faster with age

    This morning I ran 4 miles at a little over 9 min. pace. I took 3 breaks about 1 min. each. Hammy's feeling pretty good but I think I over did it a bit sat. with all the hiking. and running. So I took it extra easy.

    I rode 25 miles on my road bike. My mountain bike routes were muddy with all the rain. That sticky mud can clog your chain and gears to where the wheels won't even turn. Just ask me I've done it. So I stuck to the pavement. I caught a break between storms and only got rained on a bit for about 10 minutes.

    We had another light frost this morning. I had to break out the gloves and sweatshirt for this mornings bike ride. I went for 20 on the mt. bike. My route was mostly dry with just a small amount of mud. I think I will try running every other day this week and see how it goes.

    Yesterday afternoon I put my hamstring through another test. I inadvertantly stuck my elbow right into a large wasp nest with 60 or 70 visable wasps nocking it so it fell to the ground. I started getting stung right as I saw what I had done and got swarmed. I think I came out of the blocks about like Usain Bolt and sprinted for saftey. It  hurt my hamstring but felt ok after 15 or 20 min. so I hope I didn't do to much damage. I got stung about 8 or 9 times between my elbow and wrist.

    This morning I ran 5 miles. I have had a dull ache in my hamstring the past few days up high in my butt. It never got any worse as I ran and felt nearly the same in the last 1/4 as it did in the last. The lower part of my hamstring [halfway down] felt fine. That is where I was getting the pain when I first started running after the injury I felt like going farther, but running until it gets worse is what I normally do so I'm forced myself to stop before that. I ran a 9:03 pace and didn't need any breaks. Then I went for 20 miles on the mt. bike.

    This morning I did a 50 mile mt. bike ride. My legs felt a bit tired from the start. Yesterday I intended to take it somewhat easy but felt good and rode harder than I should have. Near the end of yesterdays ride I had a neighbor following me in his truck. Of course I had to speed up and rode hard for 1 mile keeping it between 22 and 23 MPH on the level into a headwind on my mt. bike. My quads were burning by the time I was done and I'm sure that is what I was feeling today. I didn't think a 1 mile sprint, less than 3 minutes, would make that much difference the next day. I went over the pass on the way to Thatcher down to where the bear river enters the Oneida narrows then took the dirt road that follows 7 miles along oneida reservoir to the dam then another 7 till it hits pavement again at the highway. I did 34 miles of the ride on dirt roads and never passed another vehicle other than a few that were camping. It was a georgeous ride. My hands and arms were getting fairly tired by the time I was done from all the bumpy offroad riding. It took 3:14/ 15.5 MPH overall ave. No running today. Taking the Webelo scouts on a 3 mile hike later.

    Todays run was awsome! I have some hope for SGM again! I was considering canceling for gauranteed entry next year. My recovery the past 2 weeks has been at a standstill [partly due to reinjuring my hamstring early last week]. I was still running 3 or 4 miles at 10 or 11 min. pace with 1 min. breaks once or twice per mile. It has been almost 5 weeks since my injury and it's hard to even call what I've been doing running. My Wednesday run was encouraging at 5 miles but if I tried to run faster than 9 min. pace I would get discomfort in the hammy. This morning I ran 7 miles. I ran the first mile in 8:53 and I pretty much felt normal other than a slight discomfort in the butt area but even that was less than it has been. I told myself I didn't want to risk going any faster but every time I checked the garmin my pace was gradually picking up without me feeling like I was running faster. Everything felt fine so I went with it. By mile five I was at 8:11. Mile 6 at 8:03 and mile seven was 7:56. Overall ave. was 8:23. My running and stride just felt more normal than it has since the injury. I felt I could have run farther. It has been several hours since I finished my run and it still feels great. This is the first run that resembles a normal training run [ even though it would just be a recovery run ]. I know there is a long way to go but today I can see more of a possibility of making the start line. I won't have a taper since there is nothing to taper from. Instead I'll still be building mileage those last 3 weeks. After today I feel confident I should be able to run 10 or 15 miles by next week. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed though. Running every other day seems to be helping so I'll probably skip running tomorrow.  

    I did 20 miles on my mt. bike and took it easy.  I felt pretty good after yesterdays 50 miler.

    My hamstring felt great today after yesterdays run but I'm going to rest it from running until Mon. and just run every other day for a few more days. I went on a 15 mile mt. bike ride and then another 15 this evening with my wife. We were just getting home and 5 bucks [ One real nice] were running across my alfalfa field. I hurried into the house and watched them drop off into a ravine. I grabbed my bow and took off after them still wearing my cycling clothes [ shorts and a red shirt] not the normal bowhunting attire.  I put a stock on them as I was being eaten by mosquitos. I ended up 22 yards from the biggest one needing him to take one step in either direction. He turned and walked strait away unaware  that I was ever there. The only direction I couldn't get a shot. I never could get close enough again. Oh well it was exciting.

    Wow! I seam to be making some faster progress. Finally! This morning I decided to try going 10 miles taking it easy. I finally got to run my favorite route again up past the reservoir where I'm running on dirt road and have some hills. I kept the pace around 8:45 and resisted the temptation to run faster. I took a 4 min. break at mile 3, 6, and 9. After the break at mile 9 I felt good enough to go ahead and run a little extra for a total of 12 miles [ which is nearly all I've been able to run in a whole week lately]. My hamstring felt pretty good. Still had that slight burn in the butt cheek but it seams to be less noticable. The lower part of my hamstring only complained a bit when I tried speeding up a bit on a steeper downhill part and also when I got to the last couple miles I started to get a bit of a tight sensation that went down the back of my hamstring and even the back of my knee and upper calf. It felt a bit like a tightness from swelling but didn't look swollen. It all went away a bit after I finished running so things are looking much better for getting in a good run or two before SGM. I know there is still a lot of healing to be done because I still get a lot of pain from certain simple motions but luckily running slow isn't one of them now. Overall pace was 8:43. I also went for 20 on my mt. bike.

     This morning I did 55 miles on the mt. bike. I took the same basic route I did last week on my 50 miler up to Thatcher and then down the Onieda Narrows. I went farther up past Thatcher this time to give me the extra 5, so 36 miles were on dirt, 19 on pavement. I had a north wind blowing this morning and since my first 25 miles is basically north I had a headwind all that way not to mention the first 16 has a lot of climbing. When I turned around at Thatcher I had about 4 miles of tailwind but when I entered the Narrows it got calm. By the time I came out the other end of the Narrows the wind had changed and was coming from the south so other than that 4 miles I had either headwind or no wind the entire ride. I averaged 15.5 MPH which is the same as last weeks ride but I worked a lot harder this time because of the wind.. With the sudden buildup in bike miles since my injury my quads have been complaining a bit even on some easy rides. Today I was feeling a bit beat from around mile 25 to 40 but I seemed to get more energy the last 10 to 15 and finished quite strong and felt good afterward.

    I watched some of the LOTOJA riders come through town Saturday and have to admire them going 205 miles. I know this morning another 150 didn't sound to good. Maybe I'm crazy but I'd like to try it some day.

    My ride took 3:30. That makes two days in a row doing 3 hours or more. Cardio wise I should be ready for St George. The question is weather my hamstring will allow me to get in some downhill and marathon paced miles and at least one 20 miler in the next 3 weeks. I had some sore muscles after yesterdays 12 mile run which reminds me how much I've lost the last 5 weeks. Fortunately my hamy seemed ok afterward. I plan to start tapering from the bike miles as I increase my running miles over the next 3 1/2 weeks. I feel like I've got to risk pushing it a bit because if I play it safe I won't be ready to run SGM anyway.

    This morning I decided to run some hills. I ran 1 1/2 miles and then ran up and down a 1 mile long 6% grade  3 times. I wasn't trying to push it at all just give an even effort up and down. I averaged 7:22 on the 3 downhill miles and 9:01 on the 3 uphill for an ave pace of 8:12 on the 6 miles up and down the hill.  I did work a little harder on the uphill. My hamy felt pretty good just some slight discomfort. My right calf muscle was sore after mondays 12 miler and it tightened up a bit the last couple of miles. At 8 miles it tightened up bad enough that I decided to walk the last 1/2 mile home and not risk making it worse. I really can't afford to deal with another problem right now. I went for 15 miles on the mt. bike.

    My calf muscle is still sore today so this morning I ran a real easy 2.6 miles at 9:54 pace to see if it would loosen up at all. It didn't seem to help but didn't make it any worse either. I'm hoping to do a 16 or 17 mile run at a very very easy pace Saturday. I'm more worried that the calf might stop me than my hamstring.

    I went a little over 30 miles on the mt. bike in 2 hours. My legs must be getting used to the higher bike mileage. They don't seem to be complaining as much as last week. Climbed to the top of the pass on the way to Thatcher again. My calf actually felt a little better after the ride.

    PM ran 1.5 easy

    I still have a sore calf muscle so I decided to not run today. As of now it looks like I better not do my long run tomorrow unless this gets feeling better quickly. This seems kind of crazy. The only time I've had lingering calf pain like this was after my two marathons and it took a few days to go away. 

     Did a 20 mile mountain bike ride.

    I wasn't sure what to expect today. I wanted to do a long run hopfully 16 or 17 miles. My hamstring has been allowing me to run [ as long as it's not to fast] but my calf has been a problem since mondays run and worse after wed. run. I decided to just run real easy and stop at the first sign of a problem and put it off till next week if I had to. I decided to take 1 min. walk breaks every 1/2 mile and take a 10 min. break about every 5 miles. I figured I could get in more miles that way and recover faster. I went 4 miles before my first break which turned into a 1 hour break [after getting side tracked] so really a seperate run. Then I took 10 min breaks at miles 9 and 14 and a 5 min break at mile 18. I felt as good at 18 as I did at 14 so I ran another 2 to make it 20. I ran for 3:10 at 9:25 pace [ not counting the 4 breaks] I figure I lose 1 min. per mile walking so my actual running pace was probably around 8:25. I may have been dumb to do this but I feel fine now. After nearly 5 weeks of next to no running, I went from 4 miles [ with a break in the middle] a week ago monday  to 5 wed. [with break] then 7 fri. then 12 this mon. then 8 wed. to 20 today. If I can get through that without injury I'll be amazed. But with the marathon in 3 weeks I've only got 2 weeks to get in some good runs. Gotta risk it a little I guess. I was running 70 a week just before the injury so hopfully thats not all gone. My calf was slightly sore but never got any worse maybe even felt better at the end. Hammy had a bit of a burn going about like normal. It got a little worse at the end but felt fine after I quit.

    Went on a 5 mile run at 8:44 pace. I felt pretty good other than the slight back pain I ran with for 2 or 3 months earlier this year was there again. Hopfully this won't get worse. Kept the run easy. Using lots of ice. It's amazing how months of good training can disappear after 4 or 5 weeks away from it. I ran up and down 1 mile of 6% grade one time during the run. down in 7:57 back up in 8:45 which was the only hard mile I put in.  Felt like MP effort on that mile.. Hammy felt fine. It seems to let me run all the easy miles I want without problems but I know it's not all recovered because there are some motions that are still quite painfull. 

    Went for 10 miles on the mountain bike. may do more later.

    I did the long bike ride again today one last time before SGM. 56 miles on my mt. bike. 36 on dirt and 20 paved. I went a little farther than last week. I went at a pretty hard pace the whole ride expecially the last hour and a half. The ride took 3:25. Ave 16.1 MPH. I felt pretty strong the whole ride not like the last 2 weeks when I tired out in  different sections. I don't know how much this will help in the marathon but I figure keeping my HR up pretty good for 3 1/2 hours should help since I can't do it running yet. My back is still a little sore and with yesterdays easy run and no run today I'm hoping not to risk making it worse.

    I went over to Weston canyon this morning to try some hill running. My wife dropped me off at the top of a 3 mile stretch of the canyon that climbs about 480 feet, not to steep, then parked the car at the bottom while she walked up the canyon. I didn't plan to go to hard and just go with how I felt. The first 3 miles downhill I averaged 7:22 pace.  I ran back up at 8:25 pace [a little harder effort than down]. I headed back down and picked up the pace a bit. It felt ok so I went with it. Last 3 miles 6:49 pace. My back was a little sore mostly downhill but not bad. My calf tightened up a bit again seemed to be from the uphill. My hamstring had the same slight burn throughout but did get more intense at the end of the faster downhill but felt fine afterward and still does. My calf and back are still a little tight. That is by far the fastest I have run in the 6 weeks since my hamstring injury. Pace for all 9 miles was 7:32. I haven't averaged faster than 8:20 on a run post injury [ although 2/3 of the run was downhill]. The last three felt ok but no way felt like I could go 26 mi. at that pace but considering I did  3 1/2  hard hours on the bike yesterday I guess I can't complain. I think it was a real good workout as long as I didn't make anything worse. I guess I'll know by tomorrow.  It seemed odd to finally put down some miles that weren't in the easy column.

    We made a trip to Jackson Hole for a couple days. My wife had a confrence to attened for her work. My hamstring and calf felt fine today after yesterdays faster miles but my back is bothering me again. I brought my mt. bike on the trip and went for a 20 mile ride on the backroad of the elk refuge.  Later I ran 1 mile on the treadmill at the hotel.

    This morning I went for another 20 on the mt. bike. I road at a tempo type effort most off the way. The sun wasn't up when I left and there was ice on the cars. I took off in shorts figuring I would be plenty warm enough after 10 or so minutes like running but the wind created from riding kept my legs quite cold until way after sun up. My back felt a bit better and I was planning to run after but my son wanted to hike to the top of the snow king mountain at the ski resort. It gains about 2000 feet in 2 miles. We hiked up at a pretty brisk pace. I wore my garmin and my heartrate was about like it would be doing 8:45 pace. Probably good cross training. We went back down very quickly mostly at a light run. I never did get a chance to run the rest of the day. Hope to get in a decent run tomorrow. Whatever my back will allow.

    I went for a 12 mile run this morning. My back was a little sore to start but after about 2 miles it was fine. The first 4 miles I ran at 8:24 pace. Then I picked it up and did 7 1/2 miles at 7:27 pace. For right now this may be my MP. My HR is noticeably higher at this pace than it was pre injury. I was running about 6:50 pace at the same HR. I felt a slight pain in my calf throughout that didn't get much worse but I have a feeling it may be a bit of an issue in the marathon. My hamstring also started to get a bit of discomfort the last few miles like it got at the end of wednesdays run. Last week I ran 44 miles after 14 the week before. This week I was hoping for 55 or 60. With my back acting up I wound up with a grand total of 27 miles for the week. I feel very unready for SGM in 2 weeks. My back feels pretty good right now but I suspect tomorrow it will be sore again. Overall pace for 12 miles 7:47

    Ran 10 miles this morning in a light rain. It was nice. It's been a rare thing this past summer. Just went at an easy comfortable pace 8:51 ave. My back is feeling better. It's still slightly sore but much better than last week. My hamstring didn't bother me at all at that pace but my calf is still complaining a bit. I'm hoping to do a 20 miler Wed. or thur. if my body will allow it.

    Went for 30 mile mt. bike ride this morning. 32 degrees to start. Warmed up to about 55.

    Today I wanted to get in  one more long run before SGM since my mileage has been so minimal since my injury.  I wanted to get in as many miles as I could but at the same time make it a run I could recover from as quickly as possible with the marathon 10 days away. I decided start out taking walk breaks to hopfully aid in a quicker recovery. Temp started at 30 deg and around 60 at finish. Perfect. I felt good today. One of those mornings where your pace ends up being faster than you think your running. I started out walking 1 min. every 1/2 mile. for the first 10 miles I averaged right at 9 min. pace. Since I figure I lose about a minute each mile from the walking my running was at 8 min. pace. Miles 10 thru 15 I was at 8:34 pace[7:34 pace during running time]. At mile 15 I stopped taking the walk breaks and ran the next 5 [up to mile 20] at 7:28 pace. I was suprised how good I still felt at 20 so I slowed the pace a little and went 3 more at 8:13 pace. A lot more fatigue started setting in on the last 1 1/2 but normal for the end of a run that long. My hamstring felt as good as it has on any run since the injury and my calf did pretty good too but my back complained a bit throughout the run more than it has on the last couple of runs. I hope it doesn't mean I have another flareup coming. I took ibuprofin afterward and have been icing it a lot and crossing my fingers. This run went much better than I expected and I hardley feel beat up from it considering my lack of mileage the past 7 weeks [as of yesterday] since I tore the hamstring. I'm hoping to get in one good MP run on Saturday and a few easy runs over the next 8 days and thats about as ready as I can get. I feel like I have just reached the point I can start training normal again. Oh what I would like to do with another 6 or 8 weeks. Maybe next time. 

    Overall pace 8:28 time 3:15:02

    PM  Went 7 miles on my bike to help keep lose.

    I went out bowhunting elk this morning. my back was a little sore when I got up this morning so I took some ibuprofin before I left. I did some hiking and everything felt normal after yesterdays long run [maybe the ibuprofin].  Later I did a 15 mile bike ride. Felt great.

    Ran 5 miles at an easy recovery 9:05 pace. Everything felt pretty good even my back felt better. I thing I accomplished the quick recovery I was hoping for after Wednesdays 23 miler. Tomorrow I am hoping to run som MP miles if everything feels good. I know it's getting close to the marathon but since I haven't been able to do much until now I'm hoping it will do more good than harm and I still have next week to recover and taper a little.

    I wanted to get in some MP miles and some downhill miles to try and get a better idea of where I'm at fitness wise and how I should pace myself for the marathon saturday. I went over to Weston canyon and ran down a 3 mile stretch of the canyon. It's mostly only a 1 to 2% grade for all but about the last 600 meters that is closer to 6%. My wife and son went along to walk as far as they could get before I picked them up so they could drop me off and park the car back at the bottom again. This gave me a 4 min. break between each 3 miles run. I ran the first 3 at 6:55 pace. The next 3 at 6:45 pace and the third 3 at 6:48 pace. 6:50 pace for all 9 miles. I had good news and bad news from this run. The good is that it didn't bother my back or calf or any of the other little aches and pains that I have been dealing with from trying to rebuild running fitness to quickly. The bad is that I am way behind where I was at in July. In July I did this run and was running closer to 6:20 pace at a similar HR and effort. The worse news is that my lower hamstring got very tight right at the end. It seamed to come from the last 6% grade hill where I kind of sped up and let fly down the hill. It felt ok later after icing it so I don't think I did any damage but it tells me I better watch my pace down the hills next week. If it wasn't for the hamstring I didn't feel that tired and felt I could have gone a lot farther. Probably my biking has me in a lot better cardio shape than the shape my lack of running has my legs in.  I do have some excuses I can throw in about possibilties why the effort was hard for the pace. I did go hunting Fri night and Sat. morning and did a lot of hiking. After returning from the morning hunt I ate a whole lot of waffles shortly before running and could feel the effects the whole run. And there was also a substantial headwind the whole way. Unfortunatly I can't find a good reason why the hamstring pain might not be there next week. On the long run I did wednesday my hamstring didn't bother me at  all and I did a lot in the 7:20 to 7:25 pace range but it was more flat. I guess it was good to find this out now as it will definatly affect how I approach the race.

    My lower hamstring was a little sore yesterday and still is today after Saturdays run. It seemed to be the steeper downhill when I picked up the pace to around 6:35 pace that got the hammy burning.  I guess it was good to find out when I did or I would have been a DNF next Saturday [which could happen anyway]. When I finished last saturdays run I was planning a cooldown mile and had to pass on it because of the tightness.  I think I need to keep everything above 7:00 pace and maybe close to 7:20.  Hopfully with a good easy week my injury will at least be back to where it was before that last run.

    This morning I went hunting and did about 2 1/2 hours of hiking. After I got home I ran 1 mile at 8:50 pace but decided to leave it at that for the day.

    I went hunting again last night and this morning. Real close to getting a nice bull this morning. Today's the last day of the bowhunt. My hamstring didn't bother me hiking this morning like it did yesterday. I did a 15 mile mt. bike ride after I got home. I'll try running some more tomorrow. I want to get the hamstring as healed as possible this week.