Well I took a “recovery” week after the South Carolina Half last weekend; therefore, I was heading into 2 weeks of hard training, with 2 long runs on the weekends. This is a synopsis of the first of those weekends.
Saturday – Like 2 weeks ago I planned on riding about 120 miles with some sustained intervals. This weekend I was lucky that the weather was actually playing nice. The weather report was temperatures in the mid 60's to low 70's with some rain, but fortunately the rain never materialized. So under humid conditions I headed out for my long ride w/6 hill repeats in the hardest gear as I could push up the climbs. By the time I was done with last one – the legs were fried!!! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. The feeling in my legs brought back memories..it was similar feeling to the second day of the Ultraman in 2008 – while climbing the last 6 mile mountain – about 1 mile from the top I almost felt over from my bike.
I jumped off the bike and went on a moderate brick run. My reason for this is just to keep the ironman muscles/mentality together in case I decide to race Beach 2 Battle Ship – an Iron distance race in November.
Sunday – Ahhhh…another week another long run. Like in weeks past, my long run this week was not overly structured. I just wanted to run a slightly faster pace and hopefully a couple of miles farther. Before I started my run I drank one Red Bull – just to mentally wake up. As in prior weeks the purpose of the first 5 miles were just to warm up the muscles and mind, I did not worry about the pace – I was not sure how yesterday's hill repeats would feel on my legs and wanted to really open up the blood flow before I started pushing the effort. After the first 5 miles I was trying to pick up the pace to my “comfortable fast” pace, keeping the distance of the run in mind. The plan was to check my Lactic Acid levels around half way through and at the end of the run. Also this week my nutrition plan was to take in more First Endurance EFS drinks, as well as their Liquid Shots. I had stops set up about every 5 miles to take in my nutrition. At mile 18 I stopped by my house and took a Lactic Acid reading and my LA ended up being 2.9. I was surprised it was this low since I had been pushing a 6:50 pace for the last 12 miles. During this stop I had the “Kotland Cocktail” of ½ grapefruit juice/½ water, and about 100 calories from Liquid Shot. I will probably start adding Vodka to it and sell it to college kids. The next 3-4 miles were still easy and comfortable, but after about 24 miles of running it was simply turning into a LOOOONG run! At the next stop at mile 25 the pace was still in the low 6:50’s so I was still in good spirits. However, the weekend of training was starting to play its toll, but mentally you never want to slow down too much. That’s where I have to start playing the mental games and win them. Earlier I decided that I will make the run 32 miles, with one extra stop for hydration than the week previous. So I convinced myself that I needed to speed up a little bit each mile for the last seven or until I had given everything I had. I managed to average only 6:50 but I was getting sore. After the run my second Lactic Acid reading came to 3.9. Looking back the run was a little bit better than expected, since the overall back came out to be in the mid 6:50’s.
Nutrition for this run – 1 Red Bull; 1 liter or EFS – grape flavor; 28oz of the grapefruit mixture; 200 calories of Liquid Shots
I followed the run with probably the slowest 20 miles ride in my life.
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