Weekly Summary – 100 miles in 10 runs. A great end to my build-up block of running in Quito, including 62 miles in 3 days with a solid first fartlek session. Then, a wonderful celebration of our anniversary over the weekend with some recovery jogging and hike/jogging in the mountains! Time to get home and get back at it.
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Lunes, 28 de Noviembre, 2016 – 10am: Up early at 5am to come out to Cotopaxi with Greg to check out his project out here. A bit of a clusterfuck as one of his doctor’s we were picking up was like 45 minutes late and then we got stuck in absurd traffic for almost an hour. Finally got here after 9am (despite leaving at 5:30).
Ran solo out into the campo. Legs a bit stiff from all the time in the car and a bit tired overall, but a very nice and fun exploratory run through the hill and dale. Ran up a very steep hillside dirt trail and then over into the valley on the other side. Thought I was going to run up part of Iliniza but it’s a good bit farther away than I thought. Really nice to be out there, though. Super quiet – a bit spooky. Altitude is quite high up here, too, up to about 11,000 ft.
Finished with 5x strides on dirt road with walk back recovery. Total run 10M+ in 1h26.
3:30pm: Easy run from the farm just on the dirt roads around the compound, as I had pretty limited time and a storm was coming in. Felt pretty good and was running in the 4’30s pretty much from the start. A bit rainy and cold. Finished with half ethio because it was pouring and thundering and I had nowhere to go inside. Total run 4M- in 28’.
Martes, 29 de Noviembre, 2016 – 10am: Slept late and really well last night. Needed that!
Ran solo longer single around the park, 3 laps from 16’00->15’20. Felt pretty good but had some GI issues and had to stop for bathroom break. After ran down to the centro historico to try to pick up my patches but the place was closed (mid day on a tuesday??) so just ran back. Bummer. A lot of very steep streets down there! Back here, used the bathroom and felt much better and then jogged out and did 5x strides (on pavement, not ideal). Total run 15M++ in 1h55.
XT: Hips.
5:30pm: Very good nap and then ran a bit later due to a storm coming through. Got hit with the second wave of rain right as I was walking out the door even though I thought it had passed so ducked under a bus-stop roof for a few minutes to let the torrent abate. Felt good after that. Ran two big laps (16’37, 16’12) and then to the track for 4x strides and then 200m relaxed in 35. Ran into Antonio Lopez at the track – always fun to find old friends from the running community. Felt very good on the strides today! Turnover is starting to come back. I think the strides every run is definitely helping get back into it. Jogged home after. Dark out!
Also, finished Hanya Yanagihara’s “A Little Life” on this run. Unbelievably powerful but devastatingly sad book. Weird to say I “enjoyed” it, but it was an extremely moving and emotional experience to read it. Probably one of my top books of the year.
Total run 10km++ in 47’.
XT: Back/hips.
Miercoles, 30 de Noviembre, 2016 – Sparknotes: 6M moderate + 10x short hills + 9M easy
9am: Ran easy around the park, 2 big laps, then back to the apt, grabbed flats and fluids, and jogged over to one of the very steep streets going up towards the metropolitano. Stopped and changed into flats and shorts and did full drills. After this, did 10x short hills very hard. Used HR as recovery guide at first (<120), but this turned out to be not enough, which is interesting given that the HR seems to scale somewhat due to altitude, and that amount of recovery is plenty at sea level. Last few needed a good bit more recovery. Felt quite good overall, just very long rest, as expected. Each one was about 13-14 seconds and then the last one ran all the way to the top, 21 seconds, which was extremely hard. Had some great odd pains all over my body immediately after that one.
After, jogged back to the apt and dropped off flats and bottle and then ran long cooldown essentially all the way back down to La Marin to pick up the patches which I couldn’t get yesterday. They were there today – thank goodness – but a very long morning overall and tricky running through the streets, both very crowded and very steep, not to mention pollution.
Total run 17M in 2h11
XT: OFF
5pm: Easy run around the park, 1 lap and then to the track. Felt surprisingly decent. Really cool view of cotopaxi with the late afternoon sun on the glaciar from the park. Finished with 4x strides and jogged home. Total run 4M+ in 28’.
XT: Back/hips.
Jueves, 1 de Diciembre, 2016 – Sparknotes: 13km (8M+) fartlek in 46’19 (3’34/km avg) with 11km of 3’ @ 3’15-25/km, 3’ @ 4’00-10/km + 2km of 1’ @ 2’50-3’00/km, 1’ @ 4’00-10/km + 5x200m in 30, 30, 28, 29, 35.
9am: Last big day before Mariana gets here and I’ll take a bit of a break. Headed out to do a fartlek workout around the park. Legs were a bit tired after short hills yesterday and a good amount of mileage in the last two days, but felt good once I warmed up. Did about 5.5km around the park and then stopped for drills, strides, etc. Ran in the clayton today.
Goal was to do 3’ on/3’ off and then 1’ on/1’ off for some amount of time, based on how I felt. I figured best case scenario, I’d do about 12km of the longer reps and then 3km of the shorter reps for a total of about 15km.
Started out feeling pretty decent and was holding back the first couple reps to run around 3’20 during the on sections and around 4’00 for the off sections. This felt pretty good at first and I ran a bit quicker on the second lap which still felt manageable but more terminal. Somewhere on the third lap, I started to feel pretty worked and I ran one on rep over 3’30 (albeit on the most uphill part of the route).
Since I’d started at the track, I decided to finish my 3rd lap and then do the remainder as 1’/1’ on the track. I was at 10.8km at the track, so I did another 200m before starting the 1’s to get to 11km at 40’08 (3’39/km). The shorter reps felt good but I was getting pretty gassed after the 30sec mark, which makes sense with the altitude and my legs being a bit fried. I was thinking about going all the way to 15km, but on the last rep coming into 13km, I was super gassed and decided to just call it there.
Took a few minutes to catch my breath and then did 5x200m on the track (still in claytons). These were quite hard, especially #s 3 and 4 (28.9, 29.3). Relaxed on the last one and ran very controlled 35.5.
Cooled down around the park and then stopped at the new digs (super swanky!) to pick up the keys and then jogged home. Very tired and dehydrated and a lot to do today, so just ethio, no XT.
Total run 15M+.
Splits:
Time Split Pace
3.6 km 13’15.0 (13’15.0) (3’40.8)
7.2 km 26’25.0 (13’10.0) (3’39.4)
11 km 40’08.0 (13’43.0) (3’36.6)
12 km 43’18.0 (3’10.0) (3’10.0)
13 km 46’19.0 (3’01.0) (3’01.0)
5x200m (3-4’ recovery by feel): 30.6, 30.2, 28.9, 29.3, 35.5
5pm: Ran around the park and then up to Ana’s bakery to pick up the cake before Mariana’s arrival for our anniversary celebration! Felt fine. Big positive elevation change as her bakery is way up on the faldas west of America. Total run 5M- in 35’.
Viernes, 2 de Diciembre, 2016 – 9am: Ran with Mariana very easy around Carolina, 2 big laps and then to the track. Did strides and some jogging around and then back to the apt. Rooftop ethio from the spectacular AirBnB at Cosmopolitan Park. Beautiful day and wonderful to have her here! Total run 6M in 50’.
PM: OFF – Lots of walking around downtown. Hanging with Greg in the evening and went to BDP for Pat’s goodbye party. Walked home. Great day!
Sabado, 3 de Diciembre, 2016 – AM: Happy Anniversary to us! Went up to Cruz Loma and then hike/jogged up Pichincha with Mar. Felt great, but weather turned sour sadly. Got to the edge of the mountain right as thunder was getting really loud. We turned back and cut down into the valley and got hit with some serious hail, rain, wind. Made it back to Cruz Loma without getting killed, but a little hairy there for a few minutes. Hung around up high for a while, had some lunch, and then headed down and walked from Foch to Old Town and around there for a while. Finally hopped on the bus and headed back to Lima 51 for lunch and walked back to the apt after. Total run 6M+.
PM: No more running. Lots of walking, including walk to Zazu for anniversary dinner which was spectacular as expected. Wonderful day!
Domingo, 4 de Diciembre, 2016 – AM: Hike/jog up Ruminahui with Greg and Mar. Drove out around 8:30am, nice and clear. Cloudy when we got to Cotopaxi NP but cleared up once we got up to the paramo. Great views of Coto all the way up to the ridge. Hit some clouds and rain once we got to the main face of the mountain. Got very cold and wet as I was waiting a fair amount for the others and didn’t want us to get too far apart in what was fairly dense fog/clouds. A very nice climb though, with a fun scramble the last 200m or so after an ugly sand field. Beautiful views from the summit as the clouds were moving quickly and we would get big open patches of sky interspersed with clouds.
Very quick descent with mostly jogging and some “skiing” down the sandy field. Also, some great wildlife spotting including a lot of rabbits, lizards, and a humongous owl which took off very close to us.
Drove out through the north side of the park and had a great lunch at this old hacienda just outside the park. Drove Greg’s giant truck from there back to Quito which was quite an adventure. Got home and crashed super hard at like 8:30pm and slept for like 12 hours.
Total run 12M.
