Of Mice and Marathons

AM: 4.1 miles on the treadmill, averaged 9:46. HR 113. 

PM: Off.

Off, mostly. 

Woke up with a sore throat and didn't want to push it. Went in the sauna later to keep up with heat training. 

+Sauna for 26. HR 93.

AM: 9.3 miles on the treadmill, averaged 7:32. HR 153.

2x20' Subthreshold 

Slight cold, but not bad. I started the first interval at 8.7 and then bumped it to 8.8, but didn't progress from there was my HR was creeping up a bit. Not bad, but wanted to staying with the intended target and not chase pace. More of the same for the second one, so about 6:50-6:52 pace for both. Slower than the 35' continuous effort, but no worries. HR 164 and 166, so right around strong subthreshold but not full threshold effort. 

+23' sauna. HR 101. 

PM: 1 hours 47' on the older gravel bike. 16.7 MPH. 185W. HR 138. 

90 degrees or so. Sweat a ton. HR slightly elevated, but perceived effort was great, so I think the heat adaptation is going well. 

PM: 80' on the fat bike. 172W. HR 122.

It was hot and humid, and I wanted to ride the trails for something different (and so that I would be using 3 of 4 outdoor bikes in the same week), but it was a bit muddy and although I don't think I was damaging the trail, I found it best to exit and hit some of the dirt roads. Trees were down at Bald Mountain South and Orion Oaks. 

Headed to Petosky/Boyne City area for an overnight trip with Megan and the boys so I can do a road ride with some guys tomorrow morning. 

AM/Lunch: 3 hours 42' on the road bike. 69.6 miles @ 18.7 MPH. 198W. HR 140.

Michigan Mountain Mayhem 100k Route

Call out for the route in Boyne City area went out earlier in the week and I decided to do it for something different. About 4400 feet of climbing, so it was far hillier than anything in our area. A lot like Maine, actually. Good group, though I forgot my bottles at the hotel. One of the guys gave me a bottle, so I drank that and refilled at the gas station stops and it worked out fine. There were some fast descents and some really sharp uphills. Nothing was really more than 4-5', but "the Wall" in East Jordan was very wall-like. I was grinding out of the saddle in my lowest gear and it was slow. Good chatting with the guys. I wanted to do the road race next year, but I guess they have discontinued the event, sadly.

AM/Lunch: 13.5 miles, averaged 7:25. HR 150. 

60' @ Marathon Effort

I was going to run on the treadmill, but it wasn't too bad outside. Moderate dew point and humidity, in the mid-70s to about 80 by the end. I planned on 2 hours to 2 hours 10, but it got a bit hot and I didn't want to overdo it, but I was due for a 60' effort to check marathon effort versus pace. Right at 7' pace @ 158 BPM. Started around 7:10ish, I think but I didn't take splits. Some low to mid 6:50s in there, so that was decent. 

I see that Josh Kerr does 8-mile tempos at what I assume is about his marathon effort and he's a miler, which probably confirms my long-held belief that an 8-mile tempo around marathon-to-steady-state pace is one of the most beneficial workouts for runners training for many different events.

AM: 6.5 miles, averaged 9:23. HR 120. 

Cooler this morning, which felt nice.

PM: 5 miles, averaged 9:13. HR 123. 

Fairly warm, but tolerable. I went shirtless for the first time in a couple years.

AM: 7.8 miles, averaged 7:41. HR 153. 

3 x 2k @ 10k Effort

First harder workout in some time, though technically the subthreshold stuff isn't exactly easy. This is the first time my HR has been in and stayed in the 170s for any duration of time. I was hoping to start around 4:00-4:04 per k and work down, but stay mostly by effort. Given the range of data of I have, that pace made sense. I was a little pressed on time, so I didn't get in as long a workout as I would typically do but it was getting hot fast and it was quite humid/high dew point, which didn't affect me as much as it sometimes does. Heat training is definitely paying off. Took strict 2' jogs between.

First set: 8:04: 4:04, 4:00 (6:29 pace avg, HR 165 avg.)

Second set: 7:56: 3:59, 3:57 (6:23 pace avg, HR 169 avg.)

Third set: 7:55, 4:00, 3:55 (6:21 pace avg, HR 172 avg)

Felt pretty good about the workout as I paced it well and didn't die in the heat. For Beach to Beacon, this is about what I am hoping to run, so I can get back under 40' and keep working on getting my times back down. I am going to try to bring my 5k time back down this fall and see what I can manage in the half. I imagine this is closer to half marathon pace in cool dry conditions, so I might be able to get back into the low-1:20s this fall, maybe under. Scraping a plan to run a marathon in 14 weeks. I can do it, and there is plenty of time, but I am not ready yet. I think maybe next fall. I really want to see if I can maximize any speed I have left before I do that because I don't have many more years left of chasing faster times. 

PM: 4.5 miles, averaged 9:02. HR 126.

AM: 4.2 miles, averaged 9:34. HR 121. 

PM: 2 hours 43'. 46 miles @ 16.9 MPH. 186W. HR 136. 

Thursday Night Dirt

Decided to do the ride even though the weather looked questionable. It was fine until I headed home and I got soaked. Nice B Group ride with a handful of guys I know well. Race on Saturday, so I didn't want to smash, and it was pretty hot out anyway.

PM: 80' ride. 173W. HR 127. 

Openers!

Some 3 x 3-5' efforts and 3 x 1' hard efforts. Felt decent. Looking forward to racing the new bike tomorrow. It is supposed to be a fast race. The 50 mile race was quite fast when I did it last year.

AM: ~2 hours 38'. 

Cedar Blitz Gravel Race 

34 miles @ 20.7 MPH @ 236 Watts (247 normalized)

I tried hard to stay with the front group, but my legs were shutting down around 6 miles or so. I felt like I was done. Tried to latch on to another group, died again. One of the women encouraged me, I tried to hold her wheel, gave up, but kept grinding and eventually started catching people and feeling ready to race around 40-45'. I did a fair amount of pulling to try to keep the pace up. I thought we had more miles but I could tell we wer already back in town as there was a turn onto a side street, so I started breaking from my group and picking off the guy who pulled ahead and I put in a solid effort into the finish. 

Somewhat frustrated as I tried a longer warm up and a harder interval to try to prime the legs, but they still felt like they weren't fully awake. I am going to need to figure it out if I am going to be more competitive. I just feel like my bike fitness and racing is going backwards, but I am going to try to make some changes and see what I can do.

Off. 

We went to our nephew's baptism and party and I decided to take a day fully off.

AM: 4.25 miles, averaged 8:00. HR 148. 

Pulled workout.

I planned to do 3 x 2 miles @ 10k effort, but I got out late and it was getting hot, so I thought I would do 6 x 1 mile and the first one was around 6:30 and I felt good, figuring I could easily cut way down into the low 6s. Well, my quad and IT band started to cramp and lock up and I tried to push through it, but it just hurt bad. Walked home and I was limping. I wasn't happy and the poor neighborhood unfortunately knew it. 

+ Sauna for 23'. HR 104. Weights while the sauna heated. 

PM: 2 hours 24'. 43.4 miles @ 18 MPH. 211W. HR 138. 

1 x 10' + 2 x 20'

My leg worked itself out throughout the day, so I went for a ride and it felt fine for most of it, then it hurt quite a lot. I used the massage gun and iced both quads. 

10' @ 268, 20' @ 278 (HR 155) 20' @ 279 (HR 160)

Solid workout, my best 20' power of the year. Not sure where these legs were on Saturday, but oh well. 

AM: 4.1 miles on the treadmill, averaged 9:39. HR 112.

I didn't get up early before the boys got up, so I bribed them so I could get a short run in while they were on their Kindles. 

PM: 2 hours 14' 38 miles @ 17 MPH. 189W. HR 127. 

Solid ride, very warm. Legs feel okay, but still very sore. I didn't bring a light because I don't have an adaptor for my new bike/bars, and I ran out of light and had to call Megan to rescue me around 9:45. She got the boys in the car and came to get me. I just didn't feel safe even though I had a tail light. It wasn't worth getting hit or hitting a tree or a deer. 

Off. 

Travel to Sagatauk area. I wasn't sure if we were going to go as I was teaching online and heard something going on downstairs. Charlie had hit Sawyer over the head with an adjustable wrench in the garage. I saw a little blood but didn't see the cut under his hair at first, which was about an inch or so long and deep, definitely requiring something to close it up. Five or six staples later, he was sewed up and doing much better. Tough kid. That had to hurt as they only put a topical ointment on it before stapling his head. We made it to Sagatauk and walked around and the boys played on the playground and we had dinner. 

I ended up sleeping in and skipping any sort of exercise as my legs are feeling completely smashed. Quite tired too. My ferritin has dropped to 30, which is fair from ideal. I expected it to go the other day. I imagine all the heat training and plasma donations haven't helped. 

Air turned quite smokey in the evening from the Canadian wildfires. I will likely take tomorrow off to as we are going to do a boat ride and some other stuff.

Off. 

We slept in a bit and the boys went in the pool and I went in the hot tub. We went on the boat ride, which wasn't great as the air was so smokey, but we got some ice cream before leaving. I fell alseep twice in the car. I think I am paying the price for my heat adaptation last week. 

AM: 10.25 miles on the treadmill in 80. HR 148. 

40' Continuous Subthreshold

Stayed inside as the air quality is awful, but I still felt like I was having a little trouble breathing. I started at 8.3 MPH to be conservative and it was about right to start. On par with about 8.6 or 8.7 MPH from previous weeks. Worked my way through every 5-10' at 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7 and then maybe the last 15' or so at 8.8 MPH and into the last 5-8' @ 9.0-9.3 MPH. Slower than previous weeks, but the air felt rough and my turnover felt really off. Got the right effort. Avg. HR 162. 

+ 28' sauna. HR 97. 

+ weights (squats and bench press)

PM: 90' on the trainer. 218W. HR 131. 

3x20' Tempo

Legs were pretty crabby, but they improved. 232, 236, 244. HR 136, 136, 139

PM: 3 hours 1'. 54.9 miles @ 18.2 MPH. 208W. HR 141. 

4x12' Threshold 

Air quality was decent but it was very humid. My battery died about 5 miles out, so I turned around and changed it. That gave me a bit more warmup time, which was fine. Got in a soaking downpour that I thought I might miss, but no luck. It cleared out eventually. Felt pretty strong, like I could have pushed 295-300 if I was fully on the edge, but I kept these controlled but hard. 

279 @ 159 BPM, 287 @ 160 BPM, 288 @ 162 BPM, 287/288 @ 161 BPM

LLaped the final interval a bit too early, thought I might just call it there, but then went for the additional 2+ minutes. Only about 13 seconds of recovery, Bad math!

I used several different tire pressure calculators and I have been running my tires way too low. I have been running my 45s at 17/16 and they should be about 29/27. They rolled fast especially on pavement but were a little harsh on the rougher gravel portions. 

Bike fitness has started to improve a good deal finally. 

AM: 14.5 miles, averaged 7:35. HR 150. 

Progression + 3-Mile Pickup

8:16-7:05 through 10 miles, then 6:37, 6:36, 6:26. Air quality wasn't horrible, but it was around 95-100 and I could feel it a touch. Legs were loaded from the last several days of workouts plus lifting, but they were moving okay all things considered. I was going to do an 8-mile tempo, but didn't feel like pushing too hard early, so I just got into a rhythm and then decided to push to about half-marathon pace to a touch faster.

I was pretty pleased with the effort. I find a hard few mile pickup when I have been running moderately for a while taxing mentally and getting the effort right. Today was spot on. I could have done 4-5, maybe 6 miles around the mid 6:30s if I hadn't cut down, but I wanted to try to touch on goal 10k pace late in a run. Worked well. 

Between the leg locking up on Monday, the air quality, and two days off, I ended up with a solid week on both riding and running fronts.