Weekly Summary – 121 Miles in 10 runs. Monday was the end of a big mileage block (20+ miles/day avg for 20 days) and so Tues-Thurs were very light. Friday marked the beginning of the next big 20 day block, starting off with a super solid long workout – 6x5km at 16’26. In the thick of it now! Less than two months to Worlds!

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Lunes, 5 de Septiember, 2016 – Sparknotes: 5km easy + 45km in 2’34’28 (3’25.9/km, 5’31/M) with 20km in 71’30 (3’34.5/km, 5’45/M), 5km in 16’14 (3’15/km, 5’14/M), 5km in 17’55 (5’46/M, 3’35/km), 15km (on treadmill) in 48’49 (3’15.3/km, 5’15/M).

6am: Woke up at 4:15am, coffee and nature valley bar, about 12 oz of water.

Left just before dawn. Jogged to fields for 5km very easy. Legs felt good so holding back. Quite cool this morning, only about 62F and dry. Very nice.

Workout was last of progression of 3 long runs with 20km moderate, 5km surge, 5km moderate, and then race pace to the end. Goal was to do 13-16km at the end this time for 43-46km.

First 20km felt very easy through about 10km and then started to feel a bit more tired toward the end than I’d expected running ~3’30-33/km after a much slower start. Was running on 5k loop, so got nuun every 5km and took a gel at 0km, 10km, 20km, 30km, 40km.

First surge was tough but it always seems to be tough for me to make that gear change. Hopefully this will become better as I train for that these remaining weeks.

Recovered a bit slower but was still feeling quite gassed and pretty warm at this point, even though it was only about 70F. Finished this section at the gym and did last portion on the treadmill as in last two workouts (at 1.5% inc, no fan). Some stoppage time here to transfer to treadmill.

Felt very tough right away and I was running slower than I’d planned ~3’20-3’16/km. After that first 5km, I picked it up and ran the 2nd 5k (35-40km) probably much too hard (15’53). By the end of that, I was really struggling and not sure if I’d make it to the end.

Slowed down a lot last 5k as I really just wanted to finish and was struggling to maintain pace.

Finished with 16’31 for last 5k, 48’49 for last 15k.

Very brutal afterward. Had super uncomfortable shakes/anxiety feeling which I haven’t gotten in a while. Probably because I was nearing total depletion (or went a bit too far down that path. I think this is mostly when I have encountered this issue. Managed to get some food down and drank a humongous amount.

The total was 2’34’28 (3’25/km, 5’31/M) for the 45km or about 2h58 for 50km total (not including stoppage time) with the 5km warmup.

Hydration/fueling: Gels at 0km, 10k, 20k, 30k, 40k. Nuun every 5km for a total of about 36 oz. Tried holding bags of ice every 5km or so for a couple minutes while on treadmill.

Splits
5 km 18’25.0 (18’25.0) 161
10 km 36’14.0 (17’49.0) 161
15 km 53’52.0 (17’38.0) 164
20 km 1’11’30.0 (17’38.0) 167
25 km 1’27’44.0 (16’14.0) 173
30 km 1’45’39.0 (17’55.0) 170
35 km 2’02’04.0 (16’25.0) 175
40 km 2’17’57.0 (15’53.0) 175
42 km 2’24’26.0 (6’29.0) 172
43 km 2’27’40.0 (3’14.0) 174
44 km 2’31’03.0 (3’23.0) 171
45 km 2’34’28.0 (3’25.0) 173 (16’31 last 5k, 48’49 last 15k)

PM: OFF – visited Joni and Dennis and then watched the Jungle Book and ate Kabob Palace.

Martes, 6 de Septiembre, 2016 – 10am: Slept very late and long, almost 12 hours! Wow! 3 day block break, so short single today. Ran easy out/back on MVN. Warm in the 80s and sunny, but a nice strong wind of the river. Felt surprisingly good running 4’10s on the way back, no problem. Total run 8M in 58’.

XT: Back/hips

PM: OFF, recovery block, XT only.

XT: P90x

Miercoles, 7 de Septiembre, 2016 – AM: OFF – recovery block. Used the walking desk for about 90’ but otherwise just lounging around and catching up on work. Very productive day.

XT: Hips

4:30pm: Ran first 5M slow with Mar on MVN out/back in about 40’. Hot again today around 94F and humid, but didn’t feel too bad in trackies and long sleeve. Acclimating! Tacked on after and almost ran into a giant thunderstorm but made it back just in time. Finished with 6x strides feeling very good. Total run 8M in 60’.

XT: Back/hips.

Jueves, 8 de Septiembre, 2016 – Sparknotes: 5km easy, 4x500m in 1’35, 1’30, 1’23, 1’19, 500m very easy jog rec.

9am: Ran with Mariana easy around CC 5km to road loop. Stopped and did drills and then 200m with her in 39. Very light session just to open up the legs a bit. Did 4x 500m on the road with each one a bit faster. Starting relaxed and finishing quite quick. Felt very good here. First one was quicker than I was aiming for (1’35) after going out in 36. After that ran right on pace 1’30. next one I was shooting for about 5k pace, so maybe 1’27 (2’54/km) and was fast again at 1’23. Last one was very focused for 1’19, going out in 31.x. Actively held back on the last on as this was just a long stride session essentially with a big one tomorrow. Also worth noting I ran these in tracers, which felt great. Jogged back to the house.

Total run 10km, 6M++.

XT: Back/hips

4:30pm: Easy shakeou around CC. Very hot again, mid 90s, sunny humid. Trackies/long sleeve as usual. A few laps on the big grass loop. Total run 4M in 28’.

XT: Core.

Viernes, 9 de Septiembre, 2016 – Sparknotes: 6x5km @ 16’26 (3’17/km) w/ 1km rec @ 3’49.8. 36km total in 2’01’36 (3’22.7/km)

6am: Up early around 4am for the first long effort of this second big training phase. Slepy very poorly as AC was out last night. Brutal as it was quite warm and humid.

Had nature valley bar and black coffee. Workout was run on 5km CC loop.

Goal was to run 5-6x 5km with 1km moderate (not slow) recovery. I’ve done this workout several times and it has served as a very good indicator of my marathon fitness. I was hoping to do this workout closer to what I want my 50K race pace in 9 weeks, which is probably relatively close to what my marathon ability would be right now. The last few long runs have felt very challenging running the “race pace” segments at 3’15-3’20/km, so the big goal today was just to stay relaxed and then see what the pace ended up as at the end instead of trying to hit specific splits.

Short warmup ~ 8’ from very slow to quicker. Drills and a couple short accelerations. Took gel about 10’ before start.

Workout started out very well. First reps felt super manageable and rest was consistent ~3’50. Took gel after reps 2 and 4 (so 12km and 24km total). Took nuun every 5km.

Rep 4 definitely felt harder but still not unmanageable. Interesting that after that, the recovery km heartbeat made a significant jump (159 to 167). The last two reps felt much more challenging but way better than the last two long-run finishes. Here, the HR very much does seem to reflect the effort and it’s very interesting to note that even the recovery km HR gets quite high (170 for the last one, even at the same pace).

One thing I did very well this week – and much better than the last few weeks – was compartmentalize the workout into manageable sections in my mind. I think I’ve been struggling with this a bit and I know it’s 100% crucial both in training and racing for very long distances like this. The obvious delineation of intervals made this much easier and more natural – i.e. I focused very hard on not thinking beyond the current rep – and I will try very hard to continue this in the next few workouts which will feature much longer chunks at this kind of pace.

Cooled down very short home, easy stretching/ethio. Post-workout was quite good, no bad-depletion state like last time. All good.

Total run 23M+.

Splits:
1 km 3’49.6 (3’49.6) 147
6 km 20’20.4 (16’30.8) 163
7 km 24’10.3 (3’49.9) 155
12 km 40’36.1 (16’25.8) 167
13 km 44’27.9 (3’51.8) 158
18 km 1’00’57.9 (16’30.0) 169
19 km 1’04’46.2 (3’48.3) 159
24 km 1’21’08.6 (16’22.4) 173
25 km 1’24’58.3 (3’49.7) 167
30 km 1’41’23.9 (16’25.6) 176
31 km 1’45’13.1 (3’49.2) 170
36 km 2’01’36.5 (16’23.4) 179

4pm: Ran very easy with CAXC kids from CA after doing a little strive talk. Had to run sub-7’00 out the door to catch up which was a bit brutal but then had a very leisurely run through Great Meadows. Total run 4M+ in 32’.

XT: OFF – busy day with travel up to BOS and quite tired from the AM.

Sabado, 10 de Septiembre, 2016 – 6am: Ran from parents’ house in Concord before a long day of travel and family commitments. Started very easy with Mariana for 5M in about 40’ and then solo quicker on ORNAC loop. Very nice run and legs felt pretty decent considering yesterday’s effort, travel, early morning, etc. Tacked on around the hood after to get in as much as I could since I wasn’t sure if I’d have time to run later. Total run 15M++ in 1h55.

XT: OFF, not much time before having to drive up to Meredith.

PM: OFF – busy with family stuff and then driving home. Didn’t get back until almost 10pm. Though about a quick shakeout as I’d had coffee to help with the drive and didn’t know if I’d be able to get to sleep, but had no problem.

Domingo, 11 de Septiember, 2016 – 6:30am: Ran easy with Mariana for 2M+ and then solo on Williams Rd. loop. Felt pretty good again. Short due to time constraint and getting to the airport. Total run 8M+ in 60’.

3:30pm: Easy run on Matt’s loop with a mile on the towpath. Felt a bit tired at first but better as the run went along. Finished with a loop around long-bridge and 8x barefoot strides on the turf. Jogged home, ethio, etc. Total run 23km, 14M++ in 1h45.

XT: Back/hips.