Of Mice and Marathons

AM: 7.8 miles, averaged 8:22. HR 146.

5x6' 

Stitches come out today. Solid workout. 7:33-7:07. HR averaged 155-161 BPM.

PM: 60' on the trainer. 187W. HR 121. 

PM: 60' on the trainer. 197W. HR 138. 

20' Field Test

Decided to do a 20' test to help set zones. Did 265, which was really disappointing but not surprising. I did make it through the 20' and paced it somewhat evenly. I think I did 267 or 268 for the first 10 and then 262 for the second 10, which is probably about right. I have a lot of work to do on the bike. Running too.

PM: 33 miles @ 19.6 MPH on the road bike in 1:41. 190W. HR 132. 

4 x 10' Sweet Spot

It was very windy and I didn't have a ton of time so I rode some familiar neighborhoods and did the workout on one of the longer tempo loops I use for running long run workouts. 

228W @ 142 BPM. 233W @ 146 BPM. 240W @ 149 BPM. 236W @ 147 BPM.

Legs were pretty sluggish, breathing was fine. In most recent years this has been high zone 2 to low tempo. Oh well. On where to go but up.

PM: 2 hours 10' on the trainer. 201W. HR 126.

60' Tempo

235W @ 140 BPM. Felt good about pacing the effort. This was a decent benchmark for the season. Room to improve, but the pacing was good and power wasn't bad. I can work with this. 

+ 30' sauna. HR 94. 

Sauna reintroduction after getting my stitches out.

Off. 

Felt kind of blah, skipped my long run and was going to do something later in the day, but it didn't happen. 

AM: 9.7 miles, averaged 8:17. HR 147. 

8 x 1k

Changed over to distance for my subthreshold workouts so that I can keep track of my total mileage and incrementally add and get a sense of the percentage of overall quality during the week. 7:10-6:44 pace. Effort a little high, maybe with some peaks around 167-170 at times, but not bad. 60' recoveries. These efforts were much more controlled than when I do them around 40'-50' race effort and jog 90" recoveries. 

4:27, 4:20, 4:17, 4:18, 4:14, 4:12, 4:13, 4:11

PM: 90' on the trainer. 186W. HR 120. 

4x8'

Lactate guided subthreshold. 3.4, 2.1, 2.1, 2.5. Took 4' recoveries. These efforts were very manageable, so I think I finally dialed in the mix discipline double threshold day. We will see if this is repeatable twice a week over a few weeks. HR was low.

234W @ 137 BPM (3.4 mmols), 225W @ 131 BPM (2.1 mmols), 230W @ 135 BPM (2.1 mmols), 236W @ 136 BPM (2.5 mmols)

220-235 is a good anchor point for these double days for now. I will restest on Wednesday and then likely just go with it if results are similiar. 

PM: 6.5 miles, averaged 10:05. HR 123. 

Recovery run with 4 x strides. I am unsure whether strides should be done during a recovery run, but doing a workout every other day or so doesn't leave any maintenance runs to do them on. I would generally do them on a regular maintenance day the day before a workout.

AM: 9.8 miles, averaged 8:12. HR 143. 

4 x 2k

Solid workout. Feeling much better mentally than the last week. Started a bit too conservatively, but settled in. 9:09 @ 155 BPM, 8:44 @ 160 BPM, 8:39 @ 162 BPM and 8:39 @ 162 BPM. The average pace was right around 7' pace, so some progress over the last few weeks. I imagine once I start stacking these a few times per week over a series of weeks the fitness will return. I'd like to get these into the low-6' pace or under by September, hopefully closer to 5:50-5:55 or faster. 

PM: 90' on the trainer. 194W. HR 122. 

4 x 8' 

Solid second session. Fueled well and it made a difference. Need to be better at that as I was last year. 

All reps between 2.2-2.4 mmols, so nice and consistent. I was definitely holding back and keeping things controlled. 228W (135 BPM), 232W (134 BPM), 237W (136 BPM), 237W (137 BPM).

HR was about what I would do for high zone 2 to tempo, but lactate suggested it was perfect, maybe slightly conservative, but that is what I want for these days. I can push a little higher in my weekend workout and into next week. Higher 2s would be fine. Getting some traction now. 

PM: 5.7 miles, averaged 10:37. HR 123. 

I was dragging pretty hard. 

AM/Lunch: 3 hours on the trainer. 214W. HR 136. 

80' Tempo + 2 x 10' Threshold

Solid workout. I felt like things were starting to click and move back in the right direction. Tempo was 240 watts @ 147 BPM, and threshold intervals were 276 (158 BPM) and 278 (159 BPM). I felt like I could have pressed a good bit on those, but held it on target.

PM: 2 hours 30'. 41.1 miles @ 16.4 MPH. 198W. HR 123. 

3 x 12' Sweet Spot

Wanted to get out on the dirt roads. They were a little rough, but the tempo loop was in okay shape. 252 watts @ 140 BPM, 260 watts @ 141 BPM, and 266 watts @ 140 BPM. HR was quite low, likely some HR suppression from the longer workout yesterday. 

AM: 6.5 miles, averaged 10:04. HR 122. 

+ 30' sauna. HR 94. 

AM: 9.8 miles, averaged 8:08. HR 146. 

8x1k

4:26-4:05 (7:08-6:36). Pretty solid session. 

AM: 8.5 miles, averaged 8:15. HR 149. 

4x8'

Solid session. Legs heavy from last night's bike session, but I wanted to get this in. 7:08, 7:09, 7:15, 7:07. HR 162-165.

PM: 90' on the trainer. 196W. HR 126. 

4x10'

237 (139), 232 (138), 239 (140), 235 (142)

PM: 60' on the trainer. 130W. HR 98. 

+ Sauna for 30'. HR 91.

PM: 3 hours 9'. 60.6 miles @ 19.3 MPH. 207W. HR 139. 

4x15' Sweet Spot

Road bike. Solid loop and the intervals fell into the right places. 246 @ 151, 249 @ 150, 243 @ 150, 247 @ 154. 

Off. 

Sick. Caught a mild stomach bug somewhere. Didn't feel awful, but was definitely not feeling well.

Off.

Decided to rest. Wasn't feeling terrible, but wasn't 100%.

AM: 7.1 miles, averaged 8:27. HR 144.

5x1k

Kind of just went by feel. Felt just okay. Low on energy as expected. Deload week and sick, so I figured 5-6 x a k and call it good.

PM: 2 hours 13'. 192W. HR 129. 

3x15' Tempo

230 (141), 236 (142), 238 (141)

Off.

Sick. Didn't feel awful and then in the night on Tuesday I was up about every hour. Not sure if it was a new bug or the old one resurging, but it was definitely worse the second time aroudn.

Off.

Felt pretty awful. Thankfully classes are done at Oakland and I could work from home.

PM: 2 hours 7'. 162W. HR 130. 

Tried a workout, but energy was low and knew it was a bad idea, so I just rode.

PM: 1 hour 48'. 158W. HR 126.

Roads were awful. Loose, graded yet rough. Rocks, sticks, etc. Low or energy and not much to give. 

AM: 6.2 miles, averaged 8:18. HR 143.

Felt pretty good once I got rolling. Did some strides. We drove to Toledo as Megan is doing the half-marathon tomorrow morning.

PM: 7.9 miles, averaged 8:15. HR 146.

Megan ran 1:58:02 in the half. About 2 minutes better than the last time she ran, which was great.

AM: 12 miles, averaged 7:57. HR 153. 

11x1k

Miscounted, but in the right direction. Felt decent. Effort was slightly higher than subthreshold toward the second half, but I just rolled with it. It wasn't terribly hard, just touching closer to lactate threshold than I have been. Averaged 4:15ish or about 6:55ish. 

PM: 4 miles, averaged 10:06. HR 124. 

PM: 5.7 miles, averaged 10:13. HR 123.

Evening: 4 miles, averaged 9:35. HR 123. 

AM: 10.3 miles on the treadmill. HR 145. 

4x10'

It was cooler and rainy and I didn't feel like getting wet. It was the right decision as I locked into the workout and dialed in the effort perfectly. I ran at 1% instead of 1.5% and started at 7.5 MPH and worked down to 7.9 MPH. I imagine there is about .5 MPH difference between the treadmill and my flat outdoor loop, but I used the opportunity to take in some gels and fluids and take lactate. Rep 1 = 7.5 @ 155 BPM @ 2.2 mmols, Rep 2 = 7.7 @ 155 BPM @ 2.1 mmols, Rep 3  = 7.8 @ 158 BPM @ 2.1 mmols, Rep 4 = 7.9 @ 160 BPM @ 2.3 mmols. 

I took in 90g of gels (3 x 30g every 20' or so). This tell me that for longer reps, most likley HR should average between 155-162ish, but probably not much higher, though I would have to test. Effort feels about like marathon effort. 

+ 25' sauna. HR 103. 

PM: 3 miles on the treadmill. HR 116. 

PM: 6.4 miles, averaged 9:39. HR 126.

Tested some Puma super shoes. I'm still not completely sold on super shoes, but I want to like them. The Vapor Flys just aren't working for me, but maybe I need to be much skinnier and faster. The Saucony Endorphin Pros have been solid, but the wear on the upper sucks. These feel okay. Very bouncy but responsive. I'll have a better sense once I get some faster stuff with them.