Butte 100 Training – 10 Weeks to Race

Week 10 Review – May 21 to May 27

Last week was a big week and ended with the 5-hour ride in the North Georgia Mountains. It definitely feels like the beginning of the next phase.

This week I drop out one of the running sessions and replace it with a bike session.

The beginning of the week had trainer stuff then I move on to outside sessions

Whoop Results

Whoop Stats for week 10.

Here are my Whoop tracker stats.  I suppose one way you can look at it is the stats for my body,  how much effort, how well I recover, and how much I sleep each week.

This week I did much better on sleep averaging 6 hours 15 minutes per night instead of 5hours 53 minutes per night.

When I look at the strain on my body for the week it was about the same as last week 15.7 vs 15.8.

Better Sleep times Same Effort = Better Recovery

Hopefully, my improved recovery is a direct factor of move sleep because my recovery went from 56% to 65%.

Hopefully this week I can improve the trend of more sleep, it is not always easy but it is important.

Daily Training Session Details

Monday

Rest Day

Tuesday

Workout: Outdoor Recovery Run — 1hr + 8X20sec strides

Description: Very easy + strides over the last 15min. Full recovery between strides

Results: Ran this one by myself, might have been better.  I was still recovering from the 5plus hours of riding a mountain bike on the roads in the north Georgia mountains.

I was still sore from the weekend and it felt like everything was slow and sluggish. Also felt like my heart rate was higher than it usually is for this loop.

I do know that my pace was slower than normal and I skipped the stride intervals at the end.

It was tough but I did get 1 hour of recovery running in. So that should count for something.

Wednesday

Workout: Indoor Bike Trainer — Muscle Tension 5x4min into 5X30sec Sprints

Description:

• warm up: 10min easy + 4X30sec “sprints” w/ 1min RBI
• main: 5X 4min MT (50 RPM). RBI= 2min very easy
• 5min easy spin
• 5X30sec “sprints” w/ 30sec RBI
• cooldown: 10min easy

Results: Everything went well in this session except my count was off and I missed one of the 4-minute sessions. Actually, I think I did (4) 5-minute sessions rather than (5) 4-minute sessions.  Either way, I still put in a good amount of work.

I think as I did more of the muscle tensions sessions I was increasing the resistance. As I got closer to the end I could tell that I have enough in me to stick it out to the end and not blow up.

In the end, the sprint intervals went well and put in some solid effort.

Thursday

Workout: Indoor Bike Trainer — Steady State Intervals 3x10min

Description: Aim for 228w avg for 3X10min SS intervals. RPE should be 8 out of 10 (hard).

Results: Session went well. As I realized I could make through all the sessions at 228W I started to increase the resistance.

Enjoyed the longer intervals, however, I was glad when they were complete.

Friday

Workout: Outdoor Mountain Bike Ride — Recovery Miles 90min

Description: Very easy ride today. Plan A: MTB ride trails. Plan B: MTB roads. Plan C: Trainer w/ 12X45sec Fast Pedal (120+ RPM). 45sec RBI

Results: I was able to make the outdoor ride happen.  Got it in at the end of the day.  I headed over to the trails at Sope Creek.

I rode the full figure 8 twice plus one loop of the top half.  Not sure I rode this at the easiest pace but all was feeling well and it was more fun to push it.

I also learned that the lower loop friday direction has a big / fantastic climb.  During the climb both times I go my HR up to 170.  A lot of effort but it all felt great.

Looking forward to riding these trails again.

Saturday

Workout: Outdoor Mountain Bike Ride — Endurance MTB + 3X10min SS hill repeats

Description: Perform 3X10min SS intervals up a sustained hill climb (Road or trail). RBI= 2min very easy. Endurance riding to round out 2hrs

Results: Sad News.  This session did not happen.  It was a holiday weekend and just was not the time to get the session in.  On the plus side, we went to a sustainable area called Serenbee.  This felt a bit like people who felt more comfortable being in the matrix, but that is for another blog post.

Anyway, I did not get the session in but it was due to external factors, not just skipping it.

Sunday

Workout: Outdoor Mountain Bike Ride — Endurance Miles 5hrs

Description: Aim for 4-5hrs… conversational riding over a hilly route. Longer the climbs the better

Results: I got in an almost five-hour mountain bike session at blankets creek. A friend joined up with me for part of it.  I got in about 1 hour of riding then he joined up, we rode for a couple of hours together, then I finished off the day with another 1.5 hours.

The ride was good, and I could definitely feel the wear and tear during the ride. I tried to focus on keeping moving and staying focused and in control after a big climb giving you an elevated heart rate.  I feel like a good skill to have is the ability to stay focused and calm your body after or during a technical section.

I also worked on improving the lines I take.  Sometimes I would look for the easy and other times I would aim for the roots and more challenging ones.

After repeating the loops I could tell how well I was going through the different sections. I am sure as I ride more, I will get it dialed in even better.

It was a good day, also tiring.  I was pretty sore at the end and very sore the next day.

Fuel. 

Started out the day eating a couple bananas and avocados before the start.  Over the course of the 5 hours, I drank 100fl ounces.  not sure if that is the right amount but that is what I had.

Along with a couple of bananas during the ride, I had about 4 GU gels.  I feel like I needed more calories but I was able to finish the ride fine.

Wrap Up

After a solid week of training, it is onto the next week.  I am about to crack into single digits with the week count.  The race is definitely getting closer.