Of Mice and Marathons

PM: 120' on the trainer. 

Zwift Race: 35:22 @ 280 watts @ 161 BPM

I had an FTP test scheduled, but was nervous about it, so I figured a race around 25-30' might be better and I could go out hard for 20', die, and get my 20' test. I warmed up about 24' with a clearing effort and got into the race. I went out decently hard and found myself off the front and increasing my lead, so I stuck with it. I had a 10-15 second gap at one put but the guys behind me were pushing pretty hard to catch me and I got caught around the 12' mark. I hung on as well as I could and kept up with the chase pack, but my confidence was shot (even though I didn't expect to hold them off the whole race, I still kind of hoped I would). My power dropped throughout and the overall effort wasn't fantastic, but it was okay. 

Cooled down an hour mostly in zone 2. Felt good for that. I wasn't super happy with the effort, but I also haven't done many full gas efforts over 10-12' in about two months, so probably something to that along with the weight loss. 

24' up @ 209 watts @ 123 BPM; 61' down @ 200 watts @ 120 BPM

PM: 60' on the trainer. 139W. HR 92. 

Active recovery. I was going to get up early and run or ride, but I went back to sleep. It's been miserably cold and rainy, so I doubt I'll get outside today. Megan is going to Toledo to help her parents move on Saturday, so I am going to shuffle workouts around a bit. Tomorrow's weather looks good for TND but I am sure with all the rain the roads are going to be an absolute mess. Oh well. 

AM: 8 miles, averaged 7:56. HR 141. 

Felt great on my morning run and sub-8:00 to 7:30 pace feels easier than it has in years. No doubt the quality aerobic workouts over the last 8 weeks have made these feel much easier. 

PM: 90' on the trainer. 227W. HR 136. 

5 x 8' Threshold

A good session today. I didn't have much time between my run, but it is easier to ride closer to a run than it is to run close to a run. Warmed into the workout and got strong throughout, which was the point. Even got my HR out of the 160s!

300 watts (149 BPM), 299 watts (151 BPM), 306 watts (152 BPM), 311 watts (155 BPM), 310 watts (159 BPM)

Lunch/PM: 4 hours 35' (~80 miles @ 17.4 MPH). 208W. HR 124.

Really solid ride. About 50 new miles. More pavement than I expected, but I was looking for roads back east. Power and HR were very solid. Back over 200 watts, which is good. Not too much wind, not too cold and not too warm. Fueled pretty consistently and made a big difference. I did two heavy Maurten gels and 2 Precision gels. I didn maybe 40 oz of 90g carb drink mix. So maybe only 50g or so per hour. Those gels are about $5 a piece though. 

AM: 60' on the trainer. 140W. HR 92.

Early recovery ride. Megan is in Toledo for an undetermined amount of time today, but I will try to get a short recovery run in later as I haven't run as much as I would have liked this week, but I had to skip my long run yesterday to get my long ride in given the weather window we had.

AMlLunch: 120' on the trainer. 236W. HR 137.

4 x 15' Under/Overs

A solid session today. I felt quite strong after getting to bed a decent hour and sleeping until just before 9:00. Did some work and decided to jump on the trainer. I was thinking about going outside but it was just about freezing and didn't feel like taking the extra time to get my bike ready. I was also thinking about doing a long run, as my running this week has been more minimal and inconsistent than previous weeks, but I did three bike sessions and a long ride, so I had plenty of training. 

This was a progression from the last several weeks. 3-4 weeks ago or so my legs felt like crap on these. Today I was ready to blast and on most of them felt I could have held full threshold for the entire 15'. The overall average power for the intervals confirms this. 

Goals were 270 watts for 2' and then 295 for 1' with 6' of recovery at zone 2 between intervals. I exceeded those targets, starting around 275 and finishing most around 280-285 and the threshold sections around 300-306 and finished with a few around 310-325.

Overall: 286 watts @ 150 BPM, 289 watts @ 153 BPM, 289 watts @ 154 BPM, 291 watts @ 154 

PM: 8.4 miles, averaged 8:46. HR 126.

Lunch/PM: 15.7 miles, averaged 7:41. HR 144.

6 x 2k w/ 2-2.5' Recoveries 

I was looking to extend the mile repeats from 2 weeks ago. I didn't get in a midweek workout or a long run last week, but that was okay. I just haven't run fast in a while. I was hoping to get around 6:15 or so for these to be in line with the 6 x 1 mile workout from two weeks ago, knowing that that is a a good bit faster than half marathon pace but that I want to see if I can get pretty close to sub-80 minute shape in 8 weeks. Today told me I am closer to that goal than I could have imagined. Plenty of work to do, but it doesn't feel as unrealistic as it did 4 weeks or so ago.  

I warmed up just under 4 miles. The wind was picking up and it was starting to rain a little and it was supposed to snow, but we never really got it thankfully. I wore super shoes for the first time in a long time. The last time I raced in September I didn't even bother with them, but I do think they help a good bit. 

Goal was to hit 7:40-7:45 per 2k or 6:10-6:14 per mile. I averaged 7:40, or 6:10/6:11 per mile. Jogs were no more than 2:30 with most around 2:15-2:25. I didn't get too fussy with those. 

Cooled down about 3.2 miles or so. I didn't have much on the cool down and my vision was a touch foggy. Clearly not enough fuel. A little fatigued after the workout but I got in a nap before picking the boys up. I haven't felt knackered after a workout in a while. Usually I gather myself and I am fine after a mile or so of cooling down. My legs didn't have much more than 9' pace, which was fine. It brought my HR back down nicely. 

Pretty pleased with this one. I have made a lot of progress since February. I feel very fortunate to be able to do this. 

AM: 60' on the trainer. 142W. HR 93.

Recovery ride. Felt decent, but a bit tired. Fell asleep while the boys were watching TV. I went to pick my mom up at the airport as she is staying with me and the boys while Megan is at a conference in Baltimore. 

PM: 8 miles, averaged 9:13. HR 119. 

Felt decent to start, then pretty awful. Just low on energy and thought I had to go to the bathroom. Felt fine after the halfway mark and picked up the pace. I will be interested to see how fast I can run and still keep my averaged HR below 120. It used to take 10'+. Running feels very effortless and enjoyable. Quite pleased.4

AM: 120' on the trainer. 212W. HR 126.

3 x 5' Anaerobic Over Unders

30" hard, 4' vo2 max, 30" hard as you can go. These were supposed to be something like 590 watts/336 watts/590 watts, but I wasn't getting there. I did not expect the 4' efforts to be that high. I figured 100% of threshold or slightly over, not 112-115% or whatever it was. Good session even if I wasn't able to fully hit the numbers. Mostly zone 2 other than the recoveries and a short warm up and cool down.

Megan left for Baltimore this morning. I will try to get my run in after class and before picking the boys up from school, otherwise I will see if they will behave for my mom long enough to squeeze in an hour. 

PM: 8 miles, averaged 8:01. HR 136.

Felt fantastic. Had just enough time to run before getting boys after class. Ran about 8:20 for the first mile and sped up organically. My strides feels the best it has felt in years. 7:30 pace feels better than maybe it ever has. HR was right around 145 for those last miles, so basically my zone 2 has gone from 7:50-8:45 to something like 7:20-8:00. 

Got the boys off to school, but it was a little stressful. Not that it surprises me, but Megan and I rely on each other a lot to take care of the boys.

AM: 100' on the trainer. 211W. HR 120. 

20' @ Sweet Spot

Scheduled for 2 x 20' w/ short recovery, but the boys were up at 7:15 and down on the couch. I got them breakfast and finished my interval while they watched TV. I decided I wouldn't be able to focus on the second one with them up, so I just cooled down. Not sure why they were up so early, and they almost never just get up and come down stairs. 

PM: 4.8 miles, averaged 8:24. HR 129.

Planned on more, but I had a few students stay after to get their questions addressed. I was glad actually as they rarely stay for the extra time I have built in. It had snowed a bit the night before, which stuck/sucked, but the pathways were clear. 

Took a short nap after dropping the boys off at school and before class. Took another nap between classes. I have had a good time relaxing with my Mom. She doesn't get to see the boys as much as she would like.