Tyler’s Training: Week of December 16, 2013

Weekly Summary – 113 Miles in 14 Runs (basically 6 days). A great week with a very solid (though bonked) 22-mile long run and a good track workout on Saturday. Travel on Sunday broke the week up, but still very solid. T-17 weeks to Boston!

Lunes, 16 Diciembre, 2013 – 10am: Slept late and ran easy to the park and one big loop. Felt okay, a bit sore from yesterday still in the feet and legs, but not too bad. Total run 13km, 8M+ in 65’.

5pm: Moved this afternoon!! Ran from my amazing new apartment on the Carolina! Couldn’t be happier about the location (and the internet!) Felt very good and ran a bit quicker. Total run 12km, 7M++ in 53’.

XT: Hips

Martes, 17 Diciembre, 2013 – 8am: Great sleep last night in the new place! Super pumped to be here. Cup of coffee and then easy run. Pretty sore this morning so very easy regeneration. Ran up to Bicentenario – which somehow I still hadn’t been to in the 4 months that I’ve been here. A nice place, if a bit weird. It used to be Quito’s airport and is now being turned into a park, but still doesn’t feel that different from going running on an airport tarmac. Great views of the city though! Total run 13km, 8M+ in 64’.

3:30pm: Ran two big laps of the Carolina at a good clip ~35’ for 8km and then over to the Nacionas Unidas hill to do some long sprints. Stopped and did full drills and then ran 5x350m hills at max effort. Very, very hard, but felt better than last time. Walk down rest ~5’. Very hard to recover from these at altitude. Felt strong though. Jogged back very easy and then did leg circuits. Total run 14km 8M++, in 1’20

XT: Leg circuits. Unweighted again to work on form and because I don’t have a gym membership yet. Used a broomstick to practice holding the bar on lunges and squats.

Miercoles, 18 Diciembre, 2013 – 8am: Busy day, so ran an early and short 5M around the park. Shakeout, felt fine. Total run 5M in 40’.

4:30pm: Took the bus down to Santo Domingo to see if it’s a reasonable place to train at closer to sea level (around 1500 ft). Ran from Hostal Jennifer (a reasonable place) around town and then out and back on the road to Quevedo. Pretty trafficky but hopefully just because it was rush hour. Total run 9M+ in 1’09.

XT: Upper body, 3 sets of pushups, dips, back raises.

Jueves, 19 Diciembre, 2013 – 6am: Up at 4:30am to run before it got too hot. Left basically as soon as th sun came up. It was already quite humid and warm in the mid 60s-70F, but there was a light drizzle which made it feel reasonable.

Wanted to do about 35km (22 miles) today to see if it was a feasible place to come back in a few weeks and do some faster long run that would be hard or impossible to pull off at altitude in Quito.

Luckily, at 6am it wasn’t too hot or crowded on the roads so I was able to head out without too much trouble. The road is long and rolling downhill all the way to Quevedo (about 100km away). I was planning to run out and back, so it’d be down on the way out and up on the way back (similar to how Boston starts with some downhill in the first half and then the Newton hills in the latter stages).

I felt surprisingly decent at the beginning And was running at a good clip for the first 5M or so. At that point, I see a ton of traffic backed up one way and after a few minutes, I find that two 18-wheelers had had a head-on collision and were on their sides with smoke billowing out and the contents of their back ends spilled all over the road. Not seeing a good way to get around, I decided to turn back and simply run out and back twice to this point.

I thought it would be much harder running back up, but I felt a lot better than I’d expected. The pace was essentially the same going up as it had been going down, bringing me to 10M at 6’20 pace and feeling very comfortable. At that point, I turned around and headed back out (down) again. Still feeling fine and even more relaxed running down now, I made it back to the truck accident in no-time and this time was able to get around and continue down. I ran to 24km out (15M) at which point I was on 6’18 pace.

From there, I turned around and started to feel the uphill a lot more than the first time. Those last 6-7M felt pretty rough between the long uphill slog and the fact that I’d been running for close to two hours on an empty stomach. I kept it pretty reasonable until I really hit the wall around 30km (18.6M). The last 5k or so, I was struggling just to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

I lost 7sec/mile over the last 2 miles alone, and 15 seconds/mile over the last 7 mile, uphill section. It was not a pretty finish, but it was a valuable experience. The marathon is a very long race and I need to get to the point where I have a respect and understanding of that distance.

All in all, this was a fine effort, especially given that I ran a good-paced 20 miler at altitude 4 day prior. It was also valuable as a scouting mission in getting down to sea level, which I think will be super valuable moving forward. I’m getting into new territory with these long runs, so it’s exciting but at the same time a little nerve-wracking.

Total run was 22 miles in 2’24’35 (6’34/mile, 4’05/km)

3’56 (6’20) at 10M
3’55 (6’18) at 15M
4’00 (6’27) at 20M
4’05 (6’34) at 22M

Splits:
1. 6’33
2. 12’31 (6’08)
3. 18’46 (6’15)
4. 24’53 (6’07)
5. 31’25 (6’32)
6. 37’33 (6’08)
7. 44’09 (6’36)
8. 50’32 (6’23)
9. 57’08 (6’36)
10. 1’03’20 (6’12)
11. 1’09’31 (6’11)
12. 1’15’48 (6’17)
13. 1’22’15 (6’27)
14. 1’28’24 (6’09)
15. 1’34’41 (6’17)
16. 1’41‘15 (6’34)
17. 1’48’03 (6’48)
18. 1’54’42 (6’39)
19. 2’01’44 (7’04)
20. 2’09’04 (7’20)
21. 2’16’46 (7’42)
22. 2’24’35 (7’49)

6pm: Made it back to Quito after a stressful trip to the vet with Laika. Very slow shakeout around the park. Felt better after but not very fun. Total run 5km in 30’.

After a muddy, drizzly, 22-mile long run in Santo Domingo, Ecuador.

Viernes, 20 Noviembre, 2013 -10am: Slept late after a long day yesterday. True Kenyan style recovery day, starting out at probably over 9’ pace as I ran up to parque metropolitano. Someho I’d never been up there. It’s really beautiful and pretty decent trails, but quite steep in some parts, so not ideal for anything other than easy running. Did a big loop in there and then came down eloy Alfaro and around the Carolina one lap. Total run 15km+, 9M++ in 1’17.

4pm: Easy run around then park to start and then was planning to run all the way to the Mercado in the mariscal to buy some last minute xmas gifts, but there were a bunch of booth set up right at the corner of Alfaro and Amazonas, so I got what I needed there, dropped it off, and then did two big laps of the park. Finished at iñaquitos to grab some groceries. Total run 14km, 8M++ in 1’07.

XT: Hips (don’t lie). A bit uncomfortable on my hard tile floor. I’ve gotta get a mat. My butt is boney.

Sabado, 21 Diciembre, 2013 – 7:30am: Early and easy shakeout in the park, pre-workout. Total run 6km (3M+++) in 30’.

11am: Mid day workout at the track. Straight out of Canova’s Fundamental Period today. The workout was a series of 400m at around marathon pace with the “rest” between intervals being 30 seconds of explosive circuits (butt kicks, high knees, skipping, etc.). The reps were broken up into 3 sets of 5x reps with a long 3’ jog between sets.

Warmed up 5km around the park easy and then did full drills, strides 2x200m to try to get the feel of the pace.

Workout ended up going very well. A lot harder than I expected. It was really more like recovering during the MP segments from the explosive work. Each set of 5x400m really felt like one long interval with no real recovery until the break between sets. Managed to keep the pace fairly consistent. Brought it down a bit on the last set and closed very hard. Felt great.

Cooled down quick 5k at around 22’. Did leg strength immediately after cooldown

Total run 12M+.

Splits

2x200m (90s jog): 37.4, 39.0
5x400m (30s explosive in between): 78.5, 78.7, 77.1, 79.0, 78.3
3’00 jog
5x400m (30s explosive in between): 79.3, 79.4, 79.0, 79.0, 78.2
3’00 jog
5x400m (30s explosive in between): 80.3, 78.5, 77.0, 76.3, 61.7

XT: Legs. Probably the last time unweighted as I’ll start going to the gym when I get back. Form on everything is getting very good though, and legs were tired enough that it felt like a good effort.

3:30pm: Afternoon run to get in a bit more mileage for the day since the next few days might be busy (and to shake out before a long night of travel). Very easy. Felt better after. Total run 9km, 5M++ in 46’.

Domingo, 22 Diciembre, 2013 – AM: OFF, travel, arrive Boston. No sleep.

3pm: Very easy shakeout run with Mariana from Tufts. Ran c-loop + and then did drills and a few long strides in the street to loosen up. Felt good to get out and move around. Still super tired though. Good company though. Total run 4M, NT.

XT: Pushups – 4 sets of 30x.