06.06.2019 Thursday Training!

Substituted a Zwift race for my FTP session tonight. Definitely had Gumby legs at the end of the race. I’m able to dig a little deeper for some extra watts when I’m racing compared to just trying to hit x watts for y amount of time. It definitely makes the time fly by as well. 50 minutes was over in a snap.

Flex day tomorrow...I’ll probably take a rest day. Possible 5k race Saturday depending on the weather. Not looking too promising right now.

I almost always run by feel--I usually have a time goal or range, but rarely any clear idea of how far/fast I'm running in that time. At most I have a vague idea of how long some of my favorite loops usually take, but that's about it. Only use pace or heart rate if my coach insists. Since I am not doing anything competitive this year, I just don't care. I run how I feel. I race like that too (for the run and swim--I use power on the bike) and pretty much always have. It works for me. I have a good natural sense of pace for most run and swim distances and almost never start too fast or "crash and burn".

Not feeling too great today between 10-hour drive yesterday (back from job interview in Oregon) and nasty approaching cold front. We had nice warm weather much of the day but had to deal with a konked-out water heater. Two trips to Home Depot, then waiting around for a guy to come over to do an estimate, then he ended up being able to replace it today. He wasn't sure of his schedule for tomorrow and we weren't sure about next week (there was a chance I would have to go back for Round 2 in Oregon, but it's being done by video instead) so got it installed today.

By the time that was done and I was able to set out on my run, wind was picking up. Temperature dropped about 20 degrees during a one-hour run and blowing dust such as I haven't seen since my Beijing days was swirling around the valley. Yuck!

I’ve been running by feel lately. Wore a heart rate monitor for the first time in a while the other day. Luckily my PRE and HR matched up pretty well. Same for my cycling efforts. I don’t like wearing one often but I find I need to check myself now and then to make sure I’m staying in my easy zone most of the time.