Tyler’s Training: Week of March 24, 2014

Weekly Summary – 109 miles in 13 runs.  A really great week with two super-solid workouts including 15.5M at 2’18 marathon pace. Took 3 very easy recovery days as I start to taper. 3 weeks to Marathon Monday!!

Lunes, 24 Marzo, 2014 – 11am: Slept super late again after seeing Mariana off last night. Felt very good once I got out the door. Ran longer this morning. Felt very good. Total run 20km (12M++) in 1’28.

4:30pm: Ran easy/mod again, 3 big laps of the park (12km in 51’) and then to the gym for upper body. Jogged back after. Rainy at the end. Total run 9M in 61’.

XT: Upper body at the gym.

Martes, 25 Marzo, 2014 – 9:30am: Easy pre-workout shakeout. One big lap. Total run 4km+, 3M-.

12:30pm: Track workout today. Warmed up around the park to the track, 5km+, then did drills and strides. Felt pretty good.

Workout was 8x 2000m with ~2’ jog in between each (400m). Goal was to run at a similar pace to these longer interval workouts I’ve been doing the last few months ~3’00-3’05/km (~4’50-55/mile). These intervals were longer than I’d done before (longest was 10x1600m at 4’58 back in January), so it was a bit of “new territory”.

Ended up going super well. First one was slow but very relaxed (6’07.9) and second one was a bit quicker (6’04). From there, the rest were all at 6’02 or faster. The best was that even at the end where I was running a good bit faster, I didn’t feel like I was straining and I never had any moments where I thought “I’m not sure I’ll be able to finish this. The last one was 5’57 (2’59/2’58) and I didn’t feel like I was running all out, just a bit more focused.

A very solid workout to average close to 3’00/km (3’00.9 exactly or 4’51/mile). This is the last day of a big block of mileage starting after the TM world record (22 days, 453 miles, 20.6 miles/day avg). I’ll take a few days of recovery and then begin the last block of mileage before race day!

Cooled down short to the gym for legs.

Total run 15M+.

Splits:
8x2000m w/ 400m jog rest in 2’00
6’07.9 (3’03.9, 3’04.0)
6’04.1 (3’02.2, 3’01.9)
6’02.1 (3’00.9, 3’01.2)
6’00.8 (3’00.9, 3’00.9)
6’02.7 (3’01.9, 3’00.8)
6’00.2 (3’01.0, 2’59.2)
5’59.7 (2’59.8, 2’59.9)
5’57.6 (2’59.6, 2’58.0)

Avg: 6’01.9

6pm: Very easy shakeout around the park. Total run 5km.

Miercoles, 26 Marzo, 2014 – 11:30am: Slept super late for some reason. Ran easy around the park. Felt pretty good even with workout yesterday. Total run 10M+ in 77’.

PM: Off, recovery period.

XT: Hips

Jueves, 27 Marzo, 2014 – AM: OFF, just XT. Recovery.

4pm: Easy/moderate run around the park. Felt a bit sluggish at first from a lazy morning. Felt fine once moving. Total run 10M+ in 72’.

XT: Core, 16’.

Viernes, 28 Marzo, 2014 – 10am: Easy/mod run around the park to the track. Stopped and did drills and long strides 100-200m, then 1x800m in 2’27 (trying to run MP and went out in 34). Felt very good. Jogged a bit more back home. Total run 7M+.

5pm: Travel to Sto. Domingo. Easy shakeout on the road. Got stuck in a thunderstorm ugh. Felt fine though. Total run 4M+.

XT: Hips.

Sabado, 29 Marzo, 2014 – 6am: Up at 2am for workout today. Had breakfast of bread with banana and Nutella and black coffee. Had another cup of black coffee about an hour later, which actually gave me some uncomfortable caffeine jitters – probably coupled with being excited/nervous about the last big workout. Felt better by the time I left around 6am

Workout was straight-forward enough: 25km (15.5M) at close to goal marathon pace (3’16-18/km or 5’15-18/mile). I tried to use this run as a “dress rehearsal” for the marathon. I wore my singlet /shorts/shoes to make sure everything was comfortable. Tried to practice timing my meals right (though obviously skewed with a 6am start). I also actively tried to take as short/weird/awkward/bad warm up as possible. I figure that the warm-up in Boston will be similarly weird and there will probably be a lot of standing between any jogging and actually starting, so I tried to do that as well. I just wanted to simulate as much as I could what the start would be like so that on race day if things aren’t perfect I can know that I can run well anyways.

I also tried to simulate the course as best I could. Since the run was 25km, I decided to try to think of each km like 1 mile of the race and place up/down sections appropriately. This run ended up being very hilly – I think the hills here are longer and steeper than Boston from my recollection.

Full splits are below. Overall, I felt quite good. I had some stomach cramps that showed up around 20km and required a brief stop at 23km (reflected in the splits), but felt totally fine other than that. Otherwise, I was mostly comfortable for the first 10-12km. The biggest hills were around 15-21km (ala Newton) which was very tough. I tried to really focus on accelerating up the hills to try to keep the pace the same, which meant a significantly harder effort for that km.

5ks were fairly even – all between 16’19-30. I did finishing downhill the last mile or so and was running ~3’10 with the same effort (no huge effort to kick in). The finishing time was 25 km in 1’22’00 which is 3’16/km or 5’16/mile (2’18’23 marathon pace). Half marathon was passed in 1’09’04.

It was nice to run right at MP for a long time as this was “new territory.” I don’t think I’d ever run this pace for more than 21km (past the half marathon point). Still, it was a bit intimidating to go through HM in 1’09 and have that feel as hard as it did. Even getting to 15.5M, the idea of running another 10+ miles at that pace is still pretty scary. Hopefully, race-day will have me feeling tapered and well rested and I won’t even feel the first half. Jon has consistently told me that my issue will likely be holding back and not going out TOO FAST during the first 10 miles with all the adrenaline and crowd and people around me. I guess only time will tell.

Anyways, a very solid last big workout. I’ll do one more longish effort this week (a long fartlek, but not as fast) and then cut the mileage way low the last two weeks and focus just on some shorter workouts for maintenance. The hay is mostly in the barn at this point, so it’s more a matter of just getting to race day healthy!

Total run 17M.

Splits:
1. 3’12.4
2. 6’29.4 (3’17.0)
3. 9’47 (3’18.5)
4. 13’05 (3’17.9)
5. 16’19 (3’13.6) (16’19)
6. 19’37 (3’17.6)
7. 22’52 (3’15.0)
8. 26’07 (3’15.1)
9. 29’22 (3’15.3)
10. 32’41 (3’18.9) (16’22)
11. 35’55 (3’14.3)
12. 39’12 (3’17.1)
13. 42’31 (3’18.5)
14. 45’46 (3’15.8)
15. 49’03 (3’16.8) (16’22)
16. 52’21 (3’17.4)
17. 55’37 (3’16.1)
18. 58’54 (3’17.1)
19. 1’02’10 (3’16.5)
20. 1’05’30 (3’19.5) (16’27)
21. 1’08’44 (3’14.3) (HM: 1’09’04)
22. 1’12’03 (3’18.9)
23. 1’15’36 (3’33.3)
24. 1’18’49 (3’12.7)
25. 1’22’00 (3’10.6) (16’30)

4pm: Back in Quito. A very easy shakeout around the park. Crazy thunder/hail storm right before I ran so there were little piles of hail that looked like mini-snow banks. People were taking pictures. Total run 3M+.

Domingo, 30 Marzo, 2014 – 11:30am: Slept super late, very tired after yesterday and coldn’t fall asleep with achy legs. Ran easy on the cilcopaseo up all the way to the northern end (7.5km) and then back down. Tacked on to get to 10 miles. Started out slow but felt really good in the second half and was running 3’40 pace down the hill and 4’00-15 pace flat. Total run 10M in 70’.

5pm: Easy-moderate run around the park. Picked it up on the second half because it was starting to rain. Total run 5M in 33’.

XT: Core, 16’.