Of Mice and Marathons

AM: 5.9 miles, averaged 11:05. HR 129.

Recovery. Roads and paths still covered.

Night: 60' on the trainer. 112W. HR 94.

More recovery. Much easier to ride after dinner than run.

PM: 100' on the trainer. 236W. HR 148.

90' tempo 5' up/5' down

Around 245-250W for the tempo @ ~149 BPM, which I was pretty happy with. Didn't measure the actual 90' interval but have a good idea based on segments and the HR lap from my Polar. Felt really strong and my HR stayed quite low.

AM: 100' on the trainer. 179W. HR 120.

Took it easy, kept the HR low. Didn't quite get my planned two hours, but this was just fine. Boys went to their friends. I took care of a few light domestic things, such as returning bottles and setting some mouse traps in the attics.

I feel like my fitness has increased a good deal over the last month. Running is coming along slowly, but I am enjoying it and that is all I care about.

AM: 180' on the trainer. 230W. HR 146.

Strong ride. Did "The Pretzel" in Watopia. Very hilly. Did the route in 2:28 and then just did some other parts of the world to get 3 hours. 

I've been rewatching the Walking Dead. The early seasons were great.

AM: 9.8 miles, averaged 9:12. HR 145.

30' easy, 30' steady, 30' easy

7:49 pace @ 162 BPM. Slow progress. Hit two miles around 7:30 pace toward the end, but it had a little downhill. This week the workouts will extend the steady portions out. It's actually a nice little effort to run by as I don't concern myself with pace and it isn't too hard. 

AM: 6.1 miles, averaged 10:35. HR 124.

Recovery. HR seemed somewhat low and did have a few drops, but it generally does. Maybe it was just not having to run over completely covered surfaces. 

PM: 120' on the trainer. 222W. HR 141.

6 x 10' @ 90-95% (4')

Good workout. 288W @ 157 avg HR. HR stayed quite low and I exceeded targets as the workout went on: 272/275 (148 BPM), 278/275 (153 BPM), 289/285 (156 BPM), 287/285 (161BPM), 300/290 (162 BPM), 305/290 (165 BPM)

AM: 6.1 miles, averaged 10:40. HR 125.

Recovery. Legs felt solid. Just kept it slow and the HR down. Pace has dropped for these recovery runs considerably and I have no issues keeping my HR in the 120s. Snow has mostly melted except for where it refroze from slush. I have some steadier minutes this week, so looking forward to safer ground. 

PM: ~120' on the trainer. 

14' WU (146W, HR 102), 60' w/ 40' group ride (214W, HR 142), 20' race (295W, HR 169), 26' CD (128W, HR 125)

Decided to do a group ride, which I thought was going to be a straight steady effort, but the pace yo-yoed and we did some sprints, which was actually fun. Just wasn't what I was planning on. Saw that there was a race on the new Scotland course, so I jumped into that. Good effort.

AM: 8.4 miles, averaged 8:54. HR 147.

20' easy, 20' steady, 5' jog, 10' steady, 20' easy

7:39 (162) for 20' and 7:20 (166) for 10'

PM: 60' on the trainer. 111W. HR 94.

AM: 120' on the trainer. 190W. HR 127.

Planned on three hours, but got kinda bored and wanted to see the boys before their nap.

We had friends come stay. Their little boy was boy in March of 2020, so a few months older than the boys, but they are about his size.

PM: 11.5 miles, averaged 8:41. HR 152.

100' w/ 40' steady

30' up, 40' steady, 30' down. Made the mistake of eating leftover Detroit style pizza for lunch. Got through the workout okay, but struggled the rest of the day with GI distress and cramping. 

Started out on the Polly Ann, but it was pretty sloppy, so I headed to the tempo loop. Effort was maybe a bit higher than "steady," maybe more in line with aerobic builder efforts of old.  Did 5.35 miles in 40', so 7:29 pace w/ HR @ 168, which is probably the upper end to average for a marathon, though I have never worn a HRM during a marathon. Slow, but steady progress. I need to remind myself I had two+ years of very low mileage and I am only running 25-30 miles a week. Things should snowball from here. 

Next week the midweek has an additional 5' and the long run has an additional 10, so working up to just under 2 hours with 50' steady. Workouts right now are simple and straightforward, which works for me.

AM: 5.8 miles, averaged 11:08. HR 122.

Recovery. Did not want to get up, but I got it in. A bit lighter in the morning on my earlier runs. Pleased I have been motivated overall to get up earlier when I don't need to. 

Night: 60' on the trainer. 109W. HR 89.

PM: 2 hours 10' ride. 182W HR 133.

Got outside on the Crux for the first time since fall and the first outdoor ride in 3 months. Layered perfectly and rolled the dice on some of the dirt roads. They were in excellent shape and only slightly soft in a place or two and only a few very pot holed sections, otherwise absolutely fantastic. Average speed was 16, with HR fairly low. 

AM: 8.3 miles, averaged 8:25. HR 155.

20' steady, 5' jog, 15' steady

7:34 (167); 7:12 (171)

Felt decent. It was fiarly humid and around 50 with a solid wind out of th south west. Pace is dropping. 

Headed to Chicago tomorrow with Megan and the boys for Megan's conference.

AM: 5.8 miles, averaged 11:18. HR 124.

Drove to Chicago. We got caught in the freezing rain and other crap. Very scary for a while. Over a dozen cars spun out and off the road. It cleared up as we moved along thankfully. I had told Megan we needed to stop and stay at a hotel on the way because it was too dangerous, but we got into a place where it was more rain, so we made it.

Off.

A slight cold. We took the boys to the aquarium. 

Off.

Took the boys swimming at the hotel pool. They did quite well.

Off.

Was scheduled to do 1:50 with 50' steady, but I didn't feel like doing it with a cold because that doesn't work well for me these days. Took another day. Think it has been since the first of the year that I took any day off, so I was due. 

AM: 6.4 miles, averaged 10:08. HR 134.

Still have some very minor cold symptoms, but I was done taking days off. Headed to Florida to see my parents who have been staying in AirB&Bs since the first of the year. The boys' first plane ride, which should be interesting.

Lunch: 90' on the trainer. 220W. HR 148.

5 x 10' w/ 3' Recoveries

282 (154), 294 (162), 299 (169), 292 (171), 294 (172)

Decided to get a workout in even with a minor cold still. We ended up going to Megan's Uncle's early to leave for Florida as we had some awful weather coming through. It was a good thing we did.

Off.

We had a good dinner last night and got out the door at a decent hour to go to the local airport. Mostly rain, but it was very close to changing over. We got through the airport okay, but it was a bit stressful. We got into Punta Gorda around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. It was a good afternoon and evening around the pool. We stayed up late, which was very late for my brother. It was a bit crowded with 12 people in one small house.

Off.

Should have run, but with the boys and sort of post running career height if I don't want to run on vacation it is pretty easy to talk myself out of it. It would have been perfect to run with Megan, but I think she thought it would be too warm. 

This was the day we went to Robert's house, had lunch, and swam in the pool. 

Off.

We went to the beach. The destruction along the coast was very unsettling. There was a blown out concrete structure (looked like a garage), but I looked up and there was part of surf shop with mannequins up on the second floor. Boats were blown into the trees along the road there. 

Red tide was in the area, which everyone thought was not at this beach, but the dry cough confirmed it. Sawyer started to complain about his eyes, which we thought was just him being tired, but then I was near the water with Charlie I had to quickly get him back to Megan because it felt like I had been pepper sprayed. We left and my eyes burned the whole way home. It was awful. Sawyer and I were the only ones affected it seemed. 

We watched the Breakfast Club with my siblings and Mom at night. My dad has been collecting DVDs at flea markets and that was one of the ones he picked up. Pretty memorable night. 

The boys were wiped out. This might have been the morning Charlie slept through the morning like a teenager and took a looong nap in the afternoon in one of the regualr beds.

Off.

We went to the zoo, which was a lot of fun. I think the boys had a little trouble enjoying it as they were so exhausted. Josh and my niece and nephew left. Started to get a little sad because I knew Katie and Delia would be leaving early in the morning and it would be just us and Mom and Dad, who has been really good but in all the activity in the house I haven't really thought much about. 

Off.

We hung out in the morning and went to a beach where dad loves to spend time in his walker chair with a net collecting shells. We took the kids to a playground after. It was quite crowded. 

Off.

We hung out for a bit in the morning and then went to the airport. We got into Toledo around 8 or so. Chas picked us up at Toledo Airport. We drove home and got in around 10. Pretty tired. The boys were alseep of course, so we just put them right into their cribs.

PM: 120' on the trainer. 159W. HR 129.

HR up a bit as expected. Maybe some slight lingering congestion from previous cold or something new. Decompressing from visiting parents and getting back into the swing of things. We had a really good visit. A memorable trip for sure.