faster with age

     This morning we hiked to "The Great Gallery". It is a huge rock wall of ancient Indian art thought be be over 3,000 years old. It is one of the most spectacular panels of ancient Indian art anywhere. On our Bluejohn Canyon hike last Friday, if we would have done the 60 foot rappel and continued down the canyon another 4 miles we would have come to this. Today we came in from down canyon. The hike starts by descending 700 feet in the first mile into the bottom of the canyon followed by a gorgeous hike up the canyon bottom past 3 other large panels of rock art. It is a 7 mile round trip hike. We did this hike 2 years ago and we knew about the Aron Ralston story, but didn't realize that it had happened just up canyon from here.

      It is very hard to capture much of this in one picture. A lot of the figures are over 7 feet tall.

                                                                            They call this large figure "The Holy Ghost"

This is from our Bluejohn Canyon hike last Friday. I just posted a bunch more pictures there.

     8 miles easy after dark.

     10 easy paced miles up around the reservoir. 8:34 AP

     I ran 10 miles up around the reservoir. My Garmin was dead when I went to leave so I just ran without a watch. Kind of a nice change.

     5 miles at 7:48 AP

     7 miles easy

     I was bent over all day today working on a project and in the PM when I got a chance to run by back was sore. I began a run thinking it might loosen up but it just got worse so I bailed on the run.

     My back felt better after some Ibuprofen in the morning. Ran 10 miles up around the reservoir. Really nice running weather at about 57 deg. 8:04 AP.

     I started this run just before dark and finished the second half in the dark. My son and stepson and I drove up and started on the reservoir road and all three of us ran different distances out and back from the car at our own paces. I had run 7 by the time we met back at the car then I ran another 3 miles the rest of the way home to make it 10.  The temp was perfect in the low 50s and calm. I felt better on this run than I have for a while. Average pace ended up at 7:37. Last mile in 6:52. I don't know when the last time I ran any distance under 7 min pace. Less than 2 miles of the run was on pavement and it was pretty much dark by halfway. I normally end up quite slow while running on dirt without any light but tonight the pace seamed good.

     I rode 19 miles on my mt bike today on dirt roads. It's been a while since I've been on a ride. The last one was back in February in the snow. I need to get back at it. With over 4 miles left to go in my ride, my seat fell off. Since I didn't have the tools I needed to put it back on, I just had to gather the parts and put them in my pockets. I had to put the seat in my shirt and tuck it in then ride the 4+ miles home standing. You wouldn't think it would be that hard until you try it.

     My son's and I and the three dogs drove up to the reservoir road to run. I ran 6 miles and they ran 4. My two bird dogs were pointing and jumping pheasants and a couple of Hungarian Partridge all along the way. On my way back as I was running back past the upper end of the lake, a pheasant flew up on the other side of the lake and I realized that my German Shorthair was over there and had jumped it. She then was trying to stay even with me on the far bank which was going to get much farther away in a bit. It was about a quarter mile back to the upper end of the lake and I didn't want to go back. She didn't really want to do it but I was eventually able to coax here to swim across. My sons who just started running are getting quicker and weren't very far behind me when they hit the 2 mile turn around.

     Same run as yesterday. 6 miles at 8:10 AP

     Didn't get in a run but played a little over an hour of racquetball late PM

     Ran early this morning before leaving on a trip to Craters of the Moon National Park. I ran 9 miles at 8:30 pace. My legs felt heavy from last nights late night racquetball. It was a tough run. This week there is free entry into all National Parks so we took advantage and made the 2 1/2 hour drive up. We did some hiking and a lot of cave exploring. 

     My sons and I and the 3 dogs drove up to the  reservoir road again just before dark. The temps had been in the 80s today [which is very unusual for April] but it was  starting drop and feel much better. The road had just been graded today which made it a lot slower to run on with the fresh loose gravel. We each ran at our own paces and distances. It was mostly dark by the time I was at 5 miles. After 8 miles on the dirt I ran another 4 on pavement to make it 12 total. I ran the first 3 at 8:02 pace then averaged 7:14 for the rest of the run. The fastest miles were a 6:52 7th mile and a 6:31 last mile. 7:26 overall pace for 12.

     Didn't make it out until after 10 PM. Just ran an easy 4 miles to at least get in something.

     I've been slacking on getting my runs in the past 2 days. After having record breaking temps over earlier in the week, things have turned colder including of and on snow all day yesterday. I've been waiting to do my runs in the PM so that my sons can go but the past 2 days there has been brutal wind rain and snow that time of evening and since I don't have any important races in the works, it was too easy to wuss out and bag it. Another poor running week. At least it started with a good one on Monday.

     Today though my wife and stepson both came up to the reservoir with me while I ran and they walked. The weather was nice today. I ended up doing 10 miles at 8:29 AP.

     Ran 4 miles easy the first 2 easy then 1/4 mile fast 1/4 mile slow for the second half of the run. Running 1/4 at 6:20 pace felt much harder than it should. I'm pretty sure I couldn't maintain that or probably not even 6:30 pace for a 5k right now. Overall pace 7:57