Member Spotlight: Andrew Eisen

Although Andrew Eisen’s only been an official member of PPTC since February, he’s already a familiar face in the club. A physical therapist, he counts several PPTC-ers as patients. In April, he led a series of well-attended virtual injury prevention clinics for club members.

Andrew timed joining PPTC with the opening of his new solo practice, Ascent Physical Therapy, on Ninth Street in Gowanus. He’d previously worked in Manhattan, and now that he works in Brooklyn, he was hoping to regularly run and socialize with his new teammates. Two weeks after opening Ascent, though, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Andrew to make the tough choice to shut the doors of his practice and hunker down at home in the Rockaways with his wife and two dogs, seeing patients via telehealth. We caught up with Andrew to learn more about him and his running just as he was about to return to Ascent on June 7, coinciding with Phase 1 reopening in NYC.

PPTC Member Andrew Eisen

Most PPTC members live in Brooklyn, but you’re a Queens guy.

I grew up in the Rockaways, two blocks away from where I live now. In a pretty classic old school New York situation, my parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents all lived within a three-block radius of one another.

I joined PPTC right after I signed the lease that I was going to be in Gowanus. There are several groups of runners and triathletes that I’ve worked with over the last several years. But two of those major groups are based in Brooklyn: Prospect Park Track Club, which I was seeing a good number of patients from already, and the Brooklyn Triathlon Club as well. So I knew I wanted the clinic to be located somewhat close to both of those groups. Once I found the space and finalized that, I joined PPTC with the idea that I was going to get to participate a little bit more.

And then you had to shut down.

Originally my timing seemed really good, and then really quickly it seemed really bad. Technically, I could’ve stayed open. Most clinics I know closed for a good chunk of time. A few that I know stayed open throughout. It was one of those decisions I just had to make for myself, and what I felt comfortable with. It was almost harder that I could be open. It would’ve been easier if there was clear guidance on what to do. SoI tried to time opening again with the beginning of Phase 1 reopening. That just felt better to me.

With the restart, I’m not anticipating the summer to be quite like what a normal summer would be. A lot of my longtime patients are not in the city anymore. There’s a percentage of people that have just left, and aren’t coming back for the foreseeable future. And it’s going to be an adjustment for people to start doing things again.

Young Andrew at one of his first races, with his dad.

Tell us about your running history. How’d you get started?

I started running at a really really young age, literally as, like, a 2-year-old. I have these amazing pictures of me in Central Park. My dad picked up running in the late ’70s. He was a public school teacher, and he became friends with a woman who at the time was an elite marathoner—like an Olympic trials runner—who was a teacher in his school. At the time I think he smoked! She put him on a training plan for a 5K. He stopped smoking. He started running. He ended up doing a lot of the New York City Marathons and a bunch of the Long Island Marathons. I just went along with him as a kid, and I would do the kids runs that New York Road Runners put on that coincided with the races he would do.

Growing up, I would do a lot of the local 5Ks and 10Ks around here. I ran the Long Island Half Marathon with my dad when I was 12. But running was never my competitive sport. My competitive sports were lacrosse and wrestling—mostly lacrosse, which I played through college. Running was something I always just did on my own, like on the side, and then after I retired from lacrosse, after college, I came back to running.

Andrew and his brother, as young runners.

Back in February, you not only co-led an injury prevention and strength seminar with PPTC strength guru Ben Kessell for the Ultramarathon Training Group, you are a member of the ultra group too. What were you training for?

Like everyone else, I had a whole bunch of running plans for this year that are totally gone. The Vermont 100 was supposed to be my big race for the year. My plan was to do a bunch of the smaller trail races to build up, then race Rock the Ridge, which I’ve never done and is a classic New York trail race. Then I was going to do a multisport race in a pretty similar location as Rock the Ridge. It’s called American Zofingen, and it’s one of my favorite races I’ve ever done anywhere. It’s a duathlon where you run, bike, run, bike and run. The run is trail running, and it’s road cycling. It’s a brutal but amazing race. It had been like three years since I’d last done it. So I was really looking forward to doing that again.

Then I was planning to do a couple of 50K’s, and then Vermont. My wife and I have a baby coming in late summer/early fall, so I was trying to get all my racing in from like May to the end of July. And actually the one other thing I was potentially going to do was in early August: I was going to go pace Matt Imberman at Leadville. I was looking forward to just being part of that.

“I’m running to relieve stress. I haven’t been doing running workouts. I go for a run, I feel better, I go on with my day. I think I’m going to be in that mode for quite a while, until next year, next race season.”

So that was my plan, and now I’m just like…I don’t know what I’m doing now. I’m just running for stress relief and mixing it up, and getting in the ocean as much as I can.

You have a lot of experience running on the road, but is trail running more of your focus now?

It’s what I enjoy the most these days for sure. I don’t have great access to trails. I train on trails once a week, if I’m lucky. But it’s where my greatest enjoyment is right now.

What’s the appeal?

Spending a whole day in nature is awesome. And I like the vibe of the trail races as well: It’s more about you doing your own thing. These days I’m not winning anything. I don’t care how I do. I just want to have an interesting experience, and push myself without that external competition. I had a competitive athletic career through college. After that I got into bike racing, which is very competitive and aggressive. After bike racing I went into triathlon, which I found to be a much happier group of people in general. And from there, getting into the trail world just seems where I’m the happiest: Being around people that are more likeminded and less aggressive.

How’d you decide to become a PT?

I went to Midwood High School, which is in the middle of Brooklyn, and Midwood has several sub-programs. It’s a public school but it has some humanities and medical science tracks, which is what I was on. There was one elective course in sports medicine taught by a gym teacher. I took that course and I loved it. It was my first introduction to anatomy and it was just something that I really liked.

To my teacher’s credit, she noticed how much I was into it, and she was like, “You should consider a career in physical therapy.” And I was like, “Awesome, what’s physical therapy?” I’d never been to physical therapy. I had been really lucky in that I didn’t have any injuries. It’s kind of crazy but the first time I stepped into a physical therapy clinic I was in physical therapy school.

So that teacher made a huge impact and steered me in that direction. At the same time, I was a pretty good lacrosse player in high school, and I was able to get recruited by some colleges for lacrosse. I happened to get recruited by Ithaca College, which had a really well known PT program. I got into the five year master’s program at Ithaca.

So right out of high school you were already on track.

I was really lucky. Some people lose interest. When you’re 17, most people don’t know what they want to do. I was really lucky that every step of the way I wanted to do it even more. I’m still really lucky. I love being able to love what I do.

So as a PT are you always thinking about your own form and mechanics when you run? Can you self-diagnose an issue or do you need an outside eye?

I think it’s a bit of both. There are certain things that I have a good idea of what’s happening, but there are things that I need someone else to assess for me for sure. I do think about my form and mechanics. I think it’s just a product of getting older because I have all these pictures of myself as a young kid running, and my form was perfect. But as I’ve gotten older, I have a lot of mileage on my body. With all of these other activities I’ve done, there are movement restrictions and compensations that I have to unwind on myself. I have to think about it a lot more, and I have to work on it a lot more. When I was 18, I didn’t warm up. I just jumped into whatever I was doing. These days I need to work on it: I know that if I don’t work on my own technique, it falls apart.

What’s your favorite recovery tool?

Right now my favorite is the Hyperice vibrating foam roller. They’re pretty sweet. One of the benefits of being a PT is I get to have toys for the clinic and I get to use them myself. But that’s one I happen to really like. It provides a combination of the vibrating self massagers that are pretty popular right now in addition to foam rolling, and I find that to be a really great tool to use on my body before I get into mobility work. It helps me out a lot.

What’s your best running memory?

If I’m getting sentimental, it might be that half marathon with my dad when I was 12. It’s hard to beat that. The Long Island Half Marathon, I think it was 1996. We finished together. Actually, I might’ve finished a second ahead of him. That’s going to be a hard one to beat.

Andrew at the 2019 Javelina Jundred 100k in Arizona

Favorite race?

Favorite race is tough because there are a lot of races that have different things that I think are incredible. The NYC Marathon I find to be one of the most amazing races ever. And it’s the type of running that I typically don’t seek out, which is big crowds and road running. But it’s an incredible event. The diversity of runners from all over the world and running through all the neighborhoods of New York is incredible.

And then for trail, the longest race I’ve done to date is the Javelina Jundred 100K, which I did last year in the desert in Arizona. That was one of the best overall running experiences I’ve had. In the NYC Marathon, a lot of it is what’s going on around you that is so cool. Javelina was much more internal. I’d never spent that long running, and that was a really powerful and amazing experience.

What do you like to do besides running and working as a PT?

I live in Rockaway so I surf and do a lot of standup paddle surfing out here. That was one of the saving graces of quarantine and not working: Being able to go and jump in the ocean. Once all the races got canceled, I was like, “All right, I don’t need to have crazy mileage right now.” I’ll run 35 to 45 miles a week and then paddle and surf and have fun and do other things and hold back on the big mileage until I’m actually preparing for something.

For me, once races were canceled, I went into baseline maintenance mode. Also, just having opened and closed my business was mentally challenging for me. I didn’t need extra stress. I’m running to relieve stress. I haven’t been doing running workouts. I go for a run, I feel better, I go on with my day. I think I’m going to be in that mode for quite a while—depending on the state of affairs, until next year, next race season.

When we do get to run together again as a club, what are you most looking forward to?

One of the things I thought sounded super fun were the pub runs. I was really excited for the pub runs. And then also the ultra group. It’s been a long time since I’ve showed up to a race and knew anyone there. And I know a lot of other members were looking to target some of the same races as me. That’s pretty cool. I haven’t had that ever in running. It’ll happen.

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Need physical therapy? Schedule an appointment with Andrew at ascentptnyc.com. In addition to physical therapy services, Andrew also offers running gait analysis and bike fitting.

PPTC rates:
Physical therapy services: $50 off the standard self-pay rate of $175 ($125/session)
Bike fittings: $80 off the standard self-pay rate of $280 ($200/session)

Text by: Ian Landau
Photos courtesy of: Andrew Eisen
Edited and produced by: Alison Kotch