faster with age

     My legs just haven't had any pop this week so I haven't done any kind of a workout. Today I felt a little better so I decided to try a short workout. My hip has been bothering me a bit so I kept the workout minimal  [just 3 faster miles] and the overall distance short at 6 1/2 miles. It was 75 degrees again when I got started. I warmed up for a little over 2 miles at 7:55 pace then went down the big highway hill 1 mile in 6:16. I took about a 2 min break and dipped my shirt in a ditch. 1 mile back up the hill in 7:50. The uphill was the harder effort. After a .3 mile recovery I ran 1/2 mile in 3:06 then 1/2 mile recovery. Then another 1/2 mile in 2:55. Then .61 cooldown. Overall pace was 7:27. I've got a 15K I'm running Monday so hopefully I can recover and get rid of some of this sluggish slow feeling by then.

     My hip has been a bit sore so I decided to skip the run today. With no running today and tomorrow hopefully it will feel better for the race on Monday. I went for a 20 mile off road ride on my mt bike. I haven't been riding at all. I normally ride once or twice a week. There's a biathlon here I like to do every year at the end of the month and I'm in pretty poor cycling shape right now.  This is the second week in a row that my mileage has fizzled the second half of the week and I've ended up with about 20 fewer miles than I had hoped.

     I got up about 4:30 this morning to drive down and run the Freedom Run 15K. My wife and son got up early too and came along with me after we all got to bed around midnight the night before.  My main goal was to come in under 59 minutes. That was the same goal I had last year and I came in at 59 flat. I felt like I have been in better shape this year up until the past 2 weeks. I have felt sluggish and had to cut my miles way back. This morning before we left I took a look at my last years mile splits for the race and figured I would shoot for those. It was a little warmer than usual at the start in the lower 60s with some cloud cover that made it a bit muggy. I can't complain about that for this time of year but it's normally about 15 deg cooler. It's the 35th year for this race and they capped it at 600 runners this year so I'm thinking there were a lot of people that didn't get in. The race started and I really didn't feel that great.

1- 6:12. The first mile has a bit more downhill and is normally a fast one. Last year I ran it in 6:06. I lost 6 sec. here but no big deal. I probably went out too fast last year.

2- 6:28. Last year I hit this one in 6:17 so I started too worry that this was going too be a long day.

3- 6:25 Last years time was 6:16 and I just don't feel like I can run any faster. Just no pop in the legs. I figured the sub 59 was not going to happen and as flat as I feel and as slow as my splits are I'll be lucky to be close to 1 hour.

4- 6:25 At least this is a little closer to last years 6:20 but I'm still bleeding seconds. I'm down 31 seconds from last year already how bad is it going to get. I'm having negative thoughts creep in like "why go through all this discomfort for what I know will be a lousy time anyway". Why not just slow down and take it easy.

5- 6:13 I had quit paying attention to my Garmin and didn't realize I had picked up the pace that much. I had dropped a kid that had run with me since mile one and passed a couple of people that I have always beat that were still running ahead of me. I didn't realize it but I had gained back 9 seconds.

6- 6:20 I gained back 1 more second here over last year.

7- 6:34 During the 7th mile you leave the TOU course [aprrox mile 14] and head up a big hill that's not quite 1/2 mile long and pretty steep. Just before the hill I noticed that my overall pace was at 6:21. Last year it was at 6:17 in the same place and with the hill between me and the finish line my overall pace had dropped 3 seconds by the end. In previous years I had lost about the same so now I'm figuring that would give me about 6:24 overall pace by the end which would be under 1 hour. With a 6:34 on this mile I gained back another 4 seconds.

8- 6:27 The first part of mile 8 is still climbing the last 3rd of the hill then it flattens out. Last year was 6:32 so chipping away a little more. This uphill mile was actually faster than mile 2 which is a downhill mile.

9- 6:05 For the rest of the race I didn't look at my pace much I just tried to run hard. The last quarter of this mile has a nice little downhill. I ran this mile the best I ever had last year at 6:14 so I was surprised to check my Garmin after the race and see that I gained that much time on this mile.

9.31- 1:41 [5:34 pace] Most of the races I run end in .1 or .2. The .3 at the end of this always seems so long. You can see the finish from about this point and it always looks a lot farther than it seems like it should be. I continued to push hard without looking at my time knowing it was possible but unlikely that I could be close to 59 min.

Final chip time was 58:53  6:19/mile overall pace. I actually got back 2 seconds on my overall pace during the last 3 miles rather than loosing a few. I was very happy with the 2nd half of the race and my finish but wonder what was going on the first 4 miles. So that's a new PR for that race and I ended up 1st in age group and 15th overall.

     15 miles mountain bike.

     8 miles up to the reservoir at an easy pace. Hip feeling better. 8:45 AP

     Ran 10.5 up around the reservoir. I felt pretty good this morning and had to resist the temptation to run faster or farther. I kept in mind last year 2 days after the same Freedom Run when I was feeling good and ran a 14 miler and wound up with a hamstring problem that kept me from much training for the next month and a half which should have been the main build up time for TOU last year. Overall pace 10.5 miles.

     8.5 easy miles. I threw in 6 or 7 15-20 second striders  the last 2 1/2 miles. 8:36 AP.

     It was 47 degrees this morning when I started my run. It usually takes me about 2 miles to get warmed up but this morning I was wishing I had started with something warm on. It rained a bit yesterday evening and I think with all the vegetation being wet it made it feel cooler and I was wishing I had at least worn something long sleeved. It took about 4 miles before I felt comfortable but after that it was real nice. 58 degrees by the time I finished. The reservoir looked really cool just before the sun came up with all the steam and mist coming off the water that was much warmer than the air. I ran 17 miles. When I was running along the canal the damp dirt was a bit stickier than on the dirt road and it kept sticking and building up on my shoes until they felt like they were 5 pounds. That lasted for about 5 miles of the run. By the end I was feeling a bit more fatigued than the 15 and 16 milers I have done the last few weeks. I don't think I am completely recovered from Mondays race. My calf muscles were a bit sore for a couple days after the race but then had felt better until the end of this run and the rest of the day today they have been more sore than after the race. Hopefully a day off tomorrow will help.

     Ran 8 miles this morning easy then 20 Mt Bike hard. 8:45 pace on the run. I averaged 16 mph for the 20 miles on the bike. 13 miles of it on dirt road with several big hills. When I haven't been riding my bike a lot, I have a hard time getting my heart rate up even though the slower pace might feel hard. This morning my HR averaged 137 with a 156 max on one of the hills. A run at a comparable effort would have probably had me averaging in the 150s with a max in the 170s. After I'm in better bike shape it's easier to get my heart rate higher and my speed gos up along with it. When I'm in poor running shape it seems like my HR goes up even when the pace is slower.

     9 easy miles up around the reservoir this morning. I think I was feeling a little fatigue from yesterdays ride. 8:36 AP.

     I wasn't able to get out early this morning so I missed the cool hours. It was 72 deg when I started and 80 at the end. I ran a 2 mile warmup at 8:07 pace then down and up the 1 mile highway hill twice. I normally run the harder effort on the uphill. This morning I decided to run the downhill harder. I ran the  first mile downhill in 5:40, back up in 8:27, second downhill 5:36, back up in 8:17. Running the uphill in under 8:30 isn't exactly easy but it's probably not quite MP either. Then I ran 2x1/2 miles and 1x1/4 mile with 1/2 slow recovery. The halfs were 2:54 and 2:59 and 1/4 in 1:21. Final 1/2 at 7:06 pace. I felt good early in the run but got feeling more beat at the end than I expected. I think the hills took more out of me than I expected. Overall though felt like a good workout. Overall pace for 9 miles was 7:17.

     I was up at 5 am but didn't have a chance to run until after 10 pm. The moon was nice and full and the temp had dropped to 64 so it made for a nice run. I just took it real slow and enjoyed except that my wife and I had just returned from eating out and my very full stomach was a bit annoying. 5 miles at 9:22 AP

     9 miles at 8:28 pace. did a few striders the last 2 miles.

     18 mile progression run this morning. My alarm didn't go off this morning and I didn't wake up until almost 6. Got out the door at 6:30 and felt slow. First 4 miles I averaged just under 8:30 pace. Next 2 miles at 8:04 and started feeling good. Miles 7-10 averaged 7:41. Miles 11-14 averaged 7:21. Last 4 averaged 6:54 pace. Nice morning for a run. 47 deg to start and just under 70 to finish. Big temperature range for one run. I saw deer [including a doe with 2 very new fawns], lots of ducks, a pheasant, hungarian partridge, a wild turkey, a blow snake, a run over rattle snake, a lizard, and 0 vehicles [except for one fisherman camped at the reservoir].  I felt pretty good on this run but sure wouldn't have wanted to run another 8 miles and especially can't imagine doing the whole 26 averaging 50 second/mile faster pace than I ran this morning. Seems impossible. Overall pace for 18 was 7:39.

8:25, 8:27, 8:25, 8:30, 8:04, 8:04, 7:48, 7:38, 7:39, 7:40, 7:31, 7:20, 7:17, 7:17, 6:58, 7:07 over big hill, 6:55, 6:37.

PM   Went for 15 miles on the mt bike right before dark. took it easy the first half then hammered pretty good coming back.

     didn't get out until later in the morning again. The temp was already up to 82 deg. I ran 9 miles and started to get a little rain about 4 miles into it. It felt pretty good but only lasted a few miles. Took it pretty easy. 8:49 AP.

     PM   Went out for a ride on my road bike. I'm in a biathlon a week from Saturday so I decided I'd better start riding my road bike. I prefer riding the mt. bike on the dirt roads and trails around here but I figured I had better get used to the different position on the road bike. This is only the 5th ride  I've taken over the past 3 weeks after not riding much all year so with one week to go I don't expect much from my cycling condition. I went 21 miles and the temp was 87 deg. It's not as bad on a bike because you create more wind. Right near the end I was coming up the mile long hill out on the highway that I like to run on. About half way up I decided to really crank and see how high I could get my heart rate. I was able to hit 160. The breeze was at my back so at the 10 or 11 MPH I was going up the hill it felt dead calm. I had a steady stream of sweat dripping off the front of my helmet and my thighs and glutes really burning by the time I topped out. Good stuff.

     About 3 miles into my run yesterday my right calf had a pain hit out of nowhere. I was hoping it would go away as quick as it came but after a couple hundred yards I stopped and stretched and massaged it a bit. It felt a little better so I kept going and just took it easy. It got feeling better so I finished the whole run. I felt it a bit throughout the rest of the day so this morning I figured I'd start my run and see how it felt. I was ready to skip the run all together if I had too but if it didn't get any worse I figured I'd just go 6 or 7 miles. In the beginning it felt about the same as yesterday but after 2 or 3 miles it was feeling a lot better so rather than turn around at 3.5 for a 7 mile run I decided to at least go the rest of the way to the reservoir which is 4 miles. By then the discomfort was pretty minimal. In fact if not for yesterday I may not of thought too much about it. I decided to just go another 1/2 mile to make it a nine mile run. By  the 4.5 turn around I was in need of a bathroom and there is a porta potty in another 1/4 mile so I ran up there and used it. Of course now it's only another 1/4 mile to the 10 mile turn around might as well make it an even 10. Overall pace was 9:03/mile. My ave heart rate was 123 which is about as low as I can remember for a run. Calf pain was nearly gone at the end.

     After yesterday I decided maybe this calf thing was gone. I had to drop my son off in town at 6:00 this morning so I wanted to do a workout at the track. I started my warmup and my calf was sore again. Not bad [maybe 1out of 10]. I decided not to risk running hard and making it worse so decided to just keep it slow again. After 3 miles on the track, I decided I didn't want to run a bunch of slow miles there so I went home and ran another 10. Calf pain was all but gone after a few miles. My hip was just getting better and now this. It seems like it's always something. It's probably not going to be a big deal but I'm planning 2 races next week [10k on Monday and biathlon on Sat] so I figured it wasn't worth the risk of straining it worse with a workout. Overall pace was 8:36.

     10 miles early while it was still nice and cool. Calf pain was minor to start and pretty much gone after about 3 miles. Kept the pace easy until the last mile in 7:08. 

     PM  Around noon I had to go into town so I took my road bike to do a ride on next weeks biathlon bike course. It was about 80 deg by now and sunny. After a 2 mile warm up, I started on the 14 mile course. I was riding hard [about tempo effort]. I messed up the cable too my rear derailleur and it ended up stuck in one gear. I could  so I basically ended up with 2 gears since the smallest gear was so low I only used it for a couple of short steep spots. I wound up pushing too big a gear for most of the ride which didn't help my time but probably gave me a good workout. At the end of the ride I quickly changed into running shoes and ran a mile in 6:17 to try and simulate the transition to running. Most biathlons do the run first but but for some reason they switched it last year. It about killed me to try and run fast after racing on the bike last year and it didn't feel too good today either. I would have never kept that pace for the full 5k and I about puked at the end. I have a hard time even walking after a hard ride. I averaged right at 20 mph on the ride

     Ran another 10 today up past the reservoir. Saw a big golden eagle. He flew out of a tree about 15 yards away made a little loop and then gave me a close fly by. Really cool. My calf seems to be good. Kept the pace easy again. Did some striders the last 2 miles. 8:24 AP.

     Ran 8 miles this morning. Ran it mostly pretty slow until the last 2 miles I did some striders. I surged from 1 telephone pole to the next then ran anywhere from the next 2 to 4 poles easy. 7th mile was 7:09 overall pace and 8th mile was 6:44 overall pace. I did them more frequently the last mile. I was going to count these as MP miles but I ran 2/3 a lot slower and 1/3 a lot faster so I took a guess. This almost seemed easier than running those paces steady. I don't think it would work that way for much longer though. 8:17 AP

     We drove down to Salt Lake yesterday for a family get together. My brother and his family just got in from Austin. We spent the night at my parents house in Sandy. I got up at 4 am so I could be plenty early for the 6 am start. I arrived not quite an hour before and had no problem finding close parking and no lines at the POPs  15 to 20 min later there were huge lines at the POPs and traffic jams of cars looking for parking. It was already 75 degrees. I guess that's not too bad but being used to mornings in the low 50s, 65 would have been a lot nicer. I think there are usually over 2000 in the race and it draws some pretty good competition. It's considered the most competitive road race in Utah. I warmed up for a little over 2 miles and wondered how good of an idea that was after it just made me hot and sweaty waiting for the start. I was just dripping sweat standing in the stagnant air in the big crowd waiting to start. It felt good to get going and get some air moving. I had to start out pretty slow because of a lot of inexperienced looking runners that had lined up very close to the front and started very slow. Once I got through a bunch of them and could get moving I was able to take advantage of  some nice downhill [especially the first 2 miles] and finished mile 1 in 5:54. The downhill continued and mile 2 was 5:45. The 3rd mile starts out with some uphill the first half but a nice gradual downhill second half. 6:02 for mile 3. I found myself trying not to draft off of other runners because it felt so much better to have the breeze in my face. Mile 4 was 5:55. I was starting to feel pretty tired at this point and it was a real struggle not to lose motivation. Mile 5 was 6:05. The last .6 mile is all uphill and the 6th mile and the last .2 is the only net uphill section of the race. That last stretch seemed like it would never end but I was passing quite a few runners. Mile 6 was 6:19 and the last .21 [on Garmin] was 1:09 [5:26 pace]. Finish time was 37:12. Overall pace was 5:59. I was hoping to break into top 3 in my age group and I ended up 2nd. Last time I ran this race was 2 years ago and my time was 38:16 a PR by over a minute so I felt pretty good about the result.

     Went for 25 miles on my road bike this morning.

      Played basketball for a couple of hours in the evening.

     I ran 8 miles in the morning at 8:34 pace. I felt pretty beat still from the race Monday. My quads were pretty sore from the downhill. The muscles up the outside edge of my shin were sore along with several other spots. I guess I hadn't really trained very well for that 10k with no tempo runs lately and only 2 miles downhill training 2 weeks ago. 

     My brother and his family from Austin have been staying with us for a couple of days and we went up to float a section of the Bear river on tubes. On the first trip down my tube got torn open on a rock with about a mile to go so I ran the rest of the way down the gravel road in my Vibram Five Fingers and got another mile in for the day.  We made another trip down and I hit my butt quite hard on a rock that was just under the surface in the middle of a rapid. It has been pretty painful. It wasn't my day.

      My butt is worse today where I hit it yesterday just between the tailbone and my belt. Certain motions really hurt. I decided to skip my run today and see if I can get better recovered for my biathlon on Saturday. I don't know if 4 days is going to be enough time to recovery fully from Des News Monday. I plan on taking tomorrow pretty easy too. Hopefully my sore butt will get feeling better by then too.

     My butt is feeling a bit better today. It was a little sore running but didn't seem to affect my running. I think I'm still feeling a bit of fatigue from Monday so I kept it short and ran 2x1/4 miles in 80 seconds each and a few striders just to get the legs moving. 3.25 miles @7:39/mile.

     The Preston Biathlon is the biggest race here in town each year at least competition wise. It's our big weekend here in town with  " The Famous Preston Night Rodeo" . They lay claim to being the first night rodeo ever held. There are parades and carnival and all kinds of events all weekend. The race draws in a good number of people from out of town. Last year they said they had 160 participate including teams and this year it seemed as big or bigger. I really wanted to do well here but wasn't sure what to expect since I normally ride my bike year round but only started riding 3 weeks ago twice a week and it didn't help that I ran a 10K on Monday. OK enough of my excuses.  There were a lot of people I didn't recognize and a lot of nice looking bikes and fast looking people. Some of these guys are better bikers and you just have to hope that they are slow enough runners and there are better runners you hope don't bike much.I just did a 1 mile warmup and just running 8 min pace felt hard but I've had races before where I felt lousy during the warmup and still had a good result. I just hoped it would be one of those. The race has a 5K run followed by a 14.5 [closer to 14] mile bike ride both on out and back courses. Last year they did the bike first and I was very glad they went back to the run first.

     The race started and I had about 15 people running ahead of me the first 1/4 mile and we were at about 5:50 pace.  I passed a few and still had about 10 ahead of me at 1/2 mile and the pace was still a bit under 6 min which was about what I had hoped to run the whole 5K I thought I could manage that without going all out and still have something left for the bike. I passed a few more the next 1/2 mile but I was slowing badly. First mile I finished in 6:14. Ouch. There was just no pop in the legs. 2nd mile was 6:16 and by then I just had 3 runners ahead of me but they were all way ahead. I didn't want to pick up the pace much and just cruise in so I wouldn't be too spent when I got on the bike. 3rd mile was 6:11 and without intending to I picked it up to about 5:20 pace for the last .1. Finished the 5K in 19:08. I was obviously still feeling it from the 10K this week. Normally when I run 5ks on consecutive weekends, I usually recover and run the second one better but I guess a 10k with 4 recovery days isn't quite the same especially as I get older.

     I was in transition about 52 seconds then I was off on the bike. After a slow start because of a couple of hairpin turns then a left turn onto a road with some traffic I had to slow for, I got settled in and focused on the guy in red who had finished the run about a minute ahead of me. The last race I saw this guy at he won the mile in 4:40 something so I was actually surprised I had finished the run even that close behind but before the race I had seen that he had a nice bike and equipment so I figured he must do a lot of riding and I doubted I would be able to make up what appeared to be a 1/2 mile lead he had on me. The next 2 guys were way up on him. After 4 or 5 miles I didn't feel like I had made up any ground on him but at least I seemed to be opening a bigger gap on the guys behind me. This course is always either climbing or dropping with 3 or 4 short hills that are pretty steep. At the halfway point it was the first time I felt like I had actually gained slightly on him and from that point the next 3 1/2 miles are a steady climb. As the climb went on I could tell that I was actually gaining and the more it went on I was gaining fast. I made it my goal to catch him before the downhill started and I just passed him just before the highest point. There was still some uphill after this but it was mostly gradual downhill or flat to the finish. I expended a lot of energy to hopefully leave him behind quickly but he fell right in behind and started drafting which isn't allowed. He sat on my wheel for  a while then I let him pass. I rode along behind him 4 bike lengths back [as required] for a while and he slowed slower than I wanted to go so I tried to make a fast break to loose him but he got on me drafting again. I knew I had more left in the tank than he did but not if I had to do this a lot longer. After pulling him along for a while doing all the work I backed up and told him the rule. He hadn't herd it mentioned and I hadn't this year either but it had been the rule in the past years and at every other biathlon I have done. To his credit when I took off again he kept the right distance and I was able to pull away and build 17 seconds over the final 2 miles. I was really hoping the other 2 guys that finished ahead of me were both in the team category but one was an individual rider so I ended up 2nd overall. I finished the bike in 37:44 [22.2 MPH average] and my overall time was 57:46.

     Last year I did the bike in 36:03 [23.3 MPH]. I was in much better bike shape and the bike was first so I was fresher but I had a horrible time trying to run the 5K off of the bike after that and was 20:52 on the run so I beat last years overall time. Had I trained good on the bike and not run the 10K Monday, I probably still wouldn't have beat the 1st place finisher from Logan who came in almost 2 minutes ahead of me but it could have been a lot closer. I'm pretty happy though with a PR and second overall especially under the circumstances. Fun to do well in the hometown.

     PM  My wife and I went for a 5 mile bike ride in the evening. After that I went another 10.