faster with age

     My hamstring felt good during and after the race Saturday. Sunday morning I had a new sore spot in the same hamstring. It was sore right up at my butt. This new sore spot is half way down to my knee. It was still sore yesterday so I took the day off. It felt better today but I decided not to run again And went 24 miles on my mt. bike. 

     I decided to try a run today. I stayed pretty close to home so I could quit if I got any pain. It felt good to start but I started feeling a bit of tightness after about 2 miles so I called it quits for the day.

     Tried running again today but stayed close to home again so I could quit if I started getting any trouble out of my hamstring. Today I got to 5 miles and it wasn't sore but I decided to quit while I was ahead. Just kept the pace real easy. 8:31 AP.

    Ran 6 miles this morning. It was a beautiful morning for November. I picked up the pace a little but still kept it pretty easy. My hamstring felt good. 7:59 AP.

     Was able to do 8 miles today and everything felt good. It was another nice day but it sounds like lots of rain and snow coming next week. I would have run the first dam run 5k this morning but I didn't want to risk my hamstring for it. It would have been nice weather.  8:03 AP.

     35 degrees this morning with a lot of wind and rain. Halfway through the run it turned to snow with large wet flakes. It wouldn't have been bad if it wasn't for the driving north wind. It was hard to see while running directly into it. I was completely soaked. My hamstring and hip both felt good so that is a good sign. 8 miles at 7:58 AP.

     Woke up with a funny little pain in my back and hip yesterday so I didn't run. It was still sore this morning but felt better this afternoon so I went for an easy 6 mile run. 8:33 AP.

     25deg with a few scattered snow flakes this morning with no wind. I went in to the track and ran 2 miles at 7:48 pace then ran 5x1000 with 400 recovery. Averaged about 6:12 pace on the intervals. I wasn't running real hard but it felt harder than it should to maintain that pace. Ran another 1.5 cool down. Everything felt good this morning.

     My parents came up and we went up into the mountains and cut our Christmas trees. I got out for 5 miles easy after dark.

     Didn't get a chance to run until after dark again.

     Ran 8 miles easy this morning. I did 2 or 3 short pickups in the last mile. It had been raining but during the run I had intermittent sun. 8:19 AP

     I had very high winds during my run this morning. I'm guessing 40 MPH with gusts getting near 60. Probably the strongest wind I have attempted to run in. Luckily it was blowing out of the west and all but 1/2 mile of the route I took was north and south. I really had to lean into it and I wound up with sore spots and red marks on both calves because my upwind foot kept hitting my downwind leg as I would bring it forward. While running into the wind the harder gusts would pretty much stop me and when the wind was at my back it was like running down a hill that's so steep that all your effort is in breaking to keep your speed from getting to fast. I went 6 miles at 9:00 min ave pace.

     It was 25 deg this morning but up to about 30 when I did my run. I went 8 miles. The last 2 miles I ran 4x1/4 fast [around 6:00 pace] with 1/4 slow between. Overall pace for 8 was 7:48.

     Easy 4.5 miles

Another 4 1/2 easy miles

     Ran the Smithfield Turkey Trot this morning. I woke up a couple of times between 5 and 7 this morning only to hear lots of wind and rain pounding the windows. Didn't sound like a good day for a race. When it was time for the race to start, the rain was a very light drizzle with temps in the low 40s and the south wind was still there but not to bad. They had a record turnout even with the bad weather. This is a pretty tough course and climbs about 150 feet in the first mile most of it being in the first .6 miles. At the beginning of mile 2 it quickly drops and you lose most of that elevation in the next .3. Then it climbs another 70 feet over the next 1/2 mile before dropping the rest of mile 2 and .65 of mile 3. There is a short flat stretch [one of the few] then it climbs about another 30 ft to the finish. I really felt relaxed [much more than you should in a 5k] over the first 2 miles and really didn't feel like making it uncomfortable. By the time we started the 3rd mile [which is mostly downhill] the wind had really picked up and of course now we were running right into it. The weather ended up actually not to bad [other than the annoying headwind at the end] but shortly after I finished it got a lot worse. Along with the wind [which continued to get worse] It started raining hard again. I felt sorry for the 10k runners [especially the slow ones]. But mostly felt bad for the volunteers at the finish line. All of their roped of finish area markers blew over and they had to take turns holding up the timing clock to keep it from blowing over too. They had to stay out there timing runners and tearing off the tabs until everyone was finished while the runners all got to go into the warm rec center.

I ended up finishing in 19:49 which was 2 seconds slower than when I last ran the race 2 years ago. I'm not in very good race shape right now but wasn't for that race either. This is the exact time I ran 3 weeks ago on an easier but long course. These last two 5ks are actually the slowest I have run since 2006 but I don't feel too bad because earlier this year I was running some of my best and I really wasn't pushing it. I did win my age group. I have won my age group in all but 1 of my races this year and that was TOU Marathon where I took 2nd. Of course it helps that I move up to the 50 + age group for 2/3s of the year. It's a little easier being at the bottom of the AG rather than the top. After taking it very easy for the past 2 months since TOU. I feel like most of my little nagging injuries are doing good. I guess it's time to build back a some base now over the winter and get ready for Boston.

     6 miles on snow. Roads hadn't been plowed so I was running in tire tracks. Footing wasn't great. Ended up almost 9 minute pace.

     I put off running in the morning to try and get some things I needed to get done before the blizzard hit. Once it hit we had 0 to 10 yards visibility. It only took 15 minutes for the drifts on my lane to get 1 1/2 ft deep. Decided to skip the run.

     Didn't get out until late. The sun went down during the first mile. I was able to finish just before it got completely dark. Temp was 6 deg. Went 7 miles at 7:59 AP.

     Had to get out before we left for Thanksgiving dinner down at my parents in Sandy. Temp was -14 deg when I left. Just went for an easy 4 miles. The sun came up for the last couple miles and it was a pretty morning. Had a major ice goatee and big enough ice balls on my eyelashes to make it hard to see.

     I got out for 8 miles in the afternoon. It was 24 deg which was actually the warmest it has been since Tues. I had a few small areas of dry road but mostly snow packed. Just kept it at a slow 8:23 pace.

     The roads were still mostly snow packed I was able to find some dry strips along the edge of the road where the plow was able to reach pavement to run on. The temp was 22 deg but there was a stiff wind out of the north. I think I prefer running at 14 below zero [like last Thursday] over running into that wind. Of course the wind was nice when I turned around and it was at my back. I went 8.5 miles at 8:31 AP.

     I ran 7 miles later in the morning. It was neg 5 deg first thing but had warmed clear up to 10 by the time I ran. Still a lot of ice and snow on the roads. 8:18 AP.