Weekly Summary – 131 Miles in 14 runs. Great week with two very solid efforts. 5M tempo at 4’50 pace and a very challenging 30km race in Canada at 2’19 marathon pace! Feeling great.

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Lunes, 23 de Marzo, 2015 – 10am: Totally wiped out last night after a very early morning and long day. Slept for like 12 hours. Woke up feeling a bit sore but much better once I got out the door. Nice morning. Ran Matt’s loop with an extra mile out/back on the canal path since it’s finally dried out. Felt good by the end. Total run 12M+ in 1h30.

4pm: Ran around Potomac Park. Felt very good. Recovery is very quick right now. Total run 10M in 70’.

XT: Upper body circuit. 5 sets of [20x pushup, 30x flutter (x2), 20x dips]

Martes, 24 de Marzo, 2015 – 10am: Slept a lot again last night. Starting to feel the volume. Ran the same Matt’s loop with an extra mile on the canal path. Felt fine. Cool (~35F) but not windy. Total run 12M+ in 1h28.

3:30pm: Ran to the airport and back to pick up a tax form from Mr. C and then out/back on Mt. Vernon. Felt fine but forgot my gloves and it was chilly. Total run 10M+ in 70’.

XT: Hips

Miercoles, 25 de Marzo, 2015 – 11am: Workout Wednesday! Today’s workout was an old school “true-tempo” run. “Tempo” can often be thought of as anything from 10k race pace to marathon race pace, but the original “true tempo” is about your lactate threshold pace (usually equivalent to your 15km-10M race pace, or about the pace you can run for 50-60’). The goal with this workout was to get in a good effort, but have something that was short enough that it wouldn’t trash my legs and leave me feeling too tired before a race this weekend. Also, since this pace is the pace that I’ll be looking to run at the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in a few weeks, it’s a good race-appropriate stimulus and a good break from the broken-up, interval style running I’d done up to now.

I felt very good warming up and pretty much knew this was going to go well. I warmed up 4M, some drills, and then 5-6 strides (wanted to be good and warm) before starting. I ran on the bike-path, ~40F and light wind, a tiny bit of drizzle.

The first 1-2km felt a bit sluggish (3’03/3’00), but I then got into a good rhythm of running just about 3’00/km (4’50/M) for the next few kilometers. I turned around at 4km (12’04) and was still feeling quite good. I knew I could get to at least 6km at that point (which was the minimum I’d hoped to run) and was feeling decently confident that I could hold the pace all the way to 8km.

Passing 5km at 15’04 and then 6km at 18’04, I was still right on pace. I maintained the effort until about 800m to go at which point I actively accelerated and was running a good bit harder. Probably ran the last 800m in ~2’17-18 as the last km was 2’54 (4’39/M pace).

I actually didn’t realize the overall time until after I’d stopped, which was good because otherwise I probably would have unnecessarily strained to run 23’xx instead of 24’00.

So, the total run was 8km in 24’00 (3’00/km, 4’50/M). The last 5km was 14’57.

This was a great effort, but was not a killer effort by any means. I felt pretty relaxed running ~3’00 pace for the first 7km and then really only felt distressed in the last minute of running sub 70sec pace. This was just what Jon and I had hoped for – that it would feel like a “focused effort” but within 10 minutes or so, I would feel like it had been too easy. It’s pretty great that running 24-flat can feel pretty relaxed now (especially given that I’ve run 140+ miles in the last week and 70 miles in the last 3 days (!!) – gives me a lot of hope for running a quick 10 miler in a few weeks!

Cooled down short and slow back to the gym for leg circuit.

Total run 11M+.

1 km (3’02.8) 03’02.8
2 km (3’00.4) 06’03.2
3 km (3’00.0) 09’03.2
4 km (3’00.8) 12’04.0
5 km (3’00.4) 15’04.4 – (15’04.4)
6 km (2’59.5) 18’03.9
7 km (3’02.1) 21’06.0
8 km (2’54.4) 24’00.4 – (14’57.2 last 5k)

XT: Legs at the gym. 3 sets of [15x each leg step ups, 20x overhead lunge (10lb), 24x static lunge (20 lb), 12x squat (bar)].

4:30pm: Easy out/back to Alexandria on bike path. Felt okay but some nasty stomach issues at the end. Total run 8M+ in 59’.

Jueves, 26 de Marzo, 2015 – 9am: Easy run to Alexandria and back. Warm, but started raining about halfway through and got very wet. Total run 11M+ in 1h21.

4:30pm: Ran around Crystal City to the fields. Super nice out, around 75F and sunny – WOW! Stopped and did drills and 4x strides on the turf. Felt good. Didn’t feel yesterday hardly at all. Finished running around town to Costco. Total run 4M++.

XT: Core, 12. On the balcony in the sun!!

Viernes, 27 de Marzo, 2015 – 7:30am: Moderate run of 6M+ (10km) in ~40’ and then stopped, did drills and then 8x short hills. Good but not all out, just getting the legs moving. Short jog after and then 3km in 9’22 (3’04, 3’08, 3’09). First 400m or so was much quicker to simulate fast race start and then settling. Felt fine. Cooled down short back to the gym for legs. Total run 11M+.

XT: Legs at the gym (no weight)

6pm: Long day of travel to Hamilton, ON for the Around the Bay 30K! Got here and ran from my hotel down to the finish and then out/back on the end of the course. Finished at the expo to pick up my number, then jogged home with all the freebies. Total run 4M++.

Sabado, 28 de Marzo, 2015 – 9am: Drove and ran the whole Around the Bay 30k course. I drove to what I’d heard was the most challenging section (18-25km) and ran an out/back on that part from about 19-26km. It was quite tough with some long gradual hills and a few very steep, but shorter rollers. Overall, the course looks like it will run very slow, particularly the last 10k where we’ll have the hills AND a very strong headwind. Fun! Also it was COLD like 18F…

Total run 8M+ in 57’.

4pm: Ran around the start area, including the first 2km of the course which was the only section I’d missed in the morning. Very easy run. Felt fine. Total run 4M+, NT.

XT: Hips.

Domingo, 29 de Marzo, 2015 – 9:30am: Woke up at 6am (love the late start!) for the Around the Bay 30k. Wasn’t hungry so just had coffee and a few animal crackers.

Cold, around 25F but not too windy as I left around 8:30am for warmup. Jogged and did drills and strides.

Race went off super fast. Ran the first 500m in 1’28 (70sec/400m pace) and was in like 30th. By the 1km, the lead pack had separated and ran about 2’50 and I was in a chase pack with maybe 3-4 other guys who ran around 3’01.

From there, we settled into a good rhythm around 3’10-15/km for a while. First 10km was tough with a few steep climbs on the overpasses. Our group separated by the end and it was just me and Evan Gaynor together by the time we hit 10km in 31’39 (note – I’m going with the official splits from the race. The splits from my garmin were a good bit slower which I’m not sure if it’s because it was reading poorly at the start or if the race’s markers were off.). At that point, I could see the lead pack had really strung out, with a few guys going by in 29’4x and then a lot of guys already struggling.

We had already picked off a few and would continue to pick off runners over the next 8km or so. This section was a bit easier – very flat, but now we had more wind to deal with as we were right on the water. We traded leads and slowed a bit, passing 15km in 47’54 (16’16 3rd 5km).

We stayed together and continued chasing down runners who had gone out over their heads and then began to separate around 18km when we encountered the hills. This was very tough. Jon had told me not to try to crush the hills, but just to survive them. So, when Evan dropped me around 20km, I didn’t chase him, but hoped I would catch him in the easier last 4-5km of the race.

I passed 20km in 1’04’25 (16’31 4th 5k) which brought me to the Half Marathon in about 67’5x (a LOT faster than I ran for the half marathon last weekend on a very flat course – and I still had 5+ miles to run!).

The next few km were pretty rough. We had the headwind and I was now isolated with Evan getting farther in front of me.

I thought the last 4-5km might be quicker as it’s mostly flat and even some downhill, but this was all on wide open highway along the water and we had a very strong headwind. With no one around me to key off of, I really struggled to maintain effort. Maybe I was just beat up from the beginning or maybe it was just what was happening to everyone (in retrospect, looking at everyone else’s splits, I think it was the latter). Either way, I never got passed, so I figured I must not be doing too badly.

With about 1km to go, I could see two guys that were coming back to me. I thought I might have a chance to catch them and really worked but I just ran out of room. If I’d had another km or two, I think I would have.

The finish was pretty cool, though! You dip down a very steep loading ram and run into the center of the hockey stadium!

I finished in 1’39’10 (3’18/km, 5’19/M). This is 2h19 marathon pace for 18.6 miles. I placed 11th overall in a time that would have been top 3-5 for almost every year in the last decade or so. Of course I pick the deep year when a bunch of Kenyan studs show up…

Overall, though, I was very pleased with this race. I had said before that I wasn’t going to run for time and I was going to try my best to ignore splits since the course and weather would make it so uneven. I think the fact that I never got passed (other than Evan) is a great sign and shows that I really raced well.

Moreover, I have to put this in the context of the month of March which is that I was injured on March 1st and couldn’t run at all for about a week after that. The last two weeks, I’ve been healthy but really piling on the work (146 miles last week, 131 miles this week) and I did a pretty solid workout (8km in 24’00) 4 days out and a light workout (hills and 3k in 9’20) 2 days out. Given my overall level of tiredness and recovery, I’m very pleased with this performance.

But mostly, it makes me excited and hungry to see what I can do in the next few months. I’m just feeling like I’m getting my legs back under me and feeling comfortable running fast again. I can’t wait to see what more workouts and more rest will produce in the next few races!

Cooled down short with Evan. Total run 23M+.

SPLITS (official):

10 km 00:31:39 3:09/km 10 km 00:31:39
5 km 00:16:16 3:15/km 15 km 00:47:54
5 km 00:16:31 3:18/km 20 km 01:04:25
10 km 00:34:46 3:28/km 30 km 01:39:11

SPLITS (from Garmin)
1 km 0’03’02 (3’01.7)
2 km 0’06’10 (3’08.1)
3 km 0’09’17 (3’07.0)
4 km 0’12’30 (3’12.7)
5 km 0’15’44 (3’14.5) – (15’44.0)
6 km 0’18’57 (3’13.0)
7 km 0’22’18 (3’20.9)
8 km 0’25’32 (3’14.4)
9 km 0’28’43 (3’10.5) – (16’13.3)
10 km 0’31’55 (3’12.4)
11 km 0’35’10 (3’15.0)
12 km 0’38’26 (3’16.1)
13 km 0’41’45 (3’19.0)
14 km 0’45’05 (3’19.7)
15 km 0’48’26 (3’21.3) – (16’31.1)
16 km 0’51’43 (3’16.5)
17 km 0’54’59 (3’16.6)
18 km 0’58’19 (3’20.0)
19 km 1’01’41 (3’21.1)
20 km 1’05’03 (3’22.2) – (16’36.4)
21 km 1’08’39 (3’36.3)
22 km 1’12’13 (3’34.2)
23 km 1’15’42 (3’28.6)
24 km 1’19’10 (3’28.4)
25 km 1’22’32 (3’21.7) – (17’29.2)
26 km 1’26’00 (3’28.1)
27 km 1’29’26 (3’25.7)
28 km 1’32’55 (3’29.3)
29 km 1’36’09 (3’14.2)
30 km 1’39’10 (3’01.0) – (16’38.3)

5pm: Very slow shakeout around Bayfront park. Pretty beat. Total run 3M++ in 28’.

XT: Core, 12’.