July Numbers Check In

Second highest month that I have ever done, June was the highest in total hours but I got in more vertical and miles this month and took 4 days totally off with one down week to recover from Silver Rush weekend.  Pretty damn solid.  About that time to taper, plan is to do 3-4 hour run tomorrow Saturday with vertical and 4ish hour bike ride with vertical on Sunday then start shutting it down.  Been a fun process but I am ready to taper.  Really have to make sure I cut my food intake as I cut down my hours.  Right now I am eating anything and everything.  I have not been this light since I the first few years of high school.

14 days to the 100 bike.

July Numbers (click on photo to enlarge)

Also go the new poster up in the garage gym yesterday. (click on photo to enlarge)

Quality Volume Week

Well that was one of the most solid weeks without any racing in it that I think I have done so far.  Last major week over 20 hours and it is now time to start cutting the weekly volume I think (maybe a little higher this week, yet to be decided).  Just between Saturday and Sunday I was able to rack up about 17,000 feet of vertical between the bike and run.  I even got in a harder track workout with Bob during the week and a kick ass trainer ride on Wednesday from James.  Needless to say I am pretty tired this Monday morning and today will be an easy day.

So why such a big weekend?  Well earlier in the year I was talking to Andy about some of the training that he did during the buildup to his two Leadman finishes and he brought up an idea that he and Lucho talked about but never did.  Between the 50 race and the 100 race do a day where you would run 3 hours, bike 3 hours, run 3 hours, and then bike 3 hours giving a total of 12 hours for the day split between the 2 sports and calling it 3-3-3-3 workout.  Of course Andy's point was that this was not proven and maybe a bit much.  So pondering this idea I first thought that I would do a 2-2-2-2 workout cutting the volume down but still getting in a solid day.  Then I decided that I would just break it up over the weekend and still get the total volume of work.  Got more bike time than running time but that is OK.

Here is how it played out.

Saturday: 

Bike 3:41:00 - 44 miles with 6,000ft of vertical - link for route
Nice long ride up Golden Gate Canyon on some new routes I have not done yet. Mountain Base Road had grades of 20% so some solid vertical work going up that bad boy.

Run 1:46:00 - 8 miles with 3,000ft of vertical - link for route
Run up and down Bear Peak while the wife was hiking with her best friend. Really surprised how good I felt considering the 90 degrees and riding all morning. Big vertical day and little dehydrated from the heat of the day.

Sunday: 

Run 1:50:00 - 13 miles with 1,700ft of vertical -link for route
Part #1 of today's training.  One lap up and down Lookout Mt on the road. Getting in some vertical but more runnable vertical than yesterday.  Started out pretty stiff from yesterday but loosened up as I got going.

Bike 3:35:00 - 41 miles with 5,500ft of vertical - link for route
Part #2 of today's training. Laps for 3 plus hours on the MTB on the road of Lookout just racking up vertical and making sure I get over 40 miles. Nice to be able to only have to carry one bottle and just refill each lap from the cooler in the car. Got pretty hot but dealt with it fine, Tailwind proved once again to work very well on the bike for me.

Run 48:00 - 4.6 miles with 1,200ft of vertical - link for route
Part #3 of today's training.  Run up the trail on Lookout Mt to the top of Mount Zion to add some more running mileage and vertical.  Started really rough but was fine about 1.5 miles into it.  Got caught in a down pour on the way down and it felt great after being 90 degrees most of the day.

Called it a day after this one, a thunderstorm moved in and the wife called wondering when I was coming home. Figured that was enough for the past 2 days. That gave me 85 miles with 11,500ft of vertical on the bike and 25.6 miles with 5,400ft of vertical running in 2 days.  I will take that.  Hopefully this weekend will be the nail in the coffin as they say for the longer days of training.  With that weekend along with the track workout with Bob I did on Tuesday which was 800,800,1600,800,800 all at sub 6 minute pace and a super hard trainer ride from James on Wednesday it was a very solid week.  Feeling pretty good about it all right now, just have to make sure I don't F it up the last 3 weeks.

Recovery Week

This past weekend has forced a much needed recovery week this week which should do me good.  I even took 2 full days off on Monday and Tuesday following this WOD from T-Nation that you can find here.

"Here's a tried-and-true recovery workout for you to try:

A1. Eat – 3 sets of AMPAP (as much protein as possible)
A2. Take a nap – 3 sets of AMMAP (as many minutes as possible)

Perform all three supersets in a row with no rest in between. Pee breaks are acceptable, but you must sit down.
I call this WOD Jack, which is short for jack shit."

Easy this week and then 2 solid high volume weeks before the taper for the 100s.  Did get in a good 51 mile/6000vert ride in Saturday and medium long trail run of 12 miles/4000vert on Sunday which I struggled a little bit with.  Time to get back to work.

Hours this week.

The ride on Saturday was up in Lucho's hood and you wonder why he crushes shit.  This should explain it.  So easy to rack up the vertical up Coal Creek and around Golden Gate State Park.

Silver Rush Weekend

Now that was a fun weekend!  This past weekend I took another step towards Leadman and I did the Silver Rush 50 MTB on Saturday and the Silver Rush 50 Run on Sunday.   Now I only needed to complete one of them for Leadman but signed up for both of them back in January "just in case" I had an issue on the bike since that is my weak sport.  As you will read below I went ahead and did both.  Hopefully that will pay off and was not a mistake.

Saturday: I totally surprised myself on Saturday, I am NOT a biker but play one on the weekends.  I have not had that much fun at a race in years.  I don't think the smile left my face all day, even on the bomber rocky downhills we had to ride when I was yelling "oh shit" over and over in my head.   My whole plan this day was just to survive and try to finish under 6 hours for a good corral placement in the 100 bike next month.  Not only did I finish under 6 hours but almost broke 5!  I really did not think I had that in me and really needed that confidence boost going into the 100 bike next month.  Below are some photos from along the course along with the finishing time and Strava link if that is your thing.

About mile 15- photo Lifetime

At the halfway point in a great mood.  Photo by Don Sims

Worked over a little trying to break 5 hours at the end.  Did push hard the last 5-6 miles when I realized I could have a shot at sub-5. - photo Lifetime

Crossing the finish worked but very happy. Photo by Don Sims

Strava data can be found by clicking here.

Sunday:  After many discussions with a few friends who thought I should not do the run on Sunday since I did not need it for Leadman I decided that since I already paid for it and needed at least a 20 mile training run for the day that I would start the run and then drop at the turn around at the halfway point catching a ride with whom ever I knew there.  So my approach on the way to the halfway point was just to treat it as an easy long run to test out some new shoes (LaSportiva Mutants) that have only gone 15 miles in a single shot and the new Orange Mud pack that I got a couple of days earlier to see if they would work OK for the 100 run next month.  Spent most of the 1st half of the race running with friends catching up and meeting other Leadman runners.  Never once did I push hard up or down a hill, I just walked the ups and jogged the downs.  When reaching the halfway point with the intention to drop I could not justify dropping when feeling so good.  Just did not feel right and the only people I knew that were there that I could get a ride with were working the aid station or a co-worker who I think would give me all kinds of crap so I figured I would just jog it back like it was a 100 miler.  Funny thing is that it worked.  Not once did I overheat, get sick, or feel like I was going to hit the wall.  Energy levels were good all day.  Yes the legs were heavy from the bike ride the day before but I was not pushing hard enough that it mattered.  I just kept walking the ups and slow jogging the downs rolling people up that went out to fast.  Could I have ran this course faster?  Yes, especially if I would not have done the bike the day before but that was not the goal of the day.  Today was about testing out gear for the 100 and getting in an easy longer run on tired legs.  I was not planning on running the time I did but it is what happened.  I was thinking it was going to be more like a 10 hour day.

Spending some miles with my buddy Neeraj. Source unknown

About mile 15- photo Lifetime

Very pleased that I finished feeling as good as I did- photo Lifetime

Silver King! - photo Lifetime

Everyone was smiles at the end, Andy (in yellow) rocked his age group and won a 100 entry for next year- photo Lifetime

Strava data can be found by clicking here.

This was a surprised when Neal sent me a text on Monday night to check out the results website.  I was not shooting for a result like this.

The hardware from a fun weekend in the mountains

So what did I take away from this weekend.  Well number one: don't even bother starting a race that you are planning to drop, the guilt factor is to high.  I would have been better off not starting instead of trying to drop at the halfway point.  Number two:  the overall fitness is in a really good spot right now, better than I expected.  Lastly: just trust the process and not how you feel day to day.  I have been feeling out of shape and slow for the past few weeks since the Leadville Marathon.  I was really worried that I peaked to soon with the race times I was posting the last 2 months.  I no longer think that is the case.  This week will be a small recovery week then it is 2 more solid weeks of training until the taper begins.  Damn those 100s are getting close!  I am so happy that my buds J.P. and Ray both made it through the weekend in one piece also so we all can move on to the next event together.  I think there is always a risk on the bike for a crash or issue with the bike that could cause a DNF.  It has been a lot of fun training and racing with these guys all year and I am looking forward to some more fun the next 5-6 weeks with these gentlemen.

Approaching the Red Line?

Had to dial it way back this weekend after Saturday.  Was on pace this week to hit the biggest total volume week yet but then as I was riding home the long way from Boulder after taking a MTB clinic by going up Flagstaff over to Coal Creek and my right quad started bothering me pretty bad on the climbs.  It feels like a charlie horse in the front of the quad right where in connects to the pelvic.  I notice it mostly when climbing and when standing up to walk after sitting for a bit.  Not good.  With that I took Sunday completely off and went in for a massage to see if that would help.  The only other thing I did all day on Sunday was clean out the inside of the cars, the rest of the day was spent on the couch watching the Tour de France and soccer.  With the 50s coming up this weekend hopefully this heals up quickly.  Might try to jog a little today or not.   Think it is time for a small taper to let things heal up.

Hours for the week.

Wife gets back tonight after being gone for 5 weeks in Europe.  Guess I better clean the house and do some chores now.  The training will be scaling back which may not be a bad thing.  I was wondering what I have done in the 5 weeks since she has been gone so I ran that report.  Not to shabby.  This does not include anything that I do today.

June Totals and 2015 Check In

Pretty solid month for June.  Hit the highest hourly total worth of work that I have ever done and pretty happy about that.  Could I have done more with the family being gone all month?  Yes, but I would bet that I would not be feeling as good as I am right now.  So what was the data for June? (click photo to enlarge)

So I started wondering what was the data for the first 6 months of the year since signing up for Leadman? Here is that breakdown. (click photo to enlarge)

Not bad!  But I would have liked to see that total vertical to be a little higher.  I am not used to seeing such a low (for me) total on the running mileage but on the other hand I have never hit that kind of mileage on the bike.  Something has to give I guess.

So how does that breakdown month to month I started to wonder. (click photo to enlarge)

Pretty constant build through out the year.  Yes February sucked for I took 13 days off sick and had many more low volume days as I was recovering.

I find these numbers very interesting to me and honestly never expected to put in this much time.  Hell for Bighorn last year I did 328 hours with about 1250 miles of running in the 6 months leading up to that race with 525 total for all of 2014.  I should be over 500 total hours before the start of the 100 mountain bike in mid-Aug this year.  Hope all this work pays off.

What am I targeting for July?  That is hard to say.  This week I am going pretty high volume all at an easy pace but next week will be a down week with the Silver Rush 50 weekend on July 11th and 12th.  Not sure how I will feel after doing a 50 MTB on Saturday followed by a 50 mile run on Sunday.  I am sure there will be at least a few days off.  Just going to play it by ear and try and listen to what my body is telling me. It is going to be an adventure.  I have pretty much stopped trying to plan my training in advance and now just look at it weekly to see what I can do that week based on how I feel, schedule at work, and family.  Seems to be working so far.

Can't believe we are starting to get into the meat of Leadman!

Have a great week and a safe 4th of July!