Wednesday bike-run

1.5hr. trainer ride (zone 1); 5.2 mi. run, avg HR 153, avg pace 9:50

Ten minutes in between, probably, and the bike part (a two-Buffy ride!) was too easy to really be ideal as a brick. I must continue to tweak the trainer resistance--I had it where I could really comfortably keep a 90-95 cadence, but it just wasn't getting my HR high enough even in the heaviest possible gear. I do not think zone 1 is terribly useful, but on the other hand I just need ANY kind of time on the bike, so much better than nothing...

(Really obv. I must ride outside, I know it!)

The run was lovely, though; I felt really loose and comfortable once I got going. I think I am seeing the benefits of last week having been a recovery week? Also the temperature finally made it up into the 50s, I was running in short-sleeved shirt and triathlon shorts and still with daylight at 7pm, very good for morale...

I'm just going to have to scramble through the next few weeks doing as well as I can with the bike training. It is a very bad time of the school year to be trying to do something new and ambitious; I will have to see how it goes. It will sort itself out somehow--but there will certainly be considerable further procrastination!

Aside from the bike-specific concerns, I think I will be well-advised to put an emphasis in coming weeks on longish brick workouts where I am exercising at fairly comfortable intensities for two-and-a-half or three hours. This was two and a half and it felt great, I would have been happy to run for longer if I had not had to rush and get ready for a work dinner!

I'm going to do a short but more intense bike-run tomorrow, if I can fit it in. I felt this one today was good mental practice, even more than physical (that's why I wanted to run for closer to an hour rather than just doing two miles only and waiting to have my longer run tomorrow morning).

I was thinking about likely race scenarios--bike HR and pacing are on the whole going to be quite speculative, and the race is potentially very hot and humid so HRs at higher end. But the benefit of a slow and fairly easy bike ride is clear. I should be able to start the run still in reasonable condition as far as HR/fueling issues go (because if I'm biking at a lowish HR I can perfectly well eat and digest quite a bit of stuff while riding).

My usual HR for a half-marathon is mid-160s at, say, 8:50 pace, tipping up into the 170s for the last couple miles as I push it and pace goes to more like 8:20. This gives me some wiggle room to slow things down and still hope, even with the likelihood of serious heat and humidity, to keep things feeling pretty OK. I am thinking my goal is going to be 10:00 pace, but I am happy to go slower as needed--I will use 165 as a marker to tell me to go more slowly and try and keep myself really solidly in the mid-160s for the first two-thirds of the run, then pick up for last 3-4 miles if I still have anything in me at that point.

(Probably not, I would think I would be lucky just to hit and hold a kind of 10:00-10:30 pace, and all bets are off if it's super-humid--but that will be the idea!)

(I am excited! But I have a lot more preparation still to do, so impatience is conveniently hedged with urge to string it out for as long as possible...)