83 Days to Go (Running and Biking)
Date - Day - Scheduled Workouts (Intervals within desired pace)
3/19/18 - M - OFF
3/20/18 - T - MCR Stage 1B + 3 miles @ EA (9:11 min/mile) + FTP Builder W2D1
3/21/18 - W - 4 miles @ EA (8:33 min/mile)
3/22/18 - R - MCR Stage 1B + 3 miles @ EA (9:11 min/mile) + FTP Builder W2D2
3/23/18 - F - 5 miles @ EB (8:33 min/mile)
3/24/18 - Sat - 3 miles @ EA (9:11 min/mile) + FTP Builder W2D3
3/25/18 - Sun - 4 miles @ EB (8:33 min/mile) + FTP Builder W2D4
Running duration = 3:13 hours
Running mileage = 22.1 miles
Indoor Virtual Biking duration = 4:22 hours
Indoor Virtual Biking mileage = 83.4 miles
Total (training) duration = 7:36 hours
Total (training) mileage = 105.5 miles
Number of running SOS intervals within pace = x/x
Monday
Nothing out of the ordinary. G had a crying fit over something (can't remember what). I asked her if that worked on grandma, grandpa, SIL, BIL and mom. She said yes. I asked her if it worked on dad. She said no. Looks like she is learning.
Tuesday
I woke up Tuesday feeling relatively sick. I'd been fighting the start of it for a few days, but finally I had a sore throat and no voice. Time to get week 2 of recovery started off on the right foot. That 5am wakeup call felt too soon, but soon enough I rolled out of bed to get my McMillan Core Routine Stage 1B done.
Front Plank - 3 x 20 sec w/ 20 sec rest
Side Plank - 3 x 20 sec w/ 20 sec rest
Leg Lowering - 15 reps
Metronome - 10 reps
Sit-up with a Twist - 15 reps
Jane Fonda - 15 reps
I Run Fast - 1 set both legs
Still wasn't able to finish off the sit-up with a twist (got 13 out of 15). Overall though, it went well. Can definitely feel it working. The hamstrings were still sore from the last week.
After work, it was time to get the afternoon run and bike done. The run was an easy 3 miler. Finished it off in 27:07 with a HR of 134. The pace was really consistent at 8:53, 8:55, and 8:55 with mostly blind pacing. Ran into the house and it was the start of the bike.
10 min WU + 5 x 6 min @ 73% FTP w/ 2 min RI + 5 min CD
Another easy bike ride. HR was kept at 111-114, cadence around 90 rpm, and actual %FTP was 70-71 during the 73% FTP intervals. Virtual speed was 16.8 mph and 15.8 total miles.
In all, 1:22 hours of training. Solid easy day.
Wednesday
Hamstrings still sore and sickness still lingering. Still trying to regain past form and feelings. An easy 4 miles at an 8:39 min/mile (34:37 time) with splits of 8:42, 8:38, 8:37, and 8:37. HR average was 137. Another solid easy day, but still mostly sore.
Thursday
McMillan Core Routine Stage 1B again.
Front Plank - 3 x 20 sec w/ 20 sec rest
Side Plank - 3 x 20 sec w/ 20 sec rest
Leg Lowering - 15 reps
Metronome - 10 reps
Sit-up with a Twist - 15 reps
Jane Fonda - 15 reps
I Run Fast - 1 set both legs
Finally completed all workouts in full! Not yet ready for 1C yet, but making good progress. I can tell it's working the sides of my body more than my previous core routine.
After work came the run. Another easy 3 miles (26:31 and pace of 8:50). HR was 137. Ran inside the house and time for the bike.
Busy, Busy.
10 min WU + 2:50 @ 88% FTP (Tempo) + 10 sec @ 160% FTP (Neuro) + 5 min WU + 2 sets of (6 x 10 sec @ 160% FTP w/ 1:50 RI) w/ 10 min RI + 10 min CD
I really like this workout last week. It was nice to get a touch of power and speed. Today was much of the same, but I could tell it was a difficult workout for me coming after the run. I decided to climb Zwift's tallest climb on this one. While I can't actually feel the climb, it was a different experience as I got all the way to the top of the mountain.
I got none of the intervals onto 160%, but I'm not concerned since trying to hit a short duration (10 sec) with a slowly responding system seems to fraught with inaccuracies. Overall my neuro paces were between 180-300% FTP. The cadence of these were about 100-120 rpm. HR was just getting up into the mid 130s. I could tell I was working pretty hard because the first set of sprints my HR was returning to baseline. But that second set the HR wasn't recovering as quickly. I decided to add one more interval as I was just starting the downhill of the mountain. I was able to hit 55mph on the downhill portion.
Overall the bike was 16 miles in 1:02. The total training for the day was 1:28 hours.
Friday
Friday was time to up the distance to 5 miles. My hamstrings were still sore, but I felt like I might finally be turning a corner. I completed the run in 40:56 (8:10 min/mile) with splits of 8:30, 8:05, 8:05, 8:05, and 8:03. The HR average was 144. After the workout was over, I could tell I probably pushed it a touch too hard. It felt fine, but I was suppose to be aiming for a 8:33 and I took it up a notch too far. Not injured or any more sore, just knew it was probably too much. I decided to check out Stravistix since that's a training load calculator based on duration and HR during the run (and now bike!).
It's been since before Dopey that I looked at this data. Mostly because I didn't want to, but also because I didn't need to. It was nice to see the progression of Dopey with the marathon morning being in the near optimal "recovery" zone for racing. Seems like I set everything up for a successful set of races. The 5k/10k was too rested, but the important part was being primed for the HM and M. Then came the time off, and then biking slowed the rate of training load decreasing. Then the big spike towards the end there is the beginning of this recovery cycle with running and biking (does not take into account the McMillan core). As you can see the fatigue (immediate training load in yellow) is increasing dramatically (makes sense) and the difference between immediate training load and long term training load (purple) is the orange line (form). As you can see, the training thus far has taken me into the "optimal" training zone. After Friday's run, I could tell if I pushed Saturday too hard, then I'd probably venture into overtraining. So based on this data (and how I was feeling) I knew I needed to pull back a bit on Saturday (less than 12 hours later).
Still had a cough and still not 100%.
Saturday
Saturday was an early morning. I needed to finish with my run+bike in time to go to the Easter egg hunt. So up at 5:00am and out the door for a cold morning run. I took it super easy and just did some nice laps. 3 miles in 29:13 (9:37 min/mile) with a HR of 129. Originally this was to be 4 miles, but because of yesterday I cut it down. Right where I wanted to be for this super easy day.
Got into the house and started the bike ride.
6 min WU + 6 x 6 min @ 73% FTP w/ 2 min RI + 6 min CD
Again, a goal of a super easy ride. Near perfect splits with a cadence around 90 and HR around 104-106. Thankfully was not nearly as sore in my hamstrings. Starting to feel stronger and taking an extra easy seemed right on target. In total, 21.5 miles in 1:00. With the run, that was nearly 1:30 hours in training for the morning. Interesting to note, Stravistix estimated the training load of the run and bike to be equal at 39 TSS (or stress score, or fitness). So a 30 min run at super easy HR of 129 = 60 min bike ride at super easy HR of 105.
After working out, I ate breakfast, got cleaned up and then we headed out to the Easter Egg hunt. G had a blast. Although it was really windy and cold (which wasn't very fun). I decided to go extreme to try and avoid the cold fingers. So I was wearing a ton of layers and such. Thankfully it worked. G did quite well and came away with tons of candy.
Sunday
Sunday was another early morning. Steph and I had tickets to Black Panther at 9:50am, so I needed to get everything done early in the morning. Got started at 5am again. Another cold morning (WC of 17) and I tried to overdress as much as tolerable. The run was good again. No hamstring soreness and no pain whatsoever. I continued the trend of just running easy and letting it come to me. It was 4 miles in 34:55 (8:32 min/mile). The pace was ever increasing throughout the run, so more like a progression. Still making slow progress to returning to running fitness. Then I got in the house for my new longest ride ever!
10 min WU + 4 x 4 min @ 88% FTP (Tempo) w/ 2 min RI + 2 min RI + 3 x 6 min @ 86-89% FTP (Tempo) w/ 3 min RI + 3 min RI + 4 x 1 min @ 100% FTP (Threshold) w/ 3 min RI + 3 min CD
Lots of steps, but thankfully Zwift takes all the guess work out of it. Originally, I thought maybe I had undersold my FTP (299) because of the increase in pace at the end of the FTP test a few weeks back. But with the runs prior to the bike, I think the bikes are right where they should be. I wasn't cardiovascularly challenges, but my legs were definitely struggling a bit at the end of this workout.
FTP Tempo intervals were between 84-88% with a cadence of 95-98 and HR of 120-125. Then the Threshold intervals were 102-104% with a cadence of 92-104 and HR of 114-116. But it was the RI between the threshold that told me the end was near as those really dropped off the map. In total 30.1 miles in 1:23 hours. With the bike, that gave me 1:58 hours in training. Again, the Stravistix training load was nearly equal among the run and bike at 68 and 73 respectively.
Another solid week of training. Still making progress slowly but trending in the right direction.
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NCAA Tournament Update!
So things have been rolling in my favor. A Final Four of Loyola, Michigan, Villanova, and Kansas. I've got two brackets on ESPN in good shape for top 1% (Kansas winner at 83 points and Villanova winner at 73). But the Jiffy Sports bracket is doing really well. That bracket has 82 points with a Michigan-Villanova game with Michigan winner. That bracket is in 7th place out of 2500 brackets. I'm still in position to pull a 1st place finish with a Michigan win over Villanova (but I get nothing if it's Michigan over Kansas).
I was doing really well there for a bit! LOL.
I hope you enjoy it!
