Weekly Summary – 80 miles in 11 runs. A light week as I approach the end of the season. Kind of a weird week with travel up to Boston for a family commitment, a stress/VO2 max test at MGH, and a truly awful race on Sunday. Glad to have less coming up in the next month so I can focus on these last few races of the season!

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, 18 de Abril, 2016 – 7am: Early run in West Lebanon, NH before my grandfather’s memorial service. Ran down the road and into the woods by Mary Hitchcock and around the trails in there. Some nice running there. Single track for a bit, but then a nice rolling grassy trail under some power lines that went for a long time. Felt pretty good if a bit chilly, in the 30s. Total run 8M- in 60’.

5pm: In Concord, easy shakeout from the VC’s. Ran to Emerson and back. Felt pretty tired at first but better on the way back, ~4’20/km. Finished with 6x strides which felt quite good actually. Total run 7M in 50’.

XT: Core.

Martes, 19 de Abril, 2016 – 9am: Drove to Concord Center and ran the big Great Meadows loop. Beautiful day and beautiful route. Had the whole marsh to myself, it felt like. Tacked on a loop around the center including a few laps of the track with 4x strides. Total run 10M in 70’.

XT: Back/hips

5pm: Ran from the parents’ house easy around the hood/stacy circle loop. Finished with 6x strides on the road. Total run 4M+, NT.

Miercoles, 20 de Abril, 2016 – 7am: Early run with a busy day. Ran Emerson loop. Beautiful chilly morning and legs felt quite good. Running quick by the end. Finished with 6x strides on the road. Total run 9M+, NT.

XT: Back/hips

3pm: At MGH, did a stress/VO2 max test at the Cardiac Performance Lab (still trying to get a diagnosis/treatment plan for my breathing issues that seem to appear during hot/humid races (e.g. Doha/LA).

A very interesting experience. I ran on an oversized Woodway treadmill with a whole slew of apparati dangling from my body – a dozen or so electrodes taped to various parts of my chest, a pulse O2 monitor on my finger, and a big mask over my nose and mouth with a tube running up over my shoulder.

The test was relatively simple. First, I stood on the treadmill for 2 minutes to gather “resting” data. They then set the machine at a very comfortable pace (7.5MPH or 8’00 per mile) and held it steady for 10 minutes as a “warm up”. From there, the actual testing began. The speed was held steady, but the incline on the treadmill increased by 0.5% every 15 seconds (i.e. 2% per minute).

What happens is that this feels quite easy for several minutes, fairly moderate for a brief time, and then very quickly becomes extremely hard. It felt (to me) extremely non-linear in terms of my body’s perception of ever w/r/t the incline of the machine. There felt like a serious point of inflection somewhere around 14-16%.

The test ends at failure, which is really a bit less than physical failure because you decide when that point is by grabbing the bar in front of you (i.e. to say that if you were being chased by a lion, you could probably go a bit longer than you’d go in this test). But, the point is to study how the body (heart, lungs, etc.) perform over a steadily increasing load and then a brief spurt at (more or less) maximal effort.

So, I was running quite slowly but the incline became extremely challenging by about the 16-17 minute point in the test. Unlike a normal workout where I just have to finish a certain distance or time, I found this much more mentally challenging as I really had no idea when the effort would become terminal. I kept picking arbitrary times and saying “okay, I can make it to 17’30, or 18’00 and the re-evaluate.” Eventually, I got to a point where I knew that I had very little left. I wanted to make it to 20% incline (i.e. 10 minutes of the test) and I thought that would be at the ‘00 mark on the clock, but it was actually like 4 or 5 seconds off. Those extra 4 or 5 seconds were really very close to my absolute failure point as one of the women running the test had to put a hand on my back as I was unconsciously moving towards the back of the machine. So, I stopped right at 20%.

As an engineer, I was immediately interested in the data. When they told me that the max VO2 reading was over 90, that at one point it had approached 100, my immediate thought was that that could not be correct. I’d had my VO2 max measured once at Skidmore College as a freshman and had recorded 80.8 ml/kgs. I didn’t think that it would have changed that much between then and now, so expected a result in the low 80s again. I knew that very few athletes had recorded VO2 max over 85 and I wasn’t sure that any were over 90 (it turns out that the highest recorded ever was 97.5, I believe).

The exact value would have to be calculated (the value that they use as the VO2 max is the highest 30-second moving average, not the highest single point. This helps smooth the curve and reduce potential error/outliers). They told me it would likely be in the low 90s.

There were too many other data to get a sense of quickly, but other things measured included HR (max was about 185) and from the data they could extrapolate the aerobic/anaerobic threshold (though they seemed to have some trouble determining exactly where that was and needed the big-shot doctor to make the official call).

The good news was that my cardiac behavior looked normal on the test. The only noticeable abnormality came from a lung function test which showed slightly lower post-test lung volume than expected (the normal trend would be for lung function to increase after the test and mine was essentially the same). So, a lot of valuable data gleaned, but no immediate answers to the Doha/LA issue (which is what they expected).

In total, with a short cooldown, this was about 3M of running.

Jueves, 21 de Abril, 2016 – Sparknotes: Tune-up before Pike’s 10k on Sunday. On the track: 2000m @ 6’05, 1600m @ 4’48, 1200m @3’32, 800m @ 2’19, 400m @ 65.9 with 200m jog rest in 55-60sec.

10am: Slept very late and well last night. Super tired after a couple long days in Boston. Ran later with strive call in the AM.

Went to the track and warmed up 5km easy, legs feeling surprisingly good. Did 4x strides and then 2x200m in about 36 and then 500m in 1’29 to really warm up well. Weather was good about 65F and not windy.

Workout was descending ladder with short rest (200m jog) from 2K to 400m, decreasing one lap per rep and increasing the pace gradually.

2K felt good, negative split like 3’04/3’01 for 6’05. Recovery was quick, only 55sec or so, but felt fine. 1600m actually felt easier and was even running 72/71 each lap for 4’47.7. 1200m probably felt the longest as I was trying to run a bit faster but 1200s always just feel a bit too long. Ran more like 70-71 per lap, accelerating a bit in the last lap.

800m I tried to focus on accelerating and felt very good. Ran something like 70.x/68.x for 2’18.9. Last rep was 400m and again focused on accelerating at halfway and ran 33.h/32.L for 65.9

Overall, this felt very good and not too strenuous. Only 6km of work which is quite light compared to the average workload of the past few months. Cooled down 1M and was running under 4’00/km by the end. No problem.

Total run 9M+.

XT: Back/hips.

5pm: Easy shakeout on CC loop. Legs felt fine, tummy a bit upset from a big breakfast and not that much time between runs. Ethio cooldown. Total run 3M+, NT.

XT: Core.

Viernes, 22 de Abril, 2016 – 9am: Easy run on MVS out/back. Nice day, warmer. Legs felt very good this morning, running under 4’20 out the door. Stopped and did 4x 150m strides on the way back which felt great. Could have done more but less is more right now. Ran to Costco to get yogurt and jogged home. Total run 8M+ in 55’.

XT: Back/hips.

4pm: Very short shakeout around CC. Felt great. Ran in the claytons which feel very good. Legs feeling really good. Nice day too. Total run 2M++.

XT: Hips.

Sabado, 23 de Abril, 2016 – 10am: Ran late to try to wait out the rain storm but it wasn’t passing. Oh well. Ran easy around Costco loop. Legs felt very good out the door. Changed into flats after and did drills, 4x strides, 200m in 35.x and then 500m in 1’26. That felt way too easy – thought it would be more like 1’30. Will definitely have to be careful at the start tomorrow. Feeling weirdly good and positive given only 13 days post 50k! Total run 4M++.

XT: Back/hips – no weight.

PM: No run, just some chores, walking, and ice bath before bed. Legs feeling good.

Domingo, 24 de Abril, 2016 – Sparknotes: Pike’s Peek 10k: 4th, 31’28. Pretty brutal. Split 15’24/16’04. Felt decent for maybe 1 mile and then legs were dead. Thought I was in shape to run ~30’00, so being 90 seconds off that is pretty bad. Not a fitness problem, just not quite recovered from 50K (14 days ago).

Total run 11M.

5pm: Easy shakeout around CC after a busy day running errands. Total run 2M+, NT.