How Sweet It Is To Be In Anthony's Draft Zone!

Labor Day came at exactly the right time.  I definitely needed a long weekend and thankfully it included much more relaxation than most!  Fall Semester started on Friday, so I watched my first lecture on Saturday and was happy to find out that there is no class next week AND no homework will be assigned until September 13, SCORE!!  That meant extra “chill” time this weekend and NO HOMEWORK! 

The plan for this morning was to hit the road early and get a ~30 mile ride in and run later.  Instead, we relaxed, ate breakfast while watching some Mike and Mike, and took Brutus for a walk.  Perfect Labor Day morning – one downfall: by the time we hit the road for our ride at ~10am it was already HOT!  We did about 20 miles on a shaded trail that heads to Bethesda and then followed that up with a few laps of Haines Point.  

 Riding At "The Point"

We have been spending a lot more time on the trainer lately, and we’ve both been seeing some serious gains, but that extra strength doesn’t make it any less tempting to be in Anthony’s draft zone on these rides!!  As I’m sure many of you know, drafting is not allowed in most USAT sanctioned events, so drafting behind Anthony while training only hurts me in the long run.  So after looking at my Garmin and smiling at how “easy” 19mph feels, I fall back and have to start pushing harder to maintain speed that I was getting for “free.”  It will make race day a happier day, but man is it tempting to get in on that free speed from drafting.  Just because it’s not race day, doesn’t mean it’s not cheating.  

 I should probably not be taking pictures while riding..

After an afternoon of cleaning, lounging and multiple short walks with Brutus (complaining the entire way about how uncomfortably hot it is!), it was time to get after a strength run.  One mile warm-up, 6 x 1 mile intervals with ¼ mile recovery and a ½ mile cool down.  We are following the Hanson’s Marathon Method training plan, and this week, our Monday SOS (something of substance) run switches from “speed” intervals to “strength” intervals.  These intervals are longer (1mi, 1.5mi, 2mi, and 3 mi), but they are at a slower pace (just slightly faster than race pace).   Not feeling in the mood to fight the heat while running intervals, we both headed down to the gym to hit the treadmills. 

 I wasn’t sure how I was feeling about these intervals getting longer, but after the first two, it was smooth sailing!  I have become neurotic about stretching after workouts (it really helps prevent injuries!!), but I somehow forgot to stretch after our ride this morning.  This lead to my legs feeling like bricks for the first two intervals, but they eventually loosened up.  Overall, I would call it a success.  Thumbs up to the strength intervals. 

And now it's back to reality after this lovely long weekend. The work week starts on Tuesday AND it's taper week (aside from that 16 mile run on Wednesday...), should be a good week!