Weekly Summary – 149 miles in 14 runs. A great week with a big special-block workout on Sunday and a solid fartlek on Thursday. Great to start getting the mileage up, even with a travel day in there! Less than 11 weeks to the World Championships and 21 weeks to the Olympic Trials!

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Lunes, 14 de Septiembre, 2015 – 10am: Went up to Teleferiqo to try for the Pichincha Traverse. Ran all the way from Tele to the sandy ascent of Rucu – much better than a few days ago when I had to stop and walk about half way. Hiked up the sandy field and then through the pass. Going down the other side towards Padre Encantado was a bit hairy – super steep and loose footing at first, but then it was a very runnable trail for a while – all the way over to the base of Guagua. Ran up until it started getting very steep. Beautiful traverse. Climb up Guagua was not bad from the North. A bit sandy, so I cut up to a rocky bit and scrambled the last 100m or so instead of trudging through the sand.

Met some Germans on the top who said they would give me a ride back to Quito which was great and saved a ton of time. Hung out on the summit for a while and then headed down towards Lloa. Descent off the summit was an easy scramble and then very runnable wide trail all the way down to where their car was parked. Took a nap in the sun while waiting for them and then drove back to Quito.

Really beautiful and joyful adventure!

Total run 30km, 18M+. In total, about 5 hours.

5pm: Very easy run home from el Ejido where the Germans dropped me off. Total run 4M+ in 30’.

XT: Off – busy trying to see everyone on my last night in town!

Martes, 15 de Septiembre, 2015 – 3:15am: VERY early shakeout before traveling. Ran back and forth on our street because it was 3 in the morning and I didn’t feel like exploring at that hour. Total run 6M+ in 45’.

8pm: Got home after a long day of travel and ran around CC. Felt surprisingly decent. Beautiful night – nice and cool. Total run 9M in 60’.

XT: Core.

Miercoles, 16 de Septiembre, 2015 – 9am: Slept like a log last night. Felt pretty decent this morning. Ran Matt’s loop with 5M on C&O canal. Nice temp, only in the 70s. Pace from 4’30->3’30/km. Total run 16M in 1h49.

XT: Back/Hips

5pm: Easy run down to the fields and then 6km barefoot. Finished with 8x strides barefoot. Felt good. Total run 10km in 43’.

XT: Core, 12’.

Jueves, 17 de Septiembre, 2015 – 9am: Fartlek day. Slept for like 12 hours last night – yikes, last few days are catching up with me. Goal was continuing progression of fartlek workouts from last few weeks. Last one was 1km on/1km off. This week the goal was 1600m on/1km off (+2x500m on/500m off at the end to finish feeling fast).

As usual, kept the workout continuous and started with 5km easy and then went into the first rep. Ran 4’45 and didn’t feel too easy. Recovery kms were all around 3’30-33. The next rep was quicker at 4’42 and I was hoping I could continuing progressing down to about 4’40, but after that really had to work just to keep the pace around 4’45. Had to stop for a bit after #4 as I was really gassed and feeling a bit depleted, so took some carbohydrates and felt better upon starting up again. Last two were manageable but still didn’t have much room to accelerate.

Last 500s felt okay, but didn’t have much top gear left. Legs just felt a bit shot and body was a bit tired overall today.

The total work was 17.6km in 55’56 (3’10.6/km, 5’06/M avg), with the average “on” at 2’56.8/km (4’44.5/M) and the avg “off” at 3’31.6/km (5’40.5/M).

Overall, a fine workout. A bit tired and maybe a bit aggressive given the race and travel in the last few days, but not bad.

Cooled down around CC and then home. Finished at the gym for legs.

Total run 17M+.

5 km (21’30.0) 21’30.0
1.6 km (4’45.1) 26’15.1
1 km (3’32.6) 29’47.7
1.6 km (4’42.9) 34’30.6
1 km (3’33.4) 38’04.0
1.6 km (4’45.2) 42’49.2
1 km (3’33.6) 46’22.8
1.6 km (4’45.6) 51’08.4
1 km (3’30.9) 54’39.3
1.6 km (4’44.0) 59’23.3
1 km (3’31.0) 2’54.3
1.6 km (4’45.1) 7’39.4
1 km (3’32.2) 11’11.6
0.5 km (1’22.6) 1’12’34.2
0.5 km (1’42.0) 1’14’16.2
0.5 km (1’23.1) 1’15’39.3
0.5 km (1’45.3) 1’17’24.6

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

6pm: Ran late solo on MV out/back. Some stomach problems, no fun. Total run 4M+ in 32’.

Viernes, 18 de Septiembre, 2015 – 10am: Work this morning so ran later on MV south past the big bridge. Nice day and not too hot (70s). Legs a bit tired, especially last few km. Total run 15M+ in 1h47.

XT: Back/hips

5pm: Easy run, loop around CC longer to the fields and then 5km barefoot. Real tired to start but felt pretty good once my legs woke up. Total run 12km, 7M++ in 53’.

Sabado, 19 de Septiembre, 2015 – 10am: Felt much better this morning, ran south to the big bridge and back. Running quicker by the end down to about 3’50. Total run 20km, 12M++ in 1h22.

XT: Back/hips

5pm: Easy shakeout down to the fields and then around CC because there were soccer games. Felt good, kept it easy with a big day tomorrow. Total run 4M in 29’.

XT: Hips.

Domingo, 20 de Septiembre, 2015 – 6am: Big workout today with the first special block of the season. Woke up at 4am, had black coffee and half bagel (4:30am). Left before 6am when it was still dark to try to get the whole workout done before it got too hot.

Goal for the day was to run about 50km of work at close to goal 50km race pace split up between two runs with about 2 hours of rest and little refueling between them. The basic idea is to get a significant amount of volume in at a fast pace (up to race distance) but split up so that the effort isn’t quite as extreme as a real race and the overall toll on the body is diminished.

The first workout went very well. I ran on a 5km loop on MV north so I could get water every 5km, though it was still nice and cool ~60F, which felt great. I started off very conservatively at around 3’30/km for the first 5km (17’29) and then brought the pace down into the 16’50s for the remainder of the run. Once I was able to get into a rhythm, this run felt fine and I was never in doubt of finishing. I took a powergel at 15km but it was more precautionary and to get my body used to taking these again.

I actively did not accelerate at the end of this run, as I wanted to save that for the second run. I finished feeling a bit tired, but really not too bad. I was very excited and confident for the second run. Time was 1’25’04 (avg 3’24/km, 5’28/mile).

Splits (run #1)
5 km (17’29.2) 17’29.2
10 km (16’55.5) 34’24.7
15 km (16’58.0) 51’22.7 (took one gel)
20 km (16’50.2) 1’08’12.9
25 km (16’51.3) 1’25’04.2

Post workout #1: I had one powerade immediately following the first run (130kCal , 34g CHO) and then ½ plain bagel (120kCal, 27g CHO), and about 2 tsp of PB, and 4 pretzels. Also lots of water. This was all the fuel I took and otherwise spent the time resting.

10am: I began the second workout 2.5 hours after finishing the first (this is what I’ve done in the past and seems to be an appropriate amount of time. I ran on the same loop, so splits should be very comparable. It was a bit windy and not too warm ~72F.

Goal with this run was to try to finish a bit faster, accelerating through the run. I started off what felt fairly easy and was still quicker than the morning by a god bit (17’11 first 5k) and then continued to accelerate through the next 15km, running 16’50, 16’48, 16’37. It took a few km to get warmed up at the start, but from 3-10km or so, I felt quite good and thought I was really going to crush this one. But by 15km, I started to feel quite tired and by 20km, I wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to finish. I ran my fastest 1km at 21km and then was slowing down for the last 4km (and would have really slowed down if I had to keep running).

Still, I managed to finish in 1’24’24 (5’26/mile, 3’22.5/km). Overall, the work was 50km in 2’49’29 (3’23.4/km).

This was a very solid workout, especially this early in the block and with very little taper (149 miles this week). I did try to do this workout in the spring and couldn’t finish (I ran 25km and 20km only), so this was a big step up in terms of being able to pace myself well enough to finish the run. I think this bodes very well for the coming months in terms of my fitness and my ability to pace myself well. I’m very excited to see what I can do at Worlds (less than 11 weeks out!).

Total run(s) was 31+ miles.

Splits (run #2)
5 km (17’11.2) 17’11.2
10 km (16’50.6) 34’01.8
15 km (16’48.9) 50’50.7
20 km (16’37.6) 1’07’28.3
25 km (16’56.6) 1’24’24.9

PM: Off, brain and body were totally useless and had a very lazy (and achy) Sunday eating and watching Rick and Morty.