Weekly Summary – 132 miles in 12 runs. Fantastic week with a huge Christmas workout of 7x5k at 2h13 marathon pace. Feeling fitter every week. Less than 7 weeks until the US Olympic Marathon Trials!

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Lunes, 21 de Diciembre, 2015 – 8:30am: Easy run on MVS out/back. Felt pretty tired at first but warmed up into it. Cool in the 30s and windy. Finished with 3x strides on crystal drive, ethio cooldown. Total run 10M+ in 70’.

XT: Back/hips

3:30pm: Easy run down to fields and then barefoot. Windy and planes landing right overhead which was cool. Finished with 8x diagonals which felt pretty good and then jog home. Etiho Cooldown. Total run 7M in 47’.

XT: Hips.

Martes, 22 de Diciembre, 2015 – 10am: Sparknotes: 8x2000m @ 5’55.8 avg (2’57.9/km, 4’46/M) with 400m easy jog recovery.

Longer version:

XT: Legs at the gym. 3 sets of [15x step ups, 20x overhead lunge, 24x dynamic lung, 12x squat (bar)].

4pm: Easy run out/back on MVS and then to costco. Total run 7M+.

Miercoles, 23 de Diciembre, 2015 – 8am: Easy run out/back on MVN. Felt surprisingly good. Crazy foggy which was really cool. Couldn’t see the river, so it appeared as though the bridge pylons and trees of Potomac Park were simply poking up out of a bank of clouds. Planes coming in and out of view for just a second or so. Could only see the first 40 feet or so of the Washington Monument before it disappeared into the fog – somehow making it appear even more phallic than usual. Saw an old, disheveled man with a shiny, new briefcase. Without the traffic and airplanes, it would have been undeniably creepy.

Running quite quick by the end and finished with 2km ~MP with the last minute or so quite fast. Felt great. Total run 12M in 80’.

XT: Back/hips.

3:30pm: Easy/moderate run around CCS, miserable out – cold and quite rainy. Finished with 3x strides which felt surprisingly decent. Total run 8M in 60’.

Jueves, 24 de Diciembre, 2015 – 7am: In Concord, ran as soon as it got light out from parents’ house. Nice to be back on the old roads and super quiet this morning. Felt good – ready for a good one tomorrow. Total run 13M.

XT: Off – no time.

PM: OFF – busy visiting Bob, Ceil, and Michael up in NH all day and then got back late. Figured it was better to eat, rest, and get to bed early than try to cram another run in.

Viernes, 25 de Diciembre, 2015 – Sparknotes: 42km in 2’17’53 with 7x 5km @ goal MP (15’52 avg, 15’43-16’07) with 1km moderate recovery (3’49 avg). Very strong.

Longer writeup:

5:30am: Woke up very early for this one since it’s Christmas and I had to be finished and ready for all day family obligations. Had ½ nature valley bar and black coffee and did some walking. Around 5am did 1km easy on treadmill and then light drills before starting workout.

I ended up doing the first 90 min or so of this run on the treadmill because it was dark out and the roads near my parents house are not lit and I’m super paranoid about running in the dark. Ran at 1-2% incline and finished outside for last 12km and the effort felt fairly similar.

Workout went very well. The effort felt exactly right – a bit stiff to start off but then super under control through about 25-30km.

Tried to practice really increasing intensity at 30k, 35k, 40k. Last rep was quite tough but nowhere near all out. Only issue was I felt like I had a bowling ball in my stomach for the first few miles as I ate way too much the day before (I have a sweet tooth and have no self control around my mother’s homemade baked goods). Maybe this paid off in the end, though, as I felt absolutely no fueling problems and only took gels at 0km, 12km and 24km and about 12oz of powerade in total.

This workout compares very favorably to past iterations (I had only done 6x5K before, with my fastest run being this spring where I averaged 15’52 and 3’58 for the recovery. So, this was the same average for the 5Ks, faster for the recovery, an extra 6km of volume (which brought me to the marathon point in 2’18’3x), and it was done in the middle of an absolutely whirlwind 48 hour trip to my parents’ house which included 5 hours in the car the day before and way too much rich holiday food. All things considered, this is probably one of the strongest marathon specific workouts I’ve ever done.

So, I’m very pleased with this and where I am with 7+ weeks to the Trials. I think the strength from all of the mega-mileage of the fall is really paying off as I’m able to run these very long runs and not feel too destroyed after.

No cool-down run, but did full ethio cool down, stretching, ice bath before big Christmas dinner.

Total run 27 miles.

Unit Time Lap Lap Pace
1 km 3’45.1 (3’45.1) 3’45.1
6 km 19’52.9 (16’07.8) 3’13.6
7 km 23’40.8 (3’47.9) 3’47.9
12 km 39’42.8 (16’02.0) 3’12.4
13 km 43’29.5 (3’46.7) 3’46.7
18 km 59’21.2 (15’51.7) 3’10.3
19 km 1’03’09.7 (3’48.5) 3’48.5
24 km 1’19’00.3 (15’50.6) 3’10.1
25 km 1’22’47.6 (3’47.3) 3’47.3
30 km 1’38’36.0 (15’48.4) 3’09.7
31 km 1’42’39.0 (4’03.0) 4’03.0
36 km 1’58’22.0 (15’43.0) 3’08.6
37 km 2’02’08.9 (3’46.9) 3’46.9
42 km 2’17’53.7 (15’44.8) 3’09.0

PM: OFF – no time for run. Super busy afternoon dropping Brett off at the airport then stopping by Jon’s and then stopping by to see Mar and her folks before heading to the airport myself. Did have a very nice walk of maybe 60 minutes with my folks which felt like just what my body needed.

XT: OFF.

Sabado, 26 de Diciembre, 2015 – 9am: Slept late after getting home at about 10pm last night. Super exhausted this morning between yesterday’s 26 miler and all the travel and late night. Ran VERY slow shakeout on MVN out/back and then to Costco. Started at a real shuffle and barely sped up. Total run 10M in 82’.

XT: Back/hips

4pm: Nice, deep nap this afternoon. Woke up and felt a bit better than the morning. Body just a bit tired still. Easy run around CC since it was getting dark. Finished with 1M barefoot with 4x strides. Total run 5M.

XT: Core

Domingo, 27 de Diciembre, 2015 – 9am: Slept late again, but felt much better this morning. Measured out a new road loop this morning so ran mostly on that (1km) to get used to it. Much better loop than my old one – more residential, fewer cars and people, a bit more rolling, only 4 turns. Ran 6 loops in each direction. Felt surprisingly good and was running ~3’50 the last few and the majority 4’00-4’15. Finished with 1 lap quicker ~MP at 3’12.6. Jogged home after and did ethio cooldown. Total run 12M++, 20km in 1h24.

XT: Back/hips.

3:30pm: Wow – what a beautiful day. 70F and sunny this afternoon! Is it really New Year’s Eve in a few days?! Ran very easy down to fields and barefoot for 4km and then did 6x diagonals. Finished with easy jog around CC home. Etiho cool down. Total run 6M.

XT: Hips.