Did I ever tell you how stoopid I am sometimes. Well this is one of THOSE stoopid tales and while nothing bad happened as a result of it, when I woke up this morning there were some not so gentle reminders that I am 60, not 30.

No, no alcohol was involved, those days are long past. It was simply a Harold being Harold kind of day.

The usual first thing Bennie walk, then Bennie’s long walk – nothing particularly out of routine about those. However, the right hamstring is feeling pretty much normal again, so I have wanted to introduce light speed work back into my training. So I did some fartlek training.

My first mile was the fastest I have run in a while and then when I got down on Tiffany, I ran hard (fast for me) for two telephone poles and then “rested” for the next two. I did this down to Wildwood and back to the dirt road. I could really tell that I have not run fast in a while – maintaining the speed on some of those faster repeats was not all that much fun.

However, running faster did force me to stretch out the stride a bit and move away from the old man shuffle. Once I got back to the dirt road, I shut down the faster stuff and went into cool-down mode. I didn’t attempt to run any faster than my slow jog the rest of the way home, well until just before the end, gotta speed up at the end – right.

So I got in 3.0 miles of Fartlek and a mile of cool-down. A nice run, but one that did tax the old system pretty hard. That become important later

I did run in the Brooks Green Silence and had a strange soreness under the middle metatarsals on the left foot, almost like they were being squeezed together too much. Other than that, they felt great, nice snap and go to them and I felt like I could run even faster in them if I was in shape for it.

After resting for lunch and a nap, it was time to do some chores. So I chose the one I have been procrastinating the most. Mowing the side lawn, well the small field between the lawn and the rock wall that I do 2-3 times a summer. It took about two hours and is tough because it all roots, rocks, hillocks and whatever else didn’t get smoothed out when I cut all the trees and crap out of there back in 2002.

Yes, after that I was pretty much toast.

Now if that had been where I stopped, I would have considered it a good day.

Instead I had to get ready to run in a 5K trail race over at Quarry Road and around heah, trail racing pretty much means hills and if the place you are going has the words Quarry in the name of the Road, there are probably hills to contend with.

Yep.

They may not be huge or big hills, but the flat areas not quite as often or as long as I would like. The going up and down just takes it out of my legs and gets the heart rate into uncomfortable areas going up some of the bumps during the last part.

Here is where I get a little stoopid, going out for my warm-up jog, I don’t know why I needed to warm-up, it was in the 80’s in the sunshine, but I ran slowly down the road. I figured I would turn around at the 1/2 mile to get a mile in. Instead I ran to gate and got in 1.5, not big deal, but coming back I must have sped up a little too much because the graph showed me in the 8:20’s for a good part of it. Stoopid

Then the 5K race started, lots of ups and downs, Julie M and I were switching back and forth, she is better on the uphills and I am a little better on the downhills. Going up the big hill on the North loop, I had to walk a ways, the heart rate was thumping a bit too hard and I knew that I needed to back off, so I did.

The heat, hill, faster paces and the rest of the day’s activities to that point had done a number on my stamina or should I say lack of it.

Once I got the heart rate back under control, I started running again and caught up with Julie M. There was a pack of about 6 of us that were changing places for the first part until we got down into what I call the dog leg along the stream, where I began to slow down and the legs were telling me just how stoopid I was being.

They didn’t have a lot to give and on the hill coming out of the dog leg I had to walk again to get the heart rate back under control. After that I walked a lot of the bumps to keep the heart rate decent.

After the hairpin turn, there was a guy with dreadlocks, who was struggling as much as I was and I sort of challenged him to keep going and he did. Every time I would catch up to him, I told him that he couldn’t let me pass him and he would take off again. We did that most of the last part of the race. He beat me quite easily, but thanked me after we finished.

Julie M beat me by almost a minute – about the same as last race and I finished 39/85 same as last time so I am fairly consistent and didn’t see anyone with a 60 something for an age in front of me again. The course was a bit long – the new dog leg adds a bit onto the totals, but that it is trail racing if you ask me – close enough is close enough.

I can feel that I am getting back in shape and more and more confident in my right hamstring, since I was able to keep up with Julie for longer than I usually do. I think that if I don’t do speed work in the morning, then mow lawns for a couple of hours and do a long warm-up that I would probably do a little better on the hills during the last part of the race.

Now I wore my Topo Ultra Fly’s during the race and while they didn’t give me any issues during the race, by the time I got to the dog leg the legs were feeling how heavy the shoes were. I think that they are great for slower paced stuff, but to run faster, I have better choices for the road, but now need to find a better choice for the trails.

Over the course of the day, I got in just under 35,000 steps, way too many for a day that includes a trail race. I have a feeling that I will take it easier next week before the 8K and not attempt to set a new daily step record on that day!

Yeah, the lower back and legs are sore from pounding down the hills at Quarry Road this morning, but I have feeling that even with 20/20 hindsight, I would probably do things the same as I did yesterday – yeah, I am that stoopid. 🙂