faster with age

I wasn't sure how my glute/hamstring would react to the race Saturday but so far any discomfort is minimal. I went out for a short easy 4 miler after dark and everything seems ok.

     Decided not to run today and went 26 miles on my road bike.

     Nice and cool morning. I ran 8 miles and kept the pace easy. I picked it up a little on a couple of the hills. Everything seems to be feeling good so far although I still get just a little burn from the glute.

     Went on a good hard mt bike ride this morning. I was feeling good so I pushed the pace a bit. I was headed from my home to the summit between Preston and Thatcher and decided to try and reach the pass in under an hour which I have only made once before. It is just short of 15 miles from my house with about 5 miles paved and the rest on dirt. It gains about 1000 ft net elevation with a couple of good descents and climbs along the way. I really hammered toward the end especially up the last 2 mile climb that gains about 600 ft and made it in 59:01. I was 59:57 last time I made it. After a couple of min water break that I didn't count I hammered out the rest of the route and finished in 1:49:20 for about 30.5 miles which is a pr for that course.I can't do much hard running right now so I figure I'll try to go harder on some of my rides.

     !0 easy miles this morning. It was tempting to go farther but I need to have patience. Everything felt good.

     10 easy miles this morning. 8:22 AP

     8 miles easy at 8:39 AP this morning. I'm feeling pretty recovered from that glute thing but still playing it safe. I had something similar 2 1/2 years ago and I kept doing too much before I was ready and ended up dealing with it for 7 months.

     Went for 20 miles on my mountain bike around noon time.

     We flew out to Pennsylvania this morning. We had this vacation planned and already had tickets before we made our unexpected trip a couple of weeks back for my father in laws funeral.

     We got up to the Pennsylvania farmhouse just before dark and I hurried out for a run. I did 3 laps on my favorite loop there. It is 2.4 miles around and is very hilly the entire way It is dirt road all but about 1/2  miles. It is mostly wooded and a beautiful place to run. I have seen deer a bear a bobcat, frogs, snakes and always lots of small orange newts while running or bike riding here. The first lap I ran in 19:09 [8:00 pace]. 2nd lap 17:35 [7:22 pace]. 3rd lap in 16:43 [6:59 pace]. The last lap got quite dark.

7.2 miles total @ 7:28 AP

     6 mile mountain bike ride still up at the farmhouse.

     Still up at the Pennsylvania farm house. I ran 14.3 miles in the morning. I felt pretty worn out for the first half of this run and I think all the hills make it tougher when I'm not used to that. I got feeling a little better the second half after a short break. Ive only got 4 weeks to try to get some long runs in if I take a 2 week taper before TOU marathon. I need to build the miles up quickly on my long runs if I want to get in a couple of 20 milers before then but I also need to be careful not to re-aggravate my injury or start a new one. 8:38 ave pace.

     PM went on a 5 mile bike ride with my wife right at dark. Very nice ride

     We spent the day at the beach in New Jersey. I went for a 7 mile run on a nice bike path there.

     Back in Milford PA today at my wife's parents home. I went for an 11 1/2 mile run. I have been finding some new routes to run around there and today's was the best yet. I ran about 2 miles to a trailhead  where I ran a little over 7 miles of very nice single track hiking trails. It climbs from the Delaware river at around 300 ft elevation up to around 1,000 ft in the first 2 miles then travels along what is called the cliffs trail to several overlooks with outstanding views. Everything is wooded there and the trail is completely shaded the whole way. Very nice run. I finished with an 8:30 ave pace but some of my climbing miles were over 10 min ave. There were only a few short spots where it was too steep to run and I had to hike.

     I came across a big 4 1/2 to 5 foot snake that I stopped and caught and messed with for a few minutes. I looked him up when I got home and found out he was an Eastern Black Racer. He was quite fiesty striking over and over at anything that got near him. There is a lot of wildlife out there that I don't often see including a large Painted turtle we found later that day while taking a walk with my family

     Spent the day traveling home from Pennsylvania after visiting a museum and the federal mint in Philadelphia. We got Philly Cheese Steaks for lunch from the famous Pats King of Cheese Steaks. They were excellent. We got rear ended by a nice Jaguar on our way to the airport and nearly missed our flight. It didn't do much damage to our rented SUV but it did some bad damage to the front of his Jag including a puncture in is radiator. I guess I should count the fast pace running I did through the airport to the last gate on the terminal and got there just as the standby people were getting up to take our spots and let them know the rest of my family was on the way. It was close.

     Ran an easy warmup mile then 2x4 mile intervals with 5 min break between. First interval I ran ran first 2 miles at 7:39 pace then averaged 6:55 for the next 2. Second interval I averaged 6:45 overall for the 4 miles. The pace felt pretty tough.

     20 mile mt bike

     Ran 18 miles this morning. Got out late and didn't finish until 11:30 when the temp was 85 deg. I don't have much time to get my long run distance up before TOU. My mileage since injuring myself at the beginning of July has been in the teens and low 20s until last week when I ran 39 miles. My long run went from 10 miles 2 weeks ago to 14 last week and 18 today. If I was doing the 3 week taper I'd only have next weekend for another long run but since I feel very undertrained [well below where I was before the injury] I'll probably only do a one week taper. I stopped and took 8 or 9  one or two minute breaks during my run today so the quick mileage buildup would be a bit easier on my body. I always seem to end up with back problems when I build mileage to quickly and it was quite sore yesterday. I started on ibuprofen and felt fine today. Ave pace was 7:43.

     Ran 11 miles this morning. Everything is still feeling pretty good. Kept the pace easy. 8:13 AP.

     PM  2.5 miles in five fingers.

     30 mile mt bike to Thatcher Summit

     Went over to Weston Canyon for some uphill and downhill tempo. Ran 2 miles of warmup at 7:41 pace. Then 3 miles down the canyon at 6:31 ave. 4 min break then back up the canyon at 7:19 ave pace. Another 4 min rest then back down at 6:22 ave pace. There was no wind on the first to intervals but I started to get an up the canyon headwind on the last 3 miles down. Average pace for the 9 miles of tempo was 6:45. Felt like a good workout. Now if I can just get through a couple of 20 milers and a couple more good tempo runs while also making big jumps in weekly mileage over the next 2 weeks without getting injured. That's not to much to ask, is it? Then hopefully I can run a decent marathon at TOU. I decided to skip TOU Half this weekend. I was worried about doing a half so close to the full on my limited post injury training.

     11 miles 6:55 AP

     Was planning to go 8 miles but my calf muscles were a little sore from yesterday. Probably the hard uphill I did. I cut the run to 6 easy recovery miles. Temp was 94 deg. 8:46 AP

     30 miles mt bike. Thatcher summit

     Ran my first 20 miler of the year this morning. With most marathon training plans this would have been my last with 3 weeks to go. I took quite a few short breaks along the way so it would be easier on my body and hopefully avoid the injury bug again. On my long runs the past 2 weekends I have run up past the reservoir then I hit the canal and take it for miles. Between these last 2 runs I have seen quite a variety of wildlife at close range. I have run right up on a few deer that were standing down in the canal watering. I also had 4 sandhill cranes and lots of ducks come out of the canal at close range. I've also seen a few pheasants, a flock of 18 sharptail grouse, a flock of 30+ Hungarian Partridge, a large blow snake, a garter snake, lizards, and numerous other critters. Ave pace was 7:39 not counting my nonrunning time.

     11 miles this morning. It had just quit raining and looked like it might rain some more so I took a light jacket but it never rained again and it spent nearly the whole run tied around my waist. Everything felt pretty good this morning so if I can make it through this week [which will be my peak before TOU] I should be able to get to the start line healthy. Kept the pace easy at 8:16 AP.

     I took the same 30 mile route on my mt bike. My garmin is dieing. 10 miles into my ride it said my average speed was 1250 MPH. I'm amazed it goes that high but I think it was slightly off.