faster with age

     Woke up this morning and was watching the weather channel in the hotel lobby. The current temp in St George was 76 and Veyo near the start line was 66 with both places having 10 mph winds out of the south east [headwind]. Once the sun came up it would quickly get to over 80. I sat next to a guy named Tracey Fifield from Westpoint Utah on the bus ride up. He ran the 6th fastest time ever on the course 20 years ago in 2:16. He ended up with 2:31 today to win the 45-49 age division. He's 49 now and runs some of the same races so I guess I'll be competing with that next year in my age group.

     The race got started and my plan was to just run by feel and not try to hit particular splits and hope to hit the half somewhere around 1:30-1:31. I really felt I had a good chance of breaking 3 hours for the first time even though my training hasn't gone well the last 7 weeks. It seems like I've missed at least 1 or 2 planned days of running each week trying to play it safe with different injuries. I've done some biking to try and make up for the missed runs.

Miles 1 and 2- 6:48 and 6:49. It was too dark to see my garmin and I didn't want to use the light but I figured they would be around 7 min each because of the uphill. They ended up a bit faster. I had a hamstring/glute issue crop up the past week that even cut my last 4 mile run on Thursday short. It had me worried and I tanked up on the Ibuprofen yesterday and today. I hadn't felt a thing from it until I started to run. It started to get sore before I had run 100 steps. It got worse all the way to mile 3 then stayed about the same for the next couple of miles. by mile 7 or 8 it actually improved and after that it was gone. Don't you wish all injuries did that?

3- 6:35 It is still dark and I'm already starting to sweat a lot. Wishing it was the normal 15 to 20 degrees cooler at the beginning.

4-6:33

5-6:44

6-6:26

7-6:29 Miles 3 through 7 seemed a bit fast but the pace felt good and my heart rate was low around 154 to 155.

8- 7:33 This mile is the beginning of the big Veyo hill. The first 1/4 is downhill. Just before starting up the hill I noticed my overall pace was 6:38. The next 4 plus miles are all net uphill and I figured if I could finish the end of the uphill and still be around 6:55 overall pace I'd be in good shape. I just stayed relaxed and tried to keep the pace easy on all the uphill.

9- 7:20  Finish Veyo hill

10-7:09 still uphill

11- 7:15 more uphill

12- 6:57 Finish the uphill then gradual down. Start getting a lot of headwind that lasts most of the rest of the race.

13- 6:42 My time at 13 miles was 1:29:22 so at 13.1 I was probably  right about 1:30 and I was feeling good except my right calf was starting to get sore. Right at 6:52 overall pace.

14- 6:51

15- 6:32 some nice downhill on this mile

16-6:23 more downhill but the sun comes up somewhere around this point and you can instantly feel a rise in the temperature.

 17-6:33 I don't think there was that much downhill here but I was feeling pretty good and just picked up the pace.

18-6:44 still feeling good other than my calf keeps getting tighter.

19-7:09 most of this mile is climbing Winchester hill with .2 mile downhill at the end. I just relaxed and kept it easy.

20- 6:44 calf is getting tighter but everything else is feeling good [at least compared to 20 miles in other marathons I've done]. I looked at my overall time [2:16:19] and figured I had about 43:40 to run the last 10K and still get under 3 hours. I can't do math very well at this point in a marathon, but I figured that was around 7 min pace.

21-6:25 A good downhill for some of this mile. Every mile this far below 7 min is that much slower I could finish and still get my goal.

22-6:58 Calf is getting worse but everything else feels ok. Just want to be done.

23-6:37 Some more downhill and it's not likely I won't get that sub 3. I'm thinking around 2:57

24-6:43 this was my last good mile and still on track for 2:57.

25-6:58 I'm really feeling it bad now. It's hot and my calf feels like a rock. Not a good split but still under 7. I know I can finish under 3 with 8 min miles now and it's tempting to slow down.

26-6:58 these last 2 miles are taking forever and pretty much took the 2:57 out of the picture. That's just fine.

.23-1:20 [5:49 pace] I passed a guy here that I had been running with a bit as I started to kick. He started hollering encouragement to me as I took off and that and the roar of the crowd really got me going. I figured I probably wouldn't quite get under 2:58 but figured I'd try anyway.

     Finished up at 2:58:18 [6:48 overall pace], Last 10K in 41:59. I've been after this goal for a few years and it was sweet, especially considering the nonfavorable conditions.  I finished 5th out of 354 in the 50 to 54 age group. 4th place beat me by 1 second. The guys that beat me were from all of the country from New Jersey to California. The awards went 8 deep so I got a real nice sandstone plaque.

     Yesterday after the awards yesterday my wife and son and I  headed down to Mesquite and took it easy. Enjoyed a soak in the pool and a good buffet. We went to an area on BLM ground where we have found petrified wood in the past and hiked around and gathered some nice pieces. I had some sore muscles so I was a bit slow getting around especially in parts that required some scrambling in some steep rocky and cliffy areas. 

       My most recent injuries coming into the race [hip flexor and hamstring that moved more into my butt] seem to be completely gone. I mainly just have the normal post marathon sore leg muscles. My calves have been sore especially the right one that was sore in the marathon and my quads a little but not too bad which surprises me because I didn't do that much downhill running the past few weeks. I don't plan to run at all this week but maybe ride my bike a bit.

     No running so far this week. My normal marathon soreness was mostly gone by Tuesday but my right calf [the one that gave me problems in the race] is still sore. It has been noticeably better each day but I can still feel it a bit while walking today. I'm hoping I will be able to run on it next week but I'll have to wait and see. I was hoping to run some local 5ks coming up. The first is 3 weeks from tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to get in a couple of speed workouts before then. 

     My calf is still a little too sore for running. I have wanted to get out on the bike but it's been raining every day and I haven't been quite motivated enough. Today I decided I was going out rain or shine. It was actually nice when I left but started raining lightly for the second half. I got into a little mud including one spot where I came very close to having to walk. 20 miles mt bike.

     A few final thoughts on the marathon:    I'm very happy with the outcome and glad I went with the strategy that I did keeping it pretty conservative for the first 17 miles. However I can't help but second guess how it would have gone had I run those first miles at a harder effort. I could have run that first 17 miles 2 or 3 minutes faster the question is how much more I would have lost in the final miles. As it was I lost about 10 seconds per mile in the last 2 miles. In reading Sasha's reports, he feels like he runs a faster time when running harder the first part and just hanging on at the end. He claims that when running the first part conservative he still has a slowdown at the end, not as bad, but not good enough to make up for the slower start. On the other hand I know 3 different people I talked to that ran the first half at St George 2 to 3 minutes faster than I did only to finish 6 to 15 minutes behind. I was tempted to go for that 2:55 but glad I played it safe. Now that I've got that sub 3 out of the way though, I may be tempted to be a little more aggressive next time especially if my final 6 weeks of training goes better.

      Some interesting notes:     My overall heart rate was 159. The first 16 miles averaged 155 bpm. The seventeenth mile was the first over 160 and I average 162 from 17 to 24. The last 3 miles went 167, 169, and 172. My final .23 kick at 5:48 pace averaged 178 and my peak heart rate during that kick was 189 which is the highest I've ever seen it that I'm confident was an accurate reading. I had previously figured my max HR around 185. My HR has climbed about the same in other marathons at the end other than the last kick which I have never done that fast at the end. I ended up running the first half in 1:30 and the second half in 1:28:18. I checked the age graded scale and my time is equivalent to a 2:38 for a  35 year old.

     My calf is doing much better. Our gun season for deer opened today and my son and I did quite a bit of hiking. I could feel a little soreness in my calf. I wouldn't call it pain as much as a little discomfort. It did feel a lot worse when hiking straight up something steep but when I climbed at more of an angle across the side hill it wasn't too bad.

     I wasn't sure how my calf would feel after all the hiking yesterday. It actually felt better today. It was actually the first day that I felt nothing while walking. I decided to try a run. When I started the run I felt a little tightness in a few spots including my hamstrings and hip but not the hip flexor. It was probably because this is the first run in the 10 days since the marathon. After about 1/2 miles everything loosened up and felt better except my calf started feeling a bit sore. It seemed to get slightly worse as I went so I only went 2 miles. It did feel nice to be running again. 8:36 AP

     After yesterdays 2 miler I didn't know how the calf would feel today so I just started running and decided to play it by ear on how far I would go. After a mile I felt a slight pain but it was less than yesterday. It didn't seem to get any worse as I went so I ran 5 miles total. It still seems to improve every day. I really felt like going a lot farther but decided to play it safe. I have wound up with injuries during the 2 weeks following a marathon too many times. 8:35 AP

     My calf continues to improve so I went for 8 miles today up to the reservoir. 8:34 AP. 

     My son and I backpacked into an area to hunt deer as soon as he got out of school yesterday for the weekend. After getting camp set up we did quite a bit of hiking before dark then again first thing this morning hunting for deer. He got a nice buck this morning quite a ways from camp. I had worn a heavy duty pack frame with my day pack on it just in case we got one so that we could carry it out with us to save an extra trip in. After cutting up the deer so that I was mostly carrying meat and the head and my rifle, the pack weighed 105 lbs. I carried this for an hour over some rough country to get back to our camp While my son carried both of our day packs.  After packing up our camp and packing it back out to the jeep we went back for the meat and split it into two manageable pack loads to get the rest of the way out. My legs were plenty fatigued when we got home and my hamstrings felt a little tight so I decided it would be better not to run and just call it a good cross training day.

     Our pheasant hunt opened this morning and my son and I ended up doing quite a bit of walking. I could still feel yesterdays workout in my legs a bit, including a little soreness in the hip flexor, so I skipped the run again today. Hoping to get back to somewhat normal running next week.

     I ran 8 miles this morning after not running since thursday. My hip was a little sore throughout the run. Probably from the stress I put on it packing out meat last week after not being fully recovered from the marathon. I guess I should run marathons that aren't during hunting season. Last year I had to pack my elk out 1 week after TOU. My calf is still improving and felt completely better for the first half of the run but I felt it some the second half especially the last 2 miles where I did 5 or six short striders. 8:26 AP

Ran another 8 miles this morning. I ran the first 1/4 of each of the last 2 miles at 5:58 and 5:53 pace. It felt way hard. My hip felt better today to begin with but was worse at the end. Probably because of the faster pace the second half. 7:54 AP

      Went hunting in the morning and put on about 5 miles of hiking in steep terrain.

     I'm planning to run a 5K next week and then another the week after that. Since I haven't run anything at 5K pace in almost 3 months [2 days ago I ran 2x1/4], I figured I'd better do some. I went to the track to run 5x1,000. I started with a 3.5 mile warmup at 7:45 pace. The 1,000s were 3:46, 3:53, 3:50, 4:37, 3:47. I lost count and went an extra 200 on number 4. Average pace for these was 6:09. I ran 400 recovery between each at around 2:10 each. This workout felt pretty hard. I was hoping to run at least that pace in next weeks race but I guess we'll have to see what happens. My hip and calf felt pretty good. Overall pace for 8.5 was 7:12.

     Somehow I got my days mixed up and put Thursdays entry on Friday. I guess I'll post Friday and Saturday here

     Friday: I didn't get a chance to run early in the day. We went up to Pocatello to visit my stepdaughter so I did my run up there. I headed up Pocatello Creek Road then onto Saterfield Rd. I didn't realize how steep it was going to climb. Not really what I was looking for on a recovery run so I just kept it extra easy. I'm not used to running in traffic and kept thinking about Kory getting hit here last year. It was dark by the time I finished. 7 miles at 8:55 AP.

     Saturday: Service project this morning. A good sized group of us spent most of the day cutting and hauling wood. I try to be careful with all the lifting involved with these kind of things. I never know how my back is going to take these activities. I didn't get a chance to run until after dark. I was very unmotivated but already skipped one day this week. Back was a little sore but not too bad. Ran 6 miles.

     Ran 3.5 at 7:45 pace then 2x200 [45,45], 1x400 [89], 2x1,000 [ 3:44, 3:44], 1x400 [89], 3x200 [40,39,39].  I ran 200 recoveries between the 200s and 400s between the 400s and 1,000s at around 8:30 pace. Ran another 3.5 laps cooldown. 

     Didn't get out until just after sundown. The temperature dropped drastically today and was into the upper 30s with a strong north wind. I ran 8 miles and it was completely dark by the time I finished. My hip was a little sore today from the faster intervals yesterday. 8:25 AP

     The temp was 20 degrees this morning but I didn't run until noon when it had made it clear to the upper 30s. Strong wind again today like last night but the sun made it a lot nicer. Ran another 8 miles up to the reservoir. It's gorgeous up there right now with the leaves all in full color. Hip was still a bit sore so I kept it real slow again. 8:44 AP.

     Ran another 8 today up to the reservoir. During the second half of the run I picked up the pace for 1 minute out of about every 5 minutes. Overall pace was 7:49.

     Hip a little sore again today. The day after I run anything fast it seems to be sore so I just went a real easy 6 miles today. 8:48 AP

     I didn't think I would be doing this race today. My son and I were going to go hunting but we went last night and after 3 hours of some pretty intense hiking over steep terrain we were both pretty beat and decided not to go this morning. That wasn't a good thing to do the night before a race. The race was 7 miles from home and I had a free entry pass from winning last year. This is just a small local race of around 70 people. A lot are adults and kids in costumes, a lot are special needs kids [the race is a fundraiser for special olympics] and about 1/2 only doing the 1 mile. Not a highly competitive race. 

     It was 29 deg when I got there 40 min before start and it was overcast so I don't think it warmed much if any. After a 2.3 mile warmup I decided to go with shorts and 2 thin long sleeve tech shirts [one would have felt better after half way]. My legs had felt very slow during my warmup. I was struggling to run what I thought was a bit under 8 min pace but after checking my garmin found that it was around 8:35 [probably effects from last nights hiking]. I saw a couple of guys that I didn't know that looked like they could be fast and a girl that was the #2 runner on our girls cross country team that took state 2 years ago and got a scholarship to run somewhere.I thought she might be some competition.

     I went out at what I figured was about 6 min pace and 1/2 mile in I was at 5:50 pace. Nobody had gone with me and the pace was feeling too hard. I wasn't expecting much from myself this morning since I haven't done much running since St George Marathon and just last week did the first 5K pace running that I've done in months. Without anybody to race and not feeling great, my motivation level dropped. I slowed to a more comfortable pace and finished the first mile in 6:21. That means the second half of that mile must have been really bad. At the turnaround I was about half a min or more ahead of cross country girl. I checked my garmin again and I was at 6:50 pace for the second mile. Wow! That's slower than my average marathon pace last month. I decided I better speed up or I wouldn't even be getting the workout I wanted. I finished mile 2 in 6:30 and my overall pace was at 6:27. I figured I'd better speed up more or I wouldn't even break 20. I ran the 3rd mile in 6:09 and the last 10th at 5:28 pace. Finished in 19:33 over a minute ahead of second place. Didn't feel like pushing to the hurt level today and wouldn't have run a very good time anyway. Good workout at least. Planning to race next week and hopefully can do a lot better.

     After getting home I ran 7 miles at 7:48 pace. Felt like I had more pop in my legs than this morning. 

     Ran 6 miles easy this morning. My hip was sore again like it has been after every day that I have run fast since the marathon. I figured maybe it wouldn't be after taking Sunday off. 8:11 AP

     PM   Ran another 4 miles. Hip felt better on this run. Threw in a few strides the last 2 miles. 7:49 AP