Weekly Summary – 77 miles in 13 runs. One great workout, one good workout, one “crappy” race. These are the first races of my “competition” phase – which will last for the next month or so. I’m 1 and 1 right now, with one race going super well and one going super poorly. Next week, I’ll be traveling down to Trujillo, Perú on Tuesday/Wednesday for a half marathon on Sunday. The extra days in town before the race should help familiarize me with the course, let me recover from the travel, and get used to the lower altitude. Here we go!

Lunes, 21 Octubre, 2013 – 9:30am: Ran 5km loop around the parks quicker than usual, legs felt good. After, changed into flats and did drills on dirt and then 5x hill sprints. First 3 up steeper shorter hill, last two longer and more gradual 150-200m. Felt super good. Jog rest by feel in between. Total run 4M+, NT.

5:30pm: Easy run, first 5km with a girl from the hostel very slow and then 5km solo quicker. Felt good, ran fast up the big hill. Total run 10km, 6M+, NT.

Martes, 22 Octubre, 2013 – 9am: Warm up to the track with a stop off at the migracion office to check on my legal status in the country (yay! I’m still legal!)

Drills and strides at the track and 200m easy in 34.7. Workout was 4x1000m with 2’ rest. Ks were supposed to be very easy ~altitude HMP. Felt great. Running sub-80s felt super relaxed, even with the short rest. First three were all fast (thought I’d be running about 3’20-25). All in the 3’teens. Last one went out very easy and then ran the last 400m hard. Hoping to run sub 72 and ran 66!! Wowwww. Felt awesome.

Cool down 6km back.

Total run 10M+.

Splits:
200m: 34.7
4x1000m, 2’ jog
1000m: 3’16.6
1000m: 3’18.9
1000m: 3’15.7
1000m: 3’10.0 (2’03.5, 66.5)

6pm: Easy 5km around el ejido. Felt okay. Total run 3M+, NT.

Miercoles, 23 Octubre, 2013 – 8am: Easy run to the park and back. Felt fine. Total run, 10km, 6M+.

6pm: Another easy run to the park and back. Drills and strides in the park (5x) on the grass and then 200m on the road in 31.x (in trainers). Felt great. Total run 11km, 7M+.

Jueves, 24 Octubre, 2013 – 8am: Easy shakeout around el ejido. Total run 5km, 3M+.

6pm: Storms came in late so I thought I might get struck by lightning on my warmup. Managed to make it to the track in one piece. Another Thursday night time trial/race tonight. The group (5 of us) were running a mile tonight.

Looking forward to this as I haven’t run hardly any intervals faster than 5’00 pace. I closed my 5k last week in 2’59, so I was pretty sure I could run under 4’50 in the mile, but my PR at this altitude was still 4’52. Mostly, I just wanted to finish with the front of the group and finish fast.

Did some strides and drills and 200m in 33.x.

Race went out pretty conservative in 72.x, right where I wanted it. Coach called out 71, 72 and I honestly thought it would be more like 75. Next lap M-A picked it up and the two of us were clear of the group by about 600m, coming to 800m in 2’23.0 (70.5 second lap). I stayed tucked back until about 100m when I moved around and began a hard surge with 500m to go. With 400m to go he was with me and I couldn’t shake him. I started feeling really bad at about 1100m but just pushed through to 200m and then went all out. Really brutal last 500m in terms of oxygen debt, but I guess I was running quick as last 400m was 67.3 for 4’42.2. Ended up pretty far ahead of M-A about 2 seconds over the last 500m.

Pretty fun race! A solid time and well run. Felt really bad in the last 500m, but I guess that’s to be expected in the mile…

By the way – according to NCAA conversion tables, 4’42.2 at 9300 ft. is worth 4’25.5! Not bad for not having done any mile paced work in 10 months….

Cooled down very easy 5km+ back to the house. Total run 10M+.

72.5
70.5 (2’23.0)
71.9 (3’34.9)
67.3 (4’42.2)

Viernes, 25 Octubre, 2013 – 9am: Easy shakeout around el ejido. Only a bit sore. Total run 5km, 3M+.

6pm: Frustrating day so not in a great mood. Easy run again. Total run 6km, 3M+, NT.

Sabado, 26 Octubre, 2013 – 9am: Easy shakeout around el ejido. Total run 5km, NT.

PM: Off, planned.

Domingo, 27 Octubre, 2013 – 7am: Up early around 4am for this morning’s race, Quito 10k. Had two cups of black coffee, about half a roll. Left the house around 6am thanks to a ride from my friend Ivan who offered to come get me. Got to the start late around 6:25am for a 7am start, so just headed out for a short warm-up.

Warmed up easy and short, only about 20’, dropped warmups off, went to the baño and then headed to the start. Did drills quickly and two short strides and then headed into the mass of people to try to get towards the start. It was 6:55am and it took me a few minutes to get to the front. I thought I’d have plenty of time, but literally right as I got to within 3 rows of the front, the gun went off at 6:57am. The ONE time Ecuadorians have ever been early…

Felt pretty good at the start. Relaxed and out the front with one other guy. Didn’t think I was running that fast, but I was (3’07.9 first km). Still felt pretty relaxed.

The course was extremely difficult. It was an out n back with the first 5km straight uphill of 150m (500 ft), with the hill getting steeper as it went. The first km was just slightly uphill, but still 3’07 was quite fast.

I had planned to relax these first 5km and then use the long downhill on the way back to pick guys off. As the race went, things seemed to be going okay. I was running quite slow and let a few guys pass me, but felt decent enough and thought I’d be able to accelerate down the hill.

As we turned around and headed down, a big pack of guys (the elites running the 21km) came up on me and I hung onto them, feeling pretty good, still. Then something bad happened I don’t know if it was just the pounding downhill running and the sloshing in my stomach, or maybe the two cups of coffee and no breakfast, but my stomach started to feel really bad. I had a lot of discomfort and – as the thousands of people behind us ran up the hill on the other side of the road – my mind started to envision myself on the other side, watching some poor fool poop his pants as he sprinted down the hill. It was an extremely unappealing idea.

I tried to muscle through it, release some gas, but there was nothing to be done. When we had finally passed the masses going up the other side, I stopped on the side of the road, did my business, and then got back up and kept running. It was after 8km, so less than a mile left.

I felt marginally better, but there was still something bad going on. At this point, I had thrown my time out the window and just wanted finish. I had one more stop before finishing. Somehow still ended up in 5th.

Obviously, not how I’d hoped this would go. My legs felt okay but again, my stomach was the limiting factor. Different from Guayaquil, though, I don’t think this was food poisoning, as I felt okay once I stopped. Maybe it as the altitude, maybe it was the coffee, maybe it was too much dinner, maybe it was too little breakfast. I really don’t know, but I hope I can figure something better out for next Sunday.

Honestly, this race wasn’t even on my calendar until I was invited. I won a race on Thursday in a big PR, with a great close, and beating some great guys, so I’m not super disappointed that this didn’t go well. In a week, I’ll be running a half marathon at sea level, probably with some good guys, as there’s a good amount of money. For me, that’s always been the focus of this season, so that’s where I’m putting my mental and physical preparation.

This was pretty much a total disaster, but I’m glad I can look past it and move on. I’m not going to let it shake me up in looking towards next weekends, because I know I’m fit and ready for a big race. One weirdly awful day/race doesn’t effect that. In the Spring, I had a pretty disappointing 10k right before a huge half-marathon PR. Hopefully, that trend will follow.

I definitely need to give a big “gracias” to my friend Ivan for picking me up and giving me a lift to the race! It was awesome to not have to ride the bus at 5:30 in the morning and to have his company on the warm-up.

I ended up running home, a fairly long cool-down. Total run 13M+.

Splits (you can probably tell where the stops were)
3’07.9
3’28.7 (6’36.7)
3’47.3 (10’24.0)
4’08.1 (14’32.1)
3’39.1 (18’11.3)
3’28.6 (21’39.8)
?? (??)
6’51.9 (28’31.7)
3’54.8 (32’26.5)
5’17.8 (37’44.3)

5pm: Easy shakeout around el ejido. Total run 5km, 3M+ , NT.