Of Mice and Marathons

Late: 60' on the trainer (Pioneer -3). 218W. HR 135.

Got back to Michigan. I ordered food and told Megan I needed to get on the trainer. Slightly anxious, though not from holiday drinking as has been typical in previous years, so something to note and pay attention to. Likely just getting off schedule and ready to get back into things.

PM: 90' on the trainer. 208W. HR 139.

Still congested from before travel. 

AM/Lunch: 90' on the trainer. 211W. HR 135. 

Signed up for a different cycling plan that I had a looked at a few months ago. I had to sign up for a full year, which sucks, but oh well. 50% off. I figure I will stick with it, focus on cycling, and just let me running fall where it does. I enjoy running, but the competitive aspect might be done for me, which sucks, but I would rather still enjoy doing it than hate it. That seems like a decent place to be actually.

I feed the AI program my training hours and it gave me a pretty gnarly schedule, but unlike other training programs that don't seem to give you enough for longer rides, this one does. So here we go.

PM: 120' on the trainer. 222W. HR 141. 

First CoachCat workout, which was just zone 2 for approximately 2 hours, which was fine. Warm up and cool down for 5' each and right toward the upper middle of zone 2. Trying to get some strength training scheduled.

PM/Evening: 120' on the trainer. 227W. HR 154.

3 x 20' Tempo

I dislike tempo intervals as I prefer to do them in a solid block of at least an hour, but this stacks with a sweet spot workout tomorrow, so it is plenty hard enough. HR was high from my cold, but manageable.

275W @ 165 BPM; 274W @ 168 BPM; 279W @ 169 BPM

Heart rate was approximately 5-10 beats higher than normal. Perceived effort felt right though.

AM/Lunch: 120' on the trainer. 239W. HR 152. 

4 x 12' Sweet Spot

Pretty decent workout. 306W @ 168 BPM; 308W @ 168 BPM; 306W @ 171; 313 @ 172. I felt pretty good on this one. Slightly tired, but the effort was good. 

+ strength session 

I went to the gym after to do an introductory session and it went something like: 

3 x 8 squats on the Smith Machine (bar, bar, 20# added)

2 x 15? leg press machine (no added weight)

2 x 15 Lat pulldown @ 40#

2 x 30" each planks and captain's chair

I have been wanting to do some leg work, something I never really did as a runner because I was afraid to, but apparently cyclists do it. The lat pulldowns were kind of weird in the mix, but supposed to hit some of the stability muscles for cycling, so I went with the planned workout. 

I am going to try to do 2-3 strength sessions a week, mostly after harder sessions time permitting to make sure easy days are easy.

Off. 

Per the training plan. I did not want to take it, but I will attempt to take days off when scheduled.