Weekly Summary – 148 miles (238 km) in 14 runs. Really great week of training with an excellent first marathon-pace run, a great 28 mile long run, and a solid hills session. Getting into the rhythm!
Lunes, 28 de Agosto, 2017 – 8:15am: Slept late again, quite tired this morning. Longer easy single this morning with 5 laps of HAR loop: 19’51, 23, 20, 13, 18’51. A bit sluggish to start but better by the end. Cooler this morning, first track pants day. Jogged over and did strides on Crystal drive (8x) which felt pretty good. Total run 24km++ in 1h52.
3pm: Easy run out/back on MVN. Started out a bit sluggish but much better by about 4km. Running 4’00-15/km back no problem. Stopped at black squirrel and did 6x strides ~120m, very good! Jogged home long way to round up. Total run 12km in 53’.
Martes, 29 de Agosto, 2017 – Sparknotes: 8km + 12x short hills + 3km prog in 9’01 (3’09, 3’01, 2’51)
7:30am: Rainy hills day. Very sad morning with news of DT’s passing last night, so I guess the dreary rain seemed appropriate.
Workout went surprisingly well. Warmed up 8km and felt much better out the door (ran in Claytons so that might have given me a bit of extra pep), finishing at the field for drills/strides. Grass was spongey so did everything on the bike path.
12x hills all felt quite good. Focused on form and turnover. Last one ran to the hydrant at the top in 37.6
Jogged over to 1K loop after for short prog. Planned to do maybe 2.5km after last week felt so awful but felt very good today (probably because went out a bit slower, 3’09. Had a ton left and ran 3’09/3’01/2’51 for 9’01 total. This is excellent for this time of year.
Jogged home and changed out of soaking wet clothes before going to gym for legs.
Splits:
Time Split
1 km 3’08.9 (3’08.9)
2 km 6’09.9 (3’01.0)
3 km 9’01.0 (2’51.1)
XT: Legs at the gym. 3 sets of [10x step up (10lb, 20lb, 30lb), 20x overhead lunge (10lb, 15lb, 20lb), 20x dynamic lunge (10lb, 20lb, 30lb), 8x squat (bar, +5, +10)]
3pm: Easy run on HAR loop (2 laps: 18’43/17’59). Felt much better than I expected. Still rainy, but warm, so no worries. Did 5x light strides after and then changed strides before jumps. Total run 10km in 45’.
XT: Plyos/jumps: 10x squat jump, 10x lunge jump (each side), 20x one leg side hop, 15x box jumps.
Miercoles, 30 de Agosto, 2017 – 8am: Slept in and ran easy solo out/back on MVN first for 6km in 28’ and then met up with Mariana and ran rest of the run much slower ~5’00-10/km on HAR loop. 3 loops in 20-21’. Nice to take a very slow easy day today with a pretty tiring day yesterday and a workout tomorrow. Finished with 7x strides on crystal drive since the fields were still mushy from all the rain yesterday. Total run 20km in 1h40.
XT: Back/hips (2x, no weight still). 4’ perching (holding band)
3pm: Ran very easy again with Mariana out/back on MVN, Stopped at black squirrel on the way back and did 5x strides, very good. Legs felt much better. Nice easy day. Total run 6km in 27’.
Jueves, 31 de Agosto, 2017 – Sparknotes: 18km in 57’15 (3’10.8/km, 5’07/M avg) + 5x200m @ 34 -> 29.
6:45am: Up early for this one as it was going to be warm today. First of the longer continuous marathon runs of the block. Goal for this block was to take a more gradual approach to these and put more into the schedule. So, starting off shorter than I have in the past (16-18km) and building 2-4km each run up to probably 30km by the end of the block.
Black coffee and NV bar around 5am.
Already about 70F as I started and a bit humid with no wind, so felt pretty warm from the get-go. Ran 3km warmup and stopped to change into hupanas and do drills, 2x strides, and 200m in about 37.
Did this workout out/back on MVN for 3x 5K loops and then 3km at the end so I could get nuun at 5, 10, 15K. First 5K felt very controlled and ran 16’01. Effort was basically the same for the second 5K and was in a very good rhythm. Right around 10km before the turnaround, I was feeling very, very hot, so I stopped for maybe 30 seconds to douse myself with cold nuun and let my HR come down a bit. Came to 10K in 31’52 (15’51 2nd 5K)
After this, I felt much better but (in retrospect), the HR was still quite high (over 180 avg for the last 8km). The 3rd 5km was about the same as the second (15’53). As usual, once I got to 3K to go, I felt pretty comfortable I’d finish and even pushed it a bit in the last 1K to run about 3’05. Probably could have run another 2km at the same pace today which is a great place to be starting.
After, jogged about 1km back to the building to use the bathroom and changed into tracer flats and then did 5x 200m. I did 150s and 200s a lot this summer after my continuous sessions and it felt like a really good way to keep up the turnover, especially on tired legs, so I’m going to try to stick with it. Ran 32.x, 32.x (missed #3), and then ran #4 a bit harder for 29.6, relaxed for #5 for 34.3. Jog back recovery. Very good!
Jogged short 1km cooldown around the block as I was pretty doot at that point and it was quite hot now.
Overall, this was a very, very good starting place. All of my runs this block have felt appropriate in terms of what I hoped the effort and pace would be for each one. This was probably the one about which I was the most nervous, so to have it go well (especially on a warm day) is a huge relief and a great sign looking forward. I am definitely very fit already – I’m doing a lot more fast running earlier in the fall this year since I don’t have a 50K, so I’m hoping that this will give me the time to gradually extend my ability to hold this pace over 42km (this is 2’14’10 pace).
More work tomorrow!
Total run 25km
Splits
Time Split HR
1 km 3’16.6 (3’16.6) 140
5 km 16’01.1 (12’44.5) 168
10 km 31’52.4 (15’51.3) 177
15 km 47’45.0 (15’52.6) 180
18 km 57’14.9 (9’28.9) 183
5x200m (200m jog): 32.6, 32.0, ???, 29.6, 34.3 (missed #3)
3pm: Easy run solo out/back on MVN about 24’ out to 5K turn around and quicker back ~4’40 to Black Squirrel. 4x strides on bike path felt good to open up. Saw first actual black squirrel at black squirrel of the year. Jogged back. Total run 11km in 52’.
Viernes, 1 de Septiembre, 2017 – 8am: Fun run today. Paced Mariana’s interval session first. Easy 3km around 1K loop and then did drills and a few 200-400m reps at ~45/200m to get her pace. Killed my rabbit duties. Workout was 2K @ 7’49 (3’55/3’54), 1600m @ 6’11 (3’54, 2’17) 2×800 @ 2’57, 2’52, 2×400 @ 78.5, 76.8. 90 sec jog for everything except 60s jog between the 400s. After, jogged to bike path and did about 11km solo. Pretty tired by the end. Total run 22km in 1h43.
3:30pm: Easy shakeout from Earthtreks after climbing. Ran to HAR and 2 big laps 19’00, 18’42. Finished at field and did 4x strides but doot doot. Total run 11km in 51’.
XT: Climbing at Earthtreks. 7 routes to the top on all. 2x 5.10b, 3x. 5.10a, 5.8, 5.9. Very fun!
Sabado, 2 de Septiembre, 2017 – 8am: Rainy, rainy run and much cooler today (only about 58F) with big storm blowing through. Ran very easy with Mariana to start about 9km out/back on MVN to black squirrel and then solo on MVS out/back to train tracks quicker around 4’20-30/km. Watch died during strides, but was at 19km in 89’ and had another 2km or so worth of strides and jogging home. 8x strides which were okay but very wet shoes and raining pretty hard still. Total run 21km in 1h37.
XT: Back/hips, 2x no weights
3:30pm: Easy shakeout. Still cool and drizzly but not too bad. Ran 1 HAR loop in 20’05 (slow!) and then back to crystal drive, 5x strides. Total run 6km in 29’.
Domingo, 3 de Septiembre, 2017 – Sparknotes: 45km in 2’45’48 (3’41 avg) w/ pickups of 5km @ 16’55 (3’23) at 25k, 5km @ 17’02 (3’24) at 35k, 3km @ 10’23 (3’27) at 42k. Last 20k @ 3’31 avg.
7:15am Beautiful morning for a long run! Luck to have Mariana on the bike to keep me company and play music/hand off bottles for this one. Did the BIG loop today. Started on Matt’s loop but then cut up Rock Creek all the way up to Georgetown Branch Trail after about 25km, took that to Cap Crescent through Bethesda, and then all the way back down to Key Bridge and back to MVN. Very nice to be running on different roads and switch things up a bit.
Felt pretty good today. Only NV bar and coffee in the morning but got up extra early so was feeling good out the door (19’13 first 5K, 4’0x first km). Goal was to run steady easy effort through 25km then surge 5km at about 90% of MP (3’28 ish), then another 5k easy, then 5k surge from 35-40km and then easy to 45km.
Running up Rock Creek was a bit tough as the trail is quite winding and there are some real hills (plus it’s a big net uphill to about 25k). Maintained good effort and consistent though around 19’00/5K.
Ran the first pickup on Branch Trail which (I’d forgotten) is not paved. Nice to be on the softer surface but a bit sloppy in parts due to all the rain yesterday. Also a bit crowded. Still ran 16’55 with a 3’13 last km (downhill). Felt good.
After that, there’s a long gentle downhill on Cap Crescent out of Bethesda, so the next 5K was 18’23 but felt super easy. Last pickup was on Cap Crescent coming back into Georgetown and ran 17’02 feeling quite good and lots of energy at the end.
Jogged 1km up onto Key bridge and then naturally accelerated coming down the other side. Decided to run the last few km a bit quicker since I was very close to 3’42 overall avg and wanted to slip under that 6’00/M. So, last 3km were something like 3’30/3’30/3’20.
Finished at Arlington Cemetery and took the metro back. Quite tired! But thankfully not too hot. Barely broke 70F for this one.
Very good run. Great to be able to hop into 45km after not having done any super long singles in a while. (Last single over 32km was on July 16 when I ran 45km in Ollantaytambo at 9300ft at 3’57/km). A bit sore after this though and will take some nice easy days now.
Total run 45km in 2’45’38 (3’41/km avg). Last 20km @ 3’31.4 avg.
Fueling: Took 2 gels before the two pickups around 24km and 34km. Took nuun approx every 5km.
Ran in Clayton 2.
Also, NB, HR monitor seemed to be reading pretty wacky. I don’t think my HR was above 180 for like 2 hours of this run.
Splits
5 km 19’13.0 147 (19’13.0)
10 km 38’03.0 160 (18’50.0)
15 km 57’21.0 186 (19’18.0)
20 km 1’16’20.0 183 (18’59.0)
25 km 1’35’11.0 180 (18’51.0) (Gel #1)
30 km 1’52’06.0 187 (16’55.0)
35 km 2’10’29.0 185 (18’23.0) (Gel #2)
40 km 2’27’31.0 183 (17’02.0)
45 km 2’45’38.0 183 (18’07.0)
Last 20km @ 3’31.4
3:30pm: Very easy shakeout around CC to Harris Teeter. Warm around 80F. Much better after. Total run 3km in 16’.
