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Week 223
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Greetings from outside Gatlinburg, 50+ers! My wife and I always wait until the weekend following Labor Day to enjoy our anniversary (if we're planning to travel, that is,) and thanks for the well-wishes, y'all! We're just being lazy and touristy this time around (ie-no big hikes,) but I did manage to get up and run a couple of mornings. The week was down a bit from last week, still hitting a relatively solid 31+ miles for me on 6 days. The log reads as such:
Sun: 5.0 easy (7:52 avg pace)
Mon: 5.0 moderate (7:12 pace)
Tue: 7.2 w/4x600, 4x400, 4x200, 4x100
Wed: 4.1 easy (8.13 pace)
Thur: off (classes and then traveling)
Fri: 4.0 hard! (7:53 avg moving pace) hills killed me
Sat: 6.0 (~7:25 pace "up", ~6:45 pace "down") 2% fairly steady grade.
Monday morning's run felt good, even at 90+% humidity, I felt comfortable going under 7 for the last 2.5 miles. Tuesday's track workout felt comfortably hard. Took 400m jog recovery after the 600's, but then 200m recovery after the 400's and 200's and just the turns for the 100m strides. After each set of 4, we did take an extra minute to recoup. Average times were 600s--2:17, 400s--86s, 200s--38s ,100s: untimed. Friday's run was down outside Gatlinburg, up in the mountain cottage roads. We're not home yet, so I haven't downloaded the Garmin data yet, but RunningAHEAD app tells me the 4-mile jaunt had 1000 feet of uphill climb (and of course 1000ft downhill, too)! I'm not used to 10% average grade running for an entire 4 miles; I had to stop several times up some of the steepest portions---simply gassed! Never been so happy to complete a 4-mile run! I decided to drive down from the hilltop resort and run up a trail-head access road Saturday morning. It ran along a creek and was a steady 2% grade in, and then I reversed at mile 3. It's fun when 6:45 is feeling smooth and easy coming back out!
Sorry for not engaging in the thread during the week. I've been a bit pre-occupied, but good to read some nice results and discussion.
Welcome, Royphillips! Those are some pretty solid times you're running.
Sorry, KP, that you're still ailing. The cost of laying it all out on the line, I guess.
@Cavorty. Sounds like you're doing pretty well under the circumstances. The age-grade tables say that, all else being equal, you should lose about 18s/10k/year. So over 1/2-a-minute can be accounted for just from age--weight/conditioning/weather will dictate the rest.
Blog from the New York Times(food for thought):
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/09/09/why-runners-get-slower-with-age-and-how-strength-training-may-help/?_r=0
OK, that's about all I have for this week. Feeling a bit lazy this last Sunday morning of our relaxing extended weekend; I'll probably wait until we get home before getting my run in today. Looking forward to reading about your-alls' weeks!
All the Best!