faster with age

     I was planning a harder workout this morning. I was planning to go 17 miles with a lot of them at marathon pace. It was cold this morning with about a 5 MPH wind. I started with 3 miles warm up at about 7:45 pace. By the time I got that far the wind had picked up to about 20 MPH. I picked up the pace and ran the next mile in 6:56. The wind really sucked and I just wasn't feeling it this morning so I bailed on the workout and figured I'll try it tomorrow so I just ran another 4 at around 8:15 pace. Now tomorrow I'll probably have the wind back with rain or snow added to it. Hopefully I'll feel more energetic. 8 miles at 7:55 AP.

     I did the workout today that I bailed on yesterday. It was warmer this morning at 38 deg but it was still windy but not as bad as yesterday. When I started out the run my energy level felt no better than yesterday. Maybe even worse. I started with 3 warm up miles that averaged 7:50. Then the next 13 miles I did 3 out and backs of 4 miles, 4 miles, then 5 miles. This made it so I never had to have a headwind for more than 1 1/2 miles at a time. I took 3 min breaks between each. I wasn't really feeling it when I started the first 4 but started feeling better as the run went on. Average for 1st 4 was 6:57. Next 4 was 6:50. Next 5 was 6:47 ave pace. Average for the 13 miles was 6:51. I was doing 1 cool down mile to finish and slowed my pace quite a bit to start but after about  1/4 mile I was feeling good and picked the pace back up and finished the last mile in 7:03 so that actually made 14 MP miles. I felt pretty good about this workout but it doesn't seem like there's any way I could maintain that pace for a whole marathon. Being at sea level should help some though. Tomorrow I will start my taper. I may even take it off completely. Overall pace for 17 miles was 7:03 AP.  

     4 easy. 8:58 AP

     7 miles today in a snow storm. 8:32 AP.

     I went out in the falling snow and ran 9 miles. I went 2 miles warm up at 7:46 AP then 1 mile down the big highway hill in 6:10 [felt like MP effort]. Then back up in 7:46 [half marathon effort]. I ran 1/2 recovery then I did 3x1 mile at half mar. pace with a 1/2 mile fast recoveries at about 7:30 pace. I hit 6:31, 6:31, and 6:25 for the 3. I don't feel like I could run a half at those paces right now even though I averaged from 6:29 to 6:31 in my last 3 halves. I feel a little slower right now but hopefully with my mileage being more consistent than it has been for any of my other marathons I can make up for the loss in speed by not crashing so bad in the later miles. I finished up with 1/2 half mile at 7:05 pace. overall pace for 9 was 7:05.

     Just ran 7 miles today and felt great. I just kept the pace nice and easy. I had a pretty strong headwind with some snow falling most of the way out but the snow got coming down a lot harder on the way back but I didn't mind since it was a tailwind. I plan to run about 13 on Monday but very short runs the rest of the week. I think I'm ready.   8:49/mile AP