Of Mice and Marathons

PM: 3 hours on the trainer. 220W. HR 128.

Solid ride, definitely not recovery, but HR was decently low and if it had been a regular day I would have pushed closer to 235-240 watts. Legs felt okay. Worked over a bit but not bad!

AM: 6.3 miles, averaged 10:26. HR 120.

PM: 4.2 miles, averaged 10:14. HR 125. 

Legs feel pretty good, but I think I will keep tomorrow as a recovery day as well, just to absorb the race and last week's training. If I feel ready for a midweek workout on Wednesday, I will do the scheduled workout, otherwise just maintenance runs.

I think my plan is to do Grand Rapids half in about three weeks. Not sure from there. I really need more time in a buildup for an ultra to do what I want, so I might try to get something on the calendar for mid-December, which is kind of risky for the time in the semester as well as for weather, but I don't know. I think I will continue with this buildup as practice and see how things go into early November and make a decision a bit later. I am enjoying the training, weight is dropping, and I am getting fitter, so I don't really see an issue. 

Got my COVID booster and flu shot today. So far no real side effects. If it hits me early tomorrow, then I guess the boys and I will be watching TV for the day. 

PM/Night: 3 hours on the trainer. 230W. HR 137.

Fairly minimal effects from the booster and/or flu shot. Light headache. Started to lose energy around lunchtime, but napped when the boys were napping. Felt decent after. Energy was decent on the ride, though I put down 320 calories and 80g of carbs per hour. Felt a little off after but I think I was just hungry. I had some chills, but I am unsure if that was from sweating and cooling off or the shots. 

AM: 8.2 miles, averaged 7:57. HR 148. 

PM: 4.8 miles, averaged 8:19. HR 140.

A baselayer and gloves this morning. Pretty humid but chilly. Sunny and dry in the afternoon. I skipped my midweek for this week to recover from the race. I also wanted to get some cycling hours in with four weeks to go to Ice Man. I imagine when Thursday Night Dirt ends in another 2-3 weeks I will make Thursdays a run day to get my mileage back up. 50-60 is decent right now, but I plan to try to bump things up to 80-90 if I can after Ice Man and into January before dropping things down to about 70-75 once I start my faster track workouts. 

98% sure I am not doing the ultra track once again. I could be ready in a few weeks as I have enough base and a few long runs of 18-19 miles, but I would want to treat it like a marathon buildup and I really like to have at least 7-8 20+ milers and I don't get think I can get that many in. I like marathon-style long runs, so I will likely do some of those during basebuilding. Not 20 milers but maybe up to 18 miles. Good for the aerobic fitness and overall mileage.

PM: 2 hours 53'. 52 miles @ 18.1 MPH. 202W. HR 149.

Thursday Night Dirt

I got out of class a bit early. My foot has been hurting the last few days a bit. Metatarsal head stone bruise that happens once in a while, but it has been pretty painful. I decided to ride and if it really bothered me, I would turn around. It was actually fine. 

I thought I was late as I was chasing two guys going down Gunn. It turns out that the group was behind them and the extra 4-5 minutes I had from last week was enough. I turned around because I still didn't see them and thought they would catch me rather quickly. I jumped on the back on one of the Hixon hills and got settled in. The group broke up here and there going down Dequindre, but I was determined to ride the front of the group (well, until one of the young, extremely fast guys took off). I was hoping to bridge a gap that open when three guys took off, but the group wasn't too interested in closing, so that was our group. Road with some of the really fast guys and actually did some pulling, which felt great as I have felt ready for a few weeks. 

This was not 100% race effort, but portions of it were. I would say it wasn't far off, though my HR was not extremely high. 

Lap Data: 24.7 miles, averaged 21.8 MPH 249W. HR 167.

AM: 8 miles, averaged 8:15. HR 147. 

PM: 5 miles on the treadmill, averaged 9:59.

Kept it very easy in the evening and the treadmill helped with my foot given the orthopedic belt and 1.5% incline. It hurt a bit here and there on the morning run. Not much energy on the morning run, but last night was a hard ride and I don't think I ate enough during the day or last night. I was bonking hard on the way home from the middle school lot last night. 

PM: 3 hours 2'. 54.9 miles @ 18.1 MPH. 215W. HR 137.

Overall a good ride despite some asshat drivers, one of whom told me to get on the sidewalk, even though they were on the other side of the road and not involved with my riding or being there in any way. I lit into them. Another beeped at me despite no other traffic around, in a school zone, with a dirt road starting in a few thousand feet.

Foot bugged me for just a few minutes at the start and then settled out. Riding seems to be better than running. I think I will ride again tomorrow and then run Monday. I think it will be fine if I don't push it and take preventative steps to deal with it, something I haven't done until just recently.