Weekly Summary – 80 miles in 12 runs. A fantastic start to the taper here in Doha. Finally feeling super well-acclimated to the heat and humidity and could run the course with my eyes closed. Now, I just need to get to the start line in one piece. I’ve done all I can do. I am as prepared as I could be. Rest up.
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Lunes, 31 de Octubre, 2016 – Sparknotes: 25km (15.5 miles) on race course in 1’26’57 (3’28.7/km, 5’36/M) with 5 lap (12.5km) at race effort, 1 lap easy (2.5km), 4 laps (10km) at race effort/faster. Temp: 86-84F, Dew point 74F, humidity 81%. 22.5km of work in 1’17’38 (3’27/km).
12:30pm: Very short shakeout with last longer effort (before race day) this afternoon. Shuffle to quicker ~3’40s by the end. Ethio, quick dip in the pool after. Total run 2km in 8’38.
XT: OFF
5:30pm: I’ll just copy below from my email to Jon since that expresses most of what I thought.
The workout went well but was significantly more challenging than I expected, probably my own fault for not listening to my body/being patient in the first half. In terms of gathering data, it was extremely helpful as got a firm reminder of how easy the early stages of the race need to feel (and how low HR needs to be) in order to avoid problems later on.
The data below tell most of the story. Sorry if it’s a mess – you have overall time, lap time (for 2.5km) pace (in min/km) for each lap, HR avg for that lap, and then 5K splits. The temp was 84-86F with a dew point of 74F and humidity of 81% according to wunderground.
What I found is that the pace from heat tables did NOT translate to today’s effort. Not even close. While I did manage to run a few laps in the 3’24-26 range (3’26 was the “predicted” pace based on temperature alone), you can see that even after only 43′ of running, my HR was in the upper 70s. Even my marathon pace does not usually get this high at all (my avg at Albany was around 167).
You can see that though the pace stays quite consistent from 5km to 12.5km, the HR climbs linearly from 166 to 177. This is NOT sustainable at all. Moreover, the recovery KM, which felt quite comfortable, didn’t bring the HR down significantly (avg was 171, though it got down as low as 161 by the end of the lap).
After that, the pace was similar, if a bit slower, than the first lap but the HR was way too high (175+) for the entire last 10km. The effort was very hard and there is 0% change I could have run this pace for anywhere close to another 25km. The last lap was very hard to just not slow down anymore and it was the same as the first lap which didn’t feel too bad.
So, what are the big takeaways?
1. I do think that HR is a very good indicator of effort. Maybe even more than HR value is the HR derivative, if you will, i.e. rate of change – is it 165 and climbing linearly or 165 and steady? I think a better plan for race day is to use HR as a guide instead of pace. Pace via heat charts seems to correlate well at shorter distances or on the treadmill workout (maybe because it’s significantly less humid there?) but it was not a good indicator here. 3’26/km was clearly too fast give the course and conditions today. That said, I think if I had listened to my effort or HR and tried to run such that the HR stayed in the low 160s to start instead of climbing early, I think the second half would have looked very different. I’m sure it would have been slower, but pace is irrelevant here if you’re going to blow up due to cardiac drift.
2. Cooling and hydration – I drank 5 full 8oz bottles of nuun (40 oz) over the course of this run. I did have a bit of sloshy tummy to start, but by the end it was no problem. Cooling was an issue though. I ran in shorts and a t-shirt but had no cooling help during the run. I think (and hope) this will make a big difference on race day. I think my updated hydration/cooling plan will be to fill all of my race bottles with like 33F nuun (i.e. 20x bottles) and plan to douse myself with half of each bottle and drink half of each bottle. This will force me to drink a bit slower (but the same total amount) which will hopefully help with the sloshy tummy and I will get some cooling relief each lap. (And, whatever, I don’t care about pouring nuun on my head – it’s not a beauty pageant).
I did use the pre-cool vest, but I had to take it off before I left the house (didn’t want to risk losing it at the park). Then, I got stuck in traffic, had to stash my stuff, warm up, etc. So, not sure it did that much today. I will wear it basically as close to the gun as I can on race day. I also believe this will make a big difference (and, hey, believing that it works is half the battle, right?).
3. Bricks – my right foot (which is slightly larger) was a bit sore on the outside forefoot (where my foot strikes), but this is to be expected as it just fits a bit more snug in the shoe. It didn’t feel as bad as I expected and – like you said last night – I will at least be more prepared than anyone else in the race.
Honestly, if the temperature AND humidity are close to what they were tonight, I would be amazed if anyone ran under 2h55. I think you have to be in at least 2h15/2h45 shape (in good conditions) to win this race, so it’s kind of crazy to think it would be 10’+ slow, but based on tonight, that is my guess. Looking at the weather data from last year, it looks like it was actually only about 76-77F during the race and Tony ran 2h52. Does another 8-10F make that big of a difference? I think it might. It wouldn’t surprise me if the winning time was close to 3h00 if the conditions are similar to tonight.
Time for some recovery and tapering!
Temp: 86-84F, Dew point 74F, humidity 81%
Timing
1:15am bed
11am wake up, coffee
12:30pm: shakeout, 2km, ethio, quick dip in the pool
1pm: Drank ~1L nuun
1:30pm nature valley bar, pretzels
3pm-4pm quiet time, light nap
4:15pm: Cooling vest on
5:05pm: Leave for aspire
5:32pm: Start warmup
6:13pm: Start run
Splits
2.5 km 8’38.9 (8’38.9) (3’27.6) 163
5 km 17’25.7 (8’46.8) (3’30.7) 166 (17’25.7)
7.5 km 25’58.9 (8’33.2) (3’25.3) 170
10 km 34’29.3 (8’30.4) (3’24.2) 174 (17’03.6)
12.5 km 42’59.6 (8’30.3) (3’24.1) 177
15 km 52’18.4 (9’18.8) (3’43.5) 171 (17’49.1)
17.5 km 1’00’57.8 (8’39.4) (3’27.8) 177
20 km 1’09’33.7 (8’35.9) (3’26.4) 178 (17’15.3)
22.5 km 1’18’18.8 (8’45.1) (3’30.0) 175
25 km 1’26’57.4 (8’38.6) (3’27.4) 178 (17’23.7)
Martes, 1 de Noviembre, 2016 – 1:50pm: Ran later after sleeping late and then driving to the park (only one run today, first day of recovery block). Ran almost entirely on grass to give the legs a break, which felt nice. Quite warm at this hour – 87F feels like 97F. Ran in track pants, long sleeves, jacket. Started quite slow and a bit stiff but felt better by the end. Ran 6x strides quite relaxed on grass at the end just to open up the legs. Ethio, XT, and then headed home. Total run 13km+, 8M++ in 59’.
XT: Hips.
PM: OFF – recovery block. Taper time!
Miercoles, 2 de Noviembre, 2016 – AM: OFF, XT only. Slept late and well. Productive morning.
XT: p90x.
6pm: Ran at aspire on the course. Temp 88-86F (feels like 94F), dewpoint 74F, 80% humidity. Ran in track pants, long sleeve, jacket. 5 laps on the course 10’53, ‘26, ‘16, ‘18, ‘04. Felt good. Very controlled effort. Finished with 500m easy to fields for 13km in 54’ and then did 6x strides, including 200m controlled/comfy in 40.0. Very nice run. Felt quite good most of the way. Legs feeling good. Running quicker at the start which is always a good sign. Total run 9M+ in 61’.
XT: Back/hips (no weight, at park).
Jueves, 3 de Noviembre, 2016 – 12pm: Ran to the track and on the grass infield. Very hot this morning (89F feels like 97F, sunny), wore track pants, long sleeve, jacket. Felt hotter than usual by the end, probably because it was longer than the usual 5km. Finished with eithio, soak in the pool. Total run 8km+, 5M+ in 35’.
XT: Back hips (1x weighted)
6pm: Ran from the complex to aspire as uber was crazy surging and I didn’t mind running the route today. Kept it purposefully very easy all the way there, felt very good, legs nice and bouncy. Almost exactly 5km to the start of the course (23’) and then stopped and did drills and a couple strides before doing 5x500m (1’ jog rest) on the race course (sock-style, so stopping and starting in the same place to run one full lap).
Weather was 87-86F, humid. Only wore track pants and long sleeve (no jacket) and shorts for the 500s, so felt remarkably good given just that change.
Felt extremely good. Got significantly faster with each one, running the first one about 50K race pace (1’42) and then 1’38.1, 1’32.7, 1’27.6, 1’18.8. All of these felt great, no strain. Last one was very good and really had a lot of turnover (also a nice little downhill from about 250-300m).
Jogged up to the field after for ethio, xt, etc.
Total run 5M++
XT: Hips (⅔)
Viernes, 4 de Noviembre, 2016 – Sparknotes: 82-80F. 65% humidity. 10km on the course in 32’52 with 5km at race effort (17’09), 5km quick (15’44). Perfect!
12pm: Short pre-workout shakeout today with last “orange” run tonight! Felt very good, running quite quick by the end from shuffle down to 3’30s. Finished with ethio, dip in pool. Total run 2km, 1M+ in 8’30.
XT: OFF
6pm: Last real workout today before the big dance in 1 week! I was very lucky to have Susan and one of her students, Muneeb, (who is going to be an aid station volunteer on race day) come along and help out with logistics. This made things way easier as I had less to worry about in terms of keeping an eye on my stuff, getting my bottles, etc. It also let me practice pre-cooling one last time because I was able to leave my cooling vest with these guys and not worry about it.
Started warming up at 5:40pm, jogged for ~2km in 9’ on the grass and then back over to the aid station area where Susan was waiting. Changed into racing shoes and then did drills and one kind of race pace segment to practice the bottle handoff once with Muneeb.
After that, walked down to the start with Susan so she could time me and I could start/finish at the right place.
I did this workout almost totally “pace blind”. After the last workout I did here where I felt I was too locked into certain paces and not paying enough attention to effort, I wanted today to JUST be about effort and HR, as those are two things I know very clearly how to monitor at this point. I know what the effort should feel like and I know that my HR needs to stay in the 155-165 range. Any higher than that and I know I risk crossing over that red line too early and – as I’ve seen – once you cross that line in these conditions, there is no going back.
So, I started off and checked the watch fairly often and was consistently in the 160-165 zone. This felt good and, after the first few minutes, I was actively forcing my legs to hold back, as it almost felt “too easy”. I picked up my first bottle around the 2km mark and drank some and doused myself. I ended up just carrying these bottles for the whole time (i.e. until I picked up the next one). The laps are so short and I wasn’t super thirsty, so I didn’t finish them off until it was just about time to get the next one. The cold nuun felt great both to drink and on my head/neck/chest/legs. By the end, the bottles had warmed up and so this was not as good, but on race day, we’ll be able to keep these on-ice until right before the hand-off, so they should each be cold enough for 8’ of comfort.
Anyway, I was quite surprised to see the first laps split of 8’36. I expected this to be more like 8’45 based on last week’s run. This was a good surprise!
I kept the HR exactly the same and kept cooling/drinking through the next lap. No problem. I came through a tiny bit fast (8’33). Very good.
I accelerated a tiny bit coming down the last 300m into the finish line of that second lap and then actively made a pretty big gear change going into lap 3. This felt very good, but not terminal at all. I could still only see HR and saw it was in the 170s, which I know is decently hard but still probably pace I could maintain for an hour or so. That lap was 7’57 (3’11/km pace), very good pace on this loop in these conditions.
I didn’t try to increase the pace anymore than that and actually dialed it back a tiny bit so I could really try to accelerate into the last 1500-1000m. I split my watch with 1km to go and then went quite hard all the way to the end to run 2’56 for the last km, 7’46 for the last lap, 15’44 for the last 5k.
The total was 32’53 for 10km (3’17/km avg).
This was a fantastic run and EXACTLY what I wanted physically and mentally. I am now fully convinced that HR is the key metric to pay attention to on race day. I think that listening to my body and setting a HARD limit of what I will accept for a max HR for the early stages in the race is extremely important. If the race goes out slow, fine. If there’s a hard move early or a pace that doesn’t seem sustainable, I now feel comfortable that I know how to decide whether to follow that.
I am the most prepared athlete in the world right now for this particular race on this particular course. I know I’m also fit – I just ran 2h15 less than a month ago with no taper. Sure, someone could show up who’s a last faster than me right now, like a 2h10 Kenyan or something, but there’s nothing I can do about that. And who knows how that guy will do it 80F humidity for 50km on bricks?
That’s all for now.
Cooled down short on the grass, got home and ran another 2M to subway and back. Qatar Subway is noticeably not as good as American Subway. Just saying.
Total run 11M+.
Splits
Time Split Pace HR 5K
2.5 km 8’36.0 (8’36.0) (3’26.4) 159
5 km 17’08.8 (8’32.8) (3’25.1) 164 (17’08.8)
7.5 km 25’05.9 (7’57.1) (3’10.8) 174
9 km 29’56.5 (4’50.6) (3’13.7) 178
10 km 32’52.9 (2’56.4) (2’56.4) 179 (15’44.1)
Sabado, 5 de Noviembre, 2016 – 12pm: Easy shakeout to the track and then on the grass on the field complex next door as there was some kind of track meet going on. Legs felt totally normal – didn’t feel last night at all. Very good. Warm and sunny as always, around 89F. Total run 5km+ in 22’.
XT: P90x. Crushed it – with shoes on and hands up! Probably the last time of the block!
6pm: Went to aspire with Susan and Claudia. Ran very easy with Claudia on the course to show her around. Felt very good. Weather felt quite cool, though it was 32C (88F) in the car on the way there and still 27C when we headed home (81F). Much less humid than it was last week, plus I’m more well adjusted. I legitimately felt a bit chilly.
We did I think 4 laps on the course very easy and then a litle loop through the park to get us back to the fields around 12.5km in 55’. Stopped and did 6x strides and 200m in 40.7 which felt super easy. Strides felt fantastic. Legs are feeling really good withe the taper.
Also, worth noting, I started CHO depletion today but didn’t feel bad yet. A bit hungry before my run but the run itself felt fine (probably a good thing it was extra slow). Next two days will be rougher.
Total run 13.4km (8.5M) in 61’.
XT: Back/hips (no weight)
Domingo, 6 de Noviembre, 2016 – 12pm: Easy shakeout to the track and on infield. Same old, same old, sunny, hot, track suit, ethio, XT, pool soak. A bit fatigued this morning with 24 hours of depletion, but pace similar to the usual (shuffle down to 4’10s, last lap around 3’50ish). Total run 5km, 3M+ in 21’.
XT: Back/hips (no weight)
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6pm: Drove to aspire with Susan and Claudia again. Felt pretty depleted, to be expected. Ran 5km with Claudia very slow for her warmup which was nice and distracting, then 5km solo, all on the course, only down to about 11’0x per lap. Jogged over to the fields, no strides today as just felt pretty spent. Total run 7M- in 51’.
XT: Hips
