El Burro Blanco

Met up with Clyde this morning in the wonderful rain and ran from Jacob Hamblin.  We ran up and did one loop on Barrel Roll and then came back to the car.  We then went back out for some more miles.  We went over towards Green Valley and back.  Not a ton of rain but it made for some soft trails.  It was quite enjoyable.  Good solid run to start of the week.

Hurried home for more time with baby Norah.

Got home from work later than expected but still went out for a decent run.  It was raining pretty good and the wind was blowing but it was still an enjoyable run.  The temperature still wasn't that bad.  I went out along the Snow Canyon Parkway.  I felt great the whole time and just relaxed everything.  Came back pretty soaked but ate a good dinner after wards which made me feel better.

"Meat Grinders" with Clyde this afternoon.  I ran from the high school over there.  We ended up doing 3 of them today.  Times were about the same as last week but the legs felt pretty heavy today for both of us.  We had some guests on  Webb Hill with a lady and 4 little kids, a old lady with a dog, and the phone people looking at us like we were nuts for running the hill.  Lots of traffic for a pretty gnarly hill.  We got through the workout and now I will slowly get ready for our 30 miler on Saturday.

It rained extremely hard today in St. George.  I was planning on the club run this evening but the rain was as bad as I have seen it down here.  I contemplated going out in it but I would have looked like a wet dog within 10 seconds of running in it.  I grudgingly hopped on the treadmill at the high school to get the run in.  I haven't run on the treadmill since I moved down here so it has been a while.  I only had my long sleeve tech shirt because I was going to brave the weather so I ended up sweating all over the place.  Not fun but oh well!  I did the first 3 miles at 7:03/mile, the next 3 at 6:39/mile, the next 2 at 6:18/mile, and then did the last 2 miles at 6:00/mile.  I didn't want to speed up but the run was dragging on.  I survived, sweat and all, and then hurried home.

Hopefully it stops raining soon!

Relaxed today in preparation for the long run tomorrow.

Today was one of the most epic runs I have ever done.  Clyde and I needed to do another 30 mile run so we planned to go out by Little Black Mountain and do 3 loops.  Each loop is right at 10 miles.  I ended up having to use the commitment pattern (Clyde's words not mine) to get him to go.  We both knew it was going to be muddy and wet but we just needed to get it done.

The first loop consisted of a ton of mud for the first 2 or so miles and then their was snow on the ground for the rest of it.  We kept it nice and relaxed and ended up doing the first lap in 1:15.  Not bad considering the conditions.  

The second loop was supposed to more of a quicker tempo run where we picked up the pace a little.  The sun warmed up everything so it was even more muddy.  Clyde said he had a side stitch but then proceeded to pick up the pace even more.  He said after wards that his side stitch went away.  We ended up doing this loop in 1:07.  We were both really happy with this one because the road was in really bad conditions.  Thanks Clyde for getting frisky and pushing the pace even more :)

The final loop was a lot of "fun."  We couldn't believe how much mud we were running in at the first.  The road got better and we ended up keeping the pace honest and finished the final loop in 1:12. 

The problem with running today was we ended up dragging mud all 30 miles on our shoes.  This added more weight which didn't help.  Also, the footing was pretty slippery so we were "ice skating" at times.  We even sunk down in mud about 3-4 at times.  You had to be careful with your footing.  We finished the run in 3:34:20 though for the full 30 miles.  Clyde and I were really stoked after we finished.  We feel good going into our race in a couple weeks.

We ended up taking some good pictures to verify we did the run.  Clyde should have them on his blog or on his Facebook page.