Of Mice and Marathons

AM: 1 hour 1'. 16.8 miles @ 16.1 MPH. 212W. HR 127. 

Just an easy spin. I decided not to do Beach to Beacon as I think I noted several times before. Still picked up my packet to get my shirt and showed Megan the start line. Mom had rented an Air B&B, so we still went down with my brother, sister, nieces, and nephew, his girlfriend, and my mom. We went for a walk at Old Orchard Beach, which was nice. The boys have been great.

Simultaneously relieved not to be racing and frustrated that I let my running slide. Oh well. Nothing to be done about that now. 

PM: 4 miles w/ Megan, averaged 10:17. HR 121.

The boys were not happy we were leaving them with my family. We went to the Beach earlier in the morning and left Old Orchard Beach area around lunch time. 

Lunch/PM: 2 hours 32'. 40.1 miles @ 15.8 MPH. 207W. HR 142. 

3000 feet of elevation gain, some new roads. One seasonal road that was rough and had golfball to baseball-sized gravel and some exposed rock/ledge. Definitely interesting. I did one 10' threshold effort after 2 hours. 288 watts @ 165 BPM.

We have had a really good trip. Boys have been really great and I have felt quite relaxed. That hasn't happened in many years on these trips.

Lunch: 1 hour 52'. 30.2 miles @ 16.2 MPH. 202W. HR 138. 

Last day in Maine. About 2700 feet of elevation gain. A few new miles and some miles from the first few days.  

Off. 

We took off from my Mom's house around 10:00. We stayed in Batavia, NY, where we have stayed once or twice before. We had a great trip. Mentally about the best I have felt on a Maine trip in many years, certainly the best since we have gone with the boys.

PM: 1 hour 31'. 26.3 miles @ 17.3 MPH. 189W. HR 119. 

Got back to Michigan around 5 or so. Headed out around 7:30 or 8 to spin the legs out. Felt good. Roads were in great shape.

Evening: 60' on the trainer. 214W. HR 131. 

Tapering for the Watermoo this weekend. Feeling decent. 

PM: 1 hour 12'. 20.1 miles @ 16.7 MPH. 189W. HR 141. 

The effort felt a little high, but the air was poor. Did a few 2-3' threshold efforts and those felt really good. It looks like it might be a warm one for tomorrow's race.

PM: 60' on the trainer. 124W. HR 91. 

True recovery ride. Legs and body are decently beat up. Trying to figure out things that worked well yesterday and the many things that didn't.

PM: 60' on the trainer. 174W. HR 110. 

Legs are coming around. 

PM: 90' on the trainer. 216W. HR 136. 

4 x 8' Sweet Spot Burst

Decent quality session. Felt a bit harder than I wanted to for an easier workout, but I woke the system up. 

PM: 2 hours. 32.3 miles @ 16.2 MPH. 176W. HR 119. 

Kept the ride pretty strictly zone 2 for the middle portions. Felt very sluggish and had no power the first part of the ride, I think due to caloric restrictions. Roads were in great shape. 

Changed back over from TrainerRoad to FasCat for my training. TrainerRoad is great for some things, but for the yearly plan it really doesn't do well for the base season as it looks almost identical throughout the year. FasCat seems to take account of a off-season, base with weights, etc. I have enjoyed the program since the turn of the year, but the workouts just got repetitive, but like running cycling is about consistency and repetition. 

Need to get some running in. Plan is to turn the fall into a long and patient base period focusing on HR and effort-based running (which I mostly do anyway). I think this spring I just didn't have that foundation and workouts were good, but maybe I just pushed through and needed to be more patient. I don't know. Plan is to just enjoy the running and use it as a weight loss and mental health tool (which had been really solid lately, really). 

PM: 3 hours 10'. 56 miles @ 17.7 MPH. 208W. HR 151.

Thursday Night Dirt

I was between A and B group. My legs weren't producing much power but weren't terrible, so I thought maybe they just needed to wake up. They did start to wake up and I met the group a bit farther down Sheldon than I have been as I left earlier. Rode A group and felt decent at the start though it was hard and very surgey. A gap formed with me and another guy and I tried to close it but I think I was surging too much as the other guy asked me about it. He was on a hardtail, so I was just trying to pull us back to the group, which was dumb and just not working as I would just die. He pulled away with another guy and I just let them go. I was just going to go home, but decided to do what I usually do, which is to still get in a hard workout and time trialed it. I did fairly well. Pleased I kept the effort up. 

Loop Data (from one of the longer route segments): 27.3 miles in 1:24:25. 19.4 MPH @ 168 BPM. 251W.

PM: 60' on the trainer. 137W. HR 94.

AM: 3 hours 11'. 66 miles @ 20.7 MPH. 210W. HR 152.

Depot Ride 

This is a road ride that starts in Downtown Clarkston that I have wanted to do for a while. I met up with one of the guys from the neighborhood and rode over. Guys were friendly and welcoming. Everyone was on road bikes except for me and my neighbor. I got dropped twice, once before the coffee stop and once after, which was humbling, but fine. It was nice to get some faster miles in and be home by noon. 

This ride definitely made me want a road bike. Gotta save my pennies. 

PM: 2 hours 38'. 44.7 miles @ 17MPH. 197W. HR 126. 

Felt kind of blah and wound up at the same time for the first part of the ride, then settled in. 

PM: 2 hours 13'. 37.6 miles @ 16.9 MPH. 190W. HR 120. 

Air was cooling off and very breathable. A good ride. 

I bought a road bike today! I opted for a Canyon Aeroad because the price point was very solid, and I couldn't see spending more on a Specialized Tarmac or waiting for a Trek through our new shop program (the program is generous, but still pricey). 

PM: 90' on the trainer. 

Zwift Race

32:20 @ 251W (256 Normalized). Smallish race. Tried to stay patient and tactical. Tried a few moves that didn't stick. Waited to make a move at the last hill on the course and waited too long and the guy who won beat me to it. Fun to race. It has been a while since I have done a Zwift race. I really do enjoy them. 

Warm up and cool down to total 90'.

PM: 120' on the trainer. 210W. HR 129. 

I thought the new bike was going to come today, but it was still in Indianpolis. It will still be the fastest I have ever got a bike after buying it (other than my fat bike), so I guess I shouldn't complain. I just want to get it in order for Saturday's ride.

PM: just under an hour on the new bike. 19.1 MPH. 175W. HR 124. 

New Bike Day!

Went to Erik's bike shop to grab some shoes to test the new bike. I fiddled with the new bike off and on throughout the day. There wasn't much assembly, but I wanted to get everything right. I bedded in the brakes and rode it a little bit with the boys to the park. It's very fast and feels quite comfortable already. Looking forward to getting some new data and routes and likely commuting to Oakland. 

AM: 4 miles, averaged 9:42. HR 126.

Yes, Virginia, a run. First one since running with Megan in early August in Maine. Felt decent. 

PM: 1 hour 19' on the road bike. 25.4 miles @ 19.2 MPH. 184W. No HR data for some reason.

Lost my radar as I tried a makeshift mount for the new bike. $200 down the tubes. Oh well. It had a good five-year run. Still waiting on my Garmin mount. Really need that for navigation on these road routes. 

Flatted just at the last intersection before the house and walked the bike home. Messed with it later and finally got a tube in. It was a pain. Tried adjusting the rear brake and loosened the wrong bolts and messed up the hydraulic fluid, so no Depot Ride as planned tomorrow and a trip to the shop. Frustrated, but I guess that is part of the learning process. 

PM: 60' on the trainer. 205W. HR 130.

Failed workout. Struggled with confidence and concentration. Need to figure out something different I guess.  Decided to stay inside as I thought it was going to rain in the afternoon, which it didn't do. 

Dropped the new bike off at the shop to fix my brake, which I messed up last night getting it ready for the Depot Ride today. I was really looking forward to it, but oh well. Likely next week. 

AM/Lunch: 4 hours 17', mostly gravel. 78.1 miles @ 18.2 MPH. 215W. HR 137.

Long Endurance + 3 x 10' After the 3-Hour Mark

I had a really good ride. Weather was ideal for running and cycling and almost cool at the start. Headed toward Fenton and did one of the 4 hour version of that loop with some variations, which helped pick up a few new miles. I decided to do some efforts after 3 hours and kind of settled on effort and what felt right and that worked well. I managed to get about 5 trophies on random segments that lined up with my efforts. 

285W (162 BPM), 285 (163 BPM), 294 (167 BPM)

AM: 4 miles, averaged 9:29. HR ~123.

Cool and very pleasant. Air quality is about as good as it gets, though it has been good for a while. 

PM: 60' on the trainer. 192W. HR 114. 

Ophir on TrainerRoad.

AM: 90' on the trainer. 212W. HR 131.

Kwaay on TrainerRoad, which was a mixture of tempo to sweet spot-ish intervals with long recovery. About right for what I was in the mood for in the morning. 

First day back at Lawrence Tech, which went fine.

Megan, the boys, and I had a nice dinner with the Shadleys who were in town!

AM: 4.9 miles, averaged 8:13. HR 140. 

PM: 2 hours 26'. 43.4 miles @ 17.8 MPH. 214W. HR 133. 

2 x 30' Tempo + 10' Threshold

Solid workout. Felt quite strong. The strongest I have felt in some time. 

235 watts @ 140 BPM, 236 watts @ 137 BPM, 296 watts @ 157 BPM

I figured there was a segment on Perry Lake Road and that it was around 8-10' so I did the threshold interval on that and took 9th with a few-second pause at a road crossing.

AM: 5 miles, averaged 8:43. HR 134. 

AM: 5.3 miles, averaged 8:26. HR 138. 

AM2: ~15' ride commute to drop off the Subaru for brakes

PM: 2 hours 5'. 40.7 miles @ 19.5 MPH. 203W. HR 137. 

Road ride. Went pretty well. Picked up the bike from the shop last night. Linked my electronics into my running watch while I wait on my Garmin mount for my road bike. 

AM: 5.9 miles, averaged 8:29. HR 139. 

AM/Lunch: 1 hour 47' gravel ride. 30.6 miles @ 17MPH. 198W. HR 135. 

AM: 5.2 miles, averaged 8:41. HR 133. 

Rebuild Week 1, Day 7: relaxed easy 45'.

I got some good consistency this week. Not a ton of mileage, but with almost 0 for 4-5 weeks or whatever it has been, this was really good. From here I will just add 5' to most of my runs and try to stick with 5 days a week. I will get back to workouts when I get a month under me. 

PM: 4 hours 31'. 79.8 miles @ 17.7 MPH. 202W. HR 139.

Long Endurance w/ 3 x 20' Sweet Spot + Shorter Threshold Reps

Really solid ride. Picked up about 5 new miles on one of my Fenton Loop variations. Beautiful day for a ride. Dirt roads were in great shape. I did 3 x 20' sweet spot after 1 hour of zone 2. I tried to do 2-3 x 8-10' threhold after 30' of recovery, but I don't think I had enough carbs as I found it difficult to produce power. I felt like I could have really pressed on the 20' intervals but wanted to keep them in range and sustainable.

20' @ 252 @ 150 BPM, 20' @ 264 @ 154 BPM, 20' @ 265W @ 159 BPM