Weekly Summary – Not exactly the week I’d hoped for! Only ran 3 times for 20-25’ as I’ve been trying to get my achilles under control Definitely getting better but slower than I’d hoped for. Better to have these issues now than right before a big race, though. Trying to stay positive and keep an eye on the future.

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, 17 de Septiembre, 2018 – AM: OFF – slept for about 4 hours before leaving at 0600 to get Mar home in time for class, drove the car back to her mom’s and then pretty much crashed for a couple hours. More importantly, achilles is still pretty swollen but definitely better than yesterday, so at least there’s that. Won’t run today and probably not tomorrow either. Frustrated.

15:30: Stationary bike in the gym. Achilles still pretty swollen but if I kept the ankle relatively fixed and didn’t flex my calf on the bike it seemed fine. Did pickup of 3’30 around 60’ mark and 7’ and the end. My butt hurts. Total 90’.

XT: pullups 7, 7, 6, 6, 5

Martes, 18 de Septiembre, 2018 – 09:00: Started on bike for 30’ and then to elliptical. Again did 3’30 pickup at 60’ point and another 7’ pickup at the end. Good effort. Very sweaty. Total 90’.

XT: glutes (10x), toes

17:00: On bike to start for 20’ and then elliptical for remainder of hour. Finished w/ 7’ hard. Total 60’.

XT: Pedestal (7’ w/ 10x lifts)

Miercoles, 19 de Septiembre, 2018 – 09:30: 20’ warmup on bike, then on elliptical did 4x 16’ hard / 4’ moderate. This was a very hard effort and felt good to get something like this in (this is what I would have done running today and aerobically/mentally it was definitely a similar stimulus). Extremely hot by the end (started off w/ a ton of layers and ended up shirtless in tights). Kept RPM over 90 for “marathon effort” and around 75-80 for rec. Very good session and very challenging. Cooled down 10’. Total 1h50.

XT: glutes (10x, ankle weights x4), toes

16:00: 20’ on elliptical as warm-up and then tried to hop on the treadmill and jog a bit but no dice. Could tell w/in a few steps it was still too tender. Very frustrating. Finished out the hour on elliptical. Total 60’.

Jueves, 20 de Septiembre, 2018 – 09:00: Trying to give the achilles a whole morning off. Did only XT: pedestal (7’ w/ 10x reps and ankle weights x4), toes.

16:30: 25’ on stationary bike, achilles felt very good. Ran on treadmill for 10’. Achilles was starting to feel noticeable so stopped there, back on the bike for 20’, achilles felt better, another 8’ of jogging (4’45-5’00/km) on treadmill, and then back on the bike. Finished w/ 7’ very hard on bike over 120RPM increasing resistance every minute or so. Good effort and great sign moving forward bit by bit. Total 80’.

XT: Pull-ups (9, 9, 8, 8, 8!) – big day on the pullup front! Also did glutes (10x), toes, and plank rows (15lb, 1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2,1)

Viernes, 21 de Septiembre, 2018 – 09:00: Easy 15’ on bike warmup and then ran outside for the first time since Sunday! Jogged down to the track and then just ran in lane 8 so I could keep an eye on how things were feeling and bail easily if need be. Overall, felt pretty good and surprised to be running quicker than I expected. Ran the penultimate lap in lane 1 and ran 1’29 (like 3’40/km) before jogging back. Got back on the stationary bike for 20’ and then the last 15’ on the elliptical w/ 7’ very hard. Total run 5km in 20’. Total work was 80’.

XT: Glutes (10x, ankle weights x4), toes

15:30: Ran back from Brookline HS after talking w/ the teams there. Lovely day. Achilles didn’t feel 100% but not bad either. Legs felt good at least and good to run. Got back w/ about 6km in 25’ and then went on the bike for the last 35’ w/ 3’30 pickup at the end. Total run 6km, total work 60’.

Sabado, 22 de Septiembre, 2018 – Sparknotes: (Elliptical) 10x (6’ at HM effort, 2’ mod)

09:00: First day that achilles has been worse than the day before this week. Frustrating. Wanted to get in a harder session (basically sticking to my original training plan but doing workouts on the elliptical). Warmed up 30’ on EL and then did workout on EL. Did 10x 6’ on, 2’ off (basically 10x 2K w/ 2’ rest which was the original workout). RPM over 100 and res at level 7. Very good effort and good mental practice. Last 2 reps were very hard and I struggled to keep the RPM high enough but hung in well and stayed positive.

Cooled down 10’ on bike for 2h00 total.

15:00: Easy session on stationary bike after an extremely trying day. Really struggling right now but taking it one day at a time. Channeling Don Gately a lot right now. Finished w/ 3’30 pickup pretty hard. Total 60’.

XT: Glutes (10x, weights x4), toes.

Domingo, 23 de Septiembre, 2018 – 10:45am: Slept late and lazy morning. Hopefully last day stuck in the gym. 40’ on stationary bike, 40’ on elliptical w/ 7’ pickup hard (100+ RPM, res 7, i.e the same as I was doing for 6’ reps yesterday). Very good mental practice this week if nothing else. Total 80’.

XT: Good strength session in the gym and then pedestal w/ ankle weights. Achilles is finally feeling 100%. Will rest it again this PM and then run tomorrow or else kill myself.

Pull-ups 10, 10, 7,7,8
Deadlift 10x 10lb
Hungarian split squat 10x 20lb
Single leg squat 10x 10lb
Toe raises no weight 10x
Deadlift 10x 20lb
Hungarian split squat 10x 40lb
Pedestal (7’, 10x reps, ankle weights x4)

18:00: Very limited time this afternoon due to some tough but productive conversations. Very efficient workout of just going down and hopping on the elliptical and going quite hard for 15’. No easing into it, kept res at 7 and RPM over 100 and increased res 1x per minute for last 3’. Very good. Total 15’ only.