faster with age

     Ran 9 miles at 7:55 overall pace.

     Ran 10 miles easy pace. Lately every run seems to be cold with crappy air. A storm system is supposed to be moving in tonight. Maybe it will change things up a bit. 8:34 AP.

     Went for a 5 mile run. The footing with the snow was worse than expected. I should have worn my screw shoes. I was only able to manage 9:28 pace.

     Went duck hunting all day in the cold. I got home and had about a half hour before dark and it was cold and quite windy out and I felt beat so I bagged the run.

     Went out for a run just before dark. The road was all snow covered with loose snow and more was coming down. The footing was very poor. I felt like my feet were sliding back at least an inch every time I pushed off. I ended up averaging 9:57 pace for 8 miles and felt beat at the end. I enjoy running in the snow if I don't worry about my pace although some snow conditions are a lot easier to run in.

     Ran 10 miles in the morning. The road still hadn't been plowed and the footing was still very poor. It was a lot of work just to keep my pace around 9:30. With about 4 miles to go I came across a stray dog. He was friendly and wanted to run with me but after 2 miles I was afraid he would follow me all the way home [which I didn't want]. He was a very overweight lab cross and he was really sucking wind and seemed to be struggling to keep up. He started to fall behind and I started working harder to put a gap on him. I ran the next mile at what felt like tempo pace but it was actually only 8:30. By then the gap was large enough that I guess he finally gave up and must have stopped at a dairy up the road were there are some other dogs. At least it gave me some incentive to push harder with that poor footing. I still only averaged 9:15 pace for the run. I feel bad for the dog and I wish he had some ID so I could help him get home. I'm just a softy and get attached to easily to dogs which makes it hard to get rid of a stray that comes home and we definitely don't need any more dogs. I really feel more worn out after theses runs with bad footing even though I'm running such a slow pace.