As I finish up my first 2.5 months of training, all bodyparts are still intact and muscles still functioning without pain. I am thinking this previously abused, middle-aged body still has some miles in it. The last few weeks have been pretty similar in volume(time) with a few small increases here and there. I feel like I am really settling into this amount of training, which is actually equivalent to one of my heavy weeks were last season. I know this will be changing soon, so I am soaking it up while I can.
The other nice thing this week was that the weather is starting to break and feel a bit more like Spring. It was still a bit cool out, but the winds were less making it a little more tolerable.I feel as though my run pace is increasing a little bit. My “steady state” runs have been getting faster and I am able to sustain it while maintaining a Z3(a/b) heart rate. The image below shows all my previous steady state runs which are all slower pace compared to last Thursdays’ run.
Tuesday nights’ bike ride went a little awry for me. As I headed home from work I decided to do another trainer ride since the winds were a little ridiculous for my taste. I plopped the bike on the trainer and fired up my Mac. TrainerRoad had a new upgrade available(1.5 beta) so I quickly upgraded that. Big mistake! Now my Bluetooth 4.0 USB plug would not read my bike trainer BTLE transmission properly. My power reading was jumping all over the place. I tested it out with my iPhone and that was working fine. Next up, my Garmin speed sensor that reads a little magnet on my back wheel decided to stop working too…WTH! I checked my equipment log and it did have several thousand miles on it so I guess its time was due. So no I have no speed and no power. Just cadence. I wasted a bunch of time trying to get that stuff working, so by the time I just started riding it was getting late. I eventually got it done and I just estimated my distance. I guess if that stuff is going to crap out on my now is a good time.
Thursday ended up being a bit nicer and I was able to get out for good ride. I had the typical 5-7MPH headwind heading out(W-SW) but the return trip was a nice cruise back. Still riding with the new carbon fiber wheels and I am liking them a lot. The only issue with them is if you are riding against a crosswind and you go behind a building or structure that blocks that wind, then it there is a little bit of a push when you come out past the building and hit the wind again. Just something I will have to keep in mind on windier days.
Friday was a gorgeous day and I had the day off…what more can you ask for. I headed to the pool and knocked out my 45 minute swim and then got my dog out for a hike up at Bear Creek Ski Area in the afternoon. There was still a substantial amount of snow on the slopes and my dog made sure he took full advantage of it when it was near. There were a bunch of guys playing Frolf up there and even saw a few guys doing some trail maintenance on the MTB trails.
Friday night was a little rough. I had met up with a friend and ended up having a couple Martini’s. I had swore these things off long ago, but I seem to have forgotten how nasty these things are. Long, story short, I paid for that the rest of the weekend during my workouts. Ugh…And I am swearing off Martini’s yet again. Hopefully I remember that this time.
My long Saturday bike ride was a little delayed, but that turned out to be a good thing. Saturday was another beautiful day and the winds had totally died by the afternoon. The traffic on the roads seemed to have died as well. No idiots flying by you within less than the legal four feet they are supposed to give me. The grandeur of the ride came to a halt once I remembered that I had to still do my first “brick” run of the season immediately following my ride. A “brick” is a workout where you do multiple disciplines one after the other to get your body used to switching activities like you would in a race. It turned out to be a nice little 15 minute run through my town and legs felt good. Nice end to a nice day.
Sunday it was off to the Lehigh Parkway again for a 1:40 long run. I actually pushed the pace a bit this week and cut almost a 30secs of my avg pace for the run while still maintaining a Zone 2(aerobic/endurance) heart rate. The engine is starting to get faster and efficient. Still got a good several months to go to push that more.
Well one more build week and then another recovery week. Lehigh Valley Half Marathon is in 2 weeks and the NJ Devilman Half-Lite is the week after. Hard to believe racing season is on a couple weeks away. Looking forward to seeing my wife finish her first half. I know I was pretty excited to be doing that race a few years back. Don’t think we will be hitting a 8:00 min pace this time though.
