Clyde's Comeback!

Logan and I ran out in the rain on the Barrel Roll trail above Santa Clara. It looked pretty nasty out but one we got going the weather was never an issue. We looped it once and were at 9 miles back to the truck. The we did an out and back down into Green Valley to put us at 17.1 for the day. Slow and easy out on the rocky trails. This will be good training for our race coming up. 

Dropped Myler off at grandmas and then did a run up around B-hills over to Flying J. Then down into Bloomington to the trail and back up to River Road then over to her house. About two miles into it the rain started and for about the next 4 miles I got soaked- it was cold too. Then I had a potty stop at the DC and just tried to make it back to the house. Not a great run at all. In fact for some reason it beat the crap out of me. I know one reason is the shoes I had on are done. Running on flat shoes really trashes the entire body... cuz now my back hurts too. Anyways another day another dollar... but glad it's done. 

Meat Grinder Wednesdays... Logan and I met at the hill and did three "grinders". I felt flat before we started so you can guess how they went. Neither one of us timed them but I'm guessing they were about what they were last week. Pushed through them and then finished the run back around the Knolls like I did last week. 

Got a short run in this morning out in the dark and rain. Legs felt pretty good after yesterdays hill workout. Lots of rain this week: good and bad. Good cuz we really, really need the water. Bad cuz it makes it hard to get runs in when it's cold and wet out. Hopefully it's not muddy and wet on Sat for our 30 mile (speed) workout. 

6.3 miles on the treadmill this evening. It was raining way too much to go out and do the club run. If anyone else went bless your souls.  

Took the day off before the big workout on Saturday. 

Well this goes down as one of the top 3 workouts in my lifetime for a number of reasons. First I wanted to bail and do it next week because we've had hard rain for a week. That equals mud to your hind end. Second I knew there would be mud. Third there was a chance of even more showers this morning after raining all night and that could lead to mud. However Logan used the commitment pattern on me on the phone and next thing I know by 8 a.m I was running out in the mud. 

The plan was to do 3 loops out at Little Black Mt. Each loop is a perfect 10 miles. So we wanted to do the first one as a kind of long warm up. Then run the second at trail race effort. Then do the third as a longish cool down. All in all a nice 30 mile day.

So we hit the first lap in 1:15. Not bad considering 100 meters from the truck we were already in bad mud. Shoes were caked and we had just begun. The first 2.3 miles of the loop were by far the worst. I told Logan if there would have been alligators this could pass as a swamp. Just gooey, slimy mud about 5 inches deep every step. After that it was hit and miss but still very muddy all the way around.

Anyways as we started the second loop we were a little hesitant to even try any "tempo" because what could you really do in this? Well we did very well if I dare say so. After plowing through the now even muckier first few we settled into a smooth flow. It was however always hampered with the spot where you would about loose a shoe in deep mud but we hit this lap in 1:07. Really good considering...

The last lap was going to be nice and easy as our reward for breaking 1:08 on the second lap. But Logan kept the pace honest and again after we snorkeled through the first now painful section we hit the final lap in 1:12. A great time considering.

3:34:20 for 30 miles in those conditions had us both pretty jazzed about our up coming race in Moab. We finally made it back to my house and I was in the first stages of hypothermia having been wet for hours and now cooled down. But now after a hot shower and some grub I'm really glad we pushed through such an epic workout.