faster with age

     8 miles in the snow. The footing was bad but not as bad as Saturday. The 4 miles I ran off pavement I was able to run in tracks left from a truck with a couple of inches of new snow on top of them. Otherwise I would have been in about 6 inches of snow. 8:30 pace.

     Helped out first thing this morning, for about 3 hours, taking down and loading the forms from the foundation we just poured for a new house for a woman in our ward whose home recently burned down. We were back to 7 deg after a weekend of warmer temps after the storm. Anybody that has done any form work knows that it's pretty hard work. I headed out on my run right afterward and felt pretty worn out. The first 2 miles was pretty tough but eventually I got feeling a little better and was able to finish 8 miles. 8:19 ave pace.

     4 miles at 9:11 pace.

     Afternoon run. The temps had warmed to the upper 30s so I went back to the shorts today and decided to keep to the 2 mile stretch of dry pavement that I have to run on and avoid the snow packed dirt roads. I think suddenly running most of my miles on poor footing in the snow  is giving me some sore spots. I plan to get more miles on good footing and try to get used to it more gradually.

     I ran 4 miles at 8:03 pace and felt pretty good so I did a fartlec run for the next 4 running faster for 1/4 and slower for 1/4. Faster 1/4s I averaged about 6:30 pace. Slower 1/4s at 7:46 ave pace. 7:08 pace for last 4 miles. 7:37 average pace overall for 8 miles.

    Rode 15 miles on my bike mostly on snow pack.

     PM  4 miles easy.

     Ran 8 miles about half on pavement and half on packed snow and ice. I strapped on some traction devices [get a grip from Cabelas ] on the snow packed parts and they helped a lot. My miles running on snow though still averaged around a half minute slower pace. AP 8:31