Wednesday, December 15

Wednesday Wrapup

Monday Pushups

This week I jumped from W6-C2-D1 to W6-C3-D1. Seemed easier on paper than for real. I did get the sets done, but like the past few weeks, the Monday sets are not timed. I take as much time as I need to recover enough to make the next set. Today was no different. Took most of 45 minutes from start to end - almost 20 minutes was recovery for the last Max set.

I am starting to realize that the trouble I am having is because the longer sets end up being anaerobic and I just don't have the tolerance to that kind of work. Wednesday I will need to tighten up the rest periods for the main set.

45/55/35/30/55=220 Ouch!

Tuesday Bike Brick

With the holidays fast approaching I find myself thouroughly enjoying my time in the pain cave. Last night I was having so much fun I went a little long on the drainer and deadmill.

As per Coach P’s guidance, I went back to my current FTP numbers for the FT set but ended up over cooking the 85% stuff a bit. Initially I planned the 85% to be right at 85% for 20 minutes. I was watching “Fellowship of the Ring” and got distracted. It felt so good I just kept with it till I felt like stopping – ended up with 30 minutes at 90%.....

My run was similar. Plan was for 30 at Z1…. After a minute or 2 of WU, I settled in at Z1 minus 30 seconds and held it for 5 miles. Was nice to just run. I miss it and need to do more. Intervals can be fun, sure, but nothing beats just running for the sake of running……

Interval 2:
Duration: 15:02 (15:03)
Work: 182 kJ
TSS: 25.6 (intensity factor 1.01)
Norm Power: 202
VI: 1

Interval 4:
Duration: 15:01
Work: 185 kJ
TSS: 26.4 (intensity factor 1.027)
Norm Power: 205
VI: 1

Interval 6:
Duration: 30:02
Work: 323 kJ
TSS: 40.4 (intensity factor 0.899)
Norm Power: 180
VI: 1

Entire workout (172 watts):
Duration: 1:21:25 (1:21:45)
Work: 841 kJ
TSS: 113.9 (intensity factor 0.919)
Norm Power: 184
VI: 1.07

Run 41:31; 5.0 miles @ 8:20 ..... can't wait to be free to run longer.....

Wednesday Bike

Had to switch Wednesday's run with Thursday's bike so my friend can come over and do an EN style FTP test tomorrow.  So, second day in a row for bike intervals is HARD shit.  Struggled from the beginning - go tit done but really had to work at it.

Zone 4 Intervals:
   Duration:   10:02          10:02         10:02
   Work:       123 kJ         124 kJ        124 kJ
   TSS:        17.7 (1.028)   17.7 (1.027)  17.9 (1.035)
   Norm Power: 206            205           207
   VI:         1              1             1

Zone 3 Interval:
   Duration:   15:02 (15:03)
   Work:       158 kJ
   TSS:        19.5 (0.882)
   Norm Power: 176
   VI:         1

Entire workout (164 watts):
   Duration:   1:15:27
   Work:       743 kJ
   TSS:        100.3 (0.899)
   Norm Power: 180
   VI:         1.09

Tomorrow I get to run while Jay suffers for his first ever 2x20... gonna be fun (for me).

Pushups!  wonderful pushups!

It's Wednesday and it is late - had to get the bike workout in first. Then stupidly I started without looking at my workout, dumb.  Instead of 45/55 for the first 2 sets I did 40/50.  that forced me to add 5 to the next 2 sets for 40/35 that way I get the full count for the day.  The final set was killer - 55

Second go at W6-C3-D1  40/50/40/35/55=220

Sunday, December 12

Sunday Week 6 wrap up

Saturday Brick

Got my work done this afternoon but had to put on a dinner for my wife's coworker and spouse - lots of SAU's there. Jay, our guest is also training for IMLP too so we had lots of kewl training stuff to talk about. Talked a lot about how great I think EN is. He seemed interested. Also offered to have him over for a FTP test - EN style on Thursday..... should be fun (for me!)

Definitely up to the challenge that Coach P put out there (wanted everyone to push watts as big as possible to see what you could get)....I never seem to be able to say no. On Thursday, the first part of the challenge,  I averaged 218 over the 3x10's. Today I got that and more.

The workout called for 2x12 FTP plus 2x15 @ Z3 - did the Z3 as 1x30 instead

12' @ 224; IF 1.119; VI 1.0; HR 164; Cd 88
12' @ 221; IF 1.104; VI 1.0; HR 167; Cd 85
30' @ 185; IF 0.923; VI 1.0; HR 155; Cd 87
total bike 1:16:37 @ 190; IF 0.949; VI 1.12; HR 150; Cd 80

Run targets 7:30 out, 7:20 back on the deadmill

7:45, 7:38, 7:20
Run total 23:08; 3.0 miles; HR 174; Cd 85

So, not only did I push bigger watts today for the Z4 intervals, but also pushed watts for the Z3 efforts AND hit my run targets off the bike! I am psyched! Look out Week 8 FTP test!

Suffering Sunday....

Like a lot of others at EN, I'm feeling Coach P's "could" workouts too. Almost wimped out and called it a week without the Sunday run. Then I was wondering how could I do that? Certainly wouldn't pass the straight-face test.....

Pouring rain most all afternoon so deadmill it is. Easy warm up and MS then a final 0.25 to finish 5.0

1.5 @ 7:19; HR 170; Cd 88
1.5 @ 7:19; HR 174; Cd 87
total 5.0 @ 8:18; HR 168; Cd 81

Looking forward to a day off. really need it.

Friday, December 10

Running in the snow....yeah, not happening

Tuesday: bike brick

Seems to be no shortage of stuff to do with all the holiday festivities to prep for. Last night was no exception - worked later than usual, shopping after work, then decorate (lights) and hang 48" wreath on the garage, mess with the wood stove.... spend time with DW.....

Finally got to the bike after 9PM. Didn't finish the deadmill session till 10:45 and dinner was at 11 with the evening news. I would have liked to start at 7:30 but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Good session. Pushed the watts and held strong, no fade. Limited my soft peddle to only the first minute of the recovery, then aim at Z2 for the other 3 minutes.

15' @ 213w; IF 1.063; VI 1.01; Cd 83; HR 151
15' @ 211w; IF 1.057; VI 1.0; Cd 83; HR 162
20' @ 175w; IF 0.876; VI 1.0; Cd 84; HR 148

Total bike 1:10:21 @ 187w; IF 0.937; VI 1.07; Cd 79; HR 145

The run was OK too. Not sure I get the strides thing... holding good form is something I think about for every run at every pace. The only time I let my form slip is when I am so fatigued that I can't run tall. Began near Z1 pace then upped the speed after 3 minutes to my comfort pace (30 secs faster). The last 10 were at Z2.

Run 25:10 @ 8:23; 3 miles; Cd 84; HR 157

Wednesday: run intervals
Hoping to find a track to run on tonight.... don't like intervals on the deadmill....... then there is reality... But first I had to get the Christmas tree in and standing among other things.

I really wanted to run outside but the roads were all frozen slush and snow on the shoulders and the UMO track had 10" of untracked snow - I guess they don't plow the track..... so, into the pain cave - nothing but fun and party lights down there.... Last Samurai on DVD for distraction.

2 mile warmup then the main set. Did half mile recovery between and at the end. Six miles total.

0.5 @ 7:19; HR 171; Cd 88
1.0 @ 7:19; HR 173; Cd 88
1.0 @ 7:19; HR 173; Cd 88

overall 6.0 @ 8:37; HR 157; Cd 81

The best part was how easy my 8:20 pace felt between sets.

Thursday: bike intervals with a challenge by Coach P to really push the watts 

Late comer to the party but I'm happy to say I had a great ride too. Thanks Coach P for the license to crush!

Tested into the OS at 183 FTP but realized after a few rides it was just plain off. So I did a SWAG and came up with 200 which is what I have been pushing watts above there since. Well, at Coach P's urging I set my sights for 215 and I was not disappointed.

10' @ 218; IF 1.089; VI 1.0; HR 156; Cd 84
10' @ 217; IF 1.084; VI 1.0; HR 166; Cd 84
10' @ 220; IF 1.098; VI 1.0; HR 168; Cd 84
20' @ 184; IF 0.922; VI 1.0; HR 155; Cd 86

Total 1:14:56 @ 192; IF 0.958; VI 1.08; HR 150; Cd 80

Pretty sweet session. Loved the consistency between intervals.

Friday: rest day.... except for the 190 push-ups

After 3 days of repeating W6-C2-D1... struggling the entire time, I was able to finish but just barely. Most sets were with 60" rest except the Max set - needed 2 minutes to recover enough to go 50.
40/50/25/25/50=190  Third time is magic!

Not sure If I am ready to move on yet. Thing is, to finish by Christmas I am going to need to really push. So from above:

C2-D1 >> 40/50/25/25/50
C3-D1 >> 45/55/35/30/55 << next up
C4-D1 >> 50/60/45/35/60

Last thing tonight was the lights.....

Monday, December 6

Day off... tired arms....

Got home today to find 10" of heavy snow piled everywhere.  It was just warm enough to make it sticky... perfect for making snowmen but I needed to shovel it from the walks and deck.  Fortunately, I got hold of our plow guy today.  He showed up just as I was clearing the front walk. 

Last year we were the proud recipients of a tractor mounted snow-blower.  Seemed great... at first....till we realized it shot rocks (we have a gravel driveway) at everything within 60'.  Hit the house, the car, everywhere..... took some learning how not to hit stuff.  Then in the spring, instead of having a pile of gravel at the end of the driveway from the plow guy, we had rocks and gravel covering the lawn - the entire lawn within 50' or so of the driveway..... man did that ever suck!

First snows always cause issues.... today it was warm soft ground under the snow.  The plow guy was ripping up piles of dirt, gravel, grass and mud everywhere he put his blade - and that was with the skid set down 2".  In the end, it was a good thing he came.  I don't think I would have finished without him doing the drive. 

Start the arms quivering...
After dinner it was to the 100 pushup challange.  On Sunday I re-tested and managed to step into Week 6, Column 2.  So I started in and got it done.... not pretty, very hard....needed 5 - 10 minutes between sets, especially the max set. Took 60 minutes to do the whole thing.

40/50/25/25/50=190 fewer pushups than last week but seemed much harder with longer sets.
Looking over W6-C2, seems like it is built with a taper - D2 & D3 have less total than D1. May need to do something funky like this:

C2-D1 >> 40/50/25/25/50
C3-D1 >> 45/55/35/30/55
C4-D1 >> 50/60/45/35/60

I guess we will just have to see how this goes.....

Sunday, December 5

Getting Buried in stuff.....

Been having trouble making everything fit. Between the work, workouts, posting my results to EN I just don’t seem to have enough time. Time to try something different. For the next few days I am going to take my EN workout posts and email them here to save on some online time and see how that goes. Actually this post is via email from this mornings 10 mile run results.

Snowing lightly and 30* this AM, nice day for a run..... In all the years I have been running in Orono, I never went to the HS track which is only 1.5 miles from my house. In the past if I wanted to do a track workout, I went over to the University, about 3 miles away. It was just a little too far to run to for intervals but it is a nice soft track and has lights most nights.


Well, today I decided to try the HS track. Not bad. It is a paved track but in good condition. Perfect distance to do a warmup run to and from. No need to drive.

Total run 1:22:23; 10.1 miles @ 8:10; rTSS 115.8 (0.88)

Target zone 4 pace: 7:20

2x0.5 @ Z4; 2x1.0 @ Z4
0.5 @ 6:53; HR 175; Cd 92 - didn't look at my garmin and over cooked it a bit
0.5 @ 7:17; HR 171; Cd 86 - much better
1.0 @ 7:11; HR 176; Cd 89
1.0 @ 7:16; HR 175; Cd 88

Warmup and extra volume miles were all at my normal self selected pace. Felt good to get some "normal" running in for a change. I think I need to do more of that to keep my sanity.......

After a smoothie and a shower, I went to Carpenters Choose & Cut Christmas Tree Farm over in Stillwater. My first time at their farm – nice place. Not too big and the trees are smaller than over at G&S in Orono. But, the quality of tree and the pruning are excellent.



Like normal, I spent the better part of 90 minutes just walking around enjoying being with the trees. To me, wandering around looking at and for a Christmas tree has to be the best part of the entire Christmas season. One day I will have my own tree farm. Then everyday can be “my” Christmas!

Run Strong my friends, run strong.