Signs of Spring

We've had a beautiful stretch of weather the past week or two with temps on the positive side every day and barely below freezing at night. Today was the 1st day of spring for us northerners and I guess the 1st day of fall for those who live way down under! The crocuses are up despite fears that our family of chipmunks might have destroyed all the bulbs last summer. The little beggars had dug up 1/2 the flower beds in their search for every last morsel of food for the cold winter. It seems that a few managed to survive or get misplaced/replanted.
Another sign of spring today was getting my motorcycle out of winter storage much earlier than usual. Typically we can still expect some cold weather and even snow into the month of April but when the sun shines you might as well make hay! I took it for a short spin around town and the old 1980 Gold Wing is still purring like a kitten. The wind even felt warm with the 17C/63F temps!
And on the running side, it seems like I'm finally starting to come around with a bit more 'spring' in my step! This past week of training included a 10 mile pace run where I was able to get the average pace down to 8:19 which was a nice improvement over recent weeks and also from the start of the program. It was a hard run on the roads with a lot of traffic and plenty of hills but I hear that Big Sur has a few hills, so no problem there.

Today's run was 21 miles on the long road out of town with a headwind and more hills to go along with the cool weather (only +2C/35F) but again, I hear Big Sur has headwinds too! It was the best long run of my build thus far and for once I didn't feel exhausted before even starting out. Perhaps those iron supplements are finally having a positive effect. Mind you, I was plenty tired at the end of 3hr 13 min but that is to be expected when you do that to yourself. The pace was nice and steady hovering just around 9:00 until the last 2 painful miles as the legs finally gave out. Only 2 more weeks of heavy training and then the taper which will now include a 5k race in Trevor's backyard. I think he's getting geared up for it, so it will be nice to run with him again.

That's it for now. Happy Spring or Fall as the case may be!