AM - 18 SGM Upper Half. Clyde and I ran the Upper Half of the SGM. We tried to hit it about as hard as we could. (I'll come back and put my splits, because I learned a lot about racing the SGM from this run.) It is interesting how similar Clyde and I are in times pretty much all time despite being such dissimilar runners. We started off together for a couple in what seemed to be very warm temps for Central at 6:30 in the morning. Then Clyde pulled ahead for a few. Around 4.5 I grabbed gato and a Honey Stinger (Vis had me try one of these, seemed to go down a lot smoother than a Gu, but my stomached still turned near the end (more from the gato and the hard effort than the Stinger), but I kind of lost focus for a bit and dropped it. Took me a second to realize what I had done and had to stop and turn to get it. Then just after I lost a little time as I took off my shirt. I could feel myself losing my focus and tried to real Clyde back in - he was up about 25 meters - to help me zone in a little better. Going through Veyo I pulled up on him and then I took the lead up the volcano (which we both seemed to run pathetically slow today) and through most of Dameron (which seemed like it would never end). As I heard Clyde catching back up I told myself just to relax and the last 2 would be fine. He pulled up with me at 11.5 and I decided to stick with him; a few times I about gave up on that idea and fell back a few feet, but I am glad I kept working to keep with him since he pulled me through the last bit. Finished in 1:14:54. Kind of blows my mind when thinking about it and trying to run another 1/2 after to finish up a good marathon - but it is a tough half (tougher than most think/realize), it is still spring, and I've been feeling flat. So I am glad to have hit this as a very tough workout with a good solid effort. (Boston 517.5) Week seemed decent. Wasn't too excited about life at the first and I kept it pretty low-key until today. Got a weekend off of track and got a lot done in the yard today and that helped me feel better also. Goals for next week: I'll see how I feel early in the week, but I image I won't hit anything hard until later in the week. Hip is a little sore today from neglect the last couple days - can't do that.
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