Weekly Summary – 133 Miles in 13 runs. Two BIG and very solid workouts with some good recovery days mixed in. Feeling very strong in training. This next week will be quite low (maybe 50-60%) as I am hopefully heading to Guayaquil (at sea level) to race half marathon and I’d like to hit it very hard. I am feeling quite good about this race; the only problem I can anticipate would be humidity as it’s on the coast and Quito where I’ve been training is quite dry. Either way, I’m pumped to get down to sea level for the first time in 2+ months! Should be fun.

Lunes, 23 Septiembre, 2013 – 9:30am: Easy run after a very good, long night’s sleep. Ran to the parque and 2 big laps. Total run 18km, 11M++, NT.

5:30pm: Another very easy run after work. To the park and one big lap. Total run 14km, 8M++, NT. 32km (20 miles) for the day.

Martes, 24 Septiembre, 2013 – 10:30am : slept really late again for a long time. Recovering from not enough sleep last week. Ran easy to the park and two big laps. Easy run. Felt pretty good. Total 18km, 11M++, NT.

5:30pm: Easy run to the track (6km) and then stopped and did drills on the grass. Ran magic 2km in 7’01 (alternating 100m stride/100m cruise) with last 200m in 29.6. Felt good. Legs feeling fine again. Stopped and talked for a while with Antonio and one of the women I met at Ibarra who were both there. Jogged back easy after 6km. Total run 15km, 9M+.

Miercoles, 25 Septiembre, 2013 – 11am: Jim and Colleen (my upstairs room-mates) rescued a kitten yesterday. It is incredibly cute but it cried ALL NIGHT and was running all over the room. I slept maybe 1 hour from 10:30 to 11:30pm and then was up until about 6am. Had planned to work out this morning early, but was so tired and starting to feel sick that I decided to push it to tomorrow and take a very easy day and try to rest. Luckily it was my day off from work.

Ran easy in the morning around the park. Ran into one of the guys from the tues/thurs Silvio Guerra group, so ran with him for a while. Pretty easy run. Tired.

Total run 13M, NT.

PM: Off. Not really planned but just felt so awful with no sleep that figured it was better to be rested. The point now is to hit these big workouts hard, so I figured better to just rest.

Jueves, 26 Septiembre, 2013 – 12pm: Worked in the morning so didn’t run til noon, which was actually nice as it gave me a full 24 hours between runs for once. Workout for today as a combo neuromuscular and aerobic workout. A fartlek with the fast portions at sea-level race pace (2’00 segments at ~5’00/mile pace) and the recovery still at a decent pace (2’00 at moderate pace, which turned out to be around 6’30/mile). Also wanted to keep the run continuous, as I haven’t had many longer continuous runs in a while.

Felt very good from the start. The very easy day yesterday certainly paid off. Ran the first 5km very easy in 20 minutes and then went right into the fartlek portion. I was checking my pace occasionally with the marks on the ground, and was covering over 600m during the “on” segments and about 500m during the off segments. This was actually quicker than I’d planned for the recovery parts, but I was feeling quite good so tried to just continue.

Each lap of the park was 4km and so I split my watch once per lap. Each lap was consistently in the 14’00-14’10 range, depending on the number of on/off segments per lap. I felt very good until the beginning of the 4th lap, when it started to get quite tough and I had to really push through the first on segment. From there, the end was in sight and so I was able to cruise. These 4 laps covered 16km (10 miles) in 56’29, an average of 5’41/mile (3’32/km).

The last 5km I ran back from the park progressing from the same moderate pace from the off sections to very quick at the end. This was a very tough test, but felt great and I was very pleased with the last 2-3km which were quite fast. These last 5km were run in 16’49. Combined with the 16km of fartlek, this was 21km of work (about a half marathon) in 1’13’18, an average of 5’37/mile or 3’29/km. If you us Daniel’s altitude converter on this time for 9400 ft… Phew!

This was a very big workout in the middle of a few very big workouts. I’m at the point in the season where the dichotomy between workout days and recovery days is even more exaggerated. As the real focus turns to nailing these big workouts, my recovery days will become more plentiful, easier, and shorter. We’re almost to October when I’ll start to really race. Pretty pumped.

Cooled down very short and easy after. Total run 26km, 16M+ in 1’33’49 (5’48/mile, 3’36.5/km)

Splits
5km: 20’29
9km: 34’33 (14’04)
13km: 48’44 (14’11)
17km: 62’53 (14’08)
21km: 77’00 (14’07)
26km: 1’33’49 (16’49)

16km: 56’29 (fartlek 2’on/2’off at 3’0x/4’0x) – 3’31.8 avg
Last 21km: 73’18 (3’29.5 avg)

5:30pm: VERY easy and slow shakeout down to the park and back. Total run 10km, 6M+ in 55’.

Viernes, 27 Septiembre, 2013 – 10:30am: Slept very late for a super long time. Felt great. Almost no kitten wake-ups. Ran nice and easy to the park and two big laps. Felt fine. Toes were sore last night but better today. Total run 18km (11M++), NT.

5:30pm: Easy run to the park, one big loop and back. Felt good, a bit quicker than the morning. Total run 14m, 8M+++, NT

Sabado, 28 Septiembre, 2013 – 6am: Easy run to the park and 1.5 big laps. Total run 16km, 10M, NT.

5:30pm: In Baños de Agua Santa (5800ft) for a big workout tomorrow. Long day and travel and a fairly emotionally draining trip to the prison in Ambato to visit Luis’ wrongfully imprisoned friend. Easy run once I finally got there. Legs felt fine. Total run 8M in ~60’.

Domingo, 29 Septiembre, 2013 – 6am: Alarm went off at 5am but way too tired, so slept til 6am. Got up and had bread with banana and a cup of black coffee. Had another cup of coffee while Maddy had breakfast around 7:30am.

Big workout today – goal was 12-16km at sea-level half marathon pace on the main car-road. The first 5km would be net down and then the remainder would be rolling, so the hope was to be able to run about 3’08-3’12 pace even though we are still at almost 6000ft.

The weather was pretty much perfect when I woke up – cloudy and cool – but as I walked Maddy out to the bus station, it had started to rain and was picking up. I waited a bit to see if it would let up, but it seemed to be just getting worse, so I decided to just go for it.

Jogged up the road easy for about 6km. Legs felt good but was pretty cold. Stopped at km 33 and did a couple light drills and strides but mostly just bounced around trying to wait for the rain to stop. Waited around 5 minutes but it was not improving at all. Rain coming down hard and a headwind. Oh well.

Started off with a big downhill in the first km, so was not surprised that it was fast (2’59). From there, it leveled off and was fairly flat through 3km (9’15) and 4km (12’26). There was one more big downhill in the 5th km (3’01), coming to 5km in 15’27.

From there, the next 5km was rolling up, with a few very steep climbs. These kilometers were around 3’20, as the climbs tend to hurt more than the downhills help, bringing us to 8km in 25’30 and 10km in 32’16 (so 16’47 second 5km, uphill).

From there, the course rolled some more but was mostly flat. The 3rd 5k was quite fast (15’17), thanks to a big down in the 13th km (2’56.5), but the rest was mostly flat and the pace was between 3’02 and 3’06. This felt quite tough. 15km was passed in 47’33 and I figured I could run one more km hard and run sub 51 for 16km (10 miles). I was starting to die a bit at this point, though as the last 3km were very hard but only about 3’05 and then the last km hard but only 3’20.

Overall, the time was very good. 50’57 for 16km is 3’11.1/km pace (5’07.5/mile). This is right in the range of the paces I wanted to hit and given that the second 5km was definitely harder than I’d anticipated in terms of hills, I was very pleased with this effort. Based on these last two workouts, I think that if I can run a half on a good course with good weather, I am somewhere between 1’06’30-1’07’30 shape right now.

Cooled down very easy (and cold). Total run 16M++.

Splits:
1. 2’59.6
2. 3’10.6 (6’10.2)
3. 3’04.8 (9’15.0)
4. 3’11.1 (12’26.2)
5. 3’01.5 (15’27.7)
6. Missed split
7. 6’40.9 (22’08.6)
8. 3’21.5 (25’30.1)
9. 3’20.6 (28’50.7)
10. 3’25.9 (32’16.6 – 16’47.9 second 5km)
11. 3’02.1 (35’18.8)
12. 3’05.9 (38’24.7)
13. 2’56.5 (41’21.1)
14. 3’05.1 (44’26.3)
15. 3’06.9 (47’33.3 – 15’16.7 third 5km)
16. 3’23.8 (50’57.1 – 25’27.0 second 8km)

6pm: Got back to Quito after a long, stiff, achy bus ride. Ran very easy shakeout around alameda y el ejido. Started raining quite hard on the way back so got pretty wet again.Total run 4M+ in 36’.