I was still feeling fatigued yesterday morning, so extra caffeine was in order. After I finished my usual 3 mugs, I made some more and had another 2. And still I wanted that oomph before my first 2-hour run of the year, so right before I left for Waterfall Glen, I drank some Ultra Violence.
It was a gorgeous day, but a little on the cool side. So cool, in fact, that I was wearing long pants, a long sleeved shirt and a light jacket on my way there. My metabolism is a little screwball right now, and in between meals and workouts I seem to be cold. Once I eat, though, the engine fires right up and of course when I begin working out.
When I arrived, I stripped off the pants, shirt and jacket and still had a singlet on. I stood outside my car and declared it warm enough to go without the singlet. It was almost 12:30 and bright sunshine for the most part.
I chugged about 10 oz. of Gatorade so that I could run for 1/2 hour before needing to drink more, which meant I could carry one 12 oz. bottle to get me through another hour of running. The plan was to do a full loop (9.65 miles), grab more Gatorade, and do another out and back to make my 2 hours.
When I started running (counterclockwise--there is a debate as to which way this trail is harder--next time I'll run it clockwise and get back on that), my legs felt like they were a little worked, especially since I'd done some strength training early in the day, and well, I've just been piling it on and I had run hills the day before at a pretty good clip, so I expected it.
First mile in 8:54. Which included walking 2 hills. Not bad, in fact, I usually don't go under 9 minutes for this first mile. Next mile 8:46, then 8:45, 8:44 and the big downhill into "the hole" in 8:28. OK, I'm seeing a pattern here. Fairly even pacing, no matter the hill content. Hmmm.... this is a new thing for me. Climb out of the hole in 9:01, and then the next mile in 7:50? WTF??? But it must be marked wrong because the next one was 9:40, so that averages out to...8:45, then a 9:05 (I started to feel tired), and the last .65 in 4:58. So the full loop in 1:24.16 for a pace of 8:44. Huh! That's a PR for me, for sure, now let's see if I can keep it up.
I continued back counterclockwise to get to 1:35 time before going back to the car for more Gatorade, and then I went clockwise, out for 12:40 and then back, and I know what the distances are and my pace was even faster than when I ran the main loop.
When I added up all the alleged extra mileage, I either ran 14 or 14.5 miles in 2 hours. Never did that before! I wasn't shelled afterwards and didn't feel like I had just raced--I just felt like it was a good effort in hills, and I swear I have never felt so good running in there! I also noticed that I run downhill better than ever, which must explain some of the sub-8 miles. Again, I think that the jump rope has just toughened up my legs and they are stronger in the hills now.
Now I'm excited about my next 2-hour run which won't be for 2 weeks, since next week is BIG HUGE FUCKING BIKING WEEK and I won't be doing a long run at all. I wanted to do an ice bath right after the run, but couldn't because I needed to get back to work and a few things heated up, but I did manage to stretch really well, went for a routine medical test, came home and ate some lasagna and a big salad and a couple of beers, passed out blissfully despite all the caffeine I'd had, and I woke up this morning HUNGRY!!!
I feel pretty good this morning, and will be doing some "crap," some swimming, my last little bit of strength training and then a nice, easy (yeah right) run in the sun, maybe an hour since I cheesed out on my Monday run.
This weekend's plans include 60 miles on the bike Saturday with a brick run and then maybe 80 miles on Sunday. If I do all that, I'll get in 170 miles on the bike this week and I'm shooting for 200+ next week. Yee-haw!
I am truly flabbergasted by how well I'm tolerating all this training and getting faster at running to boot! As I usually say several times a year, I absolutely LOVE the training because you never know whether the stars will align for you on a given race day, and I've already had some good races this year, so all is good!
Happy Friday!
Friday, April 24, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Piling it On
I felt a bit shelled on Monday morning after last week's foray into 19-hour territory. As I've said in the past, my body "notices" when I make volume jumps to around 15 hours, and then every hour on top of that is almost an exponential leap. Although I am absorbing the volume better than ever, I think. Of course, I wouldn't know how much I could take if I didn't keep pushing it, right?
So Monday I had to get in a swim and a run before starting work so I could make an early-ish massage appointment. As tired as I was, I figured I may as well do some other stuff before swimming, so I knocked out 120 crunches and 5' jump rope, knowing it might make me even tired before swimming and running!
When I got into the pool, it was nice and cold, and initially I thought I'd cut my planned 2900-yard workout in half. After all, I deserved an easy day or even a full rest day. But the water felt so good, and even though I couldn't swim very fast at all, I was enjoying myself (isn't that perverted?) and ended up doing the entire workout! But then I thought I really should cut the run short.
Again, I thought about cutting a 50' run down to 25-30', but actually my run legs didn't feel that bad once I got going on the treadmill, so I ran 25' there, then ran 5' on the track at about 10K pace and finished up with 10' of strides. So I only ended up cutting out 10' of running.
Ideally, I would have started in on my strength training later on, but I was just too fatigued from the previous week, but I did manage to stretch during some conference calls, got the massage which was very much needed, and then did some cooking which should have been done Sunday except for the impromptu trip to Wisconsin which was way more fun anyway. I finished up a Chinese dish and got the green chile finished except for buying, roasting, peeling and slicing poblano peppers which get added last.
Tuesday morning I awoke after a good night's sleep still feeling pretty shelled. Maybe I should have taken Monday off? Fuck no...I've done this before and I know what to expect. At this volume level, it takes me until Wednesday to feel "normal." "Normal" being normal for a Crackhead.
I didn't get on the bike (trainer--shitty and rainy again) until almost 2PM, and truthfully wasn't expecting much at all from my legs. But 1:35 later, I had managed to rack up TSS of 113, running at 85% of FTP for the workout! How I did that in the condition I was in, I can't tell you, but I must have developed this HTFU reserve that I am now able to draw on.
Again, I should have started in on my strength training on Tuesday, but I needed to finish up my green chile and was so fucking tired, so I shopped, roasted, peeled, chopped and cooked, stretched out really well and was in bed early.
Yesterday morning I felt pretty good although not 100% recovered still. But I was up early so I figured I had time to get in some crap before swimming, and I did 75 pushups, 120 crunches, 15 chinups and 10' of jump rope. I know, I know--there was no real need to do this stuff, but it has just become part of my pre-swim routine, so I do it.
I only had to swim 2800 yards, and the water was warm, which sucked, and I was still tired and a bit slow, but I need the swimming to recover from the biking and running. Once I got home, I realized that I was, in fact, pretty fucking tired, and would need some caffeine to get through my mid-day run.
I went with Ultra Violence at the suggestion of Shelley, and that turned out to be a great decision. But I wasn't sure of how little I could wear running, and my core temperature was still depressed from the morning swim, so I went out for a short out and back with shorts and a long sleeved t-shirt AND sweatshirt on to warm up. I thought I wanted to try and run flatness, but there really isn't any right from my house so what did I do? I ran to the street with one of the steeper uphills and just chugged my way up, turned around and back home, stripped off the sweatshirt and t-shirt and headed back out to finish up.
Of course, I chose the route into the wind and uphill, and it was amazing because since I had warmed up at tempo pace (hills will do that to me), I felt really solid heading into more hills and the temperature was just perfect where my arms were a bit chilled, but it was nice and sunny so it didn't matter. All I had to do at the turnaround was not slow down, and I ended up even splitting the second leg of the run, which was awesome considering I didn't think I had any legs in me. Ah...the power of the jump rope!
Now since it was Wednesday, I really needed to put a dent into my strength training, and I found time to get in 44' worth while wearing compression tights. I motivated to wash a pile of dishes and bottles from all the cooking and training, stretched out really well last night, did some reading and blissfully passed out early since I knew Ms. Robin (nesting just outside my bedroom window) would be waking me at 4:30AM.
Today I feel pretty well, still a bit fatigued, but that is normal for an Ironman build. I will do about 30' of strength (maybe even finish up for the week!), and then I'll head to Waterfall Glen for a 2-hour run, which I am really looking forward to. It is going to be an absolutely gorgeous day, and I'm lucky that I can get away in the middle of the day for this instead of starting at OH DARK THIRTY running on a treadmill. I plan on running a full counter-clockwise loop today plus whatever else I need to get up to 2 hours. I am sure it will hurt at some point, but the pleasure of being outside in the sun on a beautiful spring day in a beautiful setting will more than compensate for any pain in my legs!
And maybe I won't be too shelled after work to get out into my gardens and do some cleanup.
Life is good!
So Monday I had to get in a swim and a run before starting work so I could make an early-ish massage appointment. As tired as I was, I figured I may as well do some other stuff before swimming, so I knocked out 120 crunches and 5' jump rope, knowing it might make me even tired before swimming and running!
When I got into the pool, it was nice and cold, and initially I thought I'd cut my planned 2900-yard workout in half. After all, I deserved an easy day or even a full rest day. But the water felt so good, and even though I couldn't swim very fast at all, I was enjoying myself (isn't that perverted?) and ended up doing the entire workout! But then I thought I really should cut the run short.
Again, I thought about cutting a 50' run down to 25-30', but actually my run legs didn't feel that bad once I got going on the treadmill, so I ran 25' there, then ran 5' on the track at about 10K pace and finished up with 10' of strides. So I only ended up cutting out 10' of running.
Ideally, I would have started in on my strength training later on, but I was just too fatigued from the previous week, but I did manage to stretch during some conference calls, got the massage which was very much needed, and then did some cooking which should have been done Sunday except for the impromptu trip to Wisconsin which was way more fun anyway. I finished up a Chinese dish and got the green chile finished except for buying, roasting, peeling and slicing poblano peppers which get added last.
Tuesday morning I awoke after a good night's sleep still feeling pretty shelled. Maybe I should have taken Monday off? Fuck no...I've done this before and I know what to expect. At this volume level, it takes me until Wednesday to feel "normal." "Normal" being normal for a Crackhead.
I didn't get on the bike (trainer--shitty and rainy again) until almost 2PM, and truthfully wasn't expecting much at all from my legs. But 1:35 later, I had managed to rack up TSS of 113, running at 85% of FTP for the workout! How I did that in the condition I was in, I can't tell you, but I must have developed this HTFU reserve that I am now able to draw on.
Again, I should have started in on my strength training on Tuesday, but I needed to finish up my green chile and was so fucking tired, so I shopped, roasted, peeled, chopped and cooked, stretched out really well and was in bed early.
Yesterday morning I felt pretty good although not 100% recovered still. But I was up early so I figured I had time to get in some crap before swimming, and I did 75 pushups, 120 crunches, 15 chinups and 10' of jump rope. I know, I know--there was no real need to do this stuff, but it has just become part of my pre-swim routine, so I do it.
I only had to swim 2800 yards, and the water was warm, which sucked, and I was still tired and a bit slow, but I need the swimming to recover from the biking and running. Once I got home, I realized that I was, in fact, pretty fucking tired, and would need some caffeine to get through my mid-day run.
I went with Ultra Violence at the suggestion of Shelley, and that turned out to be a great decision. But I wasn't sure of how little I could wear running, and my core temperature was still depressed from the morning swim, so I went out for a short out and back with shorts and a long sleeved t-shirt AND sweatshirt on to warm up. I thought I wanted to try and run flatness, but there really isn't any right from my house so what did I do? I ran to the street with one of the steeper uphills and just chugged my way up, turned around and back home, stripped off the sweatshirt and t-shirt and headed back out to finish up.
Of course, I chose the route into the wind and uphill, and it was amazing because since I had warmed up at tempo pace (hills will do that to me), I felt really solid heading into more hills and the temperature was just perfect where my arms were a bit chilled, but it was nice and sunny so it didn't matter. All I had to do at the turnaround was not slow down, and I ended up even splitting the second leg of the run, which was awesome considering I didn't think I had any legs in me. Ah...the power of the jump rope!
Now since it was Wednesday, I really needed to put a dent into my strength training, and I found time to get in 44' worth while wearing compression tights. I motivated to wash a pile of dishes and bottles from all the cooking and training, stretched out really well last night, did some reading and blissfully passed out early since I knew Ms. Robin (nesting just outside my bedroom window) would be waking me at 4:30AM.
Today I feel pretty well, still a bit fatigued, but that is normal for an Ironman build. I will do about 30' of strength (maybe even finish up for the week!), and then I'll head to Waterfall Glen for a 2-hour run, which I am really looking forward to. It is going to be an absolutely gorgeous day, and I'm lucky that I can get away in the middle of the day for this instead of starting at OH DARK THIRTY running on a treadmill. I plan on running a full counter-clockwise loop today plus whatever else I need to get up to 2 hours. I am sure it will hurt at some point, but the pleasure of being outside in the sun on a beautiful spring day in a beautiful setting will more than compensate for any pain in my legs!
And maybe I won't be too shelled after work to get out into my gardens and do some cleanup.
Life is good!
Monday, April 20, 2009
Weekly Workout Totals 04/13/2009-04/19/2009 and Weekend Report
Thankfully, Saturday was a day of flatness. With another warm day scheduled, but needing to sleep in in the morning, I drove LGL to Fermilab to ride and then run. The plan was to go for 70 miles or 4 hours, something like that, and then a :40-:45 brick run. The weather was gorgeous, and my legs were sore from all the running I'd already done. But nothing too bad.
I made it onto the bike a little before 10:00AM and got started wearing a bike jersey and arm warmers. I was quite comfortable, but figured I'd remove at least the arm warmers. I was about 13 miles into the first loop (out of 16), when I saw the sign for where the ring road entrance is off of Eola Road. You can see this on the map here, and the road I turned on is labeled Site 55. I looked behind me before I turned in for security guards and saw none, and thought what the hell, I'll get onto the ring road, which curiously enough, is called Ring Road.
I headed around counter-clockwise, and since I might get kicked off, I figured I should ride hard here. There is hardly any traffic in Fermilab to begin with, but on the Ring Road, zero. The road isn't totally smooth, but it's pretty nice. I actually thought I was on the smaller ring, but a friend had told me that ring is only 2 miles around, so when I got 2 miles in, I knew I must be on the big ring. I laughed to myself that I am in the big ring on the Big Ring! I did see a security guard driving around, but she just drove right past me.
I finished my first loop and it warmed up nicely, so I ditched the arm warmers, gloves (I don't want a glove line) and swapped the jersey for a singlet. It wasn't very windy, but the wind that was there was from the normal direction, WSW. On loop 2, I also ducked onto Ring Road, again using it as a high intensity interval, and it was great, same deal on loop 3, so I was at 60 miles. I decided to finish out by just riding down the central road (Batavia Road) out to the west gate (I parked at east gate) and back. I've never gone through the middle, but many cyclists just pass through Fermilab on this road.
Since I'd done some dinking around on side roads, I got my 70 miles in and then suited up to run. Of course, now the sun decides to come out, but I changed into running shorts and ditched the singlet. My legs felt much like they do at the start of an Ironman run, with all the running I'd already done for the week. My stomach felt like total shit, but too bad, that's normal, too. I ended up running the same amount as I had here a week before in the same amount of time. Hah! So more bike miles and same running, I couldn't complain!
Once I finished, I exited the lab and hit the McDonald's for a cheeseburger and small fries to get me home, and I managed to stretch out really well and wondered what Sunday would bring.
I slept really deeply Saturday night and Sunday morning dawned rainy as predicted. I was thinking I'd just ride 2 hours easy on the trainer, and was just about ready to head to the grocery store when a friend txted me did I want to go to "mt h?" I thought he meant Mt. Horeb in Wisconsin, but then I thought it's rainy and shitty, really? So I confirmed and yeah, Mt. Horeb. Of course I checked the weather forecast for up there and it looked marginally better than home. Still, I was feeling nearly shelled and had to think fast whether I wanted to go ride some serious hills. The route selection was about a 32-mile loop, and I've been in that area enough times to know how challenging it can be. I figured, what the heck, what's the worst thing that can happen? So I got my stuff together and we left around 9AM, driving in the rain much of the way until we were in Wisconsin and then it cleared up somewhat.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that although I didn't ride very fast, I was able to make it up the hills just fine without standing. I left the Ergomo display on mileage and didn't watch my power because I really didn't want to know! I knew that I'd be kicking out plenty! When all was said and done, I did 34 miles that had 2700 feet of climbing in it! Holy fucking shit! Nice for a "short" ride, huh? It took 2:22, but that was to be expected. My friend wanted to do the Blue Mounds Park climb (2.5 miles up), and I was happy to wait at the base while it rained. He was taking a little longer than I had predicted, so I began driving up the hill about 20 minutes in, but he was on his way down, and thanked me for my concern.
The next thing was my favorite part of the day, which was eating and drinking at the Grumpy Troll. We had the beer sampler that had like 16 different beers on it. All were good except for a few weird ones. Good food, great beer, awesome company and a hilly bike ride--that's a tough combination to beat! Driving back we got predictably silly, and when I got back in the house, I threw all the dirty clothes downstairs, showered, had a bite of steak and got to sleep.
This morning when I downloaded the Ergomo data I was pleased to see that I rode at 85% of FT yesterday. Fucking A! That is good stuff! Especially after what I'd already done for the week. Now all I have to do is see if I can swim and run this morning and then I get a massage this afternoon.
I did about an hour of extra crap that is not included below. So another solid week of training (check out that TSS!), and here comes another one!
I made it onto the bike a little before 10:00AM and got started wearing a bike jersey and arm warmers. I was quite comfortable, but figured I'd remove at least the arm warmers. I was about 13 miles into the first loop (out of 16), when I saw the sign for where the ring road entrance is off of Eola Road. You can see this on the map here, and the road I turned on is labeled Site 55. I looked behind me before I turned in for security guards and saw none, and thought what the hell, I'll get onto the ring road, which curiously enough, is called Ring Road.
I headed around counter-clockwise, and since I might get kicked off, I figured I should ride hard here. There is hardly any traffic in Fermilab to begin with, but on the Ring Road, zero. The road isn't totally smooth, but it's pretty nice. I actually thought I was on the smaller ring, but a friend had told me that ring is only 2 miles around, so when I got 2 miles in, I knew I must be on the big ring. I laughed to myself that I am in the big ring on the Big Ring! I did see a security guard driving around, but she just drove right past me.
I finished my first loop and it warmed up nicely, so I ditched the arm warmers, gloves (I don't want a glove line) and swapped the jersey for a singlet. It wasn't very windy, but the wind that was there was from the normal direction, WSW. On loop 2, I also ducked onto Ring Road, again using it as a high intensity interval, and it was great, same deal on loop 3, so I was at 60 miles. I decided to finish out by just riding down the central road (Batavia Road) out to the west gate (I parked at east gate) and back. I've never gone through the middle, but many cyclists just pass through Fermilab on this road.
Since I'd done some dinking around on side roads, I got my 70 miles in and then suited up to run. Of course, now the sun decides to come out, but I changed into running shorts and ditched the singlet. My legs felt much like they do at the start of an Ironman run, with all the running I'd already done for the week. My stomach felt like total shit, but too bad, that's normal, too. I ended up running the same amount as I had here a week before in the same amount of time. Hah! So more bike miles and same running, I couldn't complain!
Once I finished, I exited the lab and hit the McDonald's for a cheeseburger and small fries to get me home, and I managed to stretch out really well and wondered what Sunday would bring.
I slept really deeply Saturday night and Sunday morning dawned rainy as predicted. I was thinking I'd just ride 2 hours easy on the trainer, and was just about ready to head to the grocery store when a friend txted me did I want to go to "mt h?" I thought he meant Mt. Horeb in Wisconsin, but then I thought it's rainy and shitty, really? So I confirmed and yeah, Mt. Horeb. Of course I checked the weather forecast for up there and it looked marginally better than home. Still, I was feeling nearly shelled and had to think fast whether I wanted to go ride some serious hills. The route selection was about a 32-mile loop, and I've been in that area enough times to know how challenging it can be. I figured, what the heck, what's the worst thing that can happen? So I got my stuff together and we left around 9AM, driving in the rain much of the way until we were in Wisconsin and then it cleared up somewhat.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that although I didn't ride very fast, I was able to make it up the hills just fine without standing. I left the Ergomo display on mileage and didn't watch my power because I really didn't want to know! I knew that I'd be kicking out plenty! When all was said and done, I did 34 miles that had 2700 feet of climbing in it! Holy fucking shit! Nice for a "short" ride, huh? It took 2:22, but that was to be expected. My friend wanted to do the Blue Mounds Park climb (2.5 miles up), and I was happy to wait at the base while it rained. He was taking a little longer than I had predicted, so I began driving up the hill about 20 minutes in, but he was on his way down, and thanked me for my concern.
The next thing was my favorite part of the day, which was eating and drinking at the Grumpy Troll. We had the beer sampler that had like 16 different beers on it. All were good except for a few weird ones. Good food, great beer, awesome company and a hilly bike ride--that's a tough combination to beat! Driving back we got predictably silly, and when I got back in the house, I threw all the dirty clothes downstairs, showered, had a bite of steak and got to sleep.
This morning when I downloaded the Ergomo data I was pleased to see that I rode at 85% of FT yesterday. Fucking A! That is good stuff! Especially after what I'd already done for the week. Now all I have to do is see if I can swim and run this morning and then I get a massage this afternoon.
I did about an hour of extra crap that is not included below. So another solid week of training (check out that TSS!), and here comes another one!
| Weekly Workout Totals | 04/13/2009-04/19/2009 This week's totals are sponsored by HILLS! |
| Swim: | 9250 yards (5.25 miles) in 3.28 hours; 18% of weekly workout time; approx. 1149 calories burned Canadian: 8458.2 meters |
| Bike: | Approx. 142.12 miles in 7.95 hours; 44% of weekly workout time; approx. 4555 calories burned; Total TSS=540 Canadian: 228.72 kilometers |
| Run: | Approx. 37.36 miles in 5.56 hours; 31% of weekly workout time; approx. 2524 calories burned Canadian: 60.13 kilometers |
| Strength: | 1.23 hours; 7% of weekly workout time; approx. 308 calories burned |
| All Sports: | Approx. 184.73 miles in 18.02 hours; approx. 8536 calories burned Canadian: 297.29 kilometers |
| Sleep: | 7.79 hours avg./night |
| Stretching: | 2.53 hours. Massage: 1 hours |
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