faster with age

     Ran 11 miles this morning. The footing was much better and I actually had a 2 mile stretch of dry pavement. The dirt roads that I like to run had hard packed snow from some vehicle travel and was a bit slower but not even close to as bad as the soft snow surfaces I was running on last week. Overall pace was 7:54. I threw in a couple of striders in the last 2 miles. It felt so much easier than running 9:30 pace on that unstable snow last week.

     Went for 10 miles today at an easy relaxed 8:38 pace.

     I took my son to mutual and the young men were all going to run the mile for their physical fitness merit badge. I went out and ran with them in the dark.  I just stayed with the lead pack which was quickly down to 2 boys and after halfway was down to 1. I just finished up with him in 6:38. I was surprised that any of them could run that fast but he told me his coach from the high school wrestling team has them running regularly.

     My Garmin battery was dead this morning [must have left it turned on yesterday] so I went without. Just ran 4 miles and enjoyed the warmer temps [just below freezing] and the light falling snow. Very peaceful.

     Played basketball pretty hard for an hour late pm.

     I wanted to do some tempo miles today. It was -10 deg this morning and I normally don't mind running in that but I always seem to run slower when it's that cold. By 10 o'clock it was nice and sunny but still only -1. I went out at 2:30 when the temp had climbed clear to 13 deg. Still a bit cold but 23 deg warmer than this morning. I ran the first warm up mile in 7:45 then averaged 7:08 for the next 2 miles. Then I started the tempo and averaged 6:46 for the next 6 miles. Overall average for 9 miles was 6:57. I felt pretty good with the run considering I didn't think I was up to it in the first couple of miles. I think I was just a little sore from basketball last night but seemed to loosen up after 3 miles and felt good after that.

     The house thermometer read -15 deg and the car read -16 when I took my son out to catch the school bus this morning. I added a second layer on the bottom and an extra layer up top. I wore some wool gloves that were a little thicker than the light wool ones I usually wear. After about a mile my hands and feet started to get cold which never seems to happen. After about 1 1/2 miles I could feel my hands at feet quickly warming and by 2 miles my hands were too warm and I had to switch to my lightweight gloves and remove the extra layer up top. I finished with a whole lot of ice on my goatee and eyelashes but very comfortable. Today was just a short recovery run at 8:49 ave pace.

     Ran 14 miles this morning. It was 1 deg when I left which actually felt quite warm compared to yesterday's morning run which was 17 deg colder. Had to switch to my lighter gloves again at 1 1/2 miles then had to take those off after 3 miles and ran the rest of the way without. The sun never came out because of the cloud cover but there was no wind. First 6 miles I ran at 8:16 pace. Picked it up a little after that and averaged 7:40 pace for the next eight. Last mile the fastest at 7:13. Overall pace for 14 miles was 7:56. I was amazed that 1 deg could actually feel that warm. Even my garmin was very slow when changing screens yesterday.