Of Mice and Marathons

PM: 6.3 miles, averaged 10:25. HR 130. 

+ Weights after. 

Trying to get into a light weight routine after my easy runs a few times a week. Watched the boys throughout much of the day as Megan had Spring Conference. It was damp and cold when I went out. Stuck to the dirt roads and Polly Ann in an attempt to return my running to softer surfaces. Feeling pretty good.

AM/Lunch: 120' on the trainer. 145W. HR 105.

Recovery week. Trying to schedule these every 4 weeks. Basically no midweek bike workout, trainer rides are very low HR and running is between recovery and regular aerobic runs. Long run back up to 80' this week, and will build to 90' next week and go up from there as I was doing back in February. Not sure what the roads are going to be like for Thursday Night Dirt, so I will figure that out. 

16.5 hours of training last week, which was pretty ambitious for the last week of Oakland's classes!

Lunch: 105' on the trainer. 147W. HR 110.

The boys have been napping long because they don't fall asleep until after 9:00 PM. Had enough time to finish of 2 hours, but decided to stop.

PM: Thursday Night Dirt - 4 hours 17'. 179W. HR 147.

Good, fast ride. Roads were sketchy in a few place. I almost ate it going through the Proving Grounds. Thought I was going to take out one of the ladies who was riding A group, but I held on. 

Loop Data: 20.2 MPH. 237 watts, HR 165

AM: 6.3 miles, averaged 10:18. HR 132.

Recovery run. Pollen must be a bit high. I hacked a good bit.

AM: 9.3 miles, averaged 9:07. HR 147.

A little sluggish on the uphills. Ran some new roads, which has been nice. 85', moving back up to 90' next week and then some work will likely be mixed in.

PM: 7 miles, averaged 9:16. HR 152.

Quite humid but not hot. HR drifted a good bit toward the end.

AM: 7 miles, averaged 9:21. HR 147.

PM: 5 hours 4'. 174W. HR 140.

Submitted my Lawrence Tech grades while watching the boys because I needed out of the way. Planned on about 4 hours, but longer if it worked out. Had a really good ride. Very easy the first two hours (HR 125), two hours a little more steady and mostly dirt and uphill (HR 147) and then an hour more moderate (HR 156). Felt very strong. Weather was absolutely perfect (upper 70s, sunny and dry). 

AM: 6.1 miles, averaged 10:40. HR 132. 

Recovery primarily.

PM: 4 hours 3'. 189W. HR 152. 

Around 80, sunny, quite dry. Did a predetermined loop, which worked out fine. Ortonville, Fox Lake Road, Sutton, south on Lake George chasing a long KOM (35:50 @ 261 watts HR 178, 19.5 MPH), which was still quite out of reach. I found it easier to rip through the 11 mile segment on Tuesday but I think they did some slight grading and I had a rare tailwind out of the northish (just didn't know the segment was there at the time). Went through some fluids. Even stopped at the fancy new old fashion hand pump station along Paint Creek. Took a bit of elbow power to turn it over, but it worked. 

AM/Lunch: 6.2 miles, averaged 10:32. HR 129.

Allergies have been bugging me. Good run, but some slight coughing from the pollen.

AM: 6.3 miles, averaged 10:17. HR 136.

Planned on 90' but I was terrifically hungover, so I cut it short. I haven't done that it quite a long time.

PM: 3 hours 5'. 199W. HR 140.

20'-15'-10'-5' at Stony Creek. Windy as usual but it was a bit nuts at times. Still ended up riding pretty fast. Exceeded power numbers on all intervals. 

20' @ 294 watts @ 160 BPM w/ 6' recovery 

15' @ 307 watts @ 165 BPM w/ 5' recovery 

10' @ 311 watts @ 167 BPM w/ 3' recovery 

5' @ 325 watts @ 168 BPM 

Felt pretty solid after a slightly sluggish feeling first interval. Need to do some faster stuff during the warmup to help with that. I will likley keep extending these out over the next several weeks building toward Watermoo. 

PM: 6.5 miles, averaged 10:05. HR 133.

Recovery. Decently warm. Good to see 10' pace getting closer to getting toward lower 130s. Would like to see it in the low 120s by the end of the year. 

AM: 6.9 miles, averaged 8:46. HR 150.

20' steady in the middle @ 7:19 HR 168

First faster work in 12 weeks. Felt decent. Not fast but it's a start. Weather was warming up but quite favorable. 

Boys had a doctors appointment and a birthday party, so it was a busy day for them.

AM/Lunch: ~4 hours total. 2 hours 31 outside. 156W. HR 127. 90' on the trainer. 203W. HR 142.

Cold. Around 40 or even below. Rode my fat bike outside for something different and I was having shifting issues on the Crux. Hit up Bald Mountain South, which was almost completely dry this time of year and the newly opened Friendship Park, which was smooth dirt and lots of berms and jumps. I was suprised by how good it was. I really thought it was just nature trails. Orion Oaks was closed for lot resurfacing, so I skipped that and did some dirt roads to round off my time. 

Helped Megan get the boys down for their naps, grabbed a snack and some fluids and changed clothes and got an extra 90' in on the trainer. Had time for 120' but my butt was starting to ache. 4 hours is better than I had originally planned as it took me a little while to get moving in the morning.

PM: Thursday Night Dirt - 4 hours 4'. 193W. HR 143.

Rode the fat bike and help keep track of B group. Pace was very light, lighter than I would have liked, but a few people would have been chewed up. Headed to Orion Oaks after to finish off my planned 4 hours. 

Lap Data: 16.4 MPH, 210 watts, HR 147.

AM: 12.1 miles, averaged 9:05. HR 144.

Very good run. Kept things right in the sweet spot of easy. Rx was 100' but I took a turn down a dead end. Weather was quite favorable.

PM: 2 hours 15. 88W. HR 96.

My neighbors ride I have done the last three years. Out and back on the Polly Ann. It was cold.

AM: 6.5 miles, averaged 10:02. HR 136. 

Warmer than yesterday. Perfect running weather. Wanted a longer ride on the bike, but I switched my weekend days. 

15 hours 22 minutes this week. 5 hours of running and 10+ hours of cycling. Nice to get in a light midweek workout and a long run. Starting to build momentum. 

AM: 7.3 miles, averaged 8:59. HR 145.

Felt great. Ran some 8:30s and 8:20s without killing myself. It's been a bit since I have been able to do that, maybe early COVID or before. Been a while anyway.

PM: 5 hours 45' on the fat bike. 186W. HR 148.

The Whole Polly Ann(chilada) in 2:31:25

Decided to go out the Polly Ann for a while and turn off when I felt like it. Didn't think I had enough time to do the whole thing and then do the dirt road return, but I was moving at a good clip. 17 MPH for the Oakland County section, which is solid on a fat bike. Kept going and hit the rough sections, which chewed up my average pace. It was muddier than last year, which I didn't expect given that it has been very dry. Almost ate it in some muddy truck tracks, but worked through. 

Took some of the dirt roads home and hit some paved stuff as well as I took a different direction home than I did last year. I can't believe I did the rough sections on my gravel bike last year. I won't do that again. Fat bike was perfect. Stopped at a store in Lapeer about 3 hours 30 into it, but didn't stop other than at crossings when I needed to. 86.4 miles on a fat bike, even a fast one is a long haul. Managed to get in 32 new miles.

AM: 8.7 miles, averaged 8:41. 

20' steady + 10' steady

I wasn't sure how my legs would respond after riding long yesterday afternoon, but the workout went well. A good bit faster for the 20' than last week at the same heart rate and the 10' was a good bit faster than the 20' interval, which is how it should be. Finally dipping back under 7:00. Long way to go but some very visbile progress this week. Keeps the carrot in front of me.

20' @ 7:07 @ 169 BPM

5' jog 

10' @ 6:53 @ 173 BPM

PM: 6.2 miles, averaged 10:34. HR 131.

AM/Lunch: 10.2 miles, averaged 8:53. HR 149.

90' w/ 30' steady 

Weather was favorable. Warm but not hot and the air quite dry. Target was 7:12-7:15 based on the midweek workout, but I was slow to start as I was half asleep and went over my 30' warmup and just jumped into it. Ended up at 7:29 @ 166 BPM, so essentially marathon effort, which is about right. The intervals this week were on the slighlty higher end and this was a bit more comfortable. Slow, but I don't think I have run 4 miles in 30' in quite a few years.

Hoping to match or exceed paces from the midweek this week next week when thing go to 20' + 15' and hopfully around 7:10-7:15 next week when the long run steady portion moves to 40'.

Got all my runs in, so I guess this means I get to ride bikes all weekend.

AM/Lunch: 2 hours 36'. 208W. HR 138.

Ended up doing an hour easy and then a 90' tempo to work on my Watermoo race preparations. Target was around 245-265 watts. Hit 247 with some coasting and stops, so not bad. HR was apparently 150 average but that seemed low. Managed 18.8 MPH over dirt roads and the Polly Ann. Not a ton of climbing, but some hills. I will have a better sense when I repeat this effort. 

Working on finding a race before August. Just not sure what is going to work. I wanted to do one in Ann Arbor this weekend, but we had a graduation party.

Off.

We had a graduation party in the Toledo area. I was due for a day off I suppose. Need to look at when the last day off was.

AM: 7.5 miles, averaged 8:44. HR 149.

Felt pretty good despite the cottonwoods coming out. Add those to the seasonal allergies, which are still driving me nuts.

PM: 4 hours 6'. 173W. HR 145.

25'-20'-8' 

Way too ambitious in the heat. I had down 25'-20'-15'-10'-5', but I started dropping power as I progressed and knew it wasn't going to work. Realistically, I should have added a shorter interval rather than doing the same workout as a few weeks ago, but beginning with 25' effort. Alternatively, I could have do 2 x 20' at a slightly higher effort than the 25' and the 20'. I was grunting pretty hard on the last one, so I just called it and got my four hours in. 

25' @ 295W @ 170 BPM

20' @ 286W @ 174 BPM

8' @ 288W @ 175 BPM

Probably could have focused a bit more on HR than power for this one. The 170s aren't too bad, but I just felt I couldn't force it. 

AM: 8.3 miles, averaged 9:40. HR 154.

Blown workout. Scheduled to do 20' + 15' steady, but it was getting hot early and the air quality is bad. HR started to creep and I just didn't want to run that hard for what was going to be a slower pace. Was looking for about 7' pace for the 20' and 6:50 for the 15'. Pulled it at 12', the pace of which was 7:31 @ 171 BPM. Had I continued at that effort it would likely have been in the mid 170s, which just isn't the right effort for the workork. Jogged out my remaining time. I haven't been that sweaty after a run in quite some time, certainly not this year.

I will likley skip Thursday Night Dirt this week and ride easy and shorter inside as I am trying to limit my sun exposure a bit. Need an easier day and really a recovery week, which I had origionally scheduled, but that will likley start this weekend and into next week, especially if I race in two weeks (the bike, not the running shoes kind).