Weekly Summary – 91 miles in 5 days. 2 off days w/ travel and a sick day, but feeling decent. Quicker session at BU and a decent long run at least.

Don’t forget, you can follow me day to day on Instagram and Twitter (@TylerCAndrews) and my daily training log on Trackster.

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 Internships for College students, and even 10-day trips for adults and families.

Lastly, I’m very grateful to support from Outback Physcial Therapy here in Somerville, MA. Dr. Ithamar Jokowitz has been a great help in analyzing my gate and physiology and helping me put together a specific strength-training regimen to really dial things in. If you’re interested in improving your running mechanics, enhancing your recovery, learning about what injuries you might be at risk for, or even get your VO2 max tested, he’s definitely the guy to see in the area!

Lunes, 16 de Diciembre, 2019 – OFF — full travel day from SBA to BOS via PHX. Fairly smooth travel but w/ time zones had to be up at like 04:00 and didn’t get home until like 17:00 and was pretty wiped. Also smacked the shit out of my head when I woke up in Christian’s sprinter van. Good start to the day.

 

Martes, 17 de Diciembre, 2019 – 10:00: Slept late after a busy week and travel day yesterday. Slushy/icy/rainy outside so ran on treadmill here. Felt pretty good. Ran from 8’00+ down to about 6’10/M. Very warm, HR much higher than outside at this pace. 15km in 64’ or so and then did full drills and 6x 30” at 5’00/M w/ about 1’ easy. 1km+ cooldown to round up. Total run 18km in 76’30.

 

XT: Heel drops, upper bands, beach ball, monster walk, 1 leg bands, toes, hips (8x weights)

 

16:30: Long, deep nap this afternoon. Felt much better after. Ran inside again – ugh! – as still wet and gross out. 8km in 35’ and then drills and 4x 30” at 5’00/M. Finished w/ a few minutes of Pat’s “power hiking” out of curiosity (4mph and 15% incline). This actually felt pretty good and HR was low ~125, even already quite warm. Much easier to walk this pace than jog. Total run 10km+ in 43’. 

 

XT: upper bands, beach ball, monster walk, 1 leg bands, toes, Pedestal (8x weights), jwal core

 

Miercoles, 18 de Diciembre, 2019 – Sparknotes: 800m @ 2’19, 5x400m @ 69-70 (1’ jog), 6x200m @ 32-33 (40” jog).

 

07:15: Up very early and ran easy w/ Mar outside towards BU. Very slow, paths a bit icy and gross. Got to BU and in no problem. Warmed up another km or so inside and then did full drills, 4x strides and 200m relaxed in 34.x.

 

Plan was to do 1K @ goal 5K pace (2’45-50), 8x400m, 4x200m (same pace or a bit quicker) for 5000m of work. First lap of that rep was ok (67.x) but then really fell off and came through 800m in 2’19 and just stopped there. Took 2’30 rec and then went into the 400s but body just didn’t feel good today energy-wise. Legs were tired. Was going out in 33-34 and running 69-70.x every time. Cut the 400s at 4x and then put on spikes just because I’d brought them and wanted to see how they felt (rest of the workout was in the carbon rocket). They did feel much quicker and was running 32-33 off of about 40” rest, but still just didn’t feel great. Ran the last rep as 400m but still just had no strength in the second lap and again ran like 33.x/70.x.

 

So, 4km of work total and slower than I’d hoped/planned for.

 

Cooled down inside about 4km. Glad to get some quicker running but still just feel slow.

 

Total run 16km+ in 70’.

 

XT: upper bands, beach ball, monster walk, 1 leg bands, toes

 

16:00: Ran to outback PT and back. Felt extremely bad. Really low energy. Something is wrong. Total run 8km- in 39’. 

 

XT: upper bands, beach ball, monster walk, 1 leg bands, toes

 

Jueves, 19 de Diciembre, 2019  – AM: OFF. Absolutely wrecked today. RHR really high. Awful night last night.

 

PM: Light session on stationary bike to keep HR low. 35’ total w/ 10x 1’ pickups at the end. 

 

XT: upper bands, beach ball, monster walk, 1 leg bands, toes, pedestal (8x weights), jwal core

 

Viernes, 20 de Diciembre, 2019 – 9:50: Felt better this AM, but fucking cold and icy out still so ran on treadmill. Did 15km in 65’ from 4’58->4’10 (held that pace for most of the second half). Kept grade at only 1% (vs 2% usual) and HR was still much higher than outside (up to 160+ by the end) and cadence much lower (low to mid 170s). Not sure if it’s the heat or what but clearly pace simulation is still an issue. Stopped and did drills, no strides as wanted to play it safe today as achilles bugged me on Wednesday. Did 1km more after drills and then decided to try the Pat Reagan power-hiking. Set the machine at 15% and speed at 4mph. HR was fairly consistent around 120-130. Increased the pace .1 each minute from 4mph to 4.8mph max. HR and effort got much higher (over 150) around 4.5-6 and 4.7-8 was about the limit of what I felt like mechanically I could power hike vs. run. HR was very high the last minute or so (over 160). Finished back at 4mph and recovered well there to 30’. Total run 20km in 1’25’30.

 

XT: upper bands, beach ball, monster walk, 1 leg bands, toes, hips (8x weights)

 

15:30: Ran w/ short turn around to try to get it in before it got too dark. On science museum which wasn’t too icy. Felt decent and tacked on and then stopped and did drills and 4x strides on bike path. Still dark by the end of the run. Total run 10km++ in 44’.

 

XT: upper bands, beach ball, monster walk, 1 leg bands, toes, 

 

Sabado, 21 de Diciembre, 2019 – 07:30: Ran easy solo over to BU and got in w/ no problem. Ran a lot of laps around the outside just to get some warmer miles on softer surface than concrete. Felt much better than expected. Did 1 lap on the track to get a sense of pace and ran like 46.x which is sub 4’00/km very relaxed. Did about 12km and then stopped and did drills and then 2km of 100m stride, 100m float. Split every 400m and ran 76.4, 76.9. 74.9, 73.9, 36.5, 34.9 for 6’13.5 total (3’07 avg). Felt quite good — and this was in cliftons. After, did another 5km or so on the outside lane. Could have done more but didn’t want to do too much w/ the longer run tomorrow. Total run 18km+ in 73’.

 

XT: Heel drops, toes, upper bands.

 

PM: Ran back from BU (3km+ in 13’). Later, ran out toward river and was pleasantly surprised to see the turf field had been cleared, so hopped the fence and ran about 6km on the turf. A bit icy here and there and almost ate it hard once but nice to get off the concrete. Did drills and 4x strides on asphalt bike path after. Started at like 16:30 and was basically entirely in the dark for this one. Shortest day of the year, though! Total run 10km+ in 45’.

 

XT: Heel drops, toes, upper bands.

 

Domingo, 22 de Diciembre, 2019 – Sparknotes: 33km in 2h05 (3’48 avg), last 7km pickup 3’39-3’20.

 

09:15: Jogged easy w/ Mar from home 2km+ and then ran from tracksmith house w/ big group of dudes. Fun to have a big squad. Started w/ a loop around science museum and then out to arsenal st on the river and then another loop of science museum. Pretty steady 3’45-4’0x for the first 25km or so and then picked up w/ Louis Serafini for the last 7km from 3’39 down to about 3’20. Got dropped around km 30 w/ a 3’20 and Louis and his bud were rolling. Did 2 more km solo 3’29/3’20 to 31km and then easy home from there around 4’00. Not bad given how awful I felt a couple days ago but still feeling not fit. Really need some consistency.

 

Took 3 gels @ 30, 60, 90 min (60 and 90 were caff). Had to pee around 10km and ran 2km quicker ~3’30 to catch back up to the group. Had some bad tummy around 20km but it passed. Just need to get more volume in the legs and get used to running longer. 2 hours felt surprisingly long but this was the longest run at a decent pace I’ve done since Tussey.

 

Good news was left achilles didn’t bug me too much. Felt almost normal. Oh and ran this in Carbon X.

 

Total run 35km++.

 

XT: Upper bands, heel drops, toes

 

PM: OFF, busy day in Concord and then xmas concert w/ Lolandy.