4/25/2009

I think that watching the Boston Marathon on Monday started me thinking about my current route and got me thinking about what I really want out of my training. I have been spending a lot of time on the bike lately and not that much time running and I am not really loving it. When ever I get up to ride I really dread it and feel like I am doing work rather than something that I truly love. Anyway, that is probably why I completely fell off the wagon this week and did not even come close to my original goal of 300 miles. I am having very strong reservations about the cycling/triathlon training and think that I am going to turn the emphasis back to pure running. In fact, I just listed the Kueen K bike on Craigslist and will hopefully unload that this week.

Since I did not ride that much this week I was able to bump my running mileage and even did my first track workout of the season. I ran 58.5 miles and biked a measly 70 miles (I said that I fell of the wagon ...).

Monday: 8mi (58:02), bike (30)
Tuesday: 6mi (45:32)
Wednesday: 9mi total. 2.2 mile warm-up, 10x400 w/ 400 rest (way too long), 2.2 mile cool-down. Splits were 80 (2:19), 79 (2:19), 76 (2:20), 74 (2:20), 73 (2:17), 71 (2:17), 72 (2:23), 74 (2:30), 74 (2:34), 71. We started out really slowly and ramped down gradually. I felt decent but had to back off a bit at the end for my achilles.
Thursday: 6mi (44:57), bike (20)
Friday: 10mi (71:55) Easy run, bike (20)
Saturday: 7mi (52:36) Really easy run at Mine Falls. I felt like absolute crap.
Sunday: 12.5mi (1:26:56) I was planning on running 2 miles at MP near the end of the run but my achilles was a little tender so I bailed and just finished up.

4/18/2010

I am going to keep this short so that I can get to bed. I am beat. This week I rode 280 miles and ran 48 miles and I was also able to increase my long run to 12 miles. Not bad overall. Unfortunately, all of my rides were inside on the trainer but, on a positive note, I am starting to feel much better on my runs. I was really concerned that all the riding would make my legs feel thick and heavy but when I balance the riding and running they feel pretty good. They are not as fresh as they used to be, like even last spring, but I am finally able to do all of my running in the 6:30-7:30 min/mi pace range so I am back to where I should be.

Monday: bike - 30, run - 8mi+ (56:08)
Tuesday: bike - 40 (AM), 30 (PM), run - 8+mi (54:06)
Wednesday: bike - 30
Thursday: bike - 40 (AM), 30 (PM)
Friday: run - 11.5mi+ (79:44)
Saturday: bike - 40, run - 8.5mi (58:35)
Sunday: bike - 40, run - 12mi (80:21)

Next week I am planning on bumping up to 300 miles on the bike and 50+ miles of running. We will see though because Wednesday is the first of the GCS track workouts and I have not decided if I am ready for that yet. I think that I am ahead of last year at this point and I had a great spring season, but this is an Achilles injury and I do not want to press my luck.

4/11/2010

This week was supposed to be an easy week and I was hoping to feel well rested by the end. Well, that was not the case. It started out alright but I commuted to work on my bike on Tuesday (36 miles each way because of a detour) and that pretty much killed me for the week. I think that the problem was that I did not have enough calories and fluids on the ride home and I totally bonked. I did not really slow down but I was in a trance just cranking along in the cold (it was 45 and damp) and only made it home because I have ridden or run that stretch of road so many times before. I was really tired the rest of the week and I had a hard time getting psyched to get out the door for a ride or a run. By the weekend things began to turn around and I had a really good workout on Sunday morning - I rode 40 miles and ran 10 miles before 8:30AM.

For the week I got in 182 miles on the bike and 40 miles of running. Quite a drop off from last week, but hopefully I can build next week. The plan for next week is to get 250 miles on the bike and close to 50 miles running.

Monday: bike - 0, run - 8mi+ (59:02)
Tuesday: bike - 36 (AM) 1:50:21, 36 (PM) 1:45:05 -- today just killed me!
Wednesday: bike - 0, run - 10mi+ (73:17)
Thursday: bike - 30, run - 8mi+ (57:58)
Friday: nada!
Saturday: bike - 40, run - 4mi (26:08)
Sunday: bike - 40, run - 10mi+ (69:32)

I did get the Kuota Kueen K back from the shop this week and really wanted to ride it but discovered something that I did not know about the bike. It has what is called an integrated seat mast. Instead of a seat post that can be adjusted to fit your inseam there is a very short seat post and the frame has to be cut to fit your position. I guess that this improves rigidity, but it just seems stupid. If I cut the mast too short the bike is scrap and if I want to sell the bike down the road I can only sell to someone with a shorter inseam than me. The previous owner of the bike claimed to be 5'-11" with a 33 inch inseam (I am 5'-10.5" with a 32" inseam) so I was hopeful that it would fit me fine. I can barely touch the pedals on tippy-toe when sitting on the bike. He had to have a 35"+ inseam I bet. This leaves me with cutting the frame, which I am a little scared to do, or selling the bike. I played with the shifting a bit too (it has SRAM Red) and I would have to say that it does not seem nearly as smooth as the Campy Record on the other bike. I double checked with the shop to see if it was dialed in correctly (it was) and they said this was normal and that SRAM Red is a bit noisy, but overall very nice. Weird.

4/4/2010

It is hard to believe that it is Easter already. Time is flying this year. This was a pretty hard week because of the total miles that I covered and the number of workouts. I was able to trim it down to only 2 triples, but those were long days. I met my goals for both running and biking by hitting 41 miles on foot in 6 runs and 303.7 miles on the bike in 9 rides. That is an almost 44 mile increase over last week on 2 fewer rides in the week (a 23.6 mile/ride average versus a 33.8 mile/ride average). Thankfully the weather cooperated this week and I was able to get out of the basement and out on the roads. I was not sure it would make that much of a difference, but I have a much easier time handling time on the bike when I am outside, both mentally and physically. My achilles seems to be hanging in there too as I can do a full 8 miler without stopping to stretch my calves and hamstrings. Here is a breakdown of the week's training:

Monday: bike - 30 (AM), 30 (PM), run - 6 (42:xx)
Tuesday: bike - 40, run - 6 (44:40)
Wednesday: bike - 30, run - 8 (58:33)
Thursday: bike - 40 (AM), 30 (PM), run - 6 (?)
Friday: bike - 28.5 (1:21:29), run - 4 (25:46) -- Actually biked outside!
Saturday: bike - 46.7 (2:12:00), run - 0 -- biked outside again. I meant to run today but I was beat after the ride. It was longer than I expected and I only had one bottle of fluids for the entire ride. Not good since this was the first 80 degree day we have had since last summer.
Sunday: bike - 28.5 (1:24:33), run - 9+ (1:04 and change) This was a nice easy ride to let the legs relax. After the ride I hung out for an hour with the kids while my wife worked out and then I went to down to Mine Falls Park to run. I thought my legs would feel better than just going into the run after the ride but my legs were like lead weights and it took me 2-3 miles to work out the stiffness.

I am going to take next week on the bike by feel. I have been ramping mileage for about 4 weeks now at about 20%/week so I will probably drop back a bit to somewhere around 200-250 and get some rest. I feel pretty good but do not want to push my luck. I should be able to hit mid to high 40's for running and I will work on adding a mile or two to my long run if it feels good. If everything goes well I should be able to level off at 50-60 miles of running and 300 miles on the bike by the middle of April.

O.M.G.

The title of the post says it all. I was so excited that the rain had finally stopped (we got 15+ inches in New England in March!), the sun was shining and it was 70 degrees. This was also the first day outside on the Kalibur and I really wanted to see how it felt on the roads. I was not disappointed. To borrow a line from my kids, the bike is sick! I am amazed at how much nicer a ride it is than my old bike. It rolls much smoother and farther and there is just this swooshing when I coast. Very cool. Also, on my old bike when I really pushed the pedals it did not respond but on this bike when I push I have to hang on because it feels like the bike is going to shoot out from under me. All I can say is incredible.

I stayed off the roads and rode the Nashua River Trail only because I had never ridden with aero bars and did not know how well they handled. I did alright, although the bike is a bit harder to control. On a positive note, I had no problem keeping in the aero position for almost 30 miles and I also did not have any problems with the saddle. I had an easy day scheduled because I rode 70 miles and ran 6 miles yesterday but once I got going I went a little harder than I should have. I did 28.5 miles and averaged 21 mph (20 out and 22 back) and then jumped off the bike and ran 4 miles in 25:45 (my first run averaging sub-7 minute pace since last fall). Very good day overall.

3/28/2010

Not a bad week overall. My goal going into the week was to run 30-40 miles and cycle 225-250 miles and I ended the week with 32 running miles, in 5 runs, and 260 cycling miles, in 11 rides. That sounds like a lot of rides but I can not sit on the bike for more than 90 minutes at a time or I go crazy (I'm on the trainer) and my backside starts to hurt. I am still getting used to the saddle. Even though my running miles were a bit on the low side, I am pleased with the progress I have been making because I got my longest run up to 8 miles for the first time since November. I feel like I need to get my run up faster though because my legs are definitely starting to change from all the cycling and they are not really feeling like running legs any more. It is helping on the bike because my legs do not hurt all the time while riding, but they are feeling a bit bulky for running now and I did not start out with small legs.

Today I spent some time getting the Kuota Kalibur set up to ride, adjusting the cables and putting on new tires and brake pads so that I could start using it. I did my first ride on it tonight and man, what a difference from my old bike. I am still getting used to the aero position and have to do some tweaking to my position, but the difference between the Campy Record and my 15 year old Shimano Ultegra is like night and day. The Campy is sooo smooth and I can ride much faster with less effort. The last thing I have to do is get some new pedals like the Looks. I have the old Shimano SPD pedals that are very narrow and I always feel like I am falling off the sides of them.

Monday: bike - 30 (AM), 20 (PM), run - 6
Tuesday: bike - 25 (AM), 20 (PM), run - 6
Wednesday: bike - 30 (AM), 20 (PM)
Thursday: bike - 20, run - 6 (44:05)
Friday: bike - 20 (AM), 30 (PM)
Saturday: bike - 20, run - 6 (44:33)
Sunday: bike - 20, run - 8 (56:59)

The goal for next week is to hit close to 40 miles for running and 250-300 for cycling. I would like to level off at 50-60 for running and 300ish for cycling and hold that for 2-3 months to build a solid base. I will then look at adding speed work and hills to both.