Tyler’s Training, Week of March 31, 2014

Weekly Summary – 104 miles in 12 runs. The last week over 100 miles and the last long effort until Marathon Monday. Two great workouts and starting to really cut the mileage now! 8 more days in Quito and 2 weeks to Race Day!

Lunes, 31 Marzo, 2014 – 9am: Woke up naturally earlier, before 8am. Feeling good. Beautiful morning – sunny and clear – so ran up to Parque Metropolitano and did a long exploratory run on the hilly trails up in the eucalyptus forests. Really joyful and beautiful run with some amazing views of the snow-capped volcanoes which have been clouded over most of the last month or so. Really fun and just happy to be outside. Finished with a half lap of the park and stretching in the grass and sun. Happy to be alive in this place today. Total run 11M- in 79’

4pm: Easy-moderate run around the park. 2.5 big laps and then to the track. Stopped and did full drills on the grass, then 5x ~120m strides on grass, 3x 150m on the track, and 1x200m timed in 29.x. Walk/jog rest between everything, full recovery. Felt great and fast.

Total run 12km+, 7.5M+

XT: Off.

Martes, 4 Abril, 2014 – 11am: Originally had this workout planned for tomorrow, but I ran into Antonio yesterday who offered to help me by coming on the bike to help with pace and fluids. He had recommended running the workout on a trail outside of the city called “el chaquiñan” – an old rail-trail which has been converted into a bike/walking/running trail. The footing is good (similar to Battle Road in Concord/Lexington for my Bostonian readers), though much hillier as it traces the rim of a canyon, occasionally dipping down and back up. It’s also significantly lower than Quito at only 7,500 ft (only!), which makes running faster a bit easier, especially in a long workout like today’s.

We drove down to the trailhead and got started at around 11am. It was already pretty hot – in the 70s and sunny, as it’s been more and more the last few days. We brought one big bottle of Gatorade and a bottle of water for drinking/cooling.

This was to be the last long run of the block – with the exception of a particularly hard and long run on April 21st… The “meat” of the workout was 24km (15 miles) of fartlek – alternating 1km at a moderate pace (~3’35-45 or 5’45-6’00/mile) and 1km fast (~3’04-3’10 or 4’55-5’05/mile). In addition to this, we’d run a moderate 10km (6M+) before to make the total of the run ~22 miles.

The first 10km felt good, though I already felt very warm. I ran a comfortable 39’, enjoying the new scenery and trail and chatting casually. At 10km, I took Gatorade for the first time and then went into the fartlek portion.

This was quite hard, especially to maintain focus in the later stages. The constant changing of pace every 3-4 minutes kept me from ever really getting into a rhythm, especially on a new trail and undulating terrain. Still, I tried to use the first few reps to ease into the work and didn’t feel like I was really in the meat-n-bones until about 15-20km.

By the second half, I was feeling very hot and using water to cool almost every rep (2km) and taking Gatorade every 3-4km. The last few were very tough, but I was still hitting the pace and could feel the finish at that point. Overall, the “fast” kms averaged 3’06.0 (4’59/mile) while the “moderate” km averaged 3’38.9 (5’52/mil). The total of the fartlek was 24km (15M) in 1’20’59 (5’26/3’22 avg).

With a short cool-down back to the car, the total for the run was 36km in 2’09’00 (5’46/mile, 3’35/km avg).

I was super dehydrated and glad to have more fluids in the car as I immediately drank a 600mL gatorade and then went and got a big juice. Still thirsty and drinking constantly the rest of the day. Lost a lot of water!

Overall, though, a super solid workout and a great place to leave my long runs. I probably won’t run much more than 10M at once from this point out. I’ve got 19 days and the focus now is on staying healthy, maintaining current form, and making my legs feel GOOD. That’s all!

Total run 36km, 22M+ in 2’09’00.

Splits:
10k: 39’00
(FARTLEK)
11k: 42’50 (3’49.1)
12k: 45’56 (3’06.8)
13k: 49’33 (3’36.9)
14k: 52’42 (3’08.3)
15k: 56’19 (3’37.7)
16k: 59’27 (3’07.8)
17k: 1’03’04 (3’37.0)
18k: 1’06’10 (3’06.3)
19k: 1’09’50 (3’39.2)
20k: 1’12’55 (3’05.3)
21k: 1’16’34 (3’38.9)
22k: 1’19’40 (3’05.9)
23k: 1’23’17 (3’37.3)
24k: 1’26’22 (3’04.9)
25k: 1’30’00 (3’38.1)
26k: 1’33’06 (3’06.2)
27k: 1’36’44 (3’37.5)
28k: 1’39’52 (3’07.9)
29k: 1’43’29 (3’37.2)
30k: 1’46’32 (3’05.3)
31k: 1’50’12 (3’38.0)
32k: 1’53’18 (3’06.1)
33k: 1’56’56 (3’37.2)
34k: 1’59’59 (3’03.3)
(COOLDOWN)
36k: 2’09’00 (9’00)

Fartlek: 24km in 1’20’59 (5’26/mi, 3’22/km)
Avg “ON” = 3’06.0 (4’59/mile)
Avg “OFF”= 3’38.9 (5’52/mile)
Total: 36km in 2’09’00 (5’46/mile, 3’35/km)

5:30pm: Very easy shakeout around the park. A bit sore from the morning. Total run 3M-, 4km+. 25 miles for the day

XT: OFF.

Miercoles, 2 Abril, 2014 – 10am: Slept late, very tired from yesterday’s long run in the heat. Ran very easy shakeout around the park, 2 big laps and to the market and back. Total run 10km, 6M+ in 51’.

3pm: Easy-shakeout around the park and then down to La Marin to do some grocery shopping. Felt much better. Total run 7M+.

XT: Hips.

Jueves, 3 Abril, 2014 – 10am: Woke up feeling good. A beautiful day, so I decided to go back to el Chaquiñan. Ran to the bus and then bussed over and then ran 11M+ out/back. Super beautiful day. Very clear, trail was empty. Great run. Running fast down hill ~3’40 at the end. Wow. Total run 14M+ in 1’40.

PM: OFF, just XT. Tapering is weird.

XT: Core, 15’.

Viernes, 4 Abril, 2014 – 10am: Easy run around the park. Finished at the track and did full barefoot drills and 6x long strides on grass. Felt good. Ran back after. Total run 7M+.

3pm: Ran down to La Marin. Kept pace easy, regeneration. Total run 4M.

XT: OFF.

Sabado, 5 Abril, 2014 – 11am: Jogged over to bus and then took the bus down to Cumbaya to work out at el chaquiñan again. Warmed up some more once I got there to loosen up from the bus ride, but it´s probably good to practice starting my hard efforts not being totally warmed up. (The Marathon will probably be a crazy circus at the start).

Workout for today was 10km progression run with 5km (net) uphill and then 5km (net) downhill. I’d be doing it on the section of the Chaq. path which is about 10km of gradual rolling uphill, so an out and back on that.

I did some drills and a few strides and then started.

I wanted to start off feeling pretty relaxed and wasn’t sure how pace would turn out since up-hill at altitude (el chaq is 7,500 ft) still feels pretty tough aerobically. I was surprised to see my first km quite fast (3’17) and then relaxed into a pace of about 3’25-40 for the next 4km, reaching 5km and the “top” at 17’22.

I turned around and really picked up the turn-over and was running very fast downhill. The breathing was very calm and it was mostly a matter of muscularly forcing my legs to turn over as fast as they could. I was running ~2’55-3’10 pace for the most part. I didn’t change the effort much (no real kick). I finished in 32’38 for 10km (15’15 second 5k).

I grabbed some water wish I’d stashed at the start and mostly used it to cool off – and wash off. There were a bunch of swarms of black gnats which mostly ended up plastered to my stomach, chest, arms, and face. It was pretty gross.

Jogged back up to the bus and headed back to Quito. Overall, a solid effort, but not too intense. Just good to get the legs moving and do some longer downhill running at faster than MP.

Total run 13M+.

Splits:
1k: 3’17.1
2k: 6’44.5 (3’27.4)
3k: 10’13.7 (3’29.1)
4k: 13’54.5 (3’40.9)
5k: 17’22.6 (3’28.1)
6k: 20’33 .1 (3’10.5)
7k: 23’29.0 (2’55.9)
8k: 26’31.9 (3’02.9)
9k: 29’33.9 (3’02.0)
10k: 32’38.5 (3’04.6)

PM: Off, XT only.

XT: Hips.

Domingo, 6 Abril, 2014 – 10am: Ran on the ciclopaseo. Legs felt very good even with yesterday’s workout. Started off slow but was running quick (3’50-4’10) up the big hill and then even quicker (3’35-40) down the hill. Took it a bit easier coming back into town. Finished at the market to get some veggies. Total run 12km, 7.5M in 46’.

3pm: Short run around the park. Felt very good again. Running quick. Legs starting to feel super light and fresh almost every day. Total run 5km, 3M+ in 20’.

XT: Core, 15’.