Of Mice and Marathons

Off. 

Felt kind of blah, skipped my long run and was going to do something later in the day, but it didn't happen. 

AM: 9.7 miles, averaged 8:17. HR 147. 

8 x 1k

Changed over to distance for my subthreshold workouts so that I can keep track of my total mileage and incrementally add and get a sense of the percentage of overall quality during the week. 7:10-6:44 pace. Effort a little high, maybe with some peaks around 167-170 at times, but not bad. 60' recoveries. These efforts were much more controlled than when I do them around 40'-50' race effort and jog 90" recoveries. 

4:27, 4:20, 4:17, 4:18, 4:14, 4:12, 4:13, 4:11

PM: 90' on the trainer. 186W. HR 120. 

4x8'

Lactate guided subthreshold. 3.4, 2.1, 2.1, 2.5. Took 4' recoveries. These efforts were very manageable, so I think I finally dialed in the mix discipline double threshold day. We will see if this is repeatable twice a week over a few weeks. HR was low.

234W @ 137 BPM (3.4 mmols), 225W @ 131 BPM (2.1 mmols), 230W @ 135 BPM (2.1 mmols), 236W @ 136 BPM (2.5 mmols)

220-235 is a good anchor point for these double days for now. I will restest on Wednesday and then likely just go with it if results are similiar. 

PM: 6.5 miles, averaged 10:05. HR 123. 

Recovery run with 4 x strides. I am unsure whether strides should be done during a recovery run, but doing a workout every other day or so doesn't leave any maintenance runs to do them on. I would generally do them on a regular maintenance day the day before a workout.

AM: 9.8 miles, averaged 8:12. HR 143. 

4 x 2k

Solid workout. Feeling much better mentally than the last week. Started a bit too conservatively, but settled in. 9:09 @ 155 BPM, 8:44 @ 160 BPM, 8:39 @ 162 BPM and 8:39 @ 162 BPM. The average pace was right around 7' pace, so some progress over the last few weeks. I imagine once I start stacking these a few times per week over a series of weeks the fitness will return. I'd like to get these into the low-6' pace or under by September, hopefully closer to 5:50-5:55 or faster. 

PM: 90' on the trainer. 194W. HR 122. 

4 x 8' 

Solid second session. Fueled well and it made a difference. Need to be better at that as I was last year. 

All reps between 2.2-2.4 mmols, so nice and consistent. I was definitely holding back and keeping things controlled. 228W (135 BPM), 232W (134 BPM), 237W (136 BPM), 237W (137 BPM).

HR was about what I would do for high zone 2 to tempo, but lactate suggested it was perfect, maybe slightly conservative, but that is what I want for these days. I can push a little higher in my weekend workout and into next week. Higher 2s would be fine. Getting some traction now. 

PM: 5.7 miles, averaged 10:37. HR 123. 

I was dragging pretty hard. 

AM/Lunch: 3 hours on the trainer. 214W. HR 136. 

80' Tempo + 2 x 10' Threshold

Solid workout. I felt like things were starting to click and move back in the right direction. Tempo was 240 watts @ 147 BPM, and threshold intervals were 276 (158 BPM) and 278 (159 BPM). I felt like I could have pressed a good bit on those, but held it on target.

PM: 2 hours 30'. 41.1 miles @ 16.4 MPH. 198W. HR 123. 

3 x 12' Sweet Spot

Wanted to get out on the dirt roads. They were a little rough, but the tempo loop was in okay shape. 252 watts @ 140 BPM, 260 watts @ 141 BPM, and 266 watts @ 140 BPM. HR was quite low, likely some HR suppression from the longer workout yesterday.