Old Man Still running

Fairly easy treadmill miles.  Heavy legs for the first mile, then felt better.  No muscle soreness, just some of the usual knee pain.  It will get better every day if I stick with it.

Recovery.  I know my recovery approach from RR100 seems like nuts.  Perhaps it is, but what I've learned is that I actually recover faster if I get out and work again as soon as possible.   It seems to speed recovery.   The 50K chased away all my quad and calf soreness.

Training plans.  Next three races are flat and fast (Antelope Island 100, Boston, Ogden).  So my training will be a little different this year during Feb-May.   I'll do far less hill work, and try to get the speed up.    I'll use Squaw Peak as hill training going into the mountain 100s. 

What will my focus race be?  Hard to tell.  It is pretty hard to get my excited about a marathon, so I doubt Boston or Ogden will be much of a focus.   Bighorn is usually an adventure instead of a race.   Perhaps Tahoe Rim 100 is my next focus race.  I'd love to defend my "national championship" for 50 and older.

Treadmill.   I see that last year I was still doing treadmill in February.  I'm looking forward to having the foothills melt off and see the mud go away.   My legs felt very good this morning, not heavy like yesterday.   I  maintained about 8:00 miles with about 4.5 incline average.  Very little knee pain, hardly noticed it.   Looks like I'm back to training.   I'll probably go run the Striders 10K on Saturday for a tempo run.   That is a good tough 10k.  The legs should be loose by then.

Treadmill.  Legs feel recovered.

One thing that strikes me as odd is that for the two months leading up to RR100, I only averaged 35 miles per week of training, yet I PRed.   I guess once you have an established mileage base, you don't have to train like crazy during the couple months before a race to still do well.   Would I have done better with more training?   One can only wonder.

p.m.

More treadmill.  Ran a 21:14 5K, starting at 8:00 pace, ending with 6:00 pace.

Jun made me feel like such a slacker for sleeping in and not running, so after work I went and punished myself by running ten treadmill miles.  Not quite ready to run on pavement with the knee.  Would rather have the trails dry up first.

Concentrating on weight loss.  Finally got that holiday fat off.  Trying to get my sustained weight below 170 for the first time in over 25 years.   That should help take the pressure off the knee.

Treadmill.   The "hand talker" was there today.   This lady walks on the treadmill and yaks very loudly to her mom the entire time.  What is facinating is to see her hand gentures while on  the treadmill, they are amazing.  I almost think she is going to slap me on the machine next to her.   She will slap her hands together while talking and make sweeping gentures that are amazing.   I'm impressed how she can do it.

Hit the treadmill at 5 a.m. for a two-hour session.  No one else was came in, had the room to myself.   Cranked out 13 miles or so.

After that, I changed into my warmer running clothes and joined a group of FRB runners on the Jordan River Parkway in Lehi.  Smooth put this run together.  It was great fun meeting all these enthusastic runners. 

I started out running with Maynard, who has run Squaw Peak 50 several times. There was a very cool wind in our face so after awhile I pushed the pace faster to get warmer.   I could look behind on the corners and see Kelli and Teena about a quarter mile behind.   I wasn't sure where they were going to turn back, so headed back about a 1/2 mile too soon.  I was anxious to head back in order to warm up with the wind at my back.   I figured out that I turned around too soon, because I couldn't see Kelli a nd Teena behind anymore, so after reaching Thankgiving Point, I reversed course until I met them.

Kelli and Teena came at me, turning 7:30 miles.  Wow....I fell in with them and hung on for a mile or so, but my knee started to ache bad, so I just had to slow down.   After a ten-mile out and back we went back to the cars, ate, and rested and waited for the others. Ten miles done.  Soon Smooth, Maynard, LuzyLew, Kathie, Kimmy showed up.    Kelli, Tenna, and I were anxious to stay warm, so we started running south toward Willow Park and Saratoga Springs.  Teena took off, she has some good speed. I was starting to feel the miles so I hung with Kelli talking about crazy running until we reached Willow Park and then I went chasing after Tenna who was at least a half mile ahead.

On the way back, I reversed course again when I met up with Smooth, LuzyLew, Kelli and ran near them for the rest of the run.   After we got back to the car, I was plesantly surprised to see that the girls brought a nice recovery feast.  Rad joined us. I had fun being one of the girls for awhile drinking hot chocolate and eating oranges.   The FRB ladies are great runners and really encourage each other well.  Several of them are also going to run Boston. I was honored to run with them.

p.m.

5 more slow miles with the dog.....cold...brrrr