Clyde's Comeback!

A.M. B-hills loop this morning. It felt like a Monday morning run as the legs were stale and not too motivated. Plus I'm sick of the shoes I ran in- they are done. Looking forward to another good week with a little mini relay race on Saturday. 

P.M. Ran from my house out through the fields back over to my in-laws house. Just a shorter run before Cafe Rio for dinner. Calves are kind of sore... kind of delayed from Saturdays run I guess.  

A.M. B-hills/River loop. Calves weren't as sore today as yesterday. It was a beautiful morning. No wind and just calm and springy. I love seeing all the new growth: flowers coming up, leaves and blossoms on the trees, grass nice and green. 

P.M. B-hills loop. Legs felt really good and had the wind not been at a gail force and I not being rushed for time. I would have did an impromptu longer tempo run. But Mik'L was waiting for me and the wind was blowing so hard it blew my neighbors dog over (so she claims). Before the wind picked up it was 80 F today. The first time of the year. Last year It was 80 F like the very first week of March or maybe even the last day in Feb.  

5 mile warm up

6.2 miles at Tinman tempo

6.1 mile cool down back home 

Well I was going to do this workout at 5 a.m but didn't get up. I paid the price because early this morning the weather was nice and mild. By the time I did the workout the wind was howling and beat me up pretty good. I started out out around the Knolls  and then made my way over to the freeway. The 5  mile mark put me on down by the river below the gas station. There I started the tempo. The plan was to hit tinman (6 min miles) for just over 6 miles. But the wind was just pounding and I hit the first mile (should have been the easiest one of them all due to grade and freshness) in 6:07 but it was a true 5:20 effort. That put me over to the bridge before the Bloomington loop. Then I did the loop (which is 3 miles) and back up the trail by the river to the Dixie Center. I actually stopped the tempo at the wood bridge just as you cross the river before the parking lot of the DC.

Anyways finished the tempo with a 5:59 min mile avg. On paper thats exactly what I wanted but I paid much more of an effort to get it due to the wind. From there I ran back home through Bloomington Hills and back around the Knolls (again) for an extended cool down. Even then when I didn't care at all what the pace was the wind was punishing. I honestly hate the wind.

This was a good workout. It will have to be my long run for the week because of the relay this weekend. I'll get a few more "tempo/ race" miles then but not much. I'm pretty spent now... and I've got to go plant a garden for my mother-in-law! 

A.M. B-hills/River loop. It was crisp and cool this morning after a little rain and a colder night. But the blue skies still made it feel like spring. The legs and body were both pretty drained. I kept trying to cut the run short in my mind. But in the end decided to go the full distance so if the wether is crappy this afternoon I could bail on it. But I'm still planning on going to club.  

P.M. Club run from the DC. There was a good group tonight so we did something different. Ran up the Green Valley road to where it goes past the spa and drops down into the trails. Then ran the dirt roads south and dropped down by the new intermediate school. Steve was pushing the pace all night and wanted to loop into Bloomington then back up the river trail. So we did that too. It turned out to be a little longer than I wanted but I never pushed the pace at all. So hopefully I can just cut back a little more tomorrow from what I was going to run. Legs felt pretty good... in general I'm just pretty tired.  

A pathetic run around the B-hills loop. I pushed Myler and I'd dead so the combo was almost too much for the little engine that could. I need my second wind for the week to finish things off and run that race. Hope to do another shorter run today and then rest up for tomorrow.  

6.6 miles this afternoon around the upper B-hills loop. Felt a lot better than a few hours earlier but still ready for a rest this evening. Hope to use the "stick" and roll the legs out good so I can get some turnover out of them tomorrow.  

3.6 mile warm up

4 mile leg of the relay 

1.7 mile cool down

Did this relay this morning with Paul and Sarah Harmer. We won the relay which was fabulous and really put a beating on the 2nd place team... the downer was that there was only 3 total relay teams. But the race was held along with a 5k and a 10 mile open race. So we were running a long with all the other runners.

All the leg were very hilly. Usually in a relay someone gets a sweet, fast leg. Not the case here. Each leg has some solid climbs. Sarah ran the first leg and did a great job already putting us in 1st place for the relay and putting us in about 10th overall place ( a great effort because she was at the end of her first 60 mile week and had some stale legs). With her increased mileage and tough hills she still finished just over 7 min miles. Then Paul ran a solid leg (he did a 60 mile bike ride yesterday) and extended our relay lead also putting us in 5th overall place.

My leg started with a not to bad .5 mile climb then back down it. Then flat and rolling for about a mile followed with a 1.9 mile climb to the finish. I don't have my splits with me but was pleased with the 5:38 avg. I'm not a great hill runner and am at the end of a solid week so the results are satisfying. I would have liked to catch the 2nd and 1st place overall guys. But they had too big of lead to start with.  The winner ran a great race in 57:50ish. For this course thats a A+. I didn't get his name but he was accompanied by several other latino runners (looked like a club). I'm guessing they may be out of Vegas.

Anyways kind of a fun little event. The race crew did an amazing job with traffic/ volunteers ect. An all out job by that gang. The weather was nice and I was home by 10:30 a.m to spend the rest of the day with the family on this Easter weekend. Thanks Paul and Sarah for letting me join your championship team... and for the chickens.