Old Man Still running

I ran an early morning Timpanogos summit starting from Timpooneke Trailhead.  I was on at the trail at 2:00 a.m., summited about 4:25, a typical pace for me.   I signed the summit log, my 52nd summit.   There were three groups of young people on the trail who I all passed.  They have no idea in that dark that I'm just some old guy.  I took it easy on the run down, finishing the round trip with a time of 4:09.   My PR is 3:43.   The trail is getting very overgrown with bushes making it hard to run down fast.   I was really tripping a lot on the last several miles.   I washed up, dressed for work, and caught my normal bus into Salt Lake City at 7:08.   I told a couple people at work that I had been on top of Timp that morning.

This morning at 3:00 a.m., I ran a favorite 15-mile loop (12 on trails) near my home.   This route climbs onto the foothills of Lake Mountain, goes over a ridge and then descends toward Eagle Mountain City Center.   In Cedar Valley, I head north and then run up the road over Unity Pass.   At the new elementry school being built, I run behind it and connect with a dirt road the takes me up to the powerlines.  I then get on a single-track motor cycle trail the winds up to the top of the ridge above the ranches.   I run on a trail on top of the ridge until I connect with another motorcycle trail that winds down the ridge and lets me run back home to Saratoga Springs.   This morning I set a PR on this run 2:40.   The run only climbs about 1,500 feet or so, so it isn't terribly tough, but I really enjoy doing it.   I listen to Mike and Mike in the morning and ESPN radio to get my morning sports fix.

In order to get ready for the Leadville 100, I need to spend as much time at altitude as possible.   This evening I drove up to Guardsman Pass, ran up and down some peaks and found a nice camping spot at 10,300 feed near the summit of Clayton Peak.   I pitched a tent, watched Mission Impossible on my lap top, and slept the night at altitude.  In the morning I washed up and went into work at normal time.

I decided to run the Provo River 1/2 marathon as a training long tempo run to work on my foot speed and get my heart rate up longer and faster than normal.   This would be my last speed workout before Leadville 100 next week.   I needed to be very careful not to pull any muscles.  This wasn't worth it.  Leadville is my focus.   The 1/2 marathon is poorly organized.  There was lots of confusion at the start.  They didn't have bathrooms, so the hill above was covered with runners despositing their human waste everywhere.   Not good.

Finally the race got going, about 15 minutes late.   I managed to get near the front and was only held up by a few slow runners who shouldn't have started near the front.   For the first mile, I ran in about the top 30, finishing the first mile in 5:56.   I was feeling good and enjoyed the fast downhill pace.  My next few miles were 6:16, 6:40, 6:35, 6:55, and 7:11.   That seven-minute mile was on the boring highway section that went uphill.   They had to route the course on the highway because of the recent fire.

I had my ups and downs, but kept the speed up.   My 5k and 10k splits were far-faster than my PRs.   After mile 9, people started to pass me.   I could keep up a 7-minute mile, but not much faster as we hit level pavement.   Mile 10 was a 6:50 split.   At mile 11, I could feel my hamstring tighten up.   No way was I going to pull that, so I slowed way down.   The last mile took 8 minutes.    I finished in 1:29:58 in 73rd place, 6th place in my oldage group.

It felt like a good training run.   I believe I could knock several more minutes off that.  Maybe next year.   Enough with the roads. I don't train for them.  Back to the trails.