Of Mice and Marathons

AM: 19.1 miles total. 4 up/2 down w/ half marathon race. 

I did this race last year and it was very humid and I really struggled. This year it was about as ideal as you get any time of the year. In the 40s, overcast, and almost no wind. I had planned to shoot for 1:23-1:25 based on previous workouts. I had done some 8-9 mile tempos around 6:26-6:30 pace, and I can usually run a half marathon between that and my mile repeat pace, which was around 6:07 a few weeks ago. I decided I didn't want to go out at that pace, but anything around 6:25-6:30 pace would be fine to start and try to work my way down. I didn't quite get there today, but I had a solid race. The race is decently rolling and definitely slower on the back half and a primarily uphill last mile and finish. 

I got to the race early as last year I waited in line for the shuttle and didn't have more than 13 minutes to warm up. This year I got right on a shuttle after packet pickup and pretty much got right on the shuttle and over to Dexter with an hour to spare. I warmed up a very easy 4 miles, which is more than I have warmed up before, but most of my workouts I warm up 3-4 miles. In the future unless it is a workout for the race I will cap it at 3 miles. Generally, I try to do 20-25' but it was cold and did a very light jog, some leg swings (which I haven't done in years), and some strides. 

I got out fine and settled into my pace and it felt quite easy so I knew the effort was right but going to get harder. By mile 6 or 7 I thought I could pick it up and did for a bit, but by mile 10 I guess I was losing motivation. I got passed a bit and didn't really bother racing too much, which sucked, but I just don't have the race frequency I used to. My heart rate apparently dropped a good deal there and I don't know if it was an error or if it was letting up slightly. I didn't get passed in the final mile or the partial, which was good. I wish I would have pressed a little bit harder but I wouldn't have been under 1:25. 

Cooled down 2 miles very slow. I was going to do 3 to get a 20 miler in, but there wasn't much flat and open real estate. I am fine with the outcome though I would have thought I could have run a bit faster. I think I need slightly more mileage and get my weight back down and longer long runs (up to 18 miles or so) so that I have a lot of strength in the final miles. I will do a shorter warm up. I think my workouts were fine for getting me where I wanted to go. 

For now I need to focus on recovery and the next 8 weeks to Beach to Beacon. My goal for that will be getting back into the low-6s and try to get back under 1:20 for the fall. PR attempts are out of the question this year, but that's okay. I have a time on the board and some races and goals in place, so I think I am officially back rolling. 

Splits: 6:26, 6:23, 6:24, 6:27, 6:28, 6:28, 6:18, 6:35, 6:29, 6:38, 6:36, 6:43, 6:38, 6:37 (for the partial)

AM: 7 miles, averaged 10:06. HR 117. 

Legs a little beat up but responsive. Absolutely fantastic morning. Warming up but still cool and comfortable with plenty of sun. 

AM: 7 miles, averaged 8:34. HR 131. 

Nice earlier morning run on the Polly Ann. Had a confrontation with a goose. I tried to give them room, but they kept running directly down the trail. Legs a little sore still but they are moving along well. 

PM: 2 hours 22'. 41.3 miles @ 17.4 MPH. 194W. HR 128. 

It was a nice night for a ride. My legs are still a little tired, but overall, I feel pretty good. I definitely wasn't ready for a bike workout today. Mid-low zone 2 was fine. 

AM/Lunch: 2 hours 41'. 51.2 miles @ 19.1 MPH. 219W. HR 147. 

Decided to get my bike workout in while the boys were in school and maybe run later if timing permits. It was decently warm and the air wasn't super breathable but it wasn't too bad. Between warmer temps, the Canadian wildfires, and the cottonwood, my HR was solidly elevated. It's not often that I do a training ride and my HR is in the 140 range these days. Solid sweet spot session on the tempo loop, which is in great shape currently. 

3 x 20' Sweet Spot (6' recoveries): 267W @ 158 BPM; 270W @ 163 BPM; 267W @ 165 BPM

Most of my recent sweet spot stuff my HR has barely got into the 160s. It was closer to what it has historically been or a bit closer to my threshold intervals when it is cooler out. 

PM: off. 

Decided to get an early start on the evening with dinner and such so I can get to bed early and try to hard reset my sleep schedule. I have been very good about going to be early, but I think I am going to try to get in bed before 10 most nights to get up early to get my runs in before the boys get up as they will be out of school early next week. 

AM: 11 miles, averaged 8:25. HR 134. 

I decided to go a little longer and just kept it easy and did a slight variation on my typical loop to get in a bit more elevation gain. 

Messed around with the dishwasher off and on throughout the day trying to get it fixed. Decided not to do Thursdy Night Dirt so Megan could go to the gym and I could do a lighter bike ride. 

PM: 2 hours 8'. 37.2 miles @ 17.6 MPH. 201W. HR 120. 

A few roads were a little muddy, but not too bad. Temperature was dropping quite a bit. HR rate actually dropped throughout the ride. 

Lunch/PM: 15.7 miles, averaged 7:40. HR 153.

10-mile progression + 2 x 1 Mile

Decided to do a workout. I had some plans to do something faster, but wasn't sure. It was getting warm as it took me a while to get out the door. Cottonwood is in full bloom, but it didn't seem to bother me. A little more summer-like outside, but manaegable. 

7:51 down to 6:37. Did a one-lap jog and did 2 x 1 mile 6:23 and 6:25 w/ 3' job between. I am glad I didn't try to do an 8-mile tempo around 6:30-6:35 pace as I would have blown up. HR was 169 on the last 

I have been trying to decided on my bet approach to training for the next 8 weeks. Part of me wants to do a lot of 5k and threshold stuff, but part of me wants to keep longer aerobic stuff and touch on just a bit of speed. Usually, I have a good idea, but I am not exactly sure right now. 

PM: 2 hours 18'. 41.2 miles @ 17.9 MPH. 202W. HR 136. 

VO2 Max Session: 2 (3 x 4') w/ 8' B/W Sets

I was going to get up and do a short recovery jog, but slept until the boys got up around 6:50 or 7:00. Had a good session, though I was a little nervous as I tend not to perform well on anything over threshold, but this went well and I have one stretch of the tempo loop that is around 4' @ 23ish MPH and I wanted to try for the KOM. I missed it by 4 or 5 seconds the first time, but then got it on the third time I think. I ended up doing it again and improving by one second in the in the second set. Power was decent and I think I nailed the effort. 4' actually isn't that hard to focus on, but it is challenging. 

Recovery was essentially as slow as I needed to go to be able to maintain the same power or better throughout. Lately I have been doing zone 2 for my recoveries and cool downs. 

(335, 329, 329) (338, 334, 326). HR peaked around 170-172, but I was breathing pretty hard toward the end of each interval in the set. 

I definitely need more of these sessions on the bike as well as running. Not every week, but maybe twice a month at most. 

AM/Lunch: 4 hours 26'. 77.3 Miles @ 17.4 MPH. 200W. HR 124. 

I decided to do the Coffee Ride this morning, something I have wanted to do for several years but just haven't made it for one reason or another. I showed up just before 9, circled the parking lot, saw no one, so I struck out on my own headed to the roads on the Thursday Night Dirt route and east of there, which I haven't been on this year. Last year I ventured about as far east as I have been. Weather was around 60 or so, but felt cooler around 8:15 or so, but warmed up. Fueling was solid with 2 big bottles and a regular one and two heavy gels of 50-60 grams of carbs each. Enjoyed the ride throughout. 

Just shy of 20 hours of total training time this week, probably my highest since last sumer. I have modifed my training schedule slightly so I am off the bike on Tuesdays to try to fit a bit more running in as I have 8 weeks to Beach to Beacon and I think I need a slightly mileage bump. Not a lot, but I need to be solidly 50-55 miles most weeks and hopefully 60 or above for a few weeks. I am hoping higher mileage couple with some faster workouts will help me make some fitness gains. Bike stuff is coming along okay, but I will have a better sense with my first race of the season next weekend. 

AM: 8 miles, averaged 9:20. HR 124. 

PM: 5.4 miles, averaged 9:11. HR 121.

Off. 

I figured I would just take a day off, but I ended up feeling worse than if I had done something. 

PM: 2 hours 10'. 38.8 miles @ 18.0 MPH. 200W. HR 131. 

3 x 10' Criss Cross Tempo/VO2

Got out somewhat late. Long first day of summer with the boys. I am not really ready for this. Legs felt awful, and I am glad the criss of the criss cross was only tempo and not sweet spot or tempo. Legs just felt horrible. I was hoping for better after a complete rest day, but I know better than to make that mistake. 

PM: 1 hour 19'. 23.3 miles @ 17.6 MPH. 203W. HR 128.

Legs felt like junk still. Mentally kind of off. Not terrible, just off my rhythm. Not getting much running in this week, but I am looking forward to my first bike race of the season (finally). Went after a segment, but didn't go all out. I missed considerably. Weather has been quite nice lately. 

PM: 1 hour 4'. 19.2 miles @ 17.8 MPH. 205W. HR 133. 

Openers

Just did 3 x 2-3' at or just above threshold. These actually felt pretty good and my legs feel okay. A little nervous for tomorrow, but excited too. Just a lot of stuff to keep in order with a bike race. 

AM: 2 hours+ total w/ 34-mile Gravel Race

Cow Pie Classic Short Haul 

13' up/20' down

33.3 miles in 1:35:24 (21.0 MPH). 247W. HR 166.

I had a pretty decent race. About the pace I wanted and stuck with the lead group until the farm where things got chaotic and people were going down and/or crashing and I had to slow to avoid it. 

Overall, I felt pretty good as I stayed with the lead group for as long as I could. Fitness was there to hold on, just skills lacking a bit and I should have been tactically better, knowing where the farm was so I could position myself better. I didn't have my mileage on, which hurt me a bit. Maybe could have been more aggressive at the farm, but I thought the sketchier sections were earlier (they are a bit later in the farm). Still, this probably kept me from crashing or missing a turn. I did much better handling in the woods section of the farm I think. After that I tried to chase down whoever I could but didn't have too big of a group to work with, just random stragglers here and there. Felt pretty strong at the end. 

Fueling was decent and I did manage to get some drink in while in the pack and I think I felt more comfortable in a pretty big group, even bumping elbows and bars a little bit (not intentionally), which is progress too. I feel excited to get out and do more races. I forget I haven't done a bike race since November and a gravel race since this race last year. Need to do a bit more racing. Not every weekend and maybe not every month, but about 6-8 bike races a year and 3-4 running races a year would be good. I now have two total races down for the year with more planned. I am still trying to decide about a target running race for fall. A half seems the mostly likely to be able to recover and get in my bike racing. 

AM/Lunch: 2 hours 21'. 41.4 miles @ 17.6 MPH. 206W. HR 129. 

Was waffling between running and riding and the riding won out. Training program gave me 90', but on a beautiful Father's Day that wasn't going to happen, but I also didn't want to overdo (though I slept a good deal and felt very good). My legs felt about the best they have all week. Go figure. I think the training program dropped the volume and intensity too much both at once this week. I realize that you need to cut down, but cutting both massively is a mistake. 

Roads were in excellent shape and very fast. I had a very good ride. Megan and the boys got me a new cycling jersey. It fit perfectly and was quite comfortable. 

AM: 8 miles, averaged 8:19. HR 135. 

Got up early and got out the door at a decent hour (6:15) to get my morning run in before the boys were fully awake. I tried to do this last week every day, but I just wasn't able to do it. Weather was somewhat cool, but very ideal and I enjoyed the run and felt great.

PM: 2 hours 7' 36.6 miles @ 17.2 MPH. 195W. HR 127. 

Headed over east of M-24 to some of the Thursday Night Dirt route roads. They roads were perfect. Super fast. 

PM: 2 hours 14'. 40.6 miles @ 18.2 MPH. 211W. HR 145. 

2 x 15' Threshold

Pretty warm out. Going to get very hot this weekend. Workout went okay. Power was a little low, but the gravel was loose on the loop and I had to coast a bit more on some of the turns. HR got up there (for what is now high), peaking around 175 with the intervals solidly in the 160 BPM range. 

285 watts @ 164 BPM and 279 watts @ 167 BPM

Definitely solidly in the 30-mile race effort range. 

It looks like I might have a fifth class at Oakland this fall, which is great, but summer is a real drain on finances. Never quite sure what to do. Seems like we should be making enough money. I'll blame it on the kids and not myself. 

AM: 7.3 miles, averaged 9:24. HR 127.

Quite humid. Summer weather is definitely here. I am glad it held off for my running and bike race. Think I might just be able to manage in warmer weather this summer. I can always run on the treadmill, but Beach to Beacon is likely to be quite humid so it doesn't make sense to completely avoid heat and humidity. 

PM: 90' on the trainer. 231W. HR 136.

2 x 20' Sweet Spot Climbing Intervals

Decided to do the workout inside as it was either raining or forecasted to. I use Alpe d'Zwift for these, which worked well but was hard to manage power and candence, but I figured it out. 

10' zone 2 between intervals; 269W @ 150 BPM and 274W @ 153 BPM

PM: ~1 hour. 17.1 miles @ 17.6 MPH. 208W. HR 126. 

I didn't get up to run as it just made more sense to sleep more and recover better. I decided not to do Thursday Night Dirt as I figured the roads were a mess and attendance would be low because Lumberjack 100 is this weekend. I was going to jump on the trainer for 2 hours of zone 2, but made the mistake of going outside. Roads were generally in decent shape, but I got caught in a thunderstorm and a downpour, which is not ideal on a bike. Visibility was awful. Some dink beeped at me for quite a while coming down Waldon. I chased them, planning to chuck a Co2 cartridge or two at their car, but they turned right going down Joslyn and I couldn't catch them. 

I was going to jump on the trainer to finish out when I got home, but I was too pissed off. I just wanted a ride to have some time to myself. Being home with the boys four days in a row is exhausting and not much fun. They have been very challenging. 

AM/Lunch: 16 miles, averaged 7:53. 

60' @ Marathon Effort

7:12 pace @ 160 BPM

Kind of lost my running mojo the last two weeks. I feel like running, but not motivated by training so much and the excitement for Beach to Beacon is mostly gone, but I think I will get it back. I guess my average pace to be between 7:50 and 8:00 and it was 7:53 and I guessed my tempo pace to be between 7:12-7:15 average. It was 7:12, so if nothing else I have honed my intuitive sense of pace over the last 15 years of running.

I turned pace and splits off since summer has arrived and it is quite humid. Not too hot, but conditions you need to respect or you'll get burned. This worked well for the workout. I generally have been running these workouts by effort, but it is easy to get annoyed with pace when it is slower than previous weeks. I was running about 6:25-6:30 pace for around 52 minutes in April, so this was considerably slower, but I felt strong throughout and as though I could have pressed harder if asked to. 

30' up/36' down

I think I will keep this as my long run and maybe add 5' each week so I can get something of a significant long run in for weight maintenance. I think I will shift my midweek workouts to minutes and HR to target 15k-10-mile effort to see what I can do in the next 5-6 weeks for Beach to Beacon and figure out what to do for this fall. Likely, I will target a half and try to bring my half time back into the lower-80' range. 

Might start tracking my quality miles again to keep an eye on percentage of quality to easy miles.

PM: 3 hours on the trainer. 234W. HR 136. 

90' Tempo + 30' Sweet Spot

6 hours was on the schedule, but it was pouring rain in the morning and the roads were likely very messy. I planned to do the Uber Pretzel Route on Zwift, but didn't quite get through it. It would have been around 4 hours and change. My undercarriage just couldn't handle it and the boys came down, so my concentration was thrown. Still got in a solid session. 5' easy, 60' zone 2, 60' tempo (248W. HR 140), 30' sweet spot (269W. HR 154), zone 2 for the balance. 

AM: 3 hours 5'. 53.2 miles @ 17.2 MPH. 193W. HR 133. 

It was quite hot. I was sweating in the driveway just getting my bike stuff ready to go. I found a decent amount of tree cover and it was very hot but the heat didn't bother me too much. I definitely was cautious and monitored my effort, but did fine. I added some LMNT to my Formula 369 for extra sodium and bit more flavor. It was perfect. I'm happy it worked out since I have a lot of both. 

I drank around 110 oz of fluid and still lost 3.8 lbs, so I guess that means I lost 10.6 lbs of water weight. That makes sense. I can sometimes lose 3-4 lbs on a 60' run.

AM: 7.4 miles, averaged 9:22. HR 124.

PM: 5 miles, averaged 9:26. HR 127.

Hot this afternoon. 90. Been a while since I have run in that kind of heat, mostly because I tend to just ride or run inside. It wasn't too humid, and I took it easy, so it was really manageable. 

AM: 8 miles, averaged 8:52. HR 136. 

Very humid. Horseflies are out on the Polly Ann. 

PM: 120' on the trainer. 214W. HR 121.

AM: 6.8 miles, averaged 8:50. HR 132. 

PM: 90' on the trainer. 208W. HR 121. 

Failed workout.

I tried to do 2 x 20' threshold, but I did it on the portal climb and that was definitely a mistake. I couldn't get the right cadence and effort combination and bailed around 8-9' on the first one. I kind of felt down the second part of the day as I began to worry about financial stuff and I am sure that didn't help. 

AM: 8 miles, averaged 8:16. HR 140. Did some strides.

I felt a bit more comfortable running this morning, and my effort resulted in a more typical easy run pace. 

Megan and I are going to see Jason Isbell in Detroit tonight. I have waited since 2020 or so to go see him. She got tickets for my birthday back in January. 

PM: 120' on the trainer. 209W. HR 125.

Donated plasma this morning for the first time. It was a long setup process and I almost wasn't able to because my HR was 42. Apparently, 50-100 is the acceptable range, but I can tell you if you are pushing 100 BPM as your resting heart rate, you must be half dead. It took forever to get the required material out, I assume because of the low heart rate and healthy blood pressure. 

I was going to get in my long run before, but decided to just get it done. I wasn't interested in trying to get it done outside and inside didn't sound appealing either and I wasn't sure how my body would react. I felt fine on the trainer and drank a bunch of additional electrolytes. I felt fine. 

Lunch/PM: 6 hours 4'. 111 miles @ 18.3 MPH. 218W. HR 144. 

Long Ride/Workout/Watermoo Session # 1

AM/Lunch: 2 hours 30'. 43 miles @ 17.1 MPH. 193W. HR 125. 

Legs were worked over and heavy, but felt better throughout the ride. 

PM: 120' on the trainer. 219W. HR 129.

Good ride. Did the Elevation Evaluation route on Zwift, which was a bit more of an effort than I wanted for an endurance day, but it was fine.