faster with age

     My plan was to do the 20 miler I didn't do on Saturday because of snow. The temp was in the low 30s when I was getting ready to leave and the sun was shining. I had on my shorts ready to go but decided to play it safe and put on the long running pants just in case the weather changed since I would be getting so far from home. It's a good thing I did because part way into the run the wind started to blow and the sun went away. I had run an out and back route and on the way back the wind was blowing around 20 MPH and there were places where the road had been dry on my way out and now had 3 to 4 inches of snow drifted all the way across from the crosswind. At 15 miles I was at about 7:57 average pace for the run but all but about 1/2 mile of my last 5 was directly into the wind. It was like running into a wall and a lot of the last 4 I was averaging in the 9:20s. The temperature was still in the 30s and I really wasn't dressed warm enough for running directly into that wind. I was only wearing 2 long sleeved tech shirts and some very thin gloves. I was very glad I hadn't gone out in the shorts. Those last 4 miles were very tough and I was very happy to be done. Average pace for 20 miles ended up at 8:15.

     5 easy recovery miles. 8:47 AP

     PM   10 mile mt bike ride. Mud a lot of the way made the ride harder so I counted it for 4 miles.

     9 very slow miles

     Played a hard church tournament basketball game last night. We only had 5 players so no subs. Of our 5 players, 2 of us are 50 and one is 55. The other team had 8 guys with all but 2 in their 20s and 30s and 4 of them 6'2" or taller. I was amazed we hung right with them the whole game and just lost 64 to 60. 

     Started out my run pretty slow for the first couple of miles to work out a few kinks I was feeling from last nights game. After 3 miles I did some fartlek running 3x1/4 and 2x1/2 at anywhere from 5:55 to 6:10 pace with slower recoveries of equal distance between. 6 miles overall ave pace 7:37.

6 slow miles. My hip was a little sore again so I just went very easy. 9:27 AP.

     13 miles today starting with 4 at 7:46 ave. followed by an MP run of 9 miles at 6:53 ave. [7:05, 6:55, 6:55, 6:54, 6:54, 6:53, 6:53, 6:46, 6:46].  Very strange how every 2 miles were exactly the same then got 1 second faster for the next 2. I had no idea the mile splits were coming out like that until I got home and plugged in my Garmin. This workout felt better than most that I have done lately. It's a little more encouraging for my fitness as I get closer to Boston than I have felt the past few weeks. 1:32:58 for 13 miles.