To Infinity and Beyond - Becoming a Better DopeyBadger (Comments Welcome)

[flav]

Hi Billy, it seems like we are at a similar point:

Maybe Princess weekend 2022 instead.

Yep, I never thought I would say that before this week. Hurray for DDs

it's time to move on and ask what's next? Training for a 5k? Training for HM or M? After giving it some thought, the siren song of endurance running continues to call me. So I want to move back towards either a HM or M. In the midst of the COVID pandemic, it's hard to say whether a HM or M race will be occurring in October/November.

Nagging question that makes it hard to commit to a plan but not to running. I am specifically trying to figure out if I am training too fast or just right. The question is more, do I train where I want to be or where I am? If the latter, where am I? In insight, training for a sub 50min 10k would have been a better choice last April. I like your idea of making like the Marathon I am registered for will happen and if not, run a test. In my case, the test would be a Half.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Yep, I never thought I would say that before this week. Hurray for DDs

Daughter's have a way of pulling the strings. We've been doing some run/walk at 30/30 for about 20 min or so at a real slow easy pace. She's kind of on the fence about it. So we'll see if it holds come time to register for Princess 2022.

Nagging question that makes it hard to commit to a plan but not to running. I am specifically trying to figure out if I am training too fast or just right. The question is more, do I train where I want to be or where I am? If the latter, where am I? In insight, training for a sub 50min 10k would have been a better choice last April. I like your idea of making like the Marathon I am registered for will happen and if not, run a test. In my case, the test would be a Half.

Absolutely train where you are and not where you want to be. Here's what I wrote on the topic once before:

***

Train where you are, not where you want to be.
Most runners set goals for themselves. Whether that is a new distance or a faster time. But often I see runners extend themselves with the pacing too far. What was once marathon tempo pace becomes their 10k pace. But it's my belief that training where you are (with current fitness physiological pacing) is the best long term strategy. You'll make gains, and potentially can stay injury free for longer. You're working at appropriate paces, rather than paces of where you want to be. I made this image to illustrate this concept.

Let's say "current" is what we believe to be your current fitness pacing spectrum. Let's say that you have a new goal of lowering your half marathon time by 5 minutes. Some may say, well let's type in your new goal half marathon pace and come up with a new pacing scheme. This is where I'd argue you've chosen a "too fast" pacing spectrum. So what happens? Well potentially what was suppose to be "easy" is now a mixture of "easy" and "long". That's not a huge deal. You've made the "easy" just slightly harder, but things are still falling into those large zones of pacing at the slower end of the spectrum. But as you move further down the pacing spectrum you start to see issues. What was once your "10k" pace is now your "HM pace" for the purpose of workouts. So while you limited the 10k workouts to 20 min a single bout and having recovery intervals of 1 min for every 5 min of running, suddenly you're choosing to follow the HM rules for a workout at that same intensity. So instead of a 5:1, now suddenly you're looking at a duration cap of 60 minutes with no required rest breaks. That's a huge difference between how your body will perceive these workouts. In one case, you're making sure you don't do more than 20 min, but in the other case, you're suddenly allowing yourself to go all the way to 60 min. Could you complete the workout? It's certainly possible. But how your body reacts, adapts, and recovers from that workout is likely going to be completely different than was intended when following a training plan. You'll start to fall into a pattern where you'll always be trying to recover from the workout instead of reaping the benefits of it. It's what I call, "Don't Survive the Training, Thrive because of it". Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

On the opposite end, you can see that little harm will be done if you train just slightly too slow. So I always try to impress upon my runners, train where you are and not necessarily where you want to be. With consistent training, you'll get where you want to be. A runner who can put in lots of good efforts without getting injured can become consistent and make consistent gains. But a runner who is striving beyond their current fitness and consistently ends up injured is likely to stunt their improvement over time.

****

I use to train where I wanted to be, and rarely ever made many gains. Almost as soon as I switched to training at appropriate paces (which did come with a host of other training changes), I found my PRs drop. If you feel the need to reassess the pace scheme, then I would suggest not changing the pace scheme but once every 6 weeks, and not within 8 weeks of race day. Just because you train where you currently are does not prevent you from getting to where you want to be. Several times over the years, I've far far outperformed my training paces despite never having done that type of pace in training.

To determine where you are, it's best to look at what you've done recently (like within the last 3 months or so). Either in a race setting or in a time trial setting. If you haven't done any racing within the last three months, then consider doing a time trial. The easiest time trial to do is the mile because it allows for the littlest recovery time, and most people are far better at speed than endurance. Alternatively you could do a 5k time trial. Either way, I'd have a good 3-4 weeks minimum of running under your belt before attempting any time trials. And even more weeks of running if you've taken any time away from running. As it typically takes weeks for the system to restart. In my own current experience, I took 13 days off from running after I ended the mile time trial training. I ran a 5:42 mile. Now about a month since that mile time trial, I can guarantee I wouldn't come anywhere close to that. But I'm still basing my training off that with the caveat that I know it's going to take a few weeks at least for my running to feel natural again. So while my easy pace should be 8:00-8:45, more often than not right now my easy pace actually feels easy in the mid-9s. Some due to heat and some due to loss of endurance. So I'll just need to be patient as all of the physiological systems get revved up again.

I'm a strong believer that long term running success is built on the ability to string together multiple training plans with incremental gains. If you remove a chunk of time, either because of injury or because of indifference to running right now, then it will mean come 2022 or 2023 you'll be worse off than if you had filled that time with good smart training. Years of effort will get you from point A to point H. And each plan in between will be the stepping stone to the next phase.

 

[SheHulk]

Hi Billy, it seems like we are at a similar point:


Yep, I never thought I would say that before this week. Hurray for DDs


Nagging question that makes it hard to commit to a plan but not to running. I am specifically trying to figure out if I am training too fast or just right. The question is more, do I train where I want to be or where I am? If the latter, where am I? In insight, training for a sub 50min 10k would have been a better choice last April. I like your idea of making like the Marathon I am registered for will happen and if not, run a test. In my case, the test would be a Half.

We are twinsies! I was super-excited to register for Princess 2021 but at the last minute I chickened out. Maybe 2022. Also Billy just provided me with a plan for my fall marathon that I am basically assuming won't happen, with the fallback to be a half. If there is a half anywhere to be had at that point, the pickings are slim around here from my search.

 

[flav]

We are twinsies! I was super-excited to register for Princess 2021 but at the last minute I chickened out. Maybe 2022. Also Billy just provided me with a plan for my fall marathon that I am basically assuming won't happen, with the fallback to be a half. If there is a half anywhere to be had at that point, the pickings are slim around here from my search.

Only a twinsy could have found me at 3AM in the elevator... and speak to me

 

[TeeterTots]

Yay!! So excited for your family! This is our 16 month old, mini golden doodle, Roxy!

Not sure why they are sideways

 

[DopeyBadger]

Yay!! So excited for your family! This is our 16 month old, mini golden doodle, Roxy!
View attachment 505731View attachment 505732
Not sure why they are sideways

Cutie!

Something weird about uploads. I don’t think it happens to me when on desktop or doing screenshots instead of picture data.

 

[dis_or_dat]

I'm a strong believer that long term running success is built on the ability to string together multiple training plans with incremental gains. If you remove a chunk of time, either because of injury or because of indifference to running right now, then it will mean come 2022 or 2023 you'll be worse off than if you had filled that time with good smart training. Years of effort will get you from point A to point H. And each plan in between will be the stepping stone to the next phase.

Are you talking about not running at all? What about maintaining base with just easy runs with a few short speed runs tossed in 3-4 times a month? Running ability will obviously decrease, but it's not too awful, right? Asking for a friend ...

 

[DopeyBadger]

Are you talking about not running at all? What about maintaining base with just easy runs with a few short speed runs tossed in 3-4 times a month? Running ability will obviously decrease, but it's not too awful, right? Asking for a friend ...

I'd consider base running part of the process. You've got to have down periods in order to have up periods. If you don't allow yourself to fall enough in training load, then you've got no room to go up. So it's critical that a base phase is actually a base phase. In that it's a lesser volume and lesser intensity than the planned actual training. If the base phase is too similar to training, then you don't have the room to go up and it's not really a base phase then, it's training.

So for instance, let's say I had a friend who was doing the following the last 6 months:



The jump from January-March to April-June would look more like training volume than base volume. Unless, this person was planning on following up that April-June segment with more training volume or a very short specific training block I'd say they were already training starting in April.

 

[dis_or_dat]

Oh no! My friend was doing it all wrong!

 

[garneska]

Thanks @DopeyBadger for that semi specific explanation. @dis_or_dat there might be two friends in that boat

 

[DopeyBadger]

Oh no! My friend was doing it all wrong!

Thanks @DopeyBadger for that semi specific explanation. @dis_or_dat there might be two friends in that boat

Don't fret. Tell your friends not to look at the potential negatives but rather the potential positives learned during the experience. How did they feel on the increased volume? Did at any point during the increase did they reach new highs in terms of fitness? Were they able to do things they hadn't prior? Look at the physiological responses that occurred to this increase in mileage and ask yourself whether the increase in training was worth the potential gains. In the absence of injuries, more training is more likely to yield a better outcome on race day (of course knowing there are plenty of caveats to that statement).

Additionally, there are ways to handle this increase in volume, but a desire to decrease prior to a race experience. So all is mostly definitely not lost. The easiest thing to do is a simple reset dependent on how much time remains prior to their goal race.

 

[garneska]

So i was looking at my garmin data. I might be doing better than i thought. I will let you decide Billy. My average pace is pretty consistent. i have ramped up my miles, but that is from more days of running. My long run is around 10 miles and i dont do that every week. My typical weekly mileage is in the 35 range.



I guess since it is the beginning of July, do i need to change something? Now july will be lower as we have a vacation planned but i will be hiking again. Though not as many miles as last time, and i have been hiking once a week for the last 6 weeks. i don't want to end up injured from hiking like last time. That was all about doing too much hiking even though i run a lot, hiking with load is different. Am planning about 60 miles of hiking in 8 days.

 

[DopeyBadger]

So i was looking at my garmin data. I might be doing better than i thought. I will let you decide Billy. My average pace is pretty consistent. i have ramped up my miles, but that is from more days of running. My long run is around 10 miles and i dont do that every week. My typical weekly mileage is in the 35 range.

View attachment 505941

I guess since it is the beginning of July, do i need to change something? Now july will be lower as we have a vacation planned but i will be hiking again. Though not as many miles as last time, and i have been hiking once a week for the last 6 weeks. i don't want to end up injured from hiking like last time. That was all about doing too much hiking even though i run a lot, hiking with load is different. Am planning about 60 miles of hiking in 8 days.

Well, if you're training towards the Boston virtual, then you have 10.5 weeks until race day. So you'd probably be in the midst of training at this point. Not doing anything terribly dissimilar for the last 5 months. I'd say you'd have to decide what your goal is for the Boston virtual and that would partially dictate what to do next. After setting a goal, would be finding out where you are after the hiking trip is over.

 

[garneska]

Right now my goal for the Boston Virtual is just to finish. Besides the hiking trip we have had a lot of issues crop up this year. This summer has been spent going back and forth to Ohio, which is a very long car drive and eats into my weekends for running. Hence why i dont have more than a 10 mile long run. Probably why i am not injured either. i typically run 6 miles weekdays, sometimes is it 6.25 or 6.5 occasionally a 7 miler but that usually happens during the weeks we are driving since i dont run on those weekends. As far as pace am not really at EA but usually run around EB or LR and i have a faster day once a week. Sometimes it is half miler or quarter mile repeats or this week i did progression. i do think it helped that i went to one day on the weekend not running but hiking. Different work out.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Right now my goal for the Boston Virtual is just to finish. Besides the hiking trip we have had a lot of issues crop up this year. This summer has been spent going back and forth to Ohio, which is a very long car drive and eats into my weekends for running. Hence why i dont have more than a 10 mile long run. Probably why i am not injured either. i typically run 6 miles weekdays, sometimes is it 6.25 or 6.5 occasionally a 7 miler but that usually happens during the weeks we are driving since i dont run on those weekends. As far as pace am not really at EA but usually run around EB or LR and i have a faster day once a week. Sometimes it is half miler or quarter mile repeats or this week i did progression. i do think it helped that i went to one day on the weekend not running but hiking. Different work out.

If the goal is to finish, and time is constrained post-hiking trip, then I wouldn't really sweat it all that much. You have the base level fitness in order to be able to complete a marathon in 6 hours or less (the Boston virtual requirement). So I'd just continue as is once you get back from the hiking trip focusing on the easy stuff and not really worrying about increasing the training load as a whole. As long as you can get the longest run every two weeks up to 2 hours or so, then you shouldn't have much to worry about come race day.

 

[garneska]

that sounds great billy. I was concerned i was doing too much but when i looked it did not seem to far out of range. I am glad to hear 2 hours for a long run. that was all i was planning not going more. Plus i have the hiking. We will keep going once a week. It does give me time on my feet and works those tiny foot muscles.

 

[avondale]

Peanut Butter Dream Pie Recipe

View attachment 491217

Crust
-1.75 cups PB oreo cookies crushed (approx. 36 cookies)
-6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
-3 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar
-Pinch of salt

Combine cookie crumbs, butter, brown sugar, and pinch of salt. Press mixture firmly into bottom and up sides of a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate. *The original recipe says to bake it for 8-10 min at 350 degrees, but we don't bake it.

Filling
-1.5 cups heavy cream
-1 cup of marshmallow fluff/cream
-1.5 cups of peanut butter
-4 tablespoons sugar
-Smucker's Hot Fudge topping
-Peanuts

Using an electric mixture, beat 1.5 cups of heavy cream until soft peaks form. Beat 1 cup marshmallow fluff, 1.5 cups creamy peanut butter, and 4 tablespoons of sugar. Occasionally, stop mixer and mix down the bowl to ensure even mixing. Put Smucker's Hot Fudge topping into the microwave for suggested time on container. Pour hot fudge onto cookie pie crust to form a layer. Place pie crust+fudge into fridge for a few minutes to allow to harden. Once fudge has hardened, then pour the PB/marshmallow filling over fudge/crust. Place in freezer overnight. Top with peanuts and Smucker's Hot Fudge topping as desired upon serving. *I feel like these toppings help add some texture and other consistency to the very consistent filling.

I told you that I'd make this pie when I finally got to travel to visit my mom, sister, and her son - my sister also loves peanut butter and chocolate. Well, we made it last night and ate it today! It was very, very good! I think I have found my birthday dessert for later this year, too.

I hope you and your family are having a good Independence Day weekend!

 

[DopeyBadger]

I told you that I'd make this pie when I finally got to travel to visit my mom, sister, and her son - my sister also loves peanut butter and chocolate. Well, we made it last night and ate it today! It was very, very good! I think I have found my birthday dessert for later this year, too.

I hope you and your family are having a good Independence Day weekend!

Glad to hear you enjoyed it! Have a good 4th!

 

[DopeyBadger]

18 Weeks to go + HIM Base Mid Volume Cycling + (LIIFT 4 + McMillan Core/Legs)

6/29/20 - M - OFF
6/30/20 - T - Ramp Test + McMillan Legs
7/1/20 - W - 45 min @ Easy Run w/ 6x30s reps
7/2/20 - R - Pioneer (60 min; 62 TSS) + 20 min Brick Easy Run
7/3/20 - F - Ericsson (65 min; 67 TSS) + McMillan Legs
7/4/20 - Sa - Antelope (90 min; 95 TSS) + 30 min Evening Easy Run
7/5/20 - Su - 50 min @ LR w/ FF + (LIIFT4-Back/Biceps +McMillan Core)

Total Run Miles - 15.3 miles
Total Run Time - 2:29 hours
Total Run TSS - x TSS

Total Biking Time - 4:10 hours
Total Biking TSS - 264 TSS

Total Strength Time - 1:25 hours
Total Strength TSS - x TSS

Total Training Time - 8:05 hours
Total TSS - x TSS

Been awhile since I've had a weekly update. So it's time to get back into a swing of things now that training has re-resumed. The last month has been spent rehabbing the pain in my upper left leg/lower back, and reducing the training overall to a (comparatively to myself) low level. June 2020 was the lowest training month for me at 36 hours since June 2019. But the time away has been good and I feel mostly recovered from the injury that was hampering me in the tail end of mile training. As I laid out earlier, this training plan has three parts:

1) Rehab - Complete
2) Cycling focus - HIM Base Mid Volume on TrainerRoad + lose weight
3) Running focus for 11 weeks + maintain weight

Tuesday
So since I was starting cycling up in earnest again, I had another Ramp Test to gauge where my fitness was. I felt like within the last week or so my cycling legs were starting to come back to me and my RPM was increasing from the mid 80s to mid 90s. So even though I hadn't done any structured cycling training in 6 months, I felt like I may have maintained my fitness level.



The goal is to hit the 20 min mark without stopping. So around 17-18 minutes is when the intensity really starts to ramp up in the test. I was really really fighting the desire to quit at that point and wasn't sure I could muscle on. But if I could make it to 20 min, then I'd at least equal my last attempt. I was able to make it to 20:09 before throwing in the towel. So the FTP has remained roughly the same since February, but the watts/kg has gone down because of the weight gain. Overall, I'm happy with this.

My legs were super sore from the Ramp Test, so I wasn't sure I wanted to do the McMillan Legs routine (which per instructions is to occur immediately after the hard workouts of the week). But after the cool-down, I felt like at least giving it a try. Everything ended up being fine. I can tell I'm getting stronger with the McMillan Leg routine because I'm able to continue to hold the moves or do the moves with more stability. So I'm getting that desired instant feedback that I'm getting better at these particular exercises. I've slowed down the progression of the workouts on a weekly basis (page 1 is to last two weeks and I'm doing four weeks instead), and I think it's been the right choice for me.

Wednesday
This was the first run since May with any resemblance of pace being included. Just a simple 6 x 30s at the end of the workout. I tried to ease into these with comfortable pacing, and then on the last two really let it rip. I ranged from a 6:16 down to a 4:41. During the last rep my pace was recorded at a 4:24 for an instant, which is the 5th fastest instant I've recorded since 2014. So, happy to see that. The leg felt ok, but I could tell I'm not fully healed yet. But nothing like it was before.

The heat as been downright brutal recently. And it's been getting progressively worse since I returned to running on 6/14, so I haven't been able to acclimate yet. So I've been really trying to go super super slow, and keep the effort way down. Because pushing it won't get me anywhere at this point. So the pre-6x30 sec splits ended up being a 10:15 min/mile with HR of 134 at a T+D of 151. Based on the mile time I ran in late May, my easy pace should be around 8:45 under good conditions. With the T+D of 151, around a 9:09. Yet, I'm running around 65+ seconds slower than even that and still have a HR higher than what I'd like to see. But I'm not gonna sweat it. I'll just continue to try and run slower if the effort dictates it so, but I definitely don't want to be overreaching at this temp when I'm still not acclimated.

Thursday
Second brick of the training schedule (and of the year). Not really anything special to report. A nice 60 min at Half Ironman pace, and then 20 min easy pace off the bike. A 9:57 min/mile at 131 HR with 154 T+D.

Friday
A leg speed workout on the bike followed by McMillan Legs again.

Fireworks were let off by the fire department not far from our house. So we watched them from the yard. We took a walk around the neighborhood, and it was kind of funny how a total of 7 different people said some variation of, "Oh hey, you're not running right now. Not sure I've seen you walk before." Or something to that extent. It was like some form of Twilight Zone or running into NPCs in a video game with the same line of text. I get it, that's about all they know about me. So it's fine, just funny to me that it was practically the same line of text from all of them.

Saturday
Weigh-in was Saturday morning. Down to 179.5 pounds. So that's 4.5 pounds lost in 2 weeks. That's way too much and too fast. I had dropped 1.5 pounds the first week, and tried to adjust. But I ended up losing 3 pounds the second week. If I don't slow the weight loss progression down, then my body is going to switch on me and rebound hard. So trying to be cognizant of this with 7 weeks remaining in the weight loss phase. Overall that puts me about 9.5 pounds up from the November 2019 race.

Antelope was a Sweet Spot cycling workout. It was also the series finale of "Dark" on Netflix. Highly recommend the show to anyone who likes a mind bender. It's in a foreign language, so it makes it slightly harder to follow. But I won't say anything for those who haven't seen it before.

That evening was 30 min at Easy at 9:50 pace with HR of 137 and T+D of 149.

Sunday
A 50 min LR w/ Fast Finish. The run ended up being at 8:50 pace because that felt right. The HR ended up at 142 and the T+D at 149. So the adjusted LR pace would have been a 8:27. Only about 30 seconds off from the adjusted goal LR pace for my mile time trial. So in the ballpark, but not worried about it for the time being. I only did one lap of fast finish in 3:19 (7:49 pace) and that felt right.

The LIIFT4 and McMillan Core routine felt good in the evening.

A good nice and easy start to the training. Overall the TSS data is right about where I want it to be. So everything continues to go as planned on that end.

 

[avondale]

18 Weeks to go + HIM Base Mid Volume Cycling + (LIIFT 4 + McMillan Core/Legs)

6/29/20 - M - OFF
6/30/20 - T - Ramp Test + McMillan Legs
7/1/20 - W - 45 min @ Easy Run w/ 6x30s reps
7/2/20 - R - Pioneer (60 min; 62 TSS) + 20 min Brick Easy Run
7/3/20 - F - Ericsson (65 min; 67 TSS) + McMillan Legs
7/4/20 - Sa - Antelope (90 min; 95 TSS) + 30 min Evening Easy Run
7/5/20 - Su - 50 min @ LR w/ FF + (LIIFT4-Back/Biceps +McMillan Core)

Total Run Miles - 15.3 miles
Total Run Time - 2:29 hours
Total Run TSS - x TSS

Total Biking Time - 4:10 hours
Total Biking TSS - 264 TSS

Total Strength Time - 1:25 hours
Total Strength TSS - x TSS

Total Training Time - 8:05 hours
Total TSS - x TSS

Been awhile since I've had a weekly update. So it's time to get back into a swing of things now that training has re-resumed. The last month has been spent rehabbing the pain in my upper left leg/lower back, and reducing the training overall to a (comparatively to myself) low level. June 2020 was the lowest training month for me at 36 hours since June 2019. But the time away has been good and I feel mostly recovered from the injury that was hampering me in the tail end of mile training. As I laid out earlier, this training plan has three parts:

1) Rehab - Complete
2) Cycling focus - HIM Base Mid Volume on TrainerRoad + lose weight
3) Running focus for 11 weeks + maintain weight

Tuesday
So since I was starting cycling up in earnest again, I had another Ramp Test to gauge where my fitness was. I felt like within the last week or so my cycling legs were starting to come back to me and my RPM was increasing from the mid 80s to mid 90s. So even though I hadn't done any structured cycling training in 6 months, I felt like I may have maintained my fitness level.

View attachment 506796

The goal is to hit the 20 min mark without stopping. So around 17-18 minutes is when the intensity really starts to ramp up in the test. I was really really fighting the desire to quit at that point and wasn't sure I could muscle on. But if I could make it to 20 min, then I'd at least equal my last attempt. I was able to make it to 20:09 before throwing in the towel. So the FTP has remained roughly the same since February, but the watts/kg has gone down because of the weight gain. Overall, I'm happy with this.

My legs were super sore from the Ramp Test, so I wasn't sure I wanted to do the McMillan Legs routine (which per instructions is to occur immediately after the hard workouts of the week). But after the cool-down, I felt like at least giving it a try. Everything ended up being fine. I can tell I'm getting stronger with the McMillan Leg routine because I'm able to continue to hold the moves or do the moves with more stability. So I'm getting that desired instant feedback that I'm getting better at these particular exercises. I've slowed down the progression of the workouts on a weekly basis (page 1 is to last two weeks and I'm doing four weeks instead), and I think it's been the right choice for me.

Wednesday
This was the first run since May with any resemblance of pace being included. Just a simple 6 x 30s at the end of the workout. I tried to ease into these with comfortable pacing, and then on the last two really let it rip. I ranged from a 6:16 down to a 4:41. During the last rep my pace was recorded at a 4:24 for an instant, which is the 5th fastest instant I've recorded since 2014. So, happy to see that. The leg felt ok, but I could tell I'm not fully healed yet. But nothing like it was before.

The heat as been downright brutal recently. And it's been getting progressively worse since I returned to running on 6/14, so I haven't been able to acclimate yet. So I've been really trying to go super super slow, and keep the effort way down. Because pushing it won't get me anywhere at this point. So the pre-6x30 sec splits ended up being a 10:15 min/mile with HR of 134 at a T+D of 151. Based on the mile time I ran in late May, my easy pace should be around 8:45 under good conditions. With the T+D of 151, around a 9:09. Yet, I'm running around 65+ seconds slower than even that and still have a HR higher than what I'd like to see. But I'm not gonna sweat it. I'll just continue to try and run slower if the effort dictates it so, but I definitely don't want to be overreaching at this temp when I'm still not acclimated.

Thursday
Second brick of the training schedule (and of the year). Not really anything special to report. A nice 60 min at Half Ironman pace, and then 20 min easy pace off the bike. A 9:57 min/mile at 131 HR with 154 T+D.

Friday
A leg speed workout on the bike followed by McMillan Legs again.

Fireworks were let off by the fire department not far from our house. So we watched them from the yard. We took a walk around the neighborhood, and it was kind of funny how a total of 7 different people said some variation of, "Oh hey, you're not running right now. Not sure I've seen you walk before." Or something to that extent. It was like some form of Twilight Zone or running into NPCs in a video game with the same line of text. I get it, that's about all they know about me. So it's fine, just funny to me that it was practically the same line of text from all of them.

Saturday
Weigh-in was Saturday morning. Down to 179.5 pounds. So that's 4.5 pounds lost in 2 weeks. That's way too much and too fast. I had dropped 1.5 pounds the first week, and tried to adjust. But I ended up losing 3 pounds the second week. If I don't slow the weight loss progression down, then my body is going to switch on me and rebound hard. So trying to be cognizant of this with 7 weeks remaining in the weight loss phase. Overall that puts me about 9.5 pounds up from the November 2019 race.

Antelope was a Sweet Spot cycling workout. It was also the series finale of "Dark" on Netflix. Highly recommend the show to anyone who likes a mind bender. It's in a foreign language, so it makes it slightly harder to follow. But I won't say anything for those who haven't seen it before.

That evening was 30 min at Easy at 9:50 pace with HR of 137 and T+D of 149.

Sunday
A 50 min LR w/ Fast Finish. The run ended up being at 8:50 pace because that felt right. The HR ended up at 142 and the T+D at 149. So the adjusted LR pace would have been a 8:27. Only about 30 seconds off from the adjusted goal LR pace for my mile time trial. So in the ballpark, but not worried about it for the time being. I only did one lap of fast finish in 3:19 (7:49 pace) and that felt right.

The LIIFT4 and McMillan Core routine felt good in the evening.

A good nice and easy start to the training. Overall the TSS data is right about where I want it to be. So everything continues to go as planned on that end.

I'm curious about what exercises are in McMillan legs. I looked back and saw that this is the program that you had to pay for and got a bazillion of short videos for them. Presumably you're not doing all of those exercises at once. Are they more focused on stability and accessory muscles rather than pure strength?