Weekly Summary – 108 miles in 13 runs. A great first week of training here at altitude in Quito, Ecuador. Lots of good miles, strides, and even a nice progression run and long run. Getting back into it!

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Lunes, 21 de Noviembre, 2016 – 1pm: Smooth travel all the way to Quito! Nice overnight flight in business class from Dulles to Lima and then a couple hours in Lima where I got another hour or so of sleep in the lounge before the flight to Quito. It was a really epically majestic flight as we basically flew just west of the Andes all the way up, so we passed the Huayhuash and Cordillera Blanca in Peru and then had super clear skies coming into Quito and flew right by Cotopaxi with also views of Antisana, Cayambe, et al.

Omar picked up me and we drove into the city to Greg’s place where he was waiting. He offered to give me a ride up to the parque metro for my run, so I said why not!

Definitely a tough first run here at 9300 feet, but it was such a clear and beautiful day that it was still wonderful. Ran very slow through the park (which is very hilly and a lot of single-track trail). I never know exactly where I’m going up there, but knew the basic direction to head and got more or less a nice loop out of it. I then ran down to la carolina and did 1.5 big laps which are slightly different than before due to some construction in the park (it says they are building a metro!). Finished at the track and did 3x strides before jogging back. Total run 11M in 82’.

XT: Back/hips (1x weighted, 1x nonweighted).

6pm: Passed out hard for a couple hours after that run but managed to get myself out the door for a shakeout. Felt okay once I got moving and kept the pace very relaxed. Finished with ethio in the park and then walked to supermaxi and home. Nice night but quite tired. Total run 4M- in 28’.

Martes, 22 de Noviembre, 2016 – 9am: Slept for 11 hours last night – whew! Really needed that. Definitely the most I’ve slept since before the race. Ran in la carolina all on grass. Started out quite slow (17’ first lap) and then ran the next 3 laps around 15’5x (looks like each lap is about 3.6km now due to the slight change in route because of construction), still feeling very comfortable. Finished with 5x strides on the track which felt much better than yesterday and then jogged to inaquito, ethio, and the did some grocery shopping and walked home. Total run 11.5M in 82’.

XT: Back/hip, 2x w/ weight

4pm: Easy shakeout around the park. Felt pretty tired to start – doing these afternoon runs without caffeine, which is worth noting and in contrast to the last month or so. Much better by the end. HR still surprisingly high given effort/pace. Like 160-165 even at very comfy pace. Very interesting to see if this goes down or maintains. Total run 5M- in 36’.

XT: Hips.

Miercoles, 23 de Noviembre, 2016 – 9am: Slept really well again and woke up naturally around 7:30. Ran in La Carolina and felt much better today. First lap almost a minute faster than yesterday (16’20) and then 3 more around 15’25 (4’16/km). Effort felt very good, not very strenuous. HR is still remarkably high (160s) given the effort, but this is the first time I’ve used the HRM at altitude, so it’s possible this is normal. Finished with 4x strides and 200m in 35.x on the track. Jogged home for ethio, etc. Total run 17km+, 11M- in 73’.

XT: P90x.

1:15pm: Ran earlier to meet up with Ivan and his running club. A bit of a quick turnaround but not too bad. Jogged over to Cruz del Papa and met his runners and led them in some warmup drills, strides, etc. Then ran 1 easy lap of the park, finishing at the 3K marker and stopping for a minute and then running the last 700m back to the cruz at a good effort (very hard for these guys), out in about 36 and ran 2’15ish for 700m (~3’12/km pace). Stopped and did some stretching and then jogged another half lap solo and home. Total run 4.5M+, 7.5km in 36’.

XT: Back/hips, 2x weighted

Jueves, 24 de Noviembre, 2016 – Sparknotes: 12km progression run in 43’59 (3’39/km), from 3’55->3’25/km. Last 5km 17’11. + 5x200m in 35->28, full recovery.

9am: First quicker running since Worlds. Ran about 1M easy just to shake out the legs and stash my bottle. Then ran 12km continuous with first 7.2km as two big laps of the park (14’08, 13’19) and then last 4.8km on the track in 16’32 (3’27/km).

Very solid workout. Good progression in the first half and then nice and steady the last 5km or so on the track. Felt pretty hard almost immediately and was thinking about canning it after just about every lap, but (as I remember with altitude) the discomfort never really got worse, just felt like I was redlining the whole time. A tiny acceleration the last 200m+, but not very much. Finished 43’59 for 12km (3’39/km avg) which is a very good starting place.

Caught my breath for a few minutes and then did 5x200m: 32.7, 31.7, 28.8, 29.3, 36.0 (rest by HR).

Jogged around the park and home for leg circuit. Long morning but very good!

Total run 11M+.

Splits:
Time Split HR Pace
3.6 km 14’08.0 (14’08.0) 160 (3’55.6)
7.2 km 27’27.0 (13’19.0) 171 (3’41.9)
7.96 km 30’05.1 (2’38.1) 172 (3’28.0)
8.72 km 32’42.3 (2’37.2) 175 (3’26.8)
9.48 km 35’18.6 (2’36.3) 175 (3’25.7)
10.24 km 37’57.4 (2’38.8) 176 (3’28.9)
11 km 40’36.1 (2’38.7) 177 (3’28.8)
11.76 km 43’13.1 (2’37.0) 177 (3’26.6)
12 km 43’59.1 (0’46.0) 177 (3’11.7)

XT: Legs. 3 sets of [step up (15x each leg), overhead lunge (20x), dynamic lunge (24x), squat (12x)]. No weight.

5pm: Ran from CH up to Itchimbia. Tough getting up there, but worth it for the truly spectacular view of the city, especially at this hour as the sun is beginning to set. Legs felt pretty good after this morning. No issues. Total run 4.5M in 35’.

XT: OFF

Viernes, 25 de Noviembre, 2016 – 9am: A bit tired this morning after a fun but late night at the CH Thanksgiving last night. Ran purposefully very easy and controlled around the Carolina and had a nice natural progression with no increase in effort: 17’18, 16’32, 16’10, 15’55. Interestingly, HR data from this run looks much closer to what I’d expect from sea level (130-150ish). Unclear if the effort was just a lot more controlled or if there is some short-term adaptation going on. Stopped at the track and did 4x strides and then 200m relaxed in 34. First stride felt pretty bad but the rest felt quite good. Finished with easy jog back, ethio, etc. Total run 11M+ in 80’.

XT: p90x

4:30pm: Great long nap this afternoon and felt much better for this run. Running quicker out the door, 16’05 first lap, 15’18 second lap (~4’15/km). HR only 155 on this lap and 142 on the first one. Surprised by how good I felt. Stopped at the track and did 4x strides which felt good. Jogged back. Total run 10km in 42’.

XT: Back/hips.

Sabado, 26 de Noviembre, 2016 – AM: OFF – travel to Mindo and much adventure. Beautiful drive down and then drove up the river to tour around Tom’s ecolodge before Greg tried to Kayak down the river. It was like 6 inches deep at spots so it ended up taking him like 2 hours to kayak 1km – oops. Was planning to run this AM, but didn’t end up having time and had a lot of fun with these guys and was planning a very easy day today so it’s all good. I’ll go HAM tomorrow.

2pm: Drove down to the Rio Cinto and popped a tire on the dirt road – whoops! How many engineers does it take to change a tire? Apparently 2. Parked a bit down the river and then Hari and I ran out/back downriver until the literal end of the road and then back up. Very nice run and nice to have company. Really beautiful cloud forest down here. Very cool. Felt pretty bad at first from lots of standing around and walking today, but pretty good once I warmed up. Altitude is much lower here ~1300m. Total run 6M in 45’.

Domingo, 27 de Noviembre, 2016 – Sparknotes: 21M (34km-) long run in 2’09’48 (6’11/M, 3’50/km) on hilly roads with last 2km on track in 7’05.

7am: Early morning hike-jog through the cloud forest of Mindo with Greg and Hari. Early morning and a crazy night as Greg woke us up screaming about how we’d been robbed (he was sleep walking). Really nice walk on nice trails to a few different really epic waterfalls. Good amount of vertical gain/loss, some of it quite steep. Probably ~3M total.

1pm: Long run later in the day. Did this one basically right after we got back from Mindo and had to finish relatively quickly as we had “friendsgiving” to go to. Nice and warm out. Ran on ciclopaseo out/back north first, first 10km in 40’xx and then quicker back down the hill (~37’) to come to 20km in 1’18’xx. Felt quite good at this point. Kept running South all the way to Ejido. Forgot how much brick there is on that stretch of Amazonas from the Marriott to the park. Achille’s was not feeling great from that and the park was freakin’ packed, so turned around at the park and ran back to Carolina. Got there in 1h35 for just over 15M (24.4km) and then did 1 3.6km loop and another mile to the track (that 10km in 37’21) and then finished with 2km on the track at a good effort (7’05) which was kind of a pain in the ass because there were a fuckton of people just walking/standing on the track because it’s Sunday afternoon. Lots of weaving/dodging/cutting really wide. Split like 3’39/3’26. Jogged back after to the house, just in time for ethio and a quick shower. Wonderful day! Total run 21M in 2’09’48.

XT: OFF.