Weekly Summary – After last week’s win at the Baystate Half Marathon, this week was about making sure I was 100% healthy and letting the body heal. Luckily, I was able to cross train aggressively and felt like I put in a solid week of increasing intensity as the achilles felt better and better. High point was probably a very hard longer session on the elliptical (simulated 7x5K @ marathon effort w/ 1K recovery, so 2h20 of work). Still looking ahead.

Big thanks are owed to the two local specialists who have been helping me get through this injury: Sam Peck at SoarBody Theraputics in Davis Square (Somerville) and Ithamar Jotkowitz at Outback PT in Somerville. For all my local Greater-Boston readers – if you’re an athlete looking for an exceptional sports-massage therapist (Sam) or Physical Therapist (Ithamar) who specializes in runners and injury prevention and recovery, go visit. They’ve both been crucial to helping me recover from my injury and I wouldn’t have been on the start line this week without them!

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, 22 de Octubre, 2018 – AM: OFF, walk/T to soarbody for massage w/ Sam Peck.

XT: Good massage work w/ Sam at SoarBody. Achilles is pretty swollen today – serious cankle territory.

PM: No run/bike/elliptical, so just a bunch of core and stuff. Long walk in the late evening around central. I kind of hate it here.

XT: Pedestal (8’, no ankle weights, 2.5lb hand weights), pull-ups (5, 8, 8, 8 or something), p90x

Martes, 23 de Octubre, 2018 – AM: OFF, XT only.

XT: pedestal 8’, 5lb weights, no ankle weights.

16:00: Walked 10’ on the treadmill and then an hour on stationary bike at res 6. My ass was really sore after about 20 min but felt good to get some exercise. Achilles swelling is down a lot by now and biking didn’t bother it which is a big plus. Total 60’ of work.

Miercoles, 24 de Octubre, 2018 – 09:00: Achilles sheath is noticeably less swollen this AM. Brought my laptop down to the gym and did a lot of work while walking on the treadmill. About 2h00 total

XT: Toes

2pm: 1h30 walking while doing strive work

1600: On the stationary bike. Gosh my butt is getting sore. Can’t wait to graduate to the elliptical soon. Did two hard surges of 3’30 and 7’00 at the 55’ and 70’ points. Total 80’ of work.

XT: Glues (10x reps w/ 7x ankle weights)

Jueves, 25 de Octubre, 2018 – Sparknotes: (on bike) 30’ easy + 60’ fartlek w/ 20x [1’ on, 1’ off], 20x [30” on, 30” off]

Workout this morning on the bike. Did 30’ easy and then an hour of fartlek. Same I’d do running as a good “getting back into it” workout after a race. Did 60’ total with 20x 1’ on, 1’ off (res 8 120 RPM for the “on” sections and 100-110 rpm for the “off”). HR was really high thanks to lots of layering. Had to stop after the 40’ sections before starting the 30”/30”s. Brought the res down to 7 for those as I was friend and had to bring the res down more on the recovery reps for the last 10’. Very hard session, HR over 180 for a lot of it. Felt good to have a good effort. Cooled down 20’. Total 1h50 work.

XT: Toes

16:30: On bike. Butt is getting so tired of this. Planned to do an hour but stopped after 40’ as achilles was a bit sore. Total work 40’.

XT: Glutes, 10x reps, 7x ankle weights.

Viernes, 26 de Octubre, 2018 – AM: Went to get an eval at Outback Physical Therapy in Somerville from Ithamar Jotkowitz. Great guy and very helpful in prescribing some rehab and giving me some insight on when/how to push and when to listen to warning signs during the recovery process.

11am: Later session so kept work short, just 15’ on bike and then big strength circuit.

XT: strength circuit:
Beachball work (10 reps each)
Pull-ups 10, 10, 10, 10, 10 – probably strongest ever
Band work 10x, 3 sets
Heel drops 3×10
Split squats 3x 10x 30lb
Single leg deadlift 10x no weight, 10x 5 lb, 10x 10lb
Plank row 1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2,1

XT2: Walking desk for an hour during strive call

16:00: On bike and then on elliptical – finally, giving my butt a break. Legs a bit tired. Finished w/ surge at 50’ for 7’ total. Good. Total 60’ work.

XT: Heel drops (3 sets of 10), toes.

Sabado, 27 de Octubre, 2018 – Sparknotes: 7x [16’ @ M effort, 4’ mod] (2h20 total). Very good.

09:20: Wanted to do a longer workout today. Did 30’ on the bike to warm up at a pretty decent clip and then workout on the elliptical.

Wanted to do similar effort to 5-7x 5K at MP, w 1K rec. So, did it in minutes w/ 16’ on, 4’ off. Very hard effort. Mentally very challenging to stay engaged and physically got very hard in the last 3. Felt really good on #5 and went a bit harder and then # 6 and 7 were really tough and a bit slower RPM. Overall it was all at res 6 and RPM for M effort was 90-95 and rec was 80-85, or 75-85 for the last few. Very good workout. Used Maurten (1L total, which was not enough), 320 mix. Went down well. 10’ cooldown so 3h00 total work.

XT: Heel drops (1×10)

16:30: Easy session after big morning. Did 30’ on treadmill walking at very steep incline at good pace and then 30’ on elliptical, very low res. Quite sore after the morning. Total 60’ work.

XT: Heel drops (3x 10), Glutes (10x, 7x weights), band work (3×10) toes

Domingo, 28 de Octubre, 2018 – 09:45: slept later after going out last night w/ Mar and David (to Victoria’s party where we met Jonathan Gault randomly). Dave slept over so we did elliptical together in the gym. Nice to have company. Pretty tired from yesterday’s big effort. Started out at only res 4 for first 30’, then 5 from 30-70’ and then 6 / 7 the last 7’ or so. Good effort w/ HR up to 180+ by the end. Really overdressed so big cardiac drift. Total work 80’.

XT: Heel drops (3×10), band work (3×10), toes

17:30: Late second workout after long walk w/ Mariana and her folks in the afternoon. Started out on treadmill walking at steep incline 30’ (8) and 4mph and then on elliptical for remainder of the hour. Legs a bit tired. Total 60’ work.

XT: Heel drops 4×10, toes