Of Mice and Marathons

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AM/Lunch: 15 miles, averaged 7:19. HR 149. 

9-Mile Tempo @ Marathon Effort

Solid one today especially as it was warmer (about 70 degrees), a big volume week, and last night's bike effort. I was doing to do 10 miles at effort, but I felt that I was already doing too much, so I figured if I did an extra mile and the pace was faster I was in line with progressively overloading. Last marathon effort session was 3/28.

Warmed up 3 miles and brought some heavy carb drink mix with me to sip on the warmup. Originally I was going to do something like 4-3-2 mile sets and jog between for a half mile and take in some drink mix, but decided to stick with my original plan and roll with it. I was hoping to be slightly faster than the last time I did an 8-mile tempo, which I didn't realize was 3 weeks ago (I thought it was two) at 6:37 pace. I ended up averaging 6:31, so I am back to my base aerobic fitness I had in my late 20s and early 30s, which I am pretty happy with. I can still build from here for fall and then maybe, maybe, a marathon next spring. If not, then I will try to set some lifetime PRs at other distances. 

6:40, 6:36, 6:33, 6:29, 6:25, 6:29, 6:32, 6:29, 6:27 (6:31 average @ 161 BPM)

3 up/3 down

It started to pour cold rain, so I didn't cool down to 16 or 17 as planned, but this was fine. I am thinking I want a few longer runs before my June 1 half (maybe up to 20 miles), but I will probably do that with longer sets and recovery jogs between to accumulate the miles.

AM: 8 miles, averaged 7:34. HR 149.

Honest easy (high zone 2). I was out in under 8 minutes and rolled pretty steady without pressing to hard throughout. Felt steady and smooth. HR creeped up a little toward the end, but I also think I was overdressed in a baselayer, light jacket, hat, and gloves. One of the women I usually see running was sleeveless, which seemed pretty light, but it was warming up. 

Looking forward to Thursday Night Dirt tonight. 

PM: 3 hours 1' (53.8 miles @ 17.7 MPH). 221W. HR 136.

Good night for it. Warmer, but cooling down. Wind not bad, but felt like it was in every direction. I got dropped from the leaders in A group but there were some superstars out there, so I just kept up the effort, working here and there with some others, but dropped them and mostly soloed. I think my pacing was good as my power went up throughout the ride. 

Loop Data: 29.9 miles in 1:30:12. 19.9 MPH. 260 watts (276 normalized). HR 150.

AM: ~60' on the trainer. 135W. HR 96.

Got in a bit of active recovery before signing up for Beach to Beacon for the first time since 2018. I am pretty excited. It has been years since I have been excited about a running race. I think the last decent 10k I ran was some time in 2018 or earlier. Whenever I ran Brooksie Way and won.

PM: 8 miles, averaged 8:02. HR 136.

AM: 120' on the trainer. 211W. HR 129.

2 x 15' Threshold w/ Long Recovery

283, 292. Legs were predictably sluggish. On target for the second one, low on the first one. I think I needed a 2-3 minute clearing interval during the warmup. 

PM: 8 miles, averaged 9:15. HR 122. 

I don't recall what shoes I ran in. It was dark, snowy/sleety and cold, but the wind died down.

PM: 9.1 miles, averaged 8:15. HR 145.

2 x 1 Mile w/ 90" Rest

It was pretty warm compared to the recent weather (65 degrees). I planned to do 4 x 1 mile @ 5k pace with 90" rest. I am not sure why I decided to do this workout as it is easily the hardest workout I do and I haven't done any 5k work in forever. I just wanted to get some mile repeats faster than my mile repeats and 2k repeats from the other day. I figured around 6:00 pace or under based on some predictions. The first mile was okay in 5:57. I got into the second one and paced it a bit slower, worried I wasn't going to get through it. That was a 6:04 and I knew I was just done. I could have worked through it probably, but it was going to get ugly and my legs were heavy from the last several stacked workouts. 

Failed workouts used to bother me, but I know this wasn't the right workout and I could have gone a bit slower, maybe starting at 6:05-6:08. I might retry next week depending on recovery. This was still my first sub-6 mile in a number of years. I think I might have run one in early 2020, but know I have run any since we moved to Lake Orion in late 2020.

Evening: 6.1 miles, averaged 9:19. HR 119.

Big change in temperature. Nice out but windy and cooling down fast. I had to find a bathroom pretty early in the run, tried to wait it out, but that was dumb as I knew ignoring it was going to make things a bit precarious. I should have turned toward home, but didn't but knew Orion Oaks had one. Got there with a huge relief. Felt much better, except for there being no toilet paper :-(

PM/Evening: 2 hours 27' (43.8 Miles @ 17.9 MPH). 215W. HR 125. 

4 x 10' Sweet Spot (5')

I dropped my Mom off at the airport in the morning and took the boys to an Easter party. Megan got home around 3:30 and by then I was ready to have some time to myself as I had been with the boys since Wednesday. I decided to go outside as my AI suggested a quality session, which I then extended to get more time. I did these on a tempo loop I marked on Google Pedometer a few weeks ago. It ended up working quite well. The loop is round 5 miles or so, mostly gravel with a few turns and twists, so it's pretty ideal. 

My HR was super low and my power was quite high. I could have really pushed these, but wanted to stick with the plan. I have heard that outdoor power tends to be higher. I assume this is due to surface resistance. 

274 watts (HR BPM), 282 watts (HR 143 BPM), 280 watts (140 BPM), 280 watts (HR 140)

Pace was pretty dead even throughout. Recoveries were high zone 1/low zone 2.