Weekly Summary – 142 miles in 14 runs. Two fantastic workouts and last week of full volume (in terms of overall mileage and workouts). The focus now shifts to freshening up and staying healthy. Less than 4 weeks to go!

Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram and Twitter (@TylerCAndrews). And, of course, don’t forget to check out STRIVE’s 2016 Programs, including the newly announced STRIVE-Peru: Spring Break program! You can come do service work and train with me in Peru or Kenya and for 2016, we’ll once again have programs for High School and College students, and even a 10-day trip for adults and families, so be sure to take a look if you’re interested in an amazing summer experience!

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Lunes, 11 de Enero, 2016 – 9:30am: Slept late and long last night – like 12 hours. Wow. Felt much better this morning, pretty wiped last night. Ran longer this morning. Cold (28F) after a warm day yesterday (62F). Weather is weird. Felt pretty good once I got rolling. Finished round 4’00/km. Total run 15M in 1h43.

XT: Back/hips.

4pm: Nice nap this afternoon. Feeling just about caught up on rest. Ran to Costco and then around CC quicker. Felt good. Finished with 2M on the treadmill in sweats quicker ~MP (10’10) to see how that felt and to continue to try to run in some warmer temperatures. Felt okay. After, 4x strides barefoot with jog back. Total run 5M++.

XT: Core.

Martes, 12 de Enero, 2016 – 7:30am: Early run before a busy day with STRIVE staff interviews. CCS and 1M barefoot. Total run 7M in 45’.

11am: Second morning run due to time constraints. Easy, a bit tired still from run #1. Total run 8M in 59’.

XT: Back/hips

4:30pm: Easy shakeout around CCS and then 2M on treadmill in sweats. Felt much better than the morning. Finished with 6x barefoot strides with jog back. Total run 5M+.

XT: Hips

Miercoles, 13 de Enero, 2016 – Sparknotes: 21km progression run in 67’43 (3’13/km avg) from moderate (3’45/km, 6’00/M) -> fast (2’55/km, 4’40/M). Last 6km sub-3’00 pace avg. Penultimate 5-7km around MP. Very good. Winded at the end but not too hard. 10x short hills after.

9:30am: Workout wednesday! Small breakfast, animal crackers and black coffee. Easy warm-up, 2M, and then drills, no strides.

Goal was 15-21km progression run by feel. Wasn’t sure how I’d feel after Sunday’s big workout, but goal was to not feel too terminal today and feel all right the next day.

Ran the whole workout on 1km loop, so each km split was consistent. I like doing these kinds of run on a loop like this, as it really forces me to focus on the pace and where I am within each lap.

Started out very comfortable ~3’45 (6’00/M) and quickly brought it down into the 3’20s which felt very comfortable. Didn’t really try to accelerate but just warmed up and focused for the first 10k (33’57, 16’28 2nd 5k). After that, I was running more like MP from 10-15km and pretty consistent (not accelerating much). This was good.

At 15-16km, I made a big acceleration and figured I would run a few kilometers faster than MP. I was surprised to see 2’55 for the first one and actively held back after that to run 2’58-3’00. Held that until the last lap where I ran a bit harder in the last 500m. This turned out to be quite hard and I found myself tying up a bit with like 200m to go – probably a bit too aggressive at first – but finished in 2’56.

The total run was 21km in 67’43 (3’13.5/km, 5’11/M – 68’0x for HM). The last 6km as 17’52 (2’58.6/km, 4’47/M) and the last 11km was 33’46 (3’04/km, 4’56/M).

Afterward, I did 10x hill sprints at the Mariott hill and then ran to the gym for leg circuits. Quite a long workout overall and tired by the end.

This was a great run – very good to be able to run 68’0x as a progression run and having started out so slow. Also good to continually reinforce the danger of big gear-shifts and how cognizant I need to be about the energy demand of those drastic surges vs gradual accelerations. Compared to previous build-ups, this is much better than I’ve ever done for this type of workout, especially how comfortable it felt for the majority of the run.

Total run 20M+.

Unit Time Lap Pace
5 km 17’29.0 (17’29.0) (3’29.8)
10 km 33’57.0 (16’28.0) (3’17.6)
15 km 49’51.0 (15’54.0) (3’10.8)
20 km 1’04’47.0 (14’56.0) (2’59.2)
21 km 1’07’43.0 (2’56.0)

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

5:30pm: Easy, late shakeout after STRIVE interviews all afternoon. Legs felt quite good despite a long workout this morning and a long day. Definitely a good workout, but won’t leave me feeling beat up. Total run 3M in 21’.

Jueves, 14 de Enero, 2016 – 10am: Slept late for a long time. Ran easy out/back to Alexandria center and back. Finished with a loop around CC, 1M barefoot with 5x strides and to Costco for groceries. Ethio cooldown. Total run 12M in 84’.

XT: Back/hips

4pm: Ran with Mar at first very slow for 5km then solo. Felt great. Running quite quickly solo ~3’50->3’30. 1M barefoot with a few strides after. Total run 8M+.

XT: Core

Viernes, 15 de Enero, 2016 – 9am: Easy run on potomac park loop. Nice day again – warmer, in the upper 40s already and sunny. Nice progression from slower to quicker ~4’00 by the end. Finished with 1M barefoot with 5x strides. Total run 11M in 75’.

XT: Back/hips

3:30pm: Easy run down to CC loop and then around. Super nice still, ~50F. A bit sluggish out the door but felt very good by the end running ~3’40/km. Total run 4M+ in 27’.

XT: Hips.

Sabado, 16 de Enero, 2016 – Sparknotes: 40km in 2’13’55 (3’20.9/km, 5’23/M) with first 16km (10M) medium (3’29/km, 5’36/M) and then 6x3k @ MP -> faster (9’23.5 avg, 3’07.8/km, 5’02/M) with 1km moderate between each (3’38.7/km avg, 5’52/M). Incredibly strong workout. Last big one. Very pleased.

9am: Woke up naturally around 8am. Had black coffee, no food. Ran around 9am, 2M in 13’.

12pm: Had some pretzels between 9:30-11am and another half cup of coffee around 11am. Headed out to start workout around noon.

Goal was to run a longer continuous run, with the first 10M moderate and fairly steady and then run 6x3km at MP with 1km moderate recovery. I started this run out the door, no warmup or drills, and ran the first 10M out/back on MVN. Felt surprisingly great running quite quick from km 1 which is unusual for me. Running in the 3’25-3’35 range for the majority of the run. A bit windy, so quicker on the way back. Passed 16km in 55’42 and then began the 3k sets.

Actually slowed down at that point and ran 1km slower, as I wanted my rest Ks to be more like 3’45-4’00. Then went into the first rep. Ran all of these on the 1km loop.

First few reps felt very relaxed. 3km just felt quite short and manageable. Each one, I felt more confident and was running faster without even trying.

After 4x, I active began to push a bit in the last km of #5 which was the fastest yet at 9’21. On the last one, I just went a bit harder from the start and tried to accelerate each lap – split something like 3’07/3’04/3’00 and felt fantastic. Scary fit right now.

This brought the total run to 40km in 2’13’55. The overall avg was 3’20.9/km, 5’23/M. The 6x3k averaged 9’23.5 (3’07.8/km, 5’02/M) with 1km moderate at 3’38.7 (5’52/M).

For what it’s worth – I did 7x3k in the spring (without the long moderate section to start) and averaged 9’30 (and was redlining at the end). This average was 9’24, felt 100x better, less strain, plus was 40km total instead of only 30k.

After the last few workouts, I can say that I have already accomplished my goal of getting to peak-life-fitness at this point. This is the last workout that I wanted to run at what I would consider full volume (i.e. 20+ miles). Now I think the focus is on bringing the volume down and just finishing these workouts feeling like I could have run a bit farther or faster but not doing that. (And, for the record, I actually do feel like this today. I think I surely could have run another several reps if I hadn’t accelerated so much in the last rep. Even with that last rep, I still ran home after that and was running under 4’00/km).

Super, super pleased with this one. I do like to compare myself to myself from previous seasons and this is so much stronger than the previous iterations of this workout that I’ve done. Also really great confidence booster to see that running 40+km continuously poses no problems despite the lack of recent long, long-runs (in terms of minutes). All in all, just what I needed at this point and just enough to convince me that I’m ready to dial it back in for the next 4 weeks.

Total run 27M.

Distance Time Lap Lap Pace
16 km 55’42.0 (55’42.0) (3’28.9)
17 km 59’22.9 (3’40.9)
20 km 1’08’53.0 (9’30.1) (3’10.0)
21 km 1’12’36.8 (3’43.8)
24 km 1’22’04.1 (9’27.3) (3’09.1)
25 km 1’25’41.8 (3’37.7)
28 km 1’35’08.2 (9’26.4) (3’08.8)
29 km 1’38’47.0 (3’38.8)
32 km 1’48’11.3 (9’24.3) (3’08.1)
33 km 1’51’46.4 (3’35.1)
36 km 2’01’07.3 (9’20.9) (3’07.0)
37 km 2’04’43.0 (3’35.7)
40 km 2’13’55.2 (9’12.2) (3’04.1)

Domingo, 18 de Enero, 2015 – 10:30am: Really rough night. Couldn’t fall asleep, between all the caffeine later in the day (with the workout starting at 1 yesterday) and real achy legs. Oof. Woke up late and lazy morning to let my body wake up. Ran very easy on Matt’s loop (first time in a while on that loop!). Felt okay, just very slow. First snow of the season about halfway through. Just some light flurries, though. Nothing stuck. Finished with a loop around CC to CVS. Total run 12M in 1h36.

XT: Back/hips

6pm: Ran late after a nap and chores had me busy all afternoon. Easy run around CCS. Much better than the morning. Total run 3M.

XT: Core.