Training Log Archive: X8A7

With temps never going to get out of the low 40's F today, I opted to bundle up and take the X-bike for a tour. The general loop was rt 34 to sheeps, east trail, back through Island Grove, but I took many looping side detours including J-Jones and Aims for example. The week started out crappy with mt bike causeing back pain and the ham problem and work was really annoying, which was all frustrating, but yesterday and today were very good workouts. I wasn't really tired today and, in fact, I lost track of time and this ended up being about a half hour longer than I had planned. I started to head back when I started to tire, which was at east trail, so I had a ways to get back, the last bit up 14th was a slog. But I had some ultra concentrated Heed when I got home and bounced back really well. I had a thorn in my front tire at the start, I didn't want to pull it out as I've found the thorn self plugs their own holes, so I tried to break off the head, but the whole thing came out and air started to escape. I spun the tire and fortunately the Stan's worked exactly as advertised and the hole plugged. One of the rare times an encounter with a thorn worked out OK. I swore I saw a few flakes towards the end.

I tried to get a booster on campus, but the mobile clinic either left early or was not anywhere close to where it was advertised to be. Well, I guess I'll try again tomorrow and move the day off to Tuesday? No problem with the ham, which is good. Towards the end I did start to feel all training over the weekend.

End of sheeps draw almost to Kodak and back. Took it out too fast because of the down hill to start, so had to back off in the middle. Towards the end I was feeling good and decided to push it for a bit and got the HR into the 160s. At almost 36 km, I'd still have close to 20 km to end of the Birkie, I think I need to do 45 km next weekend. Did the long ski today as the weather is going to turn very fall- and maybe winter-like starting tomorrow. HR seemed much higher than expected and I think it was because I drank a ton of decaf at breakfast, enough to equate to some real caffeine.

Ran errands, drop off ballot, pick up running shoes.

From Island Grove to dog park and back.

Had to do something more, extra genie was really the only option. Bike ride was not a good idea as I think its time to retire the old Trek 6500 mt. bike as my back hurt for a couple days after riding it. When I got on it I could tell it is not a good fit compared to the X bike or the road bike. Good luck getting a new mt. bike now-a-days... I did a bit of research, I figured there would be two different types of mt. bikes, nope, there's four. Watched youtube videos, most Johaug's "vlog," which wasn't that great, the most interesting thing was on one of her 3+ hour runs (which was just the morning workout) in the Alps during an Italian training camp, Pål Gunnar Mikkelsplass came along. I'm all caught up on Burman's videos, but I've picked up a few tid-bits. He runs at about 10min/mile pace on training runs and he'll average a HR of 105. Holy moly that slow and easy, I remember in HS and college we were often taught that we should be running faster and with a higher HR than that - we should do most of our training in level two, and at times I'd have difficulty keeping up on some of the runs with the coaches, and we should do pickups on the downhills so that the HR didn't drop during the duration of the training session. Of course that was coming from skiers that never made the national team, when the US was just about as bad as a nation could be on the world cup. Good thing I never really followed anything they said, not that it would have mattered either way. They should have been pushing arm strength via DP and V2, but that was never talked about.

Had grand plans for intervals, those were dashed by the right ham. It felt tight, then a bolt of pain ran up it, so I walk back to the car. Very frustrating. Saw a black widow crossing the trail, I picked it up with a stick to be sure it cross safely and determine if indeed it was a black widow.

to/from campus

Moderate to stiff wind, temp in the upper 40sF, maybe a touch of rain. Good fall training day. Went to J-Jones and did the "XC course" backwards and returned. It gets dark early now, and that is only going to get worse. The mountain bike feels like there's molasses in the bearings.

to/from campus