Tyler’s Training Week of December 23, 2013

Weekly Summary – 107 miles in 6 days (really 5). The most inconsistent week of training ever due to travel to Boston for Christmas! But super productive on the days when I really was running. Great long run on the Boston Course – a huge thanks to Mariana for support on that – and a solid weekend of mileage and track work. Time to settle into the routine and focus on The Task. 16 weeks to go!

Lunes, 23 Diciembre, 2013 – AM: OFF, rest. Super tired. Felt better. Also, terrible weather.

3pm: Moderate run on the treadmill since it was like 35F and pouring. Felt good. Last 5km ~18’. Total run 15km, 9.3M in 57.

Martes, 24 Diciembre, 2013 – 7am: Woke up at 5am and had a cup of coffee and half a plain bagel. Plan was to run the first 22M or so of the Boston Marathon course, starting in Hopkinton and finishing in Brookline (conveniently, very close to Mariana’s house). The run was to be moderate for the first 15-20km and then picked up to a bit quicker for the second half (around 90% of marathon pace or 3’37/km).

Lunes, 23 Diciembre, 2013 – AM: OFF, rest. Super tired. Felt better. Also, terrible weather.

3pm: Moderate run on the treadmill since it was like 35F and pouring. Felt good. Last 5km ~18’. Total run 15km, 9.3M in 57.

We left around 6:30am and drove out to Hopkinton. I was extremely lucky to have Mariana willing to help out on this effort (she came along on a bike), as it made it logistically much simpler for me to have an extra person around. We got to Hopkinton and left the car there and started running around 7:30am. It was cool ~35F, but not too awful.

This was an extremely valuable run. I had never run any of the course up to the Newton Hills, so it was really great to be able to cover so much of the course. The first 4-5M are quite fast as they roll, but are definitely net-down-hill. The race even starts with a fairly steep continuous downgrade for about the first kilometer.

From there, the course feels fairly flat to rolling for the next few miles. At around 15km, I picked up the pace and started running at about 3’30/km. This was okay until we got to the latter half of the course where the hills start to take a toll. Once we started passing through Welsley and Newton, I was starting to feel a bit tired.

One of the other great things about having Mariana around was I was able to take fuel (in the form of Gatorade) during the run. I took Gatorade every 5km or so, mostly just to start getting used to the act of drinking and having liquid in my stomach while running.

The Newton Hills were quite tough. I was pretty tired at that point and it was not easy going. There are four distinct hills (ending in the imfamous heart-break hill. I survived but by far the most disenchanting moment of the run was getting to the top of heartbreak hill where, for the first time, the prudential center and hancock tower come into view. At this point, you’re about 21 miles into the race, but DAMN, Boston still looks pretty far away…

From the top of heartbreak, we ran down to Boston College where we stopped at 22 miles (2’12). This was all I had planned to do, but logistically, we were trying to finish at Mariana’s house so we could drive back to Hopkinton. After a few minutes of rest, we (very slowly) jogged the last two miles to Coolidge Corner and her house for a total of about 39km (24.5M in 2’30). Upon arrival, I was pretty tired and may have traumatized Mariana’s mother, who was not ready to see a skinny young man with bleeding feet and not enough energy or brain-power to open a water-bottle.

All in all, this was super, super productive and valuable. The run itself was okay – I definitely felt the travel and a few pretty late nights in my legs – but more important was the value of seeing so much of the course first-hand. I also feel like this is the first time I’ve really felt close to that 26.2 mile mark. I’ve done lots of 20 milers, even a few 22 milers, but to come within 3km of finishing the distance makes it seem a little less foreign. I think that’s a good thing.

Again – a huge thanks to Mariana for her help. I definitely couldn’t have done this without her support (both logistical and in-person!) It’s always great to have company on these long efforts.

The total run was 24M++ in 2’30 (22M in 2’12).

1. 6’11
2. 12’27 (6’16)
3. 18’35 (6’08)
4. 24’44 (6’09)
5. 30’51 (6’07)
6. 36’57 (6’06)
7. 43’08 (6’11)
8. 49’24 (6’16)
9. 55’47 (6’23)
10. 1’01’32 (5’47)
11. 1’07’12 (5’40)
12. 1’12’47 (5’35)
13. 1’18’32 (5’45)
14. 1’24’15 (5’43)
15. 1’30’13 (5’58)
16. 1’35’58 (5’45)
17. 1’42’15 (6’17)
18. 1’48’29 (6’14)
19. 1’54’19 (5’50)
20. 2’00’20 (6’01)
21. 2’06’20 (6’00)
22. 2’12’03 (5’43)

7pm: Ran solo shakeout in Concord. Left knee was very tender, probably from all of the hill running. Felt pretty bad. Total run ~2M, NT.

Before and after 24 miles on the Boston Marathon course! Photo credit to Mariana

Miercoles, 25 Diciembre, 2013 – 11am: Woke up with bad knee pain last night, but was much better in the morning. Jogged 10’ very easy to test it out. Total run 1M.

6pm: Ran very easy shakeout with Mariana from Concord. Felt good, knee a lot better. Freakin’ cold, though – around 15F! Won’t miss that part… Total run 3M, NT.

Jueves, 26 Diciembre, 2013 – AM: OFF – travel to Atlanta. Very little sleep, 3hrs.

4pm: Ran around the Atlanta airport a bit, but awkward jogging because I had my backpack and there was no where I could leave it. Total run 1M.

Viernes, 27 Diciembre, 2013 – 12pm: Slept late after getting into Quito at 3am. Ran two big laps around the park shakeout. Felt fine. Knee a bit sore when I woke up but fine when running. Total run 8k+, 5M+ in 40’.

5pm: Super deep nap this afternoon and had trouble waking up. Ended up running at 5pm. Wanted to go a bit longer since I missed a lot of mileage to travel this week and was feeling good, so ended up running 25km (15.5M) all around the park, so mostly on grass. Progressed nicely from reg. pace to moderate. Last couple miles around 6’20. Felt good. Total run 25km 15M+ in 2’00.

XT: Hips circuit. Got an ab mat, so my boney hips were thankful.

Sabado, 28 Diciembre, 2013 – 9am: Very easy pre-workout shakeout. Slept for like 11 hours. Phew. Total run 5km+ (3.5M) in 27’.

1pm: Ran easy/mod 8M+ around the park and then up to the hill on NNUU. Stopped and did full drills and a couple strides. Hills were 5x400m with 5’ recovery. Effort was all out. Very tough, but good. Some chafing which is no fun. Ran by the gym but it was closed, so just ran back. Total run 12M+.

6pm: Very easy shakeout around park. Total run 10k, 6M++, NT.

XT: Core, 2×5 minute circuits.

Domingo, 29 Diciembre, 2013 – 8:30am: Easy shakeout around the park. Very easy, pre-workout. A bit sore from yesterday still. Total run 5km+, 3.5M.

1pm: Workout today. Similar to last week’s track work. 3 sets of 5x500m with 30 seconds of “rest” between reps (where the “rest” was explosive work like skipping, high knees, butt-kicks, etc.) and then 3’ true rest between sets.

Very hot and windy, so times were a bit inconsistent depending on where I started the reps, but each set the reps were started in the same place (i.e. rep 3 was always the slowest).

Warmed up 6km around the park at a good pace and then stopped and did drills and strides. Also did 2x200m in about 37-38 to try to get pace, but was still too fast. Felt good though, so went into it.

Again, each set of 5x500m felt like one long interval, since there really was no recovery during the 30 seconds of “rest.” It forced the 500s to be a bit more relaxed, but were still too quick for the most part (goal was 3’18 pace or 1’39.0 for 500m). The other thing of note was that the track is super freakin’ crowded on Sundays with little kids, people walking 5 abreast in the inside lanes, ice-cream carts, you name it… I did a lot of dodging in and out of people’s way.

Anyways, definitely felt like work, but not impossible by any means. Even the slowest set was still too fast (1’38.1 avg) and had enough at the end to close with the fastest rep of the day (1’34.6).

Felt pretty good overall. Still a bit intimidating to think that I have to run almost 100 of these non-stop in a few months but that’s for another day…

Cooled down 5km around the park, easy, and headed inside for leg strength.

Total run 13M+.

Splits
5x500m (30s explosive in between): 1’36.1, 1’35.6, 1’38.3, 1’35.4,1’37.6 (avg 1’36.6)
5x500m (30s explosive in between): 1’37.2, 1’34.7, 1’40.4, 1’36.7, 1’41.3 (avg 1’38.1)
5x500m (30s explosive in between): 1’38.2, 1’35.4, 1’39.8, 1’35.6, 1’34.6 (avg 1’36.7)

Total avg 1’37.1

6pm: Post workout shakeout around the park. Very easy regeneration. Felt better after. Total run 6.5M. 23 miles for the day.

XT: Legs – planned to go to the gym and use some weights today but it was closed, so ended up just inside again. Felt good but legs were pretty spent from the workout already, so a bit tough.