Of Mice and Marathons

AM: 11.2 miles, averaged 8:38. HR 130. 

Solid medium long run. Just under 100'. Beautiful weather again. I really don't want it to end. Cool and comfortable in the mornings and really warming up throughout the day. 

PM:  78' on the fat bike. HR 138. 

Three laps of Bald Mountain South.

AM: 8 miles, averaged 8:28. HR 131.

PM: 1 hour 4'. 201W. HR 138. 

Short, two-lapper of Bald Mountain South. It was getting pretty dark on the second lap and my headlight, though helpful, wasn't quite enough. You really need a helmet light for mountain biking to sight the corners, so I ordered one the next day.

PM: 2 hours 50'. 51.5 miles @ 18.2 MPH. 215W. HR 144. 

4 x 15' Over/Unders

After all easy running and (mostly) easy riding, I was ready for a good workout. It was in the lower 80s or so, which is wild for early October, but I wasn't complaining. Felt decent on the warmup, felt like dog pile on the first interval and was ready to pull the plug, but I just told myself to relax and concentrate and just do the best I could and get through the workout. It worked well. Numbers weren't fantastic, but I got some work in. Tempo loop was a little chunky, which made it a little bit more tricky in the corners, but nothing terrible. 

3 (2' threshold-VO2/3' high sweet spot) x 4. No idea how close I was on the individual laps as I didn't want to lose track (even though I did on the second one temporarily), so I just changed my power based on the minutes during the full interval. 

269 watts @ 160 BPM, 280 watts @ 161, 277 watts @ 163 BPM, 274 watts @ 162

PM: 2 hours 33'. 34.3 miles @ 13.4 MPH. 178W. HR 137.

Pontiac Lake with Jesse. We rode there and back, which was my preference. It's a tougher trail than what I am used to in terms of climbing and technicality. Not too technical, but it has some spots that will hurt you if you aren't careful and/or prepared. Portions were loose, but it is really quite flowing in places. Some tough switchback climbs, which we don't have a lot of here. Managed to get through a lap and a partial with only putting a foot down once. Just wasn't prepared for a steep uphill after a short downhill and stalled out. I slid out/crashed on the last corner before the exit. Nothing major but it stung a little. Got up and was mostly fine. Scraped my hip/butt quite hard, skinned my knee, and a little on my elbow but was able to ride home fine. It has been almost two years since I have gone down hard, so I have done well. 

AM: 14.3 miles, averaged 8:54. HR 137. 

3 x 22' @ MAF w/ 5' jogs a slightly lower effort

8:37, 8:35, 8:30

It was getting warm, solidly in the 80s. I think it was 70 or so when I started. Felt fine, though a little stiff from crashing on the fat bike yesterday. Heat definitely made it hard to keep the heart rate down after the two-hour mark. 

Week 6 of base building is complete. I want to see how my progress is when we get a cooler day and I can get a MAF test in on Thursday or Friday. Likely Thursday and I will have a somewhat longer bike workout on Friday. I imagine for a 5-mile MAF test I should be around 8:16-8:05, but we shall see. From there, I think I will give it 4 more weeks, retest, and decide if I want to do another 4-6 weeks or move into something slightly faster. 

AM: 5.1 miles @ 9:56. HR 121. 

PM: 84' on the fat bike @ BMS. 184W. HR 131. 

Did 3 x 3' threshold and 3 x 30" full gas. It is tough to hold power on trails on a fat bike with coasting, etc. but it is part of the learning process and getting used to finding race effort and handling the bike. 

AM: 90' on the trainer. 237W. HR 144. 

60' @ Sweet Spot

I was going to do a Zwift race, but I wasn't sure of the time as it was a mystery unlock thing (looks like I wouldn't have had time for it), so I was going to do an alternative workout, but decided to just do a straight 60' @ sweet spot and got in a really solid effort. 

268 watts @ 154 BPM. 

I was holding close to this for 2 hours in late spring, but I was pleased with this effort. I still feel strong and am much better able to do efforts on tired legs. 

AM: 8 miles @ 8:30. HR 130. 

PM: 72' trail session on the fat bike. 205W. HR 125. 

4 x 6' Sweet Spot/Cheetah Pounce across the middle of Orion Oaks. 

This was a fun session. Keept it steady and then punched for 20 seconds at the end into Vo2 max. It was partially in the dark, but I had my lights, which helped tremendously. Around 260-275 watts for the intervals and then 350-450 watts for the 20". I thought they were supposed to be full gas, but actually were supposed to be more Vo2 max. 

AM: 10.4 miles, averaged 8:24. HR 133.

MAF Test #2

Quite chilly this morning at around 36-38 degrees, which was a bit of a shift from previous mornings. It was quite foggy as well, so I worried about visibility on the tempo loop, but it ended up being fine. 

I feel quite satisfied with how I have been able to sustain the patience for this approach. I am pretty good at running sensibly easy, but to not even let things naturally pickup once in a while is somewhat different. 

4 weeks ago I ran 8:21 @ 140 BPM for 5 miles. I started at 8:14 and slowed to 8:22-8:24 for the remaining splits. Today I was able to run a good deal faster and without any drift and in fact had the pace DROP. I ran 5 miles @ 8:03 @ 140 BPM. 18 seconds faster and only 7 seconds of drift as opposed to 9.

8:03 @ 139, 8:07 @ 139, 8:04 @ 140, 8:00 @ 140, 8:01 @ 140 and I actually ran another mile at effort to see if I would slow, but I sped up to 7:58. I do not know how long it would have taken for the pace to slow as I ran out of time, but I was going to keep going and in fact might make it the focus of my long run to test this. 

I think I could bump my MAF number up to 144/145 and run a little bit faster. AI projects that I would run around 7:40-7:48 if I used that number for my test. That seems about right. I imagine the top of zone 2 right now is around 7:20-7:25 (assuming 148-152 beats per minute is the upper end of zone 2). 

I am enjoying this experiment now that I have been able to commit to it and it seems to be working. Of course, my cycling is also helping, but that overall training hasn't really changed, so I imagine it is mostly helping me maintain fitness, but hard to say. 

I will test again in 4 weeks after Iceman and decide whether to continue until the end of the year or start including some higher aerobic work in my long runs. 

AM: 10.7 miles @ 8:24. HR 137. 

MAF Test Retake

I was going to just do a short run as it was quite chilly out and didn't feel like riding in the cold, so I wanted to wait until it warmed up. I was going to do a shorter run, but just decided as I was warming up to redo my MAF test, but at 145 BPM to see if there was any variance in pace. Pace remained steady and HR didn't drift. My pace wasn't much faster than yesterday, but likely due to fatigue and legs just not being as snappy. The goal was to see if 145 BPM was a more likely appropriate aerobic ceiling. Turned out it is. 

8:01, 8:03, 8:03, 8:01, 8:05, 7:58

I ran some projections with AI and it suggested a conservative estimation would have me around 7:25-7:30 by the end of the year and an aggressive estimate around 7:00-7:10 pace. I think I will keep going until the first week in January just to see if I can get it under 7:30 pace, which would bring my zone 2 upper limit to around 7 min/mile and my aerobic threshold in the mid to low 6' pace range I think. 

PM: 2 hours 8'. 39 miles @ 18.2 MPH. 218W. HR 140.

3 x 8' Crisscross Zone 6/Threshold

Got some work done and got some food and recovery stuff in. Headed out on the bike to get my actual scheduled workout of the day. I felt very strong throughout and felt like I could have really pushed pretty hard. 3 (1' zone 6/3' threshold x 2). For the 1' segements I was around 320-330, which was slightly on the lower end but I was trying not to push too hard. Ended up with the total intervals being 312 watts @ 163 BPM, 310 watts @ 163, and 316 watts @ 162. I think it has been a while since I have had a decent chunk of time in any interval session above 300 watts, so I was pleased. I felt like I was holding back slightly, but I was hitting the numbers so I just rolled with it. 

It is the second anniversary of my Dad's passing. I miss him more than I ever thought. I know my siblings feel the same way and my Mom still has a hard time. 

PM: 3 hours 35'. 63.5 miles @ 17.7 MPH. 215W. HR 135. 

It was fairly cool and looked like it might rain, though it wasn't forecast to. Planned on 3 hours or so, up to 4. I decided to do an effort after 1 hour and then later in the ride, so I went to the tempo loop, did 15' threshold and then rode around Ortonville and Holly Recreation Area before coming back and doing a 10' interval. I didn't have too much on the 10' interval and in fact I wanted to do a 20' at the beginning and at the end, but just didn't have the legs. Needed to try to push about 285ish for each, and probably would have been okay. 

20' @ 292 watts @ 161 BPM and 10' @ 280 watts @ 152 BPM

AM: 15.2 miles, averaged 8:02. HR ~143-144. 

3 x 10' AeT

Nice morning out. Sunny and warming up from the lower 50s into the 60s. Decided to do some slightly higher aerobic work, though just touching on it and very controlled. 

Warmed up 20' did 20' at MAF, did a 5' jog and then did 3 x 10' at aerobic threshold with 4' jogs at slightly less than MAF and then did another 20' @ MAF before cooling down. I felt quite good and assumed my pace was probably under 7:30 but not by much, perhaps 7:20-7:25. It was actually a good deal faster, which I sort of surmised but didn't want to get too hyped up. 7:11 @ 154 BPM, 7:08 @ 154 BPM, 7:08 @ 155 BPM.

These efforts are very easy to recover from but they should be enough to provide some stimulus. I haven't runn any faster than easy pace since I don't know when. 

AM: 8.3 miles @ 9:08. HR 124/125.

Felt quite good. HRM was a bit wonky the last two miles or so. Legs felt very good, I think because I didn't sit around all afternoon and instead went to the trampoline park with the boys yesterday. 

PM: 65' ride on the fat bike @ Orion Oaks. 195W. HR 126. 

Did 2 x 3' efforts around sweet spot to threshold. 

The boys turned 5 today. We had their presents, cake, and so on in the evening with their friend and her parents. I was pretty worn out and went to bed quite early. 

AM: 74' on the fat bike @ Orion Oaks. 206W. HR 133.

4 x 8' Sweet Spot (Trail)

I was going to run or do this session on the trainer, but decided to go to Orion Oaks and get some harder, faster efforts on the fat bike to work on pacing, effort, and handling. Ended up being a nice morning for it. I needed tights and a baselayer, but once I got moving I felt fine and the temp started to warm up somewhat quickly.

245 watts @ 146 BPM, 256 watts @ 148 BPM, 240 watts @ 145 BPM, 265 watts @ 149 BPM

PM: off.

No run as I did my usual plasma donation and helped the boys with their various requests, mostly concerning their birthday presents (they decided to paint the deck, which is fine given that it is falling apart). 

AM: 80' on the trainer. 213W. HR 138. 

5 x 3' Vo2 Max

I was going to run, but decided to get my bike workout in as I wasn't sure how much time I would have later, as we are taking the boys to a Halloween event downtown. I went to bed quite early again last night and got a great night of sleep (not that I ever really struggle). I was ready for this session as I wanted to see where my power above threshold was. I figured based on previous workouts 325 on the low end wouldn't be a problem. 325-355 was the range and I wanted to keep it in the middle to upper end of that range without going to far beyond except for the last interval or two. 

346 watts @ 160 BPM, 339 watts @ 162 BPM, 343 @ 162 BPM, 338 watts @ 164 BPM, 337 watts @ 164 BPM

AM: 11.1 miles, averaged 8:05. HR 140. 

3 x 10' @ AeT (3')

7:17 @ 154 BPM, 7:09 @ 155 BPM, 7:05 @ 155 BPM

AM/Lunch: 3 hours. 42.9 miles @ 14.3 MPH. 217W. HR 150

Sweet Spot OTS Ride

I switched mornings with Megan and that was just fine with me as I think it is going to rain all day tomorrow, so I figured I would stick with my ride as planned. It was coolish, but warming up fast. I started at Bald Mountain South and scouting the traffic. A few hikers and bikers, but not bad. I did three laps at sweet spot effort. 46' @ 232 watts @ 162 BPM. I actually passed a group of guys I know, which was kind of fun to be on a fat bike and just blowing by people. I made my way to Orion Oaks to hit the sledding hill and some other climbs to work on the steep, punchy stuff before going into three laps there. It was predictably busy, so I made sure to slow down when necessary, particularly around small kids (I already ticked off one old solo guy at Bald Mountain). 51' @ 241 watts @ 158 BPM. Normalized power on the intervals was 259 watts and 254 watts, which is right about target Iceman power. 

Off. 

I don't know how long it has been since my last full day off, but it was probably time. I decided not to do my long run, which cut my overall mileage for the week significantly, but the overall bike workout stress is fairly high right now, and I need to absorb all of this training a bit.

AM: 90'+ on the trainer. 249W. HR 151. 

3 x 20' Sweet Spot

I was going to do a straight hour, but decided to stick with the plan and see if I could keep things in the upper range of the zone and stay comfortable. It worked quite well. I took in a lot of carbs. 2 x 50g gels, though I had nothing to eat before and I think I had around 60-80 grams from the bottles. 

277 watts @ 158 BPM, 281 watts @ 162 BPM, 285 watts @ 164 BPM, 280 average or 95+% of FTP, so right where I needed to be.

PM: Off. Need to get my runs in, but trying to get work done and make sure I hit all of my bike workouts with Iceman just 3 weeks away.

AM: 120' on the trainer. 235W. HR 145. 

Threshold Intervals 15'-12'-15'

The workout was supposed to be 2 x 20' on the trails, but everything was soaked, so I just did an improvised workout on the trainer. The program suggested 3 x 12' but that didn't seem quite right given that I did 3 x 15' not long ago and I did 3 x 12' crisscross last Friday, so I thought I might do 2 x 20' or adjust a bit if I wasn't feeling great. For a minute I thought I might turn the first effort into a hard 20' effort, but backed off. I was around 305 or 306 I think through 8-10' but I could tell I didn't have enough energy to sustain it or increase much, so I just kept the effort at threshold and decided to press on as I could. Decided on 15'-12'-15' and think that was fine. 

299 watts @ 164 BPM, 295 watts @ 164 BPM, 298 watts @ 165 BPM

I have a Vo2 max session tomorrow, which should be interesting after two pretty hard workouts the last two days. I guess I got my wish to work on the area of 280-300 watts and over that (325-350)!

AM: 80' on the trainer. 221W. HR 139. 

6 x 3' Vo2 (2.5')

Another rep and 30" shorter rest than last week. Averaged about 339 watts once I corrected the data a bit. I thought it was low, but I cut the intervals in the wrong spot. Pretty much in line with last week. Feel like I have gotten really strong since mid-September. 

AM: 90' on the trainer. 217W. HR 124. 

Pretty straightforward zone 2 ride. Rode at the top of zone 2 and into zone 3 as my HR was solidly still in zone 2.

Need to get my runs in. 

AM: 16.2 miles, averaged 8:02. HR 142. 

3 x 15' AeT

It has been about 8 days since my last run. I wanted to make sure I hit my peak weeks going into Iceman and get some work done and the weather was crappy, so I was a bit lazy. I decided to just get my long in regardless. It went well. 

30' WU, 20' @ MAF (7:50 pace @ 143 BPM), 5' jog, 3 x 15' AeT (7:16 @ 153 BPM, 7:13 @ 153 BPM, 7:09 @ 155 BPM), 20' down for a total of 2 hours 10'.

Not too taxing, but I got a little work in (this is really just a modersate to steady pace, not even quite marathon effort) and it really allows you to get in 2+ hours of running without much thought.

I am of course shifting back and forth on racing plans next year. I originally wanted to try to run a fast 5k, but I also want to make my ultra debut, which has been about 8? 9? years  of wanting to, signing up, getting sick or bailing, life stuff, etc. I don't generally like bike racing in the early spring or much before school gets out, so I think it make sense to focus approximately 5-6 months on a running race/goal and the back half of the year on cycling racing and goals, while still doing both sports. 

PM: 70' on the fatbike @ Orion Oaks. 205W. HR 140. 

Testing some modifications and adjustments I had the shop do. I went up to a 32t chainring, which is the largest the bike will take. Seems like it will help lessen the amount of coasting I have to do. Dropped the front end a bit and had the bars cut down from 800mm to 780mm and they feel just about right. New chain and some bottom bracket and brake maintainence and it feels very good. I just wish I had a light tire for less rolling resistance and a bit less rotating and overall weight, but the bike should be faster overall (as should I) this year.

AM: 2 hours 50'. 36.7 miles @ 12.9 MPH. 224W. HR 154. 

Iceman Simulation: 2 Hours @ Sweet Spot 

I knew it was going to be cold, but that was kind of the point to prep for Iceman in two weeks. Some guys were doing a D-ride, but I figured the pace was going to be slow and I needed to get some higher efforts on my fat bike to test fitness and the newer modifications from picking my bike up from the shop yesterday. 

I warmed up for 15' to Bald Mountain South and then got right into 2 hours around target Iceman power. I was hoping to push 245-250 raw, but didn't quite get there. I averaged 235, but my normalized power was 263 or 265 watts, so that was about what I wanted. HR average was 159. I was sluggish to start, but I just kind of found my effort and got progressively faster. I hit some of the climbs fairly hard and out of the saddle on the last two laps. Tried to do some single track after the long sweet spot segement, but the trails at Lake Orion High School were leaf covered and I lost the trail.

I was proud of this session. It is tied with the longest sweet spot session I have done and the normalized power was in line with what I did earlier in the year when I was doing longer efforts on the trainer and gravel bike. 

AM: 8 miles, averaged 9:09. HR 125. 

PM: 5 miles, averaged 8:54. HR 122. 

AM: 10.4 miles, averaged 7:47. HR 147.

2 x 10' Threshold + 10' Aerobic Threshold

Just a lighter workout to touch on some speed and higher heart rates. Legs felt a bit sluggish and a little sore from Sunday, but overall not bad. 

20' warm up, 5' @ aerobic threshold (7:15 @ 155 BPM), 3' jog, 2 x 10' threshold (6:48 @ 162 BPM and 6:38 @ 164 BPM) w/ 4' jogs and then 10' @ aerobic threshold (7:04 @ 156 BPM)

Another 10' rep and I think I would have been in the low 6:30s. I certainly could have run them faster (probably 6:30s and then a 6:20s), but I wanted to stay at a given effort. I think these are around half marathon effort maybe. Just something to break up the easy and moderate running. I wasn't patient enough with workouts last spring and it made it much harder to run faster than that in races I think.

AM: 8 miles, averaged 8:54. HR 131. 

PM: 60' on the trainer. 222W. HR 139 HR.

Failed Vo2 max workout. I find these workouts impossible in the evening and I know better based on how I have felt this semester at that time. Did one interval, started a second, bombed, then just did mostly zone 2 with one final effort of 5' @ 330 watts.

AM: 120' on the trainer. 236W. HR 139. 

3 x 20' Sweet Spot

Felt like I wanted to still get a workout in after yesterday, but I didn't want to repeat it, so I did a decent sweet spot session. Sawyer was sick in the night and Megan was up with him, so I decided to stay home with her as we were also keeping Charlie home as a precaution, so I cancelled my classes. 

Planned on an hour of steady zone 2, maybe 90' but got into this on the fly. I felt like I needed more carbs, so I quickly grabbed some leftover bottles from the fridge. Aerobically fine, but my legs took a bit of convincing to move. Power wasn't great, but effort was fine and in the sweet spot range.

272 watts @ 152 BPM, 275 watts @ 155 BPM, 277 watts @ 155 BPM

PM: 4 miles on the treadmill (10' pace). HR 121.

Zwift was off with respect to the treadmill, which was driving me nuts as it has historically been dead on. The speed reflected on Zwift would drop down here and there and the pace graph looked like an outdoor run when it should look like stairs (assuming you speed up as you go).

Sawyer started to feel better in the afternoon and he had a good long nap. Everyone else managed not to get sick, thankfully. We have been lucky with stomach bugs. 

AM: 15.7 miles, averaged 7:39. HR 145. 

60' @ AeT

Dropped the boys off at school and went back with Megan to see their Halloween costume parade. Pretty cute. Decided to get my run in and planned on approximately 2 hours. I wanted to see what 60' at the same effort as the intervals I have been doing would look like. Turned out quite well. I was hoping to be under 7:20, but figured 7:10-7:15 would be good as that is about what I have run for 45' broken up. I ran a bit faster than that on pretty tired legs, so I felt good about this. 

Warmed up 25' and did 10' at MAF, which was around 7:40 pace, which was good to see that dropping. Stayed patient and didn't take splits, just kept an eye on heart rate here and there, trying to keep it between 150-157, not worrying too much if it bounced around at 158-160 as long as it didn't stay there. Averaged 7:02 @ 155 BPM. I think I will repeat this workout over the next 8 weeks or so and see how the pace drops before extending it further. I would like to see this back down under 6:30 in the next 6 weeks or so.