Weekly Summary – 128 Miles in 11 Runs. Beginning a HUGE block with 101 miles in 4 days after 3-day recovery block. A bit of a chaotic week with travel for the holidays, but still had agreat workout with 6x3K @ half marathon pace. Otherwise just getting into the mileage grind. Trial of miles, miles of trials. Less than 3 weeks to Houston Half!
Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram and Twitter (@TylerCAndrews). And, of course, don’t forget to check out STRIVE’s 2017 Programs! You can come do service work and train with me in Peru or Kenya and for 2017, 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! Finally, I have a few spots open for athletes looking for custom training plans and online coaching. Check out my site and email me if you’re interested!
Lunes, 19 de Diciembre, 2016 – 10am: Easy run out/back on MVN and then around CC to round up. Felt pretty beat at first from yesterday, but took it very easy and felt much better by the end. Stopped and did 5x strides on the grass which felt good. Recovery block time, so that’s all for today! Total run 8.6M in 63’.
XT: Back/hips
PM: OFF, recovery block. A bunch on the walking desk, but otherwise just a productive afternoon/evening with getting caught up on work, etc.
Martes, 20 de Diciembre, 2016 – AM: OFF, recovery block. About an hour on the walking desk and XT only.
XT: Back/hips
3pm: Easy run out/back on MVS. Felt quite good and running quicker ~20’xx first 5K and quicker on the way back. Stopped and did 9x strides on the grass which felt really good. Finished with easy jog back and around CC to round up. Total run 9M+ in 58’.
XT: p90x (with shoes on)
Miercoles, 21 de Diciembre, 2016 – Sparknotes: Easy run + 4x 500m @ 1’35.8, 1’28.2, 1’23.2, 1’20.1 w/ 500m jog in 2’20-2’30.
8:30am: Up early to run earlier (and try to skew my whole routine a bit now that things are, hopefully, settling down). The usual day 3 of a recovery block – some easy running and some faster running. Jogged over to the loop and around and then changed into flats. Did drills and strides and 200m in 34.x and then 4x500m, each one getting faster: 1’35.8, 1’28.2, 1’23.2, 1’20.1. Jog was 500m back in 2’20-2’30. Felt very good.
Jogged over to the mall and post office for MS run and then back home. Total run 7M+.
XT: Back/hips
1:30pm: Ran early, easy out to grass on MVS and then 3x strides and back. Stopped for XT and then easy jog to the airport to pick up uber and then into the city. Total run 3M- in 22’.
XT: Hips.
Jueves, 22 de Diciembre, 2016 – Sparknotes: 6x3K @ 9’03.6 w/ 1km rec @ 3’54.5. Total 23km in 1’13’54 (3’12.8 avg).
8:30am: Up a bit early again to get this one (and afternoon shakeout) in before travel day up to Boston.
Workout was a scaled version of one of my favorite Marathon workouts (6x5K at MP w/ 1km rec). This one was to be 6x3K at HMP (still 1k recovery). Slightly longer reps (percentage wise) but keeping the rest longer, so hopefully it would work out. This was the first time doing this one.
Warmed up easy about 15’ and then stopped did drills, a few strides, 200m in 35. Felt good and warmed up. Workout was on the 1K loop, so I had a lot of feedback. Weather was perfect, around 50F, no wind.
Started out with a hard first minute or so and then settled down for the first km. Running very evenly this whole first rep and things felt pretty manageable right around 72.x/400m, 3’00/km. Rest km felt fine and as similar pace to the last workout like this (3’48).
Rep #2 was when I realized that this pace just wasn’t going to be sustainable for this workout. Tried to stay postive but also had to be realistic as this one just felt MUCH harder than number one and last few minutes were quite tough. Ran the next rest a good bit slower (3’58) and then started off a bit conservatively on the next rep to and ran fairly evenly 9’06 (though didn’t get km splits).
Tried to keep it consistent over rep 4 and again ran very even for 9’04.6. Interestingly, rest stayed slower for the remainder of the workout ~3’55-57/km compared to 3’45-48 last week.
On the penultimate one I tried to accelerate and ran 3’02.7, 2’58, but then was pretty gassed and slowed back down to 3’03 for another 9’04.
Finished out running pretty even again on the last one, might have closed a tiny bit faster in the last 500m or so, but not much. This was very mentally tough as I felt pretty bad within the first 400m or so but just kept telling myself that this is a different energy system and it’s okay to feel like this at this point (i.e., less than 3km remaining).
It’s worth highlighting this because I think it’s manifesting in almost every stage of these faster workouts. I’ve done so much running at MP or slower in the last 6 months to prep for 50K worlds that I’ve become very accustomed to the specific discomfort to be expected at various stages of running that pace. Running HMP now feels significantly different from a perceived effort perspective and I’m finding myself having to re-learn how to judge pace and effort. For example, those first two reps today felt quite hard (and were a bit too hard, in retrospect), but it’s really hard for me to judge whether that “too hard” feeling is because the pace is actually too fast for this workout or if the discomfort just feels greater because I’m working harder and becoming more fatigued earlier than I would at MP or slower. It’s a very interesting place to be in terms of training and I think that beyond the physiological benefits of these HMP workouts, learning what that pace should feel like at different percentages of the workout/race is going to be super critical to having a good race in Houston.
Anyway, overall, it was still a very solid workout. The total was 1’13’54 for 23km (3’12.8/km avg) and the avg 3K was 9’03.6 (3’01.2/km which is 63’44 pace). The marathon equivalent of this workout (6x5K) has always been a very good indicator/predictor of my marathon fitness, so it’ll be interesting to see if this one is as well. I think this workout is slightly harder, as the reps are slightly longer (percentage wise, they should be 2.5km) and the total volume of race pace running is higher (percentage wise, again, it should be 15km); I think that makes up for the statistically longer recovery rep.
Cooled down very short ~1M home. Some stomach distress, so kept it short.
Total run 19M.
Splits
Gels at T-15min, 12km, nuun every rec rep
1 km 2’59.1 (2’59.1) 158
2 km 6’00.2 (3’01.1) 176
3 km 9’00.4 (3’00.2) 180 (9’00.4)
4 km 12’48.1 (3’47.7) 165
6 km 18’48.3 (6’00.2) 179
7 km 21’48.7 (3’00.4) 179 (9’00.6)
8 km 25’46.3 (3’57.6) 160
11 km 34’51.9 (9’05.6) 179 (9’05.6)
12 km 38’48.2 (3’56.3) 167
15 km 47’52.8 (9’04.6) 180 (9’04.6)
16 km 51’50.2 (3’57.4) 171
17 km 54’52.9 (3’02.7) 179
18 km 57’51.4 (2’58.5) 180
19 km 1’00’54.5 (3’03.1) 181 (9’04.3)
20 km 1’04’47.8 (3’53.3) 166
23 km 1’13’53.6 (9’05.8) 182 (9’05.8)
XT: OFF
1pm: Very quick turnaround as I had a flight to catch later this afternoon. Basically just came back, had a bagel and drank a lot and sat around. Ran with Mariana at first as she was biking into the city and then continued solo out/back on MVN. Felt pretty brutal getting out the door but not too bad by the end. Total run 10km+, 6M++ in 47’.
XT: OFF – walked to airport and then super delayed flight.
Viernes, 23 de Diciembre, 2016 – 8am: Ran from Concord on old long run route. Harrington, Emerson, ORNAC, Country Club, Morse, Old Marlboro. Nice run and legs felt surprisingly good given how hard yesterday was. Not too bad weather-wise, around 30F to start and warming up. Definitely over dressed.
Finished with 5x strides (on pavement because there’s snow everywhere, which is decided not as nice).
Total run 17.5M in 2h00.
XT: Back/hips
3:30pm: Ran after Dr. Ebb visit before it got dark. A bit tired (no nap again – gah!) but wanted to front load mileage this block since the weekend will be busy with holiday stuff. Felt okay once I got going. Ran Williams Rd Emerson loop. Finished with 3x strides, ethio. Total run 9M+ in 65’.
XT: p90x.
Sabado, 24 de Diciembre, 2016 – 8:30am: Super brutal outside (38F and rain), so ran on the treadmill – yes, the whole run. Frontloading today as I have two xmas events (lunch and dinner) and it’s going to be a busy PM. Watched all of the movie “The Lookout” and about 45 minutes of “Straight Outta Compoton”. Started aroud 7’30/M and worked down to about 6’20/M. Felt quite good. Also a nice break to get off of pavement after two big days on pavements yesterday and the day before. At least legs are grateful. Almost fell off around the 2h mark because I was spacing out and clipped the side with my right foot and almost face planted. Could have been bad! Whole thing was at 1% inc. Total run 21M+ in 2h20.
XT: Back/hips
3:30pm: Easy and short run from home out/back on Harrington. Felt good. Finally got a nice (quick) nap this afternoon. Finished with 8x strides on pavement which felt good. Total run 5M in 35’.
XT: OFF – very quick turnaround from PM run to getting in the car and heading to Mariana’s folks’ place.
Domingo, 25 de Diciembre, 2016 – 6am: Up very early for an easy run from Mariana’s parents’ house before a morning flight. A bit icy but not too bad. Felt good once we got moving. Ran with Mariana out to the river and then BU bridge to Smoot and back on the Boston side. Nice way to start the morning. Total run 6M in 45’.
XT: OFF- again busy turnaround to get to the airport. Really wish I was at home for this block but asi sigue la vida. I’ll be back in 3 days.
3pm: Made it to sunny Florida! Long day and quite tired. Felt pretty awful out the door on this one. Was thinking of doing a short hills workout today but between feeling so bad and the fact that the gym was closed so I wouldn’t be able to do legs after, I decided to just do it tomorrow. Ran around the hotel grounds and then out onto the A1A bike path and long out/back there. Felt pretty bad still for a while but eventually started to feel much better. Finally turned around and felt way better coming back (wind was now behind me). Very nice by the end. Finished with 10x strides on the golf course grass and then short cooldown around there. Total run 29km, 18M+ in 2h08.
XT: Hips
