Of Mice and Marathons

PM: 12.5 miles, averaged 8:01. HR 147.

40' Steady, Averaged 6:43. HR 166.

Got up with the boys so Megan could sleep. Took the boys to Home Depot to buy flowers for Megan and we went to the grocery store. Took a nap. Worked in the yard for a while. Got the run in late, but still wanted to do my long run workout even after the bike race yesterday. It was warm but dry and really just beautiful for Mothers' Day. I figured I would be somewhat slow with the warmer weather and very tired legs, but things went quite well. I started around 6:50 maybe for the first mile and then mostly worked in the 6:40 range with the last two miles around 6:36-6:39. 

30' up/30' down.

This was pretty solid at the end of a 21-hour training week. I am unsure of when the last time I went over 20 hours. Maybe in 2018 or 2019 in the summer? It was an odd week of stress workouts and recovery runs mostly. Monday I did a 100 miler. Tuesday 2 x recovery runs. Wednesday was a midweek workout and a recovery run. Thursday was a recovery run and a 3+ hour ride with a steady 100' portion. Single easy run on Friday. Bike race Saturday and long run/workout on Sunday. I will definitely need very easy recovery on Monday and lighter than usual efforts other than my regularly scheduled workouts. 

Lunch: 6.1 miles, averaged 10:40. HR 123. 

PM: 6.2 miles, averaged 10:32. HR 120.

Legs were sluggish, but I felt pretty good overall. I realized about 30 minutes before I needed to be at the doctor's that I had an appointment, but I got there okay. Delayed my run a little bit. It was very warm and dry when I went out. Amazing weather. Evening run was good too. Had to keep the pace quite slow, but it doesn't matter.

AM: 60' on the trainer. 196W. HR 112.

Early trainer ride. Felt pretty decent, but still kept it pretty light. The boys stirred fairly early but I was able to finish my planned time.

PM: 8 miles, averaged 8:14. HR 139.

Good run, though I was surprised I wasn't moving a bit faster for the first few miles. HR stayed quite low. It's been a LONG time since I have been able to run low 8' pace for an hour and keep it under 140 average. 

We continue to have absolutely perfect spring weather.

AM: 10.7 miles, averaged 7:56. HR 151.

20' + 15'

Based on last week's midweek and last weekend's weekender, I figure 6:28-6:33 would be about right with 6:28 being a bit more than the prescribed steady effort. For the 20' I did 6:31 @ 169 BPM and the 15' which I wanted to be around 6:18-6:22 was 6:23 @ 172 BPM. I started the 20' interval a bit steadier than last week and basically kept on it rather than progressing, which worked fine. A bit higher HR on both interval this week (though it would be higher for the 15' because it was an additional 5'), but not bad. 

Weather was pretty ideal, though getting slightly warm on the 15' interval. Not looking forward to when it gets really hot and humid, but I am taking the weather and ticking off workouts for now. I think with a 2 x 20' effort next week I will have a good sense of what I can run in a half. Hoping to have both intervals right at or under 6:30 pace. I'm not sure where this leaves me exactly because last fall I had almost no workouts from mid-September  until by November half marathon. 

PM: 78' ride (21.1 miles). 177W. HR 123. 16.3 MPH. 

Easy mixed roads loop on the Polly Ann and Oxford and Independance Township. This was more appealing than a 4-mile shakeout. Last week my legs just felt dead after the workout. Just not used to running in the afternoon after a hard session these days. The bike or trainer seems to work better on the same day as the workout.