It's a new day...

Weeks have passed since I last posted here mostly due to the holidays and family.  It was nice to see everyone and I was very happy they could make it.  Then again, it is also nice to get back to a more normal routine.  

 

Sad to say I failed out of the 100 pushup challenge.  I had been going strong then all of a sudden, I hit the wall.  Between the FTP intervals on the bike, the pushups and then a Holiday Run Challenge coach Patrick threw down, I just couldn’t make it.  I could no longer make any progress with the pushups.  No matter how I tried, I kept hitting a ceiling that would not budge.   I do plan to do more pushups but more of a cross-train thing with other core work.  Right now I am thinking 3 days a week at lunch I could bang out 3 sets of 40 and not interfere with my regular workouts.  I’ll keep you posted as I see how this works.

The Holiday Run Challenge was an 8 day event from Christmas Day to New Year’s Day.  One point for each mile, 1 more for each mile run at or faster than T-pace, another point for each full hour run, and lastly a point for running in sub freezing temperatures.  I saw it as an excuse to go for a run.  My biggest gripe with the EN style of training is that I miss my running.  Everything we do is short and fast, whereas I like longer and not as fast.  So I started a day early running with Sierra and finishing 8 miles.  The thing is those points didn’t count to the Challenge which was fine with me.  In the end I ran 54 miles and accumulated 71 points, running 7 of the 8 days (plus the early run on Christmas Eve).  

A few of the ENers really went big, covering over 100 miles during the week!  Granted they took a break from the regular workouts (no bike intervals). But still, that is an awesome pile of miles!  Even for me, 54 miles is huge.  In the past I have only had a few weeks were I got those kind of miles and they were 12 to 14 weeks into a 20 week marathon training plan.  I was amazed at how well I did with the limited run work the EN OS plan has.  I guess they are right – Work works!

Currently we are in a 6 week block of VO2 Max intervals.  They are the hardest workouts I have ever done!  The main sets are short, just 2:30 on and 2:30 off.  The thing is “on” is at 120% and “off” is at 65%.  The first one is OK, hard but OK.  The second really starts to hurt and by the 3^rd interval it becomes almost unbearable.  The 4^th interval is all mental – from the very start of the last one, I am looking at the clock watching the second hand … it seems to take for ever, some times it even looks like it is going backwards….. After the main set comes the 30 minutes of 85% work which by then seem almost easy.  Still, the fatigue from these sets lingers for days…… At the end of this block (4.5 weeks) we test again and I hope to see a big bump in my FTP.  Just need to get thru this without any injuries………