Of Mice and Marathons

AM: 60' on the trainer (Sanford +2). 187W. HR 143.

First interval session of Barry Roubaix buildup. 7 x 3' @ 105% of FTP, so just under 300 watts with equal recovery. Mostly just a muscle building workout and to make current FTP feel easier. Trainer worked just fine.

AM: 90' on the trainer (Brasstown). 189W. HR 137.

PM: 15' WU on treadmill. HR 128. 

+ Ancillary session. Hips and glutes w/ pushups and pullups between exercises.

Treadmill needs a good cleaning and lubrication. I underestimated the amount of maintainence these things would take. I think if I had to do it over again, I'd spend 2-3 times as much on a refurbished Woodway. Probably would hit my head on the floor joists though.

AM: 90' on the trainer (Zwift). 186W. HR 142.

Did most of the sprints. Probably should dump one of these programs, but sometimes the simplicity of TrainerRoad is not what I need. Zwift is good for longer rides and more realistic cycling feel and recovery rides. I think I'll likley use it when the roads are in shape as I won't need as much structured trainer. Possibly will use it for midweek interval sessions as it is perfect for that despite lacking "race specificity." Basically like running 2-mile repeats on the track for a half marathon workout, but I never had a problem with it.

Today was supposed to be a run day with a 20' tempo, but I want to do some work on the treadmill first. It will likely take me several days to get to it.

AM: 60' on the fat bike @ Orion Oaks. HR 152.

I thought the conditions might be decent as I thought they groomed the trails for cross country skiing. They are tough going and I was basically breaking trail in a few places. Had enough and went home.

The boys went to their friends.

Off.

I think this was the day the shifting on my smart bike started messing up. Called it and took the day off. First day off in 33 days or so.

AM/Lunch: 2.5 hours on the fat bike. HR 157.

Road to Bald Mountain South and it was in absolutely fantastic shape as one of the guys went through with his snowmobile. I did three laps there are actually set my third fastest time. 

Cut down the Polly Ann, which was in horrible shape. The plowed portions a few weeks ago and it was super fast. This was awful as were the safety paths to get to Orion Oaks. Apparently schools throughout the municipality don't do their sidewalks and paths. Went into Orion Oaks and it was such garbage. I kept falling and stalling and swearing. Headed back out to the dirt roads but the ones heavily travelled were glare ice and I wasn't feeling like a fall. 

PM: 3.6 miles in 42' on the treadmill. HR 131.

Bike still not working and the treadmill shutoff. The last few days have not been great other than a really good ride Sunday.

Put a call into Wahoo on the bike.

AM/Lunch: 60' on the trainer (Antelope -5). 215W. HR 150.

Messed around with the trainer and figured out the shifters were reprogrammed and that I could use it in erg mode and I just needed to be aware of the shifting pattern. By the time I finished the workout, it was back to normal. A good interval session.

PM: 60' on the trainer (Zwift). 150W. HR 125.

Mood much improved today. Been fighting the blues/minor depression for a few days. My dad was officially diagnosed with early stage dementia by his primary care physician as of Thursday and my mom told me Friday. I knew it was the case by the official diagnosis hit a little hard.

AM: 60' on the trainer. 76W. HR 88.

What cyclists call "active recovery" or "AR." For runners it's either recovery or rest. Legs were fine from yesterday. Just trying to absorb the work. Plus it is fun to watch Food Network and silently add "that's what she said" to pretty much everything Molly Yeh says.

Good day. Better than the previous ones. Nice day of students ghosting meetings, getting some grading done, and mostly playing with my kids. Oh, and a very efficient 20' nap when Megan was upstairs working and the boys were napping.

Starting to get a little cabin fever, but overall not bad. Just waiting for the new bike to come in so that I can get a few rides in before Barry Roubaix at the end of March. Roads won't be in shape for several weeks, but I can at least look at it while I am on the trainer.

AM: 2 hours on the trainer (Zwift). 176W. HR 138.

PM: 60' on the trainer (Zwift). 183W. HR 139.

An indulgent day of exercise, but that's the beauty of working from home and having a reduced course load. Getting further sucked into the Zwift universe. Today I figured out my fancy trainer can "steer"(using buttons on the inside of the hoods). Not exactly sure how it plays out in the virtual world other than working on line selection and moving around people (in racing I imagine it helps with drafting). I think what drove me nuts about it at first makes it that intriguing now.

A good day. Mentally feel the best I have in a long time. Mostly been pretty solid lately anyway, but it feel nice to feel really good. Training my head off seems to help.

Down 21 lbs from last year at this time. Another 10 to go. The additional 10 might never happen again, but things are starting to snowball a bit, which is nice. It has been SLOW.

AM: 90' on the trainer (Townsend -1). 168W. HR 128.

The boys went to their friend's for a while.

PM: 90' on the trainer (Zwift). 164W. HR 140

PM: 60' on the trainer (Zwift). 154W. HR 136.

Didn't end up doing the 3 hours I has scheduled. I ended up going bad to bed for a while in the morning.

Lunch: 60' on the trainer (Zwift). 182W. HR 143.

PM: 60' on the trainer (Zwift). 185W. HR 145.

AM: 75' on the trainer (Antelope -4). 198W. HR 147.

Solid interval session. 4 x 10' sweet spot, with 6' recoveries. Recoveries a little long, but got some work in.

PM: 60' recovery ride on Zwift. 73W. HR 99.

AM: 45' recovery ride on Zwift. 91W. HR 95.

Cut it short of 1 hour to meet with a student on time who didn't show. Starting to feel some mild cold symptoms the last few days. Nothing major so far.

AM: 90' on the trainer (Phoenix). 219W. HR 158.

Heart rate higher than expected, but a slight cold since maybe Tuesday. Took a COVID test as I am paranoid. Negative. Probbaly should not have pushed while sick as I have really messed myself up several times in the last few years doing that, but the training load and workouts were much harder.

Lunch: 15' WU on the treadmill. HR 125. + light ancillary session.

Some quick hip stuff after doing a little routine maintenance on the treadmill. I was hoping to hear back from company to make sure it was done right, but decided to just do it myself.

Off.

Took the day off to rest and hang out with the boys. Cold lingering but don't feel too bad. Megan got the worst of it. Boys seem just fine.

AM/Lunch: 90' on the trainer (Zwift). 143W. HR 131.

Supposed to do closer to 3 hours, but didn't get downstairs early enough. Massively anxious after, but I got a sandwhich and started hydrating pretty hard and started to feel a lot better.

AM: 60' on the trainer (Zwift). 186W. HR 131.

Felt a little worse with the cold today and Megan's has been rough. Boys still seem fine. Thought my HR might be higher today, but it was in good shape. 

PM: 60' on the trainer (Zwift). 195W. HR 136.

Two solid rides. Felt very comfortable. Set up some custom workouts on Zwift so when I dump TrainerRoad I will have some preprogrammed stuff. Make training fun again to be piecing things together. 

Felt much better mentally throughout the day and had a good nap at lunchtime on the couch while the boys napped and Megan was in a meeting. Think I might have been run down and overtired from being sick. 

AM: 60' on the trainer (Zwift). 186W. HR 129.

PM: 60' on the trainer (Zwift). 220W. HR 150.

Good interval session. 4 x 8' @ 90% w/ 4' recoveries. Wrote my workout, which is really not hard to do when you have a running background and a decent basic understanding of cycling .

AM: 45' on the treadmill. HR 121.

Very slow recovery jog. Treadmill cut out. Got a message from my buddy Tom about hooking up the 20AMP dedicated breaker for tomorrow.

AM: 60' on the trainer (Zwift). 194W. HR 132.

PM: 60' on the trainer (Zwift). 206. HR 143.

Got a decent little nap in. I have been taking naps most days just after the boys go down for theirs. Yesterday I slept for a bit over an hour and it felt like I was paralyzed (in a good way). Todqy was around 20-30', which if well timed is amazingly perfect. I'm a big napper but haven't got into a rhythm lately even with working from home.

My buddy Tom came to look at the electrical. He asked if the treadmill was popping breakers, which I felt dumb about because of course if the treadmill was overloading the circuit that is what it would do. Not the case. Something is causing the treadmill to draw more power than it needs (or it needs more power than it can handle and it shuts down). Not sure this will slove the issue, but I am going to have it done anyway. Put a service request in to NordicTrack just because. Trying to be more assertive as the machine has never been right even after four service calls. 

Break start for me today more or less. Won't change things a ton, but still feels exiciting somehow and that is good.

AM: 90' on the trainer (Zwift). 203W. HR 137.

PM: 60' on the trainer (Zwift). 206. HR 138.

Megan and I both have lingering cold, so the boys didn't go to their friends. Mine has been mild, Megan's has been rough. The boys seem unaffected. 

Winter break started.

AM/Lunch: ~3 hours on the trainer w/ Zwift Race

Zwift Race: 64' @ 275W. HR 171.

Decided to do a race rather than 3 hours of endurance riding. The pace yo-yoed for the first 15' and then I got dropped hard and basically turned it into a time trial. I had to really concentrate and gut it out. No one really cares if you quit a virtual race in your basement, but I figured I needed to solid effort. I chased down one rider for most of the first lap and held them off in the second. 

30' warm up and 90' cool down. 

AM: 60' on the trainer (Zwift). 144W. HR 112.

PM: 60' on the trainer (Zwift ). 144W. HR 113.

14+ hours of training this week. I haven't put up numbers like that for some time. Going to try to pack it in this week over break. Still waiting on my new bike and getting a bit nervous with the first outdoor race of the season a month away.

AM: 120' on the trainer (Zwift). 187W. HR 133.

PM: 60' on the trainer (Zwift). 195W. HR 136.

Tried to do a hillier ride in the morning by setting the automatic incline. Wanted a bit hillier but didn't want to overdo it. Need to learn the different courses. Afternoon ride was steady in ERG mode @ 75% for the most part. It's a lot easier to ride for 2 hours in the morning and an hour in the afternoon than it is to run for the same amount of time.