A.M. 20 miles. Started with Gary and Jeremy. Had a VPB, followed by 500 uphill in 1:44. It felt so easy that I thought I would have no problems going sub-6:00 uphill in the tempo. After 4.5 mile warmup started the tempo, the same as last week. Gary and Jeremy helped me some by joining me for a quarter on every 2 mile stretch. First mile was 5:24, then I relaxed a bit trying to prepare for the uphill and did 5:33 (10:57). When I turned around, there was a surprise. The headwind picked up and it started to rain. So I struggled through the next mile in 6:08 (17:05). Then it was rather odd. I could not feel the headwind anymore, and in all honesty thought I was going around 6:00 or maybe a bit under. But the watch showed different. My next two quarters were 95 and 97. This completely puzzled me. How in the world is this possible? I began thinking all kinds of thoughts - maybe I am just out of shape, getting old, losing strength, etc. Then, all of a sudden, I regained the speed some for no apparent reason - 93, followed by 91 (6:16, 23:21, 12:24 for the two miles uphill) which would have been 90 or 89 if I did not have to break to do a 180 on a wet road. I am wondering if maybe the rain was pounding so hard that I could not feel the wind that came with it, and thus had no idea how strong the gusts were. After turning around I felt I was regaining speed better than last week. My first quarter was 88, then 84, 82, and 83, so 5:37 for the mile (28:58 at 5). I was a bit hestiant to give it a really good push because the road became quite slick from the rain. Also I started to get wet and cold, and that made things difficult. Did 4:07 in the next 0.75, and then tried to kick but could only do 80, so 5:27 for the last mile, 34:25 for 6, and 11:04 for the last 2. So that was the first half of the run, but the worst part of it was still ahead. Rejoined with Gary and Jeremy, we ran back to the house, and then ran with the kids. Jenny and Julia did 2, Joseph did 1, the two Jacobs 1. Took Benjamin for 4, and at that point still had 2 left. I really felt like going home away from the rain, but decided to run 2 tempo miles instead. This was quite an adventure as those were hilly wet miles. I call it 2, but it is actually more like 2.04. They are hilly, but I thought I'd be able to run 6:00 pace still. It turned out that I was too cold, too wet, and the road was too slick for that. I only managed 12:56 for that segement. When I got home, I decided to weigh my clothes. 4 lb, so about 3 lb of water. | 