faster with age

     The morning temps have been real nice lately [usually 50s] even though it hit 90 yesterday afternoon. This morning I ran 2 miles just under 8:00 pace. Then 2 miles of fartlek [ running 1/4 around 6:00 pace followed by 1/4 a little under 8:00 pace] then 1 mile at 7:56 pace. The faster 1/4s felt harder than they should. I'm planning to run the 15k Freedom Run on the 4th and I've done very few tempo or speed miles so it will be interesting to see how it goes. Overall pace for 5 miles was 7:35.

     Went for 20 miles on the mt bike.

     Went for a 5 1/2 mile run this morning. Kept the pace easy to get ready for tomorrows race. Threw in 6 or 7 x 15 second pickups. Overall pace 8:27.

     I left the house this morning at 5:30 to head down to Hyrum for the race. I wasn't sure what to expect because I've been running mostly slower miles lately nursing a sore hip that I've had on and off problems with for a long time. In the last month and a half I have only run 2 miles faster than 6:30 pace and only 8 miles under 7 min. pace. I was hoping to beat last years time of 59:32. This is the 4th year I've been running and racing and I have set a new  PR in each race I've repeated. I was a little worried about this one because I had gotten in a few more tempo runs last year and was a little better prepared.

     I started out with a 6:17 mile which was about what I wanted. Miles  2 through 5 were 6:21, 6:18, 6:19, 6:11. Somewhere  in mile 6 I caught up to a guy that's been in my age group that I've never been able to beat [finished 2nd to him last year in this race]. I didn't feel like I could pick it up anymore to get by him and just hung back. Finished mile 6 in 6:23. There is a big hill about 1/2 mile long [and steep] that starts the last 1/4 of mile 7 and the first 1/4 of mile 8. I continued to run just back of the other guy up the hill and until about halfway through mile 8 I finally passed him. The pace was getting tougher and I finished mile 9 in 6:23. I was watching my pace on my Garmin and figured I was around 10 seconds faster than last year. The last .3 miles came out to .35 on my Garmin and I ran it at 5:58 pace. Unfortunately last year my Garmin had this stretch at .32 and I ran it at 5:42 pace. So between the Garmin error [or the way I took the tangents which is difficult at times because of the lineups of cars trying to get past the runners] and the much faster kick I made last year, I lost 21 seconds from mile 9 [on my Garmin] to the finish which made this years time for the race 11 seconds slower than last. However there is usually always a good tailwind for a few miles of this race and today there was none. In fact there was a slight headwind some of the way which felt good in the heat but doesn't do much for your time. I was a little bummed about not beating my previous time for the first time. I know at my age it is going to start happening at some point. 

     When I got home I was looking at the results. In comparing to last year's results, I found there were 10 runners that beat me last year and ran again this year. On average their times were 1:36 slower this year [not including] the wheelchair racer who was 7 minutes slower. Only 2 were faster [one by 6 seconds and one by 34 seconds] but nobody else was within 49 seconds of their last years time. So I felt like 11 seconds slower was pretty good. I also finished 6 places ahead of last year overall with 128 more runners in the race. Seeing this made me feel much better. So all in all I'm happy with the results and my hip felt fine. Hopfully I've still got a few years of PRs left in me.

     Went for a 30 mountain bike ride mostly on dirt. During the ride I had 2 deer feeding along the side of the road. They watched me as I passed them at thirty yards. I looked back after I was about 100 yards past and one of them was running after me. I couldn't figure out if it was curious or what. It was gaining on me quickly and I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and was trying to get it set to video with one hand while I was riding. The deer came right up along side me at 10 to 15 yards away like she was racing me. I should have sped up and tried to hold her off as long as I could but was still trying to get the cell phone camera on. She got just ahead of me then cut across in front of me and off toward a ravine. I've had deer run to cross the road in front of me before but this one came from so far behind it was kind of crazy. 

     I had my foot start hurting Sunday night on the bottom outside edge from my heel to mid foot. It was still a bit sore so I decided to skip the PM run I was planning. Besides that I spent the day digging up a 10" irrigation main line that  blew out. It was about 5 feet down through mucky clay and cattails and no way to get a backhoe near it, so I had to hand dig and repair it which took all day and I was exausted. Maybe that helped my decision to skip the run also.

     Had some more irrigation work to finished up first thing this morning when it was a nice 48 deg. by the time I got things up and going to where I could leave it for a run it was almost noon and 82 deg. Bummer. I ran 7 miles at an easy pace testing my foot which was still a bit sore. It didn't get any more sore during the run. 8:50 pace.

     Took it easy again this morning. Ran 8 miles at 8:33 ave. pace. My foot felt much better today and hopefully will be a non issue by tomorrow.

     PM  Easy 6 miles after dark. Threw in 4 15 to 20 second pickups toward the end. The moon came up big and bright as I was finishing. Ave. pace 8:45.

      I did a 30 mt bike ride this morning mostly off pavement. It was 46 deg to start and I though I might have to wear a sweat shirt but with the sun shining I new I would just have to take it off in a mile or two. I did a lot of climbing in the first half and into the wind. The last big 3 mile climb had a lot of headwind and was quite fast coming back down [36,37 mph]. When I see what it takes for me to go 30 mph [either strong tailwind or downhill or both] it's hard to imagine averaging that speed on the flat. Lance Armstrong's Astana team just averaged over 31 mph on their 24 mile time trial Tuesday. The last 10 miles of my ride I should have been enjoying a nice tailwind but as it commonly does here after the sun starts to warm things up it switched from a north wind to a south wind. For some reason I really ran out of energy with about 5 miles to go and I hadn't been riding all that hard.

      Was planning to do a PM run but it was after 11 before I could have gone and I bagged it.

     I ran 9.5 miles this morning at a very easy pace. I started out the first couple of miles running around 8:20-8:30 pace and just didn't feel good. I slowed to around 8:45 for a mile and still  felt drained. After 3 miles I was thinking about just cutting the run short. I decided to just slow down to a pace my body wanted to run no matter how slow and after another mile that drained feeling was gone. It was a nice cool and calm morning and very pretty up around the reservoir. I was enjoying this easy pace enough that I actually ran farther than I had planned. I also took 3 short breaks. I didn't pay much attention to my Garmin but after getting back I noticed that a lot of my miles were in the 9:30-9:40 range. I may have to start throwing in a few more miles at that pace. I've been trying to figure out why I've been so worn out the last couple of days [I really bonked on yesterdays bike ride too].  We had so much rain in June that I never had to irrigate. Now it has been dry and I've been moving irrigation pipe twice a day since last Thursday. I end up walking an extra 3 or 4 miles a day doing this and lifting and carrying a lot of sprinkler pipe. I also spent most of the day Monday digging up a blown mainline. I've had an extra 5 or so pounds I would like to lose and as of Wed morning I found I had lost 4 lbs just since last week when I last weighed. I thought it may just be dehydration from the heat but I've been careful to drink plenty and still weighed the same yesterday and today. I think maybe I've been too busy to get in some of the in between meal snacks I normally eat. I've also not been getting enough sleep. Then you throw in last Saturdays race and I think it's just been too much all at once for my body to recover and adapt. I'm trying to make sure I get plenty to eat and really listen to my body on my next few runs. Hopefully I'll have my energy back soon.

9:13 pace

     PM 2 miles slow.

     At the beginning of my run this morning I only felt a little better than yesterday morning. Coming up on 4 miles I was deciding whether to turn back. I have a water stash there and stopped for a drink. I was feeling a bit better so decided to go on. I was feeling more back to normal so I went 7 1/2 miles out past the reservoir on a dirt road before turning back. I averaged 8:19 pace for the first 8 miles. I picked it up the next 3 miles and averaged 7:48 pace. Then 7:27 for the next 3 and 6:58 for the last mile. 7:33 average for the last 7 miles. Overall pace for 15 miles was 7:57.

     I felt very good this morning and just did a nice easy 8 miles. I would have liked to have gone 10 but I had to get back to get my son off to his first scout camp and I didn't quite start my run early enough. It was a little warmer morning at around 60 deg. but not too bad.

8:11 pace

     PM   Ran 6 very easy miles after dark. Just ran what felt very comfortable without looking at my pace. The temp at 59 felt very good. It's amazing how much cooler it felt than this morning when the sun was shining at almost the same temp.

9:17 pace

     Took a longer mountaint bike ride this morning. It was 45 deg at the beginning this morning and almost needed a sweatshirt but a very nice morning. I did the loop that takes me across to Treasureton where I hit hwy 34 then over to the Bear River then the 14 miles down the Onieda Narrows to hwy 36 Then back up 34 to Winder Res road then across and back home for a little over 48 miles [about 70% on dirt roads]. Beautiful ride down the narrows. While riding past Maple Grove Campground, the trees were filled with the smells of campers cooking breakfast. It made me very hungry.

     PM   Ran 6 easy miles mostly over 9:00 pace. Did 4 or 5 15-20 second pickups the last 2 miles. 8:50 pace overall.

     I went out and did some up hill and down hill tempo miles this morning in Weston canyon. After a 1 mile warm up I ran 3 miles down the canyon at 6:31 ave pace. After a 4 min break I ran the 3 miles back up at 7:24 ave pace. Another 4 min break and then back down at 6:23 ave pace. I picked up a headwind the  last 3 miles. Then I rode my bike [I had stashed] back up. Overall pace for 9 miles was 6:45.

     Woke up with a sore back this morning. We had our first church softball game last night and the other team didn't show so we took turns at batting practice. It's the first time I have swung a bat all year and since it wasn't a game was swinging for the fence every time. I landed a lot of them right at the fence but couldn't quite get one over. I guess I should have known this wouldn't be the best thing for my back. I took some ibuprofin and went on a 30 mile mt bike ride this morning and it's feeling a lot better now. I guess we'll see how tonight and tomorrow go.

     PM   Went for a 6 mile run just under 9 min pace. It was 91 deg at 6 pm when I left after being 47 deg this morning. That's not unusual here in the summer. 

     Ran 10 miles slow.

     I wanted to get out early for a 17 mile run but I had to spend a couple of hours moving irrigation pipe first thing so I didn't get away until 7:30. It was still 55 deg which was great, but quickly warmed until it was 78 deg by the time I was done. Good thing I have some water stashes along the way. I averaged just under 8:30 pace for the first 3 miles then picked it up a bit and averaged 7:46 pace for the next 9 miles. With 5 miles to go I picked up the pace a bit more and averaged 7:10 for the next 2 mi. The last 3 I ran in 7:02, 7:05, and 6:47. Ave pace for last 10 miles was 7:22. Overall pace for 17mi was 7:40.

     That put me over 90 miles for the week which is a big jump but it was mainly a jump in biking miles. They rescheduled  the Cache Valley Biathlon for Aug 15th so I figured I'd better start upping my cycling mileage now. I'm supprised I felt as good as I did today after the extra cycling this week and I didn't have a lot of energy on yesterdays run so I was pleased with how today went.

     Ran 8 miles this morning. I was still feeling Saturdays run a bit so I just ran as slow as it took for the pace to feel easy. Some early miles were as slow as 9 1/2 min pace. Some later at 8 1/2 pace. Pretty morning with the lake so calm the reflection of the trees and mountains was like a mirror. It would have made a nice picture. Ave pace 8:55.

     PM 2 miles after dark.

     I had a busy morning and wasn't able to get out until after noon with temps approaching 90.  I went for 32 miles on the mountain bike about half on pavement and half on dirt. I took an extra water bottle and pushed the pace pretty good. The heat doesn't get you as bad on a bike because you're creating your own wind. I had one three mile climb though where there was just enough wind at my back to make no breeze at all. I had so much sweat dripping from my helmet and forehead that in seemed like it was raining on my quads as I pedaled. felt good to go back down into the breeze. 

     PM    Ran 6 miles late. Finished at 11:30. Ran fairly easy pace first 3 miles then did 4 x 35-45 second pickups then 1/4 mile at 5:40 pace on the way back. Overall pace was 8:05. Very dark night with no moon.

     Ran an easy 5.5 miles with a few striders thrown in. 8:19 ave. pace.  I was planning a short easy run yesterday also but never made it out. I decided rather than do another late run, I'd go for the extra sleep. I'm running the Des News 10k tomorrow so it was a good day to take off from running.

     I went down to salt lake Thursday afternoon and the temperature was over 100 deg. I spent the night at my parents house in Sandy and when I got up at 4 AM the temp was 78 deg. I'm used to Our Cache valley mornings in the 50s. After I got to the race I  warmed up for 1.6 miles. I got lined up about 5 min before the race was supposed to start and I was just dripping sweat already in the middle of the big crowd of bodies. The race started about 10 min late and it felt so good to finally get going and get some air moving as some space was finally created between runners. The first 2 miles have the most downhill and I hit those in 5:52 and 5:53. My 3rd mile was 6:20. There was some uphill on this mile but also enough downhill that it shouldn't have been this slow. Mile 4 was 6:15. Mile 5 was 6:11. During mile 6 the race turns east and goes uphill the last 5 blocks. On this part I was feeling pretty good and passed several other people. This mile was 6:24 and my last .2 [.22 according to my Garmin] I ran at 5:57 pace. This was my first 10k so it was a pr. I'm pretty happy with how it went but I think I could have kept miles 3,4,and 5 all under 6:10 which would have kept me under 38 min. I ran into some other Cache Valley bloggers after the race Jon, Cody, and Scott. I talked to Mark  and met Adam. It was a fun race and I'd like to try it again [especially if it were 10 deg cooler]. After watching some of the first marathoners come in I ran 3.2 back up to the start to get my car. I was surprised how fresh I felt running back to the car and figured I must not have run the race quite as hard as I could have.

     I didn't get to bed last night until after 1am and after being up since 4 am I was extra tire and slept in until 7:30 this morning. Then I had to move pipe so I didn't get out on my run until after 10 o'clock and the temp was already to 78 and climbing. Same temp as yesterday but it feels a lot warmer when the sun is up high. I felt surprisingly good this morning. Felt no sign that I had even raced the day before. I was getting pretty thirsty in the heat and was looking forward to the water stash I have 4 miles out. I got there and my water was completely empty. I guess I had forgotten to get back up to refill it. Oh well I have another one 6 miles out and was really looking forward to that one. I got there and it was empty also. I must be losing my memory. I usually remember when these need to be refilled. Now I'm really thirsty and the temp is probably around 86 or 87 and I've got 6 miles to go to get home. I felt real good and felt like running faster but wanted to keep it somewhat of a recovery run. I didn't feel quite so good though the last couple miles [probably from becoming dehydrated]. Overall pace for 12 miles was 8:12.

     PM   Rode 10 miles on my road bike. Pushed the pace pretty good.

     Ran 11 easy miles in the morning then headed to Salt Lake in the afternoon to my parents 50th wedding anniversary. We stayed for the night to catch our plane in the morning.

     We caught a plane for Pennsylvania this morning out of SLC. Never got a chance to run.

     We arrived at the Farmhouse in northern Pennsylvania last night. The 150 acre farm has not been farmed for the last 50 or more years and has turned back into forest as have most farms in the area. It is about 2000 ft elevation. It has been in my wife's family for about 200 years and it now belongs to her parents who live about an hour away but spend a lot of their summer there. I love running there through the tunnels of trees and past a number of ponds and small lakes. There is a lot of wildlife from bullfrogs and newts to deer and bears. I saw a bobcat and a bear on the same bike ride last year. This is also where last year on my first run here I fell and tore my hamstring. I figured I'd rather avoid that this year. I have a favorite loop I like to run that is around 2 1/2 miles. About 3/4 of a mile is paved and the rest dirt. Nothing is flat with a couple of the larger hills being about 1/4 mile long and one climbs over 100 feet. On this first run there I just did 3 loops for 7.12 miles at 8:16 ave pace. This time I finished safely.

     Later I took a short 3 mile bike ride.

     Ran 4 laps at the farmhouse and added another 1/2 mile to make it 10 miles. 8:07 ave pace.

     15 miles on the bike.

     We spent the day in New York City seeing some sights. We had some heavy rain hit us midway through the day. We had wanted to spend some time at Central Park so when the rain got lighter we headed to the park. I decided to run around the park. I took off in what I was wearing which was cargo type shorts with pockets full of everything from a wallet and change to a cell phone. I was wearing some older running shoes and I did have my garmin. My shoes and socks were already completely soaked. The rain was lightly falling at times which kept it nice and cool. I went once around the main road where the Olympic trials were held. That would be a pretty tough marathon course with all the little hills and it amazes me how good of times some of the guys ran at the trials. After once around the big loop I ran a smaller loop. It's a great place to run and a lot of fun. My overall ave pace for 8 miles was 7:31.