"The Push"...week #2

Another week down in the "Push" phase...only one more to go before a "rest" week. This weekend called for rain on Saturday and clear on Sunday...so I switched up my long ride and long run days. In all, it was a nice, painful, long weekend. I'm seeing some signs of having some endurance fitness, so that is positive.

I'll continue to be overly cautious, and try to stay healthy...and as Phil Liggett says, "There is a very thin between a finely tuned athlete, and a coughing bag of bones..."

Saturday
I corralled all of my stuff together and headed out to the Baldwin Rails to Trails. This is a pretty good place to run...no cars, mile and half mile markers, and a chance to run on the grass in some spots. Since there had been a lot of rain, I was only able to run about 5-10% on the grass...it was just way too soggy. Other than that, it was a good run...and gave me another chance to test my race nutrition and pacing. The schedule was for 2 1/2 hours. My legs were already pretty fatigued and sore from the previous week's training, so I knew it was going to be a bit tough. The run went well...and really started to hurt the "old legs" during the last 4-5 miles. I finished up with 19 miles in 2:31 (~7:56/mile), and negative split the last half by a little over a minute. I kept in my heart rate zone 1 on the way out, and then it slowly crept up into zone 2 on the return trip...this workout was just about getting time on my legs without going too hard.

Sunday
This workout called for 6 1/2 hour of riding followed by 1 hour of running...at least that was the plan. I met up with Greg & Danny about 7:30 am to get started on another long non-drafting day. To change the scenery, we decided to do the long Penny Farms loop (to take in a couple rolling hills) followed by a loop in Mandarin to add more miles. This was another ride to also try and workout my nutrition plan. We rode steady 21-23 mph staying in heart rate zone 1 & 2. Today, just like yesterday, was just about getting time on the legs. During the Mandarin loop my right knee was hurting a little, but I couldn't pin point if it was the ride or the run that was the cause. Greg suggested that I cut the run a bit short to be safe, so I agreed...so I did 30 minutes easy.

Once done, I was pretty hungry...so I had a double cheeseburger and large fries from Five Guys!

Sween