Of Mice and Marathons

AM/Lunch: 60' on the trainer. 202W. HR 120. 

Basic zone 2 for an hour. The schedule called for 3 hours, but given my training load and timing, I wasn't going to get that in, which was fine. The AI program suggested to take it easier if I felt like it. Total volume is solid this week. 

Lunch: 11.2 miles on the treadmill, averaged 8:02. HR 155. 

6 x 1 Mile

Boy howdy. It's been a minute since I have done mile repeats. Maybe early 2019 when I did 7 x 1 mile in March in my unsuccessful buildup to the Glass City Marathon. I kind of planned on a wave tempo, alternating half miles at 8.0/8.5 for approximately 4-5 miles, but I have been wanting to do mile repeats for a while. They aren't fancy but it can be a productive workout. I was pleased with how this went, especially since I nailed the effort, which is tough to do without many workouts recently and the treadmill can be tough if you haven't been running on them much lately (the tendency is almost never to go too slow). I estimated based on my last two Friday workouts that low 7' pace would be a good place to start and that 6:30-6:40 would be hard but doable for perhaps the last repeat if I didn't overcook early. Started at 8.5 and progressed .1 each mile with .3 easy jogs. Pretty manageable, but getting tough the last part of the last repeat. 

7:04, 6:59, 6:54, 6:49, 6:44, 6:39

HR 165-->170 with about 1 BPM increase each mile. 

AM: 120' on the trainer. 216W. HR 129. 

4 x 12' Criss Cross Tempo/Threshold 

Solid session. Tried to get up a bit earlier so I would be on the trainer before 6:00, but it didn't happen. 

PM: 4 miles, averaged 11:13. HR 119. 

Probably could have done a full hour, but I wanted to get dinner rolling and get to bed. Morning comes early.

AM: 120' on the trainer. 227W. HR 134. 

3 x 20' Tempo Bursts

Another solid session. It looks as though school will be canceled for the boys again tomorrow (second Thursday in a row). Oakland already canceled. 

PM: 90'+ on the trainer. 222W. HR 135.

6 x 4' Sweet Spot Over/Unders 

Solid workout. Hard 30" into 3' @ sweet spot and then 30" all out. Legs felt more awake as I waited until the afternoon after taking the boys in the morning. I figured a little more sleep was better than getting up early. I was going to extend the workout to 2 hours, but figured I didn't have quite enough time.

AM/Lunch: 13 miles on the treadmill, averaged 7:59. HR 153.

2 x 4 Mile + 1 Mile Hard

I was originally planning a slight increase from last week's 2-mile repeats, but I just kind of went with it based on effort and HR. I could have done this as a straight 6-8 miles without much problem, but I am waiting to get the paces down a bit and kind of going by feel and adjusting accordingly. The first set barely had an cardiac drift after the first mile so I almost just kept it there and rolled. First set I just kept at 8 MPH, which felt mostly moderate to low marathon effort. HR 160 for that one. For the second one I started at 8.1 and increased each mile, going 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4. HR 162, so still not too hard. I did .3 recovery between sets and .7 between the second set and the mile just so I started on an even mile. I did 9.3+ for the mile. My legs felt like they weren't quite turning over and firing for some reason. It didn't feel that fast, just like my legs weren't cooperating. Increased the pace slightly toward the end, so the mile was around 6:28/6:29. HR 170.

PM: 4 hours on the trainer. 222W. HR 132. 

3 x 20' Sweet Spot

Did the intervals late in the ride, starting at the 2.5-hour mark. Did 10' zone 2 between intervals to break up the time. Worked well. It is not often that I hit 4 hours on the trainer. This might only be the third time. Wanted to get my scheduled ride in and my training stress score up so that maybe tomorrow's workout will be a bit lighter than 4 hours. I am not sure I have the time or the concentration for that. 

Triggered a red day, which is good. Will likely just do a true active recovery if the program calls for it.