First up, here is the data from Saturday's run test. CV, let me know if it's not legible when enlarged - when I look at the size of the image prior to publishing this post the data is really small, but I expect the chart becomes enlarged when clicked.

Miles 1-10 are labeled laps 2-11 (my warmup was lap 1), and the far right columns are average HR and max HR.

Anyhow, the conditions were good - 65 with a bit of sun and increasing but never substantial winds. Despite having a sore throat on Thursday and Friday, I was feeling good Saturday. I felt good during the warm-up and the first mile of the test. Actually, I felt good until probably the fifth mile of the test, but I had to slow after the first mile to maintain the target HR. My PE for the first five miles was very low - maybe 5 out of 10. I had to consciously hold myself back to keep my HR down. Indeed, I had to slow so much that my stride didn't feel natural. Maybe my slight sickness elevated my HR? I believe I can normally run much faster than 7:4X at 145 bpm.

At mile 5, I suddenly felt pretty crappy. I briefly thought maybe I'd be better off scrapping the test in case my body was trying to tell me that it was too stressed, but I felt better a few minutes later. My aerobic PE continued to stay really low (still at a 5), but muscularly my PE went up to maybe 7 around miles 6-7 and 8 after that.

I cut the three hour ride (after setting up my trainer and mounting my bike, including changing to the yellow trainer tire) due to time constraints. I didn't worry too much about it since the schedule said to lose some fitness and I was worried about the sickness.

Today's ride was four hours easy followed by 15 minutes of running. I took it easy, not paying much attention to HR or power. My power didn't get too high - only 10 minutes over 270 W and 16 minutes between 240 and 270 W. 174 W average at about 125 bpm (I say about because that was the average for the first half and my CPU didn't automatically re-find my HR strap after a nature break...I had cadence displaced so I didn't notice that HR wasn't being recorded). I felt absolutely great for the first two hours, and my legs were getting a bit tired by four.

Here is some HR data I recorded from the first loop of the half marathon at the end of the Triple-T last weekend. After a challenging but well paced bike ride, I started the run really easy. My HR was pretty low up to the turnaround, but raised during the climp following the turnaround. Even though the race is predominately downhill once the post-turnaround climb is summited, my HR didn't drop much. Since I inadvertently stopped recording instead of pressing "lap" at the halfway point, I don't know my data for the second half. If I had to guess, I'd say my HR was to the high 160's for the next half lap and low 170's for the final half lap. Finally, Stacey and I are improving the quality of our diet. I finished the last of my homemade granola today, and do not plan on making any more (okay, I don't plan on begging Stacey to make me more). Not that our diet was too bad, but we'll do our best to keep it perfect for the next seven weeks.

The plan is to totally cut grains, legumes, and dairy, leaving fruits, veggies, lean meat, and certain nuts. We'll have sports "nutrition" during workouts over a certain duration (perhaps an hour and 15 minutes), and we'll follow up workouts with some high GI carbs, with long workouts (~ 2 hours or more) followed immediately by recovery smoothies including dextrose and protein. We'll also include starchy veggies (most frequently a sweet potato or two, or a sweet potatoe or two if you're Dan Quayle). I'm also gonna do my best to cut my coffee intake to one cup from two or three.

We had relied on a lot of cereal for calories, so hopefully the change isn't too drastic, especially this close to our "A" race.