faster with age

     My plan this morning was to run a half marathon at marathon pace. I was worried about the wind because it has been very windy and we are supposed top be getting more storms today. The temperature was 36 with no wind this morning. Perfect. My wife dropped me off 15 miles down the road and I started off with 2 miles warm up at 7:49 pace. My plan was to start out in the 6:50 to 7:00 range for the first half of the run and see how I felt. I was hoping I would feel good enough to pick the pace up a bit more toward the end. I started out how I wanted with my first 8 miles all between 6:51 and 6:58 depending on how much up or down hill there was in each mile with the exception of mile 6 which was all uphill I ran a 7:12. At about mile 7 I started to get a bit of a headwind which got a lot worse at mile 8. My pace slowed to as much as 7:10 on some of the next miles so I tried not to worry to much about the pace and just maintain the effort and heart rate. My overall pace for the run was quickly going backward and by the time I had 3 miles to go it had gone above 7 min pace. I picked it up on the last mile to see if I could get it back under 7:00 and ran a 6:45 last mile into the wind and 40 second last .1 and just passed the 7:00 min guy in the last 1/4 mile. finished in 1:31:35, 6:59/mile average pace. I was planning to try and run around 1:30. If you figure in the headwind I probably came close but this run took a lot more effort than I had hopped. My actual MP would definitely be much slower than that right now. I felt pretty spent by the end. I ran 1 more cool down mile at the end to make the total for the run 16 miles. Hopefully with exactly 4 weeks until Boston I can stay healthy and improve my fitness a bit more.

     6 easy 9:15 AP

     Ran 10 miles this morning up past the reservoir. It was the first time in a while that I've been this way because it's been too muddy lately. This morning with the temps in the low 20s everything was frozen so I gave it a try. It was a very pretty morning and I saw a lot of wildlife. Pheasants, Hungarian Partridge, ducks, and geese up near the inlet of the reservoir. The rest of the reservoir was still ice covered. After the sun got up a bit it started to quickly thaw some of the mud on the surface. On my way back some areas that had been frozen nicely were quickly getting a bit sticky. It was building up on the bottom of my shoes and adding a lot of noticeable weight and covering the backs of my calves [I had worn shorts] with globs of mud that were getting thrown up. Lots of fun. Great run. It was the first run in a while where I'm wasn't counting down the miles at the end of the run and anxious to be done. At the end of this run I felt great like it had just been a walk in the park and I could turn right around and do it again. I wasn't looking forward to being done. Surprising after running very hard 2 days ago. 10 miles at 8:17 AP.

     PM   4 miles at 9:07 pace.

     Went out for 10 this morning. Started with rain then changed to snow and back to rain at the end. 8:55 AP.

     11 miles this morning. There was some snow falling and a bit of wind. I started out with 3 miles warmup at just under 7:54/mile AP. Then 1 mile down the big highway hill in 6:25 [easy marathon pace effort]. Turned and ran back up in 7:33 [probably around 10k effort]. That was a PR for up that hill. Then 1/2 mile recovery then 2x1 mile at 6:39 and 6:34 and 1.5 mile at 6:31 pace with 1/2 mile between each at around 7:35 pace. Last mile in 7:05. I felt pretty good about this workout. I was surprised that after the hard uphill effort in the fifth mile that I felt pretty fresh for the rest of the run. I felt good at the end and was tempted to run another fast mile or two but played it safe and quit. I too often seem to injure myself around this part of my marathon training.

     7:12/mile overall pace for 11 miles

     PM   20 miles mt bike. I guess I should have done some VO2 max miles today and I would have had something in each category.

     Snow this morning but by noon it had melted and cleared off. It made for a pretty nice run. 10 miles at 8:27/mile.