faster with age

     8 miles at 8:39 pace

     Didn't get out until after 10 PM. My Garmin battery was dead [it turns itself on sometimes when I take it off the charger] so I just ran 4 easy miles without a watch. There was a nice bright moon.

     I was hoping to run 8 miles but only had time for 5. During the run I picked it up to about 6:30 pace for 4 minutes. After 2 minutes at recovery pace I tried it again but only got about 1/2 way through it and it just felt too hard and I slowed to a much easier pace. Legs felt heavy today and just overall low energy. Overall pace for 5 was 7:50.

     6 miles at 8:30 pace.

      Almost didn't run. I got home after dark and ate a big dinner. Then I got hooked on some tv and it continued to get later and the incentive to get out the door got lower.  At 11:30 I had pretty much decided to just go to bed but I then convinced myself I could at least get out and run 3 or 4 miles with the Supermoon lighting things up. It was supposed to be 30% brighter than normal. It was nearly midnight when I got out the door. As soon as I got going I felt great and ended up running 10 miles. It was awesome. I have run with a full moon a lot of times but nothing like this. I started out with the first couple of miles over 9 min pace then gradually picked up the pace after that. Last mile was 6:52. I was going for a tempo effort the last mile and didn't look at my watch [I could actually read it without the light]. I felt like I was running about 6:30 pace and was surprised to see a 6:52.

     4 easy

     Ran 2 at 7:53 pace. Then 4 X 1/2 mile fast 1/2 mile slow. Averaged 6:18 pace on the 4 faster 1/2s. This felt a little better than last week when I ran some 1/4s about that pace but still felt like I was running a 6 min pace. I've been slacking for too long. I need to get the mileage up.

     8 miles 8:58 pace

      This race is a small local race that is put on by Franklin County Medical Center [the hospital here in Preston] and it is free if you don't get a shirt. My wife works there as a lab tech so her and I, my son and step son all decided to do it. It's been almost 6 months since I have raced and I am not even close to being in race shape but figured this would be a good workout that would force me to run a little faster.

     They had a good turnout of around 100 people. I've won this race the last 3 times I have run it. There are 2 guys I know of in the area that usually beat me [not counting some of the high school xc runners who are still involved in track for another week] and when I showed up one of them was there. I was wishing I was in good shape so I could at least make a race of it. 

     After running a 2 mile warmup, I lined up to start the race. At the beginning we had the usual kids sprint out front for a ways. After a couple of blocks it was just me with Scott [the guy that usually beats me] about 10 yards ahead of me and another guy I didn't know running ahead of him. Somewhere before the first 1/2 mile, Scott and I both passed the other guy. I kept expecting Scott to run away from me at any time but his lead never got to be more than about 25 yards. I really wasn't pushing too hard because I figured 2nd was the best I would get and I knew my time wouldn't be good even if I made it hurt. First mile was 6:28 and I was closing the gap a bit. A little ways into the second mile I caught up and ran along side for a little bit. I thought he must have been taking it easy but his breathing sounded more labored than mine. This got me feeling a little better so I took the lead and put on a bit of a surge for the next .3 or .4 to put some distance between us. Before the end of the second mile I started feeling much worse from the extra energy I had spent building the gap. 2nd mile was 6:21 and I was feeling lousy but was still maintaining the pace. They actually advertise this race as 3 miles but it is even shorter than that. The last time I did this race it was short. They made a slight route change and now it's even shorter. As I ran down the last almost 1/2 mile straight away I could look back and see I had a good lead so I never felt the need to kick and the end and finished the last .71 mile at 6:18 pace.

     I had only expected to run about 6:30 pace so I actually exceeded my expectations  and didn't feel too bad about the slow pace. I guess it's a good start to some better training.

6 miles @ 8:35

     Didn't get away until late morning after moving irrigation pipe and waiting to meet a truck with a delivery. The temp was 75 at the start and was quickly climbing. I ran 10 miles up past the reservoir and surprised a pair of Canada Geese that were on the bank with 7 goslings. It was fun to watch them put up a very noisy fuss while they scrambled to get everyone into the water and away from the shore. The temperature climbed into the 80s which I'm really not used to yet. I stopped and soaked my shirt in the lake a couple of times. With just under 2 miles to go, I was so thirsty I stopped and went into the church for a drink of water. It was open for today's primary election. 8:13 AP

     Last night was our annual church's father son activity. At the end they had they had a competition with 4 events. One of them was a three legged race. Toward the end of the three legged race, my son and I had to really pour it on to catch the team ahead of us right at the line. The extra force of pulling your leg forward with another leg tied to it or the awkward motions of trying to keep from falling seemed to strain my hip flexor a bit. It seems to be a week spot I have and has lately felt like it was on the verge of acting up anyway and I think this just put it over the edge. It just felt like a fatigued muscle when we finished and went straight into the next event which required you to take turns sprinting to marked circles on the field, catch a football while inside the circle that was thrown by your partner, then after he sprints to the next spot and you pass to him you sprint to the next one until you cross the field. The sprinting on the just strained hip flexor definitely made it worse. I could tell I had done something right after we finished but just hoped it wasn't too bad.

     This morning it was only slightly sore so I decided to just do an easy run. I went 6 miles at 8:55 pace and the hip seemed better after a couple of miles. The rest of the day, after the run, my hip tightened up more and more and felt much worse by evening.

     Hip flexor not any better so I skipped the run.

     My hip flexor was still just as sore yesterday but felt much better today so I attempted another run. I went 5.5 miles and it felt great. I felt like I could have gone farther but didn't want to risk it. With the day off tomorrow I'm hoping to get back to normal training next week. 8:26 AP

     Ran 12 miles up around the reservoir. I wasn't able to get the run in until 11 o'clock so it got pretty warm [around 80 deg] by the time I was done. I got my water stash out though so I was able to get a drink at 4 miles and then again on my way back at 8 miles. My hip flexor felt completely back to normal so I guess skipping those 2 runs last week payed off. first 4 miles at 8:16 pace. Next 4 at 7:54 pace. Last 4 at 7:35 pace. Overall pace for 12 was 7:55.

     8 miles after dark 8:42 AP

     Got up at 4 am to go turkey hunting. I went with my bow up into the mountains at spent 2 hours hiking through some country where I took my son 2 weeks ago and got one but couldn't locate any. I ended up with no time to run.

     5 miles at 7:58 pace.  I've been putting in a lot of hours digging 8 to 12 foot spruce trees for landscaping and moving irrigation pipe in between. add that to not getting enough sleep and my energy seems to be shot. 

     In Milford Pennsylvania today. I ran up a hiking trail that I like here that goes up to the Milford Knob Overlook. It climbs 500 ft mostly in 1 1/2 miles. I had to hike some small parts that were too steep. I ran 7 miles round trip from the house.I got away late and the temp was into the 80s with a lot of humidity.

     I did another trail run today that took the same trail up to Milford Knob Overlook then took the Cliff Trail along the ridge past several spectacular overlooks above the Delaware river. You can see Pennsylvania, New York, and new Jersey.  There are a lot of ups and downs along the ridge. The temp reached 82 by the time I got back and very humid. The entire trail is pretty shaded so not too bad until the last mile on the highway back to the house was in the direct sun. I went 12 miles total at 8:44 overall pace with some of the uphill miles as slow as 12 minutes.

     Still in Pennsylvania. I ran from the house to a  paved road that goes down through what they call the Delwater Gap National Recreation Area. There was a closed bridge ahead and no through traffic. This kept the traffic very low [only 1 car about every 5 min]. On the run I saw a Box Turtle, an 8 inch millipede, saw several whitetail deer, and a few wood ducks. It was a beautiful morning after raining most of the night and was much cooler. I ran a little over 8 miles at 8:37 AP.

     My wife and I got up early and hiked up to the Milford Overlook. On the hike we found an ornery snapping turtle and had a rare sighting of a Pileated Woodpecker. Nice temps again and nice morning.