Of Mice and Marathons

AM: 3.3 miles total. Grand Rapids Half Marathon DNF.

Quad issue reoccured again, oddly. No issue in training. It only seems to happen when I am racing, though significantly it didn't happen in the 10k race in September. I only warmed up about 15' and it was cold, which wasn't ideal, but I felt pretty good through the first mile and tried to settle into my rhythm. Breathing was fine and I was moving along around 6:38-6:40, which was my plan for the first 3-4 miles before settling into 6:30s low and trying to cut down. Quad started to lock and not fire and become annoying but not painful. I tried to loosen it up but it was getting somewhat worse and knew it was going to be a miserable day and it might just fully go south again, so I pulled out and walked back. 

Pretty devestated as the issue seems to come from nowhere at the worst times. I will try to get it sorted. I signed up for an evaluation at a sport medicine place, one fo our cycling pocket sponsors. Hoping to get some kind of answers. 

PM: 1 hour 49' on the gravel bike. 31.8 miles @ 17.5 MPH. 204W. HR 138.

Two segment attacks, but no dice. Quad felt fine to ride, so I was pleased with that. I wasn't suprised as I was able to ride both times before when it happened. 

AM: 7 miles, averaged 8:34. HR 129.

Quad felt absolutely fine. Went to PT after class and my legs are just a mess. Everything is tight, and no range of motion. Who knew? So I have a few sessions to get some maintenance work done, which is overdue. 

PM: 5 miles on the treadmill, averaged 8:36. HR 133.

+30' sauna. HR 100. 

AM: 10 miles, averaged 7:40. HR 143.

20' Tempo

Wanted to get a solid 20' effort to update my Stryd Critical Power. This worked. I ended up doing 6:10 for 20' @ 167 BPM. Avg power: 393 W. CP updated to 385. 386 @ 6:15 pace for the first 10' (HR 164), 399W @ 6:06 pace @ 171 BPM for the second 10'. Through 5k in 19:05, which is probably the fastest 5k I have done since I have been back running. 

I felt really good about this session. Quad felt fine. Did some light activation and stretching before and after. 

AM: 6.1 miles on the treadmill, averaged 9:51. HR 123. 

PM: 6.3 miles on the treadmill, average 9:33. HR 129. 

AM: 12 miles, averaged 7:24. HR 153. 

60' @ Marathon Effort

6:56 pace @ 161 BPM @ 340W

Decided to do a workout. I was going to do a steady medium long run, but kind of wanted to test marathon effort versus power versus hear rate, so I settled on this. It fills in the gap of steadier aerobic running and a run over my usual hour to sixty-five minutes. It was chilly but no wind, so very comfortable for running. I mostly went off power and perceived effort and it worked well. I saw 7:10-7:14 for the first handful of minutes then around 7' pace for 45' or so and then eventually got to around 6:55 pace. Breathing was good. HR was good. HR was increasing slightly, but it was pretty stable, not shooting up uncontrollably. 

AM: 1 hour 52' on the mountain bike. 29 miles @ 15.4 MPH. 215W. HR 146. 

60' @ Iceman Race Effort

244W. HR 157. HR was pretty steady throughout. HR will hopefully be higher than that during the race, but the legs weren't really ready for a workout. 

Challenging, but manageable. Did this on the loop at Orion Oaks. Went to Friendship Park for a little bit of skills work. Got blasted by black exhaust on the way back by some idiot in a truck, which could only have been intentional, as he stepped on it through a temporary work zone. Days like this make me want to drink, but I don't because I know it won't change anything, but it really gets me. I wasn't even in the road (which still wouldn't make it right). 

PM: 3 hours on the mountain bike. 41.2 miles @ 13.7 MPH. 191W. HR 135. 

Bald Mountain South to Bald Mountain North to Addison Oaks for 2 laps, then back via the dirt roads to Bald Mountain North to finish the loop and then back toward Bald Mountain South to finish that loop, but just took the dirt roads home. Beautiful day on the bike and I had a lot of fun working on my singletrack skills at Addison Oaks. Really need to ride these trails more and I will. This was a good mountain bike endurance session with some handling work and some efforts to get up small climbs.