Before we get to the good stuff, I’d like to remind all my readers about the 5-Minute-Fundraiser, a project announced this past week. On Thanksgiving Day, I’ll be running 5-minute-mile pace for as long as possible to raise money for the STRIVE Center in Perú. With a donation of $5 or more to the center, you get to guess my final time, with the closest guesses winning some awesome prizes like a $50 amazon.com gift card, $100 off a STRIVE program, or some sweet STRIVE gear! Thanks to all those who have donated and if you haven’t, please consider at www.youcaring.com/strive. Thanks! And enjoy this week’s training post!

 

Weekly Summary – 130 miles in 14 runs. This will be my last big week of mileage for a while, as I transition into a competition phase. Some good recovery early in the week and then two great workouts including a hard 40km long run with a good section at half-marathon pace. Feeling great and pumped to get back to sea level for another shot at the half in two weeks!

Lunes, 7 Octubre, 2013 – 11am: got back from GYE super late last night, still not feeling great. Slept til 10:30ish and very easy 10km after that. Total run 6M+, nt.

5:30pm: Easy run 10km again. Legs feeling better and stomach almost perfect. Total run 6M+, NT.

Martes, 8 Octubre, 2013 – 10am: Easy longer run around the parks. Felt fine, nice day. Total run 20km, 12M++ in 1’40.

5:30pm: Easy run to the park and back plus tacked on looking for the gym by the mariscal for a while. Total run 8M+, in 60’.

Miercoles, 9 Octubre, 2013 – 10am: Easy run to the park, one big lap and then some. Felt good. Total run 10M+, in 80’.

5:30pm: Easy run to the park and then some light drills and 5x long strides with jog rest. Just wanted to see how the legs would feel turning over a bit more – they felt great. Total run 12km, NT.

Jueves, 10 Octubre, 2013 – 12pm: Had light breakfast before workout and then left. Ran to the park. Wanted to do a long specific workout on Sunday, so wanted something lighter today.

Workout was fairly light with a big effort coming on Sunday. 20x(1’ on/1’ off), with the “on” at 3’10 down to 3’02 pace and the “off” at 4’00 pace. Felt quite easy at first, but got more and more difficult with the increase in pace and tiring in the legs. Felt great though and got a very good aerobic workout as well as some good specific work. Passed 4km in 14’14, 8km in 28’14 (14’00), 10km in 34’30 (2km in 6’16) and finished just under 12km in 40’.

Cooled down very easy home about 4km.

Total run 22km, 13M++.

Splits:
4km: 14’14
8km: 28’14 (14’00)
10km: 34’30 (6’16)
12km: 40’49 (6’19)

6pm: Afternoon nap with the kitten 🙂 felt graet. Very easy shakeout solo in the rain around alameda y el ejido. Legs much better after. Total run 5km, 3M+.

Viernes, 11 Octubre, 2013 – 9am: Easy run around the park one big loop. Felt fine. Total run 8M++.

4pm: Another easy run around the park. Same. Total run 8M++, NT.

Sabado, 12 Octubre, 2013 – 11am: Late night after the Ec Uru futbol match. Super fun but very tired this morning. Easy run to the park one big lap + alameda. Total 9M+, NT.

5:30pm: Easy run to the park and then drills, 5x strides. Strides felt great. Ran back long way around alameda. Total run 7M, NT.

Domingo, 13 October 2013 – 9am: Woke up early for a piece of bread and coffee. Left around 9am for the last very big workout of the season.

Workout was straight out of Canova’s methodology: a long run of 35-40km with 4-5 surges of 4km at (altitude) half marathon pace, with 1km moderate in between each. This type of workout taxes the aerobic system significantly and teaches to push and maintain pace even after a significant amount of running and time on feet.

I ran this workout with a friend’s garmin as I had on Thursday, as the pacing and distance were particularly important. Luckily, I was able to run on the main road through town, as it’s closed down to cars on Sundays, which gives about 30km out and back.

Worth noting that I carried a bottle of red gatorade which I dropped off and took every 5km or so after 15km.

The plan was to first run 10km and an easy to moderate pace to begin the workout well warmed up and mildly fatigued. This was run in 42’28 and felt very comfortable. From here, the “meat” of the day began with the alternating 1km moderate and 4km half-marathon paced surges.

The moderate surges were all around 4’00/km (6’26/mile) and the goal pace for the HMP segments was around 3’20-22/km (5’20-25/mile). The first rep felt more difficult than I’d expected, likely because I went right into it, but felt fine after warming up, running 13’29 (3’22/km 5’25/mile). The next rep felt easier and the pace was the same (13’31). From there, the next two were increasingly difficult, but the pace was the just about same (13’28/13’25) with the rest still around 4’00/km.

On the last rep, I tried to pick up the pace and run quite hard. This was extremely difficult and I began to feel some cramping in my legs near the end of the rep. I probably went out close to 3’10 pace for the beginning of this rep and so was slowing near the end. This was the fastest rep of the day, still, at 13’01 (3’15/km, 5’14/mile).

At that point, I was at 35km in 2’09 and had 5km moderate to run back. I figured I could run under 2’30 at that point which was pretty exciting, so I pushed a bit more than I’d planned for that last 5km (20’24) and arrived back in 2’29’39 for 40km.

Overall, this is by far the biggest workout of this season and the longest continuous run I’ve ever done. This gives me a lot of confidence going into the half marathon in two weeks and even more confidence in starting to think about the full marathon next year. If I had run another 2.2km at that pace, I would have finished in about 2’38 which is quite promising at 9,400 ft.

This is the last big volume workout I’ll do for a while. The focus now will be on hitting a few tuneups and then some big races.

Splits:
10k: 42’28
11k: 46’28 (4’00)
15k: 59‘57(13’29)
16k: 1’03’57 (4’01)
20k: 1’17‘28(13’31)
21k: 1’21’27 (3’59)
25k: 1’34’55 (13’28)
26k: 1’38’50 (3’55)
30k: 1’52’15 (13’25)
31k: 1’56’14 (3’59)
35k: 2’09’15 (13’01)
40k: 2’29’39 (20’24)

25km of work in 1’26’45 (3’28/km, 5’35/mi pace)
40km total in 2’29’39 (3’44/km, 6’01/mile)

6pm: Easy shakeout in the drizzle. Very slow. Ran into Marco, Pita, y Patrona in Alameda and walked with them for a bit. Legs much better after. Total 5km, NT.