Weekly Summary – 119 miles in 12 runs (6 days). A great week of rebounding from a weird foot issue last weekend (and maybe at Houston?). Feeling better every day and fitness obviously hasn’t gone anywhere. A fantastic workout on Sunday with 6x 5km at 15’54 (2’14’16 marathon pace). Into the last big block now! Less than 5 weeks to Lake Biwa Marathon!
Lunes, 23 de Enero, 2017 – AM: Jon urged caution today to be uber conservative, so no running. Did 1h40 on the stationary bike. Overdressed in heavy sweats and hat/gloves as that seems to be the only way I can get my HR over like 110 for any sustained period on the bike. Not very fun. Watched the documentary “Weiner”.
XT: Back/hips
PM: Another 80’ on the bike/elliptical (last 20 min on the elliptical) to put in 3h00 for the day. Really hope this doesn’t become a trend.
XT: p90x
Martes, 24 de Enero, 2017 – Sparknotes: 5km @ 15’46 + 5x200m @ 31-32.
10am: Slept well and foot felt good this morning so tested the waters with a bit of quicker running. Did 5km easy around 20’ and then drills, a few strides, ~200m in 35ish and then did 5km continuous. All in cliftons to be cautious. Felt pretty bad first few minutes but mechanically felt pretty good from 2km to the end. Accelerated a bit the last 500m or so but kept it very under control. Jogged after to catch breath and then 5x200m all around 31-32 with 1’30-2’00 jog rest. Cool down home. All in all, a very promising session. Legs felt a bit heavy (quads especially) after all the time on the bike yesterday but otherwise felt good. Total run 12M+.
XT: Back/hips
4pm: Easy run around CC, stop at the bank, and then mostly on the turf to be cautious again. Legs and foot both felt great. Did 5km on the fields in 19’xx. 4x strides after which also felt good. Very windy like 20-30mph but warmer in the upper 40s. Total run 10km, 6M++ in 41’.
XT: Hips
Miercoles, 25 de Enero, 2017 – 9am: Slept well last night. Ran on Matt’s loop and felt very good. Beautiful day, almost 50F already and blue skies! Out in 35’0x at 8km and then ~4’0x/km for the rest. Stopped at black squirrel but it was still quite muddy so jogged to the turf for strides. Did 8x which felt very good and then jogged back. Great run! Total 13M+ in 90’.
XT: Back/hips
4pm: Easy run down to the turf and around the fields, 6km in 23’45ish, feeling very smooth. Did 5x strides which felt great and then jogged to 1km loop and did 2km at MP ~6’20. Felt VERY smooth and relaxed here! Great! Planes landing from the north as well which made for fun watching on the turf. Total run 7M+ in 45’.
XT: OFF
Jueves, 26 de Enero, 2017 – 9am: Slept very well and long again! Foot felt good again this morning, so ran Matt’s loop again. Another unseasonably warm and lovely day. Windier than yesterday but very pleasant. 35’xx at 8km again and then 12’30 next 2M which felt very good. Finished on the tuf with 1km in 3’4x and then 8x strides. Very good morning. Total run 13M+ in 1h27.
XT: Back/hips.
3pm: Ran earlier so I could meet Mariana and Petre in the city this evening. Super windy! Like 20-40 (!!) mph. Ran to the turf and 6km in just under 24’. Felt very good even with the absurd wind which nearly blew me over a few times. 5x strides after (with the wind felt like superman!) and then jogged to 1km loop and did 4km at MP. Felt very good – super smooth and relaxed, no pushing. HR never above 167. Something like 3’12, 3’10, 3’10, 3’08 for 12’40. Cooled down short home. Total run 9M in 54’.
XT: Hips.
Viernes, 27 de Enero, 2017 – Sparknotes 10km fartlek in 30’35 with (5′ @ 3’08, 4′ @ 3’03, 3′ @ 2’59, 2′ @ 2’55, + 7x 1′ @ 2’45-50; 1′ @ 3’10-20 b/w all) + 4x200m @ 31-32.
9:30am: Light workout today with the goal to be ready for a big one on Sunday. Goal was just to do a little faster and continuous running and feel good, smooth mechanics, no foot problems, etc.
Warmed up 2M in 14’, drills strides, etc. 200m in 35. Workout on the 1km loop, good conditions ~40F with light winds.
Workout was fartlek of 5’, 4’, 3’, 2’, 1’ “on” with 1’ quick moderate off, and then 1’/1’ until around 8-10km. The first few reps were MP to HMP and then sub 3’00 pace for the 3’, 2’, 1’ sections.
This brought me to I think 19’, just over 6km after passing 5km in 15’3x. I felt pretty good at that point and I like the 1’/1’ fartlek, so I figured I could do at least 2km if not 4km and make it all the way to 10km and still keep the effort under control. There was a bit of mental math involved, trying to figure out how fast I was running but I think it was about 2’45-50/km “on” and 3’1x “off”. This all felt pretty good and the HR data are very reassuring as even it was only around 170 from 6-9km. On the last rep, I ran from 28’ to 10km, so about 900m. This felt quite hard but even still the HR was only up to a max of 177. Very good!
Last 5km was 14’56 to come into 10km at 30’35.
Stopped and walked for a while to catch my breath and then did 4x200m fairly relaxed in around 32. Cooled down about 2km home. Stopped at the gym and did a light leg circuit. Very good morning and don’t think it’ll leave me too wiped before Sunday.
Also worth noting the whole workout was done in Cliftons since I’m still a bit paranoid about my foot after last Sunday’s debacle in flats.
Total run 12M+.
Splits
Time Split HR Rep
1 km 3’10.8 (3’10.8) 146
2 km 6’22.9 (3’12.1) 163
3 km 9’25.4 (3’02.5) 168
4 km 12’34.9 (3’09.5) 165
5 km 15’38.2 (3’03.3) 167
6 km 18’42.6 (3’04.4) 169
7 km 21’42.9 (3’00.3) 170
8 km 24’42.4 (2’59.5) 170
9 km 27’38.8 (2’56.4) 172
10 km 30’34.6 (2’55.8) 174 (14’56.4)
XT: Legs circuit. 2 sets only of [step up (15x each leg), overhead lunge (24x), dynamic lunge (24x), squat (12x)]. 10 pounds on everything, bar on squat, for set 1, no weight (except squat bar) on set #2.
4pm: Easy run down around the turf. Cooler around 40F and windy again. Much wind! 5km on the turf in right around 20’. Stopped and did 5x strides. Jogged home after, stopped at the opt. To pick up my contacts. Total run 6M- in 39’.
XT: OFF.
Sabado, 28 de Enero, 2017 – 9am: Ran with Mariana nice and slow out/back for the first hour or so on MVS. Nice to run slow with a big one tomorrow. Finished solo around CC to the costco fields because the turf was in use by some soccer players. Stopped and did 8x strides and then jogged home. All good. Total run 12M in 1h27.
XT: Back/hips (1x)
3:30pm: Easy shakeout around CC again since the turf was still ocupado. Short again with a big one tomorrow. Stopped at costco turf again and did 4x strides. Jogged back. Total 21’.
XT: Hips
Domingo, 29 de Enero, 2017 – Sparknotes: 35km in 1’54’32 (3’16.3/km avg) with 6x 5km @ 15’54.7 avg (2’14’16 marathon pace), 1km rec @ 3’48.8 avg.
10:30am: Ran later this morning to try to get my body used to running a bit later relative to waking up (LB starts at noon).
Big, red session today with 6x5km at MP, 1km moderate between. This has historically been a very good indicator of my marathon fitness – often the avg 5K time is quite close to what I can average for a marathon. After dealing with the hurt foot last weekend (and maybe starting at Houston?), I was pretty nervous about this one. I’ve felt very good running the last 5 days or so, and each workout has been better than the last since Houston, but I still hadn’t done anything close to this distance or level of effort.
Warmed up about 2km to mimic marathon start, stashed bottles and carried two gels during the run. Felt good on the warmup. Did maybe 3 strides and 200m about 37 to try to get the pace. Weather was very good, around 40F, light wind.
Took one gel about 10 minutes before starting. Did this workout in size 9 clifton 2.
First two reps felt very long. I felt like I had a hard time really getting in the zone and they just seemed to drag on. Not like they felt difficult, just I was struggling to focus. Pace was good though at 15’50-16’00.
The next two actually felt very good and I felt like I was finally able to relax. I particularly remember a moment in the middle of #4 where I thought, okay I’m going to be able to finish this.
Another gel before #5. These last two felt significantly harder (or at least they began to feel harder much earlier into each rep). I was trying very hard to focus on each individual rep and not think about how much was left in the overall workout, but it also helped to picture myself at XX km into the marathon – so, with the last two reps, I thought of myself with 10km to go. This made the discomfort feel appropriate.
The last rep was very hard and I went out a bit too aggressively. Probably should have just tried to maintain, but tried to run faster and then slowed down a bit the last 2-3km. Still came in just at 16’00, so every rep was between 15’49-16’00. Very good and consistent.
Overall, a very RED workout. Muscularly, this felt very hard. I guess this was the first really long hard effort I’ve done in over 3 weeks, plus the weird foot thing last weekend, so it makes sense it would feel tough. The good news is that I feel like I’m on a huge upswing. I ran 5km at MP on Tuesday and it didn’t feel that good, while today I ran 30km at MP over the course of 35km and it felt hard but doable. I am feeling stronger each day and I am still super fit from the last two months of training, especially that huge block of mileage and workouts in December/early-January. We’ve really only got 3 more red workouts before Lake Biwa, and I’m confident now that none of them are out of reach. This was a big cornerstone in terms of confidence today.
The total workout was 35km in 1’54’32 (3’16.3/km avg) and the avg 5k rep was 15’54.7 (2’14’16 marathon pace), 1km rec @ 3’48.8 avg.
Cooled down very short. Very tired after this one.
Total run 24M.
Splits:
Time Split HR
5 km 16’00.7 (16’00.7) 159
6 km 19’48.6 (3’47.9) 151
11 km 35’38.2 (15’49.6) 166
12 km 39’27.0 (3’48.8) 159 (Gel #1)
17 km 55’19.5 (15’52.5) 171
18 km 59’07.5 (3’48.0) 166
23 km 1’14’57.6 (15’50.1) 172
24 km 1’18’46.9 (3’49.3) 164 (Gel #2)
29 km 1’34’41.5 (15’54.6) 172
30 km 1’38’31.4 (3’49.9) 164
35 km 1’54’32.1 (16’00.7) 180
6pm: Short easy shakeout inside because it was dark and cold. Felt okay once I got moving. Very slow to start but pretty decent by the end. Total run 2M, NT.
