Clyde's Comeback!

9.2 miles this morning. Went exploring and had some good ups and downs. Pace was all over the place too. From a 8:20 mile to a 5:37 not trying to push the pace... Slept like a baby last night from 9:20 to 11:30. Then after that I maybe got a combined 40 min's the rest of the night. Finally got up at 4:00 and did laundry for an hour before heading out on the run.

146 lbs after the run

7 mile run tonight. MIddle B-hills extended through the secret st. Temps were great and I wore just a short sleeve and short shorts. Worked up a sweat too but pace was pretty chill 6:45 avg for the run.

4.4 warm up

8 mile tempo

2.1 mile cool down

Tempo Tuesdays. The Circle of Trust + James. It was freezing today. Dave said it was 22 F as he got here... my hands felt it. Hit the warm up nice and chill. Didn't really want to do this workout... or really dip into the tank much before the weekend. But once we got going it felt good and I just went with it.

Total time of 43:56 for the 8 miles of tempo. 5:29 avg

Splits: 5:46, 5:36, 5:19, 5:27, 5:35, 5:25, 5:25, 5:18

Happy with the effort and results. I thought I ran it really good last week... and was almost 30 seconds overall faster today. Hope to rest up and have the legs show this weekend....

4 miles this evening on the treadmill. Just wanted to keep it loose and work up a sweat.
 

10.2 mile DC loop with LoGain. Pace was laxi taxi and I needed a good ez recovery run. Felt pretty spent this morning. A good sign. I hate going into a race feeling amazing and then feeling flat on race day. I'd much rather feel trashed in the days prior and  have my legs show up for the race.

22.2 mile bike ride this afternoon. Hit the full new airport loop with a little extension in LV at the end. Kept the pace honest if not hard. Felt good to get out and ride in the sun. 61F. The legs feel good but I can tell that I don't have the same biking legs I had last summer. 21.1 mph avg.

4 mile on the treadmill after the ride. Just enough to loosen things up and remind the legs that running is still the goal right now.

Middle B-hills and Secret St. The moon was amazing this moring as it has been the last few mornings. But today I just was in awe of it almost the whole run. And while running a long looking at the sky I saw the longest lasting falling star of my life. Must have fallen for like 5 seconds. It was awesome to see. The run was slow. No watch but I could tell I was basically crawling. Guess I should try to taper off a little and get ready for Saturday.... But it feels like racing is the farthest thing from my mind right now.
 

3.5 miles this evening. Ran outside in short sleeve and shorts and was warm. I think the high was 65 F today. Felt pretty trashed. It's been a while since I've felt this exhausted in life.

Got to run with Bennny boy this morning. He came over to the house and we ran over to the half course for a tour of the hilly section. Pretty nice morning out at 29 F. Just a good chatty pace. Felt pretty flat again but that's typical of race week. Slept like a prisoner awaiting execution last night.... so I'd like to get some better rest today or tonight. But that's just been really hard in life. Getting in bed is easy. Actually sleeping is a riddle I don't have the answer to right now.

5.75 mile warm up

13.1 mile race

3 mile cool down

Met Dave, Ben and a few others at the start for a good warm up. It was 23 F and felt pretty chilly. Dropped down to Man-o-war and back with some other stuff before the race. Got in some good potty stop and was ready about 10 min's to the gun. So that was nice.

Goal for the race was to break 1:13. That was it. I didn't really taper too much as to keep it more of a good workout in prep for PHX full marathon. So I'm happy with the results. Just wanted to run within myself and make it count without giving up when it got hard.

5:23 avg

Splits: 5:18, 5:23, 5:17, 5:22, 5:20, 5:40, 5:30, 5:14, 5:16, 5:24, 5:28, 5:27, 5:22, 5:10 pace for the .1

For the first 4 miles if didn't look at the watch to see the splits. And that turned out to be good. Because I would have gone mental and started to stress about going out too fast. But I just kept it smooth, and ran with Dave and a couple of his boys who were doing a tempo workout for the first 5 with us. That kind of stressed me out and I finally told them to get away from us. Sorry guys... nothing personal.

As we started the climbs in B-hills everyone slowed on the hills and between grabing a drink and Gu, gagging the gu down and the uphill my 6th mile split was really slow. And that did stress me out. I thought it is too early to be slowing down that bad. But then on the 7th mile up the last big hill the split was pretty good at a 5:30 and I relaxed again. From the top of the last big climb to the finish I tried to push out everything I had left in the tank. Right around mile 8 Steve S. came blazing by me and I was now in 5th. I tried the rest of the race to work back up to him and 4th pace (nelson i think). But I just couldn't close the gap. Didn't have the wheels on the last two miles. My hip never had any pain. That was good. But about mile 7 it did get really tight and that moved into the hammy on the left side too. That little hitch just wouldn't allow any faster turnover. But then again I'm happy with how the race turned out. Stomach was pretty solid and in a half that's great for me.

The sun end up coming out and by mile 6 or so I had taken off the hat, gloves and arm warmers. And by the end of the race it turned out to be a really nice day... just really chilly at the start. At the end we got to watch Myler run a half mile race and that was fun to see.