Weekly Summary – A two week update as it’s been particularly busy between having family here, dealing with a minor last-minute injury, and getting ready for a month-long trip after CIM. I’m now feeling fantastic – tapered and ready to go – as we enter race week. Can’t wait for 12/3, just 6 days away!

Lunes, 13 de Noviembre, 2017 – 9am: Easy run out/back on MVN. Legs still pretty sore but better than yesterday. Foot definitely better as well. Finished at Costco and walked home. Total run 16km in 76′.

XT: Back/hips

3pm: Easy run down to turf and then 5K on the turf in 20’. Felt much better this afternoon! Running 4’30s out the door and 4’00-10s on the field. Stopped for 4x strides and then home. A bit warmer and the sun finally came out which was nice. Foot felt much better today, almost imperceptible this afternoon. Total run 8km+ in 33’.

XT: Hips

Martes, 14 de Noviembre, 2017 – 9am: Easy run out/back on MVN. Felt much better today! Out in 29’ back in 26’ (4 miles) and then to the field for strides (5x) and then 1K pickup on the way home (3’09) to test the waters. All good. Foot almost 100% and legs feeling pretty well-recovered. Ready for a light session tomorrow. Total run 16km+ in 67’.

XT: Back/hips

3pm: Ran with Mariana and felt good, nice and slow, though into a headwind the whole way running north. Foot felt good and stride felt pretty much normal. Finished at CC and did 4x strides on the road. Will do a light session tomorrow sandwiched between two big efforts (sat/fri). Total run 9km++ in 42’

Miercoles, 15 de Noviembre, 2017 – Sparknotes: 8km fartlek in 24’22 w/ 1’ @ 2’45-55, 1’ @ 3’10-20, last 2km accelerating 3’04-2’50. Great!

9am: Light workout today sandwiched between two hard red sessions (Saturday and Friday). My left foot had been bugging me a bit since Saturday’s run and so I wanted to be extra conservative here.

Everything felt pretty good during the warmup, 5km in 21’, not too cold today in the upper 40s and only light wind from the north. Ran the whole thing on the 1K loop (8 laps). Goal was ~25’ of fartlek with 1’ on, 1’ off and then the last 2km continuously progressing and closing pretty fast. 3x strides, 200m in 35.x.

Started off pretty relaxed, probably only like 3’00 pace or just under for the first minute to ease into it and test the waters a bit. Tried to keep the “off” minutes pretty honest and was running in the 3’1x range for the most part. Actually surprised myself by how decent I felt as overall. Never really in doubt about getting to the 6K mark and was running the “on” sections much quicker by the end, ~2’50 probably.

Really had to focus those last 6’ and HR reflects that as it went from 180 to 186-187 for the last lap! Good practice to continue really entering the hurt zone for those last 2K. Very good mentally as I was almost thinking of bailing after 7km but hung on and closed very well and had way more left than I thought (1’27/1’25 for 2’52.5).

Quite out of breath but HR came down very quickly and jogged easy to the gym and was running 4’0x on the cooldown no problem. Great sign that the workout was a good stimulus but not killer.

Total run 15km++.

Splits
1 km 3’04.9 (3’04.9) 169
2 km 6’12.6 (3’07.7) 178
3 km 9’14.1 (3’01.5) 181
4 km 12’21.6 (3’07.5) 182
5 km 15’20.7 (2’59.1) 182
6 km 18’26.7 (3’06.0) 181
6.5 km 19’59.1 (1’32.4) 180
7.0 km 21’29.7 (1’30.6) 184
7.5 km 22’56.9 (1’27.2) 186
8.0 km 24’22.2 (1’25.3) 187

XT: Legs at the gym. Only 2 sets today of [step ups 6x (40, 50lb), 6x overhead lunge (35lb), 6x dynamic lunge (40, 50 lb), 6x squat (100 lb)]

2pm: Ran earlier for 3pm appointment with Terrel at Georgetown Sports Massage. Felt good and running 4’20s very comfortably for the most part (8K in 35’) and then 4x strides on the bikepath by Georgetown before meeting with Terrel. Jogged to metro after. Total run 12km in 52’.

XT: Massage – very good session working on left lower leg/ankle which seemed to help a lot.

Jueves, 16 de Noviembre, 2017 – 8:30am: Easy run down to turf. Ran 6km in 24’ from 4’10->3’55ish. Stopped and did strides but only 2x as that seemed to irritate the left foot on grass. A bit more sore than I expected this morning, so kept it short and easy. Actually felt better running on pavement on the way home, so might keep off the turf for a couple days. Total run 10km in 42’.

2pm: Ran early to finish at optometrist appt. 1 lap on HAR (18’11) and then over to Costco area. Legs and foot all felt good, much better than this morning. Lovely day out. Walked back from costco with groceries. Ready for one last long one tomorrow. Total run 6km in 27’.

Viernes, 17 de Noviembre, 2017 – Botched workout. Felt okay on warmup but foot flared up abruptly after about 8.5km and had to stop. Really frustrated. Total run 13K.

PM: Not only did my foot keep me from running but I seem to have developed some kind of nasty cold. My nose started running basically immediately after I stopped running this morning and wouldn’t stop all day. Felt really awful in the afternoon and went to bed very early. Not a good day.

Sabado, 18 de Noviembre, 2017 – 9am: On the bike today. Hate the bike. Really hope 1-2 days will be all. 70’ at 137 avg HR (wore a lot of layers to get HR up).

3pm: 40’ on stationary bike. 124 avg HR.

Domingo, 19 de Noviembre, 2017 – 8:30am: On the bike again. 60’ with a lot of layers again. Got really dehydrated or something and super low blood pressure when I finished and almost passed out walking back upstairs. Couldn’t really see. Weird. Avg HR 149.

4pm: On the big, hopefully last day. 40’, avg HR 127 (from wrist so a bit off maybe).

Lunes, 20 de Noveimbre, 2017 – Foot almost 100%, will try a jog this PM but one more morning on the bike (hopefully). Did a harder session since today would have been a tuneup day. 20’ easy and then 30’ of 1’ hard, 1’ moderate (at difficulty #7 w/ “hard” being >130 RMP and moderate 115-120 RMP). Finished w/ 2’ hard to get to 30’. Good effort and definitely got the HR up, especially in sweats. Avg HR 159 during the 30’ of fartlek but that was from the wrist again, so probably off a bit. 60’ total.

3pm: First run since Friday AM. Foot feeling good so went for it. Jogged 4’ in the hallway to make sure things were okay before heading out. Felt a bit awkward from being on the bike for a few days but foot felt fine. Ran outside and legs felt very good. Good sign that the taper is working. Ran much quicker than I expected down to the 1K loop and 4k there in 4’03, 3’59, 3’52, 3’34. Only worked a bit on the last lap just to see how that would feel. Stopped and did 4x strides on the road very relaxed just to test that out. Finished with 200m relaxed (uphill) in 36. Jogged home easy. Very good! Total run 7km+ in 29’.

Martes, 21 de Noviembre, 2017 – 9am: Ran to Georgetown Sports Massage. Foot still feeling good, not quite 100% but morning is usually worse than PM. Felt good once I started running though. Comfy running 4’10-20s out the door. Stopped in Georgetown and did 4x strides in the park which felt quite good. Jogged up to GSM and then Terrel told me that I was there at the wrong time – oops. Talked briefly and then jogged to the metro and home. Stupid me. Total run 11km in 46’.

3pm: Ran from Terrel’s after a good session at GSM. Good work on the foot and also some good deeper work in the glutes. Foot and legs felt good. Beautiful day type – in the 60s and sunny! Ran to Arl. Cem. and then took the metro to costco and walked home with groceries. Total run 6km in 26’.

XT: Massage.

Miercoles, 22 de Noviembre, 2017 – 8:30am: Ran easy to 1K loop, 6km in 25’ easy. Stopped and changed into tracers and then did drills, strides, and 3x 500m. Shot for ~ 3’00 pace and ran the first 200m in 33.x woops! After that was very even and ran 1’27.5 (with the wind most of the way), 1’ jog after and then ran back (1’29.0). Another 1’ jog and then 1’27.5 again (with the wind). Felt pretty good. Form was smooth and foot didn’t bug me. Jogged home via hill loop and around the block to round up. Total run 10km++ in 42’.

XT: Back/hips, 1x.

3pm: Easy run to HAR and 1 loop (17’26). Kept effort very relaxed, so this is quite quick for that effort. Great sign. Ran home via HT. Very windy. Foot felt good though – no issues today. Total run 7km++ in 30’.

Jueves, 23 de Noviembre, 2017 – Sparknotes: Alexandria Turkey Trot (7th) 24’50. Ran as test workout with 5km @ MP, 3km+ quicker. Great!

8:10am: Easy warmup out/back on the first 3km or so of the course. Quite cool, in the mid 30s as I was starting but warmed quickly with the sun coming up. Did drills inside and then somehow between bathroom and getting changed it was pretty late by the time I got to the line. Only had time for 2 short strides.

Goal today was really just to test-drive the foot. My first real workout back probably would have been a progression run of 8-10km, so this seemed to fit that as long as I could keep myself under control. I wanted to run around MP through 5km or so and then try to pick it up the last 3K/2 miles. I knew this would be tough as this course runs downhill out and uphill back and last time I ran it I’d gone out hard and eaten it badly in the last 2 miles.

I was probably in about 30th place getting off the line in the first 1K. Even Wardian and his dog were in front of me. I panicked a bit because I was worried I’d gotten off too slowly, but then I remembered that there were a bunch of Georgetown guys who hadn’t made NCAAs up there and they probably all ran the first 400m in 62 or something. My garmin still had the first 1K in 3’09.7 and it felt very comfy.

Right around the mile, the course heads downhill and I was trying hard just to relax and not go crazy. First mile was 5’04 from memory and I was already leaving guys who had gone out way too hard and working my way up. I passed 2M in 10’08 so right about the same and felt very comfy still. HR was perfect, right in the low-mid 170s.

3rd mile still felt good and I was just focusing on all the guys in front of me and gradually working up. I was about 15’10 (so, 15’42 or so at 5K probably) and began to really focus on shifting gears at that point. There’s a long hill basically the whole 4th mile, so that 6th km was slow (3’07) but was a big increase in effort. There were two guys in front of me and I probably made up 10 seconds in that mile to come to 4 at 20’05.

I passed one of the guys (the ethiopian) and then was chasing down the pony-tailed guy for the last mile. I felt good and was running hard but he had another gear as well. I got within a couple seconds but couldn’t quite close the gap. I had a really good last 1K though and just felt great all the way through. Last mile was 4’45 to come in at 24’50.

Couple of quick things – 1. it seems that the HR monitor was really off as it was reading like 200+ at the start but then settled into what looks normal for MP (174-75) by 3km. Odd that it didn’t go up more with the big increase in effort after 5K. 2. The course had a nice long gradual downhill from about 2Km to about 4km, so Ks 4 and 3 are quite quick, though the effort still felt very comfy and HR was as expected for ~3’10 on flat surface. 3. The other side of that coin is that I made a big move after 3M/5K and only ran 3’07 but that was running uphill into the wind on the same stretch that I ran 3’01 downhill with the wind.

Overall, really pleased with the effort. A bit bummed not to be up at the front as the race was slow this year (23’47 won on a perfect day for running fast), so it would have been fun to mix it up with those guys, but really, really glad to have a big confidence booster and step in the right direction.

Cooled down short 2km and then walked about 30 minutes to David and Nora’s.

Total run 17km.

Splits:
(Mile splits, from memory):
1 M 5’04.0 (5’04.0)
2 M 10’08.0 (5’04.0)
3 M 15’10.0 (5’02.0)
4 M 20’05.0 (4’55.0)
5 M 24’50.0 (4’45.0)

KM splits from Garmin
1 km 3’09.7 (3’09.7) 181
2 km 6’17.1 (3’07.4) 187
3 km 9’21.3 (3’04.2) 174 (downhill)
4 km 12’23.1 (3’01.8) 174 (downhill)
5 km 15’29.8 (3’06.7) 175
6 km 18’36.8 (3’07.0) 175 (uphill)
7 km 21’41.0 (3’04.2) 174 (uphill)
8 km 24’38.5 (2’57.5) 175
8.08 km 24’52.0 (0’13.5) 176

2:30pm: Ran quick easy shakeout from David and Nora’s house before Thanksgiving dinner. Legs felt good even with the morning’s effort and ran like 4’40 first km and then under 4’00 the last 2. Kept it short because of time and trying to keep the volume low. Total run 4K in 16’57.

Viernes, 24 de Noviembre, 2017 – 9am: Easy run to HAR and 3 laps. Legs felt pretty good out the door despite yesterday’s effort. Laps 18’03, 17’24, 17’06. Ran home after and did 6x strides at Crystal Drive which felt very good. Total run 14km in 59’.

Sabado, 25 de Noviembre, 2017 – AM: OFF, mini rec. Block. Lots of walking, though with the fam around CC.

3pm: Easy run around CC to HAR and 2 laps (17’28, 17’12). Legs felt pretty good out the door today as 17’28 is a pretty quick first lap. Finished at Crystal drive and 6x strides. Total run 14km in 58’.

Domingo, 26 de Noviembre, 2017 – Sparknotes: 10km up/down in 31’20 w/ 5km up 293’ in 16’20, down in 15’00.

9:30am: Ran a bit later after last-minute change of plans as Mariana was supposed to com on this one but ended up too busy. Luckily my dad was willing to come with and hold onto my stuff and go for a walk while I was doing the workout. Goal today was to get in some good quicker running but nothing too strenuous given we’re only 1 week out from the race. I’d done this workout before as a marathon tuneup and especially since CIM has some nice ups and downs, it seemed like a good one. Ideally, the first “up” 5K should be around marathon effort or a bit slower than MP and then down should be faster. The stretch of bike path I’d do this on went from the boathouse where the cap crescent crosses the C&O up towards bethesda and back. It was a gradual uphill of about 2% the whole way (about 300 ft gained over 5km).

Warmed up easy ~6km out/back, drills, strides in tracers. Ran the workout in tracers. Weather was okay but quite windy and it was mostly in my face in the uphill (and honestly still felt in my face downhill somehow). Just blustery, I guess.

This workout is pretty tough because it never really feels good. Started out way too hard effort wise, as I was trying to hit 3’10ish pace and that effort was pretty tough going up 2%+ incline steadily. Garmin also seemed to be reading off, so I was getting into a bad place mentally on the way up. There are also mile markers every half mile and I’d checked on my warm up and those seemed to be fairly accurate, so I split my watch at each of those. HR got quite high on the way up, over 180 within the first 3K.

Turned around and felt much better on the way down, running 2’23-29 per half mile for the most part and felt a bit more relaxed as the HR had come down. Honestly expected to be much quicker more like 2’20s or 2’54-55 pace but perhaps I was just a bit worked from the too-hard uphill. I tried to mostly relax and then picked it up to run the last full mile in 2’24/2’22 to come through in 31’20 (15’00 down split).

Overall, this was fine but not great. I think the big thing and big difference between this run and thursday is that I need to just relax and not force things. Thursday felt great because I was so relaxed and not forcing anything and surprising myself by the splits. Today I felt like I was just working way too hard and trying to force it when it was too hard for whatever reason. I think if I’d just relaxed and run marathon EFFORT up the hill, even if it had been 3’20s or something, I would have felt way better about the workout and probably run faster on the way down.

So, the big takeaway – relax. Let the pace come. Don’t force it. On Sunday, just tuck in, don’t look at the watch, and settle into the pace as relaxed as possible.

Cooled down short 2km. Legs felt pretty good and didn’t feel too tired after this one.

Total run 18km+.

4pm: Ran later after long celebratory afternoon brunch (where I didn’t eat). Managed to get in a quick nap, though I was ready to turn RP into a pair of slippers because he kept howling. Ran down to 1K loop and 3 laps. Felt pretty good out the door despite being like 7 minutes out of bed. 4’10->3’40s. 18’50 back to the house and then 4x strides on Crystal Dr. Total run 5km++ in 20’.

Lunes, 27 de Noviembre, 2017 – 9am: Easy run on HAR, 2 laps. Legs felt good and was running much quicker out the door despite keeping effort quite low. 17’04, 16’52 which might be the first time I’ve ever run under 17’ on that loop. Ran over to 1K loop after and did 3 laps at 4’00->3’45. Stopped and did 5x strides which felt great and 200m in 35.x very relaxed. Really good running this morning as everything just felt very smooth and relaxed. All systems go! Total run 15km+ in 61’.

XT: Back/hips