faster with age

Ran another easy 8 miles this morning. My butt felt about the same which I guess is good as long as it doesn't feel worse. The temp was 0 this morning and very windy. I didn't get out until a little later when it was clear up to 3 deg but still very windy. I dressed like I do for 15 below zero running. I was going into the wind going out and only ran about 9:30 pace. About a minute faster pace coming back with the wind. 8:58 AP

It was -6 deg this morning but it felt much nicer than yesterday mornings run. There was some wind but nothing like yesterday. My son's science teacher has a weather station and is the official weather stat keeper for Preston. Yesterday he told the class that it was -34 degrees with the wind chill. It always seems to be 4 to 6 deg colder where we live [a ways out of town] according to our car thermometer when we drive to and from town. I don't think I have run when it felt any colder than it did yesterday morning. I went 8 miles again this morning up by the reservoir. Still running some on snow and ice up there. My butt cheek pain seems to be a little better each day. Keeping the pace nice and slow until the pain is completely gone. 8:34 AP

     About 1 1/2 miles into yesterdays run I got a sharp twinge in my left knee that hit all with one step. I kept running about 50 yards and it didn't go away. I stopped and did a couple of deep knee squats and it felt better. I continued running and it pretty much went away. After my run it got a little sore and I took some ibuprofen. By evening time last night it felt better and I went and played basketball. Afterward it was sore again and even more sore this morning. It seems to be a problem that I had, and was diagnosed as Plica Syndrome by an orthopedic specialist, just before the St George Marathon 2 years ago. I decided to take today completely off. Hopefully I can nip this in the bud since last time it took a couple of months to clear it up. Of course that was after I ran the marathon with it.

     My knee felt good last night and this morning so I decided to give it another shot. The temp was at 30 deg and sunny. I went with the shorts this morning and it was a nice run. A drastic change from -34 deg [wind chill] four days ago. I ran up to the reservoir and it was just cold enough to keep the mud frozen. Still running on a little snow and ice also. I ran 8 miles averaging about 8:10 pace the first half and around 7:40 pace the second half. My knee didn't give me any problems and the burn in my butt/upper hamstring was less noticeable than earlier in the week. ave pace for 8 miles was 7:54

     I headed out just after noon today with the temp in the upper 30s. I went in shorts for the second day in a row although there was no sun and it was a bit windy. About a mile in it got much more windy and started to snow. I was wondering if I was going to regret not dressing warmer but it wasn't too bad. I went 15 miles averaging 8:19 for the first half and 7:33 coming back. 7:56 AP overall for 15 miles.

     Ran 8 miles today. I decided to where my new New Balance MT 101s that I got while down in St George for the race 2 weeks ago. I had only run in them once for about 3 miles before today because I was a little worried about trying them while trying to recover from some little niggles the last 2 weeks. They are a very minimalist trail running shoe. I really liked them but figure I'll start out not running in them more than once a week till my body gets more accustomed to the lower heel.

     I went 9 miles today and decided to run up to the reservoir. It was colder this morning so any mud would be frozen. There was a fresh layer of powdery snow about 1/2 inch deep from last night and it wasn't too slick where there was frozen ground underneath but it was very slick anywhere that there was ice underneath. When I got too my turnaround point up by the lake I had the thought too go down and run back on the ice on top of the lake. I went down and tried it and it was actually easier running than the snow and ice covered road had been. We just saw the movie 127 Hours about Aron Ralston Last week, where he gets his hand trapped by a boulder and has to amputate his own arm to survive then has to climb and hike another 8 miles down the canyon [A canyon that we were actually down hiking in last spring] to save himself. I have been reading his book [Between a Rock and a Hard Place] the last couple of days and I'm about half way through it.My mind today on my run had been dwelling on his numerous outdoor life and death outdoor survival stories from his book. It got me thinking a lot about 3 or 4 possible life and death situations that I have had in the mountains over the years and how I would write about them and thinking about a lot of the details that I still remember. So of course as I was running across the ice on the lake with my imagination all fired up I started thinking about breaking through the ice and how most days there probably wouldn't be anybody coming through there all day. And then if I could get myself out of the water how tough it would be to make it the 3 miles down to the nearest house while being completely soaked with temps in the low 20s. It was kind of fun envisioning all of this but it actually started making me a bit nervous even though I knew the ice was plenty thick. So I at least started running closer to the bank where I figured if I did break through I could at least touch the bottom.I knew it was silly but it made me feel better. I was taking it pretty easy today and my miles with good footing I was averaging around 8:30 pace but I know I was around 9:30 pace on some of the snowier miles. Overall ave pace was 8:55.

     It's a good book and movie. I'd recommend both.

     9 easy miles this morning. Hammy/butt seems to be doing pretty good as long as I keep everything pretty slow. 8:28 AP

     8 miles slow. Legs felt heavy today maybe from night skiing last night. 8:54 AP

     6 miles at 8:22 AP

     Nice weather for a run today. 42 deg and sun. I went 17 miles. First half at 7:59 ave pace. Second half 7:25 ave pace. Last mile was 7:08 counted that as marathon pace.

     AM  Ran 8 miles in my MT 100s. Really nice weather. Picked up the pace on the last 1/2 mile to just beat the 8 minute guy. 7:59 AP.

     PM  4 miles easy in the dark without a watch. It was still unseasonably warm.

     8 miles on another nice day. Sounds like winter is on it's way back in for a while. 8:39 AP

     Wanted to pick up the pace today on some of my miles. Started with a 3 mile warmup progressing from 8:04 pace to 7:15 pace. Then tried to keep at least MP effort for the next 6 miles. I had to pay more attention to effort than pace because the wind was blowing about 20 MPH. Of the 6 miles 3 miles were direct headwind, 1 1/2 crosswind, 1 1/2 tailwind. I ran harder the last 2 miles directly into the wind at 6:55 pace [felt like 6:20-6:30 effort]. Averaged 7:01 pace for last 6 miles. 7:13 overall pace for 9 miles.

     4 miles easy on snow again.

     We left for San Diego yesterday and spent last night in Mesquite. I went out for an early run on the North side of town. It's a very nice area to run and surprisingly hilly. I've been having a little hip soreness the past 2 days so I only went 6 miles.

     I ran 8 miles at the beach in San Diego this morning. Some on the beach and some on the boardwalk. Right as I started my run it started to rain and I had a huge headwind. At least it wasn't very cold. After about 3 1/2 miles into the wind, the rain stopped and the wind died down some. This is where I was turning around to head back so I didn't get near the tailwind on the return as the wind I had been fighting. 7:57 AP.

     8 miles today. It was snowing with a steady wind the whole time. I felt low on energy during this run which I didn't expect after not running the last 2 days. I must have been worn out from our short vacation and lack of sleep the past 2 nights. 8:42 AP.

     I had better energy today. I went 10 miles total with the first 2 miles mostly on snow at around 8:22 pace. The next 6 miles I averaged around 7:35 pace. The 9th mile I ran in 6:29 and slowed back to 7:25 pace for the next 1/2 then 6:19 pace for the last 1/2 mile. Overall pace for 10 was 7:34.

     During my run on Wednesday I got a sudden pain in my ankle. It was mostly gone after 1/2 minute and I finished the run. It was a bit sore the rest of the day and pretty sore on Thursday so I skipped the run. It was a little sore this morning but seemed a little less noticeable the more I was on it so I decided to try running. Once I started the pain seemed to mostly disappear. I was running on snow and there was a lot of snow falling. I kept the pace real easy. 9:27 AP.

     I was planning on doing a 20 miler today but we have gotten a ton of new snow and none of the roads were cleared yet. I've also been having a few little aches and pains this week. I decided a long run with poor footing wouldn't be a good idea today so I scrapped it and just went 8 miles and decided to do the long run on Monday.  Poor footing made the run slow. 9:08 AP

     My plan was to do the 20 miler I didn't do on Saturday because of snow. The temp was in the low 30s when I was getting ready to leave and the sun was shining. I had on my shorts ready to go but decided to play it safe and put on the long running pants just in case the weather changed since I would be getting so far from home. It's a good thing I did because part way into the run the wind started to blow and the sun went away. I had run an out and back route and on the way back the wind was blowing around 20 MPH and there were places where the road had been dry on my way out and now had 3 to 4 inches of snow drifted all the way across from the crosswind. At 15 miles I was at about 7:57 average pace for the run but all but about 1/2 mile of my last 5 was directly into the wind. It was like running into a wall and a lot of the last 4 I was averaging in the 9:20s. The temperature was still in the 30s and I really wasn't dressed warm enough for running directly into that wind. I was only wearing 2 long sleeved tech shirts and some very thin gloves. I was very glad I hadn't gone out in the shorts. Those last 4 miles were very tough and I was very happy to be done. Average pace for 20 miles ended up at 8:15.