Weekly Summary – 137 miles in 14 runs. A big chunk of that was all on Wednesday as I ran my longest single ever (64km in 4h11) in prep for some even longer runs later in the spring! Stay tuned for a big announcement coming soon.

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’m looking forward to working w/ him again to keep me healthy now that I’m back in town!

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, 18 de Marzo, 2019 – 08:30am: Jogged to Hynes and then took the greenline out to Woodland to meet Sue McNatt at Wellesley HS track. Ran over there and jogged around the infield while waiting, about 10km total. Did some video and strength analysis to start some form work. About 4x100m very relaxed around 3’20-30 pace. Got some good feedback right away and hopefully more to come. Finished retracing my steps and jogged back from Hynes. Total run 12km in 54’.

XT: A bunch of random strength exercises w/ Sue, toes, heel drops.

15:00: Ran easy over to prospect park, not even 3km there so jogged around the square to get to 4K warmup. Stopped and did drills and about 3 light strides. First short hills session in a while. Tried to split my watch for each rep to get a sense of how I was doing. Right around 15.0 for each one from the manhole at the bottom to the second big crack in the road (right after the lightpole). Got into it well and the fastest ones were in the second half. Figured I’d do 6-10x and ran 10 no problem. Full recovery (didn’t time it), very slow jogging/walking. Last rep ran all the way to the top of the hill which my watch missed but is probably 200m+.

Jogged back after and then did rest of the run in the gym as it was cold and I was sweaty. Ran 5km on treadmill (2%) starting at 3’32 or so and running the first 4K in exactly 14’00 (3’30 pace) and then accelerated a lot in the last 1K running 2’58.x for 16’59.

Caught my breath and then did 5km easy in 21’20.

Total run 18km.

XT: Heel drops, toes, pedestal (10x weights), shoulder pulls

Martes, 19 de Marzo, 2019 – 09:30am: Started late as it was really fckn cold (at least for me and late March). Ran short w/ a big day on tap tomorrow. Easy on the chuck. Ran into Andrea Sorgato on the Boston side and ran w/ him for a while back over Smoot. Nice to have some company and good to catch up. Finished at the track and did maybe 2km on the turf and then drills, 4x strides in 1’21 (quickest in a while, legs feeling decent finally) and then 200m in 33. Easy around town to finish. Total run 12km in 51’30.

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

15:30: Good meeting w/ Jon re logistics for tomorrow and then good deep nap. Ran solo just down to the track and laps on turf infield. Legs felt pretty good. Changed into SWs and then did drills, ran 400m in 84 super relaxed (wanted to hit about 90) and then did 4x strides in 1’21. Shoes feel great! Total run 6km in 25’.

XT: Heel drops, toes, shoulder pulls.

Miercoles, 20 de Marzo, 2019 – Sparknotes: 64km in 4h11 (3’55 avg), positive split w/ tough last 16k.

09:30: Big day today! Up at 06:00 and had a NV bar and coffee and relaxed before heading out around 08:30. Drove out to Lexington and then did last logistical stuff w/ Jon, used the bathroom, etc. Weather was perfect, not too cold, very little wind. Started out in half tights, short sleeve shirt, light jacket, light gloves, hat. Wore the SWs.

Felt very good at the start. Plan was to run under 4’00/km pace and the start was downhill for about 8km to simulate the downhill start of the race. Legs felt poppy and pace felt very easy and was around 3’40/km. This felt fine w/ the downhill but I knew it was a bit quick.

Met up w/ Jon before Alewife and got gel #1 for 10K and some nuun. Then continued solo up over the bridge and around fresh pond until arriving at the river. Barely had to stop, maybe 30sec stoppage time for a couple streetlights.

Met Jon again at the river and lapped my watch for the first time at just over 18km at the parking lot on the Boston side of the loop. Most of the run would be on this loop so it’d be easier to support for Jon and so I’d have fairly consistent feedback. Avg pace was 3’48 at this point.

Ran one whole lap w/ Jon on bike and pace was very consistent, still at 3’48 avg at about 25km. Next lap was solo and still felt fine and brought me to about 32km still at 3’48 avg. Around 34km at the JFK bridge, I met up w/ Lou Serafini and ran w/ him for about 1.5 laps. This was very nice as I was definitely starting to feel tired and he helped keep things relaxed and keep the pace consistent. All these laps were very consistent, from 26’00-26’35 or 3’47-51 pace.

Lou took me to maybe 45km and then things started to feel quite hard. I hung on well until the end of that lap ~48km but then had to stop briefly as it had gotten quite warm and I was sweating way too much. Stopped and took off my jacket and undershirt and put on the light longsleeve. Very hard to get started again and definitely lost my rhythm a bit.

This last stretch was very hard mentally and physically. I knew I was slowing down a lot and so part of me was unsure whether it made sense to keep going. I was off my schedule for gels as I was having a hard time stomaching them but I think part of it was that I was dehydrated from sweating so much as when I saw Jon again around 52km and got some nuun I was able to get the gel down. I told Jon I was feeling bad and he encouraged me to keep going.

I had a few little milestones like at 53km which was the longest I’d run before and then every km after that was new territory. Really incredible central governor stuff going on as I would go from feeling like I could get from one milestone to the next and then all of a sudden feel like I couldn’t run another step. This vascillation would happen in the course of like 10 steps. Really intense.

The end of the next lap would be right around 60km, so I told myself I’d get to there. When I was getting close, I figured I’d go to 64km as that was about 40 miles and also seemed like a much more significant bump from 53km last time.

The pace had slowed a lot since the stop at 48km but didn’t seem to be slowing much more (4’1x pace in general). The last few km were very hard but I actually managed to run a tiny bit quicker (closer to 4’10 than 4’20) for the last 2K or so. In retrospect, I probably could have maintained that 4’1x pace for a while longer as it didn’t feel like I was slowing down any more, just working hard to run that slower pace. I’m not sure if that would have been a better decision or not, but either way, I was finished.

Came in at 64km in 4’11’15

17:30: Couldn’t really sleep for a nap but at least got some food in me and then did a light jog. Planned to only do 20 minutes so jogged down to the turf and did the whole run there. Surprisingly decent and ended up doing 30’ since Mariana was late (we were meeting at Anna’s). Total run 6.3km in 30’.

Jueves, 21 de Marzo, 2019 – 10:00am: Ran late after sleeping late and giving my body some extra rest this AM. Slept decently, a bit achy. Ran down to fields and did pretty much the whole run on grass. 10 laps of the fields which are finally snow free and dry. Each lap around 4’00 which is 4’30-40 pace. Much better than I expected, especially given how rough last week’s recovery was. Finished on the track and did drills and 4x very slow strides just to open up the legs. Jogged home. Total run 11km+ in 51’.

XT: Heel drops, toes, band work

15:15: Good massage from Sam Peck. Very good work on posterior chain which was super tight from yesterday.

14:15: Easy run down to Davis for appointment w/ Sam Peck at SoarBody. Felt pretty tired and pace was slow. Ran over the hill and did drills and 4x light strides on the road. Finished at Sam’s and then jogged to the T and home after. Total run 10.5km in 49’.

XT: Heel drops, toes, shoulder pulls, Pedestal (10x weights)

Viernes, 22 de Marzo, 2019 – 10:00: Very tired this morning. Was in bed for like 11 hours and felt like I could have slept all day. These big days really take a lot out of me I guess.

Absolutely filth outside today, 38F, rain, 25mph winds, so ran on the treadmill. Watched the documentary about Gary Robbins at the Barkley Marathons which was both the perfect amount of time and very well done and engaging. Started out very slow but felt decent once I got moving and ran mostly around 4’05-10/km. Did drills but no strides as I figured I’d give my legs a bit of a break and strides on the treadmill don’t accomplish that much at low speed.

Total run 17.5km in 74’.

XT: Heel drops, band work, glutes (10x weights), shoulder pulls, bird dogs

15:30: Ran on treadmill again b/c it’s filthy outside still and I’m a baby. Felt absolutely awful. Drills after, no strides. Total run 10km in 44’.

XT: Heel drops, toes

Sabado, 23 de Marzo, 2019 – 10:30a: Ran on mill again. Ugh. Getting sick of Boston. Much better than yesterday PM. Finished quick and did 8x surges at around 5’00/M pace. Total run 18km in 76’.

XT: Shoulder pulls (black), side band walks (blue), HF band (green), internal/external rotations (blue), heel drops, toes

17:00: Finally left the house for the first time in like 36 hours. Down to the fields and did 9km on the grass and then stopped and did drills and strides on the side access rd as the track was occupied w/ LAX game. Felt okay, not great. Total run 10km in 43’30.

XT: Heel drops, toes.

Domingo, 24 de Marzo, 2019 – Sparknotes: 10km easy + 10x short hills.

10:00am: Ran easy on the fields for about 7km and then over to prospect hill, 10km in 45’ or so. Felt okay but pace is still so much slower than it should be. Stopped and did drills and a couple light accelerations and then did 10x short hills. Got quicker on each one from 15.x down to 14.high for the last 6. Rec by feel, not sure how long. Planned to do a fartlek afterward, so jogged back down towards home/the river. Surprised to see how slow I was running again but tried to start anyway. Did a couple strides that felt awful so just canned it and went home. Really struggling w/ energy level right now. Total run 14km in 62’.

XT: Shoulder pulls (black), side band walks (blue), HF band (green), internal/external rotations (blue), heel drops, toes

16:00: Not a good day here. Planned to try the fartlek I’d bailed in the morning. Ran 5km to warm up which felt okay but mechanics just felt bad on the faster stuff. Ran about 3’ at 3’30 pace and then maybe 2.5 minutes at 3’10 or so and just bailed after that. Ugh. Really frustrated w/ myself right now.

XT: Shoulder pulls, heel drops, toes