Three Big Days: Tempo Ride, Track Intervals, and Longest Ride in 15 Years!

Last week Thurs, Fri, and Saturday were 3 great training days.

THURSDAY kicked it off with my 15+ mile "tempo loop" ride. I did that loop with a 21.5 mph average earlier this year, and that was my 2nd fastest time ever (I think), behind my PR of 21.9 mph from 7 years ago. (Here are some of my top splits from that loop.)

Last week, I hit the edge of downtown St. Paul around mile 10.5 with a fast average of 23.3 mph! But I still had to climb into downtown, climb up Ramsey Hill, and then bike into the wind for the final 4 miles or so. I got up Ramsey with my overall average being 21.9 mph (tied for my overall PR for this loop) and TRIED SO HARD to hold that for the final stretch home. But it slowly fell to 21.7 mph, and then I able to hold it there for the last few miles. So I finished with my 2nd fastest average on that loop of 21.7 mph.

Lots of BLUE heading straight west down Summit - ouch.

FRIDAY I hit the track for 4x1600 with 4:00 rest. I haven't done that workout (with FOUR 1600s) since Coach Jen gave that to me in 2010 as I was training up for the TC 10 Mile. I glanced at those splits from 14 years ago, and all I remembered as I was at the track was that I started with a 5:40 and ended sub-5:20 (my first every 1600 interval sub-5:20, and while doing FOUR and not my usual THREE!). Those weren't necessarily my "goals" for this workout, but I was aware of those numbers as I was running.

I hit the first one a lot faster than 5:40, running a 5:32 last week! Would that be too fast? I still felt like it wasn't too hard, so I wasn't too afraid of dying before the workout was over. Here were my half-mile and full 1600 splits:

2:44 + 2:47 = 5:32.3

2:44 + 2:43 = 5:27.8

2:40 + 3:39 = 5:20.7

2:40 + 2:37 = 5:18.4

AVE: 5:24.78

That's a nice descend! And faster on every one compared to 2010!! My average then was 5:29+, so these were 5 sec faster/1600 on average! That felt good!!

And then on SATURDAY the boys were at Grandma's house, so I had time to get out for a long ride. I road a harder for the first 25 miles as just a way to break it up, but didn't QUITE go at tempo pace: I finished those first 25 in 1:10:39, or 21.2 mph average. I did my favorite route this summer (down Big Rivers until it ends and back), but first I added on 20 miles down the Greenway and back. Here was my ride, with the default 5 mile laps shown:

Out-and-back to the west, then south along the river, then across
to Big Rivers and back, and then back up Cleveland towards home.

As I shared in Monday's post, that ride was 48 miles, and was my longest one since 70.3 training in the spring of 2009. I was pretty DONE around mile 40, but got myself home and had a big lunch. :)