Butte 100 Training – 11 Weeks to Race

Week 11 Review – May 14 to May 20

Another solid week of training, well past my injured leg but I still have a small-sized knot on my leg.

The week had a 1 hour run on Tues, power intervals on bike trainer on Wed, 1 hour run on Thurs, 2-hour mtb session on Fri and Sat with a 5-hour session on Sunday.

Still trying to get all the data stuff synced between garmin and training peaks. It goes pretty well but as soon as I added a wahoo bolt things got confusing.  So some of the data might be a bit off but oh well.

Whoop Results

For those who are not familiar with Whoop, it is like a fit bit times 100. It tracks your heart rate variability, keeps up with you effort each day, how much you sleep you get, how well you sleep and how well your body has recovered.

This is a great tool to see how much strain you put on your body and how well your recover. If you have recoved well then feel free to put in more effort, if you have not recovered well, then you better get more sleep.

My Whoop Stat for week 11.

As you can see Friday, Saturday and Sunday were big days, and Saturday night, I did not get much sleep, combined with having to wake up early to drive to North Ga.

Daily Training Session Details

Monday

Rest Day – Some of my favorite days.

Tuesday

1-hour recovery run.

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

Results: Ran the normal Indian hills loop, everything felt good.

Wednesday

50min bike trainer session with 8 by 2-minute power intervals

• 10-minute warmup
• 2 minutes at 274w
• 2 minutes recovery at 114W
• Repeat 8 times
• Recovery for 10 minutes

Results: Everything felt good, the past few sessions I have been using the bike gears to control the tension rather than the setting it in the trainer.  I think this does well, it keeps me focused on the pedaling and effort.  Not quite as high tech as the trainer doing the thinking for you but it keeps your head in the game.

Thursday

Another 1 hour 5 AM run of the normal Indian Hills loop. Everything felt good and it was a nice evenly paced run

Friday

Outdoor Mountain Bike Session This was supposed to be 2 hours but work got in the way.  The important thing was I got in 1 hour.

I rode at Sope Creek trails, this is near the Chattahoochee and more importantly not too far from my house. I wore an action camera for the first time.  Once I get the video together I will link to it.

It was a good ride, the trails were a little damp but not bad. For whatever reason, the 2nd and 3rd loops felt better.

All in All, it was a good ride, except for work getting in the way

Saturday

Outdoor Mountain Bike Session – 2 hours on the mountain bike with 8 2-minute hill intervals.

It rained some this week so I was not sure about the trails.  I drove up to Blankets creek, the sign said trails closed but a guy there said he got an email saying the trails were open.  With it being in debate I turned the session into part road, part trail.

There is a big neighborhood hill that I found to get the 2-minute intervals. I got 8 of them in then put in some time riding along the streets.  I did one loop on the dwelling trail, then some more road work then another loop on dwelling and called it a day.  All in all, I was out for about 3 hours with 2 hours and change of riding time.

Sunday

5 hours riding in the mountains this is the big day of the week.  5 hours riding in the mountains, on paved roads, on a mountain bike.

For this ride, I decided on 3Gap.  This is a pretty well known loop and part of a larger 6 Gap 100 mile ride.  for 3 Gap there is about a 10-mile approach to the main loop, then 35 miles of mountain roads with several long climbs, then back to the approach road for a 10-mile ride back to the start.

There were some definite big climbs, I just put it into the 2nd or 3rd easiest gear and worked my way up the mountain.

One of the well-known gaps is Neel gap. It is next to Blood Mountain and on the Appalachian Trail. They have a great store, with water and a great view. When I made it to the top, I stopped, filled up my backpack with water and took a quick look around.

Then it was down the hill with a left turn to head up to Wolf Pen Gap, which is another substantial climb. This climb might have been shorter but after Neels Gap, I was feeling it a bit more. Made it to the top and had a banana.

The rest of the ride was good, most of the climbing was behind me so I worked my way through the route and headed back home.

It was a long day, and my whole body felt it.  There was not one section that hurt more than the rest so that is pretty good.

I suppose this is the first of many long days on the mountain bike.