Weekly Summary – 125 Miles in 14 runs. A great week of focus on heat adaptation, including a heat-simulated long run on the treadmill at 85F of 20 miles at 5’29/M, 3’24/km (2h50 50km pace). Heading to Doha tonight for the final 2+ weeks of prep!
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Lunes, 17 de Octubre, 2016 – 9am: Ran on treadmill in sweats again with space heater, so around 80F or warmer. Legs a bit tired from yesterday so started off slower and ran the majority about 7’30/M finished closer to 7’00 or a touch under. Legs much better by the end. Total run 10km, 6M+ in 46’.
XT: Back/hips
4pm: Very warm out this afternoon – lucky October heat wave! 83F and sunny – wow. Ran in track pants, 2x long sleeve, jacket, hat, gloves. Was VERY hot. Suffering a lot on the way back. Had to stop at the house and ditch all but one long sleeve (soaked) to head back out for strides and another few km. Ended up feeling much better and did 5x strides and the jogged around the block. Total run 10M++ in 75’.
XT: Hips
Martes, 18 de Octubre, 2016 – 10am: Easy shakeout on Treadmill in sweats with workout this afternoon. Kept pace very relaxed. Felt good. Hot treadmill w space heater again, over 80F. Wore sweats, 2x long sleeve, hoodie, track jacket, hat, gloves. Much sweat. Total run 4M in 31’.
XT: OFF w/ PM workout.
3pm: Sparknotes – HOT (85F) 15km fartlek in 48’06 (3’12/km avg) with 3k (9’23), 2k (6’05), 1k (2’54), 3k (9’23), 2k (6’07) – 1km rec @ 3’26-3’43.
Hot out today – in the mid 80s and sunny! Making the most of this fall heat wave and doing my runs in the afternoon at peak warmth. Warmed up 5km on block loop and then workout on CC 1k loop. Ran the warmup in track suit and then the workout in t-shirt and shorts which felt great (ran in Claytons).
Goal was fartlek of 3, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1 (km) with 1km recovery. Similar pace to previous workouts with “on” workout about 3’00/km or quicker for shorter stuff and off km about 3’25/km. I figured I would need to adjust these to the super heat and looked up Daniels’ conversions which said about 6-7sec/km at this pace, so kep that in mind.
Those adjustments definitely felt pretty close to right, if not a bit too fast. First 3km rep was 9’23 and felt close to 3’00 effort. Next two reps felt pretty good at 6’05 and 2’54, and again felt like they were 5-8s/km faster than they were (and HR data concurred).
Second 3km was a struggle at the same pace with much higher HR and then the next recovery km was much slower (3’43) and HR barely dropped at all. The second 2km was pretty much balls out and I was still slower and slowing down at the end, so I decided to call it after that to keep this workout moderate.
Overall, it was 15km in 48’06 (3’12/km) so if you adjust that for the heat as it felt and Daniels predicted, that would be in the 3’04-07/km range for the total average which is right in line with my other workouts. This is a good sign. Legs were definitely still not 100% give Sunday’s very hot 2h30 and still just 8 days post marathon. I think by Sunday I’ll be feeling very good though and ready to get in one more good effort here before heading to Doha!
Cooled down to gym for legs.
Total run 16M.
Splits
1 km 3’08.7 (3’08.7) 146
2 km 6’15.7 (3’07.0) 166
3 km 9’23.2 (3’07.5) 170 (9’23.2)
4 km 12’48.8 (3’25.6) 167
5 km 15’53.3 (3’04.5) 173
6 km 18’54.2 (3’00.9) 174 (6’05.4)
7 km 22’25.8 (3’31.6) 171
8 km 25’19.7 (2’53.9) 179 (2’53.9)
9 km 28’51.9 (3’32.2) 172
10 km 31’58.3 (3’06.4) 176
11 km 35’07.3 (3’09.0) 177
12 km 38’15.1 (3’07.8) 177 (9’23.2)
13 km 41’58.9 (3’43.8) 173
14 km 45’01.3 (3’02.4) 178
15 km 48’06.3 (3’05.0) 178 (6’07.4)
XT:Legs at the gym. 3 sets of [15x each leg step up, 20x overhead lunge, 24x dynamic lunge, 12x squat (bar)]. 10 pounds on everything. Tired!
Miercoles, 19 de Octubre, 2016 – 10:30am: On treadmill in sweats. Slower today after yesterday’s workout and leg circuit. Very hot today with space heater, over 85F – a bit charred at the end. Total run 10km+ in 47’.
XT: Back/hips.
3pm: Ran earlier again to get some of this heat wave! 86F and sunny – wow! Thought we’d seen the last of these days for the year but very lucky for me. Ran out/back on MVN and got quite hot in tights, 2x long sleeve, hat, gloves. Stopped after 8M in 57’ and took off a few layers to do strides. Did 10x strides on the buchanan block loop which felt good. Finished with 1M easy jog to costco, ethio, etc. Total run 11M.
XT: p90x
Jueves, 20 de Octubre, 2016 – 10am: Very easy run on treadmill in sweats. Starting to feel good on these. Total run 10km, 6M+.
XT: Back/hips
3:30pm: Ran in mid-afternoon heat again, mid 80s F and sunny, track pants, long sleeve, jacket, hat/gloves. Ran out/back MVS, felt much better today. Hopefully some heat adaptation. Finished over at costco soccer field, 6x strides on grass which felt very good. Totally soaking though by the end. Total run 11M+ in 80’.
XT: Hips
Viernes, 21 de Octubre, 2016 – 10am: Hot run on treadmill again. Finally made it through the end of Orange is the New Black. Not sure what I’m going to do with these last few mornings… Felt about the same. Kept pace easy with light workout this PM. Total run 10km in 47’.
XT: OFF.
3:30pm: Sparknotes – 10x short hills + 4000m (track) blowout in 11’40 (2’55/km, 4’40/M avg) from 3’06/km->2’45/km. Very strong.
Easy warmup on 1k loop. Felt very good out the door. Much cooler as big storm had just blown through. About 4M and then picked up shoes and ran to hill near track. Did full drills, strides, and then 10x short hills with rec by feel to HR
800m splits for blowout were: 2’27, 2’23, 2’21, 2’14, 2’15 (11’40 in total).
Very good. Didn’t quite have the top end to close as hard as last time (something like 2’16/2’09), but very good overall.
Jogged easy home and then to gym for light leg circuit. Good light session before the last big one on Sunday.
Total run 11M+.
Splits
Unit HR
800 m 2’27.2 (2’27.2) 149
1600 m 4’49.7 (2’22.5) 168
2400 m 7’10.2 (2’20.5) 172 (4’43.0)
3200 m 9’24.5 (2’14.3) 176
4000 m 11’39.5 (2’15.0) 178 (4’29.3)
XT: Legs at the gym. Only 2 sets of [15x each leg step up, 20x overhead lunge, 24x dynamic lunge, 12x squat (10 lb plate)]. No weight on everything except squats. Trying to keep the legs a bit fresh going into Sunday.
Sabado, 22 de Octubre, 2016 – 10am: Ran later after trying out the ice vest this morning. On the treadmill again, maybe the last day of that! Wahoo! Felt quite good this morning running quicker, so maybe the pre-cool (even shorter) did help. Total run 10km in 45’.
XT: Back/hips (weighted 1x only)
4pm: Ran slightly later after a nap, work, and relaxation. SUPER windy outside today, like 25-30mph steady. Ran over to the loop and did 8km there. Felt very good running super conservative and surprised to see 4’2x each lap. Ran the last 1.5 laps a tiny bit more focused for 4’0x/3’5x. Finished with 3x strides, ethio. Total run 10km++ 7M- in 46’.
XT: Hips, light.
Domingo, 23 de Octubre, 2016 – 9:30am: Very short easy shakeout on treadmill in sweats with dress rehearsal long run this afternoon. 2km from shuffle to quicker ~3’55/km. Total run 2km, 1M++ in 9’.
XT: OFF
3pm: SPARKNOTES – 32km (20M-) in 1’49’09 (5’29/M, 3’24.6/km) NOTE – On treadmill with space heater, ambient air temp at ~85F (!!). Very controlled through 20km and then accelerated gradually next 10km in 33’29, 1km surge at 3’11, last km very easy 3’24. Very strong.
This was basically the dress rehearsal for Doha and the last workout I’d do here at home before jetsetting east. We wanted to try to do everything as close to race-conditions as possible. So, fueling, cooling, temperature, timing were all considered and mimicked.
We did this mostly by running on the treadmill and using a space heater and thermometer to warm the treadmill’s area to around 85F. While it’s not quite as humid as it will likely be in Doha, this is about as close as we’re going to get in DC in late October. I also had Mariana on hand who would help with fluids, ice, etc. every 2.5km as will be in the race.
Mostly, we wanted to see what kind of impact running in such warm temperatures would have on pace, HR, and how I felt while running. The research we had done (mostly looking at various tables from other coaches and physiologists such as Jack Daniels) indicated that at temperatures of 80-85F, we should expect a slow-down of 6-8 sec per km at the pace I thought I could run for a 50km in ideal conditions. So, we thought it made sense to start at the conservative end of that range and spend most of the run right in the middle of the range, and then IF I felt okay, try to gradually accelerate at the end and see how that felt.
This was also my first workout using pre-cooling via a cooling vest. I put this on 90 minutes before the run and was shivering and quite cold within a half hour; my body temp dropped to 94-95F.
I started my warm-up about 35 minutes before the “gun” and did 2km from very slow to moderate, which felt fine (ran with the cooling vest on so a bit awkward).
I did drills (with the vest) and then finally a couple of light strides and 200m at about race pace a few minutes before starting (without the vest).
I started right around 3’30/km and worked down relatively quickly to 3’26/km (where we wanted to run the majority). This felt very, very comfortable. The heat was intense but I didn’t feel too bad actually. Perhaps my expectations of feeling so awful were negated by feeling not so bad; or, perhaps the pre-cooling and in-run cooling (cold drinks, iced bottles, iced head band, etc.) really made a huge difference compared to all the sweat runs.
All I know is that the first 15km or so mostly just felt kind of boring. I didn’t feel particularly tired and was mildly apprehensive that at some point I was going to hit some critical heat wall, so I was very cautious to increase the intensity at all.
Finally, at 20km, I did start to bring the pace down as I was still feeling quite good. I felt strong running down to about 3’20/km and held it right around there until 30km point, where I surged 1km significantly faster (3’11) mostly just because I had plenty of energy left and I was curious to see how it would feel and what would happen after. I ran the last km like a recovery km (3’25) and it felt very good and HR dropped quite a bit.
This one was never in the super red zone or in doubt at all. The only doubt I had was early in terms of the “oh am I going to crash at some point, or cross some critical threshold”. The last 10-12km felt more focused but never, ever like “I’m not going to make it to the end of this run” kind of effort.
Other things worth noting – I drank a LOT on this run. 5 full squeeze bottles (8 oz) of nuun in the first 25km alone (so, 40 oz in less than 90 minutes) – plus a few sips of ice water from the 2.5km bottle. Should I really plan to drink 80 oz over the course of the 50k? That seems like an awful lot. Gels at T-15min, 10k, 20k. No stomach issues, even with that much water. Based on how I looked after the run, I still think I net lost fluids.
Also note – I didn’t do any head-dumping of ice water as I didn’t want to screw up the machine. Instead, I had a bottle of mostly frozen water which I just held, squirted a tiny bit into my mouth, and rubbed (the bottle) onto warm parts of my skin (neck, arms, etc.) I found that carrying it like a football was nice as it got my hands, a lot of my arm and into my armpit. Still, I think having really ice water to squirt onto my head/torso/legs will be a lot better come race day.
I think that’s about it. Splits below. Very, very good run and way better than I expected. HR much lower than I expected as well, but not crazy out of line given the perceived effort of the first 15-20k. Maybe that really is just the gift of the pre-cooled torso. Whatever, I’m not arguing.
Easy cool down, 2km on treadmill. Legs didn’t feel too bad. Ethio. Lots of hydration after.
Total run ~38km (24M). Call it a 25M day.
Splits
1 km 3’29.4 (3’29.4) 138
5 km 17’18.7 (13’49.3) 152
10 km 34’38.4 (17’19.7) 153 (gel)
15 km 51’51.2 (17’12.8) 154
20 km 1’09’04.2 (17’13.0) 153 (gel)
25 km 1’25’49.1 (16’44.9) 158
30 km 1’42’32.2 (16’43.1) 162
31 km 1’45’43.7 (3’11.5) 168
32 km 1’49’09.2 (3’25.5) 168
Timing notes
7pm Dinner
10pm Bed
8am wakeup, coffee
9:30am: shakeout 2km, ethio
12:30-1pm rest, light nap
1:30pm: Cooling vest on, coffee
2:25pm: Warmup, 2km, drills (in cooling vest)
2:50pm: 2 strides, 200m in ~40.x
3pm: Start
