Weekly Summary – 96 miles in 13 runs. I’ve made it to Doha! Travel this week, one ls 3-hour long-run (in the Doha heat), and a great little speed workout on Sunday. Mostly, this week was about traveling to Doha and getting used to running on the race course, running in the hot, humid evenings, and beginning to taper. Feeling great – less than 2 weeks to go!
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Lunes, 24 de Octubre, 2016 – 9am: Slept very poorly last night – too much caffeine and excitement late in the day with the big workout. A bit sore this morning. Ran with Mariana to start very slow 26’ first 5km and 51’ at 10km (that was my doing, by the way, not hers!). Ran solo after that a bit quicker on the 1km loop and then over to HT to get some last groceries to take to DOHA!! Total run 10.5M in 81’.
XT: Back, no weights.
3pm: Nice afternoon finishing up packing and getting ready to go. A quick last jog around town with Mariana to get some last stuff for the trip. Very nice day! 70F and sunny – much nicer than my last run last year before this trip which was in the 30s and raining, I remember. Total run 2.5M.
Martes, 25 de Octubre, 2016 – AM: OFF – travel IAD to DOH. Very smooth sailing (so far). Easy trip to Dulles and super smooth check in as I’m traveling business class – wahoo! Hung around in the lounge and got some great free dinner and then boarded and tried to get to sleep as soon as I could. Seats were lie-flat so quite comfortable. Slept from probably 4-5am to 11am Doha time, so not too bad. Got up and had some (delicious) coffee and then walked around the cabin for a while to move a bit. We’ve now got about 3.5 hours left and should be there on time.
6:30pm: Made it safe and sound to Jamie’s place in Doha. Super smooth sailing. Flght was extremely pleasant and going through immigration/customs was a breeze. My bags were out as soon as I got to baggage claim and then I hopped in an Uber and was at Jamie’s in 30 minutes. Hung around here a bit until Jamie got home and then headed out for a shakeout.
Planned to do only 25-30 minutes, but felt good to be out and legs warmed up. There’s a loop around the complex of just under 800m, so I did about 5km of that and then ran out onto the main street to explore a bit. Not super pleasant as it’s a very busy road and inhaling lots of pollution is gross, plus stop lights etc. Legs felt much better by the end, though. Came back and finished with 8x strides which felt very good (on pavement, only option here so far) and then ethio.
Heat didn’t feel too bad at all. Humidity is definitely the big difference even between my space-heater-sweat-suit running and this. It actually feels cooler once I’m running but the initial change walking out the door is rough. Also cools down fairly quickly once the sun goes down around 5:30pm. (Wunderground says it was 84-85 when I did my run this evening, so that is great news that it didn’t feel too bad for a first run). Though, obviously, easy run pace is a different story than 50k race pace.
That’s all. Going to try to sleep now and stay on this schedule of running in the evening.
Total run 8M- in 61’.
XT: Back/hips (1x weight)
Miercoles, 25 de Octubre, 2016 – 1:30pm: Slept really well for like 11 hours last night. Needed that! Ran much later as I’m trying to stay on a later schedule (though not quite this late) and had to get an uber over to aspire. Ran on the course. Super hot – in the 90s, feels like 107F. Wore long sleeve and track pants and felt pretty good heat-wise. The course is going to be brutal. It looks like about 1.8-2km of the 2.5km loop course is made up of the super brutal brick from last year which was only about 800m of the 5km loop. This will make it significantly harder on the body. Not sure if I should train exclusively on this for the next two weeks to try to adapt or to avoid it entirely until race day. Probably something in the middle.
Anyway, otherwise the course isn’t too bad. I’ve done loads of little loop runs in my day – Quito, Skidmore, CC, Somerville, etc. – so I kind of like that part. The lack of 180 turns is great (compared to last year), but the bricks will be really tough.
Legs felt pretty good today. Ran first lap long by accident and then 10’24, 10’28. Finished up with a loop up to the park for ethio/stretching. Total run 10km in 43’.
XT: Hips
7pm: Ran later than planned (shooting for 5:30-6pm eventually) as I spent way too long after my run at the grocery store and then trying to get home, then nape time, etc… At aspire again, ran 4 laps of the course (11’37, 10’58, 10’40, 10’09) and then around the park on their super nice perfect surface path for a while (no, we don’t need to talk about why the course isn’t in there). Finished with 5x strides on the dirt which felt nice (though a bit hairy as it was pretty dark and a couple places where the footing was uneven).
Total run 14km+, 9M-.
XT: Back/hips
Jueves, 27 de Octubre, 2016 – 12pm: Woke up a bit before 11am. This is just where I want to be. Very easy short shakeout this morning with long single this PM. Jogged out of the complex down to the track just to see if I could get on it. From a nice shuffle to about 4’00/km. Track pants, long sleeve. Temp 94 feels like 107F. Finished with ethio and a soak in the pool. Total run 2km, 1M+.
XT: OFF
6pm: Moderate long-run day. Goal was 3h00 on feet with 90’ of running on soft/normal surface, 30 minutes on the 50K race course (hard brick) 30 minutes back on soft surface, 30 minute again on brick. Ran from the apartment to aspire (about 4km off the main road and about 6km until I got on the grass. Felt very good and comfortable running in the 4’10s for this. Made a big loop around the entire perimeter of the park and was able to stay basically entirely on grass. Such a beautiful place to run! The grass is the perfect amount of soft without being squishy, even enough that you can run in the dark on it and not have to worry about tripping or rolling an ankle but not so flat that you don’t use your ankles (like turf). It’s really awesome. Too bad it’s super artificial and probably extremely expensive to maintain and awful for the environment given how much water it must take.
Anyway, so 90 minutes in the park. Then did 3 laps on the course which took just under 30’. I ran quicker on these, ~ 9’40-50 per lap, so 3’5x per km, which felt pretty good. After this, I was at 2h00 and back on the grass and started to feel VERY thirsty. I actually never felt too hot, but the water situation was a big deal. I had carried 2x 500mL bottles and stashed one and then I figured I would refill the other one once to give me 500mL per hour for 3 hours. This was nowhere near enough. I think I drank that much in the second half alone. Also a bummer was that the sinks in the bathrooms only had warm water (makes sense, I guess) and so all my refills were like bathwater temperature. Yum.
So, had to stop a few more times then I’d planned in the last hour due to a few GI issues and getting more H2O. Not ideal as I like to do these runs without stopping, but what can you do.
Finished for 43km in 3’00’12 (3’11/km, 6’44/M).
Also interesting to look at HR data as there was definitely a big climb in the HR when I ran those first 3 quicker laps around 90’ to 2h and then it did NOT come down after that, even though I actively backed off the pace.
Also worth noting that I was in long sleeves and track pants for this and the temperature was quite hot, even for here – from 86-89F and quite humid; I don’t think it’s normally quite this warm at this time of day. I was totally soaked, as if I’d jumped into a pool, by about 45 minutes in.
So, still figuring out how exactly to gauge effort/pace in these conditions. I think it is similar to altitude in that there is a much smaller margin of error – i.e. if you go over the red line it is MUCH harder to recover from. This probably makes sense as your heart has to do a lot more work just to try to keep the body cool in addition to keeping you moving.
Lastly, also should note that I didn’t take in any CHO on this run. I took nuun in my water bottles but no gels, etc., so that could also explain increase in HR/perceived effort after 2h00.
Overall, though, this was quite good and was faster than my last 3h00 moderate run, which was run in like 70F weather back in DC.
Had to walk through the fancy mall after this to get a cab (and get a giant milk shake from BR because I felt like I was about to keel over and needed some calories) which was kind of funny because it’s all like Gucci and D&G stores and I look like I just washed ashore from a 30 day shipwreck.
Total run 26.7M, 43km.
XT: OFF.
Viernes, 28 de Octubre, 2016 – 12:30pm: Slept well last night and woke up feeling better than I expected after being pretty wrecked last night. Ran very easy shakout from the apt down to the track at the athletics club and around the infield on grass. Legs felt much better than I expected. Started out shuffling but was running 4’15-25 by the middle and ran one lap on the track at like 88 without any effort at all. Jogged back, ethio, etc.
Total run 3M++, 5km.
XT: P90x.
6pm: Easy run at aspire, mostly on the course. 4x laps 11’19, 10’52, 10’45, 10’03, then 1km to the fields and on the grass. Finished with 6x strides on the soccer fields and got yelled at by security so need to find a new spot for those. Temps around 86F, feels like 94F. Ran in trackies, long sleeve, track jacket. Very wet by the end but felt good. Ethio, etc. Total run 13.5km, 9M- in 60’.
XT: back/hips
Sabado, 29 de Octubre, 2016 – 12:30pm: Easy shakeout on track infield down the street. Great shakeout again, starting out nice shuffle and down to 4’10-20 by mid-way, one lap of the track after, relaxed, just under 90s. Jogged back, ethio, etc. A quick dip in the pool after. Wore full track suit today as it was a bit cooler (only 87F!). Total run 5km+, 3M+, in 21’.
XT: OFF.
6pm: At aspire park, 89-87F. Ran in trackies, long sleeve, track jacket. Easy lap around the park and then stopped on the back of the grass hill, stashed my bottles and jacket and did full drills before hills. Did 8x short hills which felt very good.
Quick aside – on the first one, I was running up a very steep part of the grassy hill and it was quite dark on this side of the park. I took off and got about 5 steps in before I realized I didn’t have great line of sight/depth perception and could feel it happening as I ended up not lifting my feet quite high enough and caught my toes in the (nearly perfectly smooth) grass and promptly face-planted. Nice. I just started laughing, especially because a bunch of women were walking by below just as I was starting so they just saw me take like 5 big strides trying to accelerate and eating shit. Way to go.
Other than that, the hills felt great and I then jogged over to the race course. I stopped and did 200m on the marked track around the big field complex just to get a sense of pace (which I ran in 33.x, so way too fast) and then hopped onto the course at the 2km mark and ran to the finish and then another lap (so, 3km total, finishing at the finish line). Started off fairly comfortable at 3’10 and then tried to bring the pace down a bit each km, running the next in 3’06 and then finishing in 2’55 (1’31/1’25) for 9’10.8 for 3km (3’03.5/km avg). Obviously much slower than I’ve done these in the past, but it was like 89F, humid, plus I was wearing a full track suit, in trainers, and carrying a baggie with my phone and cash and passport in it – haha. For what it’s worth, Daniels heat tables say that 9’09 at 89F is about 8’45 at ideal temperatures (2’55 avg) which lines up pretty well with recent workouts at home (the last one I did was 11’40 for 4km or exactly 2’55/km avg – interesting).
Worth noting that the bricks didn’t feel too bad, but it’s hard to make too many judgements with only 9 minutes of running. Hopefully the body is getting a bit used to them as well. Heat really didn’t feel too bad and I feel like I was overheating less today than I was on my first run in the park, even at a much quicker pace today.
Finished with easy jog over to the main park, ethio, then leg circuit.
Total run 12km, 7.5M.
Prog splits:
0.5 km 1’36.1 (1’36.1) 165
1 km 3’09.7 (1’33.6) 175 (3’09.7)
1.5 km 4’42.9 (1’33.2) 178
2 km 6’15.6 (1’32.7) 178 (3’05.9)
2.5 km 7’46.3 (1’30.7) 179
3 km 9’10.8 (1’24.5) 180 (2’55.2)
XT: Leg circuit (at the park). No weight for anything but did 2 full sets and one ⅔ set of [step ups (15x each side), overhead lunge (20x), dynamic lunge (24x), squat (12x)].
Domingo, 30 de Octubre, 2016 – 12pm: Easy shakeout to the grass and back. Same as the last couple days. 91F and beautifully sunny. Started out with a nice shuffle and down to 4’10s as usual by the end. Ethio, XT, and a nice soak in the pool after. Total run 3M++, 5km+ in 22’.
XT: Back/hips (1x weight, 1x unweighted).
6pm: Easy run on the race course with the last “red” effort tomorrow. Felt very good and really holding back today. First day that everything felt good – legs, breathing, temperature. Actually felt cold a few times and running in full track suit at 86-89F. 4 laps in 11’35, 10’29, 10’17, 10’15 and then jogged over to the track at aspetar. Did 3x strides and then 200m VERY relaxed (shooting for race pace) and ran 38. Ethio, XT, and then walked to carrefour. Total run 7M++ in 48’.
XT: Hips.
