faster with age

     I was planning to do a 20 miler either yesterday or today but I've still been feeling a bit beat up from Tuesday. My quads are still a little sore and the main thing that's got me a little spooked about doing a longer run is a little soreness in my hip flexor. I probably won't try it tomorrow either until it feels 100%. It's not worth the risk getting this close to St George. So I just went out and ran another easy 8 miles at 8:35 pace.

     My hip flexor felt good today but I decided not to run anyway and do a bike ride. Hoping to get in a long run tomorrow. 20 miles mt bike.

     Went out hunting again this morning but this time I didn't do much hiking and made sure I didn't run down any big hills with a backpack on. I didn't get out to run until about 4 pm. It was about 80 deg. I was hoping to get in a long run but not sure how the hip would react. I started out not knowing how far I would go and just decided to see how it felt and play it by ear. I ended up going 11 miles and when I got back home everything felt good. I was home for about 10 min. I drank a bunch of water ate a banana and headed back out. At 14 and 15 miles I felt great so I kept going to the same 11 mile turn around. I was surprised how good I still felt at 20 miles. Not to say I felt great, but much better than normal. At 21 I still felt pretty good but during the last mile I felt the normal end of a 20 miler feeling. Ended up with 22 miles total. 8:06 pace first 1/2 and 7:53 pace 2nd half. 7:59 overall.

     My hip flexor felt fine during my 22 mile run last Saturday until the last 1/2 mile where it got a little sore. Later that evening it got very sore just to walk. I iced it good and took 800 grams of ibu. Sunday morning it was quite sore but got better as the day went on. By Sunday evening it felt pretty good. Monday it felt good but I left early to take my son hunting. After getting home we headed North for some family activities and got home quite late. My hip felt good enough that I think I could have run a little but never really had time. It was probably just as well to give it another day. 

     I guess I picked up a virus from my son. I woke up several times last night with a very sore throat. I didn't get out to try a run until around 6 pm. I had a lot of congestion and felt very low on energy. My first couple of miles were well over 9 min pace and my HR was around 10 bpm higher than normal for that pace. I did actually feel a little better as I went but only had time for 6 miles before I had to be back. Pace ended up at 8:42. At 9 pm I went back out for 3 more miles at 8:55 AP.

     Still feeling a bit under the weather today. I ran 8 miles total and just kept the pace pretty easy. I went up and down the mile long highway hill a couple of times during the run. Overall pace was 8:35

     My cold has moved to my chest and is causing me to cough more. I ran 10 miles today and felt pretty flat on the first few miles. I'm feeling a lot of congestion which is very annoying but it seemed to get better after a few miles. First 5 miles were about 9 min pace. I started feeling a bit better and picked it up some the second half. Last mile in 7:24. At least my hip seems to be doing pretty good. I could feel it a bit after the run but not much. Not sure how it would react to a big workout though. I may have to skip anything to long or hard this week. Overall pace was 8:34.

     My hip flexor was a little sore last night and this morning. I'm sure it was from running my last mile quicker yesterday. The all slow runs the 2 previous days didn't seem to aggravate it at all. I wasn't sure whether I should run at all today so I started out just to test it and ended up going 8 miles all slow. 4 miles out at my turn around my overall pace was exactly 9:11. I thought that was kind of cool since all I heard about this morning on the radio was talk about 9/11 since the anniversary is this weekend. I ran the second have slightly faster. Overall pace was 8:55.  My hip seemed to be fine. I think I'll have to skip any key workouts for this week. St George is in 3 weeks and my overall mileage and training the past 4 weeks hasn't been very good due to several different minor injuries. 

     My son and I drove up to Jackson Hole yesterday to meet up with my wife who had been there since Thurs morning attending some classes for here work at the hospital laboratory. This has become an annual trip for us. In the morning I headed out for a run on my favorite route up there that takes me through town to a dirt road that goes out around the back side of the elk refuge. Once I started into the refuge there was an unattended aid station then I started running into mile markers that were within .03 of my Garmin mileage. I realized there was going to be a race coming. I passed a 5k turnaround sign and figured it must be a 5k/10k. I was expecting to get caught during my run by the race which probably wouldn't be a good thing because I wanted to keep my run easy because of my hip and I knew if the race caught up to me it was going to be real hard not to join in. I hit the 10k turn around and I was planning for 10 miles so I had 4 more miles to run. As I came back through the course The aid stations where manned but I made it back to town. I ran down the main street to where I figured the race was starting and got there just before it began. It was called old bills run and it was huge. It started and turned up the street I needed to take to get back to the hotel so I jumped in a ways back in the pack where it was around 7:30 pace and ran with them about 1/2 mile until I had to leave the course to get back to the hotel. I ended up with 10.7 miles at 8:24 pace.

     Later in the day the LOTOJA [LOgan TO JAckson ] bike race was finishing in Jackson. It's a 206 mile race that starts in Logan and comes right near my home in Preston then on up to Jackson. It is the longest sanctioned single day race in the country. It has 4 major climbs along the way [around 10,000 ft all together] and finishes 1800 ft higher than it starts. We started down the highway about the time we were expecting them until we saw the lead of the race which was a pack of 8. We leap frogged them and the next few packs of riders back up to the finished and watched them sprint in. The course record is barely over 9 hours. That is just under a 23 MPH average. My best biathlon race at 14 miles was  23.3 MPH. I can't even imagine maintaining anything close to that for even 30 or 40  miles. Add in all the climbing and another 170 miles and that is very impressive.  2 hours later when we headed home there were still 100s of riders on the course that we went past over the next 40 miles. They have about a dozen different start times to spread people out and about 1200 riders total. I definitely  have to do this race some time but it will have to be a year when I don't have a fall marathon.

     Ran 24 miles this morning. My wife dropped me off out on the other side of town. I ran up Glendale road which has a lot of rollers mostly uphill for 6.5 miles with about 450 net elevation gain at 8:16 ave pace. Then 6.5 back down at 7:32 pace. Next 4 miles back toward home mostly flat at 7:29 pace. Next 3 miles have 270 ft decent in the first mile then 270 back up in the 3rd mile crossing the bear river gorge. 7:47 ave for those 3 miles. Last 5 miles were mostly flat in 7:17 pace [7:33, 7:33, 7:17, 7:17, 6:49].

     I don't ever remember feeling better at the end of a 20 mile or longer run. My hip even felt good the whole way. I did take 400 mg of ibu last night and again this morning. I wasn't feeling to great for a few miles around 10 or 11 and figured this was going to get ugly by the end. The first water bottle I had stashed was at 14 miles but I should have had it much earlier. I normally don't worry about water on runs less than 15 miles but this morning I must have been more dehydrated. I was so thirsty I chugged down most of the 32 ozs and immediately felt better. I had another 32 oz water bottle at about 19 miles and chugged most of that one too.  I'm very happy with this run especially the way I felt in the final miles. After the 22 miler I did 1 1/2 weeks ago my hip got sore within 20 minutes of finishing. This time it's feeling pretty good. My garmin claims around 2400 total feet gained and lost but from looking at a topo map I would say it was closer to 900 ft with my starting at finishing points about the same elevation. Garmins are usually within 20 to 30 feet on elevation readings at any given time which isn't bad but by the time those small errors get added up throughout a run, they  get way off.  Run took 3:05:31 total time [not counting a couple of minutes at the 2 water stops] which hopefully is at least 5:32 longer than I will be running at St George in 19 days. Overall pace for 24 was 7:43.

     Hip flexor felt slightly sore but much better than the day after my last long run. No running today went on a 20 mile mt bike ride.

     Ran 8 miles this morning. I felt a little soreness in my hip for the first mile or two but it went away after that. I actually felt pretty good but kept the pace good and slow. 8:57 AP

     Went bowhunting elk this morning. I put on my garmin just out of curiosity. I ended up hiking 4.2 miles mostly on steep terrain. I found a herd of elk with a large 6x7 bull. I wasn't able to get close enough for a shot but I plan to head back in after them this evening. 

     Ran 8 miles after I got home. I'm keeping everything pretty easy to make sure my hip is recovered from Mondays run then I would like to get in one more good MP workout. It's been over 3 weeks since I've been able to do one. Other than the end of Mondays run, I don't think I've run a single mile at goal marathon pace in 3 weeks.

     PM Went back out hunting again in the evening. I couldn't find the elk again  and didn't have my Garmin but covered a lot more ground than I did this morning.

     I think I overdid it a bit yesterday with about 10 miles of hiking and 8 miles running. My hip was feeling a bit sore again so I didn't run today.

     Went back out hunting in the evening with my son and hiked 4 1/2 miles. We called in a nice 5x5 point bull and I had a chance for an 18 yard shot but decided to pass. I was still hoping to get a chance at the large 6x7 bull  and I also thought that my son who was about 15 yards from me might be able to get a shot. It came within a few feet of walking into an opening that would have given him a clear shot but then he stopped for a bit then he winded us and was out of there in a hurry. We are very fond of elk meat and have almost finished eating my elk from last year so I may live to really regret my decision not to shoot.

     There was a youth only duck hunting day today so my son and I got up at 3:30 am in the rain to drive down to the marshes down by Ogden. We had to walk about 2 miles in  to where we wanted to be carrying a heavy pack load of decoys. He got in some good shooting and had a lot of fun. 

     I finally got out for a run after dark. It was a nice cool 50 deg. I ran 10 miles at 8:10 pace. Felt pretty good. Hip soreness was very slight. I was hoping to get in more miles this week but hopefully all the hiking will make up for some of the missed running miles. Bowhunting season is just at a bad time when trying to train for a fall marathon.

     This morning I ran my last big workout before St George. The plan was to run 17 miles total with 14 at goal marathon pace. I've been dealing with injuries for the past 5 weeks and it has been 4 weeks this Wednesday since my last MP run. I've only run 1 mile since then at GMP. Most of my miles have been in the upper 8s because anything faster seemed to aggravate things [especially my hip flexor]. I wasn't sure if this run would be a good idea or not so my plan was to just start and if anything started hurting I would bail on the rest of the workout. This was the same workout I did 4 weeks ago except 3 miles farther. The plan was to run a 4 mile course 4 times then add a cool down mile at the end and start with 2 warm up miles.

     First 2 warm up at 7:33 pace then started MP

     3 and 4 at 6:56 and 6:54                   6:53 overall

     5-8:      6:50, 6:47, 6:50,6:45            6:48 overall

     9-12 :   6:46, 6:48, 6:48, 6:55           6:49 overall

     13-17:  6:41, 6:44,6:45, 6:39, 6:43   6:42 overall

                                                             6:47 overall for 15 MP miles

     I took a couple of minutes for a drink between each interval. I felt real good on the warmup but near the end of the 4th mile my legs were feeling tired and this didn't look good for the rest of the workout. I noticed my heart rate was running about 3 to 5 bpm faster than the last time I did this workout and the pace was seeming harder. It was a bummer knowing I had dropped some fitness. the second and third intervals actually started to feel a little better. The wind started to blow harder at around 10 mph and was a headwind for the last 1 1/2 miles of mile 3 and 4 of each interval. I was surprised to still feel ok on the last interval and really pushed the 16th mile which was 3/4 into the wind in 6:39 then started my cool down mile. After 1/4 mile at 7:30 pace I felt good so I sped up and made it another MP mile in 6:43. My hip felt good with only a slight discomfort around mile 15 that went away. I expect it to be a bit sore tomorrow. I'm pretty happy with the run. I think I've lost a little speed since the last one but I think my endurance is as good or better. I actually felt like I could keep going at that pace for a while but not 26 miles. Overall pace for the 15 miles was 6:47 [right at GMP] Overall pace for 17 was 6:53.

     My hip has been feeling pretty good since the run yesterday with only slight discomfort. I even took my son back out after elk last night. We hiked almost 5 miles total back in where we got into the bull last Friday. We spotted a different bull [6x6] but didn't have enough daylight left to go after him.

     I decided to play it safe today and not run so I went on a mt bike ride. 3 miles into the ride going pretty fast down a hill on gravel, my seat suddenly broke off. I stopped and gathered up the pieces [a bolt had broken] and rode the 3 miles back home standing up. I found another bolt and made the repair and went back out for 20 miles to make it 26 miles total. I came across 2 different large blow snakes [one 5 ft and one 4 ft] that were stretched out sunning themselves on the gravel road. I stopped and shooed them both off the road before they got run over. 

     Everything felt good today but I still wanted to keep it a bit of a recovery effort. I ran 8 miles including 1 trip up and down the mile long highway hill. 8:11 AP

     Another easy 8 miles this morning. 8:41 AP

     Pm Went out hunting again with my son and ended up hiking 4 miles. We called in a spike bull that came right in and walked out at 25 yards broadside with one bush covering the bottom 2/3s of his body and my son at full draw. It needed to take 2 more steps for a clear shot but just stood long enough that he finally had to let the bow down. When he finally stepped into the clear I let out a cow call to try and stop him but he just turned away and ran.

      I had to make a trip down to Salt Lake and was gone all day. No chance for a run.

     I got out for a run just before dark. My back was a bit sore from some of the things I was working on the day before being bent over a lot. I started and didn't have much energy. I was running well over 9 min pace for the first couple of miles. After 3 miles things loosened up a bit and I picked up the pace a little. Last 2 miles were under 8 min. Total run was 8 miles at 8:35 pace.

     Did a 6 mile run including twice up and down the 1 mile highway hill. I ran down at 6:40 pace and up at 8:47. Overall pace was 7:44.

     Went out elk hunting in the evening and covered just under 5 miles. I got away a little late so I made the climb into the area pretty quickly. It's about a 1500 ft elevation gain in just over 2 miles. Both of my hamstrings seem to be a little tight.

     My hamstring were both a bit tight yesterday so I decided not to run. They felt a better today so I just went for an easy 4 miles. 8:23 Pace.

     Went out hunting again and hiked back into the same area about 4 1/2 miles total. Hamstrings felt fine.

     This was my final run today before the marathon Saturday. I felt more energetic than yesterday. I ran 1.5 miles at 8 min pace then did some fartlek. 2x1/4 at 6:09 then 6:02 pace each followed by 1/4 slow then 1/2 mile at 6:39 pace. after another slow 1/4 I started another faster 1/2 mile. Right after I speed up my left hamstring and glute started to get sore. I decided I better slow back down and it felt better than it did but after a ways it started to get sore running slow so I walked the rest of the way back and it was pretty sore even walking. 15 minuted after the run it felt fine like nothing had ever happened. I'm not sure what to think of this but not even being able to finish a 4 mile run 2 days before a marathon isn't a very good confidence builder. I'm not running tomorrow but plan on taking lots of Ibuprofen between now and the race. Once again I'll be lining up at the St George starting line not sure if I'll even be able to finish.