faster with age

     Ran 10 miles up past the reservoir on snowmobile tracks again. The snow was frozen solid but because of all the melt that took place last week the footing was very uneven most of the way. It feels like it uses a lot of muscles differently just trying to stay balanced. It makes for a lot slower running but it is fun getting back in where nobody other than a few snowmobilers have been all winter. on one 3/4 mile section that hadn't had as much sun I was able to get the pace down around 7:50 both coming and going but there were stretches where I was running 9:30 or slower. 6 1/2 out of the 10 miles were on snow.The last 1 3/4 miles back on pavement I was running around 7:25 pace and it actually felt like the easiest part of the run. It felt like a good workout. Average overall pace was 8:08

     Went for 8 miles relaxed and easy. Felt yesterdays run for the first mile or two but after that things loosened up and felt good. AP 8:38.

      Really nice day. Temp was 43 deg and sunny. It feels so much nicer to run in shorts. I just went for an easy 7 miles and threw in 6 x 30 sec pickups in the last 2 miles.

     Finally got out for a run just before dark shortly after eating a large meal from Cafe Rio and then a gigantic brownie from Great Harvest. Not the best thing to do right before a run. I did a 7 mile run with the first warmup mile in 8:21. Then I ran 6 miles at 7:24 AP going from 7:47 on the first mile and down to 6:53 on the last mile. I've been counting miles under 7:20 as MP which is probably about where my fitness is at right now.

     7 miles @ 7:54 ave.

     Ran 12 miles at 7:54 pace. The snow was too soft to run the snowmobile track up around Winder Reservoir so I took a dry gravel road [that gets plowed all winter] toward Treasureton Res. There  is still a foot of snow on the Winder road but with these warm temps the snow should melt quickly. Hopefully in another three weeks that road will be dry enough to run on. I had a south wind come up on my way back and had to run the last 4 miles into a stiff breeze. I was starting to feel pretty tired and it felt good to be done.

     8 miles easy pace. Felt a little worn out toward the end. 8:49 AP.

     I went for 15 miles on my mt bike this morning. It's the first time this spring that the snow was gone and the road was dry. There was a strong wind blowing and the temp was in the 20s so it was a bit chilly. Most of the first part of the ride was into a headwind and it was hard to maintain 10 MPH. Nice to get that out of the way on the way out and was able to just fly coming back.

     8 mile run. just kept it easy and didn't pay attention to pace. I'm not planning for any races right away so just keeping the pace easy most days and gradually building up mileage. 8:32 AP.

     6 more slow miles at 8:37AP.

     I hadn't decided whether I was doing this race for sure until about 8:30 this morning. I'm not in any kind of race shape. I've just been running mostly low mileage slowly the past couple of months. Since it was only 20 min from home [which is about as close as races get for me] and it was only $5 dollars [$4 if you wore green] and my wife needed to pick up a few things in Logan and I still needed to get in my run for the day I talked myself into it. I didn't want to run it too hard but just get a good workout. When I decided to go it was 27 deg at home and fairly calm. The race started at 10 and we didn't leave until 9:00 at which time it had started snowing and the wind had picked up. When we got to Smithfield there was no snow falling and it was warmer but there was quite a bit of wind. My wonderful  wife went in and signed me up so I had time for a 2 mile warm up. 

     The first 1/2 mile is a pretty good climb and I just took it easy. We then turned and had a nice downhill for the rest of the mile which I finished in 6:31. The second mile was all downhill and really didn't push much and finished in 6:05. The rest of the race was all uphill. It wasn't too steep but directly into the wind. It started to feel much harder during this mile in 6:32. Last .1 at 5:47 pace. Not a great time but a good workout.

     Afterward I ran another 6 miles with Paul and Scott. It had started snowing and we started out into a pretty substantial wind. I was still wearing shorts from the race and was wondering for the first little bit if the shorts were a mistake running into the blowing snow but once I got warmed up and we got into some areas more protected from the wind it wasn't too bad. Glad I went.

     Yesterday evening I started feeling a bit of soreness in my right hamstring. It felt fine the rest of Saturday after the race and the first part of the day Sunday. I don't normally get any muscle soreness after a 5k. I started running this morning and it felt like it would loosen up and feel fine, but after less than 1/4 mile it tightened up and got worse. I quite running and decided I'd rest it and not take any chances on aggravating it further. I went on a 15 mile mt bike ride instead. It's a nice time of year to ride on some of the dirt roads around here. The ones that were plowed during the winter are dry now and nice and hard packed and smooth. They will probably start grading them soon and then there's a lot of loose gravel. My favorite roads don't get plowed and are still under snow

     My hamstring feels a lot better but I decided to give it another day just to be safe. Did the same 15 mile bike ride again. Had good energy and rode pretty hard both days.

     Tried running again today and the hamstring  felt good. I went for 7 nice relaxed miles. It had to be the nicest day of the year so far with the temp above 50 and sunny. The snow is going fast. I had a flock of sandhill cranes soaring overhead making their music. They are the first ones I have heard this year. Always a sign of spring. 8:08 AP.

     6 slow miles. 8:54 AP

     8 miles at 7:45 ave pace. During the 7th mile I ran 2x1/4 at 5:40 pace with 1/4 recovery in between. 

     Gorgeous afternoon. The temp was still only about 45 but nice and sunny. Just went for an enjoyable 9 miles at a relaxed pace.

     Ran 11 miles at an easy pace this morning. I was able to take my favorite route up past winder reservoir for the first time without snow this year. It's amazing that the last time I ran this 3 weeks ago there was still a couple feet of snow and I was running on snowmobile tracks. There are a few snowbanks still melting that make for a few muddy spots but all in all not to bad. With  the winding road and hills on this route, the distance always seems shorter than the straighter flatter routes that I run. I guess it's just mentally easier to have things always changing.  8:13 ave pace.

     Woke up to 3 inches of new snow this morning. I went for 10 very easy miles. I took the reservoir road and ran on snow all the way up. On the way back some spots had melted and were muddy. 9:11 AP.

     I guess winter doesn't want to let go yet. 3 inches of snow yesterday morning and 18 deg this morning. It is looking nice out now though. I went for a 3 mile run this morning and then 18.5 on my mt bike. I was able to ride my favorite loop for the first time this year with just a few muddy spots left but the snow mostly gone. The ice is off around the edge of the reservoir and there are some ducks and geese hanging out. I guess the geese are getting used to seeing me after running past the past 2 mornings and riding by today. The first day they spooked long before I got to them and flew out to the middle of the lake. The next day they let me get almost too them before they flew out to the middle again. This morning they stayed on the bank until I was right even with them [about 40 yards away] before they flew but they only flew out about another 40 yards. Maybe next time they'll stay put on the bank. They do kick up a lot of noise when I go by.

     This morning I ran a 4 mile warm up at 7:53 pace then did a 4 mile fartlek run with 4x400 with 400 rec. Then 2x800 with 800 rec. I kept the pace under 6 min on the intervals and I guess I was feeling pretty good because my recoveries ended up a little faster than I expected averaging in the 7:30s pace. Average pace for the 4 miles of fartlek was 6:36. Overall average for all 8 miles was 7:14.

     7 easy in blowing snow.

     We traveled down to Southern Utah yesterday and spent the night in Capitol Reef National Park. I got up and went for a morning run. I left the campground and headed south toward the Cassidy Arch trail head. It is a narrow paved road with gorgeous red rock scenery all around. There was almost no traffic. I only had 2 vehicles go by the whole run. The first mile climbed almost 250 feet followed by a nearly 150 drop over the next mile. The next 2 1/2 miles climb another 450 feet. Most of it during the last 1 1/2 miles where the road winds through tight curves as it climbs through the cedar trees and red sand and rock. The turns are so tight that there is a 10 MPH speed limit posted. Fun stuff for running. The road also dips back down several times to go through a number of washes. It tops out at Slickrock Pass at around 6000 ft. I ran another mile down the back side of the pass that dropped over 200 ft before turning and running back. The route was mostly sunny on the way back after mostly being shaded from the huge red cliff walls on the way up. I figured I did over 1000 feet total climbing [and descending] on the run and averaged 7:56 pace for the 11 miles. Very enjoyable and beautiful morning and breakfast was on the table when I got back to camp. What could be better than that? 

     Later that day we went on a 4 mile hike from the camground over into Kohab Canyon.

     After spending a second night in Capitol Reef National Park, we packed up camp this morning and moved it about 75 miles to the east. We went on a 7 mile hike that dropped 750 feet in the first mile over sand and slickrock down into Horseshoe Canyon. Then we hiked up the sandy bottom of the canyon with patches of cottonwood trees and a few short stretches of running water with towering red cliffs on both sides of the canyon. We hiked past several panels of ancient Indian petroglyphs and ended up at what is considered to be one of the most impressive panels of petroglyphs anywhere in North America called the Great Gallery. We also hiked past dinosour tracks in two different places. It was awesome and worth every bit of the hike which was actually quite fun. We had a perfect sunny day with temps that only felt slightly too warm for a short part of the hike.

     This morning we went on a hike up Little Wild Horse Canyon. I have hiked several slot canyons before but this has got to be the coolest of all. It was our second time hiking this canyon but you could never get tired of this. It has long stretches of the canyon than are only 3 to 4 feet wide at shoulder height.

     Later in the day we went over to Goblin Valley [which is only 5 miles from Little Wild Horse] and did a bunch of hiking and exploring there. My son never seems to get tired of that. In Runners World magazine they feature what they call a "Rave Run" each month. A while back they featured Goblin Valley so I thought I had better give it a try before we left. I ran a loop around through a lot of the valley that ended up being just short of 2 1/2 miles. It was quite challenging running in some soft and some packed sand with lots of dips and small washes and some short steep hills that almost brought me to a walk. I wasn't running it too hard but I wasn't exactly taking it easy either and my pace ended up around 10 min per mile. It was fun and we had perfect weather again all day.

     10 miles easy. Very strong wind.

     10 miles easy again. Temps 20 deg colder than yesterday and lots of snow falling but actually much nicer than yesterdays run in the wind.