Weekly Summary – 71 miles in 12 runs. Tapering! A good workout at the Alexandria Turkey Trot and then a good tuneup on Saturday. Legs are feeling fresh. Ready to rock n roll. Less than 1 week to WORLDS!
Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram and Twitter (@TylerCAndrews). And, of course, don’t forget to check out STRIVE’s 2016 Programs, including the newly announced STRIVE-Peru: Spring Break program! You can come do service work and train with me in Peru or Kenya and for 2016, 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!
Lunes, 23 de Noviembre, 2015 – 10am: Slept well and long last night. Very easy run this morning around CCS. Quite cold (below freezing overnight for the first time) so really layered up. Pretty tired, so a few easy days should feel good. Total run 8M, NT.
XT: Back/hips
PM: OFF – taperingggggg.
XT: Core
Martes, 24 de Noviembre, 2015 – AM: OFF, rest.
4pm: Took the metro with Dave to Alexandria and then ran the Alexandria Turkey Trot Course. Looks nice, quite flat. A small gradual uphill in the first mile and 4th mile and downhill in the 2nd and 5th mile. Nice run – legs felt great. Finished with a few big laps of the fields at the school with David. Total run 7M+.
XT: Hips.
Miercoles, 25 de Noviembre, 2015 – 10am: Easy run around the fields and then changed into cliftons and did full drills and a few 200s. Most around 33-35 and one fast one in 29.0. Jogged around after and then home. Total run 6M in 40’.
5pm: Ran with David down to the fields and then about 10min barefoot on the turf. Felt very good. Beautiful night – huge orange moon. Pumped for Turkey Trot Day tomorrow! Total run 3M+.
Jueves, 26 de Noviembre, 2015 – Sparknotes: Alexandria Turkey Trot 5 Miler. 4th in 24’26 (3’02/km, 4’53/M). Took the race out hard in 14’30ish and then ate shit over the last 2km or so. Can’t say I didn’t try! A bit frustrating, but still much better than last year’s turkey trot (19’50 for 4 miles) and I ran a 2h16 marathon a week later.
5pm: Easy shakeout. Legs didn’t feel that bad. Tapering. Total run 3M+ in 20’.
Viernes, 27 de Noviembre, 2015 – 9am: Easy run around CCS with one loop around the longbridge course. Running quicker without really trying ~3’50/km. Ran a short segment at 3’20/km just to see how it felt and legs were good. Finished with 1M barefoot. Total run 7M in 45’.
XT: Back/hips
5pm: Easy shakeout down to the fields and then barefoot with David for about a mile. Jogged back. Another beautiful night and great company. Total run 3M+, NT.
XT: Hips
Sabado, 28 de Noviembre, 2015 – Sparknotes: Last tuneup before Doha. 10k in 32’25 with first 6km at 50K pace (19’58) and then 4km progressing (3’15->3’01). Felt great!
10:30am: Slept late and ran late. I did a very short warm-up (only about 1km) on the loop but legs felt good and fresh almost immediately, so that was plenty with some light drills.
Goal for today was 10km progression, with the start at 50K pace and then getting quicker at the end. I ran this on my 1km loop, so I tried to think of each 1km loop as a 5K in terms of where I was in terms of effort.
The first one felt a bit rusty as I got into it and then was able to really just relax from like 2-5. Around that point, I felt very good but waited until 6km to do any acceleration. Ran pretty hard 8-9.5km and then slowed down for the last 500m or so back to about 3’20 to make that pace feel really slow (it did!).
For what it’s worth, my weight was almost 6 pounds (!!) lighter this morning than it was on Thursday. I definitely felt more comfortable running – just felt less forced – so I think that for whatever reason that bloating may have contributed to not feeling great in the Turkey Trot. Who knows… bodies are weird and tapering makes the body do weird things sometimes.
Overall, this felt like just the right thing to do and I feel very ready. As Jon said last night – I am extremely well prepared for this race. I don’t need any magic pep talk and I don’t need any miracle performance to have a good race – I just need to go out there and do what I’ve been training to do and what is certainly within the realm of my ability.
Jogged to the gym for legs and then did 1M barefoot to cool down. Total run 8M.
XT: Legs at the gym. 3 sets of [15x step ups, 20x overhead lunge, 24x dynamic lung, 12x squat (bar)]. No weights.
5pm: Easy shakeout with STRIVE-Peru alum Peter Le (who randomly happened to be in the area). 2km barefoot on the fields. Total run 3M+.
Domingo, 29 de Noviembre, 2015 – 9am: Slept well and long. Quite light and a bit tired this morning. Ran easy around CCS. Felt surprisingly decent at the end. Finished with 1M barefoot which felt good. Total run 7M, NT.
XT: Back/hips (1 set only)
5pm: Easy run around CCS and then 1M barefoot. Felt much better than morning. Total run 3M in 20’.
XT: Core.
