faster with age

     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.