Weekly Summary – 114 miles in 13 runs. Great week w/ the end of my vacation in Japan w/ Nic which included running every day in some very cool places and even a little workout as I was getting antsy. Back to back long runs over the weekend got the mileage up a bit. Mostly, I’m glad to be feeling healthy and hungry and building up towards big things in 2019.

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’s been crucial to helping me recover from my injury and I wouldn’t have been on the start line this week without him!

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 next year for the summer of 2019, when we’ll once again have programs for High School and College students, and even 10-day trips for adults and families.

 

Lunes, 10 de Diciembre, 2018 – 08:00: Felt pretty awful this morning. Ran longer w/ Nic through Osaka city and over to the Osaka Castle area. Running pretty slow the whole time. Felt real beat up today and tired. 2 big laps around the castle area including popping inside briefly and then jogged back. Total run 15km- in 72’.

XT: Toes

PM: OFF, good amount of walking around Himeji as we went castle-exploring today. Nice fun day seeing new stuff. Later, met up w/ Nic’s friend, Mike, who’s been living in Japan for like 5.5 years and just had a daughter 5 weeks ago. Had a very fun evening wandering around Kobe, eating tasty food, and hearing about life as a gringo in Japan. Really nice day.

Martes, 11 de Diciembre, 2018 – Sparknotes: 9km fartlek in 30’46 (3’25 avg) w/ 10x [1’ fast, 1’ mod + 10x [30” fast. 30” mod]

08:20: Felt much better this morning and slept well (resting HR was 37). Ran easy w/ Nic out to river path and out/back. Beautiful morning. Into the wind out a bit chilly, upper 30s but sunny and very nice on the way back. Legs wanted to go faster today but held back to stick w/ Nic for the most part. Finished w/ 4x strides on gravel and then jogged back together. Total run 9km- in 41’.

XT: Heel drops (1×10)

14:15: Ran solo in Kyoto while Nic was doing some sight-seeing. Wanted to get in a light workout after lots of slow running the last 8 days. Warmed up easy 4km to the river and then on path. Stopped to use the bathroom in a subway station (since peeing outside here is not cool at all) and then did drills, 2x strides and went into it.

Goal was to do 20-30 minute of fartlek w/ 1’/1’ and 30”/30” segments. I figured a good session would be 10x of each for 30’. Felt pretty bad in the first couple reps and almost stopped after the 3rd rep as it was pretty slow but also realized I was running pretty much continuously uphill in this stretch as I was going upstream. Stopped looking at the watch other than the overall pace and just focused on relaxing and running by feel. Avg pace was about 3’36 at the turn around and only got faster from there. Ran much quicker on the way back, something like 3’20s up and then 3’00-15 on the way back. Off reps were 3’30-4’00.

Got to 20’ and was about 3’28 avg and then did the 30” reps. Avg pace continued to fall so figured I was running well, around 2’58-3’0x on and 3’30-45 off. Finished w/ last 550m or so continuous to round up to 9km in just over 30’ (3’25 overall avg).

This is not a bad place to be starting, especially feeling pretty fat and out of shape after the last week or so.

Cooled down short 1km+ back to the train station where I’d stored my stuff.

Total run 14km+.

Miercoles, 12 de Diciembre, 2018 – 08:00: Easy run w/ Nic on Osaka river pathway. Ran down and then crossed the bridge and ran back up the other side. Really nice big wide path over there and great views of the downtown skyline from the other side of the river. Stopped and did 4x strides on gravel before heading back. Legs felt pretty good today. Total run 10.5km in 48’.

15:00: Made it back to Tokyo! Super easy trip even w/ a few train connections (never had to wait more than a few minutes) and most of it on the shinkansen from Shin-Osaka to Shinagawa. Ran solo from the Hyatt down to Yoyogi Park and did two laps, mostly on the dirt/grass, but it was a bit wet from rain yesterday so some on pavement as well. Finished at Chuo park and did drills and then 4x strides on the bike path. Total run 10.6km in 44’.

Jueves, 13 de Diciembre, 2018 – 06:30: Early morning run before LONG travel day home. Planned to do longer single but just felt really awful. Had some serious stomach issues and had to stop like 4-5 times over the course of like an hour of running. Oof. Not great. Total run 15km+ 63’.

16:30: Last run in Japan! Ran at Narita Airport which, it turns out, is a great airport for running. Nic watched my stuff but also had lockers available at the lounge, so no problem w/ stuff. The main international terminal where we were was very long and wide and not super busy other than the stretch in the middle where people were transiting. Really nice as it took almost 10’ to run the entire length of the hall and back. Did about 30’ and stopped to by some last minute gifts w/ my remaining yen before grabbing some food. Total run 6.4km in 31’.

Viernes, 14 de Diciembre, 2018 – 08:00: Welcome back to America! Nice STRIVE-Peru gang run w/ Mariana and Nic (Scott hung out w/ us last night and this AM but isn’t running right now due to his foot sadly).

Started off very slow w/ Mariana and Nic together through about 3-4km and then Mar looped back and Nic and I continued to JFK bridge and back on the other side a bit quicker, maybe 4’20s-30s. Finished at the track w/ 4x strides in 1’22 and then home. Total run 12km+ in 56’.

15:45: Had an appointment w/ Sam peck at SoarBody this afternoon so ran there and back w/ massage in between. Did strides at the end of the run there (4x on the road) and then jogged back after. Total run 14km in 63’.

XT: Great massage work w/ Sam Peck. Worked a lot of the tightness in my left hamstring/quad area. Some very deep and uncomfortable stuff but felt immensely better after. Dude is a miracle worker!

Sabado, 15 de Diciembre, 2018 – 07:15: Woke up pretty early naturally and ran door to door from my place to my parents’ house in Concord. Tough route as it’s a big continuous uphill on the bike path basically all the way from Alewife to Lexington center and then it felt like an awful lot of uphill after that too. But good strength running I suppose. Didn’t really have a pace goal, just wanted a lot of moderate time on feet. Didn’t look at my watch until about 16km w/ a bathroom stop in Lex and was under 4’00 at that point which I figured was a decent start w/ all the uphill.

Out battle rd which was a bit muddy in spots, but not too bad and then through Concord Center to Emerson Hospital and back via Harrington. Distance worked out to be almost exactly 36km.

Took 1 gel at about 75’. Had 2 bathroom breaks at about 60 and 75’. Otherwise almost entirely continous.

Not fast but good to see the legs be able to handle such a long run. Hopefully I’ll be running at least this fast or quicker at 2850m altitude in a couple weeks!

Total run 36km in 2h22.

15:00: Easy shakeout on river out/back towards sci museum. Pretty tired but very good shakeout, every km quicker from 5’10-> 4’22 to the track, 4x strides in 1’28 and then home easy. Total run 5km+ in 22’30.

Domingo, 16 de Diciembre, 2018 – 06:30am: Another jetlagged morning! Woke up before 05:00 and drove out to Concord in the dark to drop my parents’ car back off and run home. I guess this weekend turned into back-to-back long runs. Left in the dark still at 06:30 but was already decently light w/in a few km.

Ran main street into Concord Center and then over to Battle Rd all the way to 128, over the big hill into Lexington Center and then onto the bike path all the way down to Alewife. Never looked at my watch on this one until I was arriving at Alewife (and rounded up the last km w/ a lap around the station). Just time on feet today and pleasantly surprised to see it under 4’20/km avg (though this one is a big net downhill). Total run 30km in 2h08.

14:00: Easy shakeout out/back on river toward sci museum. Very windy out. Legs pretty tired but much better after 1km slow. Came back and did drills and 4x strides on the track in 1’27. Jogged over to visit Mar in her lab after and then home w/ a stop at Anna’s to get a burrito (quesadilla actually). Total run 6km in 27’.