??? Week to Go! (???) + Some running and some cycling + LIIFT4
2/24/20 - M - OFF
2/25/20 - T - LIIFT4-Shoulders + Spencer (60 min; 77 TSS)
2/26/20 - W - 70 min Run at Easy
2/27/20 - R - Pettit-1 (60 min; 27 TSS) + 3x10s@S + 2x1mi@Hard + 2x10s@S + 200m R
2/28/20 - F - LIIFT4-Chest/Triceps + Fuji (60 min; 66 TSS)
2/29/20 - Sa - Townsend-1 (90 min; 55 TSS) + 45 min Run at Easy
3/1/20 - Su - 4up+5MT+1down (Run) + LIIFT4-Back/Biceps
Total Run Miles - 28.8 miles
Total Run Time - 4:03 hours
Total Run TSS - x TSS
Total Biking Time - 4:30 hours
Total Biking TSS - 225 TSS
Total FIIT4 Time - 1:48 hours
Total FIIT4 TSS - x TSS
Total Training Time - 10:21 hours
Total TSS - x TSS
Highlights
-After last Sunday's LR + LIIFT workout my left quad right by the knee was sore. Nothing like Disney, but definitely "off".
-Happy to have an easier cycling workout this week. It's recovery week, so everything was toned down a bit.
-Decided to try and run hard on Thursday. Something like a mile or so intervals. So I did some strides to start, then 2 miles fast, then some strides to end with a 200m R. I wore the Next% because I wanted to see what they felt like at a faster pace.
The two miles ended up being something like 5k effort for a mile. The first was 6:20 and I was happy with it. I walked/slow ran around a lap (about 5 min) and then gave it another hard effort. About halfway through I snuck a peak at the watch and saw I was doing a lot better than I thought. I tried to hold on as best I could. Ended up with a 6:12 mile. That's my 4th fastest mile ever and fastest ever in a training run. The 6:20 was a top 10 mile as well. So overall, a good run. I finished up with some short strides and then a 200m R rep at 5:09 pace. I think I could really tell a difference at the super fast paces when it came to the Next%. And additionally, it helped propel me forward during the CD as well. All in all a good impromptu workout.
-Legs weren't necessarily happy about Fuji on Friday which included 9 sprints at max speed for 20s each. But I got through it.
-Decided to take the workout down a level on Saturday morning. I changed the workout from endurance to more recovery type work. I got up early because the release time of the Alphafly was unknown when I went to bed. So I did the workout at 4:52am. Finished up the workout and saw release time was 9:00am. I was all ready and prepared but wasn't able to secure a pair. Looks like I wasn't alone as it seems less than a handful were successful even within 1-2 seconds of it opening. Almost seems like it was a "fake" sale just to meet the new world athletic guidelines.
-The OT were fun to watch. I had read an article on Riley prior to the race about he had foregone contracts so he could run in Alphafly. And I remember watching Seidel in college during her days at Notre Dame. So it was fun to see some runners I "knew" that were a little off the beaten path.
-I took the evening run super easy. My legs felt like bricks.
-Up early on Sunday morning since Steph had to work. So was off and running at 5:30am. Goal was a 4 mile WU with 5 miles at M Tempo on a 2 mile loop that was 1 mile downhill and 1 mile uphill.
The beginning of the run felt good. Had a Maurten Caff gel around mile 1.5. Then it was time to start the M Tempo portion. The paces were all over the place but that's to be expected at even-ish effort when running constantly down or uphill. So the splits were 6:51, 7:08, 6:39, 7:00, and 6:35. But GAP was 7:02, 6:52, 6:48, 6:45, and 6:43. Average wise they were roughly equal (6:51 vs GAP of 6:50). It was a good effort overall. Too bad the HR data didn't work appropriately. I don't know if that was a sustainable M Tempo workout, but regardless it was 5 miles around 6:50 pace on hills. Super happy to have a working iPod shuffle again. My other one broke a few weeks ago and I got a RCA from Target as a replacement since the iPod shuffle isn't being made anymore. The RCA was absolute junk. So I found a shuffle on ebay. Glad that it seems to be in good condition and working well thus far.
I've got until March 6th to decide on the marathon before the price goes up. Probably not in sub-3 shape, but even just a PR over the Fall 2017 race would be good at this point. So I'm leaning towards doing it, but we'll see what I end up doing.