(2-)Weekly Summary – It’s been an odd two weeks running-wise. I had a good resetting period in Peru w/ about 8 days up in the mountains including two big mountain trips, culminating in a climb up to 6425m (21,079 ft). I came back feeling mentally and physically recharged and was able to get in two little workouts, running every other day, and cross training well. My achilles has been healing well and I’ve moved from the recovery phase to the strength/rehab phase. Head up!

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, 1 de Octubre, 2018 – AM: OFF. Spent the morning figuring out exactly where I want to go and what I want to do w/ the next week or so if I’m accepting I’m not going to be able to run very much.

17:00: Wore my big mountaineering boots and some layers and my backpack (w/ a 50lb bell) and got on the stair master. Really hard. Only lasted about 35’, probably could have gone a bit longer but achilles was making itself heard and didn’t want to fuck up my chances of getting up a big mountain next weekend.

 

Martes, 2 de Octubre, 2018 – AM: Pedestal, 7’ w/ 10x reps, 7x ankle weights

PM: Travel to LIM. Smooth sailing. Slept in Callao at pay purix.

 

Miercoles, 3 de Octubre, 2018 – AM: Lots of walking around AQP to talk w/ a few climbing companies and make plans for the next few days and organize gear. Beautiful day and lovely to spend so much time outside and in the sun. Can’t believe already heading to the mountains tomorrow morning!

XT:  Pedestal, 8’ w/ 10x reps, no weights

Toes

Band work on ankles

Eccentric heel drops (several sets of 10 throughout the day)

 

Jueves, 4 de Octubre, 2018 – AM: Relaxing morning before 2h15 min drive to Chachani base camp.

XT: Pedestal, eccentric heel drops

PM: Arrived at Chachani drop-off around 11:30a and walked 1 hour easy to base camp. Pack was not too heavy w/ light supplies and only tricky part was boulder field crossing w/o an obvious path – choose your own adventure. Very little altitude change and felt fine at 5000m+. Arrived at camp very early and lots of time to set up camp, relax, and make a quick recon trek up the route for tomorrow to see how quickly I’d go. Made it up to 5500m in only about 40’, so figured I’d be much quicker than the 6-7 hours everyone was recommending. Very early to bed for a fitful night’s sleep.

 

Viernes, 5 de Octubre, 2018 – 03:30: Chachani Summit (6075m). Fairly easy ascent which is amazing considering I was at sea level 48 hours ago. Clear switchback trail up good dirt until about 5750m w/ a traverse over to a sandier slope up to the summit ridge (~6050m). That part was tough but not bad. Arrived for beautiful sunrise and brockengespectre. Very fast and easy descent through loose scree but caught a rock on my ankle bone which I thought was very bad but just a nasty bruise. 3.5 hours up, <1 hour down (would have been much less w/o the rock to my ankle).

Rested at camp and then walked out about 1 hour to the car park mostly because I again took the scenic route through the boulder field.

Back in AQP by 2pm.

 

Sabado, 6 de Octubre, 2018 – Chill day in AQP between mountains. A lot of walking, catching up w/ people on the phone, Dave, Nic, my folks.

XT: Pedestal (8’, 10x reps, no weight, eccentric heel drops

 

Domingo, 7 de Octubre, 2018 – AM: Up early to watch Chicago and pack up for Coropuna trip.

XT:  Eccentric heel drops, pedestal (8’, 10x reps, no weight)

PM: Very long drive to Coropuna base camp ~7 hours w/ stops for lunch and supplies)

 

Lunes, 8 de Octubre, 2018 – 02:00: Mt Coropuna summit (6425m), 11h40m. Good weather, decent snow (w/ large penitentes in places). Struggled mightily w/ altitude above about 5800m and especially about 6100m. Descent was very trying. Extremely long and challenging day.

 

Martes, 9 de Octubre, 2018 – AM: Drove back from Chuqillabamba to AQP. Slept about 12 hours last night which was fantastic to do in a bed at 2800m instead of in a freezing tent at 5250m. Mellow afternoon in AQP w/ some good walking. Got a haircut.

 

Miercoles, 10 de Octubre, 2018 – AM: Planned to jog today in my cliftons but could get the comfy w/ the back rubbing on the achilles sheath. Jogged about 5’ only. Frustrated.

Later, ended up doing a lot of walking as I’m travelling tonight. Walked in my tire sandals and at some point – maybe crossing a street – jogged a bit and found that I felt good. So ended up jogging probably 20-30’ in tire sandals all over the city from Yanhuara up around the park where I used to run laps and down into the old down. I was running in jeans and sandals but legs and feet both felt good. Maybe the issue really is just the shoe back. Total run 5km?? In 20’??

XT: Pedestal, 8’, 10x reps, no weight (at least my core is getting strong)

PM: A lot of walking around before heading to the airport – enjoyed the last of the high desert sunshine and finished binge-listening to “slow burn”.

 

Jueves, 11 de Octubre, 2018 – AM: End of travel day, short red-eye but got some decent sleep in AA flagship business class, then a couple hours in MIA to grab some breakfast and MIA-BOS, another hour or so of dozing. Smooth trip all around.

PM: Tried to bike/elliptical but achilles as tender and stopped after about 10’.

XT: Pedestal (8’, w/ 10x reps, ankle weights x7)

 

Viernes, 12 de Octubre, 2018 – 09:50: Ran a loop around the track and mass ave finishing at the track, nice and easy. Legs felt pretty good and achilles feeling good in the CR. Stopped and did drills and a few light strides and then workout. Goal was to do 5km of 100m on/100m off. This is a good easy workout and figured it’d be a good first workout back.

Ended up feeling pretty decent but had some stomach issues. Pacing was way off as I went out way too hard (75, 76, 77 for the first three laps) and then settled around 81-82s. Had to stop at 3800m as I was seriously about to poop my pants and ran into the bathroom and then came out and finished w/ 200m more of fartlek and then ran the last 1km continuous in 3’08.

This would be a pretty pathetic workout 2 months ago (my first workout back from Peru was 10km of this same pattern in 31’40) but given what that last month, and particularly the last week and a half have looked like, it’s not a bad start. Cooled down short back to the house. Total run 8km.

PM: OFF – busy day

Did get seen by Sam Peck at Soar Body Therapuetics for a look at the achilles and some work on the calve and area around the sheath. Good to talk to someone who knows what they’re talking about and have what I thought/assumed confirmed.

 

Sabado, 13 de Octubre, 2018 – 10:30am: Very late start to the morning as David was here and Mar and he and I were having a nice time relaxing (plus it was 45F and raining so trying to wait that out to go outside). Ended up going to the gym anyway, did 20’ on elliptical, about 5’ on the treadmill only – planned to do more but achilles was a bit tender, and then finished out an hour on the elliptical again. Finished w/ good hard 7’ surge at res 7, RPM over 100. A bit frustrating but good company and good to be getting into some kind of routine again. Total work 60’.

XT: Pullups 11, 10, 7, 7 (could tell I haven’t done these in 2 weeks after the second set)

Pedestal (8’ w/ 10x reps and ankle weights x7)

5pm: On the elliptical – achilles feeling much better this PM but playing it safe. Maybe I’ll try to start w/ every other day running. Did 40’ w/ another 7’ surge at the end (RPM over 100, res 7). Total work 40’.

 

Domingo, 14 de Octubre, 2018 – Sparknotes: 5000m in 16’02 (2’ jog) + 3x 1600m @ 5’12, 5’01, 5’01 (1’ jog)

 

09:15: A big tester today. If this one went okay, it’d be a pretty good sign and if it didn’t, well, it’d be a pretty bad omen.

Jogged 2.5km around the campus loop to the track, stopped and did drills, strides, and 200m very slow in 37.

Goal was to do my normal 1-week out from half workout: 5k at HMP and then 3x1600m starting at HMP and working down to faster. I figured that if I’m going to race and win Baystate on Sunday, I need to be able to run at least 3’20s (~1’10 HMP), so I figured, let’s try to run real controlled 3’20s through 3K in 10’00 and then accelerate the last 2K (maybe 3’15/3’10 or something).

Ended up actually going great. I was running very controlled and ran the first 3K in 3’18, 3’18, 3’17. I accelerated on the 4th km and was running 75.x as a good effort but not terminal (3’07.7). I picked it up again at 4K and ran 72-73s for 3’02.8. I actively didn’t kick but tried to just hold the same effort all the way through the last km.

Took 2’ jog and then did the 3x1600m. Tried to run the first one very relaxed at the same pace and felt good to slow down and ran 3’15 through the km and then 5’12 (negative split). The next one I ran 75s and 5’01. Tried to run the last one about 4’50 but died a bit, ran maybe 2’28/2’33 and another 5’01. Took 1’ jog b/w all the 1600s.

So, overall, this was relatively either a fantastic session or a terrible session. If I’d done this workout a week out from Albany w/o any injury I would have been pretty bummed. I probably would have wanted to run more like 15’00 & 4’50->4’30. But, given what the last month has looked like, especially the last 2 weeks, it’s actually extremely solid.

Cooled down short 1km home. Total run 15km.

16:30: On elliptical. Achilles a bit sore but not worse than after Friday’s run. Calves pretty worked. Finished w/ 3’30 surge. Total 45’.