Clyde's Comeback!

5 miles this morning. I went out for a very easy 8 miles up around GS and over the hill down the trail and it just didn't go as I'd hoped for. The first two miles were slow and pain free. The third mile was slow and I could only feel the quad a little. The fourth mile was the same and the 5th mile really hurt and by the end I had to walk. Ended up walking three miles in pain back home off the desert reserve.

This absolutely sucks! This absolutely sucks! THIS ABSOLUTELY SUCKS! SUCK!

I've never had a injury- or at least one that I couldn't explain and at the moment I'm not taking things very good. What in the freaking world happened? I'm falling apart physically and that is leading to a major mental melt down. I admire Paul and others that are so positive as they work through injuries. I'm not that way. All I can think about is busting my butt most the winter and all spring and it's just evaporating into thin air.

I'm sure this quad will heal with time. But I can't stand the thought of dropping fitness like that and trying work back. I guess I'll get a massage and just go through the motions.

3 miles this evening on the treadmill in Five Fingers. Did one mile and then a ab workout. Then another mile followed by the 10lb weigh lifting and then finished with one more mile.

The quad hurt but I can't stand "time off". I just tried to run a very easy pace 10 min mile and  try to visualize that nothing was wrong. Considering the circumstances it was a pretty good workout- which my body has been begging for. I may go buy a mountain bike and hit some long rides until my quad feels good enough to run. I tested it today on a bike and it didn't seem to bother me. Also may join the new Washington City rec center for the month to use the elliptical, pool, weights and anything else that will take the edge off.

I'm on a mission to be in shape and able to run for WBR. I could care less about any other race this summer but I don't want to miss out on the relay. But if I'm not running somewhat full stride by June 14th I'll have to pull myself out and let someone else run.

20 miles on the elliptical this morning in 91 min's . I'm not sure how to convert these cross training miles over to real one... I looked up Paul's blog and it looks like he give himself a mile for every 10 min's on the elliptical. That formula sounds about right. If there is someone out there who has a more scientific way to measure it then speak up.

The quad was pretty tight and actually a little swollen this morning. But the elliptical machine didn't seem to bother me. I'll most likely go back tonight and keep the two a day workout schedule in place.

11.5 mile on the elliptical this evening in 50 min's. Using the machine isn't the same as running but it is giving me an o.k. burn. I can tell it uses some different muscles than running. My fanny is sore from hopping along on the machine today.  

The quad is sore when I stretch it but maybe deep down inside it may feel just a little better than yesterday... 

21.4 miles on the elliptical in 90 min's. I'd much rather have spent a hour and a half running and hit like 12.5 miles. This cross training stuff isn't a freebie. Yesterday's 31.5 miles on the elliptical made me more tired and sore than a regular day of 20 miles running. But I am working a few different areas so that could be it.

11.6 miles on the elliptical in 50 min's.

I went to see St. George's own legendary April "the massage girl" today. Amazing is all I can say and I kick myself for not going to her for the last two years or so. She worked out my quad situation and my chest... we hope. Here is the low down.

First the chest and pain I had during Ogden and then on and off to the present was a tight diaphragm. She followed the contour of my ribs and applied pressure to help loosen it up and it worked! The pain when she was applying pressure was the same spot and type I had during Ogden. Most importantly she showed me how to keep it loose at home myself.

Now the quad issue that slammed me last week. After messing with it for only a short time she could tell it wasn't a tear. Thank goodness. Most of the intense pain was isolated in a small area and she determined it was a muscle cramp that had caused a major knot. So she proceeded to work it out. Yeah it was pretty much the most painful thing in my life. I'm sure you ladies can relate who have had children- It was that bad or worse. Only this was for a short time (like 25 min's). The good news is she thinks it is all out and that just to be safe I should use the elliptical tomorrow but that I can run on Friday. From my point of view as soon as I got up off the table it was like night and day. So I'm not going to get too excited until I come home from a run pain free but this is moving in the right direction.

 Anyways maybe this little miss-hap will be over a lot quicker than I thought at first.

14.6 miles on the elliptical in 60 min's. 4 miles on the stationary bike in 10 min's.

A good little workout this morning. I'm really antsy to run now that I know it's a soon to be option. No wonder people join the gym and then really never go. I've found it hard to be motivated to go hit the elliptical and it's only three days into it. Sure there are other activities but everything is stationary and very boring. I decided it takes less effort for me to go run my 12 mile morning loop that it does to kick out 90 min's on the elliptical.

Didn't get out again this afternoon. We spent hours riding around and at the new office getting things ready for our open house (at the new office) on Friday. Plus I wanted to give myself the afternoon/evening off to get ready to fully run Friday morning. I made sure to grease up all the joints at In-and-Out Burger for dinner.

9.2 miles of real running this morning. Pain free!!! Well almost- there's just a little bit of soreness in my legs throughout from the elliptical the last few day. But other than that I felt great and now I can't stop smiling from ear to ear.

What a roller coaster this last week has been for me and my wife. At one point I really thought I was done running or at least racing for sure. I tend to get a little excited... Anyways at the end of it all maybe it was for a reason. See I've been toying with the idea of converting my car over to natural gas. But it's pretty expensive and yad, yad, yad. So when I got hurt last week I decided I was going to buy a mountain bike and ride like 40 miles a day to maintain fitness the best I could. That led me to think that I really don't need a car. Mik'L and I are in a situation where I don't really have a lot of responsibility and could very easily use a bike to get around. So that's what I'm doing. Selling my car (I love my car by the way) and replacing it with a mountain bike. I'm excited to see how it will help my fitness. I'll continue to hit the mileage I've been doing (pre Ogden) and also peddle my way around town. We or I really am not like one of those activist crazy type people. I just don't use my car much. In the last two year I've only put 16,000 miles on my car- a lot of those miles were taking it on trips and stuff that we can easily do all those miles in Mik'L's car. So there you have it- I'm running again and happy and there is a sweet mountain bike out there that will have a new home soon!

(Blue Cumulus 367.6)

4.1 mile run from my house down to the bike store (Sunset Cycle). I did it. I bought my machine and she is a beauty. I got a Giant (Reign 2) .

What a fun bike! I've researched things to death and was in between 2 other bikes but finally decided to go with this one. I love it! I rode 15.8 miles in (1hr 16 min's) back home from the store. Right now I'm not sure how or (if) exactly I will convert my bike miles to the blog so I'm leaving them off for now. It was a good ride 13 of it was basically up from the river back into Washington and up above GS and the bike rolled like a champ.

For the moment I've decided how I'll count my bike miles. I'll use a 1 to 4 ratio. I feel this is more than fair to myself for the effort and time involved. I don't have a lite speedy road bike- my bike with everything I have on it weights 33 lbs. Pretty beefy compared to anything on the road.

So for my ride this afternoon I'll give myself 3.95 miles of easy running....This is almost half of what I was using for the cross training miles. That formula was every 10 min's of activity was worth 1 miles.

Big morning of pain. 21.8 mile bike ride in 1:55:08. So I'll count 5.4 miles of that for running. The bike ride was a muther so that is less than fair but I'm just going to stick to my formula and it should avg out in the long run. The bike ride was a big loop around the city. I stopped at the 10k race this morning and helped out for a while and then finished going back up over the T'bone trail and down off to my house. I saw TWO turtles today right by me on the trail. Pretty cool! And yes WildBull I have pictures to prove it this time.

1.25 miles of running down at the race with Dave, Dustin, Marci and a few others after working as a volunteer.

I spent most of the day after getting home on the couch. I think I logged around 4 hours of nap time- good because I didn't sleep very good last night.

14.8 mile run tonight in 1:50:16. Not bad considering the first 7 miles or so are in sandy, rocky, slow trail- with the majority being uphill. I did the overpass loop but started going up the trail and hitting the powerline down into GS first to extend it a little. When I left it was 93 degrees out but felt doable. Once I got to the golf course I hit one of the water stops and rehydrated the best I could. From there up around the overpass and around through DogTown I did pretty good. However once I got to the firehouse with around 3 miles to go I was dehydrated and needed hydro bad. But I just pressed through and was glad for something cold when I got home.

The run felt good. Other than my legs were hamburger before I even left the house from the bike stuff this morning.

(landreth 233)