Clyde's Comeback!

Looking forward to my first week of the taper. I'm pretty sore from a trip to April on Saturday so I'm really looking forward to when that pain goes away and the taper starts to hit too. I should be well rested and ready to race- hard! (That "hard" is in a Boston accent)

Last week was my Animal Planet week. While running in the wild I saw a:

Toad, Baby Turtle, Several Turkey's, A small Fox, Tarantula, and over heard a pack of coyotes howling at the moon early one morning before the sun came up. Kind of fun!  

Also while driving from Mesquite to STG I saw a rare desert big horn sheep way up on the skyline.  

10.5 mile run this morning. It was only going to be 10 miles but I miscalculated how far it would be from the house over to the office via Bloomington Hills- close enough though. I felt really good for a Monday. Surprising considering how bad I ate over the weekend. Yesterday I put away a big Sunday dinner and finished it off with 5 pieces of pie! That was my last fling for the next couple weeks. 

This morning I just tried to run "in the flow" and take it easy. For much of the trip it seemed I was at 6:30-40 pace and it was effortless. Ended up with a 6:48 avg for the run. The plan is to just feel stronger and stronger every day of this taper. I'll be right around 75 miles this week.  

(Blue Stratus- 506.4) 

7 miles this morning. Mik'L came along on the bike and we did an out and back in GS. It was 59 degrees this morning at my house- the first time since last spring that it has been in the 50's. Not too much more to report today. 

(Red Stratus- 505.5) 

5 easy miles this afternoon. For how cool it was this morning it sure felt warm this afternoon. I'm excited to do the big workout tomorrow morning so I can work off some of this back fat I put on over the weekend. 

The title for todays 15 mile Big Workout is: When the Levee Breaks

Today I finally paid the piper for my weekend and Monday of gluttony and the Levee did break at home before the run, during the run, and at home after the run. So it sucked but I finally lost the back fat that I'd put on over the weekend.

Running wise I actually felt really good. We did a 5.5 mile warm up and then 4x4 min fartlek's at CV pace with a 2 min recovery jog in between and then around 5 of cool down to finish of the 15 miles.

During the Fartlek's I didn't restart my garmin on each one but just tried to keep Logan fairly close- every time I looked at the pace it was around 5:07- 5:10. So I'm guessing each one was in that ballpark. I really felt pretty good on all of them until the forth and then by the end of that one I needed a bathroom stop again.

I feel really good about where I'm at in preparation for the marathon. The legs, lungs, heart, and even my brain is ready for a breakthrough race. My only worry is my stomach and maybe my diaphragm. Hopefully I can control my diet enough in the next two weeks to eliminate my stomach as a possible "bummer" and pray that the diaphragm doesn't act up either. If I can get those two things to work with me on race day things could go very well.

(SS- 235)  

7 mile run this morning out and back into GS. The legs were not sore from yesterdays big workout but they sure were sluggish. I couldn't get anything going to save my hind end. I may try some barefoot running tonight to try and bring my form back around. Hopefully I'll get a little flow back in my roll. 

(New Landreth- 169.2) 

5.5 miles this afternoon. Up the Middleton trail and around. I didn't make it over to do some barefoot running on the grass so that is on the agenda sometime. I did feel a little smoother than this morning but not a lot. Time to make some pancakes for lunch/ dinner.  

7.2 miles up Middleton trail and around GS. I felt the need for a little more that what was on the schedule today. I just kept the pace smooth and relaxed and had a really good run. I stayed up way too late last night watching the game. USC just blew their season with that game against Oregon St. I really wish the college system was different and had a playoff formate so when teams lost one game during the regular season it wouldn't just drop them off the face of the planet. Bummer!

(Landreth- 431.5) 

5 miles this afternoon around the GS/ Church loop. I was going to do some grass but opted to settle a shoe decision instead. I've been going back and forth about what shoe to wear at STM. My old Asics Ohana's or a newer pair of Asics Speedstars. The Ohana's are magical and I have some solid history in that particular pair. However the Speedstars are new and I've worn this model in STG the last two years. So today I took the Ohanas out for a run to see what they felt like... sad but they are shot. I've know this all summer but somehow they were just begging to race one more time. I'll just go with the Speedstars. I've only wore this particular pair for 49.4 miles and they should be ready for a good race.

The run it's self was good. I just tried to be very fluid and efficient while doing the test run in the Ohanas. I ended up with a avg of 6:50 for the run and it felt like I was coasting.

(Ohana Racers- Retired for now, maybe a few speed workouts sometime) 

15 miles this morning in a different order than normal. I met up with the Circle of Trust at the Swiss days 5k so Logan could run it. There we did a couple warm up miles with Logan and then the race started and Dave and I did a couple more.... we ended up missing the finish. The we all headed out again until I had to turn around because of time. I had to get our car back to Mik'L so she could go to a meeting. So total with Circle of Trust was 7.85 miles. I ran a couple miles under 6 min pace on the way back to the car and then drove across town (20 min's) and talked to Mik'L at the house for a few and then went back out to finish up for the day. That was the hard part- Going back out and trying to get into the progression tempo mode again. The first mile back into it was around 7:15 pace and my hammy was really tight now. I kept trying to increase the pace until the last mile was around 5:45 and then a half mile cool down. 

Kind of a fun morning over at the race. It was nice seeing everyone and got the nerves going for next Saturday. Hopefully I can stretch this hammy out over the week and be ready to go. I can't believe we're already here...