Of Mice and Marathons

AM/Lunch: 4 hours (64.1 miles). 187W. HR 148.

90' up, 90' strong, 60' down. 260W (normalized power 272W) for the 90' @ 171 BPM.

Decided to do an impromptu fitness test. It went quite well I think. Just under 19MPH, with some slow chunky gravel here and there and some short hills, but I also had some fast pavement sections. Weather was dry, sunny, and beautiful. Felt better than I did yesterday, though still quite tired after waking up and a few cups of coffee.

Signed up for a 111 miles gravel race on Thursday. Need to get some longer rides in but I think I should be okay. 

PM: 2.8 mile walk w/ Megan and the boys. HR 98.

AM: 60' on the trainer. 103W. HR 93.

AM: 3.5 hours. 170W. HR 151.

5 x 12' w/ 4' recoveries: 292W (170BPM), 297 (176), 291 (180), 282 (179), 277 (181)

First outdoor session of the year at Stony Creek. I think I have only done them here once, and I think I only did one other interval session outside on the dirt roads last year. This was quite productive I think. I died a bit on the last two, but with no real experience and only going off 3 second power readers the first 3 were great. I knew I was dropping on the last two as I was tired. Longer overall as I fogrot it takes a little while to get there.

I still need to relax a bit on these and shift less as this causes drops in power and breaks in form. Need to dial in cadence and ride more smoothly in and out of the uphills. It was decently windy, but in my running experience there it always is off the water.

AM: 60' on the trainer. 93W. HR 95.

The boys turned 21 months today.

PM: 4+ hours. 171W. HR 148.

Thursday Night Dirt

Went with A's and hung on until part of the way through the Proving Grounds. Better than two weeks ago. Needed to do B group as I had a slight cold starting on Monday or Tuesday. Good night. I went off loop after I was solo to attack a segement, but I was far too tired to really smash it. Hit anothe longer segment coming home and shaved 3 seconds off from last week.

AM: 90'+. 119W. HR 114.

Easy mixed roads ride, mostly recovery. Workers came to wash the outside of the house and do the gutters and get the stupid Christmas lights down finally. The boys went to their friend's.

AM/PM: 5 hours 26 minutes. 160W. HR 137.

Long ride. Did almost the entire Polly Ann trail from the start at our house to where the heck it ends (north of Lapeer, which is east of Flint). I knew the Lapeer County sections were not as nice as I have been on parts of them, but it got pretty rough farther north. Basically 6-10 inches on field grass. The very last portion was perhaps waist deep or higher and I wasn't hike-a-biking it. That last section might be a half mile, very much unmaintained. Found my way back south via the dirt roads. For 77 miles, I added about almost 31 new miles.

I stopped in Metamora at the General Store at just over 4 hours for a soda, a few waters, a bag of chips, and a wonderful French toast muffin. I had taken 3-4 gels but only had a granola bar for breakfast and it clearly wasn't enough.

Megan and I took the boys to the University to play in the fountain. It was fun. I tried to show Sawyer a bike repair station and thankfully didn't get his full attention as 6-8 hornets had taken up residence and must have been in the bike pump cylinder because they swarmed and one tagged me in the shoulder. Sawyer started over and I grabbed him. Scared the poor kid but I got him away before he got stung, I imagine it had more to do with him being lower to the ground.