faster with age

What happened to spring ? This morning it was 18 degrees when I left the house and the ground covered in snow . The roads were icy and it was windy. I was running through snow in a few spots that was drifted 4 or 5 inches. Shortly after my turnaround the wind got much worse [head wind of course] and it started snowing again.I hadn't worn enough layers for this very hard wind. My last couple of miles seemed much slicker coming back into the wind. I ran these last 2 miles at over a 9:30 pace but the effort felt like an 8 min.pace. I was glad I wasn't on my bike. I seem to get colder riding than running. I ended up going 7 miles at about a 9 min. pace overall on slick roads. At least my back feels good.

This morning I did a 20 mile bike ride. It was 11 deg. when I started but at least there was no wind [other than what you create by riding]. By the time I was finished it was quite sunny and had warmed to a balmy 28 deg. I have been trying to do one ride a week with a tempo type effort since I havn't been able to do it running. For the last 37 minutes of todays ride I kept my heart rate above 160 with the average at 162. overall average HR for the ride was154. total time was 1:16.                 Mountain bike. Mostly offroad.

PM  35 min. eliptical

This morning I didn't run until 9 o'clock. By then the sun was out good and the temp was up to 32 degrees so I decided to wear shorts for the first time this year. It got up to 40 deg. by the time I finished. It was nice. Speaking of temps,  Cache Valley recorded the lowest ever april temperature for the lower 48 states yesterday morning at -41 deg. in the mountains above Logan at Middle Sink.

 I went for 9 miles. I did 2x20 second hill sprints during the run and two 1/2s at 7 min. pace. I ran my last 3 miles at 7:44 ave. Overall pace was 8:06. Trying to gradually introduce some sub 8 min. running. My hamstring seemed  to handled it fine.

Did a bike ride this morning. I kept a fairly easy pace and went 28 miles mostly offroad.It took about 2 hours. Ave. HR 135.

There's a house with 5 dogs that always come out after me.This house is 3 miles from any other house back in on a gravel road. I can't blame them for letting the dogs run loose where they live. They always run out in front of me and I worry I'm going to hit one and crash. They keep getting more bold and last time through one of them bit me. He didn't break the skin just grabbed my pants. This morning I unclipped from my pedals before going past and I kicked two of them in the nose with my shoe. I got one of them pretty solid and he left the chase immediately. I'm not going to make it much fun for them from now on.

Went for 15 easy miles on the mountain bike HR 120. Then later went for a 2 mile easy run.

This morning I ran 8 miles at an easy pace except 2 uphills I ran harder. My hamstring is doing great. Not bothering me during my runs. My back is doing better also. I hope to start getting in a few more miles.  8:24 ave. pace this morning.