Old Man Still running

Tough treadmill

Treadmill...boring, but about the best training right now that can be done getting ready for ATY.

I get a kick out of watching the guys who come into the exercise room.  A stretch guy came in.   Spent more then ten minutes stretching out his legs, then did five minutes on the eliptical at its easiest level, more stretching, and five minutes jogging slowly on the treadmill.  Finally goes and does a few situps and then more stretching and just sitting around.  No sweating involved.  I don't get it, but at least he's doing something.

I never stretch, not before, not after, and almost always never cramp or pull muscles.  To me stretching is a complete waste of time.  If I have time to work out, I want to use it working out.   I get in the room, crank up the machine and away I go.

Reached 3,000 miles for the year.  Looks like I'll probably hit at least 3,600 by the end of the year.

Graph: http://hphotos-iad1.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/310268_10150903324880694_754525693_21519247_1975432924_n.jpg

Every year a little more.  I remember in 2004, I thought those miles were huge.  If I add in the few miles I did in 2003 and 2002, I've run around 22,000 miles in the past ten years.

Treadmill until it felt like I was going to go crazy.

Tough treadmill

Lunch run too, on the canal roads in Bluffdale

Treadmill

15 on the treadmill in the morning and 8 during lunch on the Bluffdale canals with Bill Francis.  We ran the loop in a quick 1:07.

10 Treadmill and 8 during lunch on canal roads.   Yesterday morning saw a big fox crossing the road near our rec center by the lake.  Beautiful animal.

25 on the Treadmill

Total of 75 miles on the treadmill this week, 109 including last Saturday. Pretty gross.

p.m. 5 more

Out the door at 3:30 a.m.  Six miles on the Jordan River Parkway.  A bit nippy, in the 20s.   Then 14 on the treadmill.  Fan lady came in.  She doesn't want to sweat, so has to turn on the hurricane force fan that almost blows me sideways and is super noisy.

Been purging my mp3 of lots of 70s music that I have listened to for years, while running.  That music used to bring back high school and college memories.  Now it brings back memories of puking on the trail late at night.  Upgrading with newer music that I haven't puked to yet.

5 more during lunch.

14 on treadmill in the morning and 6 outside during lunch.  My problem knee has started to complain about the high mileage.   Switched to Hokas today, and that seemed to do the trick.  No more complaining.

Run on canal roads and JRP (new section) through Bluffdale. 

Treadmill.  Cut it short because my problem tendon in my left foot started to hurt.  I guess I need to retire these old road shoes that have nearly 1,000 miles on them.  I'll run some more in the Hokas to protect the tendon.  I probably stepped on a sharp rock yesterday, that usually sets it off.

13 in the p.m. 

Had to switch to my stiffest shoe to protect the tendon insertion point under my foot that is bugging me.  That did the trick, but its kind of like running in army boots.  But the nice effect is when I switch back to the light shoes, it will feel really fast.

More during lunch outside.

Treadmill and out on the JRP and roads.  The JRP had some bad black ice on it shortly after dawn so had to jump out on the roads.

Despite two weeks of high miles, my legs feel great and I really enjoyed the run.

p.m. 5 more with the dog

Got up at 3 a.m. to run outside, but it was raining.  Went back to bed and did treadmill at 5:15.

Out at 3:30 a.m.  Ran at Inlet Park which is right next to the rec center I use.  At that park is a little used forest trail loop, 0.22 miles long, very soft, not technical, only about ten feet of climb each loop.  I ran a bunch of loops there.  As I approached it, I looked to the west and could see odd low clouds in Eagle Mountain, it kind of looked like smoke from a house fire, but soon it became evident that it was ice fog rolling in.  It eventually reached me and it was pretty eerie seeing all the ice crystals in my head lamp beam.  At 5 a.m. I went in and ran on the treadmill.

Lunch, ran a 4 mile-loop involving, new JRP in Bluffdale I haven't been on that ends after crossing the river and hitting a road under the railroad tracks.  Ran on nice and quiet country roads, and then took a canal road back.  Very nice.

Funny that I've run in three different shoes today.

Was running along Redwod Road at 6 a.m. and some young punks pulled over and asked if I wanted to run up to the Top of Lake Mountain.  I jumped in the car.  The young punks were kind to this old man and didn't totally leave me in the dust.   They were Dan, Scott, Matt, and Seth.  We got to the top at sunrise.  It was spectacular, wow.  Great running weather.  It was about my 30th time to the top.   Going down, I took Dan down the lesser traveled road that heads out east along a ridge.  It was great fun bounding down steep sections in about a foot of snow, with amazing views of Utah Lake below us.   It was a nice run with the boys.

One of the boys, Seth, was so kind, he gave me some Altra Lone Peaks.   I took them out for a seven-mile test drive.  Here is my inital review. 

Fit.  So far, they seem to fit very well.  Nice toe box room.  Didn't detect any hot spots.  I only used them on the flats, so no idea how they do on steep ups and downs.

Impact.  This is a concern.  With my nearly bone-on-bone knee, I could feel joint impact with this type of minimalist shoe on the road.  I already have a pretty good mid-foot strike on the flats.  On a soft trail it was better.   Also, I think I need more arch support.  I'm going to experiment with a different insole.  For any shoe, I usually do something with the insole.

Foot fatigue.  I can tell my feet would get tired and sore in these if I used them for a long run of 50 miles or more.  But, I think they would be great to help strengthen my feet without doing something stupid like running barefoot on trails.

Zero drop.  No biggy.  I could immediately feel the difference, but I suspect since Hokas have a low drop, I'm already used to that.  By the end of my run, I didn't notice it.  They felt fine, no calf soreness.

Speed.  Don't know yet.  Those boys make me legs tired trying to keep up with them.  I'll try them again when my legs are fresh.   I bet these shoes would do well on treadmills, and would help with running form.

Look.  For those of us who gaze at the Wasatch Mountains and Lone Peak every day, kudos for the cool creative design on the shoe.  Very impressive.

Link to Detailed Report

I did a wonderful 26-mile adventure run up on a mesa about 600 feet above Price, Utah.  Up there are the Western Bookcliff Mountainbike trails that have been developed by the Price Area Singletrack Society (PASS).  They are perfect for trail running, lots of rolling, twisting trails, some fast, some technical.  I ran nearly every mile of the main trails, some sections multiple times.  Great fun, perfect weather.  I'll post an entry on my blog for this one with pictures.  It was a nice area to discover.  It looks like it is mostly used by bikes, but I did see some recent foot prints so someone else runs up there.

A map of the trails can be found here.

Here's my Garmin track

Treadmill and also out in the beautiful 22 degree morning.  With the blazing sunshine it felt a lot warmer and I cruised around in shorts and shortsleeves.

Third 100-mile training week in a row.  I've never done that before.  

Ran in Bluffdale on 5 canal roads on both sides of the river.  Saw a beautiful fox down by the river and railroad tracks.

I've run over 400 miles this month.  Second time I have reached that milestone in a month.

Treadmill.

Updated my list of runs of 30 or more miles.   Looks like I will break my best this year.

	30 or more
2002	2
2003	2
2004	13
2005	21
2006	22
2007	20
2008	16
2009	19
2010	25
2011	24
Total	164

Lunch.  6 mile loop on JRP, a canal road and 1300 West.

JRP, trails and roads.