faster with age

     I ran 8 miles this morning. No rain in the beginning but started raining lightly again after a couple of miles. Then it got heavier and started to thunder and lightning. I decided I'd better get back to pavement before it got too muddy and with 3 miles to go [1 milen on dirt] it really turned into a gully washer. I quickly was as wet as I could possibly be but there was no wind and temps were in the mid 50s so it wasn't too bad. I've been carrying a little sandwich bag in my pocket to wrap up my Garmin when I get caught in these storms we keep getting. It keeps it dry and I can still see the numbers and push the buttons. This is so much more rain than I ever remember getting this time of year. I looked at my rain gauge when I got back and nearly 4/10ths of an inch had fallen while I was running and 90% of that had to be in the last 3 miles. The funny thing was that there was blue sky just to the north and south of me the whole time. Overall pace was 8:02

     This morning I went for 24 miles on my mt bike and didn't even get rained on. I had to do an out and back on the road that drys out the quickest [the others would have been to muddy]. I was planning to run a couple of miles in my five fingers but about 1/4 mile into the run I came down on a rock hard right in the center of the bottom of my foot. It was hurting a bit but after about 1/2 mile my to middle toes on that foot started to really burn with each step so I quit after 1.2 miles and put on some shoes to run 1 more mile just to see if that would cause pain also. Running in the shoes seemed to be fine.

     PM    Ran 4.3 easy miles at 8:45 pace. Foot felt fine.

     Ran 8 miles this morning. It started thundering a lot shortly after I got started and I was sure I'd end up in the rain again but it stayed away until I got back.    Ave pace 8:05                                              

     PM   Easy 6 mile run. 2 miles in Five Fingers.  Ave pace 8:37                                                                 

     Had to leave quite early for a cub scout day camp. After I got home I had to make a trip to down to Salt Lake and didn't get home until 11:30. Had to settle for a big zero on the day.

     This morning I went over to Weston canyon to get in some hill running [up and down]. I ran a 3 mile section that climbs about 400 feet in 3 miles. I started out running down and averaged 7:07 pace for the 3 miles to the bottom then ran back up at a harder effort averaging 7:51 pace then at about that same effort I ran the 3 miles back down at 6:47 pace. Then I road back up on my bike I had stashed at the bottom. On my ride back up a golden eagle flew across in front of me carrying a large live snake. I'm pretty sure it was a rattle snake. It could have been a blow snake [there are a lot of both types up there and I even ran past a large blow snake on my run] but the color and length in relation to thickness really looked like a good sized rattle snake. Average pace for 9 miles was 7:15.

     PM  Very easy 4 mile run at just under 9 min pace.

     Easy 9 mile run. It started raining lightly as usual a couple of miles into the run. It was a light rain and was actually pretty nice until the last 2 miles when it got heavier and then the last 1/2 mile it started just absolutely dumping buckets of rain.