The week of May 25–31

This was a short week on purpose. I was away from Friday evening to Monday evening for the long weekend, which cost a couple of sessions and the long ride. Even so it stayed busy: eleven sessions, something on all seven days, just under eight hours.

That is down from twelve sessions and a little over ten hours the week before, and almost all of the difference is the bike. The previous week leaned on a long Sunday ride and a stack of indoor spins. This week there was no long ride and four spins instead of six, so roughly two and a half hours of easy aerobic time simply did not happen. That is the first thing a travel weekend takes, and it is the cheapest thing to add back.

Running went the other way. Five runs for 38 km, up from four runs and 31. The road work is the part that travels, so it carried the week: a rolling-300s session on Monday holding 5:00/km reps, an easy 11 km midweek, and a pyramid of intervals away from home on Saturday that opened at 3:50/km. The habit held even when the routine did not.

The shape of the effort barely moved. Just under 80 percent of the tracked time sat in Z1 or Z2, 16 percent in Z3, and Z5 was essentially nothing again, well under a minute across the whole week. That is the same base-engine distribution as the week before, carried into a week with less time in it. More volume at the same easy bias is the plan, and the bias held even when the volume dipped.

What I am happiest about is that this is starting to feel like a rhythm. The sessions are routine now and I am recovering between them, which is the thing that has to be true before the hours can climb. From here the aim is to build toward fifteen hours a week, adding it back mostly as easy bike and run volume, and only as fast as the body takes it without niggles.