Of Mice and Marathons

AM/Lunch: 3 hours 46' (~67 miles @ 17.8 MPH). 221W. HR 134.

Gravel Simulation 1

This was a tough one. Aerobically, not terrible, but the muscular strength and durability required is really something, especially outside. A month or so ago I did 262 watts for 2 hours on the trainer. Today I did 264 for 2 hours, but with a harder, scheduled start. 

Sometime this past fall I listened to a FasCat podcast on gravel power and learned that bike workouts are generally not hard enough (when necessary, not always). I came to this conclusion on own, given my background in running and know that, for instance, in marathon training you need to do more than a few miles at marathon pace for prep (up to maybe 14-16 is ideal) for a half about 8-9 miles broken up is ideal. 

The gravel simulation mimics the start of a gravel race, which is probably closer to cross country running than anything else. You start with 5' a vo2 wattage, directly into threshold for 10' (so right around your one-hour power), and then move directly into a sweet spot interval for as long as you can go, I think perhaps up to three hours. I planned on at least 90' at sweet spot, up to 2 hours, but not more. I ended up doing 1:45.

Warmed up for an hour at zone 2 and got to my tempo loop and got into it. I started the 5' effort around 320 or so and dropped knowing it was likely too hard. I then dropped to 10' but got scared I would blow up if I tried to hold 295-300, so that segment was off at 264 watts, but I knew I had a long session ahead. I was kind of thinking I would stop the workout because I thought I was already fading. As it turns out, my legs just needed more time to warm up. I did a number of laps trying to bring the power up, which I did. I started the first 3-5 minutes around 245-250 and just kept the pressure on the pedals and eventually got the lap power up to 264-265 range and mostly held it there, only fading slightly toward the end to 262 watts. 

I went into the cool down, but my legs were absolutely smashed. I tried sitting and standing and it was hard. I worried about a 45' ride home but just worked through everything, but my legs were in pain. They got somewhat better as I got closer to home but they are really banged up.

The total for the 2-hour segment was 264 watts @ 148 heart rate. My HR never really got much above 150 or so, and it only got to 159 max, but I think that was pressing hard up a hill on the warm-up. 

I took in almost 3 25 oz bottles of 90g bottles and 2 40g Maurten gels, so pretty close to 93g per hour on average. I think next time I will try to get it closer to 100g or higher. 

The boys had a good Easter. It is such a joy to see how excited they get to hunt for eggs. I made dinner, which ended up being on the later side of things, and the boys weren't keen on staying put, but they ate a bit of ham. 

Lunch: 7 miles, averaged 10:01. HR 119.

PM: 5 miles, averaged 9:32. HR 115.

Legs were properly knackered. They were heavy on the morning run, but actually felt good. It helps that you use a lot of different muscles cycling.

AM: Off. 

I was going to get up and run or get my bike workout in, but I kept shutting my early alarms off. Felt great to sleep. I need to cut the overall volume this week. 18+ hours last week for the last week of classes was a little crazy.

PM: 2 hours 21'. 41.5 miles @ 17.6 MPH. 213W. HR 131. 

3 x 10' Criss Cross (Diabolical)

4 minutes at FTP, 1' hard, 4 minutes at FTP, 1' all out. This was pretty hard and my legs weren't interested in pressing too hard, but I progressed throughout. I stopped lapping the subsets as the gravel was loose and chunky and I didn't want to eat it. I averaged around 300 watts for each. The higher portions weren't too high. I am continuing to see issues with higher power over 280-290 watts. I assume this is due to higher overall aerobic volume. Kind of like how running much faster than marathon pace is hard with high mileage but you can run marathon pace forever. 

Lunch/PM: 120' on the trainer. 223W. HR 132. 

4 x 8' Sweet Spot Bursts

Solid workout. Legs were pretty tired. Just had to give them a little more coaxing to wake up. Slept in this morning rather than trying to get the session in, but it meant not running at lunch or before getting the boys, which is fine. Trying to cut back the volume this week in general and it is finals weeks. The weather, of course, has been absolutely beautiful. 

Evening: 7 miles, averaged 8:40. HR 123.

I guess this was recovery? One mile at 8:17 and HR was at 127. Crazy. 

AM: 8 miles, averaged 7:54. HR 145. 

Getting warm, but it felt good to sweat. Going to be around 80 I think. Tonight's ride might be warm. It will be nice not to freeze on the way home though. I was going to skip it to get some work done, but it is my social time and the weather is perfect (maybe no wind this week). 

PM: 3 hours. 55 miles @ 18.3 MPH. 207W. HR 140. 

Thursday Night Dirt!

The weather was beautiful. 80, sunny, and light winds. Pace got hot quickly and a few of us got dropped. I think in future weeks I will try to stay toward the front more, but I always like to wait until things settle out/in, but it usually means getting dropped. I worked with a group for most of the ride, but took a lot of long pulls, pulling most of the part of the ride coming back south. I started to feel stronger during the second half and really wanted to push, but didn't want to bust the group up. We had a solid rhythm going through the Proving Grounds and beyond. 

Loop Data: 30.7 miles in 1:29:35. 20.5 MPH. 246 Watts (270 Normalized). HR 154.

AM: 8 miles, averaged 8:54. HR 128. 

PM: 4 miles on the treadmill, averaged 9:58. HR 117. 

Great weather again today. Went to get in a few miles before dinner after Megan went out but the lightning was flashing, so I figured the treadmill would be a wiser option. Looking in the mirror on the treadmill I am a lot leaner than the last time I was on the treadmill. Running is a lot easier too. Megan joked that I am probably light enough to use the old treadmill without it shutting down. 

PM: 4 hours 11'. 70.9 miles @ 16.9 MPH. 219W. HR 134. 

20'-20'-25'-20' Race Efforts

It was pretty cold and moody outside, a sharp change in the weather, so I was going to jump on the trainer, and I went back and forth, but decided I wanted to get out. I also thought the roads might be a little sloppy. I was scheduled to do some unstructured intervals at close to race intensity. I decided if I felt like crap I would just do zone 2 for about 4 hours.

Well, I felt like crap. Legs were heavy and I just felt very slow. I wasn't sure if it was a pressure issue, or if I had too much weight from my oversized bottles, or the gravel was just slow or what. But even going down the Polly Ann, which I ride several times a week was very slow and I was into the wind. I almost turned around. But I decided that I have felt generally very good on the bike and feeling a bit off was bound to happen. 

I started the first interval 1 hour in and that felt pretty decent. Hard, but I felt without predefined recovery I would do a handful more. I had a segment I wanted to try that was about 20'. I missed by a lot and was even 30" off from my time I went through it during a race, but I knew I was lighter and my power higher. That's gravel though. A lot like ski conditions. Sometimes it is so fast you cannot imagine and other times it is so slow you just can't slog through it.

It ended up being a good ride and I enjoyed it. The intervals were hard, but my HR never got very high. Peaked at 163. Part of this is fitness but I think a lot of it is fueling as well. I took a few Beta Fuel gels, which were 40g of carbs and my typical 90g bottles of Flow Formula. 

20' @ 284 watts (290 normalized) @ 153 BPM, 21:43 @ 276 watts (280 normalized) @ 152 BPM, 25' @ 276 watts (280 normalized) @ 150 BPM, 20' @ 266 watts (271 normalized) @ 147 BPM 

I would like to see somewhat higher power numbers and a higher HR. I did 264 watts for 2 hours last weekend. It seems 285-295 would be doable for 20' with longer recoveries between. Volume has been very high this week again and I thought I had cut it, but it looks like a PR for the year.