Training Thoughts: In this time where our training and racing have been turned upside down I had a few thoughts. First, is that where you live can greatly influence what you do. I live in the country and to tell the truth my training is little different than before all the craziness started. In my area I can run or ride for hours and only see a few cars and often no people or at most very few. However, I can imagine as the population surrounding one increases the pressure to remain isolated increases and thus makes training even more difficult. Not impossible but for sure but more complicated as one has to take into account the numerous variables of space, population and societal views on exercise outside. Again, where I live I am looked on as a little strange but no stranger now than before the current situation so from that perspective not much has changed. Sure, if I go on a long ride and have to stop to get some water I have to deal with the social distancing in convenience stores but people, at least where I live, treat me no differently than before.
Secondly, I am thankful that I am riding more as part of my training as it has made things even easier with being able to train on Zwift. Even though I can train outdoors often my work schedule, even though I work from home, and weather, it has been quite wet, lead me to ride indoors while running outdoors. This allows me to get in plenty of miles and when needed as hard an effort as required. If I was not riding I am not sure I would be able to get in the same quality of training on the treadmill as I get on the bike trainer on Zwift. I know many train a lot on the treadmill and even though I have one it has always been more difficult for me to get in the type of workout I want. I still need to try running on Zwift but am sure that in its current state it is nowhere like riding on it. One word of caution is that when riding on Zwift you can be lulled into riding too hard too often – it just tends to work on your competitive juices, well it does mine. There are other online training software platforms out there such as Sufferfest and TrainerRoad, among others, that may work differently but hard to deny the current popularity of Zwift with all the riders you can see using it..
Next, when there is no racing on the immediate horizon you can really learn how you view and feel about training. I have known for some time I simply like to train and while I do like races they are at times for me stressful, probably should not be, but not so with training. I like to see how my body reacts to the effort I put out in training but this can have some consequences. One of those is overtraining due to just wanting to go and go and only slow down when the wheels come off. Probably where I would benefit from a coach as they would have a view separate from how I see things. Take a step back and see if you need racing to be motivated to train or if you simply like to train as I do. If you need racing to be motivated you may need to look for some virtual races or maybe set up some from if time trial that you aim for with your training.
Lastly, it is times like this that, as I have written on before, you can sit back and review your training – both how you train and why – see above. You can read and study other methods and even try something different if you like. Bottom line now is a great time to maybe do something you have not done before. With most people not having any races till July and even later for some there is plenty of time – do not waste it.
Overview of Weeks Runs and Rides:
With regards to running this week I ran on Tuesday and Thursday with a 6.8 miler and a 7.02 miler. I ran in the new Topo Zephyrs I won from Topo and they felt pretty good, will being doing a review in a week or so after getting more miles in them some. Both runs felt pretty good with some foot soreness but increasingly the foot is feeling better after the run even if sore during it – this is a great improvement. Thursdays 7 miler was at a good pace for keeping my HR in the 122 – 132 range. Goal is to keep at two runs a week for the rest of the month and work up the length of the runs some so as to get longer runs on my legs.
As far as riding I started the week with an easy ride of 35 miles on the trainer. Then on Wednesday I rode with the BMTR group on their mid-week 75 minute ride which was at a good pace for 30+ miles, after a 12 mile warmup, and getting 6th place out of 150+ riders. Friday I rode an easy 21 mile warmup and then rode the B category for the London International Race of 9.8 miles. Riding the B’s is a tough one as the given power range is from 3.2 to 3.9 W/Kg and my best so far being around 3.5w/KG. Went out hard but not hard enough to be with the front group and as this was a small group was about mid-pack the whole ride. The race went up a good hill in the midst of it and was happy that at the end I was 40th out of about 80 riders. The best part was that I averaged my best average watts at 304W and W/KG at 3.7 which I was very happy with. I then on Satruday, after a 6.5 mile warmup, rode the BMTR Fundo which was 76 miles. Usually I ride these races in the B category as it is where I am at wattage wise but for this ride the categories were set up by distance so rode the A’s which ended up having some pretty speedy riders. Thus at the start I did not go with the front group as knew it would lead to a blow up. It was ard to know were I was for the ride as there were various groups going shorter distances so many of them went out faster and then as the shorter distances finished they moved my running place down. I ended up placing 68th out of about 150 people doing the 76 miler. Once done I rode an extra 25 miles and did the 101 miles in 4:26 so with the climbs was a good ride as I got my best Watts at 244 and W/KG 3.0 for a hundred miler. Also, happy with the ride after the hard ride Friday and still having something in my legs for this ride. See below for my nutrition for this ride as did it with few carbs to see how I would feel on a harder ride.
Overall a good week of workouts, probably a little harder than I needed but just felt good.
Monday: Ride – 35.3 Miles Warmup
Tuesday: Run – 6.38 Miles
Wednesday: Ride – 12.35 Miles Warmup & 32.6 Miles BMTR Group Ride – Total – 44.95 Miles
Thursday: Run – 6.38 Miles
Friday: Ride – 21.04 Miles Warmup - & 9.82 Miles London Race - Total – 30.86 Miles
Saturday: Ride – 6.52 Miles Warmup & 101.33 Miles London Fundo w/Extra - Total – 107.85 Miles
Sunday: Rest
Weekly Totals:
Running Miles – 13.4 Miles
Running Time – 1:53 Hours
Riding Miles – 219.0 Miles
Riding Time - 9:27 Hours
Total Miles – 232.4 Miles
Total Time – 11:21 Hours
Diet Notes:
Nothing out of the ordinary for the weekly eating with all runs and rides, except for Saturday, done fasted, having only a cup of coffee with some heavy cream about an hour before the workout. For both Friday's race I did have a water bottle of SFuels Race+ but did not drink much of it but wanted a few calories after the warmup, before the ride, as I knew it would be fast from the start. For my long Saturday ride used my regular liquid fueling and had some extra fuel nearby if needed in the form of gel’s and a Untapped Waffle – but ended up never using them. While I did not go as fast as I could, as that was not the goal, I am pretty sure, based on the low caloric and carbohydrate intake, this was a fast burning ride. As usual these longer rides are fueled this way not because I necessarily will race on this same fueling but so I can further improve my metabolic flexibility. As I have stated before if this were a race I would have been going faster and would then seek to use more carbs – but for sure less than I would normally have one in the past. So take what you want out of the below but it does show what can be done on a LCHF diet focused on improving metabolic flexibility. I reiterate what I said here - this is a good time to give it a try and if interested you can check out the SFuels Quick Start Guide - short video on it below.
Saturday’s Ride Fueling
Pre-Ride Fueling:
- Coffee with Coconut Oil and Butter, Collagen, Heavy Cream, Chocolate Primal Fuel (1 Scoop) & 1 Scoop SFuels-Life
- 1 Vespa
- ½ Cup of Oatmeal and Raisins
- 1 Altred (Beetroot Extract)
- Also use the AMPHuman PR Lotion
- Total: 810.9 Cals & 48.6 gr Carbs
Ride Fueling;
- 2 24oz bottle with 2 scoops of SFuels Train
- 1 20oz bottle and 1 24oz bottle with a packet of SFuels Race+ in each
- 1 Altred at 2 hours and 4 hours
- 2 S!Caps at 2 hours and 4 Hours
- 1 Vespa at 2 hours
- Totals: 438 Calories – Carbs- 37 g
The Week Ahead:
This week my running will stay at two runs with neither run being more than 8 miles. I will, as usual for this phase of my running plan, keep these runs at a HR of 130 and below as the goal of this time is to heal my foot while still making sure to get my legs ready for Boston in September and for pacing my friend in the NoBusiness 100 in October.
As far as riding I will keep things much the same with rides on Monday and Wednesday and either Thursday or Friday. With regards to a long ride on Saturday I will see how things go weather wise and how I am feeling. For effort I want to look at probably one hard ride this week with the weekend ride being a good effort but over a longer distance.
As has been the case recently the goal of training is to build a good base and also still get in some strong efforts. I do need to make sure I take a week rest every 4-5 weeks which often is the plan but then does not happen – but it needs to.
Last Week's Overview #42
Also, check out the whole line of SFuels products: SFuels Life , SFuels-Train and SFuels-Race products. Also, just back after reformulating them are SFuel LIFE Bars. You can also access the new QuickStart Guide.
If you want to try AmpHuman use code
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