faster with age

      Last day in Pensylvania. Still can't run 3 steps. I went on another bike ride just before we left the farm. I rode from the farmhouse to the top of Elk mountain ski resort which I think is the highest mountain in Pensylvania. It was a dirt road to the top and it got too steep to ride on 3 different stretches  [at least on the heavy schwinn bike I was on]. I think I maybe could have done it on my mountain bike but it would have been a killer. The stretches that I pushed the bike I was able to do a fast hike, almost run, leaning on the bike supporting my bad hamstring side. I was going hard enough to keep my HR around 165. Probably very good cross training without hurting the hamstring. I pushed very hard because my time was limited and I was pushing to complete round trip in under 1 hour. I really pushed at the end and finished in exactly 1 hour to the second. It was only a little over 10 miles but I'm converting it to 5 miles because one hour at that intensity deserves more than 3.

    That night we left for Newark

     This morning we caught a bus near our hotel room out to New york city.  We spent the day touring  Manhatten. We did a lot of walking. We spent most of our time in the Natural History Museum. That's the second time we've been through it and there's just never enough time. I think all the time on my feet was harder on my hip on the good leg from favoring the hamstring a bit.

    That night we caught our flight and arrived back in SLC around 11:30.

    Got home this morning. I went on a 32 mile mountain bike ride. The longest rides I had been doing offroad before last week were 20 milers. This was the second at 32 miles and my quads got pretty tired again. I'm going to do a lot of biking while I can't run but I worry that increasing my biking too much in just one week could cause other problems.

    12 miles bike offroad.

     I've tried running a few times but my hamstring tightens up bad after about 5 steps.

     I went on another offroad bike ride. I rode the second half hard keeping my HR above 160 on most of it. 20 miles total in 1:13 my second fastest time on that route. 16.3 MPH ave.

     Rode the same route as yesterday. I thought I would be tired after yesterdays hard ride but I felt good and rode almost as fast.

    Today I could run about 50 steps carfully keeping the hamstring relaxed before it would tighten up. I did it 3 or 4 times throughout the day. From reading on the internet I learned that my hamstring tear is a grade 2 out of 3 grades. It's good to keep it moving without hurting it. I've been irrigating since getting home and that causes me to walk about 3 miles a day which is probably good for the hamstring but it's causing a sore hip on the opposite side from favoring it. I'm starting to get a normal stride back though.

     I'm trying to keep from losing too much arobic fitness by riding but I'd probably have to be riding over 200 bike miles per week to equal what I was running. Since I have been only riding about 40 miles per week, that isn't reasonable right now. I did about 94 this week offroad.

    We spent the day at bear lake. I tested the hamstring and running in bare feet on the packed sand didn't feel to bad.  I ran a little less than 1/2 mile up to a restroom then back just slow and trying to keep the hamy relaxed. It didn't feel to bad. Probably 10 or 11 pace.