While I’m not a fan of Rock Racing’s team, I couldn’t resist posting this picture from Velonews. It is from Brasstown Bald in the Tour of Georgia.
Cold wet weekend
I am just now getting around to writing about this past weekend’s training because I’ve been sick for the past several days, probably because of the weekend training. On Saturday I did a three hour ride with temps in the mid-40’s and intermittent rain drizzle for most of the ride.
I took a pretty hilly route from Durham out to Northwood and back in through Strafford, Rochester, Dover into Madbury. I did about 12 miles on Route 4 and after crossing over the Lee Traffic Circle it is a series of long steady climbs out to Northwood. Strafford, no matter where you go is hilly also. This helped keep me warm on the climbs but gave me the chills on the descents.
I felt good after the ride and spent the rest of the day taking it easy around the house.
Sunday had a 1:50 run on the schedule. The loop I took was just over twelve miles and I finished in just under 1:50. Again the temps were in the mid 40’s with off and on showers. Running in these temps/conditions definitely beats cycling. I felt strong for the entire run and finished with some good mile times.
Here is where the mistake comes. I made plans to meet up with two friends from college over in Portsmouth. We had a great time and it was really good to catch up with them, however, training in the cold and rain for five hours in two days followed by a few pints of Guiness at The Press Room is not the ideal recovery regimen.
Monday morning I had a tickle in my throat and by Tuesday night it had developed into a full head cold. As a result I haven’t gotten any training in this week. I’m feeling better today but decided to give it one more day before getting back on the training track.
GSTC Group ride begins
Tuesday’s workout was a Masters swim session. We normally don’t quite finish the full workout in the hour practice. The yardage for a workout typically varies from 2,700 yards up to 3,200 yards. Ironically, with Tuesday’s workout being 3,200 yards, it was one of the few workouts we’ve finished the entire thing. There was a lot of freestyle swimming which definitely helped and we also got started a few minutes early.
Evening workouts always make the next morning’s workout more difficult. Wednesday was no exception. Yesterday morning I did a run of about 5.5 miles in just under 50 minutes. Then after work I met up with GSTC for the first Wednesday night club ride of the year. There was only four of us but it was nice to ride with a group, despite the 50 degree temp and stronger than expected winds. We got about 22 miles in about an hour and 15 minutes. We had some good hills and a pretty strong headwind for the first half of the ride that kept our speed way down. Two of the four were also new to the club so I think everyone wanted to make it more of a casual ride than a hammerfest. That certainly contributed to the slower pace.
After the ride I went on a run through college woods on my own. I don’t usually enjoy afternoon runs but this one felt good. I think I planned my nutrition timing better yesterday which helped make the run more enjoyable. I ended up getting home around 8 last night, boiling a big serving of pasta and having it with my wife’s homemade sauce which she had just finished making. After that I finished the meal off with a small serving of Ghiardelli dark chocolate chips (I tell myself I eat them for the antioxidants in dark chocolate 
). Nice way to finish the day.I was supposed to swim this morning but decided to get the extra rest. Tonight I have another ride scheduled which I’ll be doing on my own and will be more of a workout than last night
On a training roll
I really feel like I’m in the depths of spring training. I’ve been regularly getting 5-6 hours of training in on the weekend, I’m exhausted on Sunday night, and Mondays are tougher to get up. I finished up the week with just under 11 hours of training.
After the long run I wrote about on Friday, I had a 2 hour 45 minute ride scheduled for Saturday. I was able to connect up with a buddy for that ride and we left my house around 7am. At the time the temp was around 40 degrees and I was dressed for a warm ride, booties, hat, double gloves, etc.After about two hours the temp was in the low to mid 50’s and I was way overdressed.
We ended up doing a little over 54 miles in about 3 hours with some challenging rollers and hills along the way. I was supposed to also swim on Saturday but the family schedule wouldn’t allow it with lacrosse practice for my son, a fundraiser at my wife and son’s school and delivering my son to a sleepover.
Sunday morning was a drag. I didn’t get to bed until after midnight on Saturday and there was a GSTC training scheduled for 9am. I almost didn’t go. Apparently the rest of the club was thinking the same thing and decided not to go. There was only seven of us and I was dragging for most of the morning.
We started out with a 2700 yard swim. I did start to feel a little better after getting a few hundred laps, but then I started to really drag for the balance of the swim. We transitioned out to the track at UNH. By this point it had started to rain and it was feeling pretty raw out. Once we finished a warm up run through college woods I was feeling comfortable, until Suzan gave me my track workout for the day.It consisted of 2-400’s, 4-800’s, and 8-200’s all at a 7 minute per mile pace with a 200 meter jog between each rep. While I was able to keep the correct pace through the first 800, after that it started to deteriorate rapidly.
By the end I was about ready to collapse but there is no rest for the weary. After a quick recovery meal when I got home I was off to pick up my son from his sleepover, grocery shopping, making dinner, etc, etc, etc.
Work will seem like a break after this past weekend!
(As you’ll see I’m trying to add more pix to enrich the content, let me know what you think!)
This week’s long(er than expected) run
One might ask, when you have a limited amount of time to workout before work, why you wouldn’t plan out your route when you go on a run. I should have asked myself this question today.
Today was my long run and the plan was for 90 minutes which would be around 10 miles. Originally I thought I would just go out 45 minutes and then turn around and come 45 minutes back. But, when I got out 45 minutes I thought I could take a little more scenic route to get back and at the time I didn’t think it was any longer than what I had just run. I was wrong.
When I hit 90 minutes I was still about 2 miles away from my house . I’ve been following my coach’s plan which has incremental increases in my long run time/distance. My long run last week was 80 minutes. This is my longest run of the year so far and even though I’m starting to feel worn out, I had told my wife that I would be 90 minutes and I didn’t want her to worry. So, I think the last two miles were about the fastest.
I ended up doing 11.5 miles in a little under 103 minutes, eating and showering quickly before heading out the door to work. Thankfully it is a relatively slow day today so I can hopefully recover a little bit.
Dave Criswell 