faster with age

     Went out for 15 miles this evening. It was raining this morning and off and on throughout the day and looked like it could rain again when I left but it held off and was beautiful running weather again in the mid 50s. The sun even started to shine just before it went down with a couple of miles to go. My goal on this run was to not push the pace at all and just run what felt very comfortable all the way. Most times on longer runs I start to speed up a lot as I get closer to the end and feel more worn out by the time I finish.  Not sure why. I guess I'm just smelling the barn and wanting to be done. Tonight I was hoping to finish feeling more like I had just run 8 or 10 miles. I kept having to make myself slow down toward the end [especially the last 3 miles]. I think I accomplished this pretty well and at 14 miles I still felt pretty fresh. During the last mile my legs started to feel a bit more like they do at the end of a longer run but not bad. Overall pace was 8:17.

     Ran 9 miles this morning. Just took it nice and easy and enjoyed. 8:49 AP

     Ran 8 miles today with 6 miles tempo.  I ran a 4 mile out and back twice basically the same run I did last week except I ran 6 tempo today and kept them a bit slower especially the last 2 where I got a little crazy last week. Averaged 6:59 first 4 miles 7:40, 7:12, 6:32, 6:34. I stopped about 2 minutes to get a drink and take a rock out of my shoe then 6:37, 6:38, 6:37, 6:35. It was 72 deg with 6 or 7 mph wind. The first 2 miles of each lap were tailwind and the last too were headwind which was welcome because it felt so much cooler. Average pace for 6 miles tempo was 6:35. Overall ave for 8 was 6:48.

     9 miles up past the reservoir this morning. Kept a nice easy recovery pace. 8:39 AP.

     Started out this morning with 5 miles at 7:58 AP which included the highway hill for the 2nd and third mile 6:48 mile down and 8:45 back up at a little harder than medium effort. Over the next 5 miles I ran 5x1/2 mile hard with 1/2 easy recovery between. The 1/2s were 3:00, 2:59, 2:54, 2:54, 2:53. I wasn't trying to run each one faster they just came out that way. Finished off with 1 cool down mile. Overall pace for 10.5 miles was 7:33

     Ran 5.5 miles after dark. I was hoping to run a few more but we got home late so I just ran short and easy and called it good. 8:23 AP