Weekly Summary – 120 miles in 13 runs. A solid (but odd) week of training including a great race for 3rd overall/1st American against a solid African contingent at the Shamrock Virginia Beach Half Marathon. Also had a 3 hour long run at 9300 ft, an overnight inter-continental trip home, and a nice little tuneup on Friday. More work to come!

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Lunes, 14 de Marzo, 2016 – Sparknotes: 3h01 long run covering 26.6 miles (42.8km). NB: In Quito, 9,300 ft).

9am: Long run Monday! Wanted to do a very long (minute-wise) moderate run on tired legs. Goal was 3 hours. Wasn’t sure what kind of pace I’d be able to run or even if I’d be able to finish after yesterday’s 5k PR/travel, but wanted to give it a go.

Decided last minute to do this all the La Carolina on the 3.7km loop. I know, that sounds brutal, but I really wanted to have close monitoring of my pace and I wanted very regular access to fluids/CHO. So, I ran to the park and did 11 big laps (mostly on grass right next to the bike path).

This went way better than I’d expected. I ran easy to the park and then the first lap was already quicker than I’d thought it would be (16’03 is under 7’00 per mile) and from there, every lap was between 15’29 and 15’45. I was checking my pace twice per lap and it was like clockwork. The first 1h40 or so felt pretty comfortable.

I took bottles after laps 2, 4, 7 (missed #6), 8, and 9 (ran out after that – would have really liked to have it again in the last 30 minutes).

Around 2h00 I started to feel pretty tired and was surprised when the pace was still almost exactly the same every lap. I do remember being really sad when I got to 2h08 and I thought I was a lap (15 minutes) farther along than I was.

After that one, the last 3 laps were tough but still the pace was super consistent. Effort just felt harder and I was struggling a bit more to keep my form together. I was trying to do mental math and figured I’d be right around the marathon mark, so I split my watch at 42.2km (2’59’00) and then jogged home from there.

Drank 1L powerade immediately after. Very wrecked for a couple hours after this, body-wise. Super dehydrated and stomach wasn’t ready for food for an hour or so. I do think that these 3h long runs will make me very strong for the 50k and I think it’s something that’s been missing in my training. I’d like to be able to do these without feeling quite as wiped. Though the altitude and the fact that I ran a race at 2’50/km pace yesterday certainly makes it harder.

This is probably the last hard effort I’ll do up here (heading home Wed PM). This has been a serious 1-2 punch of a 24 hours, so I’m looking forward to taking a few days easy now.

Total run 42.8km (26.6 miles) in 3h01.

Unit Time Lap Pace
0.6 km 2’56.4 (2’56.4) (4’54.0)
4.3 km 18’59.4 (16’03.0) (4’20.3)
8 km 34’44.4 (15’45.0) (4’15.4)
11.7 km 50’16.4 (15’32.0) (4’11.9)
15.4 km 1’05’54.4 (15’38.0) (4’13.5)
19.1 km 1’21’29.4 (15’35.0) (4’12.7)
22.8 km 1’37’13.4 (15’44.0) (4’15.1)
26.5 km 1’52’53.4 (15’40.0) (4’14.1)
30.2 km 2’08’28.4 (15’35.0) (4’12.7)
33.9 km 2’24’11.4 (15’43.0) (4’14.9)
37.6 km 2’39’42.4 (15’31.0) (4’11.6)
41.3 km 2’55’11.4 (15’29.0) (4’11.1)
42.2 km 2’59’00.4 (3’49.0) (4’14.4)
42.8 km 3’01’48.4 (2’48.0) (4’40.0)

5:30pm: Very easy short shakeout just to get the legs moving a bit. Ran to the park and then just down to the corner and then stopped and got some street dinner because I’m out of food. Walked home. Total run ~1.5M.

Martes, 15 de Marzo, 2016 – 8am: Ran up and around metropolitano. Very nice morning – sunny and clear. As always got good and lost on all the trails. Lots of hills and slow running. Just what I needed today. Went longer than planned because somehow I ended up way farther north than I’d realized. Total run 12M++ in 90’.

XT: Back/hips.

4:30pm: Lots of walking this afternoon and then ran into the park to meet Ivan and jogged easy with him around la carolina. Felt fine, still a bit sore from yesterday. Total run 6M-.

Miercoles, 16 de Marzo, 2016 – 8:30am: Easy run around la carolina. Felt better than yesterday but still took it very easy. Finished at the track with 6x 100m+ strides which felt very good, surprisingly. Total run 11M+ in 80’.

3pm: Ran around La Carolina with the camera to get some photos on my last run in Quito (for this trip, at least)! Finished at Lima 51 and walked home. Total run 6M.

XT: Hips.

Jueves, 17 de Marzo, 2016 – AM: OFF, travel back to DCA. Red-eye UIO to FLL which was pretty brutal since it’s only like 3h45 minutes. Smooth sailing, just not a lot of sleep.

4pm: Easy run out/back on MVN. Felt pretty bad as expected. Finished with 10x150m stride which felt surprisingly decent. Ethio cooldown. Total run 8M+.

XT: Core

Viernes, 18 de Marzo, 2016 – Sparknotes: Tuneup – 5x1km (60s jog): 3’08.3, 3’03.9, 3’01.4, 3’04.6, 3’03.1

10am: Slept really well and late. Felt good this morning so attempted some quicker running. Ran over to 1km loop and did 6km warm up, then drills, a few strides, and 200m in 35. After, ran 5x1000m with about 60s jog. First one in 3’08 which felt awful and then much better on the next in 3’03 (I guess legs just needed to warm up). Next two similar and then on the last one, ran very comfortable through 500m in like 1’38 and then ran the last 500m in 1’25 for 3’03. Jogged home. Total run 8M+.

Splits:
5x1km (60s jog): 3’08.3, 3’03.9, 3’01.4, 3’04.6, 3’03.1

XT: Back/hips

5pm: Ran solo on MVN out/back. Stopped and did 4x strides in new tracers to see how they feel for Sunday. Jogged back. Ethio Cooldown. Total run 4M+.

XT: Hips.

Sabado, 19 de Marzo, 2016 – 7am: Up early for easy run before driving down to VA beach for Shamrock tomorrow. Ran out/back on MVN. Finished with 4x strides. Legs felt very good this morning for the first time since Monday. Total run 9M+.

XT: Back/hips

5:30pm: Long and somewhat stressful drive to VA beach with tons of traffic. Ran from hotel up towards HM course and looped around. VERY windy – felt like I was going to get knocked over a few times. Saw the wind push a port-a-potty into the street. Jesus. Tomorrow will be brutal. Very early to bed around 7:30pm with 7am gun tomorrow. Total run 6M, NT.

Domingo, 20 de Marzo, 2016 – Sparknotes: Shamrock Half Marathon – 3rd, 1’08’26. Absolutely brutal conditions: 43F, hard rain, 20-30Mph winds. So cold. Out very slow tactically in big African pack. Moved up into 6th at 6M and 3rd at finish. Waited until 15km to make a move. Felt very good effort-wise, time was just super slow. Based on effort and what others ran, I’d say 2-3 minutes slower than on a good day which is just where I wanted to be.

Total run 17M+

Splits
1 km 3’32.8 (3’32.8)
2 km 6’54.1 (3’21.3)
3 km 10’20.7 (3’26.6)
4 km 13’41.3 (3’20.6)
5 km 17’01.5 (3’20.2) (17’01.5)
6 km 20’14.3 (3’12.8)
7 km 23’28.8 (3’14.5)
8 km 26’37.1 (3’08.3)
9 km 29’49.6 (3’12.5)
10 km 33’01.2 (3’11.6) (15’59.7)
11 km 36’22.9 (3’21.7)
12 km 39’39.0 (3’16.1)
13 km 42’53.0 (3’14.0)
14 km 46’11.5 (3’18.5)
15 km 49’22.0 (3’10.5) (16’20.8)
16 km 52’31.1 (3’09.1)
17 km 55’38.7 (3’07.6)
18 km 58’44.4 (3’05.7)
19 km 1’01’50.9 (3’06.5)
20 km 1’04’58.2 (3’07.3) (15’36.2)
21 km 1’08’02.1 (3’03.9)

5pm: Drove home and very easy shakeout. Right ITB/hamstring a bit tender near the knee connection spot so being careful and icing that. Total run 5M, NT.