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Weekly Summary – 113 miles (181 km) in 14 runs. A great week as things really start to click here at 9,300 ft in Quito. My body is adjusting to the altitude and the regularity of training well and every workout is going better than the previous. 2 good sessions on the track this week, a moderate uptempo on Sunday, and an easy 2 hours in there somewhere. Big plans coming up – stay tuned!

Lunes, 22 de Enero, 2018 – 9:30am: Slept late and ran easy after a big one tomorrow and a workout tomorrow on the track. Down to the park and 2 big laps, 17’15, 17’01, very easy and then to the track, 4x strides and then 200m relaxed in 30.9 – very good! Jogged home. Total run 12km+ in 52’.

5pm: Easy run down to park and 2 big laps (16’40) and then to the track, 4x strides. Easy today and surprised how decent I felt after yesterday. Total run 10km++ in 43’.

Martes, 23 de Enero, 2018 – Sparknotes – 7x800m @ 2’25.4 avg w/ 2-3’ jog.

7am: Ran over to the estadio for track session this morning. Beautiful clear morning with perfect blue skies over pichincha! Great start to the day. Warmed up there and then 2 big laps very slow with the gang and then a bunch of drills, a few strides, and then 15’ of jogging.

From there, the workout was 7x800m w/ 2’ rest. I had no idea what pace was going to be but Profe said ~2’20 for the group, which sounded aggressive to me. I started out at the back of the pack and ran 2’25 on the first one (72.x/72.x) and then ran like a baby on the 2nd one (2’28) but after that basically ran 2’25 on all the rest. I think it was #4 that I decided to try to go hard with Miguel Angel and the guy who was running with him but I ended up just running like 69/74. After that, I was actually pretty pleased with how I ran the last few and overall ran pretty even. I also noticed I was moving up through the group (i.e. they were slowing down over the workout and I was running even).

Definitely a solid first longer rep session. I know I can get in shape very quickly and it’s great to have Miguel ahead of me with a target on his back because I know I can get to his level (he ran all of these under 2’20) and that’ll be great work for my speed. We’ll see where it takes us!

Cooled down very slow around the outfield with the dudes and then home. Total run 17km.

5pm: Easy run down to the carolina. Beautiful day still – mostly sunny, super nice. Very tired out the door (no nap today, a lot of work this week, and a nice long walk to Lima 51 and back) and 2 big laps (16’54 and then quicker 3/4 lap to the track). Did 4x strides relaxed and then back home easy. Felt surprisingly decent overall given I was pretty tired and the morning was a solid session. Though, clearly more challenging due to altitude/aerobic system than the legs. Good. Total run 10km+ in 45’.

Miercoles, 24 de Enero, 2018 – 9:30am: Slept late and long, very tired. Felt pretty good on the run. Easy run around the park, 2 big laps (16’58, 16’29) and then back to the track, 4x strides and 200m in 33. Overall felt pretty good. Beautiful day with first views of the Coto glaciar since we arrived! Total run 12km in 53’.

5pm: Ran very easy to start with Mariana and Brittany down to the park and about half lap and then solo quicker. Felt quite good and running in the 4’10s no problem. Finished at the track, 4x strides, and then easy home. Total run 10km in 44’.

Jueves, 25 de Enero, 2018 – Sparknotes: 2x [6x200m @ 29-31 w/ 100m jog (30-40s)], 4’ between sets.

7am: Jogged to the track on another beautifully sunny morning. Drills with the gang, 15’ of easy jogging, 5x strides and then into it.

Lighter volume session today but a real aerobic torture at 9,300 ft. Goal was 2 sets of 6x200m with only 100m jog. Coach originally said 60 sec but this ended up being 30-40 sec. 200s were supposed to be 29-31.

Ran the first set in claytons. Felt okay on the first one but was aerobically red-lining for basically the whole set as there was no way I was going to recover from a 30s 200m in 30-40 sec at this altitude. It felt very hard but I stuck with Miguel which was great for most of the workout. By rep 5, I was getting dropped a bit in the last 50m, but still good.

Changed into spikes (which I haven’t worn in quite a while!) for the second set. Recovered well in the 4’ rest but was right back into it immediately. Planned to do 5 + 5 + 2 because Miguel was doing 2 sets of 5 and I was supposed to do 12 total, but got roped into a 6th after I went really hard on #5 to stay with the group and just totally babied out after 150m and stopped. Took about a minute’s recovery and then did the last one solo and ran 29.5 which felt pretty good.

This type of workout (very short rest and high intensity intervals) is extremely tough up here especially when I’m not super well acclimated yet, so I was very pleased to be hanging with Miguel at the front. Very nice. Everything is moving in the right direction.

Cooled down 15’ very easy with Profe and then with Mariana over to inaquito to finish and grab some breakfast and groceries.

Total run 13km++ in 66’.

5pm: Easy shakeout down to the park and 2 big laps to the track. Like clockwork on these now. 16’46 and then 34’5x at the track. Did 4x strides. First time I could see all of Cotopaxi today which is lucky for Greg as he’s up there tonight! Jogged home and ethio on the roof. Total run 10km in 44’.

Viernes, 26 de Enero, 2018 – 8am: On an earlier schedule this week. Longer easy single this morning with a shorter, quicker long run on Sunday. Ran with Mariana VERY slowly up to Metropolitano first 3km or so to get her onto the main trail. Beautiful day and ran easy after on a big loop around the park. Never know exactly where I’m going, so always a bit of an adventure. I was at like 5’50/km avg at 23’ and then 5’14/km avg by the time I got back to the building. Ran down the hill to Carolina after and did 2 big laps 16’56, 16’38, and then to the track, 4x strides and 200m in 35.x. A bit tired on the strides after 1h50 of running but not too bad. Jogged home. Total run 25km in 2h01.

5pm: Easy shakeout down to the park, 1 big lap (16’38) and a half to the track (34’40). Legs felt a bit tired but pretty good once I got going. Another beautiful day in paradise. Some stomach issues but trip to the bathroom before strides and all was well. 4x strides and then home. Total run 10km in 44’.

Sabado, 27 de Enero, 2018 – 7:30am: Up early for planned mountain day but bailed due to poor weather up high. Ran easy to the park and 3 big laps (16’59, 48, 36) then back to the track. Felt a bit tired/depleted today. Did 6x strides and then 200m in 31.6. Track is crowded on Saturdays! Ran home easy. Total run 16km in 71’.

5pm: Easy clockwork double around the park. 1 big lap 16’47, 34’50 to the track. 4x strides very relaxed with uptempo tomorrow with the boyzzz. Total run 10km in 44’.

Domingo, 28 de Enero, 2018 – Sparknotes: 16km in 60’20 (3’46/km) at 7,700 ft.

8am: Up at 6am and met profe a bit after 7am to head down to chaquinan for longer run this morning. Got there and did some light warmups and started around 8am. I thought we were running longer but profe had us doing only 16km, so I was glad to have gotten in 2 hours on Friday.

Started off quicker downhill ~4’00 but felt very easy and comfy and basically maintained 4’00 for the downhill km to start and the up the hill after 2.5km until 5th km in 3’45. At that point, Miguel and I separated from the group and were running quicker (3’50/3’34/3’50) but all uphill to 8km. Turned around after the 8km post (more like 5M) but Garmin read as less than 8km, so a bit short. Cruised on the way back down but pace wasn’t much quicker 3’30s but lots of downhill. Idea was to run hard on the last 2.5km uphill. Miguel was behind me the whole time but crushed me when we hit the uphill and put 20 seconds on me in the last 2km. Very tough uphill to finish at 7700 ft but felt way better than I did on the 35km I did here 2 weeks ago when I ran almost 1’/km slower!

Just over 1 hour total for 16km, but nice negative split 31’/29’20. Very nice run and not too tired at the end other than out of breath from the hard uphill 8’ or so. Could have maintained the effort before that for quite a while.

Total run 16km in 60’.

5K splits: 19’32, 18’31, 18’19, 3’54 (uphill)

5pm: 10km around the park. Exact same loop I’ve done every day this week but felt remarkably good out the door and ran way quicker with very little effort. First lap was 15’54 and strava had my fastest lap as 15’15 or something which is like a minute faster than I’ve run so far. To the park in like 32’40 which is a solid 2 minutes ahead of where I’ve been every other day. 4x strides and then home. Total run 10km in 42’30 which is 2’+ faster than the last few days and with a decent effort this morning. Great sign.