Of Mice and Marathons

Off.

I didn't dare try to run, so I took the day off. Boys are sleeping well and mostly on our regular nap schedule. Lots of family time.

Lunch: 20' swim. 

Swimming is hard. Went in my mom's pool. Tried to get a sense of HR and how that differs from running and riding, but I am sure it was off. 

Off. 

I think this was the day we went to Katie's camp. The boys fished and went on a boat ride and we all made s'mores. 

Off.

Off.

Off.

Travel back to Michigan. We stopped in Batavia, which might be the farthest we have made it on any return trip. 

Off.

Drove back to Michigan. We ate at Taco Bell and I think I got food poisoning. Not fun whatever it was.

PM: 60' on the trainer. 181W. HR 134.

Got up to make sure the boys had their lunches. Felt a little sick still, but not vomiting as I did several times in the night. Went back to bed twice in the morning and slept a good deal. Progressively felt better enough to do a trainer ride. 

AM: 30' on the trainer. 213W. HR 124.

Tried to get in 60' but the boys were having a dispute about whose lightsaber was whose. I tried to continue but my head wasn't in it at that point.

PM: 2 hours 43' (48 miles @ 17.6 MPH). 214W. HR 156. 

20'-20'-10'-10'

Decided to do an impromptu session on some of the dirt roads.

AM: 10 miles, averaged 9:57. HR 138.

I was going to do the Watermoo but with food poisoning and being off the bike for about 10 days I decided it wasn't in my best interest to do a 112-mile gravel race. Megan took the boys to Toledo for her cousin's birthday, but I stayed home. Had a decent day to myself.

PM: 2 hours 15'. 38.3 miles @ 17MPH. 200W. HR 143.

Did 2 x (7 x 1' On/Off) just because I never do a lot of higher power stuff. Legs were sore from running yesterday and not having run for about a week. I planned on a longer ride, but I took a very long nap (about 2.5 hours) and that ate into my planned time. Great day for riding.

Lunch: 60' on the trainer. 215W. HR 131.

Had more time as the boys were napping, but I decided to cut it off at an hour.

PM: 9.3 miles, averaged 9:59. HR 133.

Not a great run. It was late and my stomach wasn't feeling great. Didn't quite get in my planned 10, but close enough.

Lunch: 10 miles, averaged 9:59. HR 137.

Night: 60' on the trainer. 195W. HR 121.

Megan is gone to a conference. The boys are in school Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, which is helpful. Got the trainer ride in quite late.

AM: 10 miles, averaged 9:52. HR 133. 

Night: 60' on the trainer. 215W. HR 138.

Another late trainer ride after the boys finally went down to sleep.

AM/Lunch: 15.6 miles, averaged 9:38. HR 135.

Decent if slow long run. Weather was decent and I had the time, so I got in 2.5 hours. Kept my HR at or under MAF heart rate. No Thursday Night Dirt again this week as Megan is gone until tomorrow, but I hope to make it next week and the week after. Not sure if I will be able to make it once school starts.

AM: 90' on the trainer. 231W. HR 131.

Strong zone 2 ride. Dropped the boys off at their friends for about 2 hours. I was going to run, but it was raining and thought I might melt, so 90 on the trainer it was. Power and heart rate look very strong. Finally rehydrated from travel and food poisoning I think.

AM/Lunch: 120' on the trainer. 230W. HR 132.

Solid ride. I was planning a long run workout on the treadmill, but I just didn't feel like it. This was a solid ride with the 2 hours I left myself. 

A decent stretch of running this week. Felt less like it toward the end of the week. So it goes I guess. 

PM: 3 hours on the trainer. 234W. HR 144. 

60' @ Sweet Spot (285 Watts)

Solid session. I have been doing this session here and there over the last few weeks and I think it is a good one. I am not sure where you should slot it in bike training, but fall racing season seems like the place to do it, though I have seen it done during basebuilding as well. A few weeks ago I did 283 on the trainer for 75'. I did the session outside and did 269/277 normalized in mid-July. I was hoping to hit 290 or higher to set my best 1-hour power,  but didn't quite get there. The results were about where they should be though. HR was around the mid-160s I think. Not sure as I did 2 laps of Tempus Fugit for around 48 minutes and it was 161 for the first lap and 171 for the second, so maybe not even 165 BPM, which is solid. 

PM: 10 miles, averaged 10:20. HR 125.

Good day with the boys. Decided not to jump on the trainer and took a nap. Hard running 10 miles at almost 7 PM. Jogging is easy, but after afternoon coffee it is sometimes a toss up. 

AM/Lunch: 4 hours total. 3 hours @ 244W. HR 152. + ~1 hour easy cool down.

I was going to do a running workout or a regular run, but couldn't be bothered. I haven't been on my bike outside for about 10 days and the weather was cool, so I decided to get in about 3 hours or so. After 1 hour I decided to do a long tempo of 2 hours. 262 watts @ 161 BPM. Effort felt very sustainable as my HR was in the mid 150s for a large portion of it. I had trouble keeping the power up late in the ride, but it was mostly fatigue. My Garin started to die, so I stopped the ride and used my watch for the rest of it. Just a tick under 4 hours, so very indulgent on Tuesday, but the boys were in school and I only have a little work I am avoiding. 

AM/Lunch: 13 miles. averaged 8:11. HR 153. 

8-Mile Aerobic Builder 

I did this workout a few weeks ago and it was a good deal faster but the pace and effort were quite high. The effort today was quite controlled and where I think it is "supposed" to be. This is kind of a classic blog workout and I have used it many time in marathon training. It is a solid way to increase aerobic strength and get in a midweek medium long run. I will try to repeat this for about 6 weeks and hopefully get these back into the mid-6s. It's probably my favorite workout as you can mix it up a little and do it as a progression and you can do the back half close to or at half marathon effort if you are feeling good. Not much to write home about today, but it establishes a baseline. Still trying to get my running restarted. It feels like I have made some progress over the last two years, but at times frustratingly slow. It's time to press a little without being too crazy. 

I ran today's workout by HR starting in the mid 150s to high 150s and keeping most of the first half around the low 160s, which is quite sustainable for a long time. It is roughly first half marathon effort if I had to guess, but never had a HRM on during a marathon. 

Weather has been favorable, but I was still sweating a good deal. I'll take this effort after a bike workout yesterday. I am not sure if I will continue to stack midweek bike/run workouts or not. Probably a midweek run or ride workout, a long run, and a long ride with the option for some intervals is more than plenty. I just want to get it all in. 

7:20 average @ 166 BPM

7:35, 7:28, 7:24, 7:20, 7:21, 7:19, 7:15, 7:10

AM: 10 miles, averaged 10:24. HR 126.

PM: Thursday Night Dirt. ~3 hours. 

I told myself under no circumstances would I do A group after stacking a bike workout and a run workout. I stuck with it, but I am itching to get a solid fast group ride in. 

I met up with a guy from the neighborhood who was headed over to the ride. Knew him from Strava. Another guy from the area who does the ride also met up with us. 

I had a good ride. Tried to keep an eye on people and made sure some of the ladies didn't get flung too far off the back. Did a few efforts after the last climbs and raced a little bit. Couldn't let that go!

Loop Data: 26.3 miles @ 18 MPH. 188W. HR 137. 

Night: 60' on the trainer. 215W. HR 136.

Got on the trainer after dinner. Waited long enough to not want to get on, but did anyway. I was going to get something in the afternoon, but the boys wanted to do an event in Downtown Lake Orion, so I went with them.

PM: 120' on the trainer. 232W. HR 133. 

I got up with the boys. I was going to get a long run in, but if I don't do it in the morning or at lunch it usually doesn't get done. I could have ridden outside as it was absolutely perfect. Low-80s, sunny, and dry air, but I knew I would stretch my time out if I did, so on to the trainer I went. I will try to get my long run in tomorrow unless the bike calls my name.

AM/Lunch: 120' on the trainer. 229W. HR 133. 

Solid ride. Not as long as I planned, but didn't leave myself time for more. Power: heart rate has been very solid lately.

Lunch: 90' on the trainer. 224W. HR 128.

Spent the day with the boys. Got the ride in while they napped. I was going to nap myself, but resisted the call. I figured out another university scheduled me for two classes without telling me, which is insanely weird. I ended up taking one of them. Felt better about some extra income. 

PM: 8 miles on the treadmill, averaged 8:34. HR 144.

Got a decent run in before dinner. Way too humid for me, so I continued to be a Zwift All Star and hit the treadmill. 

I changed my training plan for the 573652946th time. Might try to focus on some speed with faster workouts and target a short race this fall. This saves me from having to do 3+ hour long runs. 

Lunch: 10.4 miles on the treadmill, averaged 8:38. HR 146.

5k Tempo

Got this in at lunch while the boys napped. Decided to start my reintroduction to speed to do a few weeks of some threshold tempos, approximately 20-30' to see what I can do to improve my lactate threshold as I improve my aerobic theshold. Not sure if the approach is the right way to go or not, but it seems working on threshold will help me lay the groundwork for other faster stuff and the aerobic stuff will increase my aerobic threshold. I figure if I start moving the aerobic stuff down from 7:30-7:00 back down to ~6:30 and the lactate theshold from 6:35-6:50 to 6:15-5:55 I will get my strength and my speed back.

I wasn't exactly sure what to set the speed at. I figured 9.0 was probably too fast to start so I kind of worked a little bit to establish my effort. I started around 8.8 I think and dropped it ever-so-slightly. I wanted to ideally last 4 miles, but 3-3.1 miles were I didn't slow down while running at the right HR would be goal met. I did that. It started to get a bit hard the last half mile or so. Not impossible, but a lot of concentration. HR was getting into the upper 170s to about 180 at times. I went slightly over 3, so I think it was 3.1 in 20:50 or about 6:42 pace for 5k @ 171.6 BPM. 

I got in a decent cool down even though I had to stay on for a bit to make it to 10 total. 

6:45 (167), 6:44 (172), 6:39 (176)

I am hoping to move this back down a good deal over the next 4-6 weeks. I think in cooler weather I could run faster outside, but time will tell. Really need to get these back into the low 6s or under. Trying to be patient, but I am just not getting back to where I want to be. Going to take a lot more mileage I guess, but I just don't feel like running 90 miles a week and I really like riding bikes.

AM: 60' on the trainer. 148W. HR 97.

Recovery ride. I haven't done many these lately. Just enough to get the blood flowing before class, the one I didn't know I was teaching until Monday.

PM: 8 miles on the treadmill, averaged 10:19. HR 124.

Megan took the boys to soccer. I stayed home. Felt a little guilty but I took the boys for a while this afternoon so Megan could work.

Lunch: Off.

I got the boys down late as they were playing so well befor lunch. It was almost 1 when I was ready to go, but I thought it would be too close to my ride with only 2.5-3 hours, so I took a nap.

PM: Thursday Night Dirt - 3 hours total. 

I missed A group taking off, which was unfortunate as the roads were ripping fast. I could see them in the distance, but I didn't want to burn myself out trying to catch them going down Sheldon. We had a good group and pace. I took off going up the Dequindre Hill and thought I wouldn't have too much, but I felt great and really pushed. a PR for that segment by a good bit. Jumped onto A group as they went by and tried to pull some of them coming down Sheldon. Set my second best time on that segment. Not sure how I was moving faster previously as I was pressing pretty hard with fresh legs from not running at lunch. 

Loop Data = 22.3 miles @ 18.9 MPH 197W. HR 145.

Chatted in the parking lot for a while. My headset is loose again. I am not sure why they replaced the headset with the stock one as it is garbage, so back into the shop it goes. Need to get it back before John's next weekend.

AM: 60' on the trainer. 220W. HR 128. 

PM: 13.5 miles on the treadmill, averaged 7:58. HR 157. 

10-Mile Tempo @ Marathon Effort; Averaged 7:27 @ 165 BPM

I figured I would get my long run out of the way. Extremely humid, so I opted for the treadmill. I was going to do another LT session with some two mile repeats or maybe something by time like 3 x 10' around 9.0, but I thought it might be difficult to focus, so I did roughly what I had planned (an 8-mile tempo), but felt really good and decided to take it out to 10. I did the whole workout at 1.5% incline. I did not increase the pace every mile as I usually do. I was in the upper 150s for the first mile and into the lower 160s by the next, so I just kept it at 8.0 because I knew my HR would increase over time. I dropped the pace slightly the last 3 miles to 7:24, 7:23, 7:15. This was a bit slower than my 8 mile tempo outside recently but the effort was more relaxed. I had to crap the last mile or so, so I didn't cool down much. I felt very ill after for a few hours, which made me wonder if these efforts are worth it, but that sometimes happens when you do harder sessions in the afternoon. 

Pleased with the overall effort. I haven't done a 10-mile tempo in YEARS. I need to see where these go over the course of the fall. I won't get a long run in this next week if I do John's, but should be able to get a midweek workout in. 

Night: 60' on the trainer. 135W. HR 107.

Recovery. Quite late, but I still wanted to get something in.