Weekly Summary – 90 miles in 12 runs. A fantastic last week of training in the USA: feeling the boost from a drop in mileage and had an awesome last marathon long run (30km at 2h13 marathon pace). Healthy, fit, and just about ready to go. Less than 2 weeks to Lake Biwa!
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, 13 de Febrero, 2017 – AM: OFF, XT only.
XT: P90x.
4:30pm: Easy run. Legs felt much better than yesterday but still a bit tired. Also almost 2 hours on the walking desk right before this and a bit depleted so that probably didn’t help. Felt better by the end but definitely started out a bit logey. Total run 8M+ in 59’.
XT: Back/hips.
Martes, 14 de Febrero, 2017 – 8:30am: Easy run down around the CC loop. Legs much better than yesterday. 5km in just under 21’ and then over to the costco turf field. Stopped and did 4x strides, legs still not 100% but improving a lot each day. Jogged home. Total run 6M+ in 40’.
XT: Back/hips
3pm: Running earlier to try to skew my days earlier. Ran down to the turf and a few big laps (1500m in 5’50). Legs felt MUCH better. Big turnaround session. Strides after felt very good (5x) and then jogged to the loop and 2km in 6’13 (3’06/3’07), HR in the 160s. Very good! Light session tomorrow and then the last bigger one on Friday. Total run 4M++ (7km) in 28’.
XT: Hips
Miercoles, 15 de Febrero, 2017 – Sparknotes: 6x short hills + 5km in 15’03 w/ 3km ~MP, last 2km fast in 2’56/2’44.
8:30am: Light session this AM with a big one coming up in 2 days. Ran easy out/back on MVN 5km in 20’, legs felt good, then over to the big hill near the track. Stopped and did drills and a few strides on the grass then 6x short hills. Felt good on these but HR took a bit longer than usual to come down – maybe still a bit of fatigue left from Saturday?
After, ran to track and did 5000m with first 3km at ~MP (a bit quicker, as the middle km was an acceleration in the second half) and then ran the last 2km pretty hard, trying to accelerate every lap from about 70 to about 65 last lap. Last km 2’44, last 1600 ~4’30, last 2km 5’40. Very good running!
Came to 5km in 15’03 but felt pretty much fine within a few minutes. Jogged home and running ~4’00/km by the end. Stopped at gym for leg circuits.
Total run 10M+.
Splits:
Time Split HR
1 km 3’10.3 (3’10.3) 164
2 km 6’19.0 (3’08.7) 173
3 km 9’23.4 (3’04.4) 177
4 km 12’19.1 (2’55.7) 180
5 km 15’03.3 (2’44.2) 183
XT: Legs. 3 sets of [step up (15x each leg), overhead lunge (20x), dynamic lunge (24x), squat (12x)]. No weight.
3pm: Easy run down to the turf, 1km in 3’57, 4x strides, and back. SUPER windy. Legs felt great though – no residue from the AM session. Total run 5km, 3M+ in 20’.
XT: OFF
Jueves, 16 de Febrero, 2017 – 8:30am: Easy run out/back on MVN and then to turf, 5x strides which felt very good and then home. Legs felt very good this morning – no problem! Ready for a good one tomorrow! Total run 8M+.
XT: Back/hips 1x
4pm: Ran later after a busy day with calls. Easy 5km, running quicker in the middle 3’50ish and actively held back last mile or so. Very good. Total run 5km, 3M+ in 21’.
XT: OFF.
Moment of Joy #47: First morning in a while that the legs have felt good even on waking up. Every step out the door was great.
Viernes, 17 de Febrero, 2017 – Sparknotes: 30km @ 1’35’13 (3’10.3/km, 5’06/M, 2’13’55 pace). Very even. Last 1600m ~4’50. Perfect.
9am: Last big one today! This is the last “red” workout of this block – with 2.5 weeks until Lake Biwa, this will be the last more-or-less full effort. After this, it’s just about maintenance.
The goal was to do a long continuous run at around goal marathon pace/effort. Based on the last 4-5 marathon specific workouts in this block, I was pretty sure that was going to be somewhere in the 3’10-13/km range (or 15’50-16’05 per 5km). Ideally we wanted to shoot for a max of 30km. I’d done 25km about a month earlier, so this seemed like a natural extension. The difference was to try to run very even (and not accelerate significantly at the end as I had in that 25k run). Basically, we wanted to get to 30km and have it feel hard, but not like it was a terminal effort and I couldn’t run another step.
The day was perfect for running fast and long! After a blustery week, we had very light winds, temperatures around 42F at the start and only warming slightly. I planned to start the run around 10am (I’d gotten up around 5:45am), so I began warm up at about 9:15 – this ended up being way too much time with such a short warmup, but maybe not a bad idea on race day to have extra time.
I ran to MVN and stashed my bottle and warmups and did 2 light strides and 200m at about race pace. This was the exact same loop I used for the 6x5k workout and the AM special block session, so good to be able to compare those data. I took a gel about 15 minutes before starting.
I split my watch at the 1km mark, but otherwise only split it after each loop. First km was 3’10.0 – perfect! Felt very easy at that point. For the first few km, I felt like I was really holding back, and the HR reflects that (only in the mid 160s).
Somewhere after 5km (16’03), though, I started to just not feel very good at all. Just like I was muscling through instead of relaxing. I’m not really sure what was going on here. There were definitely patches where I felt good and then patches where I didn’t feel good for a while. I think I did quite a good job of managing this bit, really all the way until about 15-18km. I’m not sure if it was mental or physical, but for some reason getting past halfway and especially getting close enough to 20km to begin to feel the finish was really important today. Again, I’m not sure if this was a physical reaction going on as well (i.e. it took me a really long time to warm up), but mentally there was a huge relief of getting to that almost 20km point.
Maybe it was just that once I got to 20km, my discomfort level seemed okay with having 10km to go. But up until that point, anything longer than 10km seemed like a long way. I guess this makes sense as I haven’t run much longer than 10km at MP in one stretch since that 25km run like 7 weeks ago. In that sense, this was a fantastic run as it really reminded me of what the effort needs to feel like at various points, how rough patches can start early and often and not to let that worry me, etc.
The last 10km required a lot of focus, but honestly felt the best of the whole run. Despite spending that middle 10km feeling like I wasn’t sure I’d even make it to 20k, I had absolutely no doubt that I could maintain pace from 20km to the end once I got to that point. I have no idea where this confidence came from (maybe comparing it to how hard the last 12km of the special block felt?).
There were a few times where I actually felt like I should be running faster, but I reminded myself that I was trying to run even and controlled and I’d been super even up to that point (15’49-16’03 for every 5K). I’d rather finish this one feeling great than destroyed.
Only with about a mile to go did I make a minor acceleration, and even this didn’t feel like a true kick, just an increase in focus and turnover. Based on my foggy headed mental math at the time, I would have had to run like 4’35 to sneak under 1h35 total, so that last 1600 was about 4’50.
The total then was 1’35’13 for 30km (3’10.4/km, 2’13’55 pace).
This was a fantastic workout and leaves me with a huge amount of confidence going forward. This lines up perfectly with my other workouts in these last few weeks and seems to point to a good target MP of around 15’50-16’00 which would be 2h13-high to 2h15-flat. I think this is very realistic on a fair (weather) day.
I think this is probably the fastest I’ve ever run for 30km and certainly the fastest/most controlled effort. I am certainly in better shape than when I ran 2’15’52 in the fall and I also think this has been a stronger buildup than my Trials and Grandma’s buildup (my last two serious marathons), which is amazing now considering how badly Houston went and the fact that I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to start the race give how bad my foot felt for a few days after that.
Now, it’s time to rest and recovery and focus on staying healthy for the next two weeks (oh yeah, and pack, because I’m going to Japan in 2 days!). Hay’s in the barn, folks!
Very short cooldown home 1km slow.
Total run 21M+.
Splits:
Time Split HR
1 km 3’10.0 (3’10.0) 148
5 km 16’02.5 (12’52.5) 166
10 km 31’51.5 (15’49.0) 169
15 km 47’44.7 (15’53.2) 172
20 km 1’03’35.4 (15’50.7) 172 (HM ~ 67’05)
25 km 1’19’29.0 (15’53.6) 173
30 km 1’35’13.0 (15’44.0) 175
4:30pm: Easy run with Mariana down to the turf. Beautiful afternoon – nice and warm and not windy again! Legs didn’t feel too bad after a few shuffling minutes. Averaged around 5’00/km, so must have been well under that for the second half as we surely started slower. Total run 3M-, 4km+ in 21’.
Sabado, 18 de Febrero, 2017 – 7am: Up early and ran early to keep skewing my days – leaving for Japan tomorrow! Ran very easy with Mariana down to longbridge and back and then headed back out on MVS for 10km quicker. Legs felt pretty decent, running 4’20s on the way back. Definitely feel yesterday’s session, but nowhere near some of the other post-red workout days. Total run 9M+ in 66’.
XT: Back/hips
1pm: Easy run solo down to the turf, around the fields and then stopped, 5x strides, and back. Felt very good – basically normal this session. Beauitful day! A couple shirtless strides as it was close to 70F. Total run 3M++, 5.5km in 22’.
XT: p90x.
Domingo, 19 de Febrero, 2017 – 2am: (no that’s not a typo!) Woke up at midnight after going to bed around 6pm. Probably got ~5 hours of sleep as it took a while to fall asleep. Felt surprisingly good once I got up and had coffee. Super pleasant outside, in the upper 50s. Ran to the turf and did 14km on the turf in 57’ (2k laps from 8’44 -> 7’26). Stopped and did 8x strides which felt very good and then ran home via the 1km loop with 1km quick in 3’06. Jogged home.
Last run in the US for about 7 weeks! (unless I manage to get in a few miles around Logan Airport later today).
Total run 12M+ in 1’18.
XT: Back/hips
PM: OFF – Traveling to Japan! Spent the last of my time at home doing the last packing, cleaning out the place, hanging out with RP, etc. Walked to the airport around 6:40am for 8:30am flight to BOS. Smooth sailing to BOS, a long walk at Logan to get to Terminal E, hanging out in the British Airways lounge. Boarded on time and got right to sleep for a few hours. Here we go!
