Weekly Summary – 132 miles in 13 runs. 6 days up to finish off a big 3-week block at 140+ miles per week and then first day of a recovery block. Some very good running this week including a huge marathon-specific Special Block on Sunday and a great fartlek on Tuesday. Very excited to be done with this last big up block. Time to recover, let the legs freshen up, and get to the starting line at Lake Biwa healthy and hungry!

Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram and Twitter (@TylerCAndrews). And, of course, don’t forget to check out STRIVE’s 2017 Programs! You can come do service work and train with me in Peru or Kenya and for 2017, we’ll once again have programs for High School and College students, and even a 10-day trip for adults and families, so be sure to take a look if you’re interested in an amazing summer experience! Finally, I have a few spots open for athletes looking for custom training plans and online coaching. Check out my site and email me if you’re interested!

Lunes, 6 de Febrero, 2017 – 10am: Ran later this morning. Easy out/back on MVN. Warming up and sunny. Legs felt a bit heavy. Total run 11M in 78’.

XT: Back/hips

4pm: Solo run around CC. Turf was ocupado so ran on the loop instead, 8km in about 33’. Jogged over to the costco field after and did 6x strides there and then ran back for 3km quicker in 9’22 w/ 3’13, 2’59, 3’10. Very good. HR only up to 170. Total run 10M+ in 65’.

XT: Hips.

Martes, 7 de Febrero, 2017 – Sparknotes: 16km (10M-) fartlek in 49’52 w/ 1km @ 3’16.2 avg / 1km @ 2’57.9 avg.

9am: Easy shakeout with mid-day workout due to scheduling. Very nice day – already quite warm! Total run 5M in 36’.

1pm: Medium fartlek today with a big workout 3 days ago and another on tap for Saturday (4 days out). Goal was to do some faster than MP running and try to keep things continuous. I decided on a very simple effort of 1km on, 1km off. I figured the “on” would be around HMP/10k pace and the off would be maybe 50K pace. I’ve done a “red” workout with 25km of this pattern, so I figured shooting for 12-18km would be a good orange level workout.

Legs felt pretty good on the warmup. It was super beautiful outside! Close to 70F! Warmed up on the turf, 6km in about 25’ and then over to the 1km loop. Stashed bottle, drills, strides, ran in Clifton 9s. Each 1km rep was the same, so very consistent overall.

Started with an easy rep to work into things and practice accelerating. First 2 fast reps felt really good and comfortable. #3 felt noticeably harder (and was faster at 2’57) and then from about 8km on, it felt fairly tough. I took what felt like a very easy 1km at 11k (3’20) recovery and then the last 2 reps actually felt quite good (2’59 and then the last one harder in 2’53).

Ended up as 16km in 49’52 (3’07/km avg). The avg on was 2’57.9 and the avg off 3’16.2.

This was a very nice workout, considering the big effort on Saturday. The last few km felt quite tough, but I don’t think this one will sting too much tomorrow.

Cooled down longer down around the turf again. So nice out! Ethio, etc. outside in the sun. Wow!

Finished at the gym for legs circuit.

Total run 15M+

Time Split HR
1 km 3’15.2 (3’15.2) 149
2 km 6’14.7 (2’59.5) 170
3 km 9’29.7 (3’15.0) 169
4 km 12’29.3 (2’59.6) 174
5 km 15’44.6 (3’15.3) 170
6 km 18’42.1 (2’57.5) 174
7 km 21’58.9 (3’16.8) 170
8 km 24’57.0 (2’58.1) 175
9 km 28’12.9 (3’15.9) 173
10 km 31’10.2 (2’57.3) 176
11 km 34’30.1 (3’19.9) 171
12 km 37’29.2 (2’59.1) 175
13 km 40’44.5 (3’15.3) 171
14 km 43’43.3 (2’58.8) 175
15 km 46’59.3 (3’16.0) 171
16 km 49’52.7 (2’53.4) 180

XT: Legs circuit. 3 sets of [step up (15x each leg), overhead lunge (24x), dynamic lunge (24x), squat (12x)]. 10 pounds on everything, bar on squat.

Miercoles, 8 de Febrero, 2017 – 9am: Getting up a bit earlier each day! A bit stiff this morning but felt good once I got running. Ran out/back on MVN and then to the turf. Super nice out again, in the 60s already and sunny! Wow! Did 2km on the turf in about 8’30 and then stopped, 8x strides, and ran home. Very nice. Legs didn’t feel too beat after yesterday. Total run 13M in 93’.

4:30pm: Ran later after longer STRIVE call. Easy to the turf, 8km, strides, 1km quicker just to test the legs. Beautiful again! 70F wtf? Total run 8M+ in 60’.

XT: p90x.

Jueves, 9 de Febrero, 2017 – Sparknotes: 10km mod, 6x short hills, 3200m (2M) blowout in 9’08 (4’41/4’27).

9am: Light speed session today with a big one on Saturday (two days out). Easy 10km on the turf from 5’00->4’00/km in about 42’, ended up at the big hill. Drills and then a couple strides.

Did 6x short hills very hard. Recovery by HR,

After, jogged to the track (~2km) and then did 3200m blowout. Goal was to run accelerate each 800m and something like 2’25/2’20/2’15/2’10. Ended up quite close to that – out a bit quicker, 70.x first lap and then settled (2’22.8), next 800m was more steady but still quicker 2’18.2. Very hard to pick it up after that as legs were already pretty tired and haven’t run anywhere close to this fast recently. 2’15 for 3rd 800m and then just tried to push from all the way out. I think I actually positive split a bit like 65/66.x for 2’11.4 to come in at 9’07.7.

Overall, super solid effort and very exciting. Fun to run this fast after a lot of volume and marathon workouts recently. Pumped for the last special block on Saturday!

Cooled down home. No gym work today.

Total run 13M+.

Time Split HR Rep
0.8 km 2’22.8 (2’22.8) 155
1.6 km 4’41.0 (2’18.2) 173 (4’41.0)
2.4 km 6’56.3 (2’15.3) 177
3.2 km 9’07.7 (2’11.4) 180 (4’26.7)

4pm: Ran on the treadmill as it was like 35mph winds and sideways rain/sleet and I’m a baby. Legs felt decent. Good sign that this morning wasn’t too draining! One more easy day in this block, then a big workout, then it’s taper time! Total run 7M+ in 51’.

Viernes, 10 de Febrero, 2017 – 10am: Easy run out/back on MVS. Felt good. Easy and short today with the last big workout of the block tomorrow! Much colder this morning, around 30F, but sunny. Stopped at Black Squirrel on the way back, 6x strides, then home. Total run 8M+ in 55’.

XT: Back/hips (1x)

1:30pm: Short turnaround as I had to meet the AAMDS people for a photoshoot at Gravely point. Legs felt very good after the short morning! Just jogged there and then some random running up/down the path for pictures. All good. Total run 3M, NT.

Sabado, 11 de Febrero, 2017 – Sparknotes: SPECIAL BLOCK – 20km in 66’06 w/ 10km mod (34’28) + 10km at MP (31’42 – 3’10.1/km, 2’13’41 MP), 2.5 hours rest, 22km in 1’12’36 w/ 10km mod (34’19) + 12km @ MP (38’18 – 3’11.5/km, 2’14’40 MP). Great!

10am: Here we go – last big workout of this block (and penultimate big workout of the whole build-up!). The goal was a very marathon-specific special block: two sessions with the first being 20km with 10km moderate, 10km at marathon pace, then about 2.5 hours of rest with minimal refueling, then session #2 of 20-22km with 10km moderate and 10-12km at MP. The “point” of this type of run is to put in a significant amount of volume and, particularly, to practice running 10-12km on VERY muscularly fatigued and depleted legs at the end of the workout. This would be one of the harder sessions of the build-up.

I mimicked the marathon start with only 2km warmup, drills, a couple strides and 200m in about 37. Legs felt very good. I did the workout in Clifton (size 9) and ran on a 5km loop on MVS. Weather was great around 45 at the start and overcast, wind coming from the south but light, so I’d have a tiny headwind each 2.5km, then light tailwind each other 2.5km.

It was very nice to start the block with a workout that I was 100% sure I’d be able to do without too much trouble (in comparison with the special block of this block that started with 14km at HMP which, in itself, was a pretty hard session into unknown territory).

The first 10km were quite comfortable running 3’20-3’30/km. Nothing really to report. In retrospect, HR was slightly higher than I’d expected but nothing crazy. Came to 10km in 34’29. Took a gel a 9km.

Tried to accelerate pretty gradually and was then running consistently 3’08-3’13 for the first 5km lap. Felt quite focused, but no issues or doubts here. Didn’t push at all, just steady running. Again, HR was a bit higher than I’d expected (177 avg for the second 5k), but effort felt good. Finished with 31’42 second 10km for 66’06 for 20km.

Didn’t feel too bad at all after this. Jogged home about 1km very easy. Light stretching, etc. On to the next one!

2:15pm: Very light refueling between sessions. A bunch of nuun, maybe 200 calories of pretzels and 100 calories from a NV bar. Had half of a caffeinated nuun before heading out but I didn’t want to overdo the caffeine as I was planning to take 2-3 caff. Gels in the PM session.

A bit stiff warming up, but just tried to ignore it and pretend I was starting fresh. Drills, strides, 200m in 37. Weather was still good – around 50F, light winds. I did this workout on the 1km loop as I wanted the option to bail early if need be and I wanted to have a bit more feedback for pacing on the MP stuff. Took a gel about 10’ before starting.

First 10km definitely felt worse as legs were quite tired already. But no question about whether I’d get through that. It was, again, all anticipation as I got ready for the gear shift. Took gel #1 at 8km (plan was to take a second at 16km – i.e. 36km in, which is similar to my marathon fueling strategy).

The gear change this time felt much more terminal and unlike the morning, I was less sure how long I’d be able to hold on (as opposed to nearly indefinitely as it had felt in the AM). I tried very hard to stay in each lap, each km, and just take it one at a time. Jon had said that getting to just 10km in this last section would still be great, but I tried not to even think about the end. Just each little 3-minute chunk.

This was good, but I ended up mis-counting laps, and so by the time I realized this, it was already 17.5km (instead of 16 when I was supposed to take my gel) and I was feeling pretty worked. I decided to still take it, as I probably had 13-14 minutes of running left, so I might get some benefit from it, even if partly placebo. Again, this would have been much better 5-6 minutes earlier, as this was definitely the most challenging part of the run (physically and mentally, it seemed), i.e. from about 16-19km. Maybe these kilometers are just far enough away from the finish that it doesn’t feel within range to start thinking about the end, but it’s also a tipping point for fatigue/fueling. It seems like that 35-40km point will be an important place to really focus during the race (and make sure that we don’t screw up the fueling).

I managed to get through 10km in 32’00 (so, about 18 seconds slower than the morning), and then – seemingly magically – felt slightly better in the last 2km. Again, not sure if it was the caffeine/CHO coming from that last gel, placebo from the gel, or just “feeling the finish”, but that last 2km definitely felt better than 16-20km. So, I finished slightly faster (3’11/3’07) for 38’18 (3’11.5/km).

Overall, this was an extremely challenging session. It was 42km in 2’18’42 over two sessions, with 22km of that in 69’59 (3’10.8/km, 2’14’11 marathon pace).

This has been a very solid block of training (really all the way since my recovery from Doha, with the exception of the foot issue around Houston). This is the end of my high mileage block, as we’re now 3 weeks out, so now time to focus on recovering from this block and making sure I get to the start line healthy!

Total run for the day was 30M+.

Notes
7:30am wake up
8-9am: Black coffee, nature valley bar, ~10oz nuun
10am: start workout #1
11:45am: Finish workout 1, lots of nuun, ~ 200 calories of pretzels, 100 cal NV bar. 10 oz caffeinated nuun.

Splits
Time Split HR Rep
5 km 17’24.6 (17’24.6) 153
10 km 34’24.8 (17’00.2) 160 (34’24.8) – Gel @ 9km
15 km 50’19.7 (15’54.9) 173
20 km 1’06’06.4 (15’46.7) 177 (31’41.6)

Time Split HR Rep
Gel #0 @ T-15min
5 km 17’05.2 (17’05.2) 157
10 km 34’18.9 (17’13.7) 160 (34’18.9) (Gel #1 @ 8km)
15 km 50’15.0 (15’56.1) 182
20 km 1’06’19.3 (16’04.3) 184 (32’00.4)(Gel #2 @ 17.5km)
21 km 1’09’29.9 (3’10.6) 182
22 km 1’12’36.5 (3’06.6) 183 (38’18 last 12km)

Domingo, 12 de Febrero, 2017 – 11am: Very slow shakeout with Mariana. Ran down to the turf and then 8km on the turf, alternating direction every 2km: 10’15, 9’50, 9’45, 8’57. Felt pretty decent by the end, though quite tired to start (to be expected). Day 1 of 3 day recovery block, so that’s all for today. No strides. Jogged back. Total run 7M- in 55’.

XT: Back/hips.

PM: OFF