faster with age

     Ran 6 miles at 8:19 pace.

     First thing this morning it was 3 deg. I went at daylight to help put up forms and re-bar for footings on a new house my neighbor is building after hers burned to the ground last month so I didn't run until 2 o'clock when it was still below freezing. I got in 7 miles at 8:10 ave pace. It's supposed to be colder tomorrow.

     easy 4

     1 deg this morning at sunup. I went for 7 easy miles at an ave 8:35 pace. The second half felt colder, even though the sun had warmed things a bit, because a breeze started too pick up and the last 2 miles were directly into it. A little added crotch protection is a must when running into the wind when it's that cold and somehow I had forgotten that. I had to use one of my gloves. I'd rather have a cold hand.

     Ran 7 easy miles in a light snow. 8:27 AP. My parents and my brothers family came up from the Salt Lake area and we went to the mountains and cut Christmas trees. We got a nice 20 footer for our 2 story ceiling in the great room.

     Another 7 miles with a light snow falling. 8:08 ave pace.

          Snow and cold again. I went for another 7 miles at 8:29 pace. I saw 5 rooster pheasants on my run today. 3 of them jumped within easy range and the season just ended last week. Of course I don't usually carry a shotgun on my runs anyway.

     Ran 4 miles in the morning then did a bike ride in the evening. It was my first ride of the year on snow and some of it wasn't packed. It was only a couple of inches deep but that's enough to really slow you down. I went 15 miles and it took 15 to 20 minutes longer than normal because of the snow. I ended up later than planned and it got pretty dark by the time I finished. The temp was down to 10 deg by then.

      Played basket ball for an hour and a half later.

     It was  -12 deg this morning when I left the house for my run. I went 7 miles at an easy 8:32 AP. I had an impressive ice goatee and enough ice on my eyelashes that they kept sticking together. The sun had warmed things to a balmy -5 by the time I was finished. 

     Something  I find interesting. When running a high preformance snow mobile you have to change the jetting to get best preformance at high and low altitude to keep your air/fuel mixture from being too lean or rich because of the more dense oxygen  at low altitude and thinner air up high. The same adjustments have to be made to compensate for high and low temperatures. If your machine is jetted to run well in sub zero temps it will be too rich and bogging down on those warm 50 to 60 deg afternoons in the spring because the cold air is more dense than the warm air. Why dosen't it feel like running at low altitude when running in very cold temps? In fact I think it feels harder. I have read things that say once you get below 40 deg you get slower the colder it gets. Hmmm.

     I ran 10 miles this afternoon with a lot of snow coming down. Not much wind so it was very peaceful. When I first left the snow was a couple of inches deep and felt very soft and nice to run on but did slow my pace quite a bit. I did a short 3 miles out and back to the house and stopped for what was going to be a few minutes. I ended up eating lunch and not getting back out to finish the run for well over an hour. When I got back out the snow was about 4 inches deep and much slower to run in. I was able to run in car tracks a lot of the way but even that snow was quite loose and my pace was over a minute slower than it felt. I went 7 more miles at an ave 9:20 pace that didn't feel that easy.

     8 miles in the snow. The footing was bad but not as bad as Saturday. The 4 miles I ran off pavement I was able to run in tracks left from a truck with a couple of inches of new snow on top of them. Otherwise I would have been in about 6 inches of snow. 8:30 pace.

     Helped out first thing this morning, for about 3 hours, taking down and loading the forms from the foundation we just poured for a new house for a woman in our ward whose home recently burned down. We were back to 7 deg after a weekend of warmer temps after the storm. Anybody that has done any form work knows that it's pretty hard work. I headed out on my run right afterward and felt pretty worn out. The first 2 miles was pretty tough but eventually I got feeling a little better and was able to finish 8 miles. 8:19 ave pace.

     4 miles at 9:11 pace.

     Afternoon run. The temps had warmed to the upper 30s so I went back to the shorts today and decided to keep to the 2 mile stretch of dry pavement that I have to run on and avoid the snow packed dirt roads. I think suddenly running most of my miles on poor footing in the snow  is giving me some sore spots. I plan to get more miles on good footing and try to get used to it more gradually.

     I ran 4 miles at 8:03 pace and felt pretty good so I did a fartlec run for the next 4 running faster for 1/4 and slower for 1/4. Faster 1/4s I averaged about 6:30 pace. Slower 1/4s at 7:46 ave pace. 7:08 pace for last 4 miles. 7:37 average pace overall for 8 miles.

    Rode 15 miles on my bike mostly on snow pack.

     PM  4 miles easy.

     Ran 8 miles about half on pavement and half on packed snow and ice. I strapped on some traction devices [get a grip from Cabelas ] on the snow packed parts and they helped a lot. My miles running on snow though still averaged around a half minute slower pace. AP 8:31

     Ran 9 miles this morning slow. I didn't have much energy the first half of the run. I felt better after 5 miles but still kept it slow.

     Did the same 9 mile run again this morning but felt a lot better than yesterday. Still kept the pace pretty easy and threw in a few short striders during the last couple of miles. AP 8:22.

     Went for a 4 mile run. It was 22 deg with the wind blowing very hard. The first 1/2 mile was directly into the wind on slick snow pack. The wind was blowing so hard that with the poor footing I was over 10 minute pace. It wasn't as bad on the pavement but still slow when running into the wind. I was planning a bike ride but lost motivation with that much wind.

     Ran 8 miles. first 4 at 7:40 pace. Averaged 6:57 pace for the next 4 miles which felt pretty tough. Overall pace for 8 was 7:19.

Took Christmas day off.

Ran 12 miles this morning at averaging 8:08 pace. By the time I ran the temp was up to 14 deg which is warmer than a lot of my runs but there was a bit of fog in the air which caused me to wind up with major frost on the goatee and eyelashes. That is my longest run since the marathon and everything seemed to feel good.

     Ran 9 miles at 7:55 overall pace.

     Ran 10 miles easy pace. Lately every run seems to be cold with crappy air. A storm system is supposed to be moving in tonight. Maybe it will change things up a bit. 8:34 AP.

     Went for a 5 mile run. The footing with the snow was worse than expected. I should have worn my screw shoes. I was only able to manage 9:28 pace.

     Went duck hunting all day in the cold. I got home and had about a half hour before dark and it was cold and quite windy out and I felt beat so I bagged the run.