Clyde's Comeback!

Ran from my house out through the fields the up to Telegraph and up through Coral Canyon- then down to the DMV. I left the house about an hour and 15 min's before the rest of the gang and they just picked me up on the way to Sandhollow. It was a sweet morning out on the Harmers boat and I actually got some good air on the wakeboard. Good times bra!

Ugh! It's so hard to run up here. I had planned to do a 15 mile run before this race and then see what happened. But then we decided to sleep in til only 30 min's before the race started and then I was pushed for time to get ready and warm up. Didn't have a watch so I didn't care about time. Just tried to run it fairly hard but not kill myself. It's really, really hard to run at this altitude. About a mile into it your legs get heavy and lungs are just on fire. Could hardly get the legs to go up the hill to the turn around. Anyways didn't get the mileage I wanted to today. Got a short little speed workout in. The first fast miles since the marathon. Won $30 at the burger joint so I guess we'll eat good for lunch. After the race we went to the parade and my family decided I should do the pie eating contest... the winner won $100. I was dead last out of 15 people. 

Up at 3:30 a.m to get this one going this morning. Ran the annual Steven Abraham Lincoln Hooper Pope 4th of July Spectacular. About 40 people got shuttled up to the start by the Upper Enterprise Lake. We got running about 5:30. Steve, Dave and I basically ran together the entire run. It was a pretty good morning. A little warm at the start because of some overnight cloud cover but then the clouds were nice later on in helping keep the sun off. We didn't push the pace at all and ended with a 7:15 avg. There are some really good uphill climbs that I'd forgotten about from the last time I ran this. Good steady run. After we soaked our legs in the cool stream. It actually worked wonders and felt really good an hour after. 

DC loop. Kind of humid but overcast so actually pretty nice. Quads are pretty sore. Guess I need to really work harder on my downhill training. I always just think that I'm too cool to do and downhill stuff... now I feel like it jacks me up more than anything. 

6.6 miles this afternoon. I kept thinking it would rain or something. But by the time Mik'L got home from work and I got out running it had cleared up and was the hottest part of the day. With the humidity the 100 F felt almost too much today. Plus the quads went weak about 3 miles in and it was a struggle all the way back home. Pretty grim. 

Did a loop out in the fields this morning. 7:20 avg... Yeah the 7 min guy kicked my butt today. I just feel like barf. It's hot and humid. I was doing ok until about mile 7 then the elements took their toll. Ended up dropping buckets of sweat all the way back home. When I got here my hands were all wrinkly like I'd been washing dishes. Got on the scale and was 146.5 lbs which is low for me. I really don't run well under 152 lbs. I've got to dig deep this week and hit some decent mileage because I'll have to start dropping it down again before I can do any kind of real workout- and I need a couple weeks with workouts before running the marathon in Alaska at the end of this month. 

No run this evening. Mik'L didn't get home until after 9:30 p.m. I was also pretty trashed so it was a good evening to have off. 

DC loop @ 7:15 avg. Felt a little better than yesterday morning. My quads are still really jacked. I'm trying to get into see April. But until then I've been using the stick. It seemed to help a little last night. I was able to get up and run a little better today... overall pace was just a little faster but overall effort was way easier. I didn't totally die after around 6 miles. Hope to recover enough today to be able to run at club tonight. 

9.7 Club run cut a little short. Felt so so for the first 5 miles then I started to fade off. Got really hot and thirsty by the time we got to the park at mile 6. Soaked my shirt and hat then tried to finish off the last 4 miles. Quads just locked up and wouldn't go any faster than around 7:30 pace on the way back in. Finished with a 7:08 avg. Everyone else was much faster. 

After last nights bad run I didn't want to even try it today. But it's kind of now or never in STG in the morning. You either go out early or regret it if you don't. Got running just after 5:30 a.m and felt slow. First mile was around 8:30 pace. Just tried to keep good form and not tear or injure anything. Finally got a little faster but not much. Finished with a 7:25 avg. I've got to get in to April to have my quads worked out. 

Ran the Painters course with a little extra this morning. It rained last night and made it kind of muggy but any rain in STG in the summer is a blessing. I thought I'd really struggle on this run because I have all week. But it seemed to go by fast and I felt pretty good. Ended with around a 6:54 avg. Nothing super but far faster than I've been running. 

Went to April tonight... She cracked the whip and I was in pain for an hour. Hoping she helped my quads to loosen up so I can run for real again. 

DC loop in reverse. It was a Monday run for sure as the legs were heavy and the stomach was full. However my quads did feel better than they did all last week. I'm guessing the legs were really heavy because April worked them over on Saturday and this was the first run since. Hoping to make some progress this week. But we'll see how I feel come Thursday night/ Friday morning. 

10.1 miles on the DC loop again this afternoon (same direction as the morning). It was cloudy most of the day and kept the temps down so I decided to capitalize on the situation and get a few extra miles in. Although once I got running the sun came out for basically the first 5 miles of the run then I got clouds again. Temps were still very reasonable for the time of year. I felt pretty good other than one potty stop at the golf course. There's no question I feel better than last week- both in the quads and general overall health as I think I'm finally getting over a 2 week bug. 

Around the Stone Cliff loop, then down into B-hills, back to River Road and around Little Valley before coming home. 7:10 avg. Felt semi sore but runnable. Just kind of tight all over. Had lovely weather and even a few sprinkles on the first couple miles. 

7.5 miles pushing Myler up in Cedar City. Mik'L had a meeting with one of our properties up there so I decided to drive her up and do my p.m run up there. We left from the Hampton Inn by the Wal Mart and ran back down a canyon behind the Wal Mart that drops down out behind west Cedar. Then we ran back up into town and over to the SUU campus. I don't think I've set foot on that place since I graduated back in 2004 so we did a little campus tour. Then back up around Cedar High and over the freeway and back up to where we started. The run was killer. A Lot of climbing+ extra altitude+ pushing Myler= one tired daddy. 

Up early to get my run in before Mik'L could do her's at 7 a.m. I basically did the same loop as I did last Saturday. Out to River Road, over to Bloomington, around Bloomington loop, back up the river trail to the DC, around Morningside, then down River Road back to the house. It was the first clear morning in a while and it wasn't really humid. So if you can call 65 F cool it was the coolest morning in weeks. Glad to be done running for the day and will enjoy the evening off. 

DC loop. Had a bad nights sleep and am dealing with some bad allergies. So just making it around the loop this morning was a victory. Feeling like I need a RedBull in life right now. 

10 miles tonight at the club. The boys started picking it up around mile 3. I have had 2 weeks in a row of awful club runs so I wanted to day to be good. So I just tried to latch on and go with Dave and Logan. It's the hardest I've ran since UV and the best run I've had in some time. Didn't push it really hard but made myself focus and leave the comfort zone. Once we got going it was a steady push all the way back around. Ended with a 6:26 avg for the run. 

Middle B-hills loop with just a little more added on to run over to the golf course potty. I was dead tired this morning and when the alarm went off I was deep in my REM sleep. Then I was rushed for time so I was out running in less than 15 min's from the time the alarm went off... hence I think I slept through the first 3 or 4 miles. Tried to hurry along to get home and get things in order before going to Sandhollow.  7:03 avg. 

Met up with Dave and Logan at the Navajo trailhead to do the Utah Mt loop run. We went out 4 miles to the junction and dropped water. Then did two upper loops and then came back to the cars. The temps were great for this time of year. We started around 5:30 a.m and it was around 68 F. By the time we finished it was warm up not too bad. Pace was steady. This loop is all on dirt/ rocky roads so you can't run it fast... plus there are  a lot of big hills to climb. I'm too lazy to check my garmin for the avg pace. Maybe later. 

Glad to finish off a solid week of mileage. Hope to cut it back next week and run a good 10k at Enterprise. Then really taper the following week before running the marathon in Alaska. 

Mik'L was sick Saturday morning when I got home from my long run. Vomiting, body aches, fever. It was harsh. I tried to stay away from her and help her at the same time. In the end I got it. Really sick Sunday afternoon and Monday. Wanted to die. It just felt that uncomfortable. 

Finally got a run in this week. It was kind of funky but I got it in. Your body is always a little slow to respond after being sick- today was no different. I had sections where I felt smooth and good and other sections where I had two size 16 left feet. I just couldn't get things going and then I could (back and forth it went this morning). Anyways hope to salvage my last real week before the marathon next week. Wont try and kill it but need to get a few miles under my belt. 

Had a semi dia-stomach all day and... Didn't want to run in the heat so I bailed on it this afternoon. 

Regular B-hills loop. It was a super morning. 64 F is just peachy for a July morning. Legs felt so so and stomach was about 90% better. Just glad to get out and feel the coolness on my baby soft skin. 

Club run this evening. Some folks didn't want to do my little river run (sad face) and other showed up who didn't know about it. So we just did the regular old loop. Nothing really fast but a solid push though out the run. I didn't check the garmin but we had to have beat the 7 min guy. It was hot tonight and more than anything DRY. I had a dry throat and mouth 4 miles in and was covered in salt by the end of the run. Got home and couldn't drink enough.

Ran the extended Painters loop that I've did a couple times the last few weeks. Legs felt sore and heavy for the entire run. Never really got into this one. My garmin wasn't charged so it basically served as a arm weight and judging from it's (time) this run was about 1:47:00 give or take. The morning was picture perfect. I left early and it was 66 F and got home just as the sun was coming up and it had dropped to 62 F. I think that's the lowest it's been all summer. Love it!

Kind of a fun race/ workout this morning. Different course from years past. This one is flattish with a few rollers. Overall pretty fun and fair. Now I want to go run it all out when I'm feeling good. Just because it's about the fairest thing around here. 

I've been feeling sickish all week coming off actually being really sick earlier in the week. So I didn't feel like really racing but still wanted to try and get the legs to turn over a little before I run the marathon up in Alaska next week. Mik'L and I road up with Mike and Billy boy- we got there early enough to get in just over a 4 mile warm up. 

Dave came up on the bus and we also ran in to Glen who was in town from Oregon. I knew I wasn't going to go super hard so I really wasn't stressed about it. Wish more races were like this. My garmin also just wouldn't work up there. I plugged it in last night but went to fire it up before the race and it just blanked. So I had no idea what pace I was going. 

The race started and Dave, Glen and I went out with Ryan right behind us. The three of us chit chatted for around a half mile or so and then those two headed out. I just hung back and Ryan actually caught up and passed me for about a mile then I passed him back around mile 3. I just kept the pace steady while not killing myself. As we came into town I was only about 25 seconds behind Dave and Glen and though that was pretty good considering I was kind of just chillin. But then almost right after that they more than doubled the gap and I watched them go away.

When I finished I had no idea what the time I had run or how fast the spits were. Just felt pretty good and then did 4 miles of cool down with Dave.

Fun morning even though we got up at 4:30 to do it. Mik'L ran the 10 k too and did great. Beat her goal time and ran under 10 min pace. Good job Kellers!

One mile on the treadmill then hit the DC loop after Mik'L got home from her run. Felt really good for a Monday. In fact it's the best I've felt in around a month. Maybe that little push in the 10k on Saturday helped snap me out or this funk I'm in. Hoping so with 26.2 miles to run on Saturday in Alaska. 

Ran this afternoon. The high today was 105 F and that's in the shade. Out on the blacktop it felt like my bones were boiling. I wore a wet shirt and hat and had to stop on the golf course to resoak them. Without the soakings I'd have been toast. 

Up at 4:30 a.m to get a run in before we head to Vegas to fly to Alaska. It was super hot and muggy. Temps said it was 80 F. It rained a little over the night and basically it just sizzled off the ground. Felt like I was running in Florida and not STG. I'm pumped to run in Alaska for the rest of the week. Hopefully I freeze my can off. 

We spent last night in Anchorage then got up this morning and went to the temple there. After that we drove from Anchorage south down the coast to a place where we went through a 2 mile tunnel. And after the tunnel the you came to a town called Witter and the road ends. We borded a ferry that carries about 40 cars, trucks or whatever and had a 3 hour ride to our final destination of Cordova.

While in Witter I had about 1.5 hours to kill befor the boat left so I decided to run. It was just amazing! A little village tucked in a canyon where the ocean  comes in. I ran up and down the road along the coast. The mountains around were covered in snow and spewing off water all over from the melting. There was mist in the air everywhere. Temps were around 60 with partly cloudy skies. Big fluffy white clouds with an amazing blue ski. This was a great run and I felt pretty supnky too so pace was uptempo. Alaska is SOOOO VAST!  

Ran here in Cordova from my wifes aunts house through town and down the Orca road. While running down the Orca road I saw a ORCA! Watched it's back and big fin surface and then go back under. This place is beautiful. Green, lush. Amazing veiws of snow covered mountains in every direction. All with either ocean or lakes at the base. It gets dark around 11 p.m and light around 4 a.m so sleeping isn't easy. One becaue it's light and two because you want to be out doing stuff. Mik'L and I went for a 4-wheeler ride at 9 p.m last night an it felt like 6 p.m at home. We road up the banks of a big lake filled with big Red Salmon. At every tributary coming into the lake there were fish everywhere. The watere was just as blue as the sky.

Anyways the run was out and back and kind of uptempo too. 6:40 pace. Felt pretty good.

Drove the marathon course today... not thrilled about it. There are stunning views in every direction but found out that the dirt road will be 14.7 miles of the course and it's really loose marble size gravle. I'm guessing it's just going to be brutal to try and keep any kind of pace and my feet are going to hurt because the there are soo many loose rock I'll feel them through the shoes. Hoping to not roll an ankle.

EZ run from the house down into town and back. Temps and conditions have been perfect. For running and fishing. We caught so many fish in the river last night and this morning that I lost track. Arms were sore for sure.

Not really that pumped for the race tomorrow. I'd rather be fishing and doing Alaska stuff. I'm just going to go out and have fun. Not planning on pushing it or stressing at all. So I may not even break 3 hours with that and the nasty gravel road. Anywho I'm so tired and I think we are going fishing tonight again until like midnight. Love it when the sun never goes down.

Pre race junk: I signed up for this race a few months ago and thought it would be fun to do while we were up here in Cordova Alaska. But after getting up here I got way too into the fishing, sight seeing, 4-wheeling ect and the thought of having to take time away from all of that to run a race sounded tragic. I've turned into an even bigger adult kid up here. There are way too many cool things to do outside and I can't control myself. Plus it gets light at around 4 a.m and doesn't get dark until after 11 p.m. So I haven't slept much all week. No time to sleep when  you fish until dark then spend 2 hours after taking care of all the fish we caught. And last but not least my diet up here has been off the hook. Mik'L's aunt is an amazing cook and I love to eat. Haven't stopped plus I've been drinking Mt. Dew to help take the edge off:) So anyways not the best prep the week of a marathon. But I didn't come up here to run the marathon. I came to do everything Alaska and as much of it as I could in the time we have here. I told Mik'L on the ride out to the starting line that I'd be lucky to break 3 hours with the way I felt... running faster just sounded out of the question.  

The weather was forcast to be rainy the entire time we were here but it's been amazing. The day of the race was the best day of them all. As we drove out to the starting line of the race we saw a moose walk out in the road in front of us.

The Course: It starts 26.2 miels (distance was right on after driving it twice). We started out in the flats or the Cooper river delta. Basically a massive drainage at the base of a massive mountain range. But it's flat from there all the way into town. Well maybe a 1% grade incline for the first 14 miles then a 1% decline for about 7 miles and the rest flat. The first 15 miles of the race start on a dirt (very loose gravel road) and it turnes to good pavement after that. You cross countless bridges and rivers as you make your way back into town. All of them bigger than any river in Utah (other than the Colorado). I've never seen so much water. It's all running off the mountains and the 4-5 big glaciers that are above the Cooper River delta. Then as you get 4 miles from town you start to come into a little valley that flows around a big freshwater lake and then the town is on the far side of the lake creating a little barrier between the lake and the ocean. This place is really amazing! Words do no justice...

The Race: I got to ride out there with my wife and her aunt who also got to drive right behind me for the first 22 miles of the race. This was for caution of any bears. And they were able to bring me GU and drink anytime I wanted. That was nice. We started and two guys went out ahead of me and that kind of flipped a trigger in my brain. I quickly matched their pace and basically from there to the finish was locked into a 5:50ish pace. It felt smooth and comfortable. I didn't feel like I was killing it, rather just enjoying the day. Had to stop at mile 11 for a big boy potty break that took 40 seconds of real time and maybe cost me a little more just becaue I had to stop and start. But still hit the half in 1:18:00. By the half I was getting really sick of the gravel and the long, long incline. It wasn't steep but there was no change in grade from mile 7 to 14 or so and it just got pesky. I'd dropped the other two guys after mile 1 and had no sight or sound of them by mlie 5. 2nd pace was 3:02 and would have been a new course record from the old 3:20.

Once on the pavement I wanted to try and get a little faster turnover with the slight decline for about 6 miles but my splits just stayed basically the same. Once you get to the lake there are some rollers into town and I slowed from 6 min pace to around 6:10 pace. Hit the second half in 1:18:40. So a pretty even split race for me.  

I felt good the entire way. Mile markers were right on through mile 19 or 20 and then my garmin went crazy when I dumped water all over myself so I didn't get anymore splits. Had a blast and am so glad I signed up and then decided to run the race. So pretty, so fun and I never felt trashed. Finished the race then went back to the house got ready to go fishing and we fished from noon to basically midnight. Never felt any hang over from the race. Really no soreness or the normal fatigue.

Sorry this is long for those who made it this far.