Marathon Season VI

I wasn't sure how this week would turn out, because of riding the Covered Bridge Metric Century last Sunday. Tuesday was speed work, and I did two sets of 6x400m. I thought I may have problems maintaining a 95 second pace, but I was actually able to do all of them around 85 seconds. My quads didn't seem to be affected by the ride. Wednesday was a cross-training day, and since I don't have any big rides coming up, I decided to put in a little pool work instead of biking. I swam 1000 yards, and then did some drills for a total of about 1500 yards. I made an equipment improvement that I was putting off due to modesty; I invested in a pair of lycra Speedos: the long kind, not short kind. I was amazed at the difference it made in swim performance, specifically the reduction in drag that is produced by wearing a "swimming suit." Thursday was tempo work, and again I had no problems. I ran 2 miles easy then 3 miles at 6:54 followed by 1 mile easy. Saturday was long-run day, and I was set to go 18 miles around an 8:00 min. pace. Started out well enough, and was under 8:00, but the 3 "H's" - hills, heat and humidity - put a hurting on me by mile 11. I managed to hang on to an 8:37 pace, but it was a struggle. The run left my quads in bad shape. I was planning on taking Sunday off, but late in the day I was able to get out for a bike ride. I was going to take it easy, but as I rode, I began to feel good, and ended up going over 18 miles and averaging 18.3 mph. It was a great way to salvage the weekend and make up for the sub par performance on Saturday.