Weekly Summary – 108 miles in 6 days. Made it to Quito and, with the start of the New Year, things have started to click! Had a solid recovery block in Spain over the holiday and got here feeling hungry, healthy, and ready to roll. Already had a solid speed session (20x300m) and a great first 40km long run. Can’t wait to get the whole gang down here!

Don’t forget, you can follow me day to day on Instagram and Twitter (@TylerCAndrews) and my daily training log on Trackster.

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 this summer, when we’ll once again have programs for High School and Internships for College students, and even 10-day trips for adults and families.

Lastly, I’m very grateful to support from Outback Physcial Therapy here in Somerville, MA. Dr. Ithamar Jokowitz has been a great help in analyzing my gate and physiology and helping me put together a specific strength-training regimen to really dial things in. If you’re interested in improving your running mechanics, enhancing your recovery, learning about what injuries you might be at risk for, or even get your VO2 max tested, he’s definitely the guy to see in the area!

Miercoles, 1 de Enero, 2020 – 07:00: Up until about 03:30 and got up at 06:30, but pounded a coffee and got out the door by 7am (which is really like 4am in Spain). Totally night time. Ran up the hill to town, past the polideportivo and down into town a bit to 3km. Turned around and back down the hill past the house and out to the start of the dirt where I’d done short hills before. Did full drills and then 7x short hills. Dawn was just breaking and the lights stopped just at the steepest part of the hill so ran the first one too short, but then found a good stopping point and the rest just under 14 seconds. Felt quite good and got a tiny bit faster as the reps went on. Tummy a bit off this AM but given that this was the first short hills I’ve done in quite a while, it felt good. Finished w/ 3km easy up to the top of the trail and back down. Dawn breaking, so a lovely way to start the year. Total run 11.5km+ in 56’.

 

XT: OFF — basically got back showered and went right to the airport.

 

16:30 (Ecuador time): Slept a LOT on the plane, probably 2 bouts of 2-3 hours. Really good. Had a second meal (been surprisingly hungry despite eating what felt like an awful lot at NYE). Had enough time and energy that did a bunch of heel drops and then like 15 minutes of squats/calve raise and then jogged for 20’ up and down the aisle (before we had to land). Overall a nice bit of PM exercise and a lovely flight.

 

Jueves, 2 de Enero, 2020 – 08:30: First run in Quito from Greg’s! Pretty easy travel day overall and made it to his place and was in bed pretty early. Woke up naturally around 07:00 and ran down to Carolina. A bit foggy, but felt good running. As usual, ran much quicker for this first run at altitude. 4 big laps in 15’17, 15’08, 15’15, 14’31 and then to the track. Stopped and did drills, 6x strides in 2’04 and then 200m (net down) in 31.2. Ran over to the mall to get SIM card and then to Inaquito to get groceries. Total run 20km++ in 1h24.

 

XT: Heel drops, toes, beach ball, monster walk, upper bands, lower bands, hips.

 

12:50: Ran from Greg’s down to Cosmo Parc building to visit an apt there. Ran back after. Total run 4km in 18’. 

 

16:00: Ran from Greg’s again and met Brittany at la Carolina. Did 2 big laps nice and easy w/ her (didn’t split correctly but around 4’30-45). Finished solo to the track and did drills and 4x strides in 1’25. A bit drizzly but nice overall. Total run 12km++ in 54’.

 

XT: Heel drops, toes, beach ball, monster walk, upper bands, lower bands.

 

Viernes, 3 de Enero, 2020 – Sparknotes: 2x 10x 300m @ 50.7, 1’30 jog rec, 3’00 b/w sets.

 

08:15: Up earlier naturally and jogged down to Carolina for first workout here. Plan was to do 300 and/or 200s at goal 5K pace ~2’50/km. Had no idea how this one would go, but went into it w/ flexible mind. Warmed up about 6km total and did full drills, 4x strides, and went into it.

 

Broke these up into sets of 5x w/ longer rest between sets and jog across the field b/w reps. Felt pretty decent and kept all the reps at 50-51 for the first 5x so decided to go to 10x before taking a longer break. 

 

Next 5x were similar but rest was getting a bit longer, closer to 2’. Took longer rest again after #15 (3’30) and then last 5x were the best of the bunch, w/ last rep the quickest at 48.5 and all 50.x or quicker.

 

Overall, really solid session here. 6km worth of work at 2’48/km on my second day at altitude — very good aerobic session and solid muscular work to be able to handle that much volume.

 

Cooled down short ~2km. Total run 21km+ in 1h36.

 

XT: Heel drops, toes, leg circuit: (3x 10x rep each exercise, first 1x w/ no weight, 2x w/ weight vest): static lunge (on balance pad), step up/down, split squat, side lunge, air squat.

 

16:00: Ran solo down to park and 2 big laps (15’34, 15’30), surprisingly quick again. To the track and then 4x strides in 1’23. Felt quite good overall. Total run 12km++ in 51’30.

 

XT: Heel drops, toes, beach ball, monster walk, upper bands, lower bands.

 

Sabado, 4 de Enero, 2020 – 07:00: Ran early solo down to the park and short w/ plan to head up Rucu w/ Dave Krupa et al. (plus long run day tomorrrow). Did 1 big lap and then drills, 6x strides on bike path. Felt quite good and back home w/ plenty of time. Total run 8km++ in 36’.

 

XT: OFF

 

09:20: Hiked up Rucu Pichincha. Beautiful, spectacularly clear day w/ views of all the big snow-caps. Very slow pace up to the end of the open ridge and then decided to take the ruta directa up  the east face w/ Ryan. Really fun scrambling with a few pretty tricky exposed pieces. Much more fun than the normal route, though. Got up to the summit and hung around a bit before running down from the summit. Explored a bit at the bottom of the teleferiqo to check out potential up-routes and then jogged down to the main road. Lovely day overall. Total 12km.

 

Domingo, 5 de Enero, 2019 – Sparknotes: 40km in 2h36 w/ 20km at 76’ w/ JL back in 80’ solo.

 

07:30: First night in the new place last night and was frustrated to be kept awake by a lot of the noise from Shyris music. Still got out of bed at like 05:30 and was at Cruz del Papa to meet Ivan around 07:15. Planned to go solo w/ Ivan on the bike but ran into Jose Luis just before I was about to leave so ended up teaming up w/ him for the first 20km.

 

Out way too quick 3’4x the first few km and I knew we were being probably stupidly aggressive at that point. Tried to reign things in a bit but still hit the turnaround up the big hill well under 4’00 pace (38’56 at 10K). We stayed together on the way back, running that big downhill in 18’59 and hitting 20km at 1h16.  I dropped off JL at 21km and planned to head back out w/ Ivan after a quick pee break, but could find him so after a few minutes of waiting, headed back out solo.

 

Definitely already felt pretty worked at this point, but knew I just needed to get it done. Felt okay through about 29km but then really was struggling and really thirsty so stopped to buy a sports drink. Felt a bit better after that and went out another km and turned back. Last 10km was very tough and I was slowing down but not tremendously, so kept hanging on. Had to stop a couple of times due to lights, some weird chest/shoulder pain, but made it back to the park at like 39km and ran the last km or so dodging pedestrians and dogs on the track.

 

Overall, still averaged 4’00/km for the last 20km even though it felt pretty awful. Glad to have stuck with it and got this one done. Still ran only a touch slower than I did w/ Louis and that gang in Boston a couple weeks ago on a much hillier route, at altitude, and like 8km longer. Big step in the right direction. Though next time, I’ll negative split please!

 

Total run 40km in 2h36 (3’54 avg).

 

Splits

5 km   19’24.0   (19’24.0) – net up

10 km   38’56.0   (19’32.0) – big up

15 km   57’02.0   (18’06.0) – big down

20 km   1’16’01.0   (18’59.0)

25 km   1’35’39.0   (19’38.0)

30 km   1’55’45.0   (20’06.0) – big up

35 km   2’16’09.0   (20’24.0)

40 km   2’36’07.0   (19’58.0) – down

 

Fueling: Took gels at 30’, 60’, 90’, 2h00 (I think). Took 100mg caffeine via maurten gel at 60’?

 

14:20: Ran from CP early to get things finished. Easy and very slow big lap 17’38 (4’49 pace) and then did drills and 4x strides very relaxed on pavement. Felt surprisingly decent. Jogged back to Greg’s after. Total run 6.5km in 31’.

 

XT: Heel drops, toes, leg circuit: (3x 10x rep each exercise, first 1x w/ no weight, 2x w/ weight vest): static lunge (on balance pad), step up/down, split squat, side lunge, air squat.