Weekly Summary – 109 miles in 14 runs. A great last “up” week as the taper has already started. Good recovery from last weekend’s ultra-marathon long run and two solid track sessions this week. We’re less than two weeks out and it’s time to focus on freshening up and staying healthy!

If you don’t know about the Road to 50K, check out the announcement post from last week and follow along at Road to 50K site designated to covering the event. And of course, you can follow me day to day on Instagram and Twitter (@TylerCAndrews) and my daily training log on Strava (GPS included!). Don’t forget to check out STRIVE’s 2018 Programs – we’ve still got a few spaces available for high schoolers, college interns, and adults! You can come do service work and train with me in Peru or Kenya and for the summer of 2018, we’ll once again have programs for High School and College students, and even 10-day trips for adults and families, so be sure to take a look if you’re interested in an amazing summer experience!

 

Lunes, 26 de Marzo, 2018 – 9am: Slept a long time. Pretty sore this morning but better after walking around a bit. Easy run down to the park. Started out very slow and eased into it 17’10, 16’29 for 2 big loops. Long way to the track and then 6x strides and 200m in 33. Legs didn’t have much pop as expected. Much better by the end, though. Total run 13km+ in 58’.

XT: Toes

12pm: Photo shoot w/ Mel all over the city – teleferiqo, old town, etc. At least 5km of running and lots of time on feet walking around.

4:30pm: Started out w/ Mel very easy down to the park, 1 big lap 16’57, 2nd solo and quicker 16’47. Stopped at the track and did 4x strides, felt better than the AM but tired from a long day. Total run 11km+ in 51’.

XT: Toes.

Martes, 27 de Marzo, 2018 – Sparknotes: (PM) 10x200m @ 32.0 avg (30.0-32.7) w/ 200m+ jog in 1’19 avg

8:50am: Slept well again but up a bit later last night w/ Ben and his family coming by. Ran easy down to the park and 2 big laps 17’21, 16’25. Much better by the end. Ran to the track and did 6x strides, 200m in 31. Felt MUCH better on strides than yesterday. Glad I slept through the track, though, as I definitely wasn’t ready to do a hard workout and need the extra sleep more. Another beautiful morning. Sunny and warm. Total run 13km+ in 58’.

XT: Toes

4pm: Very light PM session since the legs and energy level felt good today. Ran in claytons so felt a bit springier out the door. Some very dark clouds as I was leaving which I hadn’t seen from the room and so got a bit wet and heard some thunder, but nothing too bad. Mostly drizzle and only rained hard for like 1 minute.

Did 1 big lap in 15’50 and then to the track 8km in 35’. Stopped there and did drills and a couple strides and then did 10x200m w/ 200m+ jog back. Felt quite good on these. No strain and the recovery was only about 75-80 seconds and that felt more than enough, even jogging. Most were 31.x-32.x but really just going by feel to get a bit of turnover after the big one on Sunday. Ran #9 a bit more focused and ran 30.0. #10 back to relaxed and 32.x again.

Overall avg was 32.0 for 10x which is very good for such an easy session.

Finished w/ easy jog by Greg’s and then up the hill. Total run 13.5km in 59’.

XT: Toes.

Miercoles, 28 de Marzo, 2018 – 9am: Slept late after having some trouble falling asleep and feeling quite tired this AM. Good once I woke up, though. Really glad to have a lot less work stress these last few weeks here.

Ran easy down to the park and 2 big laps (16’30, 15’40). Legs warmed up quickly and ran the 2nd lap quite quick. From there ran over to the track and did an extra km there before stopping. Did 6x strides which felt very good and then 200m in 31.2. Jogged back home via Portugal. Another spectacular morning – quite warm by the end and very sunny. Total run 14km++ in 59’.

XT: Toes

4pm: Easy clockwork shakeout. Timed it perfectly (wrong) w/ the afternoon storm as I headed out just as it was starting to drizzle and finished up just as it was stopping. Not bad though as it wasn’t too hard nor cold. Felt very good actually and ran quicker today – 1 big lap in 15’44 and then to the track 8km in 34’. 4x strides and then home. Total run 10km+ in 42’.

XT: Toes

Jueves, 29 de Marzo, 2018 – Sparknotes: 25x400m @ 69.5 (avg) w/ 52 sec jog (avg) recovery (3’00 after #10). Last rep in 65.5. Fantastic.

7am: Left the house and jogged down to meet Mel who was coming to the track today to meet the team and take some photos.

Usual warm up – jog there, jog lap, extrensive drills, 15’ jog. Only had time for 1 or 2 strides b/c I was going to the bathroom and trying to fix someone else’s watch.

Workout was a big one – 25x400m with short recovery (50-55 sec on paper). I was working out with Miki and Jose Luis, both of whom were doing 20x, so I’d be on my own for the last 5x. They would split the workout into two sets of 10x w/ 3’ recovery between the two sets. I figured I’d probably take a second longer rest period before starting the last 5x.

First 10x felt really good. We were a bit slower (70.0 avg, with a bunch 70.x at the start), so I think this once again reinforces the idea of starting out relaxed and having it feel really comfy at the beginning. The rest actually felt ample, which is amazing given how high we are and what it felt like a couple months ago to do a similar workout. We ran the last 4 quicker (all 68-69.x) and it felt quite quick to be already at the first long rest.

Took 3’ and had some nuun and then went back into it. We were trading off the lead and I led the first one slow (1’10.9) and then we were under 70 for the next 9x. These guys clearly wanted to push a bit on the second set here and especially once we got to rep 15, they started to hammer. I first thought I was dying, but realized I was just running evenly and they were going quite a bit faster. I maintained this effort all the way through rep 20 as they finished up.

After that, Miki said he’d pace one more and we went out way too hard (like 31.x) after I told him I wanted 68-69 again. Oops. I relaxed a bit on the next 3x and ran 69-70s again and then Miki again helped pace me on the last rep. I told him I wanted 65 and we actually were out well ~32 at 200m and I hung on well to finish w/ 65.5.

This was a really great workout. I did 20x400m twice and both times averaged about the same and I haven’t done anywhere near as much of this track work in the last few weeks as I had before those sessions. Plus, I think the rest was shorter this time (50 sec vs 60) and came in a much bigger chunk of mileage. This is a great sign that my efficiency is still great and some speed is still there which should make running 78s feel very comfy.

Cooled down w/ Mel and Miki and then jogged back to Mel’s place and walked home.

Lovely morning and a great day.

Total run 22km in 1h37.

25x400m
Overall Avg (1’09.5)

10x400m: (avg 1’10.0), 50.5 sec jog (avg)
(1’10.7)
(1’10.5)
(1’10.8)
(1’10.5)
(1’09.3)
(1’10.7)
(1’09.8)
(1’09.7)
(1’09.3)
(1’08.4)

3’00 jog

15x400m (avg 69.5), 53.5 sec jog avg
(1’10.9)
(1’08.4)
(1’08.1)
(1’09.7)
(1’09.5)
(1’09.9)
(1’10.0)
(1’09.5)
(1’08.4)
(1’08.3)
(1’09.2)
(1’10.7)
(1’10.5)
(1’09.7)
(1’05.5)

6pm: Ran late after a VERY long meeting with the Alta Andina crew. For some reason felt really good and ran much quicker than expected. To the park and track w/ strides at the start after only about 2km (4x) and then ran south to old town to meet Mel and Mar to watch some of the processions and go to Bandidos for dinner. Running 4’0x a lot of it. Total run 8km in 34’.

Viernes, 30 de Marzo, 2018 – 9:20am: Ran later after a long lazy morning. Again felt very good and ran much quicker than expected. 2 big laps (16’11, 14’59!) and then to the track, 6x strides and 200m in 31.5. Great morning and lovely again. Total run 12km in 50’.

XT: Toes

6pm: Ran late again after a long day going to Miki’s family’s good-friday Fanesca lunch (which happened at like 5pm). A bit rainy but not so bad. Ran easy to the park, short lap to the track, 4x strides, and home. Total run 6km+ in 27’.

XT: Toes

Sabado, 31 de Marzo, 2018 – 9am: Easy run down to the park 1 big lap in 16’24 and then to the track 8km in 35’. A bit rainy again this morning, but not bad. 6x strides and then 200m in 31.2. Jogged over to the sports store near Mel’s to get new gels for tomorrow (where’s my Gel sponsorship at??) and then back on seis. Total run 13km+ in 56’.

XT: Toes.

4pm: Easy short double down to the park. A bit of drizzle at the start but then cleared. Legs felt great. Running quick out the door and did 4km at 4’0x pace to the track. 4x strides felt very good and then easy jog back to portugal. Total run 5km+ in 20’.

XT: Toes

Domingo, 1 de Abril, 2018 – Sparknotes: 23.6km in 1’21’08 (3’27/km avg) (not continuous) w/ 10x2K @ 6’28.5 avg, 400m @ 1’49 avg. On treadmill. HR very high, 2 pauses to cool off.

9am: Last longer workout this morning. Felt okay on the warmup 2km easy, drills, strides. Took gel about 10 min before (gu w/ caffeine).

Goal was to do 12-13x 2K w/ 400m rec, building off the last two long fartlek sessions I did 2 and 4 weeks ago. The total volume would stay the same (~30km for all the workouts) but the length of the “on” reps got longer (from 1Ks, to 1600s, to now 2Ks). This was the last longer workout I’d do before the record attempt and is a series of 5 weekends in a row of really great longer sessions.

The first rep felt all right but after that, I was really not feeling great. The HR and perceived effort both just felt way higher than I expected them to. I didn’t look at it for the first 2 or 3 reps, but on number 4 I just felt really bad and was surprised to see the HR in the 170s which at this altitude is very high (altitude limits max HR, so my HR here is about 10 beats lower for the same perceived effort as it would be at sea level).

I took a much slower recovery lap after that one but upon starting #5 I could tell I was redlining and decided to just take a break and try to cool myself off and see if that would help (it was a bit warm in the gym and more humid than recently, so I thought maybe that was a factor in the high HR. I felt a bit better on the next reps but again the effort just felt too high. I took another break around the 7th rep and thought about just canning the workout, but decided to just really let the HR come down (I let it get back to about 120 bpm over about 5 minutes) and decided to take it one rep at a time and see how things felt.

This went okay and I was able to get through 10x but the overall effort was not good. In retrospect, I checked my resting HR (that the watch records) after the run and it was 63 (!!) from the night before. This is really high and definitely cause for some concern (it’s been very stable between 47-51 for the last 11 days). I’m not sure if I just got a bad night’s sleep or if I’m on the edge of getting sick or something. Either way, it actually makes me feel much better about the session as it explains why the HR and effort felt so off. It’s a good thing I have a 3-day recovery block now to really let the body settle down before the last taper into race day.

Cooled down short 2km in 10’.

Total run 29km.

Splits

2.00 km 6’27.1 (6’27.1) 158
2.40 km 8’15.3 (1’48.2) 158
4.40 km 14’42.9 (6’27.6) 170
4.80 km 16’35.8 (1’52.9) 163
6.80 km 23’03.2 (6’27.4) 172
7.20 km 24’51.7 (1’48.5) 166
9.20 km 31’20.0 (6’28.3) 169
9.60 km 33’17.9 (1’57.9) 161
11.60 km 39’50.4 (6’32.5) 163 – break to cool off
12.00 km 41’38.2 (1’47.8) 165
14.00 km 48’06.8 (6’28.6) 168
14.40 km 49’52.0 (1’45.2) 160
16.40 km 56’22.2 (6’30.2) 168 – break to cool off
16.80 km 58’10.0 (1’47.8) 149
18.80 km 1’04’38.9 (6’28.9) 167
19.20 km 1’06’27.0 (1’48.1) 159
21.20 km 1’12’54.8 (6’27.8) 170
21.60 km 1’14’41.6 (1’46.8) 164
23.60 km 1’21’08.5 (6’26.9) 171

XT: Toes

3:30pm: Easy run down to the park, short lap to the track. Drizzle again but not bad. Legs didn’t feel too bad as the morning wasn’t so tough leg-wise. Did 4x strides which actually felt quite good. Jogged back via portugal. Total run 5km++ in 23’.

XT: Toes.