Clyde's Comeback!

Tried the wrapping tobacco around the swollen ankle trick last night. Slept with it. Work this morning and it felt a little better and a lot of the black and blue bruising had gone away.

I had to try and run on it.... Went out around the park loop. Couldn't put any weight on it so was basically running on my toe on the right side and really working the left side hard to compensate. Had a couple scary points where it shifted under a rock and sent sharp pains racing. Got home and tried the treadmill for another 2.6 miles. It was slow but felt better because the platform was smooth and predictable- plus I set the deck to have a little bounce in it for relief. I guess worst case is that I can only do like 5 miles a day on the machine until the pain goes away. 

Starting to write off Bryce from a racing point of view. I already paid for the race and room and can't get refunds on either. So maybe we'll just go watch? Honestly this sucks!

Decided to try running again. Did 3 miles on the treadmill and the ankle felt so so. Not great but no super sharp pain. So after Mik'L got home from her run I decide to go out on the street and try a few more. Headed out on the Silkwood run. Weight distribution and timing were way off and the run was laboring. Had a couple sharp pains and then another about .5 from the finish that seemed to have a lasting "hurt". Starting to think this run wasn't a great idea. Ankle is a little less swollen but still bruised up. No X-ray yet but I did have a Dr. look at it and through his mobility and resistance exam he didn't think it was broken but a very bad sprain (sometimes worse than a brake). Sucks to be me. 

1.5 on the Treadmill then out around the middle BH loop and extended through the Secret St. Felt so so again on the ankle. No really shape pains so that was good but I stayed focused the entire run as not to let any extra weight flow to either side. 

Spent the 4th working in the yard just finishing off about 10 little projects that have eluded me for a few weeks. Then went to the Holts for a BBQ pool party. Had nice cool weather with some slight rain drops here and there. Too bad we didn't have this weather when we were out running at say... club.

Decided to brave the DC loop today without any warm up on the treadmill. It was a painful slow run but I made it around the loop alive. Ankle still sits at around a 7 out of 10 on the pain scale and all out running seems weeks away. But my limp/ running stride seems to be working and allowing me to 1. get out and mentally relax on a run everyday, 2. Keep somewhat in shape as my weight isn't too bad even though I'm still eating for 3 people, 3. Keep somewhat of a normal schedule with the body and leg muscles so that when I'm able to "run free" there shouldn't be a big re-training cycle. IDK. 

Humid this morning with temps starting at 72 F around sun up. But after doing the run I decided that whatever it feels like compared to normal... I like this better. 

Up in Torrey for the weekend. Ran around town a couple times. Took Ears out and back a couple miles and then went back out alone to finish up. The ankle isn't black and blue anymore and the swelling is going down... but the pain seems to be higher. 

Today there was the Apple days 5k. But I didn't run. I looped through town and ran by the starting line as people were registering and warming up. Just decided it wasn't a good idea with the ankle. By the time this run was over it was hurting pretty bad. Seems to be hurting worse everyday. 

Most likely taking the day totally off. I've got a serious ankle injury and it's going to be some time before I'm running big mileage and fast races again. Bryce is officially "out". I'm just really hoping TOU half is still a possibility. 

Taking another day totally off. Yesterday my ankle felt better than it has since the injury. I planned on running today but in the night it really throbbed. Swelling is around 70% of what it was at the full swell. So there is still a lot of improvement to be made. 

I'm getting fat.

4 miles on the treadmill this morning. Running on the machine seems to feel the best. Sad but true. Nice and smooth foot strikes every time. It's been super hot. 116 F on Tuesday and 113 F today. Not fun to be working out on a back yard. I've been helping a friend with some landscaping- dirt, sprinkler, sod, curb, block wall ect...

Sasha called me last night and said he was in town and wanted to do a run. So he and Benjamin came over at 5:30 a.m and we hit up the B-hills middle loop. Benny waited at the B-hills church while Sasha and I looped down by the river. 

It was good to chit chat with those guys. It's been a long time since I ran with Sasha (maybe 5 years). Anyways a good run. EZ and slow on the sore ankle. 7:32 avg for the run. 

Ankle feels runnable. Maybe a 6 out of 10. So I'm not taking anymore days off. I'll just run on it and hope that sooner than later I'll be able to train again.

Out and back over to the DC. It rained hard in the night and seemed to be so refreshing to run through town and see all the wet/ soaked streets. But it made things really humid. I didn't leave until after Mik'L got home at just after 7. But I'll take it! What a nice break from the super hot, sunny and painful summer weather we've been having.

As for the run. No watch but pace was honest. Faster than yesterdays 7:30ish avg- I'm guessing I was just under 7 min avg. The ankle is about the same on the pain scale. Running on the left side of the road kills and making right turns hurts worse too. It's still about a size and a half bigger than the other ankle too. But I'm happy and blessed to be out running and very thankful for the rain. 

Since I couldn't run Bryce today and SHatch couldn't either I was able to run with him down the course. His longest run so far was 15 so upping the mileage to 18 was a big step but very doable. We just took it EZ and had a super nice run down the STG course in July. Rain almost the entire run and temps in the 60's. Unheard of! Maybe the best mid summer run ever for me here in STG as far as temps and conditions go. Heath did great too only struggling a little and really no walk breaks. 

My ankle and system felt pretty good all things considered. Lots of Wintercrest and a slower pace helped. 

DC loop extended through the Secret Street. A coolish 66 F when I started a little after 7 a.m and only warmed to 76 F by the end. Humidity was right around 70%. It's just heavenly running around town and having everything soaked from the rains of the past 5 days. What a blessing. 

Ankle was more sore today than it was on Saturday. I also wore the compression socks and I struggle running in them. So there was no flow this morning; rather just a grind. 7:07 avg for the run. 

DC loop. Another great morning. Kind of muggy but coming from the dry norm it feels refreshing. No watch but a consistent pace. Ankle is still sore. It looks deformed but running is working. 

DC loop here with Dave. Super temps this morning dropping to 64 F for the over night low. No matter how trashed you feel cool temps always help. Just conversational pace and ended the loop at a 6:58 avg. Feeling kind of achy all over and the ankle was and is sore. Wore a small brace today but it didn't seem to help. I'm guessing over the next few weeks I'm just going to have to get tough because this might be as good as it gets. We saw a skunk in B-hills at about mile 5.5 it crossed the road right in front of us and we slowed to avoid a spray. 

7 more miles a hour or so later. Mik'L did her run and I worked in the garden for an hour. Then once she got home at around 8 a.m I decided to try another run. B-hills loop extended through the secret street. Tried to do a few fartlek pick-ups throughout the run just to see how any faster pace felt. The verdict- not great. At about 6:15 pace I reach my pain threshold. Efficient form is out the door. So other muscles and bones hurt because of the compensation of the right side.  Hit miles of 6:38, 6:30, 6:18 and I was dragging by the end. 6:55 avg for this run.

DC loop then around Stone Cliff to finish. 7:02 avg. After hitting a 8:15 first mile and then a few 7:15's I buckled down on the last 6 miles to bring the avg back down but just couldn't close the gap on the 7 min guy. Ankle feels as good as it has so far. Still only about 50% of normal though. Don't know how I'll ever run fast again. 

Long Run....

77 F muggy and hot this morning at just after 5 a.m when I started. Between the conditions, my ankle and lack of efficiency, and choice of course. This run kicked my you know what. Ran like a nomad this morning without a real plan. Over to B-hills then down into Bloomington. Then decided to go look at Steve's new house, then around the Bloomington loop and back up the trail to River Road. Finally wondering through B-hills and back to River road trying to get the distance. That's just a bad way to try and do a 20 miler. It's much easier with a pre-determined route and a plan. Started to overheat by mile 9 and by mile 13 I couldn't believe there was still 7 miles to go. Just a tough day at the office. Ran into Dave and his team with about 2 miles to go. Kind of nice to see someone and chit chat. I was totally out of it by then and in no mans land:) Didn't try and kind of workout or first half, second half thing. But I did see the clock at mile 10 and it was just under 1:12 then ran the second 10 just over 1:07 to finish the 20 miles at a 6:57 avg and just under 2:20:00

Had to stop 3 times a long the way for drinks at warm drinking fountains. But once at a nice cooler on the golf course- it saved my life.

Run on Saturday evening in Orem. Headed out from Mik'L's aunts house that's right around the corner from Timpanogos high school. Ran from there up to the mouth of the canyon. That's mile 3 at the trailhead at the mouth of the canyon- then form there I just did another two miles up the canyon to go out 5 miles in 36 mins. Then flipped directions and came home in 32 min's for a 6:49 avg. Had a pretty consistent headwind all the way up- giving me a nice tailwind on the way down. Kept the pace fairly smooth. Miles 4 and 5 were at 7:04 pace then keeping the same effort on the way down with the wind I hit a comfortable 6:18 on both the 6 and 7th mile. 

Ankle started out feeling really tight and sore. But seemed to warm up in a couple miles. It still wont allow me to run hard. I wouldn't have wanted anything harder than about what I ran. Running on the right hand side of the roads slop seems to really hurt too. 

Anyways good run to end the week and follow up yesterdays longer run. Had a emotional day at the Huntsman cancer center visiting Mik'L's uncle Dirk. He's been given a couple months to live and it's just crazy to see him like this... only a few months ago he was down here during the holidays unknowing of any cancer and fully healthy. He's 55.

DC loop extended around the Secret St. Very humid this morning- over 80%. I sweat my butt off but still got home and was 3-4lbs over weight. Big weekend of travel and junk food/ soda/ eatingnonstop. Legs were so so. Sometimes I'd feel in the groove and other times it was like I was pulling a plow. The ankle seems to be at a stand still of "just ok". Still very stiff, slightly swollen and achy but allowing me to run- although not fast. I'll take what I can get.  

P.M. 6.6  miles around the middle B-hills loop. Temps were right around 100 F. Didn't feel too bad with a soaked shirt and hat. Kept it smooth and EZ too. But was happy to get home to ac and a cold shower. 

Long run with LowGain this morning. Hot... Humid... and low on electrolytes = Clyde struggled. Left the house at 5 a.m and looped around the park then over through B-hills- down into Bloomington and around the loop. Then back up to the DC on to River Road and home. I did ok for the first 11 but then just really really labored the rest of the run. We were both covered in sweat... soaked. I didn't hydrate very good or eat after last nights run. So today's run was a true grind. The ankle didn't help but wasn't the biggest issue. After yesterday mornings 12.4 mile run I was 153lbs today after the 17 mile run I was 147lbs. Once we got to the corner by my house and hit 17 miles I told Logan I was done and walked it on in. I can count on one hand in 7 years of marathon training where I've walked on a run. 

A.M. Went up to Snow Canyon state park with some of the locals for a little photo shoot. It ended up taking forever and I only ran a little under a mile. So by the time I got home and got running it was 8:40- fully sunny and fairly humid. I did ok through about 8 miles then kind of started draggin up River Road until I got home. Not too bad considering the time of day and how bad I was yesterday. Hoping for another run this afternoon/evening. 

P.M. Dug out 5 more miles on the treadmill. This run almost killed me all day before I even started it. It just seemed way too hard, hot and I was tired and hungry. But after stewing over it while taking care of business for a few hours out in town I came home and changed cloths. It still took 45 more mins to get going. Was originally going to go outside but the sun seemed intense. Got on the machine and watched a couple episodes of PTI. The run took about 45 min's... so super EZ but I got it in. 

Ahhh... it seems every run this week is a drag. Literally drug it around the DC loop this morning. Then back through the secret street. Just trying to take it one run at a time and try to get through the week- at this point I'm so sick of summer. Ankle seemed pretty sore today too... got home and on my new tires I had a flat (a screw). Changing it in the garage was a nightmare. I can only imagine how bad it would have been on the side of the road with the truck jack and play tools. Guess it was a good learning lesson to be more prepared if it did happen out on I-15- say like between here and Vegas with temps over 110F. (I'd just call AAA)

Another DC/ Secret loop. Just one mile at a time and got er done. Didn't seem as bad as a few of the run have been this week. 77 F out before 5 a.m. Ankle was really sore early on and for most of the run. I'll take some IB today. 

3.2 miles on the treadmill at noon. Wanted to get it out of the way early so I could rest up as much as possible for tomorrows long run. 

Long run down the course today. Started at the bottom of Veyo hill and ran to the finish line at the park. It ended up only being 18.75 so Aaron, Hayden (fresh home from his mission), and I extended over to DSC and back. Mike and Billy dropped us off and after a couple miles Aaron decided to tempo it in. LowGain and I just ran chit chat chill pace all the way home. Never tried to tempo- didn't want to. I was just happy to hit a long run at the end of a 100 mile week. Ended up running the 20 miles in 2:08:00 or a 6:25 overall avg. Pretty respectable but nothing that says anything about where or how the ankle would hold "racing" a full marathon. Every run this week has been a rough grind so today was a nice break. Just felt smooth and relaxed and I really needed a run like that. Plus it wasn't as hot and muggy as it's been and that makes a big difference. 

12.4 DC and Secret street loop. Then got home and did the Jadora 1.4 mile loop with Ears. Got out around 7:20 and late by most days standards. But it was warm from the start because of overnight cloud cover at 77F. The good news was the clouds stayed all run and temps never got warmer. Overall I had a great run for a Monday. Quads were sore from the long run down the course on Saturday. Ankle feels better than it has in a month. It's moving from feeling like a serious injury to more of feeling like a routine ankle sprain. Hoping for continued progress...

10.2 miles this evening in the rain. Rule #1 in the summer is if it's raining: you run. It just feels so nice to be out running in rain and 75F as opposed to the 100+ normal temp. Just cruised around the DC loop. Overall felt really good. Ankle is downgrading to around a 4 out of 10 on the pain and discomfort scale. I'm getting there. 

DC loop. A little tired and achy this morning- ankle was around a 5.5 so had to baby it for the first 3 or so. 70 F this morning after a night of rain- but kind of muggy. I can't remember a summer in STG with this much rain. One of the best July's ever.