Of Mice and Marathons

PM: 3 hours 12' on the fat bike. 146W. HR 116, but I am sure that was off.

Dropped my gravel bike off the workstand when I was trying to clean it and bent the hanger, which put me in a pretty foul mood, which intensified from the previous night. I still was able to get out for 3 hours on my fat bike, so that was good. Did a handful of laps at Orion Oaks and then some dirt roads to finish up. 

I signed up for the same gravel race I broke my elbow at last year. Hoping to round off the summer with a decent race. Pretty nervous, of course.

Lunch: 90' on the trainer (Phoenix -2). 229W. HR 136.

Solid tempo workout. HR seemed quite low, but I think it was correct as I also ran my optical monitor. Switched my run and ride days because I needed to monitor the boys while they napped. I did get my bike into the shop and they fixed the bike for now.

PM: 120' on the trainer (Polar Bear -3). 219W. HR 138.

Student conferences this afternoon. I was going to get my midweek workout in a day early but it was raining pretty good and I just didn't feel like it, so I am going to try to get up early tomorrow morning before conferences and knock it out. I am sure I will really not feel like doing it then either, but I need to get it in before travel on Thursday.

AM: 12.5 miles, averaged 8:50. HR 153.

10 x 4'

Got up early to get this one in (early for me anyway). It was cool but humid and foggy (I could actually see my breath a little bit at first, which was weird and I assume the warm dry air meeting the cooler wet air). Still got pretty sweaty, but felt generally very good to slightly strong. I don't have the exact paces because my watch messed up. It said I was averaging 10:41 pace for the whole workout after the first several intervals and didn't budge from there and I knew that was wrong as I knew my warmup was around 9:30-10:15 pace. Looking at the pace graph I was around 7:15 maybe on the first one and solidly in the 6:40s or slightly faster on the last one, which was @ 177 BPM. The first one averaged 160 BPM.

Wish I had the pace just to get a sense of the progression, but it ultimately doesn't matter. Got the session in at the right effort. Next one is 90' w/ 30' @ half marathon effort, which should be interesting. It has been a long time since I have run anything sustained at that effort.

Lunch: 3.3 miles, averaged 10:47. HR 129.

Short run before heading to Sagatauk for an overnight trip with the boys. We had a good dinner and the boys were quite well behaved. Sawyer actually pooped on the toilet at the restaurant, which was great. No accidents all day or the next day and they were dry after their naps and riding in the car. 

PM: 60' on the trainer (Truuli). 201W. HR 138.

Openers. I would probably do something a little lighter before a race if done in the evening rather than a full 24 hours prior to a race.

We took a boat ride with the boys in Sagatauk (or Saga-taco as they kept calling it). The boat was moving up and down pretty good once we got out onto Lake Michigan. They were enjoying it, I was slightly nervous.

AM: ~2 hours 30'. 

249W. HR 167.

~20' up/~20' down.

This was the race I crashed in last year and broke my elbow. We still missed the turn this year, but I called it out and no one turned, so I had to keep going. It was a solid effort, but the pace was not that strong. Should have kept up with the front group earlier in the race and the effort wouldn't have been as bad. It was VERY hot out of the gate. I was averaging just under 24 MPH and 300 watts for the first 10' and that just wasn't going to work. Worked with a group for a solid portion of the race. I wanted to place higher and at a faster pace. I think I was around 21.5 MPH when I crashed last year with ~30' to go. This was right at 20 MPH, which is not great considering I have gotten dropped on Thursday Night Dirt and still managed about that. Not diasspointed, but wanted more. 

Hung out with the guys and had some free beer, which is quite nice for the race director to do even if people still managed to complain.

This might be it for bike races until earlier November with Ice Man, which is fine with me. I didn't expect to get in three races this summer, one of which I was marginally satisfied, one was pretty pleased with, and one complete disaster.