faster with age

     It's been cold. Yesterday when we got home from church it was a sunny 2 deg. Last night when I went to bed it was -15 deg and dropping. I was thinking at the rate it was headed that I would be running in the -20s this morning, which would be a pr [I've run at -12 or -13 a few times] but during the night the clouds moved in and it warmed up 15 deg. to zero. I put on an extra layer [a thin fleece] and realized right away I had overdressed. I had to take off my sweatshirt and a tech shirt which left a light tech shirt and the thin fleece. I wasn't sure why I felt that comfortable until I turned back at 4 miles and realized I had been running with a bit of a tail wind. Running back into that wind changed everything and I quickly had to put the sweatshirt [that I had tied around my waist] back on.  My thighs got pretty cold coming back into the breeze which seemed to get stronger. I should have worn 2 layers on the bottom. I think I got the best ice goatee for this year so far. I ran 8.5 miles at 8:13 pace.

     Much warmer this morning at 18 deg. I ran 4 miles in the snow which kept the pace slow at 9:03.

     Went 15 miles on my bike and it was pretty slow going also.

     My lingering injuries seem to all be doing quite well. I feel like I'm ready to begin a good training cycle for a fast half mar.  Problem is I only have until next week. I did get in a good tempo last week and hope to get one more in this week if I can find a non snow and ice covered stretch of road. Oh well, I guess I'll just go down and have fun and not push too hard or worry to much about my time.

     The temprature around here has been like a yoyo latley. It was in the upper 30s today. I wanted to do a tempo run today but the roads were snow covered this morning. In the afternoon it had mostly melted leaving my 2 mile stretch of pavement wet with some slush but the footing was good. I ran 2 miles in 7:41 and 7:19 Then went 8 miles at 6:57 pace. Pace for all 10 was 7:04.

     This morning I ran 5 miles at an easy recovery pace. I felt real good and almost no back or hip pain after yesterdays harder run. 8:38 pace.

     This morning I did 19 miles on the mountain bike. There's not as many slick places left but the ones left are bad. Had a cold strong north wind I was riding directly into it the first 5 miles which made it nice coming back. The mud was frozen hard which helps.

     PM   Ran 4 easy miles 9:05 pace.

     I ran 13 miles at 7:51 pace. I tried to keep the pace comfortable and it felt that way until the last 3 or 4 miles I could tell I haven't run this far since the SGM 3 months ago. I picked it up on the last mile to 7:18. My back felt great. My hip was a bit sore but never got any worse.