Of Mice and Marathons

PM: 2.5 hours on TrainerRoad (Ochoco). HR 147.

Watched 3 episodes of Breaking Bad, which I have already seen. This was my longest time on a bike inside. Took some focus even with Netflix.

Off.

PM: 80' on TrainerRoad (Carson). HR 137.

Had a dentist appointments and PT after an awards ceremony for student writing submissions. Weather has warmed up a bit. I feel like running, but don't feel like getting going. Plus I am not running racing and I only have a month to prepare for the season openers for gravel season. I figure as long as I am exercising it's fine. I'll get back to it.

PM: 60' on TrainerRoad (Petit). HR 129.

PM: 33.9 mile ride. HR 153.

My buddy Joe called me about Thursday Night Dirt, so I ripped my bike off the trainer and got things adjusted. It was an unofficial start, so it was just us, but I needed it. Feeling claustrophobic with new neighbors. Route was in decent shape for this time of year.

Off. 

I think I had PT. 

PM: 64.5 mile ride. HR 151.

Weather was solid and I wanted to get in 3-3.5 hours. Got in 4. Felt decent. We went to Corktown in Detroit to see a colleague's band play.

PM: 34.4 mile ride. HR 135.

Pretty windy but very seasonable. A few roads were messy, but they weren't rutted. Nice back-to-back longer rides.

PM: 10.2 miles, averaged 9:00. HR 146.

First run in 11-12 days. Good run. A very good day!

Off. 

PT and voting. Went to a award ceremony as a student nominated me for an inspiration award. I was honored that a student took the time to nominate me. One of those days of running around and feeling like I got nothing done.

Off. 

I had classes but I didn't keep students too long as I was pretty sure Oakland University was going to make an announcement about moving to online classes. It made the announcement around 4 PM. Not the worst thing for my classes as they are partially online (Fridays). Quite a week I must say!

PM: 34.3 mile ride. HR 153.

First official Thursday Dirt. Good weather and solid group. A few sketchy places as the frost is still lifting. 

It looks like Barry Roubaix is up in the air. Just have to wait and see and hope the cancellations don't extend to far into May and June. 
 

PM: 5.7 miles on the treadmill.

Went to the gym with Megan. Quite empy as expected. I managed enough focus for a slow hour. I listened to an audiobook for motivation. Currently listening to Stephen King's Desperation. It's wildy creepy. I just finished Roadwork.

PM: 45.1-mile ride. HR 149.

Got a little turned around. Just under 3 hours total time.

PM: 66.8-mile ride. HR 151.

4:18 of total time. Dirt roads were in solid shape. Did a few harder efforts just because.

PM: 14.7-mile ride. HR 117.

Recovery ride on a 5-mile neighborhood route. I struggled a lot with anxiety in the first few days of this new week. Our heat went out either this day or on Tuesday and as of Thursday they haven't fixed it. They sent someone out and he took pictures to show them the unit is beyond repair (I imagine). I have a space heater and I have been running the oven. It hasn't been that cold. We also have a new neighbor who smokes pot in his apartment and has thumping bass. I have not gone over because I am pretty sure I won't be able to keep from doing violence.

PM: 50-mile ride. HR 140.

I rode to downtown Rochester and out to the Thursday Night Dirt Loop. 3.5 hours. Slow. A few efforts on some segments.

PM: 31.8-mile ride. HR 136.

Just over two hours. One of the guys I ride with has created a COVID-19 Invitational Time Trial series. He creates a Strava segment (COVID-19 Invitational Time Trial: Prologue) and you go out and time trial it. It's great because it keeps things feeling social. The idea is to go out alone so you aren't in groups. I gave it a hard effort, but it was slow (about 18.7 MPH). Course had chunky gravel (freshly graded) and some tar. I'm currently last out of 7. The guys ahead of me are (not surprisingly) much faster. I need to drop the extra 10-12 lbs I am carrying. I look forward to seeing what some of the other segments are. Part of the difficulty is memorizing the roads and the turns.

PM: 12.3 miles, averaged 9:42. HR 143.

Last day of physical therapy for my hip, so I figured why not run for 2 hours when I haven't run in almost a week? Lots of people out. Lots of them figuring out that walking and exercise is not as bad as they thought. Run was very good and needed. I will likely run tomorrow and maybe Saturday and see what Sunday looks like. This ran will make the dirt roads muddy, but they will also pack down when they dry with everything graded.

Turned a corner with feeling completely insane this week. It's a very wild time to be alive.

PM: 12.4 miles, averaged 9:52. HR 145.

Legs were predictably smashed.

PM: 34.7-mile ride. HR 133.

Slow ride. Grumpy most of the time. Rode through campus, which was weird. Felt better after the ride.

Off (mostly).

Did quite a few pushups. I'm focusing on getting prison ripped like Phil Collen with the gyms being closed. Thinking about a blog pushup challenge, but I need a bit of time.

Weather was good, but I tried to get some work done. Having a very hard time focusing. Took Megan for a drive on some of the gravel roads. A pothole almost swallowed my driver side front wheel of my Subaru. I think Megan was a little nervous after that. A bit of snow tonight, which will really mess the roads up. Warmer weather coming though, so it will melt quickly but I imagine it will be muddy until it dries out.

Trying to remain calm, but it's difficult. This should seem like a vacation, but it doesn't. Trying to limit my contact with people as much as possible, but it's hard.

PM: 10.1 miles, averaged 9:03. HR 157.

Basically a steady run once I got going. Most miles were between steady easy to moderate to just under marathon effort with a few at the end that were basically marathon effort. Decent run once I cleared the Care Bear rains clouds from over my head.

Might ride tomorrow, but I imagine the dirt roads are a mess from the snow, which thankfully melted today.

Lots of pushups most sets of 30-40. Doing about 100-150 a day maybe.

PM: 62.9-mile ride. HR 144.

Enjoyed the ride. Good weather. Traffic light especially farther north on the dirt.

PM: 30-mile ride. HR 133.

Ventured out to the grocery store. Trying to limit my trips and interactions as much as possible.

PM: 30.9-mile ride. HR 149.

Drove to Stony Creek High School to cut down on some time even though I have been just leaving from home for my solo ride. Warmed up for a while and then did a very hard effort of 21' for the Tim's COVID-19 Invitational Time Trial.

I didn't program the segment in my computer, so I wrote it on the inside of my left forearm. Worked great. Just under 19MPH on rolling gravel with a number of turns. Averaged heart rate was 182 (peaked at 190!) and averaged power was 283. Put me 8th out of 18, which was far better placing (so far) than last week. Noodled around back to the car, but not before taking a picture of a giant tree with a plaque. We like to cut down trees unnecessarily in South Eastern Michgian, but some of them get awards.

Today was a great day!

PM: 3.6-mile walk with Megan. HR 84.

Sunny and comfortable. Not too warm, not too cold. Start to feel a tickle in my throat, but it could have been the cheap bourbon I drank or allergies. Eyes are a little itchy tonight, so  I am hoping that is it.

Lots of pushups. Did a 1' time trial and I think it was too close to waking because I did about 38, took a break and couldn't get much back into it and did 44. I did a straight set of 40 tonight, so I definitely could have done more. My last time doing these I think it was in the low 50s.

PM: 12.4 miles, averaged 9:09. HR 155.

Nothing quite like running for almost 2 hours on 1-3 runs a week, but can now see why triathletes don't have to run too much.

PM: 3.9-mile walk w/ Megan. HR 81.

Weird day for weather. Extremely windy. Warm in the morning. Kind of a mess mentally today. Comes and goes in this crazy times. Went to the grocery story for food and booze for the next several days.

PM: 33-mile ride. HR 137.

The roads were quite fast in places. Kind of felt crazy with our stupid neighbor being a complete moron.

PM: 36-mile ride. HR 143.

Had a little bourbon before the ride. Young folks reading (or older folks) don't be like Jason.

Tried to take down a segment that wasn't super firm, but missed by 1 second. It would have brought the sharks out anyway as the segement isn't too firm and the fast guys would jump on it. That section of road is fast right now. I did just under 27MPH (only 60 seconds or so), but did 480 watts. Needless to say, my quads are starting to outpace my calves.