Clyde's Comeback!

Up early to run B4 Mik'L had to go. Ran the Tempo Tuesday loop to check distance and stuff. We'll have to stay up on the road down by Dino Tracks because the flood washed the trail out and it wont be restored for who knows how long. So just ran the full loop at EZ pace. 7:10 avg on a nice cool summer morning. 

Attention STG Runners: Tempo Tuesdays start tomorrow at 5 a.m at my house. Be there or be square. 

Tempo Tuesday week 1

We ran basically the same loop as last years tempo course other than over by the river we stayed out on the road instead of dropping onto the trail. Today the plan was to do the regular 3 mile warm up. Then 6 miles of tempo and a little over 3 miles of cool down. The warm up went quick and it was time to go. Temps were nice and cool for an August morning in STG. That was one thing we had going for us. I just got going and never looked at the watch. Felt smooth and in control until just after mile 4 and I started to get serious stomach cramps. I fought it off and did ok until about 5.3 and then it really started to hurt. Had to go potty bad. Held on to finish the 6 miles of tempo and then took care of business. Cooled down back home and have spent basically the last 2 hours in the bathroom. Something really jacked my tummy up... maybe it was the bag of BBQ chips I had for dinner last night at the lake or all the other junk food we ate out there instead of a real dinner. 

Oh well glad to get the tempo stuff back out. Hope to continue to build over the next 6-7 weeks. Hit a 5:39 avg for the tempo miles. Splits: 5:55, 5:33, 5:29, 5:47, 5:32, 5:40

The 4th mile is always slow as you climb up through the industrial park and there was a lot of on coming traffic. I thought this mile would have been way slower considering how bad the stomach was hurting. But looking at the splits I'm pretty happy with the morning.

Logan called me late last night and wondered if I wanted to run today. So we planned on meeting early and running before one of his meetings and before Mik'L went out. Did a big loop around Stone Cliff and B-hills then extended around Little Valley here and there until our time was up. 7:06 avg. A little warmer this morning than the last few days. 

EZ B-hills loop this morning. Feeling really good. I hesitate to say that because I don't want to jinx myself. But legs, body and mind all feel really good. Hopefully we can all stay insink for the next 7 weeks or so. 

10.1 miles tonight at club. Only Aaron, Ryan and I showed. Aaron and I dropped Ryan by mile 2. It was right around 100 F. I did pretty good until about mile 9. Then I could tell I was totally dehydrated. 6:43 avg pace per mile for the run. 

River Road/ DC loop. Out early in the dark. Was not recovered from last nights club run still very dehydrated and stiff. So this run basically was a lot like work. Felt completely different than yesterdays run. Oh well it's done and I'll spend the rest of the day hydrating and resting to be ready for tomorrows 20 miler down the course. 

The title of today's run was: Steve's Pony

 Kind of the regular process up at 4 a.m and over to the church on Bluff to catch the shuttle up. It only went out 19.3 miles so we ran up a little at the start and then turned around to make it a full 20. There was a big group around 3 full 15 passenger vans. Steve, Aaron, Logan, and I started the run together. Once we turned back around and was heading for town Aaron started into a faster pace. I had no plans for the run- no set warm up or tempo. I just wanted to get in the mileage. But I decided to kind of head out with him. Steve and Logan stayed back a little to continue to warm up and tempo the last 9 miles. Aaron and I didn't even get to Veyo (3 miles into it) and my head was spinning. It felt too hot. I was really getting ready for a big crash. I told him I was feeling like crap and let him go. Then started to wonder how I was going to get back to my car. As I got to the base of Veyo hill I remembered I'd grabbed a little bag of Sweetish Fish (like 15-25 of them). I didn't have a gu to bring and this was the only thing in my pantry I could find at 4 a.m that looked like it would kind of work like Gu. I felt super hungry and burnt out so I started to eat them up the hill. Hit that mile in like 8:15 and finished off my fish. They started working really fast. The taste of sugar alone started to help refuel me. From that point on up through Dameron I started to kind of feel better and get my barrings  back. Then just ran whatever back to the car. Noting super fast. Somewhere around 5:45 pace for the last 10 miles. Ended the run with a 6:23 avg. Glad that run was over and than it wasn't race day... kind of a flashback of last years STGM. Hoping things go better up there this year.