Weekly Summary – 129 miles in 14 runs. A great race for new personal best at the Guayaquil 5k (14’12) and a good couple workouts in Quito as well. Feel great and excited to see what this season has in store!

Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram and Twitter (@TylerCAndrews). And, of course, don’t forget to check out STRIVE’s 2016 Programs! You can come do service work and train with me in Peru or Kenya and for 2016, we’ll once again have programs for High School and College students, and even a 10-day trip for adults and families, so be sure to take a look if you’re interested in an amazing summer experience! Finally, I have a few spots open for athletes looking for custom training plans and online coaching. Check out my site and email me if you’re interested!

Lunes, 7 de Marzo, 2016 – 9:30am: Ran later after STRIVE call. Slept a long time last night – almost 11 hours! Felt okay once I started running. Kept it very easy for most part. Stopped after 60’ to do strides on the track which felt all right and then ran another 30 minutes or so. Stopped and did ethio cooldown and stretching on the grass and then jogged home. Total run 20km, 12M++ in 1h31.

XT: Back/hips

4pm: Easy shakeout around La Carolina. Some drizzle. Felt sluggish but did a lap of the track and legs woke up a bit. Running 4’00-10/km by the end. Total run 9km, 6M- in 40’.

XT: Hips.

Martes, 8 de Marzo, 2016 – Sparknotes: Speed day on the track! 9 sets of [3x500m @ 2’59, 2’59, 2’52] with 60 sec rest between reps, 3’00 between sets + 5x200m @ 30.x.

9:30am: Quicker workout this morning on the track. Wanted to do a decent amount of volume at 3’00 pace or faster. Original idea was to do sets of 1000m @ 3’00, 500m @ faster (~5k-10k pace, so maybe 2’50-55).

Warmed up over to the track and then on the track. Very sunny today, so quite hot already. Drills and strides and 200m in 34.

Started out with 500m to get warmed up a bit, ran too fast 1’26.9.

First 1000m was slow, around 3’05, but 500m still felt good (1’26). Took longer rest between sets (3’00) and then tried again. Next 1k was even slower (3’07.9), with most of that slowing in the second half. Felt like I was just a bit too tired today for the long intervals (probably due to a quick 40km 48 hours ago).

So, modified the workout and split the first 1km into 2x500m with short rest at the same pace and then 1x500m faster after. So sets of 3x500m with short rest between each rep (1’00) and longer rest between each set (3’00).

This felt like a very appropriate workload. I was getting the neuromuscular effect of a lot of running at the paces I wanted to do and letting my aerobic system have a bit of a break due to the shorter intervals. Still, the overall volume was quite high (15km of work in total at sub 3’00 pace).

It never felt impossible, just a very long grind to get through the whole thing. It also got very hot (like over 85F, but dry) in the sun and I didn’t bring enough water, so I was super dehydrated by the end.

Finished with 5x200m with 200m jog back and ran 30.x – surprised to find that gear at the end of the workout where I was feeling quite muscularly fatigued. Last one I ran very easy in 36.x to make the pace feel slow.

Jogged home after to get water before doing legs and cooldown.

Total run 19M.

Splits:
(1’26.9)

(3’05.5)
(1’26.4)

(3’07.9)
(1’25.2)

(1’30.1)
(1’29.8)
(1’26.9)

(1’28.9)
(1’29.4)
(1’27.4)

(1’29.5)
(1’29.8)
(1’26.7)

(1’31.5)
(1’28.6)
(1’25.9)

(1’29.5)
(1’28.9)
(1’27.6)

(1’30.3)
(1’29.5)
(1’26.2)

(1’29.4)
(1’28.6)
(1’24.1)

5x200m (200m jog)
(0’30.3)
(0’30.7)
(0’30.2)
(0’30.0)
(0’36.8)

XT: Legs.

6pm: Late shakeout with a bunch of chores in the afternoon. Very easy 5km around the park. Got shwarma on the way home. Ethio cool down. Total run 5km, NT.

Miercoles, 9 de Marzo, 2016 – 10am: Ran later after waiting for David to come by and try to make plans for the day. Longish single again with goal to get to two hours. Ran 7 laps around la carolina. Felt surprisingly good by the end. Last few laps like 15’15, 15’20, 14’40, running 3’40-50 last km and under 4’00 last lap. Lap around the neighborhood to get to 2h and then ethio cool down. Total run 18M in 2h04.

XT: back/hips

3:30pm: Jogged down to the South to meet Dave and Marissa. Easy shakeout. (Also jogged home from the redondero late at night). Total run 5k+, 3M++, NT.

Jueves, 10 de Marzo, 2016 – Sparknotes: 7M mod + 10x short hills (full recovery) + 8x200m (45-60s recovery) in 35, 35, 34, 34, 32, 32, 29, 35 (last one easy).

9:30am: Slept a bit later after a late bon-voyage night with Dave and Marissa. Ran easy/moderate around the park for 2 laps and then uphill towards metropolitano to do short hills. Stopped after around 7M in 47’ and then did full drills and one longer stride.

Did 10x short hills which felt very good. Nice long recovery between each. Jogged back down to the park after and changed into flats and did 8x 200m with 45-60sec jog between each. Started out very relaxed and brought the pace down a bit after each pair. Ran beautiful splits 35, 35, 34, 34, 32, 32, 29, 35. The 29 felt a bit hard but very good. Last one I ran SUPER relaxed to make the pace feel really slow after the quicker reps and felt great. I think sub 15 should be a reasonable goal for Sunday.

Jogged home after and did leg circuits, ethio cooldown. Total run 13M+.

XT: Legs.

4:30pm: Easy shakeout around the hood and then down to La Marin to pick up the strive shirts. Felt fine. Total run 5M+ in 40’.

Viernes, 11 de Marzo, 2016 – 8am: Felt good this morning and woke up early. Easy run around the park. Finished with 4x strides – very good. Jogged home, ethio cooldown. Total run 10M++ in 73’.

XT: back/hips

3pm: Easy shakeout around the park. Felt fine. Easy today with travel tomorrow and race Sunday. Total run 3M++, 5km+, NT.

XT: Core.

Sabado, 12 de Marzo, 2016 – 6am: Early run before travel down to Guayaquil for tomorrow’s RACE! Felt surprisingly good and actually woke up before my alarm. Light volume day today. Finished with 5x strides and jog home. Total run 5M.

2pm: Easy trip to GYE – so much nicer when it’s a 30 minute flight instead of a 10 hour bus ride! Took a cab to plaza colon and ran the whole course plus a bunch extra (partly because I took a couple wrong turns). Looks to be a pretty fast course. Should be a blast! Beautiful area of the city too – never seen this part. Cooled down Ethio and stretched around the park area and then took a cab back to the hotel. Total run 6M.

XT: Hips.

Domingo, 13 de Marzo, 2016 – Sparknotes: Guayaquil 5k, 14’12, 3rd. Great race. Moved up the whole race, including passing a dude in the last 200m. Last 3k in 8’22.
Splits
2:56.9 – 2:56.9
5:50.8 – 2:53.9
8:37.0 – 2:46.2
11:27.4 – 2:50.4
14:13.3 – 2:45.9

Longer writeup

6:10am: Woke up at 4am for 7am gun at GYE 5k. Had black coffee and about half a nature valley bar. Did a short shakeout on the hotel treadmill around 5am to loosen up and because I didn’t feel like getting murdered outside.

Got to the start right around 6am. Still quite dark though already warm and muggy. Sun was just barely coming up as I started my warmup at 6:10am. Found a nice couple of women who said I could stash my stuff with them.

Jogged the entire course so I could get a sense of where the kms were in case it wasn’t well marked (which it wasn’t). The course was quite flat and basically a rectangle with a couple extra turns. Weather was warm in the 70s and humid, but cloudy and barely light out and very little wind. I felt very good and was running close to 4’00/km without even trying. Amazing to come down to sea level.

Got back and changed into flats and did full drills and a few strides. At about 6:50am, I did 500m at about the pace I wanted to go out (~1’30 or 3’00/km) and that felt very comfortable. After that, I did no more strides and just tried to stay loose and in the general starting area.

As usual with South American races (and things in general), the start was both late and disorganized. When we were finally ready, the brought the “capacidades especiales” (handicapped) to the front and started them. They said we would start 30 seconds after them. There was no horn or gun and a guy at the front just said “Go, go!” And we were off.

I knew that this race would be quite competitive – there was over $6000 in prize money, which is a lot here in Ecuador – and the race itself served as part of a bizarre grand-prix style selection process for Ecuador’s Olympic Team. But I was still surprised to find a pack of at least 15 guys in front of me within the first few minutes of the race. I felt good and was relaxed as I’d hoped to be, but still running under 3’00/km. As my watch told me I passed the 1km marker in 2’57, I as at least 10 seconds behind the front of the pack and totally isolated.

Clearly this was far too rich a pace for some of the guys in that front group and by 2km (5’51, 2’54 second km) I had caught up to the front of the race and was now running in a pack of about 8. We passed a Rossi mat near the halfway point and then three guys made a pretty significant break.

I tried to follow and was still feeling good and well within my plan (which had been to accelerate at 2km), but in retrospect, it was probably too aggresive of a move for me. I came to 3k in 8’37 having run 2’46 for that km and was already behind the top 3 (who had now really strung out).

From just before 3km to about 4.4km was a straight, flat stretch of road, so I could see the three in front of me but I couldn’t seem to close any gaps. I was now in 4th and really struggling to stay focused and keep my turnover going. I knew that I was slowing down and I just tried to keep my sights focused on the runner in front of me. He seemed impossibly far, but by 4km, (11’27, 2’50 4th km) he seemed like he was hurting and was within striking distance.

We turned off the long stretch of road and from there I knew it was only about 400m to the finish line, so I really tried to reach for another gear. I had trouble accelerating and had honestly kind of given up until the very last turn with less than 200m to go where the course goes slightly uphill to the finish line. I could see that the dude in front of me was rigging super hard and I just drove my arms and forced my legs to turn over for another 30 seconds. I passed him with maybe 50m to go and beat him by 3 seconds for 3rd place.

The finishing time was 14’12 (a 2’46 last km and an average pace of 2’50.4/km, 4’34/M).

I cooled down around the finish line area because I was waiting for the prize ceremony (“in 5 minutes!”). 2 hours later, I’d finally gotten my prize money (which, as has been my experience in Ecuador, is literally just doled out in cash from a dude with a giant stack of 20s). Jon and I had planned a post-race workout to add a bit of volume to the day, but at this point I’d been standing around for 2 hours and it was close to 100F and humid and sunny. I did 1km of easy jogging and then ran 1600m in 4’52 which felt extremely hard, took 90s jog recovery, tried to do another and stopped after about 600m. Didn’t want to force anything and the body was having none of it. So, I grabbed a cab and headed back to the hotel for a shower and then walked to a nearby ceviche restaurant for a tasty meal before heading to the airport to fly home. I was back in my apartment in Quito by 3pm.

This was a big personal best for me and a long time coming (my previous personal best was only 14’42, though I’ve run faster than that in workouts and en-route in other races). This was the first time I’ve really raced a 5k in a while and had a really great field to drag me along to a fast time on a fast course. A great way to start off this season of shorter, faster races and a great signal that I’m well recovered from the marathon and in good shape. Very excited to see what comes next!

Total run 13M

4pm: Easy run around la carolina 2x and then to inaquito to get some veggies. Total run 6M+++ in 48’.