Of Mice and Marathons

AM: 2 hours 50'. 36.7 miles @ 12.9 MPH. 224W. HR 154. 

Iceman Simulation: 2 Hours @ Sweet Spot 

I knew it was going to be cold, but that was kind of the point to prep for Iceman in two weeks. Some guys were doing a D-ride, but I figured the pace was going to be slow and I needed to get some higher efforts on my fat bike to test fitness and the newer modifications from picking my bike up from the shop yesterday. 

I warmed up for 15' to Bald Mountain South and then got right into 2 hours around target Iceman power. I was hoping to push 245-250 raw, but didn't quite get there. I averaged 235, but my normalized power was 263 or 265 watts, so that was about what I wanted. HR average was 159. I was sluggish to start, but I just kind of found my effort and got progressively faster. I hit some of the climbs fairly hard and out of the saddle on the last two laps. Tried to do some single track after the long sweet spot segement, but the trails at Lake Orion High School were leaf covered and I lost the trail.

I was proud of this session. It is tied with the longest sweet spot session I have done and the normalized power was in line with what I did earlier in the year when I was doing longer efforts on the trainer and gravel bike. 

AM: 8 miles, averaged 9:09. HR 125. 

PM: 5 miles, averaged 8:54. HR 122. 

AM: 10.4 miles, averaged 7:47. HR 147.

2 x 10' Threshold + 10' Aerobic Threshold

Just a lighter workout to touch on some speed and higher heart rates. Legs felt a bit sluggish and a little sore from Sunday, but overall not bad. 

20' warm up, 5' @ aerobic threshold (7:15 @ 155 BPM), 3' jog, 2 x 10' threshold (6:48 @ 162 BPM and 6:38 @ 164 BPM) w/ 4' jogs and then 10' @ aerobic threshold (7:04 @ 156 BPM)

Another 10' rep and I think I would have been in the low 6:30s. I certainly could have run them faster (probably 6:30s and then a 6:20s), but I wanted to stay at a given effort. I think these are around half marathon effort maybe. Just something to break up the easy and moderate running. I wasn't patient enough with workouts last spring and it made it much harder to run faster than that in races I think.

AM: 8 miles, averaged 8:54. HR 131. 

PM: 60' on the trainer. 222W. HR 139 HR.

Failed Vo2 max workout. I find these workouts impossible in the evening and I know better based on how I have felt this semester at that time. Did one interval, started a second, bombed, then just did mostly zone 2 with one final effort of 5' @ 330 watts.

AM: 120' on the trainer. 236W. HR 139. 

3 x 20' Sweet Spot

Felt like I wanted to still get a workout in after yesterday, but I didn't want to repeat it, so I did a decent sweet spot session. Sawyer was sick in the night and Megan was up with him, so I decided to stay home with her as we were also keeping Charlie home as a precaution, so I cancelled my classes. 

Planned on an hour of steady zone 2, maybe 90' but got into this on the fly. I felt like I needed more carbs, so I quickly grabbed some leftover bottles from the fridge. Aerobically fine, but my legs took a bit of convincing to move. Power wasn't great, but effort was fine and in the sweet spot range.

272 watts @ 152 BPM, 275 watts @ 155 BPM, 277 watts @ 155 BPM

PM: 4 miles on the treadmill (10' pace). HR 121.

Zwift was off with respect to the treadmill, which was driving me nuts as it has historically been dead on. The speed reflected on Zwift would drop down here and there and the pace graph looked like an outdoor run when it should look like stairs (assuming you speed up as you go).

Sawyer started to feel better in the afternoon and he had a good long nap. Everyone else managed not to get sick, thankfully. We have been lucky with stomach bugs. 

AM: 15.7 miles, averaged 7:39. HR 145. 

60' @ AeT

Dropped the boys off at school and went back with Megan to see their Halloween costume parade. Pretty cute. Decided to get my run in and planned on approximately 2 hours. I wanted to see what 60' at the same effort as the intervals I have been doing would look like. Turned out quite well. I was hoping to be under 7:20, but figured 7:10-7:15 would be good as that is about what I have run for 45' broken up. I ran a bit faster than that on pretty tired legs, so I felt good about this. 

Warmed up 25' and did 10' at MAF, which was around 7:40 pace, which was good to see that dropping. Stayed patient and didn't take splits, just kept an eye on heart rate here and there, trying to keep it between 150-157, not worrying too much if it bounced around at 158-160 as long as it didn't stay there. Averaged 7:02 @ 155 BPM. I think I will repeat this workout over the next 8 weeks or so and see how the pace drops before extending it further. I would like to see this back down under 6:30 in the next 6 weeks or so. 

PM: 60' on the trainer. 135W. HR 100. 

Recovery ride even though I didn't really feel like it, but I was due. I was a little off all day. I think impending race week and scattered most likely.