll in the form of blisters, callouses, and black toenails. (EW and OUCH) This year, between our smartwool socks and our ibungee speedlaces, we’re handling the heat, friction, swelling and sweat amazingly well.

We set out on August 7, a gorgeous Saturday, to tackle two more peaks on Brian’s 4000′ list. Because it’s been so dry, and the humidity was forecasted to be low, we thought it was a perfect day to hike Mt. Flume (4325′) and Mt. Liberty (4459′). The guide book rates the loop as a 5/5 for difficulty and 9/10 for views – it made us wonder what a 10 view must be with panoramas like this! (Click on the link for a 360 panorama.)

This route was just about perfect as far as I was concerned. The start of the trail, Whitehouse to Liberty Spring, was a nice warmup, and we even jogged a bit on the section that coincided with the bike path. Then it starts up steadily on the Flume Slide once we were warmed up. It was pretty steep, but we enjoyed spectacular views the whole way up.

I especially enjoyed the Franconia Ridge Trail between the peaks, which was cool and shady and smelled of fresh pine. Both peaks had good places to sit and relax. We stopped at Liberty’s summit for lunch.

After taking some photos and identifying all the peaks Brian’s already hiked, we started our descent, a stairmaster workout to the Whitehouse “cooldown” out to the parking lot.

The most excitement we encountered was a hiker traffic jam, which included a group of six hikers ahead of us picking their way through the scramble and accidentally dropping water bottles our way, while impatient hikers behind us tried to find alternate routes up. It wasn’t the best situation to be in the middle of all this, so we were glad to duck back into the trees and put a little distance between ourselves and the pack.

It was a nearly perfect day for this hike. As trail names such as Liberty Spring and Flume Slide clearly advertised, the uphill included a steep rock scramble, and a large section of the trail followed a stream bed. Neither of these would be much fun – and could actually be quite dangerous – on a wet muddy early spring day. On a dry August day, however, the stream crossings were forgiving, the rocks were dry enough to offer good traction, and the footing on the descent was stable. We made excellent time for the hike and enjoyed a good workout and plenty of fresh air for our 10 miles that day.

We had a busy but enjoyable July. We started with our traditional vowel state tour, leaving July 2 in our new Subaru Forester and staying in Batavia en route to Edon Ohio for a family reunion. It was great to see everyone, play lots of cards, go running, and cool off in the pond. A new generation of kids is playing Jailbreak and we heard that the law of the jungle applies to discipline, evidently. We also got to see Brian’s other Grandma and Aunt and Uncle and enjoy a few hours in the pool just relaxing. Then it was on to Fort Wayne, Indianapolis and St. Marys to see more family – including a whole crew from the west coast! – and a few friends, and help clean and clean out homes. We enjoyed many good visits during the week, but wished we had more time to spend with everyone. We returned with a full car of slides, a family heirloom dresser, and as much other “stuff” as we could fit! We tried a new route, I-86 through southern NY, which was a nice change of pace and pretty scenery, though the road surface wasn’t nearly as good as the Pike/Thruway.

We’ve been very fortunate to get to catch up with many friends this month: dinner with local ones we don’t see often enough, some visiting from far away, and some returning to the area. Yay!

Brian’s been ramping up his hours at the Crisis Center, doing some legal intakes as well as going to court. We have been enjoying our farm share, which has been as different from last summer as the weather has been! Instead of incessant greens and a dearth of tomatoes due to rain and blight in 2009, this year we’ve had a reasonable number of spring greens and are now into squash, broccoli and some beautiful heirloom, cherry and plum tomatoes that grow well in the hot humid weather. We tackled a fruitful clothes clean-out of Brian’s closet, which resulted in 3 big bags of give-aways, and clothes properly occupying the new dresser rather than the closet floor. I had a week-long business trip to wrap up the month, which was fun but made me very happy to be home. And, we’re back to running almost every day, as noted in the prior post.

Those are the highlights from July. I’m very excited for August: we start a 9/80 schedule at work, with so many possibilities for hiking, catching up around the house, taking weekend trips, or just enjoying summer in Newburyport!

After our post-race respites in June, we are back on the training wagon as of July, getting ready for the Marine Corps Marathon.

We’re doing the coolrunning advanced marathon training plan. It’s been really fun to train together! We don’t do every run together, but most of the long weekend runs and speed or hill workouts are so much easier with a buddy to motivate and pace.

July summary:
Susan’s highlights: 150 miles over 22 days. Longest run was 18 miles at 9:15 pace. We did hill work in Toledo at Fort Meigs, the first I had done in years. I was pleased to discover I had some 7:20 miles in me during mile repeats this month. We got in a trail run in Willowdale, opting for shade (and bugs and no breeze!) rather than sweltering sun on a hot day. And I enjoyed running in Virginia Beach along the boardwalk and on the excellent bike paths – the city has over 100 miles of bike trails!

Brian got in 157 miles, clocked in at almost exactly 24 total running hours. He ran the Yankee Homecoming 5K in 23:02, and now holds the official Juddmansee speed record at 7:26/mi average. He did his first mile in 6:48 and pushed it through a brutal last mile uphill. He also had an epic run for the 18 miles today, no doubt helped by the lack of humidity and 70 degree weather.

A little under a year ago I raced in my first ever triathlon, the Powow Sprint Triathlon in Amesbury, MA. After that race, I wanted to do something a bit longer. The sprint distance goes by so fast and is over in under 90 minutes. In September of last year I completed the Lobsterman Olympic Distance Triathlon in Freeport, Maine. I enjoyed the Olympic distance but I still felt like I wanted something longer. Just as the bike was getting good and I was in a groove the bike ended. Ditto for the run. And the swim, well, swimming a mile is tiring but is the shortest part of the day. With that in mind in January I decided to sign up for a Half Iron and begin a 20 week training program to step me up from Olympic to Half Iron distance.

Today was the culmination of those 20 weeks of workouts where I swam 36.8 mi, biked 715 mi, ran 255 mi and ran 16 mi on various mountains. The 126 hours of training was about 85% of what I planned. I’m happy to report that I survived the race and finished the course in a time of 6:12:18. My splits for the 1.2 mile swim, 58 mile bike (the course was 2 miles longer than regulation), and 13.1 mile run were: Swim: 41m 41s T1: 2m 52s Bike: 3h 2m 19s T2: 1m 17s Run: 2h 24m 9s. I pay a lot of attention to my body while training and out a lot of thought and effort into making a solid racing plan. My plan had me finishing between 5:45 and 6:15. If I had rocked the run I would have come in a lot closer to 5:45. If I did “as expected” I thought I’d finish in 6:00. If I had a hard run I should come in under 6:15. Any likely scenario that had me finishing in over 6:15 would probably have meant major issues with cramping, fueling, or hydration and I suspected would have lead to a DNF (did not finish). I’m pleased to have finished within my goal time of 6:15 and as expected was the result of a hard run due primarily to the temperature on the run course.

Edit 6/23/10: I’ve had several days to go over the race and analyze things and I’ve come to the conclusion the biggest problem was shortchanging my bike training over the last 6 weeks of training. The heat didn’t help but the core problem was fitness level.

On Friday night Susan and I drove down to the south shore, picked up my race packet, and checked into a hotel about 20 minutes from the race site. It was worth a little money to get an extra 2 hours of sleep on race morning. After dinner and some tv to relax I measured out my nutrition for the next day so in the morning all I would have to do is “add water.”

Perpetuem is my main source of calories and contains a balance of protein, fat, and carbs. In longer events adding fats and proteins to carbs is necessary. HEED is an electrolyte replacement drink that provides some additional calories. Endurolytes are electrolyte replacement tablets (like salt pills but with a balanced mix of electrolytes) to stop me from cramping. My nutrition was planned out well ahead of time and I knew what I would be consuming from breakfast every hour until the race completion. If I was not going to succeed it certainly wasn’t going to be for lacking a race plan.

I fell asleep about 10:15 and managed to sleep pretty well until the alarm went off at 4am. I ran through the shower, had breakfast (bagel, banana, and coffee), got dressed, and headed out to the race site. We got there about 5:30 which gave me plenty of time to get my body marked, set up my transition area, and relax before the start.

Here’s a shot of the very calm Long Pond around 6:30am. The swim course is counter clockwise, goes past the green and 3 orange buoys on the right hand side before turning left for 2 buoys, and then back in along the left hand set of orange buoys. It’s a little hard to see in this shot. If you click on the photo you should get a full sized one which is a bit easier to see.

About 7:15 the first wave of swimmers went into the corral, marched down to the water, and was launched off. I had to wait about 20 minutes since I was in wave 5 or 6 before the men 35-44 were set to enter the water. This being the Minuteman Sprint/Patriot Half Triathlon we had actual Minutemen firing a volley to launch each wave. If you look closely you can see Susan covering her ears to the right of the Minutemen.

Here is my wave going off. I have the green neon stripe on my arm and in the second shot that is my left elbow about to enter the water. The first 100 meters are pretty chaotic but it settles down eventually.

The swim itself was largely uneventful. I started getting passed about 1/3 and 2/3 of the way through by the better swimmers from the waves after me. I felt like I swam a strong race until the last 200m or so when my form started to break down. I had no problems sighting the buoys on such a calm pond and didn’t waste much time zig zagging. My swim pace was 2:09/100m which is 10 second/100 slower than I do in a pool. Personally I thought the swim seemed long. Last year apparently they measured it 0.2 miles short and tried not to make that mistake this year. In any case here is me coming out of the water at 41 minutes and 41 seconds.

Edit: Sunday 6/20 – I’ve been reading race reports from others and they all indicate the swim leg was long, up to .2 miles. At 1.4 miles for the leg my pace would have been 1:51/100m which was about the speed I thought I was swimming. Hard to know for sure, but I feel better about my pace.

After running up the beach into the transition area I made my way to my bike, stripped out of my wet suit, put on my cycling gear and was out of transition in a decent time of 2 minutes 52 seconds. I had some balance issues after the long swim so it took me a little longer to get out of my wetsuit than I would have liked but not a bad time in any case. Here I am running my bike out of transition to the mount area.

The bike course itself was 2 loops of a 29 mile course. Normally a half is 56 miles biking but they decided to throw in 2 extra miles for no additional fee in this race. I had a plan to try to hold myself to 204 watts as measured by my power meter on my bike. I set this power level based on time trials I did my final 2 weeks of training. The theory is that by establishing a threshold power level that I can sustain for 1 hour you can then calculate a safe power to ride at for longer periods without blowing your legs up for the run. After the first hour I decided to back off on the power as my legs were feeling it a bit more than I would have liked. I wanted to make sure that I would be able to finish the race and the level I set was just an estimation based on a shorter test. Nothing substitutes for live data.

The course is very flat by New England standards and had really good pavement with the exception of about 2 miles. The winds were calm for most of the first loop but started picking up for the second. I ended up doing the first loop in 1:30:00 and the second in 1:32:19 with an average power of 180 Watts, average speed 19.1 mph, and a max speed of 33.6 mph. Here’s a picture of me coming into the second transition area after 58 miles of biking. I grabbed a water bottle just before this was snapped so I could cool off and rinse some salt buildup and road grit off of me.

Once I got off the bike, the reality of what was still ahead set in. Despite being 59.2 miles and 3 hours and 45 minutes into this race I still had at least 1:45 to go and possibly as much as 2:30. The first 4 miles of the run were by far the hardest thing I’ve physically had to do. Starting the run course I was feeling mentally, physically, and emotionally drained from the previous legs. I had prepared myself for this somewhat and told myself I wasn’t going to quit (at least until mile 3). Physically making the transition from pedaling legs to running legs is a big one but I wasn’t quite prepared for how overwhelming the thought of running 13.1 miles would be. Throw in a few twinges in my legs that would eventually turn into cramps around mile 12 and I had serious thoughts of quitting.

Here’s a photo of me after the first 1/4 mile of the run. This is just 5 minutes after the last bike shot but I do not look nearly as happy.

I managed to run miles 1 through 4 only walking in the aid stations to get drinks. My first 4 miles were all sub 10 minute pace and my first 1 was actually sub 9. Unfortunately that was the fastest I would move for the rest of the run. At mile 4 we left the shade and entered the hot middle section of the course. The hills that were rolling for the bicycle were very tiring on foot. I ended up walking most of the longer hills from mile 4 through 8 and running the flats and downhills.

Somewhere around mile 8 my body pretty much rebelled. I was starting to get nauseous and running for longer than two minutes started to make me feel slightly dizzy. I really wanted to avoid heat stroke, my legs were too tired to turn over on any sort of hill, and my lower back through rib cage were sore making it hard to get a full breath. Miles 8 through 13 were accomplished by running the downhills, sipping flat coke every mile to calm my stomach, and by power shuffling the hills and flats. I somehow ended up grinding out a very ugly 12 minute mile pace over the last 5 miles. I ended up finishing with a pace of exactly 11 minutes per mile for the entire 13.1 mile run.

This photo is with about 200 meters to go. Looking at it I think I look pretty good. I certainly remember feeling much worse than this indicates.

Once I entered the chute and crossed the finish line I pretty much melted down for five minutes. I thought I was drained starting the run but afterwards I was even more exhausted and trying to deal with the emotion of finishing the race. I managed to grab a couple orange quarters to eat and sucked down half a bottle of water before stumbling out to find my cheering section and some much needed socialization.

A huge thanks to Susan and Emily for coming out and cheering me on. Susan took the pre-race shots and Emily took the race shots. It means a lot to have people there supporting me.

As for what’s next in the world of triathlon for me, I’m not quite sure. The rest of this summer will be spent riding and swimming for fun and doing run training for an overnight relay in September and the Marine Corps Marathon in October. Other than a break from November to January I’ve spent the past 15 months training for triathlons. Last March I couldn’t swim 100m without stopping to catch my breath, I weighed 220+ pounds, and I didn’t own a bike other than my beat up 15 year old road bike. It’s been quite a busy 15 months but now I can say (although my friends insist this makes me an Aluminum man) that I am a Half Ironman.

On Memorial Day we headed up to do some hiking in the Whites. We enjoyed the open road tolling at the Hampton Tolls on the way up and back – we hope they make this a permanent upgrade! We decided to start near the Pinkham Notch Visitors Center and head up the Imp Trail to the Carters. Middle Carter (4,610 feet) and South Carter (4,430 feet) are distinct peaks, but as we learned there are a number of other faux “peaks” on the ridge.

The forecast called for a clear but smokey day – smokey? You can tell by this photo of Mt. Washington and the Great Gulf Wilderness that the Quebec wildfires were impacting visibility and air quality.

We made good time on the way up, noticing a few flies but nothing severely biting. Then we hit the ridge and Middle Carter, traveling along the AT. We had been debating whether to hit South Carter and then head back up north to do the other part of the Imp Trail loop, or just continue on to the Carter Dome Trail and out 19 Mile Brook Trail. We weren’t quite sure if we had made it to South Carter so we opted to keep going. The next hour was spent wondering “do you think this is the peak?” “I”m not sure – it’s not marked” “The other one wasn’t marked either” “well let’s just continue on a bit farther….” and so it went on several repetitions. I was fairly amused by this banter.

We began naming these “peaks” – the Billy Carter (It’s awfully hot, I think I need a beer….), the Clarence Carter (oooh $H!t another peak?!), and the Nell Carter (Gimme a Break!!! Where is South Carter?!).

We did finally hit the Carter Dome Trail and were thus assured that Brian knocked off the two 4000 footers. We jogged down the 19 Mile Brook Trail, emerged at Rte 16 after 10.8 miles, and walked/jogged up the road back to our car. Book time: 9 hours. Juddmansee time: 5.5 hours. Check out this panorama of the view – totally worth it.

We stopped at our favorite Jackson area post-hike restaurant, the Red Fox Bar and Grill, to clean up in the restroom, grab a burger and then head home.