What a Great Day

Today was one of those days were everything just seemed to go right:

• It was in the 50s with clear skies and no wind
• I PR'ed at a half marathon, that I had not trained or tappered for
• I had a great bike ride OUTSIDE
• Did I mention is was in the 50s in Chicago in March

March Madness Half Marathon

I did this race becuase a few of the guys I train with over at Endurance Nation were going to be there and I thought it would be fun. I had no real goals or plan, I was just going to start off at a pace I thought I could easily hold for the whole race and see what happened.

Leading up to the race, I did not tapper at all, in fact yesterday I did 1:45 on the trainer with a brick run right afterwards and I pushed really hard. Warming up for the race this morning my legs were a little heavy and I could feel the fatigue in my quads from the hard bike ride yesterday, but overall I felt good.

The race was by far the hilliest race I have ever done, and the timing of the hills is what makes it really difficult because from mile 9 to 13 is mostly uphill and rolling hills. As usual I went out too fast for the first mile, but I quickly setteled down and was pretty close to my target pace 6:15 for miles 2-8. From mile 8 to 13 I gave it everything I had and had a few miles at around 5:50 pace, coming into the finish shoot I could see the clock at 19:55 and I sprinted as hard as could. I put it all out there and came in at 1:20:06.

It sure would have been nice to break 1:20, but I'm really happy with my results, a negative split, and I was 1:44 faster then my previous PR which was set at a very flat and fast race last year.

Here is the data for anyone that is interested, check out the total elevation changes even though the biggest single hill was about 200 ft and yes this file's altitude was corrected in WKO:

Forerunner305 [Run]:

Duration: 1:20:06

Work: n/a

rTSS: 150.8 (1.006)

NGP: 5:57 (270.6 m/min)

VI: n/a

Pw:HR: n/a

Pa:HR: 1.83%

Distance: 13.141 mi

Elevation Gain: 2105 ft

Elevation Loss: 2092 ft

Grade: 0.0 % (12 ft)

Min Max Avg

Heart Rate: 100 198 187 bpm

Speed: 1.2 16.2 9.8 mph

Pace 3:42 50:49 6:06 min/mi

Altitude: 696 910 816 ft

Bike Workout

Since I was only doing the race for fun, I wanted to also get my scheduled 2 x 20' at FTP bike ride in today. So after we got home, I dusted off my road bike which hasn't been out of the house since November and went for a ride outside.

My current FTP on the computrainer is 245 watts and I was really hoping that I would still be able to hold the watts after racing this morning. My legs were pretty sore warming up, but I was so thrilled to be outside I didn't care and went on anyway. I ended up holding 255w for the first interval and I figured I went out too hard and would fall apart, but on the way back I came up with 256w and finished stronger.

Here is the some bike data:

First Interval:

Duration: 20:01

Work: 294 kJ

TSS: 36.1 (intensity factor 1.04)

Norm Power: 255

VI: 1.04

Pw:HR: 1.11%

Pa:HR: 1.6%

Distance: 7.156 mi

Min Max Avg

Power: 0 538 245 watts

Heart Rate: 127 187 179 bpm

Cadence: 32 163 97 rpm

Speed: 0 30 21.5 mph

Pace 2:00 0:00 2:48 min/mi

Hub Torque: 0 277 77 lb-in

Crank Torque: 0 921 222 lb-in

Second Interval:

Duration: 20:01

Work: 301 kJ

TSS: 36.3 (intensity factor 1.043)

Norm Power: 256

VI: 1.02

Pw:HR: 5.46%

Pa:HR: 2.82%

Distance: 6.642 mi

Min Max Avg

Power: 0 503 250 watts

Heart Rate: 150 188 180 bpm

Cadence: 40 166 92 rpm

Speed: 0 28.1 19.9 mph

Pace 2:08 0:00 3:01 min/mi

Hub Torque: 0 220 84 lb-in

Crank Torque: 0 771 235 lb-in

Entire workout (213 watts):

Duration: 1:21:12

Work: 1039 kJ

TSS: 120.6 (intensity factor 0.944)

Norm Power: 231

VI: 1.08

Pw:HR: 0.6%

Pa:HR: 9.28%

Distance: 26.094 mi

Min Max Avg

Power: 0 538 213 watts

Heart Rate: 93 219 171 bpm

Cadence: 29 209 92 rpm

Speed: 0 30 19.3 mph

Pace 2:00 0:00 3:07 min/mi

Hub Torque: 0 277 73 lb-in

Crank Torque: 0 921 202 lb-in

I have 2 more weeks left of the Endurance Nation Out Season plan and then I am doing an 8k run as my final test and will post a summary.

Transition Week = Vacation

I finished up the first 16 weeks of the Out Season plan and next on the schedule was a 1 - 2 week recovery or transition period. I have been very pleased with the progress I made on my cycling power over the 16 weeks, and I think my run has improved a little also, but I haven't really tested it yet. Due to the weather conditions I am going to repeat the last 4 weeks of the OS plan again and then I will post my final results and thoughts on the 20 weeks of OS training.

Anyway, back to the point of this post, during this downtime for the training plan my wife and I went to Hawaii. I had no training goals at all, other then to run when I felt like it.

Well, I ended up feeling like it just about every day. Maybe it is because it has been so cold in Chicago and I enjoyed the prefect weather in Maui and Oahu, or just because I like exploring, but what ever the reason was a really enjoyed every one of the runs I did. I saw the sun rise a few days on both islands and even had a whale come up to breath close to the shore where I was running in Maui. For the most part I just took it easy and ran for 30-45 minutes, but a few times I would sprint up a hill or to the next intersection just for fun.

I did one actual swim in the ocean for exercise, I didn't go very far, but it felt good and helped build some confidence.

The other adventure on this trip was learning to surf. On our honeymoon in Kauai I tried surf for the first time. It went ok, I was able to stand up and catch a wave when the instructure told me when to start, however I was pretty much just along for the ride and had no control of what was happening.

This time I did a lesson at Waikiki beach with Aloha Surf and had a great experience. I started on their standard beginner board which was a 12' longboard with a padded top. I got up on the first try and after a few rides I was feeling pretty comfortable. By the end of the lesson I was able to time the waves on my own and paddle and get up on every wave I went for. I was also riding all the way in until the wave flattened out and then would sit back down on the board.

I enjoyed it so much and wanted to continue so I went back the next day and this time got a standard 10' long board that was not nearly as wide as the beginner board. I could tell right away this was going to be a little more challenging when I was paddling out the board almost tipped over a few times. In fact the first time I hit a wave (on the way out paddling) I fell off the side of the board.

It took about 30 minutes or so to get use to the shorter board, as I keep standing up too far forward and falling over the front of the board. It was amazing how much of a difference the 2 feet made. However, once I got the hang of it the shorter board was a lot more fun because I could actually turn it and had some control where I was going. It felt like I was actually surfing and not just along for the ride on a big floating board.

Here are some pictures from the first day when I started with really long beginner board.