Weekly Summary – 135 Miles (215km) in 12 runs. The end of a very big 3.5 week stretch of training! Great workout on Thursday and a hard but brutal run at the Miami Marathon on Sunday. Looking forward to taking a couple lower weeks and letting the legs freshen up!

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 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, 21 de Enero, 2019 – 09:40: Ran from the new digs at Greg’s place up on the hill. Found a new route to the Metropolitano via Gonzalez Suarez – only about 500m longer than from the old place but a few more street crossings and one brutally steep road section.

Lovely morning once in the park. Pack of llamas hanging around at the big soccer field area. Legs/body felt a bit tired overall and pace was a tad slower (4’48/km out of the park) but then really noticed it when I ran down the hill and did a big lap of La Carolina. Planned to do 2x but only did 1 very slow (16’27) as legs just felt really tired. Probably still from being sick and a lot of volume the last 10 days or so. Bought a water bottle at the track as I felt really dehydrated which helped a bit. Did 6x strides very slow (2’14!) and then 200m in 32.9. Finished easy around the park and over to Iñaquito to stretch and then grocery shop. Total run 23km in 1h44.

XT: Glutes (7x weights)

16:15: Easy run solo down to the park and 2 big laps in 16’19, 16’10. Still a bit sluggish but better than the AM. Finished to the track and then 4x strides in 1’24. Felt much better on these than the morning. Lovely afternoon w/ views of Cotopaxi glaciar. Finished back and jogged up the super steep part of the hill. Total run 12km++ in 52’.

Martes, 22 de Enero, 2019 – 09:15am: Ran down to the track to see the guys and pick up the last of the money that Miki owed me. Ran a bit w/ Franklin and Miki as they were cooling down very slowly, then ran solo a good bit quicker to wait for Miki and then headed solo over to the park, 1 big lap in 15’38 and then over to the track. Stopped and did drills and 6x strides in 2’02 and then 200m in 30.8. Finished easy home. Very warm and sunny! So happy to be here in January. Even ran all the way up the hill! Total run 20km in 1h26.

XT: Glutes (7x weights)

16:00: Easy new clockwork route. Much better crossing 6 and then over to the park, 2 big laps in 15’56, 15’41. Felt way better today. Legs much bouncier. Stopped and did drills and then 4x strides in 1’21. Super sunny and hot still – views of Cotopaxi again. Awesome. Finished easy home. Total run 12km+ in 51’.

Miercoles, 23 de Enero, 2019 – 08:30: Woke up later than planned and jogged down to the track, warmed up solo 5km+ total and then did drills and a few strides. Felt okay but not great today. Plan was to do 20x400m w/ 50-60sec rest. Ran the first one in 68.2 which felt okay but then the next 2x we 71.7, 74.5. Oof! Stopped and re-evaluated. Tried to break the workout up into 200s. Ran 33.5, 33.9, 35.7 and then just called it. Body clearly didn’t have it today. Frustrating but not worth fighting. Jogged easy around the park, 1 big slow lap (16’26) and then home. Total run 16.5km in 75’.

XT: Pedestal, 8’, 7x weights.

16:05: Easy run around park, 2 big laps 15’36, 15’28. Felt much better than the AM. Keeping it normal as I’ll try to work out tomorrow. To the track and drills, 4x strides in in 1’23. Home via bakery. Total run 13km in 54’.

Jueves, 24 de Enero, 2019 – Sparknotes: 5000m @ 16’57 (10’29, 3’18, 3’10) + 10x 250m @ 41.1, 150m rec, last 4x 41, 40, 40, 38!

07:00: Jogged to the track and then did the start of drills w/ the gang as I was waiting for the sprinklers to turn off which were dumping into lane 1. Did the first 5-10 minutes or so and ducked out before they got too explosive. Jogged a bit and then did last drills on my own and strides (4x) before starting the workout.

Goal was to first do 5km at goal race pace for Sunday (3’30) and if I felt good run the last 2km progressing. Felt extremely slow first km, still ran the first 200m in like 38 seconds but settled in after that. Amazing how quickly it stopped feeling that easy but still maintained well (10’29 at 3K) and then began to accelerate. Tried to push a bit each lap and did that running 3’18 and then 3’10 the last km. Didn’t crush it or anything, just brought it it well.

Timing worked out well as the guys were finishing their warmup so hopped in and jogged about 1km and then went into the second half of the workout.

Hoped to do 5-10x 250m quick, 150m jog. First rep was extremely slow (47.3 is 3’09/km pace!), so ran w/ Kimetto and one of the gemelos after that for the next 5 reps very consistently around 41-42.x, trading off leads. Felt pretty good doing this.

Stopped after rep #6 and put on my spikes for the last 4x which I haven’t worn in close to a year. Wasn’t sure how they’d feel but hopped back in w/ Miki and Kimetto and ran the first rep in 40.6 feeling the same as before. The next 3 were all faster 40.0, 39.8, 38.1. Last rep was very hard but felt good running 30.x pace at the end of the workout!

Cooled down a few km around the grass and then home.

Very good session and such a big difference from yesterday! Woo hoo!

Total run 20km in 1h26.

1 km 3’30.5 (3’30.5)
2 km 7’00.3 (3’29.8)
3 km 10’29.1 (3’28.8)
4 km 13’47.5 (3’18.4)
5 km 16’57.6 (3’10.1)

(5’ jog)
10x250m quick, 150m jog

Avg 250m 41.1, avg rec 54.4

Time Split
250 m 0’47.3 (0’47.3)
150 m 1’41.0 (0’53.7)
250 m 2’22.8 (0’41.8)
150 m 3’09.2 (0’46.4)
250 m 3’52.1 (0’42.9)
150 m 4’41.7 (0’49.6)
250 m 5’23.8 (0’42.1)
150 m 6’08.8 (0’45.0)
250 m 6’50.7 (0’41.9)
150 m 7’40.9 (0’50.2)
250 m 8’23.4 (0’42.5)
150 m 11’16.0 (2’52.6)
250 m 11’56.6 (0’40.6)
150 m 12’52.4 (0’55.8)
250 m 13’32.4 (0’40.0)
150 m 14’22.3 (0’49.9)
250 m 15’02.1 (0’39.8)
150 m 15’55.3 (0’53.2)
250 m 16’33.4 (0’38.1)

13:00: Ran early as I planned to triple. Easy loop around the park but legs felt really good for some reason. Ran quite quick w/o trying, 2 big laps in 15’36, 15’09, then to the track, drills, 4x strides in 1’26. Ran down to the Foch and planned to finish there where I was picking up gear for the climb on Monday but I just reserved it and they said I could pick it up Monday morning, so since I had plenty of time and had to get home anyway, I figured I’d just get in the rest of the volume for the day. Ran down to El Ejido park. Extremely hot and thirsty so grabbed a jugo de coco which I drank while running 3 laps around the park and then jogged home via Amazonas to 6. Ended up 1km longer than planned but all good. Last run of this big block! Total run 21km in 1h28.

Viernes, 25 de Enero, 2019 – 09:15am: Let myself sleep later after being up later than planned going out to dinner w/ a bunch of folks to celebrate Lucius’ birthday and Gamburd’s return. Another lovely morning – keep pinching myself that the weather is so great.

Ran very slow and easy down to the park. Purposefully started off very slow and ran 2 big laps (16’44, 16’09) and then to the track (10km+ in 44’). Stopped and did drills and then 6x strides which felt surprisingly decent in 2’03 and then 200m in 31.2. Jogged back longer way via el Jardin to grab snacks for travel tomorrow. Total run 14km in 61’.

XT: Glutes (10x reps, 6x weights)

PM: Planned off.

Sabado, 26 de Enero, 2019 – AM: Planned off. Travel to MIA. Smooth trip w/ an early morning wake-up around 04:30 and was out the door by 05:00. Super easy trip w/ breakfast at the lounge in UIO and then on-time flight and breezed through global entry line and Mel was waiting for me. Made it to her house by about 12:30pm.

13:00: Ran from Mel’s place down to the U Miami Campus. About 4.5km there and ran very relaxed around 4’0x pace. Stopped there and did drills and strides in a parking lot before hopping on the track as I thought I might get kicked off. Ran 1600m on the track w/ the first 1km at goal race pace and then the last 600m accelerating. Sea level is so hard to judge! Still ran the first 200m in like 38 but then chilled out and came to 1000m in about 3’25 (auto lap hit short) and then ran 1’42 for the last 600m, fairly even like 34/68/1’42. 5’17 overall for the 1600m.

After that, ran easy down around campus a bit and found a nice field complex just down from the track so ran around that for a few km and then back to Mel’s the same way. Nice bike path along Route 1! Finished at publix to get bottles and lunch. Parking lot ethio. Ready to go tomorrow.

Total run 15km+ in 60’.

Domingo, 27 de Enero, 2019 – Sparknotes: MIA Marathon, 4th 2’32’25 (72’50/79’35), 3’34 avg.

06:00: Woke up at 03:45am or so. Had black coffee and a few animal crackers only. Had about 500mL of caffeinated nuun over the next hour or so before the start.

Drove in w/ the girls and got parked by about 05:10 or so. Jogged over to the start area and then found the elite corral (there was no tent, they told us to just leave our stuff over on the side).

Jogged down some waterfront path for about 2km. Legs and breathing felt good. Stopped on the way back and did drills and then moved into the corral as it was close to the 05:45 cutoff. Did the rest of my drills in there but no real space for strides. No biggie.

Pulled us back before 06:00 but didn’t end up starting until 06:12, so tried to stay loose. Got off the line fine and stayed out of trouble in the first few hundred meters before settling in.

First few km were into a nasty exposed headwind as we ran along a causway into Miami Beach. Moved up through a few groups until I found one guy who seemed to be cruising right at 3’30/km. Tucked in behind him for much of the windy section.

Around 8km we turned out of the wind and headed north through MIA beach. It was still dark but already very humid and warm. I missed my first bottle but was taking water at every station to dump on my head. We were under 28’00 at 8K, after being like 17’35 at 5K, so I knew we were running a bit quicker but I felt comfrotable and wasn’t too worried and was glad to have company for some (he was a half runner).

Felt very good from here for a while. Led our group of 2-3 for some of the miles as the wind was at our back and I was feeling nice. Splits were a bit fast (3’20s), but w/ the wind at our back, I figured it was fine as we’d have to turn back into the wind at some point anyway and that would probably cost us on the other side. Passed 10K in 34’30ish and 15K in 51’30ish so we were running about 17’00 pace at that point.

Finally, one runner was left w/ me until about the 20km point when he turned off. I was still feeling good and we were consistent (20km was 68’50, so 17’20 that split was a bit slower but more turns and we’d run through some more wind). The half runner turned off after 20km and then I was on my own.

Very quiet through these next few km. I saw my split at 22km from the garmin was 3’49 and that was a very “woah” moment (though, in retrospect, that might have just been from GPS error as we were running through downtown). Still it definitely gave me a mental lapse as I was worried I’d really slowed down. I tried to stay focused and did okay through the next 10km but I could see my overall avg pace was slowing pretty quickly. Ran 18’22 (garmin) from 20-25km and then 18’02 from 25-30km. There were some very windy stretches in there as we ran out/back on another causway from like 24-28km but it felt sloooow.

I was really thinking about dropping out at that point but I could see I was in 6th on the out/back section and didn’t see anyone behind me, so I was holding out hope that a few of the guys in front of me would feel even worse than I did and either drop out or I’d be able to pass them. I was running really slowly and trying not to look at my garmin but the mile markers had clocks on them and I could see I was running 6’00+ mile pace. Oof.

I don’t really know how to explain it. There were a few times where I was mentally checked out and just said okay I’ll jog it in, but it didn’t really feel easy. Most of the time it still felt hard. I think that when I ran my marathon PR and ran the last 10km under 32’00, it felt easier. Running is weird sometimes.

So, I was doing all the normal stuff you do in a bad race (that you shouldn’t) like thinking about how much is left and how 18 minutes of running seems like an awfully long time and how running over 2h30 would be pretty embarrassing and how generally bad for me the world should feel as my life is oh so difficult. The only silver lining in the last 12km was that I saw one of the Ethiopian runners had dropped out and a guy on a bike told me that “he’s hurting!” about the guy in 4th place, which comment, I asummed, he’d probably said to everyone, but to my surprise the 4th place guy, a big latino looking bub, did come back to me very quickly and I found myself engaged in the race for a few minutes (probably around 39km).

Other than that, it was just a brutal slog all the way to the finish. The last km has a big, steep climb up a draw-bridge w/ a grated iron top-section and then a steep downhill on the other side, none of which feels good at 41+km.

Finished in 2’32’25 for 4th place. 1st out of the money. Ugh.

Overall, this was a pretty poor day at the office. Maybe I expected too much (happiness = expectations minus reality after all), but I really didn’t think the workout on paper was too much to ask (3’30 pace through 30km and then picking it up the last 10-12km).

Jon thought the conditions had a lot to do w/ it. It was definitely warmer than expected (the sun had come out by the end) and it was probably 68-70F at the start; mostly it was extremely humid, close to 100% at the start as it was drizzling a bit when we got there this morning but stopped before the race started. The strong winds actually felt nice a few times.

My legs also have an awful lot of volume in them. The last 3 weeks were 213, 239, 215km (133, 150, 135 miles, even w/ two very light days before the marathon). It’s possible that this block – the biggest I’ve done in over a year – is just taking some time to sink in before my legs really feel it. The two super early mornings in a row right before the race probably don’t help. For what it’s worth, my RHR was only 49 this morning which, at sea level, seems very high to me. Makes me think maybe the body still had a lot of fatigue in it for whatever reason.

But trying to figure out why you have a bad workout or race is kind of like trying to figure out how you got food poisoning. You’ll never really know if it was one thing or a combination of many small factors or just something completely random.

The silver lining? I did get in a good hard effort for 2h32 minutes. I did average under 3’36/km (goal race pace). And it was a fun trip – good to see Mel and meet her friend and do something crazy and impulsive.

Whatever happens I’m looking forward to letting the legs freshen up the next 2 weeks and then putting in another big block before RNR D.C.

Total run 44.5km.

14:30: Jogged around the airport w/ my backpack on for about 15’ trying to get to the centurion lounge which ended up being closed! Oh no! Life is hard! Total run 3km.