faster with age

     Went over to Weston Canyon this morning to get in some mostly downhill miles. I ran a mostly uphill warm up mile in 7:52 then started the 3 mile downhill section. I averaged 6:45 pace on this section then drove back to the top and ran it again averaging 6:44 pace. Then I ran back up but as soon as I started my left hamstring started feeling a little tight. I have never had an injury in my left hamstring but it felt tight after running on Monday. It felt about the same until I passed the second mile. I had been planning to run back down the canyon [where I had a bike hidden] but with a mile to go running up the canyon, I decided I'd better quit once I got to the top. After another .3 it was getting worse and I decided to walk the last .6. It actually got worse while I was walking but I had to get back to the car. After I'd been home a couple of hours it was feeling pretty good. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I averaged 7:54 on the 2.3 miles up the canyon keeping my heartrate around the same as the downhill.

     I wasn't sure if I would be able to run today after my hamstring problem yesterday. It felt fine today as if nothing had ever happened. Not sure what it was. It was like the muscle just tightened in a knot. I went 9 miles today at 8:13 AP.

     AM 25 miles on the mountain bike.

     PM 3 slow miles.

     Got in my last long run this morning. I went 23 miles and didn't feel to bad [considering the distance]. I took 10 or 11 breaks of 1 or 2 minutes each along the way at water stashes I had made or just at nice shady spots. On 3 of the last 6 miles I ran 7:06 to 7:12 and counted these as marathon pace. That's probably about the best pace I could expect after mile 20 in the marathon this year. Overall pace was 7:31.

     Ran 10 miles this morning at 8:11 overall ave. On the last 3 miles I did 6x30 second pickups [one every 1/2 mile].  My back was a little sore the last couple of days so I've been taking ibuprofen and hoping it doesn't get any worse. This always seem to happen when I build my mileage back up to quickly after a short layoff or cutback in miles due to injury. If I can get through this week, without it flaring up to bad on me, I should be ok with next week being an extra easy taper week. 

     26 miles on the mountain bike.

     Took my son bowhunting for elk after school and got in a couple hours of hiking. We didn't find anything but on a nice hike.

     This morning I decided to do a long marathon pace tempo run. It may not be the greatest idea to do 1 week before the marathon but I hadn't done one yet and figured it could help me out. I tried to do a 12 mile tempo last week but my hammy knotted up after 8 miles during a 3 mile climb. I decided to just run this one on the flatter roads by my house. It was 44 degrees  and raining a little but mostly pretty lightly which felt like perfect conditions once I was warmed up. I did the first 2 miles warmup at 7:45 AP. Then I ran a 4 mile course 3 times with 2 short breaks of 2 or 3 minutes in between. I was hoping for anything between 6:50 and 7:10 pace and didn't want to feel like I was pushing to hard. I averaged 6:52 on the first 4 miles. 6:44 on the second and 6:39 on the 3rd. 6:45 ave for the 12 miles of tempo and 6:54 for all 14. I was quite surprised at how comfortable the pace felt. Normally my intended MP before a marathon feels much harder to me. This run gives me a lot more confidence going into the marathon next week. Now my main worry is my lack of overall mileage and long runs. That could make that last 6 or 8 miles pretty tough. It would be nice to have gotten in at least four or more 60 or 70 mile weeks at this point. I guess I'll have to settle for 39,45,50,and 55 miles over the past 4 weeks and then teens and low 20s for 5 weeks before that. I've been adding in 3 or 4 hours of cycling a week so hopefully that will help. Felt real good about this run. Just wish I had time for a couple more like it before the marathon.

     30 miles mountain bike.

     I went out planning on 19 miles but didn't like the way my back was feeling. I may have been fine to keep going but figured the potential downside of continuing the run was much greater than the benefits. Quit after 1 mile.Another minimal mileage week at 25.

     I have only trained twice on downhill for this marathon so I went over to Weston Canyon this morning. I'm taking Ibuprofen again and by back is doing much better. I left 2 bikes at the bottom and drove to the top so I could just run the 3 miles down twice. The first run down I averaged 7:19. The next 3 miles I wanted to be between 10k and half marathon effort. I guess my legs were feeling pretty good after 3 days of no running and I ran 5:56, 7:21, and 5:59. A little faster than planned although my heart rate stayed mostly in the planned zone. It drops about 400 feet total with most of it in the first quarter of the first mile and the last half of the 3rd mile. Not a lot of drop on the second mile. I had about a 7 or 8 mph headwind.

     PM   4.4 miles at 8:11 AP

     Went 20 miles on the mountain bike this morning. Had a bolt snap that holds and adjusts my seat on. I was going about 20mph on a fast section of dirt road when without warning it just went and my seat was instantly gone. Luckily I didn't crash but had to ride the last 3 1/2 miles home standing with the seat stuffed in my back pocket.

     Ran 5.35 miles and mixed in some fartlek. After 1 mile of warmup I ran 1/4 mile at 6:16 pace, 1/4 at 6:36, 1/4 at 6:18, 1/2 at 6:36, 1/4 at 6:28, and 1/2 at 6:28 pace with 1/4 recoveries at around 8:00 pace. Felt real good today. My back is doing good and I may actually get to go into a marathon injury free. 3 more days.

     7:25 pace overall

     Just ran an easy 2 miles this morning. With TOU tomorrow, I would like to have another 6 weeks to train but at least I'm not going in injured and not sure I can even finish like I did at SGM the last 2 years. I feel like I should be ready to do pretty good for 18 to 20 miles. It's a matter of how bad it gets after 20.

     This was the first time for me running the Top of Utah Marathon, even though it is the local race here in the valley, so I had been looking forward to it all summer. I had been running my best times this year and things were looking good until July when I came down with a  hamstring/glute injury that kept me from being able to run much through all of July and some of August. I only had time to top out at two 50 mile weeks and two 20 mile runs. I had also been biking and hoped that would make up some.I had hopes of going for sub 3 hours but knew it would be tough under the circumstances. I decided I would start out at a sub 3 pace if it felt good and keep it as long as I could. I started out running mostly in the 6:30s and low 6:40s and it felt pretty good for the first 8 miles. About then my right hamstring [the one I had injured ] started to tighten up a bit. By about 13 miles the quad muscle on the same leg was starting to hurt and I knew that with these problems this early that it was going to get ugly. I was 1:27:52 at the 13 mile check. I finished the canyon and hollow road still maintaining the pace I wanted but my right leg muscles front and back felt like a rock and was getting tighter by the mile. I saw my wife and son cheering me on here and it gave me a lift. I stopped at the 17 mile aid station and stretched a bit. It helped but it didn't take long before I was in a lot of discomfort again. From here on it just got worse with each mile and my pace continued to slow. I stopped and stretched 8 times between there and  about mile 24.5. It was a real battle the last 3 mile just to keep moving and I lost a ton of time. I was slowing down to 8 min pace but it felt like 10 min pace. The last mile and a half I decided I could finish without stretching anymore and it took everything I had to squeeze out a 7:49. I finished in 3:06:06. I was hoping to be faster and it was about 40 seconds short of my PR. This is definitely my best marathon though since my PR was at St George which is a  faster course. I took 2nd in my age group and beat the guy that won the past 2 years but a guy from Colorado came out and took 1st. Forgot to mention I saw a big bull moose at mile 6. Real cool.

splits:

6:29,6:37,6:38,6:35,6:41,6:45,6:42,6:41,6:49,6:57,6:55

,6:48,6:43,6:37,6:48,6:57,6:58,7:17,7:28,7:28,7:16,7:33

,7:50,7:59,8:17,7:49,7:17 pace

     Ran 1 mile just to see how everything felt. Everything seemed good. Just a bit of muscle soreness in my right calf.  I planned to pretty much take this week off. 

     Played basketball. Planned on taking it easy and not playing for long. It turned into 2 hours playing hard. Shame on me.

     Went elk hunting and got in 2 hours of hiking in steep terrain.

     I went bowhunting for elk in the morning and hiked for about 2 hours. In the afternoon I ran 4.25 miles at 8:27 AP.

     PM  After school I took my son back out hunting and hiked back into an area where I located some elk in the morning. We ended up getting a 6 point bull.  We got him right before dark and by the time we had him skinned, quartered and hung to cool it had been dark a couple of hours. It was a tough hike out in the dark. There is no trail and the dark made it hard to see the best routes to avoid heavier trees and brush. I carried one of the hind quarters over my shoulder to save a trip packing him out in the morning. I was exausted by the time we got home around midnight.

     After a much to short night, I got away early to pack out the elk meat before it got too warm. It was a mile and a half in, which doesn't sound like a lot, but it climbs 1000 ft and there is no trail and 3 or 4 round trips add up to 9 or 12 miles. I was able to do it in 3 trips carrying 85 to 90 pound loads each trip. The hind quarter I carried out last night saved me a trip but it was a lot more difficult to carry without a pack frame to strap it to. carrying that weight downhill was a little tough on my body. I'm still not 100% recovered from the marathon last week and I was definitely feeling it by the time I was done. No way I'm running today. My back was a bit sore after. Hopefully it doesn't turn into anything.

     Ran an easy 4 miles. Felt some fatigue left over from yesterday but everything feels good injury wise.

     20 miles on the mt bike