"My feet are feeling a little sensitive,"

I announced, about an hour after my run. "Wonder what I was doing wrong today."

A brief moment of silence. The wife says, "Oh, I don't know; running barefoot when it's 45 degrees and raining, maybe?"

I watched a video of this guy running barefoot at a 5 mm pace while talking this morning. So if course I felt obligated to make today a go speedy day. For me, speedy is running fast up hills (don't know how fast; just fast enough to feel tired at the top) and doing quarter-mile laps at a local park. For the laps, I would do the first one slow, the second faster, third faster, fourth fastest, then start over for the next mile. I don't know if that's a great way to get faster or not; it's very fartleky, so I figure it probably helps.

The coldness slowed me down a bit. Today was a CR for me, by the way (CR = Cold Record). The cold and wetness was unpleasant at first; strangely, I had a hard time staying light. You'd think it would be easier when the ground doesn't feel as good as I'm used to. But after a slow first mile, the feet felt fine, just touchy. I must still be relying on pushing off a bit for speed, or I'm not landing as gently as I could, because the faster I went the touchier my feet felt.

All in all, a good run. The feet are a little tingly, I wasn't very fast, and I'm not a ninja yet. Speed baffles me. But I was outside on a archetypal gloomy day and enjoying myself. And my feet can definitely handle 45 degrees. Next report at 40.

I do need to wear gloves, I learned. When I stopped, my hands wouldn't work.