Tyler’s Training: Week of May 5, 2014

Weekly Summary – 107 Miles in 14 Runs. Another very solid week of training. Still feeling healthy and fit. One moderate and one big workout this week. I think I’ll be ready to race again! 2 Weeks to Vermont City!

Lunes, 5 Mayo, 2014 – 9:30am: Ran very easy regeneration with Mariana on slut-biased. Nice morning. Total run 8M in 65’.

4:30pm: Easy/moderate run around Sam’s loop and then campus to the track (7M in 43’). Stopped and did full drills, a few 100m strides, and then 3x200m. First two easy in 35.x, last one quicker in 30.x (all in trainers). Jogged home. Total run 8M++ in 55’.

XT: OFF.

Martes, 6 Mayo, 2014 – 11am: Workout this morning. Something fairly different to test out the deeper fibers running a bit faster. Workout was to run 10x1km on the roads at about 10k pace. Rest was 90sec very easy jog. I ran on the long-lakes loop (the same rolling 8km loop where I did the progression run). Felt pretty good, weather was great if a bit windy.

Pretty consistent effort with some variation due to terrain. Majority around 2’57.x/km (4’44/mile pace). Rest was 90s very easy jog as planned. Accelerated a bit in the second half, but not a ton, 2’57 felt about right for the effort. The very last one I ran harder, mostly in the last 500m and ran 2’52 (4’37/mile pace), which was pretty hard.

I think this workout was harder than the last couple, but I also felt better. Unlike the previous two workouts, I finished this workout feeling pretty much spent, and not like I could continue indefinitely. I think this is probably due to the fact that I have done very little running at this pace and so it’s probably putting a good amount of musculoskeletal strain on my legs that I’m not used to. Aerobically, it felt okay – 90sec rest felt ample – but my legs were very tired by the 7-8th rep.

Cooled down very short as I was already pretty tired. Stretching and ice bath after.

Total run 12M+.

Splits:
5km warm up in 22’, drills, 4x100m+ strides
10x1km (road) with 90s jog
1. 2’59.3
2. 2’57.7
3. 2’57.5
4. 2’58.3
5. 2’57.9
6. 2’57.4
7. 2’56.5
8. 2’54.9
9. 2’56.8
10. 2’52.4
Short cool-down very slow and ice bath

Total Work: 10km in 29’28.7
Avg Work: 2’56.9 (4’44.7)

5pm: Very easy shakeout with Mariana on Sam’s loop. Nice and slow. Good shakeout. Total run 5M+ in 43’.

XT: Core, 14’.

Miercoles, 7 Mayo, 2014 – 10am: Ran at Battle Rd on the way back to Concord. Felt pretty good, better than expected. Started out very easy ~7’30/M and worked down to about 6’10 by the end. Nice and relaxed. Beautiful day! Total run 8M+ in 57’.

4pm: Ran from parents’ house in Concord on short ORNAC. Felt really good for some reason. Started out relaxed but was running quick within 2km and running 3’30 by 5-6km. Actively held back because this seemed too fast (though didn’t feel too fast). Still running 3’40ish very relaxed. Total run 47’30 for 8M (5’56 pace).

XT: OFF.

Jueves, 8 Mayo, 2014 – 7am: Up early for Fenn talk. Ran on treadmill so I could run through my talk a few times. Easy run. Total run 9M in 62’.

4pm: Ran from Mariana’s very easy on Sam’s loop. Beautiful afternoon. Felt good, easy pace for tomorrow’s workout. Total run 5M+ in 35’.

XT: Hips.

Viernes, 9 Mayo, 2014 –  9am: Today was the big “test” workout to see how deep my marathon recovery went. This basically marked the halfway point between Boston and Vermont and therefore also marked the hardest workout I’ll do in between these two races. I’d been feeling pretty good leading up to this point, but was waiting until this workout to really decide whether I felt like I was ready to commit.

The workout itself was very similar to a workout I did about 3 weeks out from Boston: a moderate warm up and then 25km (~15M) of 1km faster than MP, 1km at a quick recovery. I did this workout at altitude last time (7700 ft) and ran 10km warm up and then the fartlek averaging 3’06 for the quick and 3’39 for the moderate. I figured if I could run similar to those or a bit faster now at sea level, that would be a very good indicator.

The workout went quite went, I think. It was surprising actually because it was one of these workouts that I really didn’t feel very good at about halfway. Maybe this has to do with my improved endurance from all of these very long interval workouts, but I’ve found that now a days, when a workout starts to feel hard, it often just continues to feel hard, but the wheels don’t fall off (as opposed to running a 10k workout last year, where I had a very good sense of “Okay, this is the last rep I’ll be able to do and then things are going south.”

I was questioning whether I’d be able to finish this workout, actually fairly early, but the difficulty of the pace just kind of plateaued. It felt hard and focused, but I think the important thing that I’m trying to say is that it never felt harder than it did on like the 3rd or 4th rep. Maybe this is partly a mental thing – all of these long runs and workouts have just helped me train myself to push through discomfort better than in years past – but I would guess that there’s a physical component as well that my body is just able to operate better at a fairly high intensity for longer.

I too was surprised by how easy it felt to run 3’30-40 pace in between these fairly quick Ks. Aerobically, I still feel extremely fit, and so I found that within 60 seconds, my breathing had become very relaxed. Muscularly, I think I needed the whole 3.5 minutes, but it was a long enough time that I felt quite ready to go back down to pace at that point. I guess it makes sense because I have been doing some easy runs at 3’40 pace, so recovering at 3’30-35 pace (avg for the km – so probably running the first 400m a bit slower to catch breath) doesn’t seem that hard.

I should also note that the weather for this workout was pretty much perfect – very little wind and light drizzle and about 50F. The VCM starts at 8am and the avg temp at start time is 48F. Hopefully, it’s still unseasonably cool on race day!

Anyways, I accomplished what I wanted to: finish the workout and run faster than I did last time (3’03 “on”/3’33 “off”). I covered 20 miles total in 1h49, which is very good. I finished feeling very tired, but not totally spent. It was a hard workout, but I shouldn’t feel it for days.

I cooled down very short about 3km back to the house. I was cold.

Total run 20M in 1h49.

5km: 18’01
FARTLEK (1km fast/1km slow)
1 3’06.5 ‘
2 3’34.1 6’40.6
3 3’05.7 9’46.3
4 3’33.1 13’19.4
5 3’02.8 16’22.2 16’22.2
6 3’33 19’55.2
7 3’04.3 22’59.5
8 3’34.8 26’34.3
9 3’03.4 29’37.7
10 3’31.9 33’09.6 16’47.4
11 3’04.9 36’14.5
12 3’33.3 39’47.8
13 3’03.7 42’51.5
14 3’32.3 46’23.8
15 3’04.4 49’28.2 16’18.6
16 3’33.1 53’01.9
17 3’03.7 56’04.9
18 3’32.3 59’37.3
19 2’59.6 1’02’36.9
20 3’31.5 1’06’08.4 16’40.2
21 3’00.5 1’09’08.9
22 3’34.2 1’12’43.1
23 2’58.1 1’15’41.2
24 3’40.5 1’19’21.7
COOLDOWN
3km: 12’17

Total run (continuous): 32km (20M-) – 1’49’41
Total fartlek: 24km (15M-) in 1’19’21 (3’18.4 avg)
Avg “on” fartlek: 3’03.1
Avg “off” fartlek: 3’33.7

PM: Very easy shakeout with Mariana from Brookline. Felt good to move. Fairly sore from this morning. Total run 2M+++ in 20’.

XT: Off.

Sabado, 10 Mayo, 2014 – 9am: Easy shakeout on Sam’s loop plus a mile on the grass. Felt not too bad. Total run 10km, 6M++ in 45’.

3pm: Super nice day, ran short menotomy very slow with Mariana. Nice day, good long shakeout, longer than I planned. Oops. Total run 8M in 70’.

XT: Hips.

Domingo, 11 Mayo, 2014 – 9am: Easy shakeout from Concord around the hood. Felt okay, a bit sluggish still. Total run 5M+ in 35’.

4pm: Very slow easy shakeout with Mr. C around the hood. Another very nice day. Total run 3M, NT.

XT: Core.