Weekly Summary – 69 miles in 8 runs. Most of that was in the 58km I ran at Project Carbon X on Saturday. I’m obviously disappointed in how the race played out for me, but incredibly grateful to have been a part of it and put myself out there. Better luck next 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 was crucial to helping me recover from my injury during the fall and I’m looking forward to working w/ him again to keep me healthy now that I’m back in town!

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

 

Lunes, 29 de Abril, 2019 – 09:30: Lazy morning so started late (also it was fucking 44F when I woke up so wanted to let it warm up a bit — weather for Sat currently calls for 53F at 06:00 and 65F at 10am, 68F at 11am, 72F at 12p). Ran in lots of layers – 3x long sleeves, hoodie, jacket, hat/gloves. Felt pretty tired from 24+ hours of depletion but not as bad as I expected. Was 4’30 avg at 4km and then down to about 4’25 overall by the time I got to the track ~10km. Stopped and did strides which were better than expected (6x in 2’03) and then barefoot about 5’ and jogged home. No PM run this afternoon, so just 2 more depleted runs! Total run 12km+ in 52’.

XT: Shoulder pulls, heel drops, toes.

PM: OFF – no run, planned. Pretty mellow w/ depletion.

Martes, 30 de Abril, 2019 – Sparknotes: 5km (treadmill in tights/longsleeve/hat/gloves) 16’15 w/ 3x 1K @ 3’20, 3’09, 3’02 (500m rec @ 1’45-46) + 500m in 1’26. Great!

09:15: Decided to do the tuneup on the treadmill this morning as it was cold, wet, and windy outside and I knew the mill would be easier to force myself to run quicker on day 3 of CHO depletion. Warmed up outside easy 3km and then did drills, 2x strides. Took 1 gel (caff) about 15’ before starting. Ran in CarbX.

NB: It was about 70F in the gym and I did this in tights, long seeles, gloves, and wool hat (and no fan).

Goal was to run something like 3’20/10/00 w/ 500m at race pace as recovery and then 500m quicker to finish off. This is the same tuneup I always do before a long race and pretty much the only thing that changes is the pace of those 1000s. Sometimes they’re more like MP, sometimes HMP, sometimes, like today, I want to progress through a few paces.

Good news was 3’20 pace felt very easy, though overall energy level definitely felt lower than normal. I was able to recover well on the first 500m and then moved back to 3’09-10 pace. This felt much harder, especially as I was already very warm after 5+ minutes of running. I thought maybe this would be the most I’d be able to handle pace-wise, especially w/ the extra layers. But I also wanted to mentally treat this as a last chance to practice compartmentalizing chunks of the race. I thought of each km as one third. I knew the last third would be the hardest, so I just stayed in that present rep.

Accelerating back to 3’05 pace felt very hard and I brought the pace down close to 3’00 over the first minute or so. This felt really hard and I found myself doubting whether I’d be able to finish the rep. I thought about slowing down or stopping but told myself to just get through this km. And I did.

Finally, I took the hat/gloves off during the last rec section and ran the last 500m as fast as I felt I could, starting around 3’00 and bringing the pace down to about 2’50 and holding it there. I certainly don’t have the top end speed I’ve had before but this was a great example of once again doubting I could finish and hanging in there well for 1’26.

The total was 16’15 for 5km, w/ the avg km @ 3’10.5. This is great running and mentally felt really strong.

Cooled down 1.5km and then went home to eat more eggs and veggies.

Total run 10km.

XT: Shoulder pulls, heel drops, toes.

15:00: Last depleted run! Ran down to the fields and did 3km there to the track. Didn’t feel as bad as I expected in the first 3km (~14’00) and drills and strides felt surprisingly good (4x in 1’20!) Overall energy definitely quite low, but nowhere near as bad as previous depletions. Jogged 1.5km to finish. Total run 5km+ in 22’.

XT: Last flushing at SoarBody from Sam Peck. Great work. Everything feels good!

XT: Toes, heel drops.

Miercoles, 1 de Mayo, 2019 – AM: OFF – travel to SMF.

Oh happy May! Woke up around 03:00 and had a NV bar to end the CHO depletion and then slept for another hour before getting up at 04:00.

Honestly, this CHO depletion didn’t feel that bad. Maybe my body is adapting better to fat metabolism – my diet is definitely much higher in fat now than it was a few years ago, mostly thanks to the enormous amount of PB I eat on a regular basis and I wonder if that combined w/ these super long runs and intermittent fasting is helping. Who knows? I’m not complaining.

Had a muffin and some pretzels/hummus, made some food for the travel day, and got ready to go. Left the house around 04:45 and got through security easily, went to Stephanie’s for free breakfast w/ priority pass and then boarded after a couple minutes wait for Dallas. Flying AA domestic F which is fairly comfortable for the 4 hour flight to DFW. Had a nice 2nd breakfast on the plane – oatmeal, yogurt, fresh fruit.

Easy connection in DFW and then got a great seat (the window exit row which has no seat in front of it) for the DFW-SMF leg. Overall very easy travel day.

15:30: Hopped off the plane and ran pretty much as soon as I got to the hotel and got settled in (around 6:30p ET). Ran down to the bike path and then out/back on that section of the course. It’s fairly winding and gently rolls, but nothing too extreme. I think it will make for a nice warmup. Finished with drills and 4x strides on the pavement in a flat and straight section of parking lot behind the hotel. Hot in the 80s and very sunny, overdressed a lot on purpose. Total run 8km+ in 32’.

Jueves, 2 de Mayo, 2019 – 09:45am: Drove out to the loop with the gang and ran w/ Mike McManus, Mike Wardian, and Pat Reagan very easy. Sun was out and already quite warm in the sun, car thermometer was in the upper 70s. Shade felt much nicer. Ran in layers still.

Loop is nice w/ 3 notable climbs, all of which are going over/under the road. So, fairly similar to our Chuck loop but I would say the elevation change is slightly greater here for each hill. The South Side has some shade but even by 10am, the north side is almost entirely sun.

Fun run and nice to be actively hold back. Finished w/ drills and 4x strides near the finish line. At least there’s a nice downhill last 200m into the finish!

Total run 8km++ in 37’.

13:15: Trying to stay on east time, so ran early. A bit of a stomach cramp but no biggie. Ran down to the bike path and tried to head to the right on the road but was too scary w/ very fast cars, so just ran out/back on the same bit as yesterday. Surprised to see pace was like 4’00 as it felt super relaxed and was still over dressed in the hottest part of the day. Finished w/ drills, 4x strides in CarbonX. Felt great. Total run 5km+ in 19’30.

Viernes, 3 de Mayo, 2019 – 06:00: Slept well and woke up naturally around 03:30 and dozed until 04:30. Had some coffee and a bar and then drove out to Folsom HS. Beautiful morning, windless and cool and light was just poking up over the horizon. Jogged around this nice area behind the track and then got into the track no problem. Stopped at that point after about 700m of jogging and changed into Carbon X, did drills and 2x strides. After, did 1600m continuous in 5’12 w/ first 1km very relaxed ~ 3’30 and then accelerated each 200m after that something like 36, 34, 32 for 1’42 last 600m. Felt great.

Jogged about 1km barefoot on turf and then shoes on over to safeway to grab a couple last things. No more running until tomorrow morning!

Total run 5km in 19’30.

XT: heel drops, toes.

PM: OFF – planned. Fun and slightly busy afternoon. Took a little rest, got a haircut, and then headed over to the hotel near the start for technical meeting and then media Q&A. Everyone seems to be putting the spotlight on Jim which, to me, is great as it makes me feel like the underdog and less pressure/expectation. Got back and made up my bottles, talked to the VC and Jon and then Mariana showed up. Got to hang out a bit and then crashed some time around 6pm-7pm.

Sabado, 4 de Mayo, 2019 – Sparknotes: HOKA ONE ONE Project Carbon X 100km – DNF, 58km in 3h30 (3’37 avg). Extreme muscle shutdown/cramping after going for it (2h57 at 50K) on a hot day.

Full writeup to come.

Woke up naturally around 02:15 and felt good so turned off my alarm and laid in bed for a bit. Got up right around 02:30. Made a cup of coffee, had a NV bar, and hung out in the lobby w/ the happy light for a while

Domingo, 5 de Mayo, 2019 – AM: OFF running. Pretty well smacked from yesterday still. Quads/ITBs are very sore. Took a nice long soak in the jacuzzi this morning and then VERY light 20’ on stationary bike to just get blood flowing in the legs. Felt much better after this.

Had a really nice morning hanging around w/ Patrick, Kris Brown, Jim, and Tokada-San and Yamauchi-San. Sad to say goodbye!

Drove out to SF and met up w/ Brosh and Cliff and had a great time catching up w/ them.

Headed to the airport fairly early and got checked in and went to the Centurion Lounge which unfortunately wouldn’t let us in until 3 hours before our departure, so we sat in a cafe for an hour and did some work and then went back and Mar slept on the floor in the (empty) kids’ room as she was coming down w/ a bug and was smacked and then we finally headed to our gate around 21:00 which – coincidentally – was the same terminal where I found myself 105 pages of training lof ago on December 3, 2018 as I was starting this new log and new buildup and heading to Japan, which coincidence seemed too lovely to not acknowledge and thus I think I will end this log here and begin a new one tomorrow.