Saturday: 88 mile bike; 2 mile run

Today, I was supposed to do a Tempo ride, but just haven't been feel right. Power and heart rate have both been low. So I tried to switch things up a little bit and biked outside for the first time since November. I biked close to 90 miles with a couple of other people, though one person dropped off after 20 miles. One of the people I biked with won her age group at Ironman Cda and came in 10th in her age group at Kona.

Biking outside is completely different than biking inside. I firmly believe that riding inside is the better workout, harder mentally, and simulates racing more closely. You sweat much more from an indoor ride and you don't have the wind to cool you off. Furthermore, riding inside is much more time efficient: there is no stopping at lights, stop signs, or to fill up with drinks;

The were several benefits from the ride though. First, it was nice to get outside and the weather was perfect. Second,I was able to get my heart rate and power up quite a bit when going uphill. Third, I was able to verify that my power/heart rate indoors is the similar as outdoors; it is actually slightly better outdoors. So I know my improvements are real and not a result of miscalibration, etc.

However, because I was biking with other people and didn't know the route or where I was going, I just rode their pace, which turned out to be a low zone 1 ride for me. My heart rate was very low throughout, and I coasted and stopped quite a bit so as not to get too far ahead. This is exactly what I needed though to get me going again as I was tired and struggling motivation-wise this past week. When the ride was over I felt like I hadn't even ridden, which suggests my fitness is improving.

I averaged 197 watts for the ride, but my normalized power was 269w. The difference can be attributed to the coasting.

I followed the ride with a 2 mile brick run. Effort-wise, I felt like I was running 10 minute miles, but when I looked at the data, I ran the first mile in 7:48 and the second mile in 7:47. Though I felt great, my shins still hurt so cut the run there.