Weekly Summary – 64 miles in 8 runs. A huge new personal best, #2 time ever for an American and track World Record for 50K at the Time to Fly 50K (2’46’06). Thanks for everyone for your support in this journey. We’ll be back soon.

If you don’t know about the Road to 50K, check out the announcement post and follow along at Road to 50K site designated to covering the event. And of course, you can follow me day to day on Instagram and Twitter (@TylerCAndrews) and my daily training log on Strava (GPS included!). Don’t forget to check out STRIVE’s 2018 Programs – we’ve still got a few spaces available for high schoolers, college interns, and adults! You can come do service work and train with me in Peru or Kenya and for the summer of 2018, we’ll once again have programs for High School and College students, and even 10-day trips for adults and families, so be sure to take a look if you’re interested in an amazing summer experience!

Lunes, 9 de Abril – Sparknotes: 3x1K @ 3’20 + 500m @ 1’34, 2’ jog

7:45am: Slept a long time last night! Felt good this morning, but pretty depleted still. Jogged down to the track and did 2km+ total and then drills, a few strides. Took a gel right at the end of my warmup and felt better, but wouldn’t last long.

Planned to do a slightly altitude adjust version of a tuneup I like before long races: 5km total w/ 1000m @ race pace, 500m moderate recovery x 3 and then 500m quick to finish. Ended up feeling terrible and was surprised to see myself running like 80s in the first rep (3’21) and feeling really hard. Took 2’0x to cover 500m and then went into the second one and ran just as bad (3’20). Took a hard stop after that and let my HR come down and tried again on #3. Basically same result, so took another hard stop and did the last 500m. Went through 200m in 34 and then just ate it and ran the last 300m in 60 seconds (3’20 pace).

Good news – I did some running CW and CCW on this one (reps 1 and 3 were CW) and felt fine (or at least, equally shitty). So, I’m going to start off w/ some CW running on Friday. Good datum.

Other good news is that I’m not worried about this at all. I definitely just felt super depleted from the CHO depletion and probably went to HAM with that yesterday. I basically only ate two eggs and some veggies yesterday. Not worried at all. Just didn’t have any energy to turnover (looking at watch afterward, the cadence was way low which makes sense and is basically how it felt).

Cooled down short around the grass and then home.

Total run 8km+ in 34’.

XT: Toes

2:30pm: Last depleted run! Ran early down to the park and clockwork shakeout. Pretty low energy but got it done. Finished w/ only 2x strides and then home via portugal. Total run 5km 24’.

XT: Toes.

Martes, 10 de Abril, 2018 – AM: Overnight travel from Quito to Dallas to Santa Barbara. Bit of a clusterfuck on the first leg as I couldn’t check in when I got to the airport (it was too early and I’d hoped to just go through security and sleep in the lounge until the 00:17 departure, but AA wasn’t checking in for an hour or so). Finally made it through, got a bit of a nap in the lounge, and then managed to get an exit row on the red-eye to DFW, but ended up in the one seat directly in front of the only two small children on the plane who didn’t sleep and want to squeak, cry, shout, the whole flight. Didn’t get much sleep. Got through DFW easy enough, got a good breakfast in the Centurion Lounge (finally eating carbohydrates again!) and then got a whole row to myself on the DFW-SBA leg, so was able to lie down a sleep a bit more.

11:30am: Made it to SBA and felt decent enough to head right out the door as soon as I got checked into the hotel. I figured it was that or crash immediately, so I decided to get a few minutes of running in. Legs actually felt decent and it felt very good to be outside and moving. Weird combination of fresh legs/low altitude and pretty serious fatigue from the last 16 hours or so of travel.

Ran along the beach bike path up to SBCC to try to find the track. It’s kind of up on a hill and seems more protected than I expected from wind. It was actually quite calm while I was there. Warm today, though – probably in the 80s. Stopped and did 4x strides which felt good and then ran home. Took a dip in the pool after which was lovely. Total run 7km in 30’.

4pm: Jogged into town and met Kyle Merber who’s also here early for the weekend’s races. Ran quite slow out/back past my hotel. Nice run and nice to have some company. Legs felt good. Weird day energy wise. Looking forward to crashing for like 12 hours tonight and getting on a normal schedule. Finished at subway to grab dinner and got a ride back to the hotel. Total run 10km in 45’.

XT: Toes

Miercoles, 11 de Abril, 2018 – Sparknotes: 8km easy + 1km in 2’57 (78, 35, 33, 31). Ready!

8am: Drove to the track at UCSB (not the track we’ll be racing on on Friday) w/ Craig Lutz and Kyle Merber. Did a nice very easy warmup of just under 7km. Started out quite slow over 5’00 and running down to 4’20ish by the end. Came onto the track and did 1km quicker solo and felt like I was still jogging and ran 3’30. Legs are feeling fantastic. This was also in tights, long-sleeve, and a jacket.

Stopped and did drills after than and then a couple strides in brand new cliftons which I’ll race in on Friday. Did the only quicker running of the day which was just 1 continuous kilometer. Ran the first 400m at race pace which felt extremely relaxed and slow (77.8) and then accelerated each of the next 200m. I didn’t split my watch but from glancing down they were approximately 35/33/31 (1’39 last 600m). This felt amazing and I was a bit winded after the last rep, but not tired at all within a few seconds of catching my breath.

I did almost get killed as i jogged across the field while some women were practicing hammer. “Haven’t you ever been on a track before?!” – Kyle Merber. Not one recently with an active hammer cage!

Cooled down about 1km to round up to 10km. Felt great – no issues. So ready to go. So fired up.

Total run 10km in 43’.

XT: Toes.

3pm: Easy run solo from the hotel out/back on the bike path. Legs felt amazing out the door. Running sub 4’00 pace out the door and comfortably running in the 3’30s by a couple minutes into the run. Didn’t even look at my watch until the turnaround, this is retrospective. O2 and taper feel amazing. Ready to crush it on Friday.

Finished at the beach, did a few strides on the sidewalk and then stretched on the sand and dipped into the ocean – it’s freaking cold! This isn’t the equator!

Total run 5km in 18’20.

XT: Toes.

Jueves, 12 de Abril, 2018 – 8am: Holy shit it’s race day tomorrow! Another great night’s sleep with my “oxygen blanket” as Jon calls it. Woke up naturally around 7am and had coffee and talked with Jon a bit before heading out. Forced myself to run VERY comfortably after letting myself go a bit yesterday. Really wanted to feel like I was holding back the whole run and did. Running 4’30s down to 4’10s and felt so slow. Beautiful morning, a bit windier but not bad. Overdressed again for the last time and finished with 2 light strides on the bike path before jogging back. Beautiful morning. Let’s fucking go! Total run 5km in 22’.

PM: Fairly busy day w/ a morning photo shoot at the track, a couple hours to rest and have some lunch, and then pretty much the whole afternoon with w/ the HOKA crew at Deckers HQ. Met a lot of people and learned a ton about the company but an awful lot of time on feet. Had about an hour to have dinner (gnocchi, animal crackers) and then headed over to SB running company for a meet n greet around 6pm. Back in the hotel a bit after 7pm and some last prep for tomorrow before hitting the sack.

Viernes, 13 de Abril, 2018 – Sparknotes: TimeToFly 50K Record attempt: 2’46’06 (3’19.3/km, 5’20.7/M). WR pace at 37km but lost it after that. #2 time ever for an American, WR/AR for track. Full race report here.

Sabado, 14 de Abril, 2018 – Long travel day home from Santa Barbara. Legs were extremely sore this morning – a lot of trouble walking, especially down stairs, and standing up from chairs, etc. Left the hotel around 5:40am to catch the SB airport bus to LAX. Got there and checked in super easy as I was flying business class on United. Hung around in the LAX UA lounge which is super nice (and even features an outdoor terrace, so got to get some last Californian sunshine). First flight to Houston was wonderful as it was on a 787 with UA’s lie-flat business class product. Had some good food, watched the new Thor and enjoyed being able to stretch out. Had plenty of time in IAH to grab some food in the lounge before the flight back to Quito. Older plane but still very comfortable experience. Got in on time and through passport control and customs super fast. Found Omar after almost leaving the airport without him and got a ride home and crashed immediately around 1:30am. Long day but about as smooth and comfortable as it could be.

Domingo, 15 de Abril, 2018 – Slept long and late. Extremely sore when I woke up but luckily had BAE give me a (very gentle) massage to loosen up my quads which seemed to be giving me the most trouble. Had some breakfast and then drove with Greg, his GF, Dana, Alex, and Mar down to Papallacta hot springs. I was kind of on the fence about whether I wanted to go on this trip (mostly due to the car-time), but once we got there I was so happy with the decision. Had an amazing time soaking in the hot and cold pools for several hours. Seemed to really help my legs as I was still struggling to walk a lot this morning. Stopped on the way back in the high pass and checked out the soon-to-be trail that the AA guys are helping to develop there. Got home and got pizza and went to Greg’s to watch a movie with everyone. Lovely day overall.