Weekly Summary – 137 miles in 13 runs. 6 days up, 1 day down. End of this massive block (20 days at 36.5km (22.7M)/day avg., some very solid workouts, and all of it at 9300 ft above sea level. It’s been a great block and I’m looking forward to building off the strength I’ve developed up here.

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 wouldn’t be running 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 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, 25 de Febrero, 2019 – 09:15: Started late after sleeping poorly and taking a while to get out the door. Ran up to metro and body was pretty wrecked. Knew I was running very slowly but still surprised to see how slow avg pace was coming out of the park (5’22!). Ran down and didn’t even do a full lap as I was beat. Did drills and then 8x strides in 2’58 and 200m in 34. Finished easy back. First run w/ avg over 5’00! Total run 19km in 1h36.

XT: Heel drops (10x), toes, glutes (9x weights)

15:45: Ran down to the park. Legs and body pretty beat still. 2 big slow laps in 16’56/16’35 and then to the track. 4x strides very slow again 1’29. Definitely more beat than last Monday. Easy jog back home. Total run 12.5km in 58’.

XT: Heel drops (10x), toes

Martes, 26 de Febrero, 2019 – 09:15: Slept well and long. Legs and body still a bit tired but better. Ran down to the track and then around the outfield for a while to wait for the gang to finish so I could collect some cash money they owed me. Then ran up and did the whole metropolitano loop. Felt decent and lovely morning. Ran w/ a baby llama at the top of the last hill coming across the field. Down to the strides rd and did drills 8x strides there and then 200m+ (garmin) in 34. Finished home. Total run 21.5km in 1h42.

XT: Pedestal (8’, 9x weights), toes, heel drops (10x)

15:30: Easy clockwork down to the park. Legs much better than yesterday. 2 big laps 16’19, 15’42. To the track and drills, 4x strides in 1’24 and then easy home. Total run 12km+ in 53’.

XT: Toes, heel drops (10x)

Miercoles, 27 de Febrero, 2019 – Sparknotes: 8km @ 26’58 (17’29, 9’39) (treadmill)

09:00 Jogged over to Lu’s to use the gym. Got kind of yelled at for not being there w/ a resident so decided to just use the machine and then leave. Did 3.5km warmup and light drills and then 8km uptempo w/ 5km steady at 17’29 feeling very relaxed and then 3km accellerating (3’17, 3’12, 3’06). 26’58 total for 8K. Felt very good on this.

After, ran outside basically normal rest of run. 1 big lap 16’11 and then to the track, 6x strides. Legs felt good but was wearing Cavus and the way I’d laced them was irritating the top of my foot.

Finished at inaquito.

Total run 20.5km.

XT: Toes, Heel drops (10x), glutes (9x weights)

15:30: Easy run down to the carolina. Legs felt surprisingly decent and ran quicker than I expected, 2 big laps 15’43, 15’26. To the track and then drills, 4x strides in 1’23. Good. Easy back. Total run 12km in 51’30.

XT: Toes, Heel drops (10x)

Jueves, 28 de Febrero, 2019 – Sparknotes: 4x1200m @ 3’44 (avg) w/ 2’ jog + 6x400m @ 68.5 avg (50” rec).

07:15am: Jogged over to the track for session this AM w/ the gang. Miki was just leaving as I was getting there – apparently he’d had to workout super early – and JL and Isra weren’t there which meant it was just Denis that I’d be able to work out w/. Bummer.

Warm up felt good and good amount of drills (not too many) and then jogged another few km for maybe 5.5km total. 3x very easy strides. Ran in rockets.

Workout was supposed to be 6x1200m w/ 2’ jog.

Led the first rep which was very slow. Went out in 37/76 and ran 3’51! Ugly! Legs/PE were just not ready to run fast I guess.

Denis led the second one and we were out better at 72 but still slowed down in the second half for 3’42. I noticed the top of my foot/ankle area was sore where the laces were tied (noticed this yesterday running Cavus too) and was adjusting my laces between reps. 3rd rep was basically the same at 3’41. Last rep was slower as my foot was really hurting and basically jogged the last 100m for 3’43. Denis was done after 4x and I knew I’d struggle on any more longer stuff, so decided to run the last 2.4km of work in 400s. Ran the first but had to stop at 300m as the pain was bad. Changed into the updated 119s which I’d brought to test out and those felt much better (though their grip on wet track wasn’t great).

Still surprised by how slow I was running (69.x for the first 4, slowing down, and 70.x for the 3rd). The penultimate one I had Edi doing his last rep help pull me along and ran 67.x and again ran 67 on my last one. Rest was 50 seconds.

Overall this was a pretty poor session but I’m glad I got in all the volume and I’m glad I dropped down and ran 400s as that was at least a different, higher-turnover stimulus. My legs are just too tired and not accustomed enough to this faster stuff to be able to hop into a hard workout like this, especially w/o the faster guys to help pull me along. Good thing I’ve got just a few more days of this block and then some downtime!

Finished w/ a long cooldown to keep the mileage high, mostly solo and then finished w/ Franklin. Jogged home w/ backpack full of stuff. Total run 23km++ in 1h47.

XT: Pedestal (8’, 9x weights), heel drops (10x each), toes.

15:00: Easy longer PM run. Ran down to the carolina dn 3 big laps, 16’00, 15’50, 15’57 and then 3/4 lap finishing at the track for 16km in 71’. Did drills and then 4x strides in 1’23, felt pretty decent despite the session this AM. Then end of this block is in sight! Easy around the park and finished at Maxi to get food. Total run 18km in 78’30.

XT: Heel drops (10x each), toes

Viernes, 1 de Marzo, 2019 – 09:15am: Slept late after inadvertently staying up later than planned yesterday. Beautiful morning, though, and ran the big metro loop. Legs felt surprisingly decent; sure the sunshine helped! Pace was 4’47 out of the park which is very good (it was 5’22 on monday!). Stopped at the strides rd and did drills and 8x strides on the road which felt quite good and then ~200m (garmin) in 32. Finished easy down the hill and a loop around Benalcazar before heading home. Total run 17.5km in 1h19.

XT: Heel drops (10x each), toes, glutes (9x weights)

15:45: Left a bit later as I was planning to meet up w/ Brittany. Ran about 3.5km solo first to the track and then did drills, 4x strides in 1’26. Legs felt okay, bit tired. Track was a bit chaotic w/ Carnaval stuff starting. Jogged easy around the track and then met up w/ Brittany there and then ran about 5km around the park. Nice to have company on a very easy run. Nice afternoon – cloudy but no rain. Been very lucky with that. Finished solo back home. Total run 12.5km in 57’30.

XT: Heel drops (10x each), toes

Sabado, 2 de Marzo, 2019 – Sparknotes: 30km in 2h00. Stomach bug, slower than planned, mostly solo.

06:40am: Woke up very early to meet up w/ Franklin and head down to the Chaquiñan for the last long run of this block. Met up w/ Franklin around 05:45 and drove down and got there shortly after 06:00 right as dawn was breaking. Waited around a while and did some warm up stuff w/ the big group of amateurs and then headed off.

Tummy was not feeling great really starting yesterday. Had some liquid poo both in the morning before I left the house and last at the bathroom at the chaq. Portal. Wasn’t super optimistic about the run, but tried to stay positive.

Left w/ Franklin and Miki and pace felt pretty quick from the start though it wasn’t that fast. First 2.5km are down a big hill and I’ve run 3’30s pretty comfortably on that route, so saw 3’4x for the first km and given how it felt that was not great feedback. Still tried to just relax and stay w/ Miguel.

At the bottom of the hill, Miguel started pushing pretty hard and quickly gapped me as we went up the long steep hill from about 2.5-4km. That was the last I’d see of him and our 3some was strung out less than 10% of the way done w/ the run. Oh well.

I’d basically run solo and by effort and try not to look at splits too much over the next 10km or so. It’s a big net uphill until about 11km and that felt pretty tough. A lot of times I wanted to just bail but stuck w/ it until the top of the canyon at 11km where the trail heads steeply downhill to the bottom of the canyon. I figured I’d pick up a lot of time on this but the downhill was really feeling my tummy on the downhill and just couldn’t turn my legs over. Franklin actually caught back up to me at like 13km and we ran together from there to the turnaround at 15km.

Nice to have company for a bit but I had to stop there and go to the bathroom and Franklin just said “catch up to me!” and took off. I figured I might catch him on the way back up the canyon wall but I’d never see him again.

The way back was more of the same. Feeling pretty bad up the hills and not making up as much time as I’d like to on the downhills. Nothing much else to say but I did stay in it mentally and used it as a good time to practice suffering.

Stopped at 28km and then jogged the last 2km up the big hill back to the car lot.

Total run 30km, total work 28km++ in 1h52.

XT: toes, heel drops

14:00: Ran early to get the shakeout done. Felt really bad. Serious tummy issues and low energy. Had to stop twice to go to the bathroom, oof. Finished at the track and did drills and 4x strides in 1’28. Sun came out right as I was finishing which was really nice. Total run 7km in 33’33.

XT: Toes, heel drops

Domingo, 3 de Marzo, 2019 – 09:00: Spent like 12+ hours in bed last night. Felt better after a lazy morning. Very easy run as this is rec. Block day 1. Jogged down to La Carolina and then out/back on the ciclopaseo norte. Didn’t make it up the big hill, but nice change of scenery. Jogged back to the track and did 4x strides which felt surprisingly decent (1’24) and then 200m in 32. Jogged back. Total run 13.5km in 60’30.

XT: Heel drops, glutes (9x weights), toes.

PM: OFF. Planned, Rec block day 1.