Weekly Summary – 73 miles in 11 runs. Ready or not: it’s taper time. Good recovery this week as I try to get my legs to freshen up. Two workouts including a 25’ solo 8K at Fresh Pond. Less than 1 week to CIM and it’s just about game time!

One more thing – for all my local Greater-Boston readers – if you’re an athlete looking for an exceptional sports-massage therapist who specializes in runners and injury prevention and recovery, go visit Sam Peck at SoarBody Theraputics in Davis Square (Somerville). He’s been crucial to helping me recover from my injury and I wouldn’t have been on the start line this week without him!

Don’t forget, you can follow me day to day on Instagram and Twitter (@TylerCAndrews) and my daily training log on Strava. Oh and hey if you’re reading this and don’t know about STRIVE, you should probably check ’em out. I lead groups through the mountains of Peru on a  journey of running, service learning, and adventure. If you’re interested, join us next year for the summer of 2019, when we’ll once again have programs for High School and College students, and even 10-day trips for adults and families.

 

Lunes, 19 de Noviembre, 2018 – 09:00: Easy in the gym. 30’ on elliptical and then on treadmill quite slow from 8’30->7’00/M. Pretty sore and tired, slept very poorly last night. Total run 6km+ in 30’, total work 60’.

XT: Heel drops (3×10), glutes (10x, 10x weight), toes

15:30: Easy run outside on sci museum loop. Legs felt a lot better than the day before. About 22’30 at 5K. Stopped to do strides but achilles felt a bit tender on drills, so just jogged home. Didn’t want to get greedy. 40’ of running and then on the elliptical for 20’ more, good effort. Total run 9km in 40’, total work 60’.

XT: Band work (3×10), heel drops (3×10)

Martes, 20 de Noviembre, 2018 – 08:45: Easy in the gym. Miserable outside, 37F and rain. Did 15’ on elliptical and then 45’ on treadmill. A bit sore to start, slow around 8’00/M and increased down to 7’30ish for most and then last 10’ down to 6’15/M or so. Didn’t look at the total distance, but probably 10k. Total run 10k in 45’, total work 60’.

XT: Heel drops (3×10), pedestal (8’, 10x weights)

XT2: Good massage w/ Sam Peck at SoarBody. Left hamstring is a bit tight so good to work that out and flush out the right calve/achilles.

17:00: Late run back from Davis to home. Ran w/ a backpack. Snowing and crowded streets. Ran very slow. Got back about 6km in 30’ and then ran 30’ on treadmill. Felt good to take the backpack off! From 8’00->6’00/M. Total run 13km in 60’.

XT: Heel drops (3×10), toes

Miercoles, 21 de Noviembre, 2018 – Sparknotes: 6.1km track fartlek in 20’42 (3’23 avg) w/ 8x 500m @ 1’32-35, 300m @ 1’09-13 + 5x200m @ 32-34.

09:15: Warmed up over to Harvard track. Cold and windy so wanted to keep the option open of working out indoors if it felt too brutal out. Felt okay, so decided to stick w/ outdoors since I’m going to race outside on Saturday (and next Sunday, of course).

Ran there and then on the track to about 4km and then changed into shoes (carbon rocket) and then did drills, strides. Wearing a lot – tights, long sleeves, jacket, gloves, hat. Below 30F and windy.

Goal for the workout was to do 10x [500m on, 300m off] for 8km total. This should have been a pretty easy workout on paper, w/ the 500s starting at goal MP ~1’35 and working down to 1’30 or so and the 300m rec moderate.

Started out well enough, running 1’34, 1’33, 1’32, 1’32, but then couldn’t shift gears to anything faster than that. Ran the next ones in 1’33, 1’32, 1’34, 1’33 and decided to stop there at 8x. Took full recovery and then ran 5x 200m to try to work on quicker mechanics. Ran 33, 34, 33, 33, 32 and these felt really fast, close to top end.

So, as I’ve felt w/ strides, the engine is there but the mechanics aren’t quite back yet. I’m going to try to really focus on range of motion and strides and form for the next 10 days (and beyond that) as I feel like once I get my legs under me, I’ve got a huge aerobic system to work with.

Good news is that the achilles held up well.

Jogged back slow and easy. Total run 15.5km.

XT: Heel drops (3×10), toes

PM: Planned off.

Jueves, 22 de Noviembre, 2018 – AM: Planned off, recovery block and busy day w/ Thanksgiving (x2). Got in an hour on the walking desk in the AM before leaving which was nice way to start the day.

16:20: Snuck in a run between family Thanksgivings. Had Mariana drop me off in Newton Center and basically ran the Boston Marathon course from just before the 2nd Newton Hill to BU and then over to the track there for strides (6x, felt much better), but no drills as it was VERY cold and I was pressed for time and then ran back to Mariana’s folks’ house. Really cold in the teens and very windy. Hands were extremely cold but everything else was okay w/ a lot of layers. Legs felt pretty good. Total run 11km in 46’.

XT: None, just ethio post run as busy w/ family obligations.

Viernes, 23 de Noviembre, 2018 – 10:15am: Left late as it was quite cold still and was thinking about trying to have Mariana get me into BU indoors but then realized it didn’t open until noon anyway. Ran loop around Cambridgeport to the track and then stopped (4K in 17’30) and did drills, 2x strides.

After did 4x500m. Wearing a lot of layers for this so felt pretty slow but not too bad. Goal was to run at MP and then surge the last 100, 200, 300m for each. Ended up starting out way too fast, ran the first in 1’31 and then ran the second one better, going 76/16 for 1’32. Then 56/34 for 1’30, then ran the last one relaxed in 1’35. Grabbed my stuff and jogged home.

Total run 8.5km in 34’.

XT: Heel drops (3×10), glutes (3×8, 10x weight)

15:30: Easy run out/back on river. Felt pretty good. Still cold, in the 20s and windy. Stopped at the track on the way back (4km+ in 17’) and did 4x strides, no drills as it was cold and didn’t want to cool off. Finished w/ loop around the block. Total run 5.5km+ in 23’.

XT: Heel drops (3×10)

Sabado, 24 de Noviembre, 2018 – Sparknotes: “Race” at Fresh Pond 8km in 25’23. Hoped to accelerate but ended up running very even w/ little higher gear.

09:00: Drove over to FP and parked on worthington St. Warmed up 1 lap to remind myself of the route including the hill in the last km and the few winding turns up there. Legs felt pretty good. Cool in the low 30s but much better than the last few days w/ not as much wind (but still a good bit coming off the water on the back).

Did drills, strides, and 200m in 35.x. There are some spray painted markings which appear every 200-400m for the first 2km or so of the loop. This was helpful w/ pacing.

Seemed like no one was there for the “race” but I changed into my racing shoes (carbon rockets) and came back and there were a decent amount milling about in the ranger station. Dropped sweats and tights off behind some rocks and got on the line. Wore half tights, singlet, arm warmers, light gloves, hat.

Checked the pace a decent amount in the first 2km w/ the markings on the pavement and garmin was reading similarly (right around 3’12s). Felt good and figured I’d try to run this pace for the first 5km (~16’00) and then accelerate after that.

I felt very good for the first lap and even up the big hill in the 4th km didn’t lose any time. I was 12’35 at the halfway point (short of 4K) and 15’51 at 5K. I tried to push and ran the next km in 3’04 feeling good but then really lost it in km 7, dodging a couple dogs and ice patches and running gradually uphill and split 3’16 (slowest of the day) despite trying to run faster.

I pushed hard up the hill and used the downhill, running through the finish line until the garmin hit 8K in 25’23 (3’10 last 1K).

Overall, this was pretty good. I did run like 27’30 for (a very progressive) 8K like 2 weeks ago so it’s hard not to be pleased w/ improvement. No idea what will happen next weekend but I’m glad I had a good even effort at goal MP.

The engine is definitely there; I just need the wheels and chassis to feel a bit smoother. Luckily, that comes back a lot quicker than the engine.

Cooled down 1 lap w/ Patrick from CSU which was nice for company and then headed home to get to Mariana’s family brunch.

Total run 16.5km

16:00: Easy run solo out/back on chuck. Ran in Cliftons which felt good, even w/ achilles. Finished at track and did drills and 4x strides. Total run 5km in 22’30.

XT: Toes, heel drops (3×10), band work (3×10)

Domingo, 25 de Noviembre, 2018 – 09:00: Easy longer single today. Left after the rain had passed and thought I’d over-dressed as it was in the upper 40s, but then the rain came back about halfway through and I was glad to be warm. Pretty miserable out overall. Legs felt pretty good. Got to the track after about 15.5km @ 4’17 avg or so and then did drills, 4x strides and 200m in 32.x.

Total run 17km in 72’.

XT: Toes, heel drops (3×10)

PM: Planned off, XT only.

XT: Pedestal (8’, 10x weights), toes, band work, lots of rolling, stretching