Weekly Summary – 87 miles in 11 runs. Great recovery from the 50K last week and an incredible week of travel through Ethiopia! So much learned from this amazing country. Home sweet home by the end of the week and ready to sink my teeth back into regular training.

Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram and Twitter (@TylerCAndrews). And, of course, don’t forget to check out STRIVE’s 2016 Programs, including the newly announced STRIVE-Peru: Spring Break program! 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!

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Lunes. 7 de Diciembre, 2015 – 7am: Ran with Chala and 2 other Ethio guys on a crazy loop through the hills and forests. Started VERY slow for 1-2km and then pretty easy pace but altitude and beat up legs made it feel a lot harder than it should have. Felt pretty tired by 30 minutes but was in the middle of nowhere on crazy convoluted route so couldn’t bail. Somehow made it through 80 minutes and back to Yaya. Did drills and stretching with the guys. Total run 10M+ in 80’.

12pm: Ran solo shakeout on dirt track before lunch because I was bored. Total run 4km, 2.5M, 20’.

XT: Back/hips

PM: Totally wrecked. Sleep.

Martes, 8 de Diciembre, 2015 – AM: No run, planned to get up at 6am and run at 7 again but body said no and slept for 4 more hours. Wow!

5pm: Very easy and beautiful shakeout with Helen to giant field and back. Very nice run. ALSO – got to meet Haile Gebrsellasie today! Great day! Total run 10km, 6M++ in 57’.

XT: Back/hips

Miercoles, 9 de Diciembre, 2015 – AM: No run, slept later again and finished packing to leave for Bekoji! Body finally feeling better.

4pm: In Bekoji – town of runners! Walked to the track with Demis and ran with him as he was doing a workout with his group. Warmed up 15min easy and then did tons of drills and then the workout. Totally not ready to run fast and also had no idea what we were running. Ran about 1 lap and then stopped as it was way too fast. Ran 300m of their laps with them for about 4-5x but my legs were pretty gassed still – also way too much injera at a late lunch. Stood around and talked with Coach Senteyahu who was super friendly and spoke decent English. Finished with cool down routine and then jogged home. Total run 6M.

XT: Lots of drills, back/hips in hotel.

Jueves, 10 de Diciembre, 2015 – 7am: Jogged to the stadium to meet for big group run – over 100 athletes there. Warmed up 15 minutes easy, then ran with a group 15-20 over-distance for 80 minutes. Amazing run – very hilly, beautiful scenery, incredible to be in their pack. Pace from quite slow to quicker at the end (but running with girls as well so never that fast). Finished jogging home. Total run 13M+.

XT: Back/hips

3pm: Ran with Biriyam – walked from hotel about 1 mile to forest and then started very slow up steep hillside through forest, lots of weaving. Then came to dirt road, followed that across paved road and then out into countryside. Beautiful out here – very hilly, rolling. Picking up pace gradually and consistently. Arrived at farming area with giant field and ran big zig-zag pattern for maybe 10-15 min before arriving at the red clay road on the other side of the field with decent footing. There, we followed the road all the way back to town (I was assuming). Still quite hilly and we’re working now – split my watching and we’re running 3’30/km (and we’re at 2800m!). Oh – and this guy did 25x400m at 65 this morning. Absurd.

We finish very hard the last minute or so going over rougher terrain and I can barely keep up. Stop right at 60 minutes, rest for a bit.

“Okay, now we do intervals – maybe 3?”

“Um…”

I remember intervals mean strides and I figure I can handle that. We run 3x quite hard, last one very hard. Stop and do normal cooldown routine, stretching, then walk back to main road. He invites me into his house for coffee (I really don’t want to have coffee at 4pm, but I know it’s impolite to say no). I meet his family, have tiny espresso – seriously delicious, but I try not to drink too much, leave about half and he shows me a postcard from another American who had come and I tell him I’ll send him one too. Bid farewell and jog back to hotel – getting cold from drizzle and cool temp and being sweaty. Total run 8M+ in 60’.

Viernes, 11 de Diciembre, 2015 – 7am: Walk to practice with Demis and a few others we picked up along the way on a new side of town – very rural, residential. We came to a giant grassy spot with some electrical towers and small building which I’m told is the “Athletes’ camp” – apparently some people live here. Big group this morning – maybe 100 athletes. Start off with warm-up with Demis and his group. Very slow again but accelerate and are really hauling ass by the end. Feeling quite tired leg-wise from all the hilly and fast running, hoping for an easy run today. Do drills – same as before track workout day. Everyone in lines, synchronized, then we break off into groups.

I ask Coach what workout is. “Speed – 5000, no more than one hour”. Seems to be very hard to get a straight answer for what we’re doing in English.

We start first rep and everyone is sprinting – jesus. We stop after about 150m (Thank G-d) and I ask Demis what we’re doing. “Diagonals – twenty”.

Ok, I can maybe handle that. Rest is very short but second rep is slower, though footing is not so good, and I’m trying hard not to twist an ankle or trip and make a fool of myself.

I make it through maybe 4-5 and then I’m gassed, legs are totally shot. Jog a few miles around the outside of the field – about 1.5km around. Try to hang with Biriyam and his group who are doing steady running but they are also going too fast for me today – legs are totally fried.

Jog a bit more and then just stand and watch group – amazing to witness. Beautiful morning, just wish my legs weren’t so fried. It’s okay – this is my recovery week!

Jog a bit with Demis and then do cool-down routine, stretching, talk with Coach a bit. Walk back to hotel after with everyone. Another great start to the day!

Total run 10M

XT: Back/hips

3pm: Walk over to forest with Biriyam and meet Demis on the way. Meet some others by the forest who join our group. Again start VERY slowly and then get quicker as run progresses. Only 30 minutes, but not super easy. (Aside – we’d originally planned to do 40-60 minutes but Biriyam said only 30 minutes because the sun was out and it was hot).

Running in “forest” is weird – forest is really like the size of a soccer field and on a steep hillside, so we’re constantly switching-back up the hill side, around trees, sharp turns, over roots – very tough even though we’re running quite slow. We detour out to a field next to forest for some zig-zagging and then back to the forest – hipflexors are shot from all these hills!

Finish with last minute very hard on flatter ground (but still not great footing). After, very light jogging and then 3 hard strides over uneven ground, maybe 150m – feel surprisingly good but getting totally dusted on the last one when Demis and Biriyam were running hard. Normal cooldown, stretching. Jogged home.

Total run 7M.

Sabado, 12 de Diciembre, 2015 – 6:30am: Jogged to track and then ran solo laps for a while until Biriyam showed up – ran last few minutes with him and his group and then stopped and did 3x diagonals fast on grass which felt good. After, jogging and cooldown. Group was painting lines on the track, so jogged around the infield for a while longer. Finished with 4x200m with 200m jog in 33-36, then a few easy laps. Total run 10M++ in 82’ (included time stopping for stretching and cooldown, probably more like 72’).

XT: Back/hips

5:30pm: Made it back to Yaya village after a long and stiff trip from Bekoji. Waited for a bit to see if Helen was around and then ran solo. Was really tired and stiff but ran “African style” – started out super slow and found myself feeling much better and running quite quick within a few miles. Beautiful run out on the dirt roads. Finished on the dirt track with 4 strides, ethio drills, and then another 2km or so moderate because I was feeling good. Total run 7M+ in 50’.

Domingo, 13 de Diciembre, 2015 – AM: OFF – overnight flight from Addis Ababa to Doha and then not a huge amount of time in DOH before 14 hour flight back to DC. Walked as much as I could during layover, but spent the last 30 minutes or so in the gate area so was confined to a pretty absurd pacing. Got some walking done on the plane – had an exit row seat so very easy to get up whenever I wanted. Still 14 hours is a long time to spend in the air. Probably 15+ hours on the plane.

5pm: Ran around fields with strides. Felt okay but pretty wiped from two days with no sleep. Ethio cool down. Total run 7M, NT.