Of Mice and Marathons

AM: 6.5 miles, averaged 10:02. HR 122.

Good recovery run on a route I don't do quite as often as I probably should to mix things up. It is slightly hilly, so I don't often do it for recovery runs. 

PM: Thursday Night Dirt - 3 hours 34' (60 miles). 189W. HR 132. 16.8 MPH

It was threatening to rain but still headed over to the middle school because I didn't want to look on Strava and see that 30 people rode and that the roads were fine. When I got to the parking lot I didn't see anyone but then saw a small group. The shower had passed and we decided to feel out the dirt roads. They were ust lightly damp in places and the pavement at Stony would have likely been just a bad I imagine. So we rolled and there was no rain and the roads were quite good. The effort higher than I expected as I did some pulling and we did a little good-natured racing. Loop data = 234 watts, HR 147, 19.3 MPH

AM: 8.9 miles, averaged 7:52. HR 148.

20' + 10' Steady 

Got up early as I had to be on campus for faculty advisor training. I wasn't really ready for a workout at 7:00, but felt very solid once I got going. I figured about 6:45-6:42 on the 20' but hopefully faster and 6:35-6:32 on the 10' but hopefully faster. It went quite well and I was pleased. Air was damp but quite cool. 20' @ 6:35 pace @ 166 BPM and 10' @ 6:22 pace @ 168 HR. I would say that this is roughly half marathon pace with a 2-3 day taper. I have three week until my next half, so I will see what work I can get done between now and then. Not a lot of time, but still able to get in at least four quality sessions and the longer runs of 100'-120' should help. 

5' jog between intervals. 20' up and 15' down as I was running short on time.

PM: 4.4 miles, averaged 10:13. HR 120.

Beautiful afternoon. I was dragging my legs along. I haven't been doing secondary runs after workouts for quite some time, though lately have generally been doing 60' easy-moderate on the trainer. 

AM: 6.7 miles, averaged 9:43. HR 124. 

Got in a recovery run as the boys went to their friend's for 2 hours. If they go, they usually go on Wednesdays, so this was a nice way to get in an outdoor run in the morning on a Tuesday, which I haven't done in many months. Legs were tired, but not sore

PM: 7 miles, averaged 9:18. HR 129.

Legs were moving along a bit better than in the morning. Felt good, especially as recovery pace is creeping through the 9's. 

The boys were pretty good most of the day, but just before dinner they went off. Just very challenging lately not listening, throwing stuff, including toys and food, slamming doors, etc. Very stressful.

AM/PM: 5 hours 47' (100.1 miles). 213W. HR 141. 17.3 MPH

Spring R&R 57-Mile Course Recon + Warm Up and Cool Down

I realized there was a gravel race next weekend that is about 20 miles or so north of us and it begins on the Lapeer County section of the Polly Ann about 20 miles out, so I figure why not ride to the course, do the route at a steady effort, and then ride home for about 100 miles as I have been trying to get a hundred miler in for my spring into summer mode. This worked quite well. 

I bought a new hydation pack as my old one just didn't function as I wanted it too. This one worked out much better. Less bulky and more comfortable. Kept the effort pretty steady at 18.1 and 238 watts with a heart rate of only 147, which was quite good. The course is 99% dirt roads and most are in great shape. The Polly Ann should make for a very interesting start and finish.

Toyed with the idea of maybe doing the 35-mile race, but we shall see. They also had a run/ride combo, which was kind of cool, but I am not sure I want to do that though probably should just to wing it. 

I had two 18-20 oz bottles of electrolytes and about 70 oz of water in my hydration pack. I think I took 4 packages of Cliff Bloks. My energy was generally very good throughout and felt like I could have gone longer but my butt hurt and I was a little tired, but I definitely had fuel to burn. 

This felt overly indulgent for a Monday, but the boys were in school and I got back in plenty of time to pick them up. 

AM: 6.3 miles, averaged 10:22. HR 120. 

Good recovery on the Polly Ann for the first part of it. I ran most of it with my HR averaging in the 1teens, which was good to see even if the pace was quite slow. I actually find 10' pace to be perfect for recovery. Legs were tired from the double bike/run session yesterday but I just let them do their thing, which is really all a recovery run should be. 

Week 2 Day 1 of the 100 Pushup Challenge: 14, 14, 10, 10, 16

PM: 6.1 miles, averaged 9:48. HR 123.