Weekly Summary – 158 miles in 14 runs. Really great week with two super solid workouts and lots of volume. Highest 7-day mileage ever (164) on Wednesday. Great 20 mile workout to practice changing paces on Wednesday and probably the best speed workout I’ve ever done (8x1600m @ 4’36) on Sunday. 10 more days in this very big block of volume. Super excited to back off from the mileage after that and test this speed at the .US National 12k (3 weeks away) and then test the strength at the 50k World Championships in 5 weeks!
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!
Lunes, 19 de Octubre, 2015 – 10am: Easy longer single this morning. Trying to do one of these every 7-10 days until the 50k. Probably building up to 3 hours – 3h10. I’ve done easy runs up to 2h00, so I figured I should be able to recover over some longer runs as long as I kept the pace comfy. Had a tiny breakfast (usually I just have coffee) of some animal crackers just because I was a bit paranoid. Ran on Matt’s loop with a LONG extension on the C&O path – about 20km. Really beautiful out there. Got quite far out and really in the middle of nowhere. Lot’s of great wildlife – a few huge herons, lots of ducks and geese beginning to head south. Felt surprisingly good after a hard effort yesterday. Never ran out of gas and accelerated the whole run. Finished feeling tired but fine. Total run 23M, 37km in 2h45.
XT: Back/hips
5pm: Easy run around CC. Ran mostly on brick. Trying to get used to that as well. Finished with 1M barefoot. Total run 5M in 35’.
XT: Core, 12’
Martes, 20 de Octubre, 2015 – 9:30am: Easy run south past Alexandria. Felt a bit tired at first but warmed up into it. Ran to the park after the bridge and back. Nice day. Warm this week, so good heat training. Total run 15M in 1h46.
XT: Back/hips
4pm: Easy shakeout around CC. Super nice out. Ran by the fields but they were all occupied, so just ran roads. Found some nice hills out to the west of town. Might have to explore out there some more. Total run 6M in 45’.
XT: Hips.
Miercoles, 21 de Octubre, 2015 – Sparknotes: 32km (20M-) continuous run in 1’49’32 (avg of 5’30/mile, 3’25/km), with sections varying from goal marathon pace (3’10/km, 5’05/M) to 50k race pace (3’20-24/km, 5’22-25/mile) to moderate (3’40-45/km, 5’55-6’00/mile). Sections were: 5k at 50k RP, 2k at MP, 5k mod, 2k at MP, 5k at 50k RP, 5k mod, 2k mod, 6k at 50k RP.
10am: Doing my first PM long run today to start getting ready for Doha (which is at 6pm local time). Trying to make sure I figure out timing of meals, sleep, etc.
7am: woke up and fed cat, dozed/rested for a while longer
8:45am: up and out of bed, coffee
10am: Very easy shakeout around CC. Total run 3M.
11am: Bland meal of 1 plain bagel, pretzels. Kept snacking a bit by hunger on pretzels until about 11:30am.
12pm: Drank 1L water with nuun with caffeine
1:25pm: Warmed up 8 min jog, drills. Way too much time, just staying loose until 2pm start time. Probably good practice though since we’ll probably be relatively restricted in what we can do in the 10-15 min before race time.
Weather was quite nice. About 70F, but cloudy and not humid and light wind so it didn’t feel bad. I did this workout on the bike path and instead of doing a normal loop turn-around, I did a hairpin turn on the bike path every 2.5km to start getting used to that as well.
The goal for today was to work on surging and getting used to drastic changes in pace (surging and recovering) and general disruption to the rhythm-running that I’ve gotten very good at in the last two months. I joking said to Jon that if Worlds were to be raced on the Mt Vernon bike path on a nice cool day, I’d be ready to go right now. But it’s not – it’s going to be on a weird course on brick and tile with lots of sharp and hair-pin turns on what will likely be a hot and humid day. So, now that we have the general fitness, we’re trying to adapt to the specific demands of the race.
Onto the workout.
Felt pretty good at the start. First 5km was at 50km RP which I’ve done a million times now and felt relaxed at 16’45. Next, was a 2km surge at MP (3’10-12/km, 5’05/mile). This felt quick, but I knew I had a slower 5k coming after that so no problem. The next 5km was relaxed at a moderate pace (~3’40/km, ~5’55/mile), which brought me to 12km (7.5 miles).
Next was another 12km made up of the same segments, but in a different order: 2km at MP, 5k at 50k pace, 5k moderate. The 2k again felt like quite a jump, especially going from basically a quick jog at 3’40/km to 3’10/km. But I had no doubt that I could survive the next 10k since it was just 50k pace and then moderate all the way to 24km. Mentally, this was quite tough, though, as I knew that I then would have to surge back to MP and finish with a longer stretch at 50k race pace.
As expected, the last 2km section from 24-26km was very tough. Mechanically, I felt like I was struggling a bit to hold my form together and had some cramping in my shoulders/back. Slowing down to 50k pace at 26km felt okay but it took at least 1km slower (maybe 3’30) before I was able to really catch my breath and get back to 3’20ish. I really did not think I was going to be able to finish all the way to 6km, but once I did recover from that fast surge, I was able to hold the pace through to 32km. That last 6km was 20’14 which was the slowest 50k pace section of the day (3’22), but I think it was mostly in that first 1-1.5km.
The total for the run was 32km (20M-) in 1’49’32.
Cooled down VERY slow shuffle home about 1km as I was quite beat.
Overall, I hit the splits quite well, but the effort for this was much higher than I expected. There are a few reasons for this which I’ll try to address below. I also want to just write about all the things I learned from this workout, since we did do a bunch of things differently, with the goal of learning before Worlds.
1 – Meals. I almost always do my long runs and races in the morning, and so I am not used to having to eat much in the 12-16 hours before my race. I generally eat a lot the day before, including a large carb-intensive dinner. I will often eat ALMOST NOTHING or VERY LITTLE (e.g. some animal crackers or pretzels) the morning of a race or long workout, even for a marathon.
Today, I had a whole bagel in the morning after my shakeout and then a bunch of pretzels and a lot of water/nuun. I didn’t feel great stomach-wise during the run and I think I either need to get more used to this or try to eat a bigger and LATER dinner the night before. Maybe try to stay up quite late and eat a big dinner at like 10pm and try not to eat much during the day of race/workout. I’ll do some more experimenting with this, but I’d love any feedback from runners who have experience racing long distance in the evening.
Fueling during the workout was fine/normal. 1 powergel every 10km and 1 15 min before the start.
2 – Surges made the overall pace much harder. Particularly DRASTIC changes in pace. Most of the runs I’ve done have been gradual accelerations or steady. Jumping 15sec/km or even 30sec/km felt very hard. I think this is important to think about how to respond to drastic moves in the race (maybe more gradually?) and also how to make a move myself (again, a more gradually acceleration). That is, unless we want to try to specifically train for this kind of pace change, but it certainly seems to making running the same overall pace MUCH more challenging.
3 – Hairpin turns – don’t seem to be that bad. Definitely lost some momentum and good to practice, but after a couple workouts, I’m not worried about it. Mostly – it’s something that everyone will have to deal with.
4 – Context for this workout. Part of the reason I was surprised this felt so hard was because I’d done 35km steady at 50k race pace a few weeks ago and it felt VERY good and not too hard. This run was a bit slower and a bit shorter, but beside the surging in the run, I wanted to look at the last 7 days leading up to each workout:
20 mile double
22 mile double
20 mile double
5k race (14’42) + 5x1k @2’57-2’47 (24 mile double)
22 mile double
18 mile double
35k @ 3’22/km
Total: 151 miles in 7 days
10k Fartlek 31’09 (22 mile double)
24 mile double
22 mile double
12x1200m @ 2’53/km (23 mile double)
28 mile double (with 2h45 easy single)
21 mile double
32k with surges, avg 3’24/km
Total: 164 miles in 7 days
I think in particular, the last 4 days were very aggressive and maybe I need to rethink that a bit (take a very light day before these longer efforts?) and a tiny bit less mileage (I think 160 is probably a good cap).
I think that’s all.
Total run 21M+.
Splits
Unit Time Lap Lap Pace
5 km 16’45.4 (16’45.4) (3’21.1)
7 km 23’06.5 (6’21.1) (3’10.6)
12 km 41’29.0 (18’22.5) (3’40.5)
14 km 47’49.4 (6’20.4) (3’10.2)
19 km 1’04’33.3 (16’43.9) (3’20.8)
24 km 1’22’59.0 (18’25.7) (3’41.1)
26 km 1’29’18.5 (6’19.5) (3’09.8)
32 km 1’49’32.5 (20’14.0) (3’22.3)
Jueves, 22 de Octubre, 2015 – 9am: Really rough night last night. Caffeine late in the day plus a hot night with no AC made for a bad night’s sleep. Ugh. Felt okay once I got up though and ran very slow on MV south past the big bridge and back. Total run 20km, 12M+ in 1h33.
XT: Back/hips
4pm: Easy run out/back to Alexandria and then some loops around CC to practice hairpins. Felt better than the morning. Total run 8M in 56’.
XT: Core, 12’.
Viernes, 23 de Octubre, 2015 – 11am: Slept very late after going out to see David Sedaris last night – really great time! Another beautiful day here – almost 70F and sunny.
Several things of note on this run:
First, I was passed by a guy running quite fast on the field by the airport. That doesn’t happen very often, I thought. A few minutes later, I see him at the turnoff over the bridge and he waves at me. “You’re Tyler Andrews, right?”
“That’s me,”
“I’m Chris – I follow you on twitter! Mind if I join you? You just doing a cool down or something?”
I explain to him that I was doing an easy run and tell him he looked like he’d been hauling ass back there. Turns out he’s training to run a 2h30 marathon next weekend and this was one of his last workouts. We ran together for a mile or so before he turned off and I headed up-river. Good luck, Chris!
The second thing happened as I was getting on the C&O path. There was some kind of professional photo shoot going on with a young man standing under one of the Key Bridge overpasses and holding a giant nugget of weed and rolling papers and posing as if he was about to roll a joint. The guy was dressed in what looked like expensive gear – basketball shoes, fitted cap, big jeans. I wonder if he was a musician or something. Interesting thing to run by, either way.
The third thing was actually just a few minutes later when I turned around to head back towards Georgetown (still on the C&O) and see a huge Buck with giant antlers just standing in the middle of the path. I turn around (there was another runner behind me) and point out the deer to the other runner who seems to be unphased or doesn’t notice. He keeps running and the deer seems to match his pace, running just a couple strides in front of him, until he can find a spot to duck off the trail. Wow! Very cool.
The rest of the run is fairly uneventful. Finish with 1 mile barefoot.
Total run 14M in 1h42.
6pm: Ran later today – trying to skew my day like this to get used to running later. Ran down to the fields and barefoot on turf for about 20 min, then ran over to West CC and found a good, steep hill on 22nd st. Stopped and did drills and then 6x short hills. Felt very good. Very dark by this point. Jogged about 1 mile back to road loop and did 4km in 12’33 (3’20, 3’10, 3’10, 2’53). Finished with a short jog to the gym for legs. After 8pm by the time I finished! Phew.
Total run 10M+.
XT: Legs at the gym. 3 sets of [15x step ups (10lb), 20x overhead lunge (10lb), 24x dynamic lung (10lb), 12x squat (bar)].
Sabado, 24 de Octubre, 2015 – 9am: Ran around CC solo for a bit and then met up with Travis Smith for a few miles on MV south out/back (to the boardwalk). Very nice to have company! Tacked on solo around big CC loop and finished with 2M in CCS. Total run 14M in 1h42.
XT: Back/hips.
6pm: Ran CCS and then inside for 1M because it was dark. Tons of people here for Marine Corps Marathon (which is tomorrow, I think). A bit tired at first but better by the end. Still figuring out rest/fueling for these 6pm runs. Total run 6M+ in 45’.
XT: Hips.
Domingo, 25 de Octubre, 2015 – 11am: Slept very late this morning and ran easy shakeout with afternoon workout. Marine Corps Marathon was going on and goes right up Crystal Drive, so lots of chaos outside! Total run 4M, NT.
3pm: Sparknotes: 8x1600m on outdoor track at 4’36.6 avg (4’39->4’33) with 90 sec jog.
Longer version: I’m still trying to get my caffeine, food, and rest figured out for these afternoon workouts, so I again want to note what I did today (because it felt very good both in terms of energy level and stomach).
9:30am: Woke up, had 1 cup black coffee pre-shakeout
11:45am: Had 1 nature valley bar post shakeout.
1pm: Had caffeinated nuun (40mg), 1 serving animal crackers and 1 serving pretzels (~200 kCal total).
3pm: Started warmup
3:25pm: Took 1 caffeinated powergel (25mg).
The workout itself went great. I ended up going over to the outdoor track at the HS in Alexandria because my normal loop was blocked off by police and marine corps marathon stuff. This was fine and just meant that the times were a bit quicker than they would be on the road.
Warmed up there,about 3.5 miles, and did drills and a couple strides and then 200m in about 32.
Did this workout in the Clifton 2. I was thinking about running in the flats again, but my right foot was a bit sore, so I wanted to be more cautious. I figured if I felt like I really wanted to feel fast at the end, I could quickly change into flats for the last 2-3 reps.
The goal was 7-8 x 1600m, a continuation of last week’s workout (10x1200m), and mostly specific prep towards the .US National 12k (now less than 3 weeks away). Last week I had averaged 2’53/km for 12km of work, so the goal was to do about the same today, which would mean 1600s at about 4’38.
Once again, I started off way too fast. Partly, being on a track for the first time in forever, and partly still just not used to relaxing at this pace, I ran the first rep probably something like 31, 65, 2’15, 4’34. Honestly, it’s probably not bad to get used to starting out fast, as the 12k may very well start out quick, but I should also learn how to pace myself.
The next few felt very good and were all right on pace. I forced myself to really check myself like every 200m and make sure I was on pace and I was running super consistent – 2’54-55 through every km.
During #5, I started to question whether I’d be able to finish this workout, as it felt quite hard to run basically the same pace. I think that one of the most valuable parts of these workouts, though, is getting to that point at 50-60% where I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it and just stepping into the abyss. In this case, not only was I able to make it, but I was able to close very well in the last two reps (both negative split). I even had a mini version of this in the last rep where I came through 600m and thought – there’s no way I can run another 1000m. But I had another gear and was able to accelerate from 800 to the end (probably split like 2’18/2’15).
I think that a big part of this uncertainty comes from my lack of experience at this pace/energy system in the last year or two. This is quicker even than the HM/tempo work that I was doing and I think that my body is not used to judging perception of effort at this pace. I think that the type of fatigue and sensations associated with that fatigue are significantly different at this pace/effort than at marathon pace/effort. In these faster workouts, I seems to think that things feel really terminal significantly before they are. Often, not only do I have more in me than I think, but I actually have another gear. And sometimes accelerating to that higher gear actually feels better. I’m not sure I understand this, but I thought it was important to note.
Overall, the average 1600 was 4’36.6 (2’52.9/km). This was a touch faster than last week (2’53.4 avg), but this was on the track vs. on the road so probably evened out. This week had more volume, longer intervals, and I ran in trainers, though, so I am super pleased with the workout.
Finished with long cooldown home and to the gym for legs circuit and then to Costco. Total run 17M.
Splits
Distance Split Pace
1600 m (4’34.0) (2’51.3)
350 m (1’33.1)
1600 m (4’39.0) (2’54.4)
350 m (1’32.0)
1600 m (4’38.7) (2’54.2)
350 m (1’32.3)
1600 m (4’38.0) (2’53.8)
350 m (1’32.6)
1600 m (4’37.4) (2’53.4)
350 m (1’32.3)
1600 m (4’37.5) (2’53.4)
350 m (1’33.2)
1600 m (4’34.9) (2’51.8)
350 m (1’36.0)
1600 m (4’33.0) (2’50.6)
XT: Legs at the gym. 3 sets of [15x step ups (10lb), 20x overhead lunge (10lb), 24x dynamic lung (10lb), 12x squat (bar)].
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