In search of old age PRs

I skied hard on Friday, so felt a little under the weather for a run on Saturday.  Switched the long run to Sunday morning and had good run up Emigration canyon.  Its funny how a long run can pull you out of cold or sore funk.

AM: 7.0 miles.  Windy, but I beat the storm early this morning.  Run from house to Sugar House park.  It took a few miles to get my legs moving after running up then own Emigration on Sunday.

I found out of the weekend that I'm out of town for the Ragnar Wasatch relay in June!  I felt bad letting our ultra team down, so I changed my family vacation plans.  How's that for dedication!

PM: 3.5 miles.  Run to gym for core.  It started out sunny, then rain, then snow.  Crazy.  Its sunny again.

AM: 7.05 miles.  Sugar House park loop.  A little colder this morning, but perfect running weather.

PM : 3.5 miles.  What started out as a nice sunny morning turned into heavy cloud cover later in the day. Quick run to the gym for core.  I have to travel again tomorrow, so no more 2 a days for the rest of the week.

PM: 5.0 miles.  Spent the day working in Oxnard/Malibu area.  If you ate a strawberry today, it probably came from here...strawberry fields forever.

Read an article on the plane in the Marathon & Beyond publication.  This guy named Dave Fereday has run every London Marathon since the start in 1981.  The cool thing is (besides running the marathon from ages 43 through 73) he shares his race running log in the article.  He's an engineer so he is all about the numbers.  Anyway he calculated a fitness factor based on his weekly average. He would ignore the 2 weeks before a marathon (tapering), but then average his previous 8 weeks.  Next, he would average the next previous 32 weeks.  Then by adding the two numbers together and dividing by 2 he would get his "Fitness Factor."  This factor was pretty spot on in predicting his race time performance.  If you want to check it out the article is labeled "The London Marathon From Inside".  By: Dave Fereday.

So, since it was a boring flight, I calculated my fitness factor based on Fall marathons.  I started running in 2003/2004 and did not keep a log.  My marathon times were 4:24:00 in 2003 and 3:56:00 in 2004 (Top of Utah).  I know my mileage was probably 15-20 miles a week.  Luckily, I received a Garmin as a gift in 2005, thus better records!

2005.  Fitness Factor 22.5.  Las Vegas Marathon 3:24:38

2006.  Fitness Factor 25.  St. George Marathon 3:27:39 (I had my appendix removed 2 weeks prior to the race)

2007.  Fitness Factor 26.5.  St George Marathon 3:02:15 (perfect conditions that happen once very 10 years--i.e. cloud cover, cold at the start, tail wind, etc...)

2008.  Fitness Factor 35.  Tucson Marathon 3:04.12

2009.  Fitness Factor 40.  Pocatello Marathon 2:52:54

2010.  Fitness Factor 43.  St. George Marathon 3:03:25 (super hot/cramping issues).

2011.  Fitness Factor 43.5.  St. George Marathon 2:54:06 (another hot one, but prepared with salt tablets).

So, the goal for 2012 is to get the FF to 50 and hope it leads to a 2:45:00 marathon or I can just wait for another day like 2007.  I think we are due.

Early morning treadmill run in LA.

Emigration Canyon run this morning with the group.  Head wind up & head wind down...strange!  There was a fund raiser bike ride going on, so tons of riders.  I had strong run and felt great afterwards.  I'm looking forward to the Striders 1/2 next Saturday.