Clyde's Comeback!

B-hills loop. Kept the pace uptempo but not all out. I want to drop the mileage a little this week but up the effort of each run. For a Monday I felt better than avg. Going to see April this evening but I'll get another run in before I go. 

PM. Middle B-hills loop. We had Cafe Rio at lunch and I had the Monday special of two chili relleno's with black beans and rice plus all the other cheese and sauce. It was yummy but when I ran again at a quarter to 4 there hadn't been enough time... Oh and it was a toasty 98 F. I was sick by mile 2 and in a bad way by mile 4. Dry heaving and spitting up a never ending supply of stringy yuck. I'm not sure I'll ever learn but today was a step in the right direction. I'm cleaning it up from here on out:)

I picked up another head cold last night. Lost track of how many times I've been sick this year. So anyways I spent then night sweating and dealing with horrible nose crap. Spent the day trying to get better and telling myself I'm still going to pull things together for a good race next week. But it's been pretty stressful. The last thing I wanted to do this week was fight off a sickness. By the evening I couldn't handle taking a zero for the day so I went out and ran. Labored the entire way and the run totally sucked. Came home and was well under 150 lbs... the body is pretty weak right now. 

Pretty sick today. After struggling through a run last night I decided that it may have done more harm than good. So no run today. Hopefully the extra rest will help get me feeling better. I'm a nervous mess right now. That could be aiding the sickness. Anyways it's a head cold, sinus, fever and I think it's mostly induced by bad allergies. 

DC/ River road loop. Fever was gone this morning and sinus area was less congested so I went out. I got a horrible nights rest though. Legs felt overly flat leaving me mentally and physically in a bad running funk. Not going into a race on my terms that's for sure. Outside of being sick my legs aren't turning over like they need to. Last weeks speed workout with Dave and Logan was basically pathetic. Now I feel that way every time I run... just working too hard to turn the legs over. Anyways I'm really frustrated right now and need to vent it all out. I'm hoping a magical wand hits my legs and at least takes me back to three weeks ago or so when I had a little confidence. Because right now there is zero. 

4.4 miles this afternoon. Mik'L had a busy day at the office and wasn't going to be home early enough to watch Myler so I took him in the jogger. We ran over to the park on a extended route then once there I did some barefoot in the five fingers. I wanted to work on form as everything feels totally out of whack. It was kind of counter productive because I was also pushing the stroller on the grass field... but it was nice to just get out and relax a little. Finally pushing all of the sick symptoms out today but the legs feel like they belong to a beginning runner. I couldn't have broke 4 hours today if I had to run a marathon.

DC/ Stone Cliff loop. Wanted to reestablish some confidence without overdoing it. So I mentally told myself today was going to be a good day and headed out the door. Took it nice and easy on the first mile (8 min pace exactly) just relaxing and enjoying the brisk morning air. I wore gloves today. Then once at the park I slowly worked on form and let the pace hit whatever it wanted. Made it around to the DC at 6 miles at around a 7:15 avg then on the way back up the river trail, around Stone Cliff and the fields I let the legs go and just tried to be smooth. Hit some 6:40's and 6:30's to end up doing the run in 1:28:20 with overall 6:59 avg. Nothing amazing but just what I needed right now. Effort was laid back and the legs felt fairly smooth. 

The good news about being sick is it drops my weight... a lot. I finished this run at 147lbs and I didn't even feel drained or dehydrated. So I should be able to be a very comfortable 152 lbs on race day... my perfect racing weight. 

Last Biggish workout before the marathon. The plan was to do a 3 mile warm up then a progressive tempo hitting 7 min, 6:30, and 6 min pace for around 9 miles and then a 3 mile cool down on a "hilly" course. So I chose to do it on our regular tempo loop which has a few good little hills and extend it around the park so I'd have to deal with the hill up River Road at the end and fastest part of my tempo. I wanted to make this one count and get a little groove flowing into next week but not overdue things. 

After the warm up I eased into the first three mile section that was supposed to be 7 min pace. I hit 6:52, 6:42, 6:13 here. The next section called for 6:30's my splits were- 6:16, 6:09, 6:12. And the last section called for 6 min pace I hit- 5:45, 5:42, 5:46 to finish on the top of the hill just past the gas station by my house.

Cooled down around the park and Jedora to square it off at 15 miles for the day. Splits were a little faster than the goal pace of the workout but I didn't hammer things. Just kept it smooth and really only had to work up the last hill at the end. The legs felt ok... not super sharp like I want but way better than earlier this week. With the weekend and next week I should be where I want to be. Also I was 147 lbs again after the workout today and yesterday I tried to eat more and really drank a lot of fluids so my weight situation is as good as I could have asked.