Weekly Summary – 64 miles in 10 runs. Week started off slow after a huge PR (1’02’13) at the Trujillo 20km last weekend and a very long day of travel afterwards. Mostly easy running with a good tuneup work on Thursday and a tough but decent race on Sunday. Recovery and easy running to come this week with my last race down here (10km at sea level) the week after where I’ll be shooting to run under the elusive 30-minute barrier!

Lunes, 4 Noviembre, 2013 – AM: Off. Got back to Quito at 7:30am after an incredibly stressful and long trip back from Trujillo. Awake since 4:45am the day before. Slept from 8am-3pm.

5pm: Easy, easy shakeout around el ejido. Felt okay, still beat up from traveling/race comboshot. Total run 4M, NT.

Martes, 5 Noviembre, 2013 – 8am: Slept for 13 hour last night. Phew. Easy shakeout around el Ejido. Felt a bit better. Total run 5km, 3M+, NT.

5:30pm: Easy run to the park and back. Felt pretty beat still. Very easy pace. Total run 10km, 6M+, NT.

Miercoles, 6 Noviembre, 2013 – 9am: Slept long and well again last night. Easy run to the park and back. Total run 10km, 6M+, NT.

5pm: Easy run towards the park, back early because legs were a bit tired. Stopped in el ejido and did drills and 5x strides. Actually felt quite good. Will likely try a light tune-up tomorrow morning. Total run 5M+, NT.

Jueves, 7 Noviembre, 2013 – 9am: Easy tune-up workout today. Just wanted to get the legs moving. Warmed up 6km to park, full drills, strides, 200m very easy in 38.x. Workout was to be 2x500m at ~10-12km (at altitude) pace (~1’40), 2x1000m (~3’20) at the same pace with the second one closing hard, then 2x500m quicker around 1’25-30. The goal was just to get some quicker running in at the pace I’ll hopefully be running in the 12km race on Sunday (which is at altitude), plus get a little quicker pace to just turn the legs over.

First two 500s were super easy, like a jog, and were still too quick at 1’36-38. Took only 2’ rest. First km was also quite easy and faster than planned at 3’17.

Second km, the plan was to run 600m comfy at the same pace and then the last 400m very hard, simulating the end of a race. I actually felt kind of tired in the first half of this rep and contemplated just running it even paced again, but decided to try anyways. Got to 600m in 2’01 and then ran very hard. Form felt great and I was running quite fast, passing 800m in 2’32-33 (31-32 sec 200m) and then maintained all the way to 1000m in 3’04 (63sec last 400m!) This was pretty awesome; I’m pretty sure it is (by a good amount) the fastest I’ve ever run 400m at this altitude – and it came 600m into another interval!

I decided to just stop the workout there, since that was a very good note to end on and the whole point of this workout was just to run quick and build confidence. And this really did accomplish that. I felt incredibly good closing that fast and coupled with what is clearly a huge aerobic engine as seen from the 1’02 20km, I can say that I am very confidence in both a stamina race or a sit-and-kick race.

This gets me pretty pumped for this weekend’s 12km race. Racing at altitude is always really hard, especially against guys who were born here, but I’m feeling great about my conditioning and I’m excited to just get out there and compete. Can’t wait!

Cooled down 6km back to house. Total run 10M, NT.

Splits:
500m: 1’36.4
2’ jog
500m: 1’38.6
2’ jog
1000m: 3’17.9
2’30 jog
1000m: 3’04.9 (split 2’01.1/63.8)

5:30pm: Easy shakeout around el ejido. Felt fine. Total run 5km, 3M+.

Viernes, 8 Noviembre, 2013 – 10am: Slept late after a late night last night. Easy run to the park and back. Total run 10km, 6M+.

4:30pm: Tight for time with evening work shift, very short run around alameda. Quicker, though, feeling good. Total run 2M++, NT.

Sabado, 9 Noviembre, 2013 – 10am: Easy run around el ejido. Felt good. Total run 5km, 3M+, NT.

PM: Off, travel to Alausi.

Domingo, 10 Noviembre, 2013 – AM: Up at ~ 5:50am naturally. Breakfast around 6am, banana, bread, 1 cup black coffee.

11:30am: A good bit of chaos in the start of this race. Supposed to start at 9am, then 9:30am. Buses to the start (point to point course) didn’t leave until 9:15am. Got to the start a bit before 9:30am and told that race would start at 9:30 still. Rushed through some quick drills then was told another 45 minutes, so jogged a bunch, full drills strides, then was told it’d be delayed til 10:30am. At this point, just relaxd, kept loose, and did a stride every 8-10 minutes. At this point, it was 80F or hotter and we had been standing in direct sunlight for hours. I also had had breakfast like 5 hours earlier and was starting to get hungry. Ugh Finally got ready at 11:30am for the start of the WOMEN first – had about a 5 minute head start, not sure why.

Race course was ridiculously brutal. 2km steep uphill (~150m), 8km steep downhill (a lot), and then 2km steep uphill into town (~100m). Oh yeah, and we’re still over 8000ft of altitude. I knew this and actively took the first 2km super easy. Breathing very hard, but felt relaxed. With a pack of two guys who I’d been talking to before the race who looked good. Didn’t lead at all and actively holding back until we crested the top of the first climb. Passed 2km in 8’45!! Wow.

Felt really good to be running downhill and I took off pretty fast, gapping the two guys behind me. In first and alone from this point until near the end of the hill. Running pretty quick (next 2km was 6’10). The two guys from behind me caught up between 8 and 9km and went by. My legs were already hurting a lot at this point. I covered the 4km between 4 and 8k in 12’00 (those 6km in 18’10) and my legs were muscularly pretty shot. When they went by, I had nothing.

By the bottom of the hill, I was hurting (10km in 33’28, 8km downhill in 24’43) and I heard another guy coming up on me. Unfortunately, I had absolutely nothing left. He flew by and I began the long trudge up the hill up to the town. I was absolutely crawling. My legs totally shot. I could see 3rd up ahead and I was moving up on him, but it wasn’t enough.

Came to the home stretch with a bad side cramp and all I could do to cruise into the finish line in 4th in 41’21. Super exhausted. Never experienced leg fatigue like that before in a race. Wow.

Some entertaining drama at the finish line, as there was a “Kip Litton” cheater who tried to cut the course and claim victory. We (the four guys who were ever in the lead) never saw him and obviously he was lying and cheating. It ended up turning into a heated discussion between the cheat and the third place finisher, with the cheat actually taking (and landing) a hard hit to the face of the poor third place finisher. Luckily, Marco’s dad (Big Marco) was there and was having none of it. He was kicked out (and maybe arrested). All’s well that ends well.

All in all, from a racing perspective, it was crazy to think that I’d be able to run a decent race 6 days after my huge half last weekend, especially given the crazy travel day in there. I felt truly afwul in the latter part of this race, and I think it’s myriad things (the long wait in the hot sun, the brutal uphill start, the overly-aggressive downhill segment, not being recovered from last weekend, etc.) It was still a fun race and weekend (I went down with Marco and co from the hostal and stayed in their incredibly beautiful house).

I will race seriously mid-week of next week (~10 days out) where I’ll be running a 10k in Lima and going for a PR (sub 30, maybe?) Until then, my log will likely be pretty boring as it’ll just be easy running and maybe 1-2 tune up workouts.

Cooled down around town and on the course a bit. Total run 14M+.

PM: Easy shakeout, 3M+, NT.