This was a travel week with my monthly trip to FL. Most of the week was uneventful with the most interesting workouts being the long run and bike over the week.
When I first looked at the schedule, the scary workout was my 9-mile long run that was part of a BRICK session being preceded with a 30-min tempo ride. Up until then, I had only even done BRICK sessions with the run being 2-3 miles and for my long runs, I always try and be as rested as possible before starting them. I had no idea what it would like to try my longest run in about 2 years after the bike. It ended up not being bad at all. I have discovered that the key to my running off the bike is to start running slowly. When I start to the run, then tendency of my legs is to run fast sometimes at a 10 min/mile pace and if I give in to that, it makes for a horrible run. If I make conscious effort to take at slow and be in the 11-11:30 min/mile range, I feel good. For my 9-mile run, I got into a good rhythm and held a nice 11:15 min/mile pace average and my HR was locked it at a comfortable 135 BPM. My calves started to tighten a bit during the last mile, but overall, I was a good run.
The other scary workout was my long 2-hr bike ride. I try to ride these long rides outdoors but the weather did not cooperate this weekend and so I had to do it on the indoor trainer. That was torture. After my normal hour, I was ready to get off. I held on, squirming on my bike but I only lasted 90 mins. This was also a BRICK session with a 2 mile run. I did this on the treadmill rather than try and get changed to run in the cold outdoors. Like the Saturday BRICK session, my legs felt surprising good. I didn’t have that jelly leg feeling. Again, I think the key was locking it a nice slow pace on the treadmill.
The one regret I have this week is that I didn’t get to an ocean swim while I was in Florida. I tried to coordinate it for with my work colleagues, but it didn’t work out.
