Iron Run Simulation Lite

Friday was a 5.5 hr aerobic ride, and a bit of a Country/Western ride at that.  I dropped my chain twice, the power meter died, the Garmin battery ran out.  Then going up the last hill home, the chain shifted into the spokes and I keeled over onto the pavement, getting a bit of road rash. 

Upon arriving home, I was relieved to see that the dog was still alive and Karen hadn't left me for a Texas cowpoke.    

I worked last night, then put in a 2.25 hr run.  To make it interesting, I figured I'd divide it in thirds, start out easy, go medium, then see if I had enough to kick it up to a higher gear for the last part.  Poker run versus progressive.  Pace for both "laps" 1 and 2 felt sustainable. Lap 3 effort was with the finish in mind: I knew I couldn't keep it up much longer than the scheduled end of the run.  It went pretty much as planned, but that higher gear was more of an RPE increase than a speed increase, as my legs were tired and the Mercury had climbed from 81 to 91 degrees.  Still able to drink water/infinit for last part, just not as much, and probably not enough for a run of more than a few miles.  Here's my little Excel breakdown:



The segment time and the time per mile differed with either segments less than one mile or water bottle refill stops, of which there were many.  17-20 ft/mile up or down changed my pace by about 20 sec/mile, so I adjusted accordingly to get an estimated flat pace.  I was pretty happy both with the overall pace and the fact that the first 2 laps felt very sustainable in terms of HR, muscular endurance, and ability to get enough fluid/calories onboard.