8 myles - 52:49

Griggs - 8:00 A.M.
upper 30s, partly cloudy, some snow
mind/body - eager
Hard effort

Long gone are those high school days of 4:30s, so when I click off mid 6s I gotta be happy, especially at 40! Did I say that?? Hmm... just sounds old.

November starts a bit more of a structured approach to training, as in years past. I won't be doing any early 100 mile races so the volume isn't necessary but the speed is. Early next year I'll try for a marathon and 50K PR in the same race and in order for that to happen, speed has to happen - my fav..... pbbbbfffttt - yeah right!

Over the weekend I looked through my previous 5 years of running in log books and I noticed that my approach to daily running has certainly changed. In years past I would push hard every day, every mile. Now it's more of a hard day - easy day alternation (which I learned from Paul D. to be very effective) and not every mile is hard on the hard days. Quality not quantity. But in looking at years past log books I noticed a run that I would do at least 4 times a week and each time (as I wrote notes) I would make a concerted effort to be faster than the last regardless of conditions.

So today I thought I'd go out and see where my speed was at compared to when I was 5 years younger. I'm happy to report that the speed is still there but I'm really gonna have to work hard to get the stamina (at a fast pace) back. 5 years ago I was high 52s, low 53s on a regular basis, today I was 52:49 (6:44, 6:48, 6:57, 6:49, 6:46, 6:13, 6:20, 6:10) - I'm really happy and huge confidence builder moving forward. This route has undulating hills on dirt and paved roads with about 800 ft of climbing so on something flat I think I could be a few minutes faster right now.

Needless to say my body is changing, I can feel it. No more top end speed but it seems as the run goes on I get stronger - I hope that means something for next year when I hope to finally get a hundred mile race right.