RACE DAY!

Team Runs with Scissors today celebrates 2006 and welcomes 2007 with a quick 5K in Montpelier, followed by large amounts of mirth and levity.

Our goal is for the four of us combined to finish in under 120 minutes. That means, of course, that all of us have to run the 3.1 miles in under 30 minutes--it's entirely achieveable, I hope. My last two 5K races were 21:50 and 23:50...but those were during the summer, in good weather, on flat course and I was about 8 pounds lighter...

The weather in Montpelier today is partly cloudy, with highs approaching 30. We did get some good snow yesterday--around 5 or 6 inches at the house and 10-14 inches or more on the mountain, which was awesome yesterday--so hopefully the sidewalks will be fairly clear by race time.

We plan to take a few photos, and we'll post the results as soon as possible.

After the race, we're going to clean up and get ready for an evening of festivities.

So, Team Runs with Scissors wishes you and yours a happy, healthy New Year!

Race on!

Gibber

Goodbye 2006, Hello 2007...

2006 was good for TWRS and crew. We had some great races, went on some epic trips (like the winter trip from Smugglers Notch to Beaver Meadow, the night hike, the ride from Little River to the Shed and the backpacking trip from Hazen's to Trails End in that frickin' Monsoon), and proved once again that even beer drinking, beef eating, gear junky, slackers can adventure race--and do it well.

Most importantly, Mrs. G and me made a baby--wow! Turns out, they're not actually delivered by a stork...

2006 wasn't without its challenges--no year is. I have to say though, all in all, the way cool and just plain good far outweighed the bad. 2007 promises to be yet another great adventure.

Grambo's best and worst gear list got me thinking about what my own might be for the year. I've added a few categories, just to keep it interesting.

Here goes:

Best Gear Purchase 2006: EMS TechWick Boxers.

These bad boys are mad comfy. Get a pair of these silky smooth boxers and say goodbye to chaffing and funky junk, forever! A 4-season must that stands up to the most obnoxious abuse.

My Mountain Hardwear Syncro jacket is a very, very close second.

Worst Gear Purchase 2006: Hot Pockets!

Dude, seriously, whose idea was it to fill a Pop Tart with nasty meat? Brilliant! Honestly, I haven't actually purchased any Hot Pockets this year. But if I had, they definitely could have been my worst purchase--or my best...I'm not really sure.

Best New Saying 2006: "If we were a cult, we would be Moppitts." All hail Charlie Mopps. You smell what I'm cookin'? Click here to hear the tribute.

Second Best New Saying 2006: "Raining like a two ****ed cow on a flat rock." Say what?

Best Injury 2006: The face plant I took on my bike and related concusion. Ah, the memories...Ouch!

Best Race Course Feature 2006: The swimming sections of the Bitter Pill.

Here's to a happy, health 2007--and to going big, going fast and going home.

Happy New Year everyone!

jg

Happy Holidays, All!!

In addition to holiday wishes for everyone, I also want to give a belated congratulations to an old high school friend of mine, Greg, who raced in and won the Sunmart 50 Mile Trail Run in Texas a couple weeks ago (results). His summary of the race on his blog (see link below) is interesting, and just goes to show you, no matter how fast you are, navigation is critical (don't miss the important turns!!) Nice work, Gregster!! Here I am thinking of running the Vermont City Marathon in May, and hoping to do it in less than 6 hours, and you go and run twice the distance in 5 hours 37 minutes!! Damn you!!

Greg also has a pretty interesting running blog, which among other things has some good training and workout tips. I won't list all his tips, but one that seems particularly appropriate for us (none of us are small guys) is as follows:
"4) Higher weekly mileage helps keep the weight down. It's been said that a high volume of aerobic training increases muscle capillary density, mitochondrial density, blah blah blah. Yeah, fine, whatever. For me, the story may be as simple as the fact that my appetite does not scale with mileage, so increasing my mileage decreases my weight (by a couple pounds) and therefore makes me faster."

Guess we need to keep the mileage up, as we all have healthy appetites... I ran yesterday for the first time (3 miles), and while my time sucked, I feel good today, and hope to get out for another this afternoon. Gotta get warmed up for the New Year's Eve 5K!!!

Grambo

High Five! The Frigid Infliction is now a USARA Sanctioned Race!

This just in: The Green Mountain adventure Racing Association has just announced that the Frigid Infliction winter race on March 3 is now an officially sanctioned United States Adventure Racing Association (USARA) race.

That means teams can receive points toward the adventure racing national championships. Plus, to some extent, it legitimizing the really great work that the guys at GMARA do.

I hope that the sanctioning opens up access to more website and publication calendars--more teams are always better than less, except when they fill up the registration and you can't get in. That happened to us with the Vermont 100 miler.

Speaking of registration, we're going to have to get that taken care of soon. Fortunately, there's a discount for GMARA members in GMARA races. Another reason to be a member!

In the mean time, do a frickin snow dance--this is getting ridiculous.

jg

Team Runs with Scissors is Sending Tons of Good Vibes to Danelle Ballengee

Danelle Ballengee is, hands down, one of the most successful and well respected adventure endurance athletes in the world. She has a wicked-impressive list of racing achievements, including many championships and a recent 9th place finish at this year's Primal Quest with Team Spyder. She's won Primal Quest on three other occasions. (That's her ascending Castleton Tower during PQ in the photo.)

In addition, she's the winningest snowshoe racer in the world and has competed here in our very own Vermont.

Well, Danelle was in a wicked trail running accident and is now recovering. You can read about her accident, and the impressive role her K9 Taz played in the rescue operation here.

Team Runs with Scissors wants to join the entire racing community in wishing this goddess of adventure a speedy recovery. And, Danelle, when you're back on your feet we'd welcome the opportunity to show you around Vermont.

jg

Larry the Cable Guy Christmas Carols

One more for the fans...

Please note: Some content may be inappropriate for young children, exceedingly sensitive politically correct eggheads, Hillary Clinton, oh, and Turtle.

The Night Before Christmas -- by Larry the Cable Guy


Well, it's that time again. Time for your mid-day humorous interlude, couretsy of Team Runs with Scissors.

This one is for my lovely wife--I know how much she loves the Blue Collar Comedy guys.

jg

Grambo's 1st annual Best/Worst Gear Purchases of the Year!!!

So, since it's the end of the year, and I was making a list of gear I need for the new year (so my wifey would have some ideas of what to get me for Xmas), I decided I should publish my best and worst gear purchases of '06, and I would encourage my teammates to do the same. I think we are a good source for this type of information, given that none of us are independently wealthy, and I think we all in general tend to carefully consider what to spend our hard earned cash on, and then we really, really use our gear in our travels. We aren't the sort to buy a piece of gear and let is sit in the closet, or maybe take it on a day hike up Mt. Philo or something. If we buy it, it'd going to get wet, dirty, scraped, smashed, dropped off a cliff (yep, nalgene bottles really can withstand that) and generally abused, and if it doesn't hold up, well, we'll be P*$#%$ed off. So, without further ado, here are my best/worst purchases of 2006 :
(**Note: I am not including my new bike (an '05 Kona Cinder Cone) in this list, because it's more of a "big ticket" item, and doesn't really fit. However, overall, it is probably my best purchase of '06)
Best Purchase of '06:
Osprey Stratos 24 Day Pack, purchased for $96.00: Last year, our first year of racing, I was using an older North Face day pack. It's a great pack, but it doesn't have a water bladder setup, and has no frame. When I saw this pack at EMS last spring, I fell in love with it, and at their 20% sale, I bought it. Click on the link above for a list of all the features, but a couple that make this pack stand out are:
1. A stiff frame, which allows the pack to keep it's shape, even when the only thing in it is my Camelbak. No more "floppy backpack" syndrome!
2. Built in hip belt pockets, which are great for keeping some gel packs, bars, and a knife and compass close at hand while in the outdoors.
3. Nice external straps for holding snowshoes (looking forward to testing them out soon) or other gear, along with 2 water bottle pockets.


All in all, this backpack is great. I have used it for hiking, biking, racing, hunting, and I've even worn it swimming courtesy of the Bitter Pill Adventure Race (that's me, and my backpack, on the left in this picture), and so far, it's held up great, and holds all the gear I need for a day of fun and adventure. I highly recommend this or any other Osprey Backpack.

Worst Purchase of '06:
Merrill Overdrive Trail Shoes, purchased for $90.00: For my first year of adventure racing, I had a pair of Salomon trail shoes (not sure which, they have too many letters, XA, 3D, XCR, whatever) which were great, but the footbeds weren't quite right for me, even with Superfeet inserts. However, what I loved was the Salomon quick lacing system, which allows for easy adjustment of the tightness of the shoe. I saw the Merrells at EMS, and they have a similiar quick-lacing setup. After reading a couple of good reviews, I bought a pair. Immediately, I noticed that the quick-lacing setup was much less robust than the Salomon design. After time (an hour +) they would loosen up on their own, a problem I never had with the Salomons, even after 6-8 hours of hiking. Sure, I could have removed the quick-laces and replaced them with the supplied regular laces, but remember, 1 reason I bought these shoes was for the quick laces! The, 2 months after purchase, the quick lace buckle actually broke on 1 of the shoes!! CRAPPY DESIGN!! In the comfort department I would rate these shoes as OK (not great), and I also found the inside and the tread wore out much quicker than I would have liked. For these reasons, and primarily for the lacing issue, these are my "Worst Purchase of '06". Anyone have suggestions for a shoe for '07?

So there you have it, the best and worst gear of '06, at least from my point of view...

Grambo

It's Cross Training Time!

Training for adventure races is necessarily a bunch of cross training. You know what I mean: We're not just runners, so we do more than run. We're not just paddlers, so we do more than paddle. We're not just bikers, so we do more than bike. We're not just...well, you get the point. Essentially, everything that we do outside or in the gym is considered training. That's pretty cool.

Cross training is a particularly useful tool because it helps to prevent boredom, burnout and over-use injuries--and being trapped in the gym by things like the weather and your schedule doing the same workouts can lead quickly to all three. It also helps you log training hours at a time of year when that can be challenging.

My winter cross training activities of choice are a weekly basketball night and as much riding (snowboarding) as my work schedule and wife can tolerate. We might need to mix in a few climbs at Petra Cliffs...

So, I'm off to shoot some hoop. Game on!

jg

GOALS ARA Announces Tentative 2007 Schedule

This is cool. Grambo and I were just saying, last night at the Pub, that GOALS ARA needed to come out with its 2007 schedule soon so we could try to figure out if there's an April race in the cards. Well, ask and you shall receive, I guess. Today, GOALS announced their 2007 schedule.

These guys put on a great race and, because their events are near Philly, they have like 100 teams at each of them. It's a fun time.

We've raced in both their spring race, The Savage, as well as their fall race The Edge (Did I mention we were third there, and won medals?). In fact, two of the teams we raced with last April in The Savage were in Primal Quest this summer: Team GOALS ARA and Suttfield Hummer. Interestingly, neither of them won our race.

I'd say we're probably going to do at least one of the GOALS races, so we'll keep you posted.

By the way, the snow on Mansfield was pretty good today--made some deep turns--but we really need a white Christmas!

Anywho, Turtle is almost here and we're going to drink some homebrew and then, with the lovely Mrs. G, drop by the Matterhorn to see my buddy Steve's band Foundation.

This is the description from the Matterhorn website: "Stowe's lovable rockers make 'The Horn' feel like one big house party with all of their local support. An awesome set list of rock n roll cover songs. Happy birthday Ally! ."

Rock on...

jg

Good Read

I'm just about finished with Ian Adamson's book Runner's World Guide to Adventure Racing: How to Become a Successful Racer and Adventure Athlete.

It's a good read, definitely has some good tips. Although, I had hoped it for more technical detail. Nevertheless, I recommend it to anyone interested in our sport.

Ian is the world's most successful adventure racer and races on Team Nike. You can check out Team Nike's website here. They have some cool videos. But, as much as I respect the incredible athletes on the team, I can't get past the fact that Nike is like...well, the Yankees. They're the Evil Empire of Adventure Racing! Why, Ian, why?

Incidentally, the photo above is of Ian's mangled feet at this year's Primal Quest. As I recall, after a paddling section he forgot to change into his trail shoes and ended up having to trek something like 25 or 30 miles through the hot, sandy dessert in his sandals. That's some serious blistering. Ouch! They still won.

By the way, I still have about 2.25 gallons of the Hair O' the Cat left and plan to make space for another batch this weekend. Anyone up from some homebrew on Saturday?

jg

"I'm movin' a little slow tonight, I had a hot pocket for dinner."

Just joking, I actually had a pork chop and some broccoli and rice, prepared by my lovely wife. It was great; just can't get that Jim Gaffigan Hot Pocket bit (below) out of my head--hilarious.

Did a great brick tonight: 45 minute weight circuit, 3.25 mile run and 45 minutes of intervals on the bike. Good stuff.

"I've never eaten a Hot Pocket and afterward been like 'I'm glad I ate that.' I'm always like 'I'm going to die'..." -- jg

Frigid Infliction Gear Update

Chris from the Green Mountain Adventure Racing Association (GMARA) kindly offered us the following ski gear tips for our upcoming winter race the Frigid Infliction:

"We do not recommend Skate skis as there will be travel off groomed trail," Chris said.

"A good Classic race ski, a touring ski like the Karhu Snowblaze or the Rossignol Active lines would be your best bet," he continued. "Back Country skis are being made more like Telemark skies so they may be too heavy for travel in this race. As always, you choose your poison."

In addition to nordic skiing, we'll be doing some backcountry snowshoeing, postholing (hiking in deep snow without snowshoes) and a tyrolean traverse.

And, of course, the entire course (which is unknown to us until the start of the race) must be navigated using traditional orienteering techniques.

We're looking forward to it!

jg

Hot Pocket



Some afternoon mirth and levity. This is funny stuff.

The Gear Junkie

The Gear Junkie is this dude who, as far as I can tell, is livin' the dream. He's an outdoor writer and all around adventurer who seems to make a living testing all sorts of outdoor gear and writing about it. Tough life.

To report on this outrageously absurd job, and torment all of us jokers with "real" jobs, (Me, jealous?), he pens an interesting column with some regularity. The Junky also releases an annual gear of the year list.

This year's list includes some cool stuff, including SmartWool boxer briefs. We're very big fans of wool--the miracle fiber. SmartWool makes some really great stuff. We love Ice Breaker's attire too. And the best all-weather wool socks, in my humble opinion, are made right here in Vermont by the folks at Darn Tough. Very high quality stuff.

The Gear Junkie has some interesting reviews. Although, some of the stuff he tests is way, way, way outside the even remotely possible price range for us normal, mortal adventure racing stiffs. Take the $279 flashlight he suggests, for example. That's crazy. I'll take my $33 Petzl Tikka headlamp any day.

Anyway, there's a little gear junky in each of us.

Now, I don't want to mention any names (Justin), but there's no doubt about who has the biggest gear "problem" on our team.

It's fair to say, however, that we're all crying out for help.

jg

Only a wee dump so far...

J's prayers notwithstanding, no big dump yet, although we got enough snow yesterday afternoon to make the drive home very, very unpleasant. I must confess that I am not quite as excited as he is for a big dump seeing as how my snowblower is in pieces in the backyard, but I do like snow, especially this time of year, so what the heck, bring it on. I did add the link to the cool weather page J posted to the links section of the blog...

Also, J dropped off a growler of his brown ale mentioned earlier (The Hair O' the Cat), and I have been letting age for several days in the fridge. I am afraid that it may not make it through the weekend, though. I think it may be consumed while we erect our Christmas tree tonight, in the spirit of holiday cheer. Anyway, that's it for now, only time for a short post today...

Grambo

The Big Dump is Coming!

Did that get your attention? I Hope so.

It's a reference to snow, of course. Unfortunately, there's no evidence of a big snow dump in the immediate future. But like all those who write Santa, look forward to the Easter Bunny, leave teeth laying around a fairy--and loyal fans of Red Sox Nation--we believe.

According to the best winter weather forecaster around, Jim Roemer, we're in for another week, or so, of clipper systems. These are the systems that produce the inch or two, or three, of snow you have to brush off your car every morning--a winter ritual to be enjoyed. Seriously.

Don't get me wrong, a clipper system every day or two for a few weeks can accumulate well over a foot, or more, of snow. And it's a hell of a lot better than no snow, or that other form of precipitation, of which we must never speak this time of year. You know, the "R" word. But, there's nothing like a wicked-big, traffic snarling, flatlander frightening, snowplow requiring, birdies in the parking lot, pull be out of this ditch, please, dump to really get things started.

In the winter, checking Roemer's forecasts frequently--sometimes a half-dozen times a day--is crucial, if also obsessive. It's an essential part of assembling a responsible riding, skiing, hiking, camping, travel, working and general activity schedule for the winter. Roemer essentially tells you when call in sick. He's never let me down.

It's only a matter of time before he sends the powder alert we're all longing for.

The Big Dump is coming. And when it does, we'll be ready.

jg

Primal Quest 2006

Check out this cool Primal Quest Utah video! My or my, this is the real deal. The best part: "You're put through a large load of suffering in Primal Quest. Every adventure race is hard; anything you do for 24 hours straight is going to be difficult, but then you can shower up and get home and have part of the weekend left...But the people who take on Primal Quest are just a cut above your average adventure racer. Your average adventure racer might be a little more weird than your average triathelete, whose's then some levels of weirdness above your average recreational runner or even marathoner." AWESOME! It's all about the limits of your endurance.

Future Team Runs with Scissors Adventure Racer on Board!

In what is surely the most personal of all announcements made on this blog to date, the lovely Mrs. G. and I are very proud to announce that we will be having a baby girl.

She's due to arrive May 18th and will begin immediatley to train for the 2023 Jay Challenge.

jg

Team Runs with Scissors

This is one of the funniest things I've read in awhile:

"Consider the turkey. As presently constituted, a ridiculous beast. It has tiny legs supporting a fat body, with breasts like a porn star's and a face like a 90-year-old fisherman's."

Ha!

It's from an article in Mens Health. It goes on to talk about how we could all stand to chill out and focus on what matters most about the holidays: family, friends and traditions--oh, and the feasting!

The article is pretty good, but that opening about the turkey is killer.

Mmmmm, turkey.

jg

Yep, I've been slackin' on the posts a bit. First I challenge J to post every day, then I don't post at all! Doh! In my defense, though, it's been quite busy here at work, and I have been getting some good exercise running around the halls and the cleanroom here at Big Blue. Fun times...

Also, after my Monday run last week, I had a little flare-up of the ole' Plantar Fasciitis. For those who don't know, the plantar fascia is the ligament on the bottom of your foot, and plantar fasciitis is the inflammation and swelling of said ligament, resulting in pain, sometimes in the heel and sometimes on the bottom of the foot itself. There are numerous causes and contributing factors, including bad shoes, trauma, and tucking in your bedsheets at night (seriously). I was unfortunate enough to really, really strain my right plantar fascia a couple years back while doing a winter day hike. I had physical therapy for it, including an interesting procedure called iontophoresis, and it has mostly recovered, but it bothers me now and then. I have since stopped wearing the shoes I have been wearing to work (more on them later, maybe tommorrow), and tried to stay off it as much as possible, and it seems to be better. Back to running soon, maybe today, and definitely tommorrow.

In other news, well, I have no other news right now, other than my desire to taste J's new brown ale, the Hair of the Cat (see the post below). I happen to be a big fan of the brown ale, and his last one was pretty tasty. I am hoping he saves me a growler...

Grambo

Team Runs with Scissors

Mmmmm, homebrew....

One of our favorite hobbies (as if we don't have enough going on) is home brewing. The virtues of making, and consuming, your own custom made brew are many. It's an art, really. And the merits of having a keg--yes, I said keg--of your own beer in the closest are too numerous to list.

We're currently working on a 5 gallon batch of American Brown Ale at our place. Browns tend to be quickly maturing, full bodied beers. American brewers over the last several decades have spiced the traditional Brown Ale up with more hops--giving it a little of that biter hops flavor common in IPAs. That led to what is now known as the distinctive American Brown Ale.

This batch is for a Christmas party Mrs. G and I are going to next weekend and I just finished kegging it. It's outside on my front stoop chilling now. Chilling the beer helps speed up the force carbonation process, because the CO2 solubility (the rate at which the CO2 enters the liquid, giving it those refreshing little bubbles) increases as the temperature of the liquid decreases. Anyway, it's outside chillin' like a Chilean'...

So, as I was preparing and sterilizing all of the siphoning equipment and the keg, I was thinking about what we ought to call this batch. Good homebrew needs a name. There are always many possibilities. But none of the names I was thinking of seemed to do the trick. Mistletoe Ale? Lame. Frost Heave Brown? A little gross. Naughty or Nice? Maybe. Stocking Stuffer? Kind of funny. And the names just got worse from there...

A few minutes later, as the beer was siphoning from the fermenter into the keg, I noticed there was something unusual on the wall of the fermenting bucket. I thought it might have been an odd looking hops leaf or a piece of grain. But upon closer inspection it turned out to be a single cat hair.

Now, thankfully, that one cat hair didn't contaminate the batch, thank goodness! But it was very annoying. I'm very, very careful about cleaning and sanitizing everything in the kitchen, and all of the brewing equipment, before, during and after the brewing starts. Contamination is the enemy, so everything gets sterilized. But somehow, that frickin' single inch-long cat hair (Yes, it was a cat hair, so don't even say it.) found its way into be fermentation bucket. Fortunately, the beer smelled and looked great.

So I pulled the cat hair off the side of the fermenter, and then it hit me: There'll be no lame name for this holiday brew. We're going to call it...

...drum roll please...

The Hair of the Cat!

As you can see, Groucho is thrilled.

Happy holidays from the Blush Hill Brewery!

JG

PS--We were in Boston this weekend, and I did a cool training run Saturday morning all through the downtown. It was a nice change.