I didn't have any particular problem running yesterday. Just, it seems way more intensive in general than cycling. I guess it has to be since most people have no trouble riding a bike for a few hours, even if they're going pretty hard, but for most people running for 3 hours is a Big Deal.

I don't think I've ever run with a HRM but subjectively my heart rate during the whole thing is typically what it would be if I was working at the top of my range on a bike - not sprinting but basically the maximum sustainable rate. Maybe after you do it a long time you can run at sort of a moderate pace and not have your heart rate be pegged at like 165?

I'm not sure how you'd compare the two. I've just been on a two-hour bike ride today but have never run for two hours in my life. Running must be more intensive, but then my legs never burn when I'm running like they do when I'm climbing a hill on a bike. It seems like running taxes the cardio system more and biking is more about muscular endurance.

You realise this is how triathlon started btw? A runner, a swimmer and a cyclist in Hawaii having an argument about who's sport was harder so they decided to do them all in one day. I'm not sure the argument was ever settled but a quote I remember hearing once went something like this:

"Swimming needs technique. Cycling needs time. The run is where the race is won and lost."

Yeah, I'm like 1 shade darker than her right now. In the summer, considerably darker because I spend a lot of time outdoors and I'm not that good with keeping sunscreen on.

Today was just unbelievably hard to me and I fell short of my goals. Not sure what happened. Today was power intervals, basically the max power you can maintain for 3 minutes, with a 3 minute rest. You do 3 of these, ride easy for 8 minutes, then 3 more sets.

I was trying to get all of them above 300 watts but ended up with most of them being in the 275-290 range. Got an awful cramp in the very last one. 3 minutes is a long damn time.

Time: 1:00
Distance: 16.3 mi
Avg Power: 175 (217)
Avg HR: 142
Avg Speed: 16.3 mph

Oh and I also weigh the most today that I have in probably a year. Not sure why, but I've put on 4-5 lb in the last 4-6 weeks. Eating too much I guess.

Bleh, wtf. The last time I was recording my weight daily I was stable at 184, and that was the last week of december. I just weighed in at 195. For most of the period between now and then I've done 3000-5000 calories of exercise a week in cycling. I haven't been logging during that period but christ, have I really been eating enough to overcome that AND gain a pound or a pound and a half a week?

I couldn't face the prospect of repeating thursdays intervals today so I ****ing skipped that and just rode for a little more than 2 hours. I feel sore, tired, weak. At this time in the last cycle of the program I felt fast and strong. I suppose it's possible that the cumulative stress is wearing me down, I dunno. My power output is down, the heart rate I sustain on these rides is down


Time: 2:15
Distance: 37 mi
Avg Power: 162 (195)
Avg HR: 141
Avg Speed: 16.2 mph

When was the last time you had a good rest/recovery week? You're obv going in the right direction generally so this will just be a short term blip.

I had a week off at the start of this cycle, so like 5 weeks ago. Although this program is designed to be (optionally) be done twice a year, like I'm doing, it can be difficult to maintain interest/intensity/effort. Just feeling a little discouraged with how fatigued I feel.

And kind of worried about doing more than double today's ride, 6 days in a row. I'll be altering the plan in the 6 weeks before that, mixing in a lot of extra volume. On the plus side the MS150 should be a complete piece of cake.

I guess when you're on a pretty intensive training program then you're gonna be tired a lot. This ****'s hard. If it wasn't, everybody would be doing it.

Wrt putting in extra volume before your 6-day thing, do you know much about the tapering process? I'm not sure if it's the same with cycling, but say you're training for a marathon, you generally finish your main training about 2 weeks before the race and spend two weeks tapering down, doing barely anything in the last 5-7 days.

This is their recommended training mileage plan:
http://www.tourdurouge.org/index.php...=57&Name=Value

They have less volume in the last month but not a TON less volume. Anyway, none of the training weeks are more than the week of riding on the tour.

For comparison I did 350 miles in december and about 375 in january I think. Their plan suggested 540 and 620 respectively, but I assume those are all easy miles.

Looks good. They bring it down a bit 2 weeks before then a nice easy last week. It'd prob be worth having a think about how to structure that last week with the 60 miles. Two rides of 30/30 or 40/20? 3x20? 1x60?

12 rides of 5 miles I'm thinking. Or maybe 24 rides of 2.5 miles.

Lol yeah maybe I'm too obsessed with stuff like that. I can't help it, I just like having a plan!

Probably I'll do 3 20s or 2 30s, leaving myself several days of rest before the event.

Hah, I left my bike computer AND my phone at home this morning, one what turned out to probably be the hardest sunday ride in a long time. Usual ride, but there were a lot of people so it divided into 2 speed groups. I'd planned to go with the slower group, but I was riding toward the front. I figured when the split happened, i.e. once we got out of downtown, the fast group would pass me. Eventually I looked back and realized it was just me and 3 of the stronger riders. So I held on the whole ride and stayed with them - which was really tough in a few spots.

So I have no idea how fast we rode or anything. 40 miles, probably 17mph, and probably ridic high heart rate average (for me). Felt pretty good though and I did manage to hang with them.

I re-learned a lesson that I'd forgotten - if you drop off the back of a group of riders, you are ****ED. If you can't hang with them while you're drafting they will just leave you farther and farther behind. No matter how much it hurts right now you need to kick into gear and catch back up to them. I had to do that about 5 times, usually right after a big hill, where I'd slow down at the top to recover and they'd just keep going.

Exercise	Reps
Bench	65x5, 95x5, 115x5, 115x5, 115x4
LBBS	65x5, 115x5, 130x5, 130x5
OHP	35x5, 50x5, 65x5, 65x5, 65x5
DL	115x5, 145x5, 175x5

Jogged about a mile, with 5 minutes of walking on either side. Used the garmin edge cycling computer to record it - it didn't do that great of a job (the garmin web site admits it kinda sucks at it). I mostly wanted to look at heart rate though. HR averaged 150 during the running part, about the same as moderately intense cycling. I wasn't trying to beat any records though - that mile took me something like 11:30 or 12:00.

Anyway, it was a piece of cake - I do remember that when I started running last year, even though I'd been cycling for a while, running was pretty tough, and running 10 minutes straight was just impossible.

Went for a ride this morning. Decided to get on the bike and see how I felt - a lot of times I am not feeling it when I get up but by the time I get going I feel pretty good. I felt like liquid ass though so I just rode at a pretty steady pace. Decided I will take thursday off - I might run just a tad or something but nothing major. Will lift weights again on friday, ride sat+sun. Need to up the weekend mileage considerably, so I will probably aim for 2 50 mile rides over the weekend. Fairly easy ones.

Time: 1:24
Distance: 22.2 mi
Avg Power: 141 (165)
Avg HR: 140 (actually not entirely sure, my HRM is acting up)
Avg Speed: 15.6 mph (it kept getting slower and slower as the ride progressed)

I had originally planned to take today off but then changed my mind and rode 40 miles instead. My thinking was:
nothing > intervals
easy riding > intervals
easy riding > nothing
So by the transitive property or something, easy riding was the best bet.

Ironically, I took every metric available and blew it out of the water.
* Fastest commute to work, ever, by 5 minutes
* Fastest commute home, by 2 minutes
* highest power output in every category over the last month
* my heart rate monitor is quite obviously ****ing broken.

Anyway,

Time: 2:20
Distance: 39.5 mi
Avg power: 182
Avg HR: Who knows
Avg speed: 16.8

Oh and I tried out a new electrolyte/sugar drink this morning. HammerHeed's energy, lime flavor. It was OK. It does not taste as sugary as like gatorade (the sugar is all maltodextrin I think) but it was fine. You can fine tune it to anywhere from about 100 to 250 calories/bottle. Could probably carry an extra supply in a film canister or something, for times when I don't know where I'll be able to stop. I have a huge ****ing jar of it (32 servings or something)

I can't remember if I mentioned it already, but I tried the e-load gels the other day. Much thinner consisency than the Gu's (really guys, Gu and E-load? Why not call it YOULOVESEMEN?). I thought they were fine. I had a lime one and an apple one or something like that. I would consider using them regularly.

You might find this interesting. There's an article about the science of gels (http://fellrnr.com/wiki/The_Science_of_Energy_Gels) then the same guy goes on to compare a bunch of the leading brands (http://fellrnr.com/wiki/Comparison_of_Energy_Gels).

Exercise	Reps
Bench	65, 95, 120, 120, 115 all x5
HBBS	65, 115, 135, 125 all x5 - totally not feelin it today
OHP	35, 50, 65, 65, 65 all x5
DL	115, 145, 185 all x5

Usually I'd push through the squats but I have 95 miles of cycling lined up this weekend, the ole quads will get plenty of work in.

Nice to be DLing at least 1x body weight again. No problems progressing with that, probably still going too slow but who cares.

Went on a 55 mile ride this morning, it starts to rain about 12 miles in. We turn around and head back, so I only get the 27 miles. Probably will go running this afternoon, and try to get in 50 miles tomorrow. That'll put me at only 140 miles for the week but I guess that's OK.

Time: 1:50
Distance: 27 mi
Avg Power: 129 (170)
Avg HR: Dunno
Avg Speed: 14.5 mph

fyp

No, that's practically accurate. I can walk a mile in probably 14:00 if it's really level and I work at it. So a 12:30 mile is not exactly "running".

Today was better though, same routine, walk 5 min, run a mile, walk 5 min. This time the mile was 10:17. It was a piece of cake too, I just chose music in the 165 bpm range and kept time with that. That's a serious pro-tip imo, I have playlists for music at a bunch of bpm ranges. Keeps my mind occupied and it's really hard (for me at least) to run out of time with music. Heart rate was right around 160 the whole running part.