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.