faster with age

     Went for a 30 mountain bike ride mostly on dirt. During the ride I had 2 deer feeding along the side of the road. They watched me as I passed them at thirty yards. I looked back after I was about 100 yards past and one of them was running after me. I couldn't figure out if it was curious or what. It was gaining on me quickly and I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and was trying to get it set to video with one hand while I was riding. The deer came right up along side me at 10 to 15 yards away like she was racing me. I should have sped up and tried to hold her off as long as I could but was still trying to get the cell phone camera on. She got just ahead of me then cut across in front of me and off toward a ravine. I've had deer run to cross the road in front of me before but this one came from so far behind it was kind of crazy. 

     I had my foot start hurting Sunday night on the bottom outside edge from my heel to mid foot. It was still a bit sore so I decided to skip the PM run I was planning. Besides that I spent the day digging up a 10" irrigation main line that  blew out. It was about 5 feet down through mucky clay and cattails and no way to get a backhoe near it, so I had to hand dig and repair it which took all day and I was exausted. Maybe that helped my decision to skip the run also.

     Had some more irrigation work to finished up first thing this morning when it was a nice 48 deg. by the time I got things up and going to where I could leave it for a run it was almost noon and 82 deg. Bummer. I ran 7 miles at an easy pace testing my foot which was still a bit sore. It didn't get any more sore during the run. 8:50 pace.

     Took it easy again this morning. Ran 8 miles at 8:33 ave. pace. My foot felt much better today and hopefully will be a non issue by tomorrow.

     PM  Easy 6 miles after dark. Threw in 4 15 to 20 second pickups toward the end. The moon came up big and bright as I was finishing. Ave. pace 8:45.

      I did a 30 mt bike ride this morning mostly off pavement. It was 46 deg to start and I though I might have to wear a sweat shirt but with the sun shining I new I would just have to take it off in a mile or two. I did a lot of climbing in the first half and into the wind. The last big 3 mile climb had a lot of headwind and was quite fast coming back down [36,37 mph]. When I see what it takes for me to go 30 mph [either strong tailwind or downhill or both] it's hard to imagine averaging that speed on the flat. Lance Armstrong's Astana team just averaged over 31 mph on their 24 mile time trial Tuesday. The last 10 miles of my ride I should have been enjoying a nice tailwind but as it commonly does here after the sun starts to warm things up it switched from a north wind to a south wind. For some reason I really ran out of energy with about 5 miles to go and I hadn't been riding all that hard.

      Was planning to do a PM run but it was after 11 before I could have gone and I bagged it.

     I ran 9.5 miles this morning at a very easy pace. I started out the first couple of miles running around 8:20-8:30 pace and just didn't feel good. I slowed to around 8:45 for a mile and still  felt drained. After 3 miles I was thinking about just cutting the run short. I decided to just slow down to a pace my body wanted to run no matter how slow and after another mile that drained feeling was gone. It was a nice cool and calm morning and very pretty up around the reservoir. I was enjoying this easy pace enough that I actually ran farther than I had planned. I also took 3 short breaks. I didn't pay much attention to my Garmin but after getting back I noticed that a lot of my miles were in the 9:30-9:40 range. I may have to start throwing in a few more miles at that pace. I've been trying to figure out why I've been so worn out the last couple of days [I really bonked on yesterdays bike ride too].  We had so much rain in June that I never had to irrigate. Now it has been dry and I've been moving irrigation pipe twice a day since last Thursday. I end up walking an extra 3 or 4 miles a day doing this and lifting and carrying a lot of sprinkler pipe. I also spent most of the day Monday digging up a blown mainline. I've had an extra 5 or so pounds I would like to lose and as of Wed morning I found I had lost 4 lbs just since last week when I last weighed. I thought it may just be dehydration from the heat but I've been careful to drink plenty and still weighed the same yesterday and today. I think maybe I've been too busy to get in some of the in between meal snacks I normally eat. I've also not been getting enough sleep. Then you throw in last Saturdays race and I think it's just been too much all at once for my body to recover and adapt. I'm trying to make sure I get plenty to eat and really listen to my body on my next few runs. Hopefully I'll have my energy back soon.

9:13 pace

     PM 2 miles slow.

     At the beginning of my run this morning I only felt a little better than yesterday morning. Coming up on 4 miles I was deciding whether to turn back. I have a water stash there and stopped for a drink. I was feeling a bit better so decided to go on. I was feeling more back to normal so I went 7 1/2 miles out past the reservoir on a dirt road before turning back. I averaged 8:19 pace for the first 8 miles. I picked it up the next 3 miles and averaged 7:48 pace. Then 7:27 for the next 3 and 6:58 for the last mile. 7:33 average for the last 7 miles. Overall pace for 15 miles was 7:57.