Weekly Summary – 140 miles in 13 runs. The end of an insanely strong block of training with 3 weeks averaging 149 miles per week and some unprecedentedly strong workouts. Finished things up with a great 40K (25 mile) hard run and the start of a recovery block before entering the final month of training. Less than 5 weeks to CIM!

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Lunes, 23 de Octubre, 2017 – 9am: Drove from Leominster to Concord and ran from Key’s Rd out to Great Meadows with Mariana. Felt pretty awful with 36 hours of CHO depletion. Nice morning as fog was lifting but felt pretty darn bad. Ran about an hour with Mariana and then tacked on around Emerson field and finished with 4x strides on the track. Total run 21km in 1h38.

4pm: Ran between visits to MSX and CA. Over to Emerson field and a few laps around the outside. Felt very depleted and bad. Again, limited by time today. Total run 8km- in 34’.

Martes, 24 de Octubre, 2017 – Sparknotes: 5km in 16’14 w/ 3x 1K @ 3’07-11, 1K rec @ 3’22-25.

10am: Very light workout today as I’m super depleted and also was traveling and got home at midnight last night. Goal was to do just 5km of running alternating 1K at MP / 1K @ 90-95%. Took a gel right before starting to warm up which definitely helped.

Warmed up 4km in 17’, drills, a couple strides and 200m in 37. Ran the workout on 1K loop.

Never really felt great. Splits were fine but perceived effort and HR were both quite high. Really interesting running in a super depleted state. Time seems to really go by slower. Odd. Good to get some faster running in today after slogging around for the past two, though.

Cooled down 3km+ in 14’.

Total run 13km in 51’.

Splits:

1 km 3’11.4 (3’11.4) 162
2 km 6’36.5 (3’25.1) 168
3 km 9’45.2 (3’08.7) 175
4 km 13’07.5 (3’22.3) 175
5 km 16’14.1 (3’06.6) 179

3pm: Slow run with Mar out/back on MVS. Last depletion run – yay! Nice company which made it surprisingly less brutal. 26’ at 5K and a bit quicker on the way back. Pretty tired. Finished with 4x strides at black squirrel which felt surprisingly decent. Total run 10.5km in 53’.

Miercoles, 25 de Octubre, 2017 – Sparknotes: 8km + 12x short hills.

9am: Woke up early to start refueling (~5:30am) and felt much better pretty much immediately. Ran to turf and did 8km warmup in 32’, changed into tracers and did drills and a couple strides at hill park.

Did 12x short hills after. These felt pretty good bu legs definitely still felt a bit weak from depletion the last few days. Still a very good effort. Last one up to the hydrant in 37.1 which is still solid especially since we had a bit of a chinook wind coming down the hill today.

Ran over to the 1K loop as I’d planned to do some light fartlek but legs were just real toasted so decided to just cut it and save it for a big one on Saturday. Gotta know which days are the important ones!

Finished easy around CC and then home.

Total run 20km in 1h23.

2pm: Short turn-around. Pretty groggy post-nap but legs felt good out the door. Ran to Georgetown Sports Massage to see Terrel who had been out of town for the last couple weeks. 8km in 36’ and then stopped for massage for an hour and then ran home after. Finished at gym for jumps/plyos. Total run 17km in 1h16.

XT: Jumps/plyos – 15x squat jump, 15x box jump, 15x lunge jump, 30x single leg side hop.

Jueves, 26 de Octubre, 2017 – 8:30am: Slept very well. Best I’ve slept in a while! Easy run around CC and to turf. Felt good and runing 4’20s out the door. Finished with a longer section on turf 10km in 40’05 from 4’10-> 3’50. Stopped and did 8x strides which felt very good and then home. Total run 22km+ in 1h35’.

4pm: Ran later with Mar. Good nap and productive afternoon first. Ran easy on MVS out/back and then stopped at bridge and did 5x strides on path which felt great. Stopped at HT to get pasta quickly and then home. Total run 13km in 55’.

Viernes, 27 de Octubre, 2017 – 8:30am: Ran with Mar on bike out to MVN easy and then did drills and a couple strides. Ran 2x 1K at workout pace for tomorrow with Mar on bike to test-drive pacing. Ran 400m in 78.x and then 2x1K in 2’22-23. Ran in Claytons which I’ll use tomorrow. Felt good. Finished with longer cooldown around CC. Legs felt good. Nice cool morning. Total run 16km in 68’.

XT: Back/hips 1x

3pm: Visited Field School, so jogged easy with them to their track and back and then tacked on solo. Beautiful day, sunny and much warmer than the morning. Easy day with a big one tomorrow. Total run 8km in 37’.

Sabado, 28 de Octubre, 2017 – Sparknotes: 40km in 2’14’43 (3’22/km) on dirt at Potomac River Marathon (jogged in for 1st in 2h24).

8:20am: Big, long session today with the goal of running 40km in the same time I’d like to run for the full marathon in 5 weeks (i.e. 2h13-15 for 40km instead of 2h13-15 for 42.2km). I’ve done a 40-42K run about 5 weeks out from my goal race in many of my buildups, from my very first marathon (40K in Atacames Ecuador) to running a few full marathons for practice and money 5 weeks out from goal races (Indy in ‘14, Green Bay and Hartford in ‘15, Albany in ‘16).

The idea of doing this session at a race came up pretty late as I just found out about this race which was local and fairly low key a few weeks ago. This seemed like a great way to get some of the benefits of running in a race (controlled course, fluids, certified measurements) without having to fly somewhere, worry about pushing too hard to compete for money, etc.

The race itself was run entirely on the C&O Canal path, which is a packed dirt bike/running path that extends from DC to Pittsburgh. The race is very simple, with two out/backs of 21.1km which are gradually downhill out and gradually uphill on the way back. The plan was to have Mariana on the bike to help with fluids and traffic control (this was a tiny race and there was no lead vehicle and I figured, correctly, it would become a bit of a shit-show given how many people would be running so many different paces on such a narrow path) and run to 40km and then jog it in (there was a small amount of prize money for 1st).

The day was just about perfect – a cool, crisp fall morning with some light winds from the south. I warmed up about 2.5km, checking out where the start was, did a few drills and strides and then stood around a while trying to stay loose as they started about 10 minutes behind schedule.

I immediately got out and settled into pace and was basically completely solo for the whole run. It was very nice to have Mar for company, as otherwise it’s a long way to go at a steady rhythm by oneself. I remember those first 8-10km feeling extremely comfortable and very consistent – all right around 3’20/km. We were running a bit downhill but it didn’t feel super noticeable at the time. We passed 5K in 16’46 and 10K in 33’34 (16’48) which was right on pace.

We started catching runners near the turn-around ~10.5km but these were only those who had started early (at 8am for slower finishers), so not too many people. It was on the way back that we started having to do a great deal more swerving as we ran back through the outbound marathoners and half runners.

It seemed to take a bit more effort to run the same pace back, as the uphill was more noticeable than the downhill. Still, the pace was very consistent in the 16’40s per 5K and we came to the half-way in the workout in 67’03, which was right on the faster end of where I’d wanted to be.

At that point, we turned around and began heading back out. I was feeling great and this was the fastest 5K of the run (16’33), but I began to notice that my feet were really beginning to bother me. The trail that this race is run on is packed dirt but has a fair amount of small rocks packed in with it. I’ve done tons of easy miles on this trail but never faster running and by 20-25km, I started to notice that the little rocks were really shooting pain up into the bottom of my feet at every step. I figured it might just be from the downhill portion, so I tried to hold on until the turnaround.

I remember specifically at the last turnaround around 31km that very tight U-Turn was super brutal on the left foot and I really actively backed off for a bit after that. I was legitimately worried I had broken/was going to break some bone in my foot which wasn’t worth running a bit faster. The splits went from 3’20-25 to 3’25-30, so not a huge drop but just enough that the force exerted into the ground felt manageable. I basically held that until about 38K where I picked it up in the last mile or so running more like 3’20 pace up the steepest/longest climb on the course to finish out strong.

I had a ton left in my legs and lungs (HR dropped a lot in the last 10K as I backed off a bit), so this was a great sign. I still finished in 2’14’43 (3’22/km avg) so positive split by about 40 seconds. I have no doubt I could have run quite a bit faster if the feet hadn’t bothered me.

It’s worth noting that I did run in the Claytons which is the shoe I’ve done a lot of my longer workouts in (on pavement) and I wonder if this would have been less of an issue if I’d run in the Cliftons. Oh well, who knows.

Either way, it’s fantastic to run 2h14 on dirt while constantly swerving around joggers and actively holding back at the end. This is a great indicator and lines up very well with all of the other work I’ve been doing which points to ~2’14’00-2’15’00 as a very attainable goal on a fair day.

Didn’t stop at 40K but slowed down to about 4’30/km and jogged it in for 2h24 FTW which apparently broke the CR by about 10 minutes. Got some great BBQ later. Didn’t feel too bad at all. Drove home and watched some cartoons. Great morning!

Total run 45km.

5 km 16’46.0 (16’46.0) 169
10 km 33’34.0 (16’48.0) 172
15 km 50’14.0 (16’40.0) 175
20 km 1’07’03.0 (16’49.0) 173
25 km 1’23’36.0 (16’33.0) 174
30 km 1’40’30.0 (16’54.0) 172
35 km 1’57’49.0 (17’19.0) 171
40 km 2’14’43.0 (16’54.0) 171

EVERY KM
1 km 3’20.0 (3’20.0) 161
2 km 6’40.0 (3’20.0) 169
3 km 10’00.0 (3’20.0) 169
4 km 13’19.0 (3’19.0) 172
5 km 16’46.0 (3’27.0) 171 (16’46.0)
6 km 20’06.0 (3’20.0) 172
7 km 23’25.0 (3’19.0) 171
8 km 26’49.0 (3’24.0) 174
9 km 30’14.0 (3’25.0) 172
10 km 33’34.0 (3’20.0) 175 (16’48.0)
11 km 36’52.0 (3’18.0) 177
12 km 40’10.0 (3’18.0) 176
13 km 43’33.0 (3’23.0) 175
14 km 46’53.0 (3’20.0) 175
15 km 50’14.0 (3’21.0) 173 (16’40.0)
16 km 53’35.0 (3’21.0) 174
17 km 56’57.0 (3’22.0) 172
18 km 0’20.0 (3’23.0) 172
19 km 1’03’41.0 (3’21.0) 173
20 km 1’07’03.0 (3’22.0) 172 (16’49.0)
21 km 1’10’25.0 (3’22.0) 172
22 km 1’13’45.0 (3’20.0) 175
23 km 1’17’01.0 (3’16.0) 175
24 km 1’20’19.0 (3’18.0) 174
25 km 1’23’36.0 (3’17.0) 175 (16’33.0)
26 km 1’26’55.0 (3’19.0) 174
27 km 1’30’19.0 (3’24.0) 172
28 km 1’33’45.0 (3’26.0) 172
29 km 1’37’08.0 (3’23.0) 171
30 km 1’40’30.0 (3’22.0) 171 (16’54.0)
31 km 1’43’57.0 (3’27.0) 171
32 km 1’47’22.0 (3’25.0) 172
33 km 1’50’47.0 (3’25.0) 171
34 km 1’54’15.0 (3’28.0) 171
35 km 1’57’49.0 (3’34.0) 169 (17’19.0)
36 km 2’01’13.0 (3’24.0) 170
37 km 2’04’34.0 (3’21.0) 170
38 km 2’07’56.0 (3’22.0) 170
39 km 2’11’23.0 (3’27.0) 171
40 km 2’14’43.0 (3’20.0) 174 (16’54.0)

3:30pm: Easy shakeout with Mar down to turn. Felt pretty decent once I got moving. Slow first km ~5’10 and then running 4’30s by the end. 3x strides to open up a bit. Surprisingly not bad after this morning’s long session. Feet not too bad on the soft turf. Total run 7km in 33’.

Domingo, 29 de Octubre, 2017 – 8:30am: Easy run down to turf and almost entirely on turf. Some pee-wee soccer going on but still able to use the outside of the fields with no issue. First km in 5’10 but running 4’20s for the most part on the field. Very good recovery as this run is often much slower. Silver lining to backing of a bit after 31km yesterday. Finished with 4x strides. Total run 13.5km in 60’.

XT: Back/hips

PM: OFF – Recovery block, so one run only today and tomorrow. Walked to ET and went climbing for the first time in a while. Great session and hacked my way up my 2nd 11a. Only cheated a little. Pretty doot after that.