Of Mice and Marathons

AM: 90' on the trainer. 205W. HR 127.

We went over to a colleague's briefly to get some hand-me-down toys for the boys. Their finished basement had me quite envious. 

My parents are coming in tomorrow for a few days. Should be interesting.

AM: 7 miles, averaged 8:29. HR 159.

Some nice air blew through. Tried to do a progession, but I got out of the gate too fast. Been a few years since I have done that. 7:36 and 7:19 jogged about for a while and decided to hit a fast mile from just above Scripps to the 1-mile mark at Greenshield. Didn't have much left in the last 200m but I think I was getting lazy. Still it's been a hot minute since I ran a sub-6:30 mile. 6:21. Trying to relearn pacing and effort. Going to take a little while me thinks.

I might stick with midweek running workouts through the first part of the fall rather than rotating in midweek bike workouts and do my intervals and other faster bike stuff as part of my weekend long ride. Trying to get in what I want without overdoing it.

The boys got their first hair cuts and their second COVID vaccine. A big day in the Dodge Schoen household.

AM: 90' on the trainer. 199W. HR 141.

3 x 10' on the trainer. Impromptu workout after some harder running work yesterday. Picked up my parents at the airport this morning.

Interval 1: 315W @ 165 BPM, Interval 2: 320W @ 169 BPM, Interval 314 @ 172W

4' easy spin recoveries. Solid session.

AM: 4 miles, averaged 11:11. HR 134.

Very humid as it has been. Thursday Night Dirt was cancelled as the roads are a mess after getting some much needed but substantial rain. 

Everything is going relatively well with my parents.

AM: 90' on the trainer. 237W. HR 143.

Strong effort. Keeping things shorter but more steady while my parents are here so I am not taking up too much time. Extremely humid and uncomfortable outside.

AM: 90' on the trainer. 229W. HR 137.

Took my parents home later in the day. It was a good visit. We took the boys to the subdivision park. It was extra gross out, so we didn't stay long.

Lunch: 80' on the trainer. 250W. HR 152.

Strong effort. Needed a longer ride, but was tired so I went back to bed after Megan got up. The boys got up early from their nap, so I went as long as I could before getting them.

Watermoo 112 mile gravel race next weekend. A bit nervous, but cooler weather looks like it might blow through. 

AM: 120' on the trainer. 150W. HR 106.

Easy pedaling. HRM still slightly glitchy late in rides. Wondering if it is bluetooth interference. Running workout tomorrow, which I am looking forward to. I am thinking this week will be a 90' patient progression, but maybe I should try to squeak out 2 hours easy as I didn't get my long run in last weekend. Will start tapering off a bit on Wednesday for this weekend. It likely means skipping Thursday Night Dirt as I don't want to get sucked into going harder than I want to.

AM: 14.4 miles, averaged 9:25. 2:15 total time.

Got a bit in over my head. Ran out of fuel stores I think. Generally easy to moderate. Weather was cooler, so I grabbed the opportunity. Probably not my best idea before a 112-mile gravel race this weekend.

AM: 60+ minutes. HR 105.

Had a last minute issue with the valve core on my gravel bike, which sent me through the roof, but I got on my fat bike and headed to Orion Oaks for a very easy spin, figuring I would get it worked out before this weekend, even if I just had to throw a tube in it. I got it sorted quickly after I calmed down and got home.

AM: 72' ride. 138W. HR 120.

Legs feeling okay. Nervous about this weekend, but not too bad.

AM: 60'ish on the trainer. 180W. HR 127.

Did openers to prep for the race. Did week 12 of Zwift's gravel grinder training series (noting for future reference). Legs feel okay. Hoping I didn't overdo it running on Tuesday.

Watermoo 2022

112 miles. 218W. HR 165.

I think I had this on my calandar somewhat earlier in the year and decided not to do it at one point and then a number of weeks ago decided to give it a go. This would be my longest ride by 6 miles and definitely the longest endurance event running or cycling I have done. I haven't raced since last November, so this was kind of a strange rust buster, but it is a small, well-organized race and pretty close to home. Nice mix of gravel and tar. Some climbing but nothing too long.

I had to get up at 4 in the morning, which was not pleasant, but I got up well enough. Tried to eat a lot of carbs but found it hard to eat. I had packed about 40 oz of electrolytes and however much water my Camelback holds (I think it is around 2L, so basically 4 more 17 oz bottles). I ended up losing the bottles in the race, but had 10 oz of emergency Mike's Mix in one of the larger baby bottles of the boys. Next time I will fill the hydration pack with electrolytes. Had we had the weather from about 10 days ago I wouldn't have made it through the race (or I would have had to have stopped at the refuel stop).

Warmed up 10' just to check everything. Headed out with the lead group who I knew would crush me, but I figured they would ease into it and hopped a splinter group would form and I could have a fast race. Going in I figured a minimum of 17MPH, but wanted around 18.7 to finish in under 6 hours. We were moving along at 20+ for a while and it felt fine. A gap formed at one point in the first 18 miles and it just opened up  I wanted to bridge the gap, but my computer mount was loose and starting to fall off, so I stopped to fix it, which I had thankfully put the 2.5 mm allen key in my pack as my multitool doesn't have that size. 

I was pretty disappointed to be all alone, but there was almost no wind and the conditions were overcast and cool for the most part, so I told myself I had an almost 100-mile time trial ahead of me if I didn't find someone to work with. I kept pushing and my power kept climbing, averaging into the low 240s for a good bit. Started picking people off after quite a long time. Found a group to work with around 30ish miles and we traded pulls for the next 40ish miles. I put in a lot of pulling and this was probably a mistake. I felt great though and when the pace started to fall I would jump back in the lead and push the pace. We were around 19.5 MPH or so, and I didn't want to slip below 19. We needed more people to take their share of the work but they didn't. 

Around 75 miles there is a feedstation. I didn't want to stop, but I didn't want to ride solo. One guy and I struck off and worked together with a few other folks for a bit the race. The water crossing is around mile 77 or 80. Luckily it was only knee deep and maybe 15 feet wide. After that it was a short section of seasonal two track. Really started to bonk around 85 miles or so, and was bacially dead at 100 or 102 miles. I knew I would finish, but I had no power left. I put in a strong finish trying to catch a guy ahead of me. I took around 6 or 7 gels, but think I would probably go with a more carb heavy option such as Maurten for something this long. 

Cooled down for 10 minutes.

I had a burger and a beer at Jolly Pumpkin after killing two slices of cheese cake a vendor was selling after the race. I was going to stay and have another beer, but wanted to get home to the boys and Megan had been up with them since 7 or so right when the race started. 

I will likely make this a yearly think if I can. Really need to have races I do every year to ground me. So far I have the November mountain bike race, Iceman, which is helping to do that.

AM: 4 miles, averaged 11:14. HR 130.

Legs were quite worked over, but I managed to shuffle a bit.

AM: 75' minutes. 135W. HR 118.

Nice recovery ride. Enjoyed it. Feeling good.

AM: 1 hour 52'. 149W. HR 121.

Good ride. Nice weather. Keeping it quite easy.

AM: 9.4 miles, averaged 9:35. HR 152.

90' run w/ 75' HR-based progression

Changed my watch settings a bit, so I could reorient my workouts a bit. It worked out quite well. Fairly cool, but quite humid. Felt strong at the end. Paces were disappointingly slow, but the effort was good. 

This week's workout was:

10' each @ 115 BPM, 125 BPM, 135 BPM, 145 BPM, 155 BPM, 165 BPM, 175 BPM

5' @ 180-185 BPM

15' cool down. 

The 5' section was only 7' pace. I was hoping it was closer to 6:30 pace or faster as I ripped off a 6:20 mile last week. I think I was low on water as I was sweating a ton.

I will modify each midweek workout slighly to increase the time working around the 165 BPM range, which is roughly marathon effort for me (or apparently a 6-hour bike effort!). I think I will do something similar with my weekend long runs so that I am starting appropriately slow, but then putting in some work without killing myself.

AM: 90' on the trainer. 132W. HR 105.

recovery. The last three days or so my right ankle bone on the inside has felt sore. Just think I tweaked it a little bit. Doesn't hurt to run or ride, but I want to mark it in case something flares up.

Looking forward to racing again this weekend. I cannot recall the last time I raced two weekends in a row (though I did race twice in one weekend in 2019). I've never done it cycling as I haven't done that many races and I am sure it was some time in 2013 when I did that running (I tended not to race very frequently in 2014 and 2015, but had some notable peformances).

Connor Mantz ran a 6-mile tempo in Provo at 4:34 pace today. That's sub-2 hour marathon pace or a 28:30 10k in a workout. 

AM: 60'+ on the trainer. 180W. HR 130.

Openers for Fasty Fitty 36 Mile race tomorrow.

AM: 76' of what would have been about 1:40-1:45. 246W. HR 171.

I made a bad mistake trying to bridge a teammate and another few guys to a straggler from the lead pack going down a hill around the 27-mile mark. I didn't realize we were turning and I was set on heading straight down the road. My first indicaton we were turning and that the guy in front of me was going much slower was when I saw his front wheel start to turn and the people behind me yell "right!". I grabbed the brakes when I should have just tried to skipp past him, but it came up so quickly it caught me off guard. I tagged his back wheel and I went flying. I tried to get back on the bike, but my elbow (and bike weren't working). I told everyone to keep going. I just thought it was some serious road rash, but I could quickly tell my elbow was broken. Called 911 and that was the end of my race and what will be several weeks of no outdoo r riding or running. 

Spent the afternoon in a tiny rural hospital. A splint and a sling. Megan had to drive down because they gave me painkillers, but I ended up having her take me back to my car so I could drive my car and bike home. 

Off. 

Pointless to try to recall as this was 19 days ago from the time of this writing. Quite sore, but overall the elbow isn't bad. Just trying to mentally prepare myself for shifting much of the childcare responsibilites to Megan.

Off.

Off.

Consultation with the surgeon. Surgery schedule for Friday. First day of teaching at Lawrence Tech. Not how I wanted to end the summer and start the semester.

Off.

Off.

Second day of teaching at Lawrence Tech. Not looking forward to this class as I haven't had a ton of guidance. 

Surgery day.

Megan took me around 4:30 or so and our friend came to keep and eye on the boys. Surgery went fine. I have never been under for anything, so that was kind of weird. The put me on a pain pump, which is basically Novocaine for your whole arm. 

My back started to hurt one of the days this week from compensation from my sling and sitting oddly and sleeping funny.

Off.

Started to feel pretty depressed somewhere around this time if not before. Everything is extremely difficult to do.

Off.

I was still on the pain pump. 

Off.

I think it was this day that the pain pump finished. I was glad to be rid of it even though it was super helpful. Just one more thing around my neck and hanging off me.

Lunch: 30' on the trainer. 107W. HR 128.

First session back. ~96 hours post op. Surgeon said 72 hours, so I gave it an additional 24 to make sure the pain pump was done. Tried not to sweat as I was in a splint and a wrap. Working on figuring out the best way to set the trainer up for safety and comfort.

PM: 60' on the trainer. 99W. HR 121.

Put the trainer in ERG mode. Pretty down still at this point as I recall, but fortunate to get some exercise in.