Weekly Summary – 111 miles in 12 runs. 4 days up, 3 days down with one very big workout. The end of 24 days of very high volume (22.5M/day, ~158 miles per week). Glad to have made it through in one piece and looking forward to freshening up over the next few weeks. Less than 4 weeks to 50k World Championships and 14 weeks to the US Olympic Trials!

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, 2 de Noviembre, 2015 – 11am: A bit sore last night and this night. Minor twinge in the left calve after the last interval last night, so kept things very mellow this morning. Ran Matt’s loop with a lap around CC and finished Costco. Total run 13M in 1h37.

XT: Back/hips.

6pm: So dark! Not loving the switch back to standard time. Ran loops around CCS because the bike paths are not lit. I’ll have to figure out something better for the next few months. Total run 9M, NT.

XT: Core.

Martes, 3 de Noviembre, 2015 – 10am: Wow – what a beautiful day! In the mid 70s, sunny, no wind. This is November? Great run on Matt’s loop + C&O. Total run 15M in 1h45.

XT: Back/hips.

4pm: Ran earlier so I could enjoy some more of this day. Ran out/back on MVN. Still so beautiful. Who would’ve thought it’d be shirtless weather in November? Total run 7M, NT.

XT: Core, 12’.

Miercoles, 4 de Noviembre, 2015 – 10am: Another beautiful November day here! 70 already and sunny. So nice. Ran on MVN out/back, felt quite good. Finished with drills in clifton and then a stride, 2x200m in 33-34, and 1x400m in 69. All felt good. Total run 10M.

XT: Back/hips

5pm: Easy shakeout with a big one tomorrow. Kept it very mellow. Beautiful still. Total run 6M, NT.

XT: Hips

Jueves, 5 de Noviembre, 2015 – Sparknotes: Special Block. Workout #1 at 9am: 2x6km @ goal 12k RP, 3’ rest: 17’29.8 (2’55/km, 4’42/M), 17’48.9 (2’58/km, 4’46/M). Overall Avg: (2’56.5/km, 4’44/M). Very little carbohydrate post work to simulate depletion.

Workout #2 at 12:30pm: 20km in 66’22 with 10km moderate (34’34), 10km at MP (31’47 – 3’10.7/km, 5’07/M, 2’14’07 MP)

4:45am: Wake up
5am: Coffee, 1 nature valley bar
6:15am: a few animal crackers

Last big workout today was a Special Block, consisting of two workouts with not much rest and refueling between them. This was the second Special Block of this season; the idea of these workouts is to super-compensate – doing something very strenuous and then taking several days of serious recovery.

In this case, the workouts focused on 12k race pace in the morning, with 2x6km, and 50k/marathon in the afternoon with a 20km continuous run (10km moderate to 50k pace, 10k at MP). This last 10k in particular – I have found – is one of the best (and only) ways to really simulate the last 10km of a marathon race, which is extremely valuable both mentally and physically.

On to the workout.

I was quite nervous about the morning’s run. This was to be a “race simulation” which is something that Jon and I have been doing since college – running 2 intervals of half the race distance at goal race pace. This workout has gone well for me in training for 5k (2x2500m) and 10k (2x5km) and we were not trying it for the 12k for the first time (2x6km). Still, the longest I had run at goal race pace were 2km intervals, so tripling that and then doing it again seemed daunting to me.

I warmed up 5km, then stopped and did drills, strides and 200m in ~32. I wanted to be more conservative with this run and start out a bit slower, since I had a tendency of running way to fast to start these faster-paced workouts recently.

I ran on the bike path and ran into a decent headwind on the way out and would then have a tailwind coming back. The first few km were much slower than I expected and I really didn’t feel great. In retrospect, this was probably from the wind.

Upon turning around (3k in 8’52), I hit the gas a bit too hard and ran 2’50 for km #4. That hurt a bit but I slowed a bit and ran the last 2km in 2’53-54, passing 5km in 14’36 and 6k in 17’30. This was quite tough and I was not sure I’d be able to make it through another 6km, let alone at that pace.

I took 3min to change into flats (I’d run the first rep in the Clifton 2) and then was back into it. The first 3km felt much more difficult and I ran almost the exact same pace (8’52) to the turn around. I had hoped that turning back and having the wind at my sails would provide some much needed relief, but I actually slowed down. Those last 3km were extremely tough and I was really red-lining just to run 2’58-3’00/km.

The final time was 17’49 for the second rep (14’48 at 5k). This brought the total time to 35’18 for 12km of work (2’56.5/km, 4’44/M).

I cooled down the 1km home and then rested, had a lot of water, pretzels (200 kCal), and one nature valley bar (180 kCal). Next workout was to start 2.5 hours after finishing workout 1.

Also worth mentioning that I felt a slight twinge in my left calve (upper, center near the connection with the back of the knee) in the last few km of the second rep. I was a bit worried about this as it was quite tender upon self-massage, so iced it between runs. I was very open to the possibility that I would have to cut out of the next run if it felt like it was altering my gait or doing a lot of damage.

12:30pm: Second workout started 2.5 hours after finishing the first. Had caffeinated nuun about 80 minutes before starting. Felt quite tired already, but this seemed to help me at least pretend not to be.

Did this workout in 5km loops on the bike path. Ran the whole thing continuous, with 1km very easy to warm up, accelerating into pace. I didn’t worry about my pace at all the first few km, just let myself warm up and actually felt quite good, running ~3’25-30 for the first 5km. I began to focus a bit more in the second 5k and still felt fine. I took a gel at 8km and then got ready to begin working into MP.

The shift to MP was tough but I again did it a bit more gradually than previous times, with the first km only 3’14. Over that 5k, I worked down to about 3’10 and still felt very good through 5km in 15’57. I took another gel with 5k and was still feeling very confident at this point – surprisingly so.

Right around 6km, there was a very drastic and sudden change in how I was feeling. I think maybe I just lost my breath, taking the gel and some water at the turn around, but all of a sudden, I just felt really awful. Trying to catch my breath, form flailing. This is pretty close to wha the last 4km of a marathon can feel like, so I tried to just push through it and drive.

The pace slipped a bit these last few km – back to 3’12-14 – but I felt like I was pushing extremely hard. It wasn’t until about 600m to go that I was able to really force myself to accelerate into last gear, which was still not super fast, but brought the last km down to 3’06.

The total for the last 10km was 31’47 – 2’14’07 MP. The whole 20km was 66’22.

Overall, this was a very tough workout at the end of a very big block of mileage and workouts. It’s been an enormous amount to ask of my body – both today and in the last 3 weeks – and now I need to allow some serious time for recovery so that I can soak up all that good work.

This was probably the toughest month of training I’ve ever done and I’m looking forward to taking a much lower volume month in November. I will likely not return to this high mileage before the Olympic Trials, as the focus will turn more to really hitting the marathon-specific workouts.

I’m super pleased, though, with where I am. Very glad to be done with this block and very excited for the 12k next weekend and worlds just 4 weeks away!

Total run for the day was 27 miles

Splits and notes:

9am: 2x 6km, out/back, headwind out/tailwind back. Same route both times.

1 km (2’56.0) 2’56.0
2 km (2’57.3) 5’53.3
3 km (2’59.0) 8’52.3
4 km (2’50.3) 11’42.6
5 km (2’53.9) 14’36.5
6 km (2’53.3) 17’29.8

3’00 pause – change shoes and jog

1 km (2’56.9) 2’56.9
2 km (2’57.4) 5’54.3
3 km (2’57.3) 8’51.6
4 km (2’58.7) 11’50.3
5 km (2’58.5) 14’48.8
6 km (3’00.1) 17’48.9

Between: Water, pretzels (200 kCal), nature valley bar (180 kCal).

12:30pm: 5km out/back, warmer, sunny.

5 km (17’35.0) 17’35.0
10 km (16’59.0) 34’34.0 – gel at 8km
11 km (3’14.4) 37’48.4
12 km (3’12.5) 41’00.9
13 km (3’12.8) 44’13.7
14 km (3’08.6) 47’22.3
15 km (3’09.0) 50’31.3 (15’57.3) – gel #2
16 km (3’08.2) 53’39.5
17 km (3’09.9) 56’49.4
18 km (3’13.8) 1’00’03.2
19 km (3’12.0) 1’03’15.2
20 km (3’06.4) 1’06’21.6 (15’50.3, 31’47.6)

Viernes, 6 de Noviembre, 2015 – 10am: Slept late – super tired after yesterday. Today is the first day of recovery block, so only 1 run per day, 40-60 minutes. Ran VERY slow at first, probably 10 minute first mile. Beautiful day though, so nice to be outside. Ran MV south out/back then tacked around CC. Total run 12km, 7.5M in 61’.

XT: Back/hips

PM: No run, just rest, some walking and core.

XT: Core, 12’.

Sabado, 7 de Noviembre, 2015 – AM: OFF, no run. I like to do my recovery blocks like this, with one afternoon off and one morning off in a row, so it basically feels like 2 sessions off.

4pm: Ran up into DC to meet Mar and Alexis. Nice run through some new places, up over capitol hill. Total run 7M in 54’.

Domingo, 8 de Noviembre, 2015 – 9am: Ran with Mar out to airport park and then stopped and did drills. Then ran out/back on MVN. Felt good. A bunch of random surges at 12k pace. Total run 7M+.

XT: Back/hips

4pm: Ran moderate in sweats. Felt good, running 4’20->3’30. Total run 5k, 3M+ in 19’.

XT: Hips.