Weekly summary – 60 miles in 10 runs. A rough penultimate week of the season as I was battling a nasty chest cold which forced my first DNF ever at the US 25km Championships (see the longer recap here). Very frustrating but glad to be feeling better and have one more race to try to end on a good note!

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Lunes, 9 de Mayo, 2016 – 10am: Woke up feeling awful. Very bad headache and chest congestion. Did a very easy run and 6x strides around CC which didn’t feel too bad but felt really awful once I got home. Had breakfast and then passed out for like 2 hours. Total run 7M+ in 50’.

XT: Back/hips

3pm: Still feeling pretty miserable. Jogged very easy around Costco loop. A bit better than the morning but still pretty bad. Total run 4M, NT.

XT: Hips.

Martes, 10 de Mayo, 2016 – 10am: Took nyquil and slept a long time last night – like almost 12 hours. Woke up feeling much better. Ran easy on CC loop and running quicker by the end (3’50s) without too much trouble. Still some pain in chest on deep breaths and a bit of a cough, but nothing like yesterday. Postponed tuneup until tomorrow. Finished with 4x strides in new custom clifton flats. Total run 8M.

XT: Back/hips – no weights

4pm: Easy run around CC. Pretty nice out, in the 60s and sunny. Finished with strides and 3x200m relaxed in 37, 36, 33 in new flats. Felt good overall. Much better lung/sickness wise. Total run 4M+.

XT: Core.

Miercoles, 11 de Mayo, 2016 – Sparknote: Tuneup – 5km on the track in 15’47 with 3x1km at 3’03.8 w/ 500m recovery at 1’43.9 (3’28/km) + 500m quick in 1’24 (67.2/400m).

8:30am: Woke up early naturally feeling good. Cold/cough is finally receding! Headed over to TCW outdoor track for the usual late-season race tuneup: 5km continuous run alternating 1000m at a bit quicker than race pace with 500m recovery at a moderate pace, then 500m quick to finish. I’ve done this one a bunch of times now and it usually leaves me feeling good and fresh.

Weather was cool, in the 50s, and drizzle (seems we’ve had a lot of that recently). Warmed up 2M++ in 15’ on the turf. Ran in clifton (9).

Felt decent – much better than the tuneup I did before broad street where I was struggling to run under 75/lap. First rep was a bit quick at 3’03 but recovery felt very easy at 3’2x/km pace. Surprised that the rest of the workout was very consistent 3’03-04/km for the 1000s and around 3’26-30/km pace for the 500 recovery. Finished with 500m quick which was a bit of a struggle as I just really don’t have the turnover/top gear right now for that. Managed a 1’24 (67.2/400m) which is a good bit slower than I’ve run in the past (I’m pretty sure I’ve closed this workout in like 1’17-18 before).

The overall time was 15’47 which ties with the fastest I’ve ever run it, so that was very good. I still felt a bit worse for wear lung-wise from this chest cold, but it’s getting much better every day. I’m confident it’ll be fine by Saturday.

Cooled down back down towards the metro. Felt fine.

Total run 8M.

Splits
1 km 3’03.2 (3’03.2)
0.5 km 4’46.4 (1’43.2)
1 km 7’50.6 (3’04.2)
0.5 km 9’34.1 (1’43.5)
1 km 12’38.1 (3’04.0)
0.5 km 14’23.2 (1’45.1)
0.5 km 15’47.2 (1’24.0)

4:30pm: Ran later to wait out the rain. Very short shakeout around CC just to get the legs moving. Ethio cooldown. Total run 2M+.

Jueves, 12 de Mayo, 2016 – AM: Up early around 6am for travel to Grand Rapids. No running, but lots of walking. Walked to the airport and then around a lot waiting for flights. Had a nice long layover in MSP and met up with Nic and drove to the Mall of America. Cool to see him and see the best of Minneapolis! Haha

4:30pm: Got to GRR and met up with Jared in the athlete suite. Ended up running with him, Christo, and Nick Arciniaga – quite a crew; made me feel like a serious nobody! Felt great running though and really fun to run with those guys. Ran around the last few miles of the course kind of out/back. Pace was comfortable. Got to talk with Jared about heat prep which was helpful (thinking ahead). Total run 6M+ in 43’.

Viernes, 13 de Mayo, 2016 – AM: Not a good night. Started feeling really sick again last night after dinner after feeling very good for most of the day/day before. Rough night’s sleep with a lot of congestion. Woke up around 7am and got some dayquil with expectorant to try to flush all the crap out of my lungs. This seemed to work well as I managed to drain everything out pretty well. Slept for a couple more hours before the technical meeting and then came back and slept a bit more before heading out to run.

12pm: Feeling much better post meds and nap. Had some caff. Nuun (no coffee today!) and went out. Just wanted to jog a bit to see how everything felt. Surprisingly not too bad, but didn’t time/pace it so maybe I was just running really slow. Who knows. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. Low expectations. Very little on the line here in terms of money, so I’ll just do the best I can and not worry about what I can’t control. Total run 4M, NT.

Sabado, 14 de Mayo, 2016 – Sparknotes: DNF at US 25km Championships. Still sick and body wasn’t ready today. Can’t control these things, so just have to let it go. Ran through 7M with 5km in 15’49 and 10k over 32’00 but already way off the back. First DNF!

PM: OFF – travel back to DC and rest.

Domingo, 15 de Mayo, 2016 – 10am: Slept long for like 12 hours last night. Felt much better this morning. Really pushing fluids and vitamin C now to make a push towards being healthy in a few days. Thought about taking the day off but felt good and congestion is much better, so jogged 5km easy around CC loop. Total run 3M+.

XT: Back/hips, 1x no weight, just for range of motion.

4pm: Ran again very easy around same loop. Felt good again – no cough/congestion. Super windy, though, like 25MPH. Finished with 5x strides barefoot which felt good. Total run 4M, NT.