Weekly Summary – 147 miles in 14 runs. Great recovery from last week’s win at Mohawk Hudson Marathon and 2 solid workouts on Thursday and Saturday. Entering the most intense weeks of the build-up now. Less than 7 weeks to CIM!

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Lunes, 9 de Octubre, 2017 – 10am: Slept late after getting in around 1am from train-ride home. Ran solo on MVS out/back past the big bridge. Started out slow and felt pretty decent by the end. Easy pace but good energy level and time on feet. Very humid and in the upper 70s. Finished with 6x strides at black squirrel and then home. Total run 21km in 1h41.

XT: Back/hips

3:30pm: Very short turnaround between AM run/breakfast and PM run. Felt a bit like I had a bowling ball in my tummy but legs felt okay once I got going. Heat wave here – 86F and very humid. Super sweaty for this one. 2 laps of HAR 19’35, 18’43. Felt much better than the morning. Moving in the right direction. Finished with 8x strides on grass. Total run 11km+ in 51’.

XT: Hips

Martes, 10 de Octubre, 2017 – 9am: Slept very long, like 11 hrs! Easy longer single this morning. Started off with Mariana first 6km or so and then solo on Matt’s loop with an out/back on the C&O. Felt pretty good but warmed up a lot and was definitely overheating in pants/long sleeve. In the 80s again! Too bad I’m not heat-training for Doha this year. Total run 25km in 1h59.

XT: Climbing at ET. Shorter visit as the day was a bit skewed by the late start, but good session. All 5.10Cs, with a botched attempt up the same 11a I made it up last time. A bit tired from the morning’s run.

3:30pm: Ran from ET, very nice day – mid 80s and sunny! Ran down to turf but it was all occupied so headed to HAR, 1 lap in 18’40, and then half lap finishing at 1K loop. Stopped and did 10x strides and then home. Pretty pooped by the end. Total run 11km in 50’.

Miercoles, 11 de Octubre, 2017 – 8:30am: Slept long again, very tired last night. Ran down to turf and did longer section on there and then loop around CC. Running a bit quicker today, 4’20s, but very humid again and feeling pretty tired by the end. 6x strides on turf. Total run 16km in 71’.

XT: Back/hips

3pm: Easy run on HAR loop (18’29). First run feeling really decent out the door, good energy level, etc. Still humid and 70+ but I think the dew point is dropping a lot in the next few days (finally). Finished with 6x strides on grass which felt great. Total run 6km++ in 26’.

Jueves, 12 de Octubre, 2017 – Sparknotes: 10km + 12x short hills + 7km fartlek in 21’23 (1’ on/1’ off)

9am: Felt very good this morning just in time for first workout of this block (or second after mohawk hudson). Ran to turf and did 10km, 4’0x-> 3’4x. Felt very good, legs much fresher after an easier day yesterday. Stopped by home to change into tracers and then over to the hill. Stopped and did drills and a few short strides and then 12x short hills. I ran these a tiny bit longer to try to continue increasing the stimulus here. In the past I ran to a point that was about 13.5 seconds. Today, I ran up to the crosswalk which was about 16 seconds. Felt good. Full recovery to HR < 120 which was 2-3’ for the most part. Last one ran all the way to the hydrant in 36.4. Very good!

After, jogged over to the 1km loop (still in tracers) and did a couple light strides again and then fartlek with 1’ on/1’ off. I tried to run the “on” fast, maybe 2’50-55/km based on some of the feedback I got and kept the “off” reps ~3’20/km. Jon and I had said 20-30 minutes of this and I felt very good through the first 3-4km but felt pretty muscularly after 5K, so decided to stop at 7km, which would be 21 or 22’, as this was supposed to be a “yellow” workout. This was a good stopping point and felt hard but not going to the well; I think another 3km would have been excessive today.

Finished up with short jog home ~1km to the gym for stretching and lift.

Total run 25km in 1h48

1 km 3’03.1 (3’03.1) 165
2 km 6’10.5 (3’07.4) 173
3 km 9’10.9 (3’00.4) 176
4 km 12’18.4 (3’07.5) 176
5 km 15’17.3 (2’58.9) 179
6 km 18’25.2 (3’07.9) 179
7 km 21’22.3 (2’57.1) 181

XT: Legs at the gym. 3 sets of [step ups 6x (40-50lb), 6x overhead lunge (30-35 lb), 6x dynamic lunge (40-50 lb), 6x squat (70-80 lb)]

4pm: Odd run today! Went to Georgetown Day School to talk to the XC team and then ran with the boys after the talk for an easy 6.5km out/back. Actually a bit quicker at the end than I probably would have gone after this morning thanks to some pace pushing by the youngsters. Came back and talked with some kids and the coach and then ran another 8km or so down to Foggy Bottom metro with Mariana, just so we could get home easier. Quite late by the time we got home! Total run 14km in 66’.

Viernes, 13 de Octubre, 2017 – 9am: Easy run on Matt’s loop. Mariana left for BOS this morning, so thus begins 9 days of solo grind here, which is good timing as this is probably the most important block of the whole buildup. Time to really just abide in the moment and eat, sleep, run, repeat. Legs felt good. 36’ at 8km and 4’10s on the way back. Finished w 1km on turf in 3’59 and then 8x strides which felt great. Total run 21km++ in 1h35.

XT: Back/hips

3:30pm: Easy run on HAR loop (1 lap, 18’33) and then to the gras and did 2km on the field ~ 4’20s feeling very comfy. Did 5x strides which felt really good (on grass as well) and then jogged to 1km loop right into 1K at goal MP at 3’11 very even. Great. Much cooler today, only in the low 60s, so feeling like a new man! Total run 9km+ in 40’.

Sabado, 14 de Octubre, 2017 – Sparknotes: 22km in 1’11’05 (3’14 avg) with 6K @ 3’11, 5K @ 3’10, 4K @ 3’09.7, 2K @ 2’59.4, 1K @ 2’54.6, 1k rec @ 3’39.4 avg. 5x200m @ 32-29. Excellent!

Work out earlier today as it was beautifully cool and getting hotter later in the day. Only about 60F at the start which felt infinitely better than the many 70+ workouts I’ve had this block.

Warmed up 3km easy in 13’ to MV, stash bottle etc and out/back. Drills, strides. Light wind from N, so ran on northbound side to have minor headwind out, minor tailwind back on each rep (started each rep from the same point). Took a gel 15 min before starting.

Goal today as a very similar workout to one I’ve done before: (6K), 5K, 4K, 3K, 2K, 1K. I did this workout without the 6K at the beginning of this block (on my very first day back in the US) and I’ve done the whole workout in a few different blocks. Since this was just 6 days post-half-marathon, we didn’t want this to be a super hard session, but Jon wanted to keep it more marathon specific, so we cut the 3K and added on the 6K. This left us with 15K of work at MP and 3K of work at HM-10K pace, which seemed good but not super hard.

This was really the first workout where I felt like goal MP felt pretty slow. I really held back in the first rep and was running very comfortably in the 3’10s. I think my first 500m was at like 3’06 pace and I really had to dial it back there. Still, avg HR was only 167 for that rep which is perfect, and max only got to like 170. Rec at 3’40/km felt luxuriously slow and long. I felt ready to go after like 1 minute.

Second and 3rd reps both felt similar. No question I would be able to maintain pace and finish and HR was very similar ~167-170 for the whole rep. Took a gel in the middle of the 5K rep.

Pushed a bit on the last two reps as those were supposed to be faster and even 3’00 pace felt easier today. Last rep was pretty hard to run an even 2’54, but no kicking or running the last 400 in 65 or anything.

This was great running. A very good comparison to the beginning of this cycle to be able to run faster (each segment was faster than the August workout) on a more marathon-specific workout AND have it feel much easier. I’m sure that day was much warmer and I wasn’t used to it at all coming from Cusco, but I remember my HR was MUCH higher that whole session. Great to see the effort and HR start to drop for these paces. Makes the next few workouts seem much more doable now.

Jogged back to crystal drive and changed into tracers and did 5x200m (200 jog) as I’ve done after just about all my orange workouts. These felt good and were: 32.1, 32.6, 31.2, 29.7, 32.7.

Finally, short cooldown and finished at the gym for lifting.

Total run 29km in 1h43

Splits

6 km 19’05.8 (19’05.8) 167 (6K @ 19’06, 3’11)
7 km 22’45.8 (3’40.0) 160
12 km 38’35.8 (15’50.0) 170 (5K @ 15’50, 3’10)
13 km 42’10.0 (3’34.2) 163
17 km 54’48.7 (12’38.7) 168 (4K @ 12’38.7, 3’09.7)
18 km 58’26.8 (3’38.1) 164
19 km 1’01’27.0 (3’00.2) 174
20 km 1’04’25.6 (2’58.6) 178 (2K @ 5’58.2, 2’59.4)
21 km 1’08’10.7 (3’45.1) 164
22 km 1’11’05.3 (2’54.6) 181

Total avg: 3’13.9
Total Work: 18km in 56’28 (3’08.2 avg)
Avg rec 3’39.4

5x200m: 32.1, 32.6, 31.2, 29.7, 32.7 (200m slow jog rec)

XT: Legs at the gym. 3 sets of [step ups 6x (40, 50, 50lb), 6x overhead lunge (30 lb), 6x dynamic lunge (40, 50, 50 lb), 6x squat (70, 80, 80 lb)]

3:30pm: Easy shakeout around CC. Planned to run on the turf but weekend afternoons are the worst as like every field in CC was in use (turf, costco, eads, etc.) so ran sad loops around town on concrete. Finished at Kabob Palace. Yum. Total run 10km in 47’.

Domingo, 15 de Diciembre, 2017 – 10am: Ran late after sleeping late and then snafu with my audiobook headphones getting out the door. Longer single this morning, shooting for 2 hours. Ran MVS since wind was strong from the south and didn’t want to finishing running into that. Some big festival going on in old town in the park, so the whole place was shut down and had to detour around it. Otherwise, fairly uneventful. Made it all the way out to the boardwalk past the enchanted forest. A bit tired to start but good once I got past 5km or so. 13km+ in 61’ and then back in 57’. Tacked on over to crystal drive and did 6x strides which felt very good. Very sweaty as I was in track pants and long sleeve and it was fairly humid but not too warm. Total run 27km in 2h02.

XT: Back/hips

3:30pm: Easy run around CC. Very slow to start, 1 lap on HAR in 19’30 and then over to the grassy loop by costco. Very bad chafing from this morning made this a bit unpleasant. Finished with 5x strides on crystal drive and home. Total run 10km in 46’.

XT: Hips