Weekly Summary – 100 miles in 13 runs. A good, light week of training with a great workout on Monday and a disappointing race on Sunday. Staying positive and looking ahead to the 50K World Championships in less than 3 weeks!
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Lunes, 9 de Noviembre, 2015 – 9am: Sparknotes: 8km continuous run in 23’48 with 5k in 14’32, 1km @~50k (3’24), 1km accelerating (3’05), 1km fast (2’46).
Last medium workout before the .US 12K on Sunday. Goal was to do 8km of continuous running with the first 5km steady at about goal race pace and then 1km moderate to recover (around 50k race pace) and then 1km to accelerate and then a last 1km with whatever I had left, hopefully a bit faster than the first 5km.
I wanted to accomplish two things with this last workout
1. Run a longer continuous section at RP
2. Run one faster interval on tired legs (the last 1km)
The rationale for these is (1) I’d really like to just feel better than I did running the longer continuous section on Thursday. Even the first 1-2km didn’t feel as good as I have in workouts, so I know I CAN feel better and it would be helpful to me to see that before race day. Yes, this is partly a mental thing, but I think it’s also valuable to run a bit longer since other than the 2x6k, I haven’t run longer than 2km at that pace. And (2) I’d really like to practice closing well, again since I struggled to do that on Thursday, and I’ve been able to do it in many other workouts/races.
I went into this workout with a much better attitude. Having run the 2x6k, I knew that I could run 5km in the 14’30s, even if it didn’t feel very good. I also just felt better. Even walking around in the morning, my legs felt noticeably better after three days of recovery. I was excited for this one instead of nervous.
I ran this on the same portion of the bike path as I did on Thursday, so this was very comparable. I warmed up 5k easy and felt great again. Drills and strides and 200 in 34’. Everything felt good.
Starting felt like a bit of a jolt as always, but I was actually surprised when my watch told me I’d already passed the first kilometer (2’55). I ran very consistent splits, passing 2k in 5’49 and 3k in 8’44. I made basically know acceleration and had no doubt that I’d be able to finish in the 14’30s and came in at 14’32.
I slowed down a bit which felt great and was able to catch my breath after about a minute at 3’30-40/km. After that, I began accelerating up towards 50k race pace and held that til km 6 (3’24) and then began to really accelerate towards km 7. When I hit km 7 (21’02, 3’05), I really hit the gas and was running very hard.
At first, after maybe 200m, my body said this was not sustainable and I would have to slow down. But I just pushed and told myself that it was only 2 minutes left and that I’d do it. I tried to channel my inner Yuki and just pushed and accelerated through at 500m. I think I split about 1’25/1’21 for the last km, to come to the finish in 23’48 (2’46 last 1km).
So, the workout went super well. The goal was to try to get a bit more experience and boost the confidence a bit by coming through 5k and feeling pretty good in the 14’30s, and that’s just what we did. I took 1K of real recovery where I was running about my goal 50k race pace and then another 1K where I start to accelerate back up towards that faster clip. The last kilometer I just really tried to dig deep, especially in the last 400 or so, and had a great close running 2’46,which is about 4’27 mile pace.
I was pretty tired after this, but was able to walk it off and within a couple minutes was jogging home at a normal pace. This felt like a really perfect workout in terms of both how it felt while I was running and also how I felt after. This is not the kind of workout that I’ll really “feel” for days to come – a 23 minute run feels quite short after all these very long workouts. So, I would say this one was just about perfect.
Finished with a jog to the gym for leg circuit and then 2 miles easy outside. Ice bath after, nap in the afternoon. Total run 12M+.
Splits:
1 km (2’55.2) 2’55.2
2 km (2’54.1) 5’49.3
3 km (2’54.7) 8’44.0
4 km (2’54.5) 11’38.5
5 km (2’53.5) 14’32.0
6 km (3’24.9) 17’56.9
7 km (3’05.3) 21’02.2
8 km (2’46.6) 23’48.8
XT: Legs at the gym. 3 sets of [15x step ups (10lb), 20x overhead lunge (10lb), 24x dynamic lung (10lb), 12x squat (bar)].
4pm: Jogged to Costco and then ran 5km solo on treadmill in sweats in 21’. Total run 4M+.
Here’s a video made from Monday’s workout:
Martes, 10 de Noviembre, 2015 – 10am: Slept late – quite tired for some reason, but felt good. Gross day. Ran sad loops around CCS. Total run 10M- in 67’.
XT: Back/hips
4:30pm: Ran in sweats on treadmill at 1% incline. Total run 6M+ in 43’.
XT: Hips
Miercoles, 11 de Noviembre, 2015 – Sparknotes: Tuneup: 2×500 @1’26, 2×1000 @ 2’53, 2’47, 2×500 @ 1’22, 1’28. 60 sec rest between everything. Windy.
10am: Last tune-up this morning before the .US 12k on Sunday. Very light workout. Warmed up 3M, did drills and a few strides. Legs felt good. Super windy, though. Ran on 1k road loop.
Workout was short, only 4km total volume. Ran 2×500 at goal RP (a bit quick) in 1’26.x, then 2x1000m. First one was controlled in 2’53.9 and felt good. Second one was controlled through 500m and then pushed the second 500m for 2’47.5. Finished with 2x500m – first one similar to the last 1000m, ran 300m controlled in about 51.x and then hard the last 200m in 30.x (with a nice tailwind!). Last one was very under control and a bit tired to run 1’28.
Effort on everything felt a bit odd because it was very windy (sustained 19MPH) and the direction of the wind seemed to cause a bit of a wind-tunnel effect with all the buildings today. Felt like I was running through sand a few times.
Cooled down longer, 3M and then to the gym for legs. 1M barefoot after. Total run 10M+.
Splits
60sec jog for all, very windy
2x500m: 1’26.5, 1’26.8
2x1000m: 2’53.9, 2’47.5
2x500m: 1’22.1 (split 51.x/30.x), 1’28.3
XT: Legs at the gym – no weights today. 3 sets of [15x step ups (10lb), 20x overhead lunge (10lb), 24x dynamic lung (10lb), 12x squat (bar)].
5pm: Easy shakeout on treadmill in sweats. 1M barefoot after. Total run 4M in 30’.
Jueves, 12 de Noviembre, 2015 – 9am: Woke up naturally before my alarm. Ran short loop 2km or so around CC and then met up with Travis. Ran with him out/back towards Alexandria for about an hour. Felt quite good, running quicker with no problem. Jogged home after. Total run 10M+ in 70’.
XT: Back/hips
5pm: Very easy shakeout around CC and fields. Dark pretty soon in so mostly on fields and roads. Beautiful day though – in the 60s and clear skies after a drizzly morning. Stopped at costco to get grapes. Total run 6M, NT.
XT: Core, 12’.
Viernes, 13 de Noviembre, 2015 – 9am: Woke up naturally and early again around 7am. Easy run around CCS. Nice morning. Felt good. Total run 8M in 55’.
XT: Back/hips
4pm: Ran on treadmill in sweats. Felt very good this afternoon. Running much quicker with little effort. Warmed up and then ran 2M of 400 quick ~70 and 400 mod ~85. Finished with another few miles around 5’40s and felt very comfortable. Total run 5M in 28’.
XT: Hips.
Sabado, 14 de Noviembre, 2015 – 9am: Slept well again, ran solo. Finished with drills, a few strides, and 200m in 32.5. Everything feels good and ready to roll tomorrow. Total run 5M.
XT: OFF.
PM: OFF, technical meeting which was pretty cool to be sitting next to Sam Chelanga and in the same room with a bunch of other fast people that I usually just read about on the internet.
Domingo, 15 de Noviembre, 2015 – Sparknotes: .US National 12k. 36’38 (3’03/km, 4’54/mile). 18th place. Official splits: 4’54, 14’54, 24’10, 30’28. Frustrating race. Got gapped after a big surge in 4th kilometer (2’48) and once I let a tiny gap form it was all over and I spent the last 7km in no man’s land feeling sorry for myself. Quite frustrated and disappointed with this one after such a great block of training but will stay positive and look forward.
Full splits:
1 km 3’04.9 (3’04.9)
2 km 6’10.4 (3’05.5)
3 km 9’12.0 (3’01.6)
4 km 12’00.7 (2’48.7)
5 km 14’57.5 (2’56.8)
6 km 18’00.3 (3’02.8)
7 km 21’09.4 (3’09.1)
8 km 24’13.4 (3’04.0)
9 km 27’19.8 (3’06.4)
10 km 30’28.7 (3’08.9)
11 km 33’34.6 (3’05.9)
12 km 36’36.5 (3’01.9)
12.02 km 36’38.2 (0’01.7)
Total run 16M+.
XT: Home race, so did legs at the gym after. 3 sets of [15x step ups (10lb), 20x overhead lunge (10lb), 24x dynamic lung (10lb), 12x squat (bar)].
4pm: Easy shakeout around CC. Felt okay. Total run 4M in 29’.
