One more round

Well, it's that time of year again- time to apply for a job. For the past three years, I have worked as a temporary instructor of some incarnation (Lecturer or Visiting Assistant Professor). This means that I teach full time for a college or university under a one-year (of nine-month) contract. During the my last round of applications, I applied to eleven colleges and universities in CO, WY, NM, TX, PA, TN, CT, WA, and Asia before ending up in Lexington (VA). That's right one of the positions for which I applied for the 2009-2010 academic year listed only the continent (it was a program that provides university-level instruction on US military bases, apparently in Asia). This time around, I have started the application season with ten applications only three of which are for permanent positions (shown in blue below). I will update the map as appropriate. Wish me luck...

View 2010 apps in a larger map

I am with inov-8 in 2010

You have probably already heard, but inov-8 (pronounced 'innovate' for those of you who have difficulty with these things) has announced its team of sponsored athletes and happy to report that I am on the list. This will be my fourth year of sponsorship with the small British-owned maker of high-performance offroad footwear. For those of you who know me well (or those of you who are really obsessive about following the obscure sport of mountain running), you know that my last two years have been typified by biomechanical difficulties related to a knee injury that (may have) required surgery in the summer of 2008. Needless to say, my racing during the past few years has been almost non-existent and, when I have raced, it has been, um, not fast. Any sponsor would have been completely justified in dropping me like a thing that gets dropped quickly and I am pleased that those in charge of dispersing the sponsorship resources at inov-8 have decided to take the long-term approach to my sponsorship on the gamble that I will actually be able to run quickly in 2010. I thank the inov-8 company for its generosity and loyalty. My bio on the team blog can be found here.

DoubleJ has a similar post here. Congratulations.

Training Update 19

Well, it has been a while since my last post on training but this being the new year and all...

Monday D28: AM 1:20 running- with K on the roads of Battle Creek- probably the last time that I will run with another human for a while.

Tuesday D29: PM 2:10 running- Littlefield Road and Deerfield Park (near Mount Pleasant, MI)- poor surface conditions

Wednesday D30: PM 1:00 snowshoeing- around my parent's property (near MP)- possibly my only snowshoe of the season?

Thursday D31: PM 2:20 running- Littlefield Road and Deerfield Park (near Mount Pleasant, MI)- poor surface conditions

Friday J1: PM 1:30 running- 1:15 outside (combination of snow, mud, and grass), 0:15 stairs

Saturday J2: AM 1:30 running- ran Back Campus but it got down to ~13F last night (it was in the high 30s yesterday) and the trails were icy, crusty, and all around nasty- felt terrible, just terrible

Sunday J3: AM 1:36 running- Chessie Trail out and back- felt better but still not great

Total: 11:26- All running

Comments: One more week of nothing but running... All of the runs in MI were pretty bad due to the surface conditions. In the past, I have not minded the icy dirt roads of Deerfield Township but for some reason, they were really slippery this year. Really, the only day that I felt good was Sunday- there are a few clear stretches along the Chessie Trail and it felt really good to feel some dirt under my feet. Next week, the gym will be open and I can get back to some x-training. Yea! The picture to the right was taken on a ride near Goshen Pass- on one of my last rides before the break (and the largest snowstorm to hit Rockbridge County in the past 13 years.

Unsolicited Opinion: US Men's mountain running performances of the year

As a fan of list and end-of-the-year retrospectives, I love end-of-the-year retrospectives that involve lists. I am going to add to the wide range of lists out there with one of my own.

USATF MUT has been recognizing the top mountain runner of the year since 1999 (and sometimes they even get it right) and Ultrarunning magazine publishes a more official performance list for the ultradistances with voting and everything but there is no acknowledgment or analysis (official or otherwise) of the many impressive performances for short distance (say, finishing time less than three hours) mountain races (by US men) out there.

Disclaimer: I have in the past been associated with the national team but this is just my list. It does not represent anything from USATF, the Teva USMRT, or any of my sponsors. I you do not agree with the order or feel that some performance was left out completely, leave a comment. I am always interested in other peoples' perception of high performance mountain running even if those people are wrong. Here is my shot at ranking what I saw as the top performances of the year; if you like, you can think of these are the performances that most impressed me over the past year. Let’s get on with it.

10. Eric Blake’s second place on The Hill
Lost in the excitement of an outstanding performance by the winner (see below) was the fact that Quadzilla’s second place finish in 1:01:19 is smoking fast and over a minute in front of USATF MROY, Joe Gray. …and to think, this is only Eric’s forth fastest time on The Hill.

9. Matt Carpenter's ninth PPM win
Not only did the 44-year-old Matt C. win the marathon, his split time to the top was faster than the winner of The Ascent from the previous day. I would be surprised by this considering that The Ascent generally attracts a pretty good field except for the fact that this is the sixth time that Matt has run the fastest ascent time of the weekend during the marathon. Awesome.

8. Tim Parr’s win at Cheyenne Canon
The second of two national team selection races had a pretty good field (including the future 13th place finisher at the WRTC and Timmy came off of a few years of poor performances for a big win and a spot on his third national team.

7. Joe Gray’s win at Cranmore
This race had the quality field that you would expect at a race that was the USATF National Mountain Running Championship and one of two national team selection races and Joe Gray beat the lot of them.

6. Matt Carpenter’s win at the Native Eyewear 10K Spring Runoff
The day after he ran to second place in the Triumph Development Vail Pass Half Marathon (which, at 4% average grade, does not qualify its participants for consideration on this list), Carpenter smoked a smokin’ field at this minor diversion from all of the real outdoor sports at the Teva Mountain Games. Considering that he beat Rickey Gates and Joe Gray who would respectively break one hour on The Hill and win the USATF Mountain Running Championship later that month (both of whom also ran the ½ marathon on the previous day), this was a very impressive performance indeed.

5. Bill 'Rickey' Gates 5th place at Grossglockner Berglauf
Rickey’s 1:13:09 was even faster than his 1:13:38 from the previous year in this race up the highest peak in Austria. This is one of those performances that may not sound all that impressive (wow, 5th place in a race that I have never heard of, I can hear someone saying in the background…). Trust me, this was some fast $&#@.

4. Joe Gray’s 16th place at the WMRC
This is where the performances start to get really good. Joe had a fine season (good enough for his second USATF MROY award) and this was certainly his top race in 2009. 16th at the WMRC- in a field that was almost certainly the best ever for an up and down year is also some fast $&#@.

3. Andrew Bedford’s 13th place at the WMRC
Andy made a huge improvement from 12th junior in Bursa (2006 WMRT) to make his first senior national team with a second place at the Cheyenne Canon Mountain Race. He then made another substantial leap forward with a 13th place in this year’s WMRC (see comments above). Such a high place from someone so young makes me optimistic regarding the chances of the US men returning to the WMRT/C podium in the near future. I do not know what he and his coach are doing over in Richmond, but whatever it is, I hope that they keep it up!

2. Bill 'Rickey' Gates 4th place at Sierre-Zinal
Rickey’s 2:38:52 was the fastest that any US man has run on this course since the great Pablo Vigil won the race in 1982 (one of his four wins). To finish well at Sierre-Zinal, you have to be able to handle long steep climbs, fast running at (moderate) altitude, and ridiculous, technical descents. Sierre-Zinal is the best mountain race in the world and 4th place there is good enough for second on this list.

1. Bill 'Rickey' Gates running up The Hill in 59:58
I debated with myself for a while about some of the other positions on this list. I am still not sure if Rickey’s S-Z is better than Andrew’s WMRC. I am, however, sure that Rickey’s sub-60 on The Hill is the best performance by a US man in 2009. I do not feel the need to elaborate.

There it is. Was sub-60 tops in your estimation? Is 4th at S-Z better than 13th at the WMRC? What else belongs on this list? King’s win at the Xterra Trail Running "World Champs"? Joe Gray's 6th place at Skaala? Matt Carpenter's win at The Barr? Michael Spence's win at the USATF Trail 10k nats? Some other performance?

My apartment featured in Budget Traveler

Recently, Budget Travel Magazine named my current residence of Lexington, Virginia as one of "America's Coolest Small Towns".

No, my luxurious 250 square-foot efficiency apartment is not actually featured in the magazine, but my apartment windows can be seen in the photo used for the article (my windows are on the top floor of the third building down the street above the 'Art' sign). The picture was taken before I moved in- the 'Art' sign is no longer there and, of course, do not own an air conditioner unit.

My First Virginia Bear Sighting

Yesterday, I was out riding on the Blue Ridge Parkway on the climb from the James River to Apple Orchard Mountain. It is a good climb with an average of 5.1% grade for 12.5 miles. I was almost to the top when I saw a bear (artist's rendition to the right). It was small but really fat (probably due to seasonal hyperphagia). When the bear saw me it tore up a steep slope (60%) and dislodged some rocks which came crashing down onto the road right where I was standing (by this time, I had stopped and I actually had to move get out of the way of the falling rocks). After I made it to the top of Apple Orchard Mountain (the highest point on the BRPW in Virginia), I came back past the spot and there was a “Beware of Fallen Rocks” sign right in front of the fallen rock! This is my 6th lifetime bear sighting and, as the title of the post suggests, my first in VA. I have also seen bears in ID, MT, CO, MA, and VT. Oddly, I have seen bears in six different states and I have never seen more than one bear in a single state. This is also my first bear seen while cycling. The others where all encountered while hiking (ID and MT) or running (CO, VT, MA).

Place Name as Metaphor: Suck Mountain

I am fascinated by place names and, as someone who has run many painful miles on Paine Mountain (Northfield, VT), I appreciate a good toponym metaphor. My new favorite place name as a metaphor...


I can across it while producing this map for one of my labs... (Look in the southwest corner of the map to see my new favorite name for an intrusive body)

Suggested usage: example 1- I ran great in my last marathon for the first 22 miles, after that, I was just climbing Suck Mountain; example 2- My original plan of 20*400 meters on the track quickly decayed into hill reps up Suck Mountain.
Author's personal experience: I have not literally been to Suck Mountain (though I have been close enough to see it from an opposing ridge), I have metaphorically been to Suck Mountain many, many times (pretty much anytime that I race).