Weekly Summary – 137 miles in 13 runs. A week of transition: from Europe to America, from vacation-mode to training-mode, from extroversion to introversion. A wonderful week with a long travel day, a random race, and a surprisingly good first 25 mile long run! Much more to come. Stay tuned.
Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram and Twitter (@TylerCAndrews). And, of course, don’t forget to check out STRIVE’s 2017 Programs! You can come do service work and train with me in Peru or Kenya and for 2017, we’ll once again have programs for High School and College students, and even a 10-day trip for adults and families, so be sure to take a look if you’re interested in an amazing summer experience! Finally, I have a few spots open for athletes looking for custom training plans and online coaching. Check out my site and email me if you’re interested!
Lunes, 3 de Abril, 2017 – 9:30am: Easy run with Mariana on the big Torre loop. Felt much better this morning and took it very easy running with Mar. Beautiful morning, super clear and dry. Ran down the big hill around the canal and then back up some steep switch-backs. Very nice! Stopped by the house to change into Hupanas and then jogged out to the train track area to do strides on the road (10x). Felt very good there. Total run 10M.
6:30pm: Easy run solo after a relaxing day with bunch of work and hanging around the house. Ran out/back on the dirt road and down the big hill along the canal. Felt quite good, better than the morning for sure. That 1km or so back up to the ridge sure is tough but other than that it was a very nice run. Finished with 6x strides. Total run 12km+, 7.5M in 52’.
Martes, 4 de Abril, 2017 – Sparknotes: 16km progression run in 53’05 (17’37, 16’26, 16’01, 3’02).
Splits
5 km 17’36.0 (17’36.0) 164
10 km 34’02.0 (16’26.0) 174
15 km 50’03.0 (16’01.0) 177
16 km 53’05.0 (3’02.0) 182
5pm: Post-lunch shakeout out/back on dirt to the big house turn around. Also lots of walking with visit to Escorial later in the PM. Lovely day! Total run 5km, NT.
Miercoles, 5 de Abril, 2017 – 6:30am (Spain time, really 4:30am or 12:30am Eastern time): Very early, dark run before a long day of travel home. Ran with Mariana on the streets of Torre. Very much night-time for the whole run, though dawn was just beginning to peak out over the mountains by the end. Great stars at the start. Felt pretty awful to start and running slow (5’00+/km) but felt better as I woke up. Nice to share this last early morning with Mar before we part ways for the next 7 weeks. Finished up with joint ethio as dawn was breaking, some fresh-squeeze OJ, tostadas con tomate, and the headed to the airport. Total run 5M+ in 41’.
PM: Travel back to the grand ol US of A. Took the train from Torre into Madrid – Mariana screwed up the transfer, so we ended up back out of the city and then had to grab a cab to the airport. Ended up with lots of time so sat with Mar for a while before going through security. Sad farewell but so glad to have spent this last 6 weeks adventuring together (and glad she’ll have some time with the family in Spain).
MAD lounge was super nice with good breakfast options and right next to the gate. Hung out there, had some champagne, got on the first plane to Munich. Flying business class, so super comfy as always. First flight (only 2 hours) was basically just economy with a blocked out middle seat. Slept pretty much the whole time.
Only had about an hour in Munich. Had to go through passport control for some reason and then secondary security/passport control to get to the gate (love traveling to the US…).
Lufthansa business class was great. Cabin was maybe 30% full which meant I snagged a window seat and had the aisle open as well (it was 2-2-2 configured). Seats were lie-flat and super comfy. I ended up having a lot of champagne along with the lunch they served, watch the Hangover (the one that takes place in Bangkok which, though nowhere near as funny, seemed appropriate since we’d just been there and because it was on my very first flight of this trip that I’d watched the original: full circle). Passed out for several hours after that which was super nice in the lie-flat bed. Woke up, got a bunch of work done, read some Infinite Jest. Walked for a while and listened to the end of the “S-Town” podcast. Jogged a bit, but the German flight crew shut that down quickly. Pleasant flight, though; really didn’t seem too long.
Landed on time. I messed up my passport control as I tried to use mobile ppt and global entry, so I was literally the last person through. Oops. Still got my bag and got out of there quickly, grabbed an uber, and was home shortly after. Got back and crashed pretty much immediately. Long day!
Jueves, 6 de Abril, 2017 – 7:45am: First run back in the states! Slept well last night and no problem sleeping through the night – I think I was tired enough. Ran a weird route around CC because there was a huge storm front coming through and I didn’t want to get stuck a long way away. Ran the CC 5K course and then a whole bunch of the 1K loop. Running about 3’55-4’05 for the most part. Legs felt pretty good. Finished on the treadmill for the last 4km or so because the storm had arrived and ran from 6’30/M down to about 5’00/M which felt nice. Total run 15M in 1h40.
6:30pm: Ran later after a busy day of driving to Baltimore to pick up Richard Parker (in the midst of an insane thunderstorm) and then a busy afternoon with a long strive meeting. Felt very tired getting out the door (jet lag has this time feeling like about midnight-30), but actually felt decent once I got going. Ran out/back on MVN and then did 10x strides which felt very nice. Total run 5M+ in 34’.
Viernes, 7 de Abril, 2017 – Sparknotes: 12M mod + 10x short hills + (PM) 5K in 16’08 w/ last 1km in 2’49.
8:30am: Ran easy on Matt’s loop, very windy and chilly but legs felt good. 35’ at 8km and then quicker after. Stopped and picked up shoes and then ran to the big hill and did drills and a couple strides in tracers and then 10x short hills (13-15 sec) with recovery by HR (<120) (in retrospect 1’15-2’30). Felt very good on these! After, jogged home. Total run 15M.
5:30pm: Jogged over to number pickup, got my bib and then warmed up on the race course plus some. Legs felt pretty good despite this morning’s hill session. Very windy and cold, only in the 40s and 25mph winds. Yikes! Did a few strides and about 45 seconds at race effort. Got very cold at the start line as they started late, so ran inside and put my long sleeve on under my singlet. Ran in tracers which felt very good.
Race got out very hard with some kid taking it out. At first I thought he was a clown but then I saw he kept looking at his watch which made me think maybe he was actually a real runner that was trying to run fast. By the time we got to that first turn (<800m), though, the pace had already settled and I was in a pack of 3x. At that point, it felt like we were jogging. I saw 3’23 on my watch for the first km and decided not to look at it at all (the GPS also struggles in CC with the tall buildings). I seriously thought we were running like 6’00 mile pace between that point and about 4km when I picked it up. There were times when the wind was strong but it didn’t bother me at that pace.
I split my watch at the 2M mark just so I’d have it after but wanted to wait until ~4km to make a move (I knew more or less where it was). I gradually accelerated at that point and honestly figured I was going to run away from these two and win easily. I was then surprised when one of them (Galasso) was still within a few meters of me when I looked back at maybe 4.3km. I put on another surge at 500m and figured that would do it, but even at the 3M mark (<200m to go), he was still in striking range. Uh oh!
The last 200m kind of sucks because you make a 90 degree left hand turn with maybe 120m to go and then run up a brick drop-off circle and make a sharp right with like 50m to go. I held him off until that last turn but he kicked by me as we came off the turn. I actually really worked those last 50m and he didn’t put any more distance on me, but just had better acceleration coming off the turn. He beat me by a hair. Finish time was 16’07 to 16’08 officially. I had the last 800m in 2’15, so that last km was probably right around 2’50. Not bad for being fat and out of shape!
Can’t win ‘em all! I did some longer strides afterward to warm down but my tummy was a bit upset so mostly just jogged and did ethio (inside because it was also freezing).
Sabado, 8 de Abril, 2017 – 9am: Slept a bit later with later night last night due to the PM 5K. Legs felt good out the door. Ran Matt’s loop w/ 12M in 1’20 and then stopped and did strides on the road (10x) which felt very nice. Beautiful morning, 50s and sunny by the end and not as windy as yesterday. Total run 13M in 1h25.
12:15pm: Short turnaround as I had a last-minute 13:00 appointment with Terrel Hale at Georgetown Sports Massage (he’s going to be helping me out pro-bono this season, so that’s exciting). Ran Matt’s loop again as his office is more or less in the middle of Matt’s Loop and he wants me to arrive warmed up and then run afterward. Got re-routed as there was something going on that had cops blocking off the Potomac park section right after the bridge so had to dodge tourists around the tidal basin. Nice session with Terrel and then ran back. A bit depleted as I hadn’t had much to eat and was a bit tired the last few miles, but nice to have 25 mile day done by 15:00! Total run 12M in 1h25.
XT: Hips
Domingo, 9 de Abril, 2017 – Sparknotes: 40km in 2’17’41 (3’26.5/km, 5’32/M avg) w 20km at 72′, 5k @ 16’01, 5k @ 17’30, 10k @ 32’07.
10am: Slept late and then left for the first long run of the block. Had coffee and a nv bar and some animal crackers. Goal today was to get in a good longer run with some faster running. I wanted to do a similar workout I’d done before in the early-buildup stage which is 20K moderate, 5km pickup, 5km moderate, and then some amount quicker at the end (anywhere from 2-20km). I was shooting for 30-40K total.
The day was beautiful! Clear, dry, and cooler (around 50F) when I started but warming a lot. Started out in tights, long sleeve and gloves and was in just shorts, shirtless by the end. Ran Matt’s loop first at a very comfortable effort. Only checked splits at big landmarks (5M, 9M, 18K) and was running a good pace ~3’45->3’30ish/km and felt good.
Finished at the 1km loop and got to 20km right at 72’ (5’48/M, 3’36/km). Took a gel and some nuun before starting. First pickup went very well. I figured I would try to run around 3’20/km pace, but ran 3’16, 3’15, 3’12, 3’12, 3’03 for 16’01 and this felt very good. That 3’03 was only a tiny bit more focused.
Slowed what I thought was a lot but was still running 3’3x to recover over the next 5km, covered in 17’30.
Feeling very good at this point and just before the end, stopped and took off tights and shirt and changed into hupanas for the last 10K and took a last gel. Hupanas felt great and was running very comfortably around 3’15/km to come through first 5km in 16’17 and then picked it up in the second half. Accelerated a bit more around 7.5km which made it start to hurt a bit more, but hung on and closed well (3’02) for 32’07 for the last 10K.
Jogged home 1km easy for 41km total for the day (25M++).
A VERY good first long effort. This tells me that I am way less out of shape than I’d thought I was. I truly thought I had lost a lot of fitness, but this workout is extremely comparable to the workout I did in late August ‘16 (same exact workout and the overall time was within 10 seconds! The faster sections were actually faster today; the moderate start was quicker in August). I really felt like I could have held on another 2km easily today if I hadn’t pushed the last 1-2km, which would have been like a 2h24 marathon. Very good to know I’m already there!
Not too beat afterward, either. Nice ethio session, breakfast, etc.
10 km 37’52.1 150
20 km 1’12’03.0 (34’10.9) 156
21 km 1’15’18.4 (3’15.4) 169
22 km 1’18’35.3 (3’16.9) 172
23 km 1’21’48.0 (3’12.7) 176
24 km 1’25’00.1 (3’12.1) 173
25 km 1’28’03.9 (3’03.8) 176 (16’00.9)
30 km 1’45’33.9 (17’30.0) 158 (17’30.0)
31 km 1’48’50.2 (3’16.3) 160
32 km 1’52’06.6 (3’16.4) 161
33 km 1’55’23.3 (3’16.7) 162
34 km 1’58’36.4 (3’13.1) 166
35 km 2’01’50.4 (3’14.0) 166 (16’16.5)
36 km 2’05’03.9 (3’13.5) 168
37 km 2’08’15.6 (3’11.7) 169
38 km 2’11’28.5 (3’12.9) 172
39 km 2’14’38.9 (3’10.4) 175
40 km 2’17’40.8 (3’01.9) 176 (32’06.9, 15’50.4 last 5k)
5pm: Easy shakeout down to turf fields (back field as front two were ocupado) and about 10’ barefoot on turf. Felt surprisingly decent once I got moving. Total run 5km+ in 22’.
