Random Banter

 I don't know why but as of late I've really been enjoying reading and writing.  I've always been a good reader, a fast reader, but I find myself slowing down as I read and really paying attention to the craft of writing or just not skimming as much.  As such this spurred me on to do a brief search of some online blogs that I might be able to read on a daily basis or even a weekly basis. But what I found, on my brief search, was that no on blogs anymore. What was a blog is now a full on business and as much as I can admire people doing that I just can't seem to people who are writing about "stuff" on a daily or weekly basis.  In some cases these haven't been updated in years.   I've never been good about keeping a consistent schedule of writing so for those that do, and I'm sure there are still a few out there, congratulations to you.  You are a diamond in the rough in my mind.   Maybe this lack of other blogs will cause me to post more even ...

 As the title suggests I wonder if I'm over doing it.  I felt pretty tired over last weeks up hill session (6x30 seconds up with 90 seconds recovery).  That was on Monday I believe and the rest of the week just felt kind of blah. And that was the case with today as well where I had another work out.  It's something I am definitely watching as I try to get back into some sort of shape.  I don't want to over work my thyroid or boost my cortisol levels to high.  Even though I'm staying with in that 80/20 realm I wonder if I need to be more of 90/10.  Or perhaps I'm just not sleeping as well as I thought I was.  I know I've said it before and I'll say it again...It's something I'm going to watch.   I think I'll switch to the 90/10 or at least 85/15 and see how that works for me.  Additionally I think I might make my workouts shorter and then just include some faster pace work in my long run.  I know it's not going to be easy but I'...

 I have just completed my 10th week of training and overall I think I'm getting faster.  I don't have any races, yet, to be sure about that but the training I'm doing looks like I'm overall faster. And this is at the same critical power that I've had before.  I think it's a combination of things that has made this happen.  Losing weight - I'm carrying around 10-15 lbs less. Additionally I think some of that weight has also been transferred to muscle which is helping.  Getting thyroid in check - As of my last blood draw, March, my numbers were as low as they ever had been.  So I think that's helped out a lot.  I know that I've had much more energy.  I'm hopeful that the training I'm doing right now does not bump it up again (ie: I'm not over doing it).  I didn't realize this but I was listening to the Kara Goucher and Des Linden podcast a few weeks ago and apparently this drug I'm on is controversial in the running world for helpin...

 As is typical for me I've dropped off on writing.  But I'm back for a short update.   Weeks 6, 7 and 8 all went well.  Week 8 was a lower volume week with a critical power test thrown in at the end of it.  I managed to increase my critical power from 261 to 296 which seems about right.  It might be a bit high but only time will tell.  Doing this 3 week build and then a lower week with a critical power test at the end of it seems to be suiting me well.  Now I'm under no illusion that my critical power will continue to go up and up and up but so far it's been nice.  I've only done one run at this new power and I think it's the right setting. Previously I knew that 261 was a bit low as when I'd do certain runs they just felt to easy.  However when I was attempting to run in zone 2 yesterday morning it felt like I was doing work and not just putting in the motions.  So I think that's a good thing.  We will know more in about ...

So I just finished week 5 of training on Saturday.  This is the first week after our "deload" week.  It was easy.  The amount of work was a bit more than my week two training.  I'm trying to stair step up my time and not push it to hard. Each 4th week I kind of back off an do a CP test at the end of that week.  The first time around I took off the Monday from running but I'm not sure yet if I will do that this time around.  Time will tell. The biggest thing about this week is that I was able to input a couple of my runs that I did outside that were faster and a critical power test and my power jumped WAY up (my watch wasn't syncing with Stryd).  I went from 193 CP (LOL!) up to 261 CP I believe.  So I'm now running about where I think I should be. Saturday was my first day running at this power and it felt good.  Felt like I was doing something! Most of the running was in high zone 1 and low zone 2.  I'm really trying to take things easy....

 After a long break I'm back to running and I've got that itch.  I just want to run all the time!  I'm sure at some point every runner is like this. Things feel good and all of the races seem possible.  I'm not putting many miles in at this point.  I'm just building back up.  Currently maybe 6-8 miles per week...yeah not a lot.  Hopefully that becomes more over time but I also don't want to rush things.   I spent some time, after I started running again, reflecting on my hypothyroidism and I think part of that has to do with my running and not cycling things.  I wasn't getting any better or faster as I was training and I think I was just over trained all of the time.  So as I head into this next running season, if you will, I'm really paying attention to how I feel and making sure that I don't go overboard.  It also helps that I'm getting blood draws every 3-4 months to make sure things are staying good.  On top of that I ...

 Another week is in the books.  I'd love to say that I have lost a bunch of weight this last week but that is not the case.  While it didn't go up it didn't go down by as much as I had wanted.  The lowest weight that I saw on the scale was 214.6.  So it's still down from the 217.6 that I started at.  However today when I got on the scale I was at 216 which I've seen before.  Not sure why but that's what it is.  The lack of weight loss in the past would bother me, and it still does now, but I'm happy that I'm off of my blood pressure medication.  Numbers have been looking really good (this morning's was a bit higher than what I've seen however).  While the weight isn't going down I feel like I'm putting on some muscle, even if it's a small amount! I'm hopeful that at some point the weight will come off and I can begin to see onederland!  It's going to take time and some experimentation to get there.   A couple of things to ...