Of Mice and Marathons

AM: 7.6 miles on the treadmill, averaged 7:55. Did a few strides.

HR data was off for some reason. Bad connection? Kept it light to warm up and progressed into solidly/honestly aerobic. Working on this, as I think it is the missing piece of my training. It is just hard without a traditional training structure of workout/recovery/maintenance (rinse and repeat). I might have to switch back to a midweek workout and a quality long run on the weekend. That always served me well in the past, I think I just need more mileage. Nothing crazy, but 45-50 miles per week ain't gonna cut it. Going for consistent 60-ish mile weeks, maybe with a peak week or two in the upper 70s or low 80s.

PM: 

AM: 9.3 miles on the treadmill, averaged 7:32. HR 148.

4x8' Subthreshold w/ 1' Float Recoveries

PM: 8.1 miles on the treadmill, averaged 7:24. HR 150. 

8x4' Subthreshold 

8.8 MPH for the first 4, 8.9 for the next two, and 9.0 for the last two. 1' recoveries

AM: 5.8 miles on the treadmill, averaged 10:16. HR 112.

Kept it extremely easy to maximize recovery. Went straight home from LTU as there was a tornado warning. We lost power around 11:30 in the morning and it didn't come on until 6:30 PM on Saturday.

PM: Off. 

No power, so I didn't run on the treadmill and didn't feel like going outside. 

Off.

No power still. I didn't feel like running outside, but could have as the boys went to their friend's.

PM: 12 miles, averaged 7:51. HR 149.

6 Miles @ Marathon Effort + 1 Mile Hard

Legs felt quite unresponsive, but I settled into the effort and made it work. 7:24, 7:22, 7:20, 7:13, 7:15, 7:19. Took 3' jog and ran 6:21, which was pretty decent. Cooled down for a few minutes and then just felt very tired and grumpy. I think I am just ready to have the power back on. 

We took the boys to a party at their friend's parents', which was fun. Got a notification that the power was back on. 

AM: 90'+ on the new mountain bike. HR 120. 

Fun playing around with the new rig. Power meter wasn't full connected, but working on figuring on the suspension settings. Went to Bald Moutain South, which was actually clear of trees. Went to Orion Oaks, which was impassable in places. Numerous trees down from the storm, which I should have expected.

AM: 5.4 miles on the treadmill, averaged 8:21. HR 128.

Got up early before the boys were up. Felt great, but I had to hit the bathroom for a secondary morning visit and decided to just cut the run at 45 minutes. Very unusal without having eaten anything. 

PM: 2 hours 15' on the mountain bike. 181W. HR 134.

Bald Mountain South, Bald Mountain North, Bald Mountain South, with a steady lap when I washed out on a corner and crashed. Hit pretty hard even though it didn't seem that bad. Hit my right elbow and actually scuffed my helmet, so it is done. Some blood on the arm, but a small but wide cut on my arm had me a bit worried, so I went to Urgent Care and got 3 stitches put in. Oh well.

AM: 10 miles on the treadmill, averaged 8:04. HR 138.

Managed to keep my stitches in. Arm felt unaffected though I tried my best not to sweat on it. 

PM: 4.3 miles on the treadmill, averaged 8:10. HR 135.

5 x 1' pickups.

AM: 8.3 miles on the treadmill, averaged 7:31. HR 149. 

4x8' Subthreshold

8.7 and 8.8 MPH. HR 156, 157, 160, 161. 

PM: 8.3 miles on the treadmill, averaged 7:28. HR 146. 

10x3' Subthreshold

8.8 for the first 6. 8.9 for the last four.

AM: 7 miles, averaged 9:51. HR 120. 

Hooked up my Stryd Pods. Pretty consistent power, around 250 watts, which is a good baseline. I will need more data to know how much I will rely on the metric. Something to mess with anyway. I got them earlier this winter, but haven't used them much. I used ChatGPT to diagnose some of the connection issues. It would have been extremely difficult otherwise. 

PM: 4 miles on the treadmill, averaged 10:16. HR 116.

Stryd pods cut out halfway through. Further diagnosed them. Will see if the changes worked. 

AM: 12.5 miles, averaged 7:39. HR 148. 

12x1k Subthreshold 

Good session. I actually use power to pace these, and it's highly useful once you understand it. It's far more consistent than pace, especially on a 1-k loop. I used my estimate critical power and kept things just under that and the effort was perfect. I felt like I was doing work, but with 60" rest or less I was ready to go again and able to progress without pushing. 4:10, 4:08, 4:04, 4:03, 4:01, 4:01, 4:02, 4:04, 4:04, 4:02, 4:01, 3:58. HR 159 avg @ 369 watts. 

Things are definitely progressing. I would like them to move a bit more quickly, but eventually things will really snowball. Several weeks of consistency. I am not getting in as much riding as I would like, but I guess there are just going to have to be some trade offs. When I do ride I am going to have to ride long and pretty steady, which is my preference anyway. 

AM/Lunch: 90' on the gravel bike. 28 miles @ 17.9 MPH. 204W. HR 129.

Steady pedal pressure. One segment attack. Got it. Felt good to be back on the bike, though I guess it was only Monday when I last rode.

PM: 2 hours 41'. 48.8 miles @ 18.5 MPH. 217W. HR 138.

1 Hour of Power + Segment Attack

260 watts @ 151 HR for the hour and got the KOM by 1 second. Felt pretty good. One hour pacing is tough. Not 100% effort, but maybe 85-90ish. I will try to repeat next week and go a bit longer to retrain my durability. 

AM: 7 miles, averaged 9:46. HR 118. 

PM: 4 miles on the treadmill, averaged 10:05. HR 117. 

AM: 10.2 miles, averaged 7:15. HR 152.

10k Tempo in 40:38

Good one today. I was going to do mile repeats around 10k effort, but kind of wanted something continuous to practice half marathon pacing and effort. This worked beautifully. Definitely the longest I have run at half-marathon effort other than in a race for some time. I kept a bit of an eye on the power, but mostly ran by feel. 6:32 average pace, 368 watts average power, and 164 BPM: 6:39, 6:37, 6:35, 6:31, 6:31, 6:25

PM: 4.4 miles, averaged 10:10. HR 120.

AM: 7.2 miles, averaged 9:38. HR 120. 

PM: 4.1 miles on the treadmill, averaged 9:44. HR 117.

AM: 9.3 miles on the treadmill, averaged 7:34.

5x8' Subthreshold

Solid session. Went 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, 8.9, 9.0 w/ 1' recoveries. Power to HR =  328 (156), 334 (157), 338 (159), 341 (160), 344 (162)

PM: 4.5 miles on the treadmill, averaged 8:54. HR 127. 

+ light weights and 25' sauna. HR 97.

Got my stitches out today. Healed up well.

PM: 5 miles on the treadmill, averaged 8:08. HR 137. 

I was going to get out on the bike, but we had to rush our cat, Oliver to the emergency vet this morning. We ended up having to put him down. I got him in August 2010 (before I joined the blog even!) when I lived in Indiana. It was tough, but he went downhill really fast. Stopped eating for several days and his bloodwork was awful. He was the cat that really showed Megan what a great pet a cat can be. 

I wasn't sure if the boys would have school as the power went out (again), but they kept them there, and the power came back on within a short time, so it was a bit of a chaotic morning. I had meeting with students off and on throughout the day, which was actually welcome. 

PM: 15 miles on the treadmill, averaged 7:50. HR 144. 

60' Steady to Marathon Effort

Did 6 miles in about 50' to start and then did 1 hour steady. Legs felt like they had no turnover. Not sore, not exactly tired, just a lack of snap. Did the hour at 7:15 pace and 154 HR. Progressed from 7:30-7:01. Cooled down to 15. 

Perhaps only my second 70-mile week since I return from my semi-hiatus in 2020-2021. I was going to ride this afternoon, but didn't want to ride the trainer and it has been raining considerably. 

AM/Lunch: 3 hours on the trainer. 163W. HR 100.

Very light endurance, lighter than I typically would, but felt very good and will help me bounce back from yesterday's long run. 

Doing the OU cross country team's 10k next weekend on campus. I haven't done a full race since May, so I am well overdue. Should be fairly rolling 2 lap course on campus. It should give me a good indication of fitness and what to think about targeting in a few weeks for my half. 

AM: 7 miles on the treadmill, averaged 9:41. HR 124. 

PM: 6.3 miles on the treadmill, averaged 9:29. HR 125. 

AM: 90' on the trainer. 189W. HR 126.

5 x 3' Vo2 (Gemeni on TrainerRoad)

Vo2 sessions on the trainer always hurt. Got through the session okay.

PM: 3.1 miles on the treadmill, averaged 9:50. HR 116.

Donated plasma and didn't eat enough, so I cut the run short.

AM: 10 miles, averaged 7:35. HR 148.

5x1 Mile Subthreshold (1' Recoveries)

Wanted to get in a lighter workout, but nothing too short, but also not too intense, so I decided a subthreshold workout. I was going to do 4 x 6' or 5 x 6', but I had my watch on autosplit and decided that I would do 5 x 1 mile around subthreshold intensity, so about half marathon pace for this. Worked out well and the pace felt very comfortable. Racing a 10k Sunday, so I wanted something faster, but not 10k effort. 

Power ended up being slightly higher than target, but the effort was right. I easily could have keep going to 6 or 8 repeats and likely will on the next round of this workout. 

6:48, 6:49, 6:38, 6:34, 6:34 (avg HR 159-160)

Power = 361, 364, 368, 369, 371

PM: 60' on the trainer. 174W. HR 109.

AM: 6 miles, averaged 10:08. HR 116. 

PM: Off.

AM: 1 hour 45' on the gravel bike. 30 miles @ 17.1 MPH. 192W. HR 126. 

Mounted my new Silca tires last night. 50mm and not much room on the non-drive side chainstay, but they worked fine on this test ride. Not sure I will stick with a 50 in the year as it is very close. Tires felt great though. Smooth, fast, grippy in the corners. Mostly endurance with one segent attack that I tried to take back. Tied the KOM, which is better than coming up short I guess. 

Excited to race a 10k on campus this Sunday. I should be able to get back under 40' for the first time in many years and see what I can do from there. There will be some hills, so I am going to try to pace the race off power and see if that is worth using for racing. 

Might do a 41 mile gravel race in two weeks. I have Grand Rapids half in a few weeks and Iceman in early November. Churchills Half is out for the second week in November, so I am undecided after October 18 about racing places for the rest of fall and next year, but probably time to get a solid plan laid down. Not getting any younger. 

PM: 4 miles, averaged 8:15. HR 142. 

Pre-race sharpening. 2' @ strong 10k effort. Did 4 strides.

AM: 10.7 miles total. 3.5 up, 10k race, 1 mile down.

Warmed up for 25' or so and did just under 3 minutes around subthreshold intensity, jogged a bit more, and did some strides. I even did some leg swings for the first time in about a decade. 

I had a pretty good race. I was hoping for 39:30-39:45 but I underestimated how tough the course would be even though it was on campus and I have run part of it before. Ran mostly by effort and power and it was a good thing I did as I saw flashes of 8' pace coming up the O'rena Hill. It was a grinder. I was happy with letting other faster runner go and settled into my pace and effort and felt very comfortable through 2 miles and pretty solid for the first lap. Mile 4 I was feeling good, but not pressing too hard but started to drop a guy I passed. Mile 6 was just a bear and I finished fairly strong, but the finish is tough. Felt satisfied with the effort. Much better than a DNF for sure. Splits: 6:20, 6:21, 6:56, 6:33, 6:35, 6:59, (6:23 for the partial). Power: 368, 372, 377, 368, 363, 371, (406). HR 159, 168, 169, 169, 171, 172, (174)

Averaged 6:36 @ 168 BPM @ 371 watts

About 20-25 seconds slower than my 10k tempo a few weeks ago, but the course is probably worth 39:45-40:00 on a dead flat course. 

AM: 6.4 miles, averaged 10:07. HR 118. 

Quads a little bit sore, but not bad overall!

PM: 1 hour 48' on the gravel bike. 29.6 miles @ 16.3 MPH. 172W. HR 110. 

Felt good to get out and ride. It was warm but cooled down quickly. Not sure if this will lhelp my legs ore make them worse.

AM: 90' on the trainer. 186W. HR 116. 

Legs are still pretty beat up.

AM: 1 hour+ on the moutain bike. 181W. HR 126.

Did two laps of Bald Mountain South. I was going to do another lap, but wanted to leave myself enough time to get ready and get to campus. 

PM: 6.4 miles on the treadmill, averaged 9:24. HR 127.

Legs felt okay, but weren't fully online during the run, but felt good overall.