Catching Up With My VK Training

Today was interesting, to say the least. Work has been a struggle, as we're moving into a new building which is apparently an owners' wet dream, but downgrading the employees even more than in the current building, if that's at all possible. I won't go into details, but right now we're sitting elbow to elbow at kids picnic tables holding hands, singing Kumbya, and getting nothing at all done. The Google studies this nonsense was based on used interns (slave labor) and they believed that if they were super productive they'd get their own offices, but instead were let go at the end of their counter-intuitively productive runs.

That stress has been difficult to overcome, and has led to a reduction in recovery, which is an expected result. 

On top of that I've bumped up my outdoor running, shooting for various VK-Like ascents in the afternoon. In spite of the snow and slime and mud and muck and 30 degree spring weather. In both cases of recent attempts I've had to bail after 2400 to 2600 feet of ascent. One for a creek running down the trail and the other for slushy snow over slimy mud at the edge of a seriously 500' vertical drop onto Hwy 92 up the Alpine Loop Road.

On Saturday I ended up riding the Eagle Race Course on my mountain bike, leading a group slowly around on a warm-up lap for a Time Trial attempt at the Varsity Team. Oddly that resulted in some awesome heart rate bumps, since it was effectively a maximum exertion full body workout that I wasn't much used to. I haven't ridden outside since December, except for the bike skills classes I lead for the Utah NICA League.

I've been doing a lot of Zwift, and even that has taken a hit lately with the outside steep runs added into my training. I've noticed that running up the hills, trying to emulate a VK, that I start getting slower and weaker in a couple of steps at 60, 75 and 90 minutes. I need to train around that, so looked at my Stryd to calculate what a good gap would be for a 90 minute effort, and decided that if I could get on the treadmill at 21% and hold it there at 220 watts for 90 minutes I'd be filling in one of those gaps.

[Stryd Power Center screenshots to think about]

Like I said, I had a bad night and worse morning, without really good quality sleep so I decided not to get up at my usual 4 AM and instead slept in till 5:15. Nice. But I'm really pretty well behind. So this afternoon after work I did it. Did 3.8 miles and 4200' in 90 minutes at 21% averaging pretty dang close to 220 watts.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to take my daughter to her Gymnastics Regional Meet in San Diego. While there I got to run at precious oxygen rich sea level and hit a one mile PR. Nice. It was inspirational. I also got to do some serious hill climbs in the area around Sunset Cliffs. 

BTW: I was watching Anime on Amazon Prime Video while on the treadmill and in the sauna. 

Anyway, just thought I'd take a few minutes here to catch you up on what I've been doing lately. I'll try to spend more time here in the next few months as I prepare for my most important races and events this year.

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