Hard Ride, Then Brutal Intervals, Then REST

Last week, I got out for a 20 mile tempo ride (in the middle of a 33 mile ride). I rode hard for the first 20 miles (splits 1-4 on the map below), and there was a decent wind from the north, so the first 4 miles straight south were FAST: 23.6 mph ave without a ton of effort. I turned around at about mile 13, and then the last 7 miles were sucky into the wind. I ended my hard 20 miles with a 21.3 mph average.

Tempo effort ended at the arrows: easy to see in my HR, but less
visible in speed because of turning into or with the wind.

Then the next day, I hit the track with heavy legs. It was for a workout that was 4x800 with 2 mins rest, followed by 4x400 with 90 sec rest. I think I've done this 3 times in the past: "up north" in early June last year, then on the track in July, and finally on the track in December because we were having a pretty snow-less winter. I was aiming for some speed last week, but I was hoping my heavy legs would listen to me.

My first interval was OK but I had hoped to be faster: it was 3:38 (with laps of 1:18 and 1:19). But the good news was that I dropped my splits from there. My 800s and 400s looked like this:

1:18, 1:19 = 3:38.0
1:17, 1:17 = 3:34.5
1:16, 1:18 = 3:34.4
1:16, 1:16 = 3:32.9

1:13.6
1:14.3 (not mentally strong)
1:13.1 (DYING at the 200 mark)
1:12.0

Those were NEARLY my best ever times for this workout. Last June was my best version of this workout where my 800s averaged 3:34.88 and my 400s averaged 1:13.50. This time my averages were 2:34.95 (0:00.07 slower) and 1:13.25 (0.00.25 faster).

Lots of speedy loops.


This was nasty. This is a HARD workout.

Then I TOOK IT EASY for a few days. I'd been feeling wiped for a few days leading up to that too (this was also just a few days after my best long run ever), so I didn't want to overdo anything. Looking back, I honestly feel lucky I got through that stretch without a bigger issue. Even my "body battery" on my Garmin was showing me that I was not getting fully rested (blue dots didn't go up high enough) and that I was draining myself more by the end of the day (white dots getting extra low):

It's subtle, but notice I'm not used to having stretches that stay low like that. I did just an easy spin the day after, and then a 2nd easy day as well. Hoping to be back at it this week!!