A few rest days

Thursday BIKE COMMUTE 9.4 miles
Friday BIKE COMMUTE ~2.5 miles
     PT with JH

Keto flu from my carni keto experiment? Recovery from back-to-back running Tues and Weds? Laziness? Whatever I call it in the end, it's done. I had ever good intention of swimming this week, haven't seen the pool except on Tuesday when it was closed for maintenance. Tomorrow, right? I can swim tomorrow.

My carbs are down to pretty much incidental -- less than 20g total carbs and maybe a wee bit more were I to count the kombucha tea. Today (Friday) is much better than yesterday in terms of cognitive clarity and motivation. I've been chatting with Dr Ravi -- a T1 ultrarunner doing a vegetarian LC test for a year (super cool with biometrics and tests and more!) -- and this keeps me thinking about what I'm doing and expecting.

I'm only a few days into the experiment, still eating a little avocado and some greens but not everyday. I've been mentally craving something like yogurt or cream cheese -- soft and cold and fatty -- but I don't let myself buy it so that's easy! It's a weekend purchase only. Also Thursday was 600 days NSNG, I'm 210 days keto, 60 days no M (that's totally the best), and will maybe start a carni keto clock, but more likely I'll just roll into it.

Met with JH today, jokes about problems at work (I now know why my assay wasn't working, turns out it was in fact working I was just given bad starting information). Some new exercises still working on core and upper body. Then I asked permission (is that the best word?) to "run" the Firecracker 10K or 5K next Weds. Answer is YES if I know I can stick to a walk/run and walk-the-hills strategy. YAY!!

I ran this 10K in 2014 in 43:13, I think it's my 10K PR. TH was there, and will be this year too. I joked with JH about signing up under a false name, haha.  He suggested something like Jeff Lytle in honor of the two voices on my shoulder while I'm running. HEE!!

Not over-trained, rather under-rested.

RUN 2.3 miles out of 3.1, ez track 400s
BIKE COMMUTE 14 miles

With JH in my head saying "I'd be disappointed if you didn't take my advice" (see yesterday's post) I left on Puppy to meet BE at the track. I was tired before I woke up, dragging, and barely motivated. The keto thing playing a role here too, I'm sure. But I couldn't resist running even just a teeny bit!

BE ran 800s as per his plan (ave'd 3:35-3:40 on them) while I did about 500 in the same time. 5 intervals and done, and kept this workout as a goal to repeat in the future for comparison.

I also need to crow (eh....maybe not too much) about this being the first back-to-back run I've done! Bee version 2 has a new record and benchmark.

BE mentioned a book by Deena Kastor, about the mental aspects of racing. By coincidence, yesterday I downloaded a Marathon Training Academy pod with her in it and I play that during my bike ride to work. The title of this post along with a few other gems stuck in my head. Another for when negativity seeps in during a run -- find a thought that serves me better.

I'm almost done with Scott Jurek's North book (wonder how it will end....ha!) and I have 3 to pick up at the library next. One on running form, two on science topics.

Yeah, I'm tired and need to rest. Hard to separate the physical fatigue from the diet-physical fatigue. Thought I was more fat adapted?!

Battle of Wills. You talkin' to me?!

RUN 4.4 miles in about 42 mins, out of ....oh I dunno
BIKE COMMUTE a whole 1.3 miles
PT with JH

Messed up morning due to waves of t-storms and rain. First off, BE suggested the great idea of rescheduling our Yasso 800s to tomorrow. That left me free to swim, or ride the trainer. I biked yesterday, so figured the pool would be the  next best bet. But the storms meant a pool closure. Seeing a break in the storms coming up, I decided to walk the doggie then drive to the pool to find out.

Got to the pool, and found it closed for "maintenance". ARG. Luckily I brought my running shoes and jumped on a treadmill over looking the pool. 55 mins total walk/run with 4x 10' intervals. I held pace around 9:30 and felt good with it. I don't like the treadmill, but it can serve its purpose when needed.

Off to JH, where in response to my usual "what's news" he told a story of a Battle of Wills with a college Lacrosse student home for the summer, recovering from shin splints. Long (and well told) story short, she would keep asking 'can I do this run?' 'can I play this pick-up game', why or why not, questioning, etc. Apparently between JH and Dr L, it was the same game. She wanted to go-go but the advice from both was no-go yet.

The point of the story to me, and what JH explained, was that Yes you could run but you'll just stay injured. Yes you could run but then don't come back to us upset about it. And No, I'm not mad at you for running, I'm not mad that you're re-injured, but I'm disappointed that you didn't take my advice.

As this story unfolded, I could see ME in place of her in the story, and I wondered about that. Seriously, the things she asked and wanted were just like what I wanted. But I don't think I question them as a challenge, I just want to understand the why or why not.

So as the workout progressed, I asked if after running today I could do Yasso 800s with BE tomorrow. LOL, NO. And I 'casually' mentioned the Ballwin Triathlon Double option and once I mentioned the 3.6 mile run twice I didn't even need to hear the NO. I could feel it in the look he gave me, LOL.  Love it.

New exercises! Medicine ball chest throws (with the yellow and black bee ball, no less!) and these almost-handstand yoga ball things that left my upper back fatigued the rest of the day. Ooof, he said that would be my new favorite. He's probably right. Again. :)

Should I black out BE from race t-shirt?

BIKE 20.4 miles in 1:23, 3x TGP intervals
BIKE COMMUTE 9.4 miles

BE found the bit of steel wire that had deflated his tube the past two Mondays, so he was back for today's ride. Among our many topics, we laughed over the idea of blacking out his name from the 2013 RT 66 Half Iron t-shirt because he didn't finish. And what would an IM t-shirt look like if all DNFers were blacked-out? T-shirt rules! Other topics -- the Club picnic that I missed, Ballwin Triathlon's new double tri option, a Judy Garland cover performance BE saw, and more. Always more. Good intervals -- 17:20, 16:48, and 16:45. Third one alone as BE had to scoot to work.

So not as hard as last week! But I'm still tired. I'm testing carni keto, just started and while I'm not 100% it's still quite the drop in energy. I'm awake and functioning, but low E.

Hive-Five! I got in a swim this week!

SWIM 16 mins and 700 yards, late in evening

I rested today, waaaayyy too tired and with Dr L and JH like little voices in my head I knew I needed to rest after yesterday's long run. And I really didn't have the motivation to ride anyway. Which is too bad, it was a relatively cool morning in the high 70's. Certainly, there won't be many of those to enjoy now that summer is here.

But I did get an opportunity to swim with SO, happily took it, having skipped all 3 swims I'd already planned this past week. These short swims are so easy and GOOD to do, so I'm re-evaluating my schedule to see how I can do evening swims at the Y. Once you get there, 15 mins easily turns into 30. And then I get to check the Swim box.

Major dialing back of hours and miles this week, I over did it Monday and Tuesday, rested Weds and Thurs, and Friday. Love how it feels to be so tired. Again I ask, what am I training for?!

Oh and 6 years ago was IM CDA.

NUMERICS 4.5 hours this week, not counting the commute
SWIM 700y
BIKE 36 miles
RUN 13.1 miles longest yet!
BIKE COMMUTE 35.2 miles

First run commute!

RUN 3.6 miles in 36 mins, total of 50 mins and 4.4 miles to work
RUN 4.1 miles in ~40 mins, 50 mins and 4.6 miles to home

Totals were 7.7 miles in about 80 minutes, my longest run to date! And the longest interval yet of 13 minutes. Yahoo! So I'm not ready to start Weds run commutes, or am I?

I swapped days this weekend, planned to do the long run before the long ride. That way I'm fresher for the run, which makes more sense and I don't know why I have to mention this plan like it's a smart or novel idea.

Gorgeous day, and I had the cool temps and sun the whole way. I even wore the Camelbak sans bladder and loved loved loved the feel of putting it on and clipping in. So familiar a feeling.

I took both runs very easy, in the end was at 10 m/m pace running, a bit slower than expected, but my HR stayed in good range doing so. I had my usual stiff re-start after lab work was done but knew from experience that it would shake out. And it did, so familiar a feeling.

Afterwards, shower and FR, then I didn't eat most of the rest of the day! I had a few eggs and a hunk of steak pre-run, then wasn't hungry. Thank you carnivore keto! SO took me to a park with a beach, we hung out watching the water and floaters. Exactly the kind of relaxation Dr L and JH have in mind probably. Recovery, but not on the couch sleeping type of recovery. I need more of this, it's not a familiar feeling!

Over Trained? Needed to days off.

Weds BIKE COMMUTE 9.4 miles
Thurs BIKE COMMUTE 1.3 miles and PT with JH
Friday BIKE indoors 1 hour and about 16 miles
          BIKE COMMUTE 9.4 miles

Well of course I'm probably over trained. I love the feeling, I feel like a kid in the candy store unable to stop myself from grabbing every endurance hour I can get. But whooooooo boy was I tired these three days.

Woke up Weds and didn't even have the motivation to walk the dog. The bike commute was on dead legs.  Thursday more of the same, OH WAIT, I did an indoor ride Thursday or Friday!! AH!  Must edit! I'll go back to edit Sunday's numerics post. I did a 1 hr indoor ride on Friday it turns out. Hive-Five!

PT with JH on Thursday -- new exercises! More back and abs, to help with running and posture. Love the new stuff, don't feel it as much as I feared I would being so out of shape. More please.

Whooo, there's no drug to make me feel so good as being wiped out. More please.

"Then turn around at 23 miles"

RUN 5.4 miles out of 6.6, about 45 mins of an hour
BIKE COMMUTE 5.7 miles
Dr L
PT with JH

Needless to say, I'm tired. Up early for the run -- bike to and from the track too. BE suggested the ladders in place of my training plan's 12x 250 strides thing. 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, then back down the ladder with 100 walk rests (these ended up being one minute long).

I didn't think I'd be able to complete this workout! My commute ride home yesterday (did not do the extra 0.6 miles) was on dead legs and I was still feeling it today during the warm up. But once I got rolling, I steadily clocked quarters in 2:02-2:09 ish from lanes 3 and 4. Whoop!

BE held a faster pace than I did, but we'd meet up in the walk intervals and start chatting. This led to many interesting stop/start conversations. BE had another flat yesterday, that's how he missed the ride. Turns out his other bikes have issues too, I suggested just buying another bike. He did an Olympic Saturday (Iron Abe I think?). I had finished the Once A Runner book and liked it. His shirt was from the Sarasota half in Florida. At the end, his take on race t-shirts from, as he put it, Capitalist Bob. lol.

Bike home, walk dog, shower, quick M1, leave, realize I forgot phone again, leave again, hit a congested traffic area, arrive late, Dr L.

He asks how things are going, I start the numbers. I mention that around mile 46 or 47 my left hip wears out, he asks if I stop or continue. Well  naturally I continue, gotta get to the truck, I ride out 25 miles and turn around. He said I needed to turn around at 23 miles, that pushing the injury will only further the problems. I mention that my running is plateaued at 12 miles a week, and this led to mentions of overtraining (who, me?!), and the fact that athletes like me are better off training less and recovering more - focus on dietary, sleep, massage, therapies, etc. I've heard this before, from JH.

He worked on my neck, mid back, and sciatic nerve. I had about 10% loss of motion in some areas. He thinks the mid back will help with the swim, by allowing me to rotate and not have to pick up my head. Find out tomorrow? Otherwise, he's happy with everything and if he's happy, I'm happy.

Now off to JH, who commented (rightly) that 2/3 of us agree that I need to recover more. I laugh at all this, but dang it's hard to dial back! I'm already thinking about what bike rides to sacrifice (can you believe I just used that word?!) so I can run more. And I'm thinking about scheduling recovery therapies like I schedule workouts, because I need more shit in my schedule. So I'm still thinking on this.

With JH, more of the ab curls, more and longer reps I mean. More of the yoga ball walkouts on hands, more and longer of those too. Then leg curls on the ball, to where my legs couldn't take any more reps and I couldn't curl all the way back. Then more lateral squat/lunge/whatever, then a NEW version of that s/l/w in which I stand up on the weighted leg instead of stepping back to start. Whew, what a workout.

What a day! Yes I'm tired. Thankfully I'm driving most of the way home. And thankfully my truck window is fixed. And tomorrow -- a swim and a bike? The bike? Really?

Really pushed 3rd set, 45 seconds faster!

BIKE 20 miles in 1:18, 3x TGP intervals
BIKE COMMUTE 9.4 miles (what are the odds I find another 0.6 miles on the way home?)

Third or forth day in a row of excessive heat, but not at 6am! It's warm but not hot. Not a cloud in the sky, muggy, sure to be a burner. BE didn't show for the ride, in the end it worked out. Sometimes I just like to be alone with thoughts and music.

After hearing SO talk about his riding style, I pushed into the last interval and managed a 45 second faster set with surprisingly low HR in the low 140's. My Garmin doesn't even read my run that low at high effort. This felt great, I should do it for at least two sets next week. And my legs were cooked later, awesome.

Truck window fixed this morning, so I did my cookup that I missed yesterday. Now I feel caught up, but I also rode to work at 1130 in the heat. My ride home won't be much better but it won't be any worse!

Run, Run, Swim, Fish

RUN 4/4.65 miles about 40 mins of actual running with 8-10' intervals
SWIM about 1700 yards in about 34 mins
FISH 3 little bluegills!!!

I had plans to find a trail and get away from City running and heat, but I had an opportunity to see SO finish his 5K so I did that instead. It was the better option too as my legs were worn out from the long ride yesterday. But I do need to find some trail soon. This was a random distracted run, my mind was on the timing needed to get to the finish line in time, not on a good route or pace. After the race I happily ran back to the truck, 0.77 miles, and it felt so natural to be running little errand hops.

The swim was mid morning, didn't expect to get that much swim in but this just rolled out. This is kind of a benchmark swim as it's the first mile (since starting up again) that I did with out any pool toys! I didn't get worn out, didn't have left shoulder pain, didn't suffer it at all. Nice.


NUMERICS 10.5 hours! What am I training for again?
SWIM 6800 yards
BIKE 98 miles
RUN 11.4 miles (stagnant, need to shoot for 15 next week)
BIKE COMMUTE 36.4
Stopped counting walks

50 on the MCT

BIKE 50 miles in 3hrs

Another MCT ride, this one hot but probably my best 50 yet. Which means I need to get away from these paths and start finding real roads and hills to ride. The elevation change on this ride was 369 feet. For perspective, my 20 mile 3x TGP Monday ride has 604 feet.

Nailed it on the water. Didn't eat anything in-ride or after. Didn't push the pace and the average HR was 120 bpm. Fat burning pace, but not speed improvement or strength building. I guess I can break up my rides into separate goals, and doing this ride as I did fits the plan. This is my long, fat-burning endurance, time in the saddle ride. The Monday TGP is like my speedwork, sounds like I need a hills ride in my week.

I got the new aerobar rest installed for this ride, nice fix. But needs a little twist tweak to fit right. Amazing to go so many miles this past few weeks and no breakdowns or flats :) Gratitude!

Energetic morning swim

SWIM 2700 yards in just over an hour
BIKE COMMUTE 11 miles

I slept in a whole 15 mins and didn't get up until 5am. Haha, "sleeping in". Was this why I felt so good this morning? Lots of energy. Bike to pool, chat with Anton about stolen gear update, then join my friend (gotta get her name!) with the cyclist/triathlete husband Ernie before starting up.

WU was 3x of 100S 100P 100K
MS was 2x 300 3x100 6x50

Whew! I alternated in pull sets as I fatigued, and did some kick as well with fins. I'm happy to say I did put aside the pull buoy in some pull sets so I could swim. And some extra kicks too, that's how the distance got up to 2700 in 1 hour. I don't think I swim that fast just yet!

Laps at Lafayette, brick run

BIKE 16.3 miles in 1 hour
RUN 2.4 of 3.2 miles, 22 mins out of ~35
BIKE COMMUTE 1.3 miles (still can't resist counting this)
PT with JH

Up early for a workout, but not my usual Thursday group run. Sadly still not ready for it. So in the meantime, this is my brick day. For now it's swapped from Tuesday so I can do track session then. Worry about switching my schedule back another day.

LP is a great place to ride -- sweet new pavement and when ridden clockwise has no stops. Just touch the brakes a few times for runners and dogs and to let cars know you aren't blowing the intersection to ride into them. I did the planned 3x 10' intervals, goal was how far could I ride in 10 mins and stay below MAF. I ave'd 17.1 mph in the intervals. All very similar.

Then the brick run, my first 10 minute intervals! I know this because my Garmin autolapped at 10 minutes. So that means in the last few months of this walk/run stuff I haven't done a 10 min interval of walk or run! Should probably turn that off so when I get to 12 and 15 min intervals it doesn't mess with  my system.

The run felt OK, heavy, short, kinda bored. Miss my run group. Need a better route than Cherokee to Brewery to home.

New exercises with JH!!  Started off with lying/lieing/laying/whatever back on a bench, arms anchored to bar at head, knees curled up.  Goal is to curl up  more using abs. A very slow and subtle move.  Next was belly over a yoga ball, walk hands out until shoelaces on ball. Goals is to push hard into the ground with the hands, squeeze and roll the shoulder muscles around the spine (tight across the back), keep core and glutes tight. Then, more new!, I did more of the yoga ball but the whole sequence of one leg, other leg, then hamstring curls (instead of one leg, rest, other leg, rest, etc).
Then up for 8-10 (I don't count, he does) single leg squats 1-2-3-... one right after the other, no pause or rest. These felt great, the strength progress on these I'm liking!

And I get to look forward to more "off the floor" stuff like I see other athletes doing! How is the hip? Great, minor pains every few days, mostly in the IT area and hip flexors. I'm definitely in the "don't think about it much" category, moved out of the "seems to hurt a lot of the time" category.

Got one of my gear bags returned to me

BIKE 11.7 miles in ~46 mins, with 25' interval in TGP then ride to pool
SWIM 2400 yards in 55'
BIKE COMMUTE 7.5miles to lab then to home

First goal was a decent but not crazy bike workout in TGP, did a 25 min sustained interval, goal was under MAF and no burnout. Not much to say on this, except that my big pink swim bag is a great commuter bag even if it's a wee bit hard to sight over the shoulder.

The swim! YES I'm back at the pool after a week off. My left shoulder "pinged" a little over a week ago while carrying a water bucket and it's mildly hurt since. That's my excuse anyway. To be honest, I don't really know that swimming would hurt after that ping!

Anyway, plan was 4x 200 then 6x 100. I alternated swim and pull because my swim form falls off fast when I get tired. It felt good!

As I was leaving the pool locker, the phone rings from the Police, it's the Detective and it turns out he's at the station across the street from the Y! How easy is that? Never mind how I'd get all of my stuff on my back and ride to lab then home with it. Well it turns out he only had the gray WashU bag, not the big red Speedo bag. He had another red duffel bag, which explains why he kept asking about the Speedo label was referred to it as a duffel. Happy either way, he updated me on the Circuit Attorney calling me, whether I wanted to press charges, etc, and off I rode to lab.

Once at lab, I pulled out my gear to see what was still in there...and broken glass spilled out. I got back my Halloween suit, blue goggles, 3 swim caps, padlock, no-tears shampoo bottle for goggles, shower shoes, and surprisingly 3 packages of ear plugs? Those weren't mine. Ooooh broken glass all over, now I want to press charges!

New Moon this afternoon.

Tuesday at the track

RUN 4.9/6 miles at track, 5x 6' intervals under MAF
BIKE COMMUTE 7.2 miles
PT with JH

BE couldn't make it today, and I'm happy to report that I didn't slouch out and run the Roosevelt track. This is a better track. And I get to ride Puppy there.

We've been so fortunate with beautiful mornings, this was another. Calm, quiet, dry, cool, and sunshine. Just wanted to drop a line of gratitude for that.

I did a WU then 5 6-min intervals, focused on keeping at or below MAF. A few times I walked, eventually I concluded that there's no way my HR was 160-something and it had to be wrong. Double check with chest strap? Does it freaking matter that much?

Later with JH, I was a little bit frustrated with I feel to be a lack of progress/build/whatever on the left lateral squats/lunges/whatever. I feel like I'm cheating, using my chest to 'hup' my self up. He says I'm not. I take his word on it! He suggested I quit being like a particular someone who thinks too much. Awesome burn, loved it.

Repeat of last week training plan

BIKE 20 miles in 1:20, 3 loops of TGP
BIKE COMMUTE 9.4 miles
WALK

Last week I hit only 3 sessions from the training plan, and none of them swimming. So instead of progressing to the next week, I'm going to just repeat it here. Not like I'm on a training schedule or anything towards a specific race....

Today's now-regular ride isn't on the plan really, I swap out the Weds planned ride into Monday and do the interals at TGP instead. BE joined a few mins late but then left early with a flatting tire. I only rode with him a few minutes, but held a good pace on my own. I might have pushed harder with him to follow?

BE told me about how he went to NT to bike, ended up talking to BillS for 1.5 hours instead and missed the bike groups going out. Yesterday he did 35 miles on MCTs. I mighta woulda seen him there!

Hip feeling good after a weekend of rest, still tight in the left hammy.

Rest weekend summary

Friday Hiking in Rockwoods, then about 10 swim laps at Kirkwood
Saturday BIKE COMMUTE 4.3 miles lab to home
Sunday Same as Saturday

I needed a rest, this was a restful and non-restful weekend! Summary of training here only :X

A left hamstring muscle is tight, really tight. And left hip hurting probably from that tightness. Just didn't feel good since Thursday, whether it was the brick, the long weekend before, or Thursday PT I can't say for sure.

So the weekend was "off" training. And I can say from Monday's perspective that it was a good thing.

NUMERICS 2:20 min of BR (didn't count swim)
SWIM 500 yards, haha
BIKE 26.4 miles
RUN 4.37 miles, I want every hundredth at this rate
BIKE COMMUTE 34.8 mile
WALK 19.1 miles, lotsa berry picking with the dog :)

Brickety-brick on Thursday instead of Tuesday

BIKE 65 mins and 16.4 miles
RUN 1.7 miles of 3/ 17 mins of about 35
PT with JH
WALK 0.8+1.3+1.2+1.0+1.4+

Woke up feeling better than yesterday, of course I didn't have a swim to avoid and that probably contributed. On schedule out the door at 545am to ride random loops in TGP. Disappointed in the smallish 16.4 miles! That's all I did?! I didn't push the pace like I do with BE, I just rode steady and stood up on the "inclines" to start working those muscles a bit. Great ride, gorgeous morning.

The run was not so great. I was immediately flat on energy, and the body felt leaden. I was wearing my gray Orca shorts (on the small side) and my new Cascadia trail shoes (their first run!) (on the feels-big side) so I felt weirdly dressed. No energy, so I just did 2 min walk then 2 min run alterations. No longer intervals today. And the shoes felt great, sounds good for longer test.

During the run, TH sent a pict of IM70.3 Kansas 8 years ago! I was in the background of a picture of her. I could see my right ankle all taped up. I should go back and read that race report for fun.

Walkies, shower, foam roll, M1, off to PT with JH. Today was longer intervals of holding one leg off the ground, or more properly pushing the heel down into the ground. Oooohhh yeah felt the burn on this one, and my left side squat/lunge was weak today. His advice for the weekend: "take care of yourself" and don't extend to longer intervals and more hours. Hold same or reduce from last weekend. Aye Aye Capt!

Lotsa walking! Dog walk, in-run walk, PT treadmill, to parking (no bike today), walk to CWE for lunch with VDM, then another dog walk.

Past week has been berry-licious, my walks go to the berry trees :)

Rest day. Only biked 20 miles. ??

BIKE 10 miles 2x TGP on the way to work
BIKE COMMUTE 10 miles commute with construction detours

I WasGonna swim and do and extended commute, but rolling out of bed I was mentally trashed. Haven't been falling asleep like usual last few nights, combined with a weekend off schedule with travel? I just don't fall asleep, but once I do I'm OK.

And my back was worn out Tuesday afternoon at work. Again, possibly travel (all that sitting in the truck) (which by the way still has the cling wrap window) and the long SBR weekend? And I the mental part -- just fuzz brained, no energy.

So I skipped the swim and instead biked an extra 10 miles in TGP. I had OK-ish energy for it, and the rest of the day was just flat energy too. Ah well.

Still fatigued from the weekend, so I only got 0.95 on the treadmill

RUN 2.67 of 4 on track, 19 mins of ~50
BIKE COMMUTE 4.6+2.2=6.8
PT with JH

Yesterday was the drive back to STL, I counted it as a rest day and I didn't even walk much. But that didn't matter to the legs and back as I rolled out the door this morning for the track session with BE. TIRED!

The plan was 10x 1:30 intervals, we ran 3/4th of the track then walked back to the start line. The training plan said to make the last 3 at 85% but I held to my fixed pace while BE took off. The Garmin shows all sub-8 paced intervals!

The bike commute is to/from track, then to/from parking in FoPa. I'm anxious about parking there with my cling-wrap window, but there's not much left to steal from there right now.

PT was great, even with the fatigue. I actually enjoy finding the limit of what the muscles can do, and even felt better after the session than I did before. My legs felt better, not so much my back. Whoooooo tired.

Learned a variation of the side-step squat today, now instead of just standing up keeping feet in spread position I pushed up and brought feet back together. And I did up to 8 leg lifts off the ball! Moving on up!

Title joke -- JH stopped my warm up at 0.95 miles. Not his fault, I coulda walked just a wee bit faster :)   But that's a special type of torture, to stop me early!

7x 8 mins on canal path

RUN 7.64 miles of 10, 71 mins of 1h 50 mins

Another perfect day for being outdoors, this time a run on the canal path. While STL suffers the heat I'm waking up to 55F temps :)  Another long session on a few eggs and no water. Gotta dig out the Camelbak soon!

Pre meal usual of a few eggs butter and carrot (yeah started eating carrots again a few weeks ago) but nothing else for today. WU as usual of 2 min intervals and after 13 mins just started in to the first 8 min interval. This felt soooo easy. My HR was climbing up slowly in the intervals and hovered around 140 for the first few before getting 'too high'. What is too high anyway? MAF says 138 is my upper limit, but really this didn't feel like a high RPE session!?

Hit the turn around feeling great. Saw a group of 4 female runners, a male runner, a bunch of bikers, a few fisherman. One snake, not much else. Just me and a pretty path stretched out ahead of me.

In the 7th interval I decided I needed to stop the 8 min and cut down to the CD sequence of 2 or 3 mins. Just wasn't holding form like needed.  Hit the truck at 9.6 miles, so of course I couldn't stop until 10 miles. So I walked the remaining. This is how we get to running 100 miles eventually --just can't stop.

The hip felt great in the run, but the rest of the day was tight and surprisingly the right hip flexors were talking too. I think the bike set the stage for this. But it was all OK not like an injury pain.

NUMERICS 9 hours and 24 mins of SBR
SWIM 6400 yards
BIKE 80.5 miles
RUN 11.5 miles
BIKE COMMUTE 16.8
WALK 6.5 miles, didn't keep track of walking while at home

Garmin said I did >4000K. It lies.

SWIM 60 mins and 2400. Or was it 2300...

This was my "rest" day between the long ride and run. The plan was 2x800, first one swim and second one pull. I didn't think I could swim the 800, but I did with a short break half way though. Really happy with that. Then I pulled the second 800, same thing just took a break at the 400 mark.

This swim felt great. Smooth and "fast". Restful. Aside from the Garmin being so confused and logging laps I wasn't doing. I think the compass function is confused by the NNW to SSE direction of the lap lane.

Long ride to nuke plant

BIKE 50 miles in 2:51, ave 17.2 mph

Was home for the weekend, and had the opportunity to break up my long ride/long run by splitting them to Friday/Sunday. Dad and I sketched out a few ride options the night before, in the end I stuck to the Grand Ridge ride. I've done a shorter version of this route a few years (?) ago and I didn't require driving to the start.

Gorgeous day, oh wow, full sun and little wind, dry and calm and all sorts of wonderful.  Went out the door on a few eggs and veg, only water on the bike and a clementine orange if I want it at the turn-around.

Rode up to the school road, down to the "Grand Ridge Blacktop", then onto GR which was 12 miles away. That came up fast and I just continued on amazed that I hadn't come to a stop yet and was having a perfect day with such low traffic. The plan was to ride out to the nuke plant where PaulG works and maybe catch a view of the coolant lake. Thought a pict of that would make a funny OWS joke.

Soon enough I could see the nuke plant tower and building, but like a mountain range  although visible it didn't mean it was close! Had a joke about this with Jess and Paul later :)  Then soon enough the plant was going by, but the only view of the coolant lake was a brief peek at the shiny water. Turns out the lake is hidden by a levee. Oh well. Stopped, orange, ride home.

On the outbound I thought I had a headwind, mild as could be but the grass seemed to suggest it. Nope, same feeling on the way home. It was that calm. Refilled the bottles at a BP station in GR, rolled out, still feeling great and time just slipped by. Around mile 46-47 the left hip stalled out, the muscles weren't pulling the pedal up. I tried to be careful to not overdue the compensation to the right leg, thankfully only 3 miles to go and didn't notice much.

Rolled home strong and was amazed at how I was riding a half iron distance so easily and under 3 hours!?  Took a few minutes to realize I had 50 and 56 confused, haha!

Noticed on this ride that the right aerobar arm brace is broken, that's what's leading to the discomfort  the past few rides. I think I knew this already, from last year?