faster with age

     Ran 8 miles this morning. There was a little wet snow so I had to keep to the pavement because it was to muddy off road.  8:17 ave pace.

     Went out after dark with a lot of snow falling. It was about an inch deep on the road. I always love running in the falling snow. It is so quiet and peaceful and always makes things brighter. I wore my Garmin but never looked at it until the end. Somehow I had pushed a wrong button in the dark and didn't get a pace. Very enjoyable run.

     It has been a very mild fall and winter so far this year but this morning it was zero deg. I didn't run until afternoon though when it was a balmy 23 deg. It was nice and sunny though so not too bad. I did the 8 miles [round trip] up to the reservoir. This was the first time I've seen ice on it this year and it was about half covered. 3 1/2 miles of the run was on pavement the rest on packed snow. I was running around 8:15 pace on the pavement. On the snow my average was in the upper eights even though it felt like about the same effort and speed. I guess you lose a lot more than you think on that small loss of traction during push off. Overall pace was 8:39.

     We got a new treadmill for Christmas. I figured it was mostly for my wife but last tonight while it was snowing heavily and since I had just finished putting it together it seemed like a good time to give it a test run. I ran 6 miles and varied the speed a lot during the run anywhere from 9 min/mile to 7:30 min/mile.

     I can see this happening now and again when I'm having a hard time getting motivated to go outside. 8:25 AP

     I didn't get out for a run today until just before dark. It was 14 deg when I left the house but the sun went down about 2 miles in and it quickly got colder. I ended up running 8 miles up to the reservoir on hard packed snow. I didn't get my average pace for the run. I have a big St. Bernard dog along the way that runs out when it sees me coming. He will follow along until I stop and pet him. If I keep running he will just run along with me clumsily getting too close and tangling with my legs. Once I give him his scratch behind the ears, I can run on and he will go home. I always stop my watch for these few seconds but somehow didn't get it stopped tonight. So when I thought I was restarting it to go on my way, I guess I stopped it. I ran a long way before realizing it.

     I had my best ice goatee of this winter so far. The temperature was at 7 deg when I got home my wife snapped this picture.