Clyde's Comeback!

Good work! Keep it up...

This is a fun run, but has at least 4500 elevation gain. It was my first trail marathon last year. Sprained my ankle at mile 4 blasting down the trail along side the stream, so had a slow go the rest of the way. (6 Hr 25 mins..check the website for last years quick finish times...karl meltzer was blazing...)No cost...just bring aid station food, and energy to run 4 hours or more...or do the first loop...it is kind of a figure 8 loop. Here are the links to the washatch alpine striders club. The Moellmer Calendar has all the other info. for that race. http://www.users.qwest.net/~cirnielsen/wasalpstriders.html

http://www.users.qwest.net/~cirnielsen/moellmercalendar.html

Here is the link for all the races across the country...there are a few in arizona, and utah, and wyoming...close to you, and then others all over. http://www.ultrarunner.net/ They also have a decent magazine, which is basically race results, ads, and somebodies review of different races, along with some good training info. Trail Runner Magazine is also okay.

They say it is really good to run 3-4 hours, back to back, two days in a row for good preparation. 60 miles a week is also good, with plenty of trails and elevation gain. But last summer, I was in the best shape I have ever been in, and was only doing 20-30 miles a week, but was running in WY, and doing loads of elevation. The three trail races I did were tough and good experiences, and am looking forward to doing much better this year. I am planning BST Salt Lake Trail Marathon in two+ weeks, and have only been doing 2 1/2 or so hour runs on weekends, but hope that the double mileage I have been doing will help out also...the next two saturdays will be 3 1/2 ers.

I will be crewing my buddy Ty Draney (Afton, WY) on one of his four Grand Slam 100 milers this summer. Here is his advice, as any ultra trail runner would tell you..."I wouldn't add a long run to your total but I would start doing a long (3-4) hour run every week. Even if your total doesn't go up you need to have a long run to replicate race conditions. A long run allows for capillarization (cool word eh!-I promise, I'm not trying to sound like I write for Runner's World) of your legs and allows you to get your fueling plan down, along with giving your endocrine system a chance to get stressed like it does in an ultra. You know as well as I do that Bonneville shoreline runs more like 50k than a marathon."

I am just a beginner, and just enjoy running trails and being out in the dirt.

Hey Clyde, It's looking like I'm going to have to skip the 20 miler on Sat. I'm pretty upset about this whole knee thing. However, I do feel like it's healing and I did jog/ walk this morning and it didn't bug me too bad. I'm just nervous if I go out for 20 with you guys I'll push too hard and weaken the healing that's already taken place. I hope you guys have a good run.