Clyde's Comeback!

20.4 mile morning run. I got up and was getting ready to go out for a usual 10-13 mile run and as I was getting dressed the Winchester Hills loop was calling me. It was like I could feel there was a big bag of unmarked bills along the trail that I was intended to find. So I grabbed a GU and said my good byes to my lovely wife and little doggies and I was out to find my pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. The route I took up landed me right at 10 miles when I got to the golf course and got some water. That first 10 miles is a muther! Pretty much all uphill and on some rocky trails. But it was an awesome morning, and I found my prize in a rain washed, crisp desert morning.

Next was the 5 miles down the marathon course and 5 or so back up over the hill back home. Once I got on the paved road I just focused on running smooth and unlabored-hitting around 6:15 pace down to the light. Man I love running the STGM course. It's like the course and I have a secret bond.

Next was from the light back to the house. The not-as-cool part of my loop. I climbed up the hills and then hit three more sub 6:20's back to the house. Never kicked it into tempo gear just tried to relax and run. Anyways a great run to start what should be a great week with the Del Sol trip in just a few days.

(White Cumulus 92.3)

 3.4 miles this evening to shake the legs out before bed or whatever. I felt great all day after the long run this morning and just did this short little run to make sure I didn't get tight.

12.5 mile run this morning. I had to run by the Redbox at Albertsons to return a DVD so I went that way. After I dropped the movie off I ran down past Costco and turned left over to the dog pound then made my way up to the new overpass in Washington and looped back home by way of GS. Not as fun and exciting as yesterday but they can't all be dimes.

(red stratus 121.1)

 7.8 mile run this evening. Just did the powerline/GS loop with no extension into Middleton.  Feeling pretty trashed for some reason today. If things go right I think I may go in for a message tomorrow.  My body needs it.
 

13.3 mile run this morning. New overpass/ GS loop ish... Last night I felt pretty crappy on my run, but this morning I felt much better. Not like drop dead amazing but better than yesterday. I needed some extra motivation today so I took my Ipod and the music really helped take the edge off. I ended up pulling away from the 7 min guy and ran the run at 6:58 min pace.

(Blue cumulus 181.9)

4 more miles this afternoon to loosen up. Now I'll start a taper to be fresh for Del Sol this weekend.

(Blue Stratus 184..45) 

7.2 mile run this morning. Ran up into GS and then took the powerline trail back down into Middleton. Overall I'm pretty trashed right now for some reason. I hope that running less miles the next day or so will get me ready to race by Friday night.

(White Cumulus 99.5)

5 more miles this afternoon. Now it's time to start the trip to PHX. We will drive a few hours tonight and then meet the rest of the guys tomorrow at Lybi's in AZ.

(Stratus red 126.1 )

The Del SOUL Relay Trip where do I start. How about with a 1st place finish and a new course record by around an hour and a half!

I rode down with Steve Abraham Lincon Hooper, Dave, Logan, James, Adam, and Nick. We got a late start Thursday night so we drove to Vegas and spent the night in a swanky little joint know on the street as Sahara. Nice place! Highly recommended. So Friday morning we all got up and did a 5 mile run on the Las Vegas Strip and then made our way down the road to meet up with the other van of guys at the starting line of the race in Wickenburg, AZ.

Dave started our team off and then the order of our van went like this, Logan, Nick, Me, Walter, James. Our team had a 6 p.m start time with the rest of the projected faster teams. There were 5 teams that started at that time- one being our annual foes Google, and a running store out of AZ and 3 others that don't ring a bell at this time.

So the race starts and Dave and his guy from the running store battle shoulder to shoulder all the way to the hand off. Then Logan goes out and drops his guy like bad foreign language class. Nick did just as good and already we have a comfortable lead.

Now is my leg. (Leg #4 5.57 miles long @ 29:57- avg of 5:22 min per mile)

This was the best of my three legs on a performance basis. I went out on what seemed to be a slightly uphill course and was able to hold the pace even when it got hard. It was dark by now around 7:30 p.m. and we were running on a straight road against on coming traffic. Anyways not a lot to report on this leg other than I was really happy with my performance.

Walter, and James ran great 1st legs and we hand off the the other van with a 5 min led on the next team.  

4 miles of warm up and cool down miles and that will end it for Friday.  Now we head over to a local subway and eat sandwiches that will eventually come back up for a few of us. We then travel to the next major exchange and try to relax and sleep until the other guys get there. I was able to roll my bed out on a parking lot and lay down for about 2 hours (25 min) of which I was able to sleep.

10.3 race miles

1.7 warm up and cool down miles (not so good today)

My 2nd leg (Leg #16, 6.1 miles long, 34:07, 5:36 avg min mile pace)
In the land of relay’s you may be running a 6.1 mile race at 2:36 in the morning. That’s exactly what I did today. This was the most eventful leg I’ve ever run in my relay history. I took off and had about .2 miles of paved road and then it turned into gravel, with pot holes and keep in mind it’s dark. So the course was rolling (some up some down) and I’m stumbling up through grapefruit orchards and all this time I’m brewing up a witch’s brew in my stomach with that Subway from earlier, a chocolate GU, and way too much Gatorade. As I’m laboring to get things going I feel like I’ve been running for about 3 miles but don’t want to take time to look at my Garmin to see how far it’s actually been- so I wait until it beeps at the next mile and then the light comes on and I look to see where I’m at. It just about floors me that it only says 1 mile. I thought to myself there’s no way. But I just keep moving along and at mile 2 I start to get a good side ache. No problem I’ve had them before just keep running. Well 5 miles into the run I start to do little dry heaves. But I don’t think too much about it as now I’m starting some good downhill and almost done. Then it turned into about every 6 strides I’d heave and I had just passed three people and I knew they could hear me. However I was coming up on a girl and then I felt it coming and knew (this was the real deal) and vomit was coming out. As I got closer to her she could hear me loudly screaming, and making the puking sound. Then she turned around all scared and screamed “What way are you going to go ?”, meaning are you going to pass me on the right or left so I can get out of the way of the splash. I tried to answer her but when I spoke I started puking and said “I don’t know”. It sucked. Then I just pressed on and finished and never apologized to her. But I’m pretty sure I didn’t get any on her.

Then we went to the next major exchange and I got about 20 more min’s of sleep, and tried to settle my stomach before my last leg. I was hungry but didn’t dare eat anything until the relay was over.

3rd leg # 28, 24:42, 6:04 min mile pace. This leg was virtually all up a really nasty hill. When I took off I thought I’d like to run it at least under 6 min mile pace. But the lack of food, rest, a head wind and the hill it’s self just killed me.  I tried to gut it out and pushed about as hard as my tired legs would go and in the end was actually pretty amazed I had ran it that fast. I still had some side ache pains hanging over from the 2nd leg nightmare so my breath was a little short. But overall I was happy with the performance of this leg. I also saw a coyote staring at me but then he ran off. Must not have wanted to get any puke on his pretty fur coat. The best part of this leg was that I passed a runner and when I did it put us out in front of the rest of the 190 teams. Now there was no one left to pass and we could just finish strong as a team and win.

This was a great trip. We had a blast during the race and even more fun hanging out the rest of the trip. When the race was over all 12 of us and our drivers (James & Steve) went to James and Lybi’s house for a great pasta dinner. It was fun to hang with the other guys and hear their stories.
Then our travel van decided to drive back home. We had planned on staying down there but all wanted to get home to our cute little wives. So we bravely left and about 50 miles up the freeway we all hit rock bottom. We had pretty much been up for 36 hours and together ran 190 miles. We ended up pushing on to Flagstaff and getting a room for the 7 of us and enjoying one of the best Ihop meals you could ever dream about. The guys got a little out of hand there and I had to be the adult and settle everyone down before we got into trouble. Then we talked about the influences of soccer on our American society.

ZZ Top
Baseball
Elmers Glu
Vicks

You know what I’m talking about. Just makin’ memories baby.