Weekly Summary – 142 miles in 14 runs. Finally getting into the rhythm of training again here in Quito at 9,300 feet above sea level! Great miles, a great track workout, and a great long run. Excited for what lies ahead.

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! Finally, I have a few spots open for athletes looking for custom training plans and online coaching. Check out my site and email me if you’re interested!

Lunes, 29 de Febrero, 2016 – 6am: Happy Leap Day! Early run around La Carolina and up to the market to get some hiking food for Quilotoa. Going for a night or two and then Dave and Marissa will stay longer. Total run 5M, NT.

PM: Made it to Quilotoa – nice walk along the crater rim for a bit. Beautiful as ever!

Martes, 1 de Marzo, 2016 – 6am: Crazy and long day, but amazing! Woke up around 5:30am to go out and see if the skies looked clear enough to merit dragging ass out of bed for sunrise. They were, so made some instant coffee in a cold water bottle (yum) and headed out to the overlook as dawn was just beginning to light the skies. Dave and Marissa joined and we walked to the left edge of the rim up to a high point where we could see into the crater and the valley to the west. Dave and I did some running up to the top of the ridge and then back down and then we all just relaxed and did some yoga and stared at the water and mountains.

After, we got a quick breakfast in the hostel and then headed out (david being David and taking forever) for a hike along the rim to the high point on the north-east ridge. Weather was cooperating but storm clouds on the horizon. Lots of hike-jogging and picture taking, nice easy rhythm. Quite slow going up the final climb towards the summit and was getting chilly without moving much, but we made it.

There was some debate about whether we should continue around the crater or head back the way we came (a bit shorter) and we opted to turn back due to the questionable clouds on the horizon and incoming rain. The ridge is super exposed and we really didn’t want to get caught in a storm.

So, we hike jogged back, stopping at a little overlook area with some really nice wood architecture. On the last big climb, I jogged all the way up solo and waited for the others (feeling antsy) which felt great. I basically jogged all the way back from there to the hotel. All told, it was about 3 hours round trip including lots of stops.

We hung around and had some snacks and coffee and packed up and then headed down, down, down on the path to the crater floor and lake. The sign said it was 1.7km (just over 1M) and would take 30 minutes. I had a hard time believing that a route that descended 1500 feet would take 30 minutes for a mile, but it basically did. The path was quite steep and sandy and we didn’t jog much to save our knees.

At the bottom, we found the kayak place and rented 3 kayaks – though there was some kerfuffle about letting us each have our own kayak. I think it was partly that the woman with the kayaks wanted to dole them out as efficiently as possible (they were all doubles – i.e. two doubles for the 3 of us), but there was also definitely some sexism as she kept insisting that one of us had to go with Marissa. This was a bit humorous, as Marissa is a professional river kayak guide and David and I are quite inexperienced.

We paddled out to the middle of the water and had a little meeting about our plans – I was about to head back to Quito and Dave and Marissa were staying in the campo. We took some pictures and paddled around but then I basically had to take off to try to get home at a reasonable hour.

And thus, around 3:50pm, began my long journey home. I paddled to shore (leg 1), grabbed my backpack and began running. Leg 2 consisted of a 1.7km run up the steep sandy trail which led from the lake at 11,200 feet to the rim at 12,700 feet. I was running extremely hard with sweat literally dripping from my face within a few minutes. I was extremely surprised when I realized I was almost there after what hadn’t felt that long. I looked at my watch for the first time as I made it up the final steps and it said 19 minutes – 11 minutes shorter than our descent!

Catching my breath, I grabbed the rest of my gear from the hostel and proceeded outside to look for a ride to Latacunga. I’d missed the last bus but had met a guy the night before who said he’d drive me for $20, which didn’t seem to crazy. I negotiated one guy down to $25 but he wasn’t budging. I was ready to give it to him until I remembered I had to leave Marissa’s gloves here, so I got out of the car, ran inside the hotel to drop them on the bed, and came back out. There, I saw the guy who I’d talked to earlier and offered me the $20 price. I said sorry to the other dude and hopped into the first driver’s car.

This guy was young – younger than me – and drove like a teenager, going 120kph down the one lane mountain road (on the straightaways) as herds of sheep walked alongside. We stopped to pick up his cousin – a younger girl who played a 15 second loop of “Taboo” by Don Omar repeatedly for the few minutes she was in the car.

We dropped her off in Zumbahua and then began the windy 65km stretch to Latacunga. After taking yet another blind corner over a 1000 foot cliff at way higher speed than I felt comfortable, I asked him if we could drive a bit slower, that I was feeling car-sick. “Claro,” he said. And I think we did slow down a little.

The ride was still a bit white-knuckle, but we made it to Lata in one piece. He explained he could either drop me at the rotary over the highway or could take me to the bus terminal (for more money). He promised that I could get a ride easily from the rotary by flagging down a passing Quito-bound bus. Having stood on the side of many a road waiting for a bus to pass, I wasn’t crazy about this, but he promised and pointed out that a bus was approaching as we pulled up.

So, I hopped out of the car and ran down the onramp where two buses were actually pulled over and boarding passengers. One started driving and then the conductor saw me and I waved to stop and wait. They slowed (not stopping) and I hopped the high sheet-metal fence over the on-ramp and down onto the highway and jumped onto the still-moving bus. Phew!

I was happy to see plenty of open seats and grabbed a window on the cotopaxi side near the back. I dozed and watched the end of “Inside Out” on my phone and then read a lot of Infinite Jest. Lucky to get a few minutes of Cotopaxi viewing for the first time on this trip, as the north-west face was out of the clouds. Looked like a lot of the glacier was gone, probably due to all the ash.

Arrived in Quitumbe around 7pm – earlier than I’d expected – so I opted to take the ecovia for 25 cents instead of paying $12 for a cab. An empty tram was pulling up right as I arrived, so I was able to get a seat and read for most of the hour-long trip to Eloy Alfaro (just one bus change, as this one didn’t go all the way to Rio Coca). I finally got back and stopped at the Shwarma place to pick up some dinner and was home by 8:30pm. So, about 4h40 in total, which is pretty amazing seeing that it took us almost 7 hours to get there (and that didn’t include a 1500 foot climb up the crater wall!).

Showered and crashed early, around 9:30pm. Great day!

Miercoles, 2 de Marzo, 2016 – 9am: Woke up naturally around 7:30am – good long sleep. Ran easy around la Carolina 4.5 big laps starting quite slow and finishing quicker, with most moderate around 4’10/km. Last km in 3’29 a bit more focused. Finished at a field and did 5x strides and ethio cooldown. Jogged afterward to gym and grocery store. Total run 20km, 12.5M in 1h25.

XT: Back/hips.

4pm: Easy run around La Carolina and then down south to La Marin to get produce. Felt good, took it easy with an attempt at a first interval workout tomorrow. Bus back was much slower than running but I had tons of groceries. Total run 5M- in 36’.

XT: Hips

Jueves, 3 de Marzo, 2016 – Sparknotes: 15x1000m at 2’59.4 avg (2’54-3’02) with 1’30-2’00 jog rest on track (NB: In Quito at 9,300 feet).

9am: First real workout up here in the mountains! Goal was to get in a decent amount of volume at somewhere around 10k to half marathon pace (which I’ll arbitrarily say is somewhere in the range of 2’55-3’05/km). The plan was to go to the track and do 10-15x 1km with ample rest due to the altitude.

I ran to the track and had to talk to a guy about how to use it. There’s a monthly or daily charge but he said I could have one day of free use (score!). I left my bag in a locker and then headed out to warm up for a while longer. Unlike marathon work, I want to make sure I’m well warmed-up for these faster workouts.

Came back and changed into clifton flats and then did drills and a few strides. Pace felt easier than I expected on strides but I figured running for 3 minutes would be different that 18 seconds.

Started out feeling very easy – like way too easy. Still, I knew that altitude could creep up, so I held back to run the first 4x in 3’00-3’02. After that, I actively accelerated in the next two (probably too much) and ran a 2’55 and 2’54. The next one, I went out in like 1’45 (2’55 pace) but really ate it in the last 400m. I was really struggling to recover and took an extra minute of rest after that one.

From there, I just tried to maintain that same 3’00ish pace but it felt WAY harder than it had in the first few reps. I took another longer rest (3 minutes) after 11x and then hoped I could hang on through 15. The last 4 were very tough and only about the same as the first 4x which felt like a jog.

Not sure if it’s just cumulative fatigue or the altitude or what, but definitely an interesting experience to have the perceived effort change so much at the same pace. Still a very solid workout, especially being the first fast running since the marathon really, and first workout at 9300 feet after being here only 5 days.

Cooled down short and then went to the gym for legs. Jogged home after. Only brought nuun so feeling quite tired and depleted by the end of all this (over 3 hours door to door).

Total run 18M+.

Splits (15x1000m with 1’30-2’00 jog at 9,300 feet)
(3’01.5)
(3’00.9)
(3’01.5)
(2’59.3)
(2’55.1)
(2’54.1)
(3’00.5) (1 minute extra rest)
(3’00.0)
(3’00.3)
(3’00.3)
(2’58.5)
(3’00.6) (1 minute extra rest)
(2’58.3)
(3’02.2)
(2’58.5)

XT: Legs at gym.

5pm: Very easy shakeout around La Carolina. Shuffle to start and much better by the end. Ran into some guy I knew whose name I don’t remember. Total run 5km, 3M+ in 24’.

Viernes, 4 de Marzo, 2016 – 8:30am: Ran up to the old airport park and then west up the hill side to the big highway to meet Ivan. Very tough going up those hills! We then ran along the highway for maybe 15 min (very smoggy) before turning west and heading up the hill into the forest. Nice to be out of the smog but jesus – so steep. Ran what seemed like a long way up the cobbled forest road – past some loggers – and then headed back down a very steep cobbled road on the other side. Split up with Ivan and ran to Inaquito to get a jugo de coco and then home. Total run 17M in 2h01.

XT: Back/hips

5pm: Was going to run earlier and head south but giant thunderstorm rolled and and so ran later around la carolina. Felt pretty bad at first stomach wise – burping up some gazpacho from lunch – and it was still raining and I’m a cat and hate water. Rain stopped and felt better after that so ran some random loops around the city before stopping at supermaxi and then coming home. Total run 5M++ in 39’.

XT: Core.

Sabado, 5 de Marzo, 2016 – 8:30am: Carolina-lap-fest today. Wanted to do 2h again, so ran to the park and then just got in a solid rhythm listening to a new audiobook. Did 7x laps of the 3.7km loop. Started out very slow first lap and then settled into moderate around 15-16’ per lap. Ran about 1km quicker with the one runner who caught up to me and passed me but was not running much faster (maybe 3’40 ish) and he only ran 1km with me. That was around 16km. Legs felt a bit tired after 20km but not too bad. Very sweaty and depleted with no breakfast and sunny by the end. Finished with 1M on the brand newly surfaced track (which is great!) with some 100m pickups. Total run 29km (18M) in 2h01.

XT: Back/hips.

5pm: Ran around Carolina to the track and did 4x strides – felt pretty good. Jogged over to grass for hips and then home. Easy shakeout. Total run 5km+, 3M+ in 23’.

XT: Hips.

Domingo, 6 de Marzo, 2016 – 9am: Long run sunday! A great one this morning. Felt 1000x better than last week. NB: this was done in Quito at 9,300 feet above sea level.

Ran on the cilcopaseo for 20km out/back very comfortable. Frist 5M in about 35’ but started quite slow so already quicker at that point. Running 3’40-50s by the time I got back to the park. Ran the path around the park from there which was a bit crowded but wanted to be able to take fluids (with CHO), so ran the remainder on the loop. Really picked it up at 25km and tried to run the last 15km or so around 3’30/km and was actually faster (17’17, 17’00, 16’39). Last 1500m was on the track and quicker. Felt extremely good and no fade at all. Jogged home from the track about 1M, so about 26M morning.

Total work was 40km in 2’32’01 (3’48/km, 6’10/M). Last 20km in 1’10’19 (3’31/km, 5’39/M). This is by far the best long run I’ve ever done at this altitude. Last time I tried to do 40km at a decent clip in Quito was before Boston in 2014 and I totally ate shit in the second half and then thought I was having heart failure and was basically lying on the floor of my apartment for several hours. A bit nervous because of that, but very, very pleased with how this went.

Total run 26M.

Unit Time Lap Pace
20 km 1’21’42.0 (21’42.0) (4’05.1)
25 km 1’41’05.0 (19’23.0) (3’52.6)
30 km 1’58’22.0 (17’17.0) (3’27.4)
35 km 2’15’22.0 (17’00.0) (3’24.0)
40 km 2’32’01.0 (16’39.0) (3’19.8)

4:30pm: Very easy shakeout around La Carolina. Stopped to watch some kind of BMX competition that was going on in the skate park and also to watch a dude in a parachute land in the middle of the track (I timed this run well for cool shit, apparently!). Ethio cooldown and stretching on the grass and then walked home. Total run 2M+, NT.

XT: Back/hips.