Thursday, September 20, 2007

Champing at the bit

Sun, 9/16:
15 mi, 2:27:02, avg.pace 9:48 (!), avg.HR 141, max 155
There's a Steppe plateau - a place which is located much higher than my stadium or park. My hills lead to the plateau, real tough and stony place. 9:48 is a result received on a cold windy day with hot sun. Such a confusing weather is possible here in Central Asia.
That tough run made me think I shall get back there couple more times, no chance to be there in the winter due to at least 1m snow layer up there.

Mon, 9/17: Rest

Tue, 9/18: this one was a real blast. Wake up at four and forty minutes later I walk towards the park. Couple more hours before a dawn, it is dark and bright shining stars, at least couple hundred visible stars above you promise some fun:
01: 8:24 (140)
02: 8:26 (142) still warming
03: 8:25 (143)
04: 8:06 (146)
05: 8:10 (147)
06: 8:04 (146)
07: 8:14 (145)
08: 8:10 (143)
09: 8:12 (145)
10: 8:12 (143)
11: 8:11 (144)
12: 8:15 (144)
13: 8:22 (144)
14: 8:14 (145) Here comes the Sun :)
15: 8:23 (145) getting warmer
16: 8:51 (142) drink water
17: 8:27 (145) drink again
18: 8:02 (147)
19: 7:58 (148)
20: 7:49 (150)
21: 7:42 (152, max 156)

21 mi, 2:52:46, avg.pace 8:13, avg.HR 145, max 156
My first twenty miler this period,
ordinary result for some runners but my Sweet PR for twenty one mile. It makes me always think if I can make mere twenty one mile in 2h 52min, am I able to "put" mere 22 miles in 3 hours time? There are only 4 miles left and 40 minutes is just what I'm willing to allocate to finish Full Race. Naivety? Could be.
Stay tuned.

P.S. September 19 & 20 no water in Karaganda city. Wow! I've been dreaming a lot about it! I wanted it so-o-o-ou much and finally my dreams came true. Planned outage (the reason for doing that is to check all water supply systems and get ready to winter) for the whole city, instead of doing it "district by district" - this is another brilliant decision of our authorities. Thank you so much. Actually i know what it means - it is time to make better week in run :) I always hit more miles when there's a water outage.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

400s

Just Love them. Started to run quarters couple weeks after SIM, Russia.

Sat, 8/25, 2007
3 x 0.25 mi, Target: Sub 1m:40s, rest time 5:00
avg.pace 5:57, avg.HR 142, max.HR 159

Tue, 8/28, 2007
4 x 0.25 mi, Target: Sub 1:39, rest time 5:00
avg.pace 6:02, avg.HR 145, max.HR 161

Tue, 9/11, 2007
5 x 0.25 mi, Target: Sub 1:38, rest time 4:50
avg.pace 5:55, avg.HR 144, max.HR 167

Sat, 9/15, 2007
6 x 0.25 mi, Target: Sub 1:37, rest time 4:50
avg.pace 5:51, avg.HR 138, max.HR 155
Note: surprisingly low HR, was I tired that day and finished week with fairly low mileage.

Work with Andrew. Part II.

Aug 07
Week #01, Sun 05 - Sat 11 3.00 mi
Week #02, Sun 12 - Sat 18 10.02 mi
Week #03, Sun 19 - Sat 25 40.35 mi
Aug - Sep 07
Week #04, Sun 26 - Sat 01 40.75 mi
Week #05, Sun 02 - Sat 08 60.50 mi
Week #06, Sun 09 - Sat 15 44.51 mi
Week #07, Sun 16 - Sat 22 72.07 mi
Week #08, Sun 23 - Sat 29 73.01 mi
Sep - Oct 07
Week #09, Sun 30 - Sat 06 45.01 mi
Week #10, Sun 07 - Sat 13 51.10 mi
Week #11, Sun 14 - Sat 20 50.09 mi
Week #12, Sun 21 - Sat 27 60.17 mi
Oct - Nov 07
Week #13, Sun 28 - Sat 03 90.02 mi
Week #14, Sun 04 - Sat 10 about 25 !!! miles
Week #15, Sun 11 - Sat 17 ... mi
Week #16, Sun 18 - Sat 24 ... mi
Sunday, November 25, RACE

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

60 miles a week and more

Reached Sixty. Some might be afraid of this volume, for me it is a good sign - I'm entering a good quality work. To hit my Sixty having had 1 day off, ought to make about 10 miles per day. All details of my running work here.
3 days I made workouts with 10+ miles.
3 days I divided my work, therefore made it easier:
8 + 2.50 mi
3 + 5.0 mi
3 + 7.0 mi.
I do consider it as pretty ordinary work, the only "hard" running was 8 miles I did at 7:45 pace - relatively "hard" running for 1+ hour . There are guys from my sidebar who make it at 6:45 and call it Easy.
Next task to make 70 this week. This is tough, I know what it feels like.
Working on it.

Thank you Steve Jobs!
Non running life:
It's been more than 2 month since iPhone was released in the States. Yes I read prerelease info, info about 60 bugs they found after release, at least dozen "full" reviews. Thanks for recent Price cut - 399 bucks now, this is sweet. And say Bye to 4Gb version, good!
Here's a famous Steve's "open Letter". Let's read
"...I am sure that we are making the correct decision to lower the price of the 8GB iPhone from $599 to $399, and that now is the right time to do it. iPhone is a breakthrough product, and we have the chance to 'go for it' this holiday season. iPhone is so far ahead of the competition, and now it will be affordable by even more customers".
Bravo Steve!
Yes I read a lot about How to crack god damn AT&T defense - finally I'm from the other side of the Earth, it has to be much more harder to activate such device here. We have Russian-Turkish-Kazakh mobile providers. Will try my best to crack it, at least I will use it as 399 bucks 8Gb flash player. To crack iPhone for me is a real challenge, whether I can do it on the level of software or hardware or both.

Here's another Steve, MS CEO jerk and ignorant Steve Balmer laughs at iPhone. Personally LOVE most of the comments people made to the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch
Laugh sucker, laugh...

Back to running - I work on 70 miles this week - 10 miles tonight.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Good to Be Back!

Hello Running World!
Thank you Confucius for entertaining my Reader all this time, while I've been busy.
I was not that Fury as I wanted to run like.
But I am back to running long & winding ...
I got my precise results for Omsk, Russia marathon published.
Thank you Paul for the link!
The document is in Russian, anyway you can see me there with Official result 3:57:22
Placement 271 out of 687 men who finished.
"Not too shabby"? hmm.

Recently I have talked a lot to the coach and here's a short summary (as I got it hopefully right) for future running work:
- concentrate more on long runs;
- a week with less qnty of "sessions" with decent mileage better than a lot of AM/PM short runs through the week;
- "Longer & slower" better than "faster & shorter";
- 80 - 90 miles a week diet prescribed by Doc.

And here's how we plan/planned to get it:

Aug, Sun 05 - Sat 11: ~3 mi; 3.0 @ 9:52 !
Aug, Sun 12 - Sat 18: ~10 mi; 10.02 @ 8:38
Aug, Sun 19 - Sat 25: ~40 mi; 40.35 @ 8:25
Aug, Sun 26 - Sep, Sat 01: ~50 mi; 40.75 @ 8:11
Sep, Sun 02 - Sat 08: ~ 60 mi
Sep, Sun 09 - Sat 15: ~ 70 miles
Sep, Sun 16 - Sat 22: ~ 80 miles - Here we are
Sep, Sun 23 - Sat 29: ~ 80 miles
Sep, Sun 30 - Oct, Sat 06: 90 ??
Oct, Sun 07 - Sat 13: ~ 90 nutty miles?
Oct, Sun 14 - Sat 20: ~ doc's diet?
Oct, Sun 21 - Sat 27: ~ still alive ?
Oct, Sun 28 - Nov, Sat 03: TAPER !!!
Nov, Sun 04 - Nov, Sat 10: this is a trully blessed time
Nov, Sun 04 - Nov, Sat 10: more snow with little running.

Lately I didn't do anything special, ran mostly in pm time, which is not good considering early start in Shanghai. 7:30 AM in Shanghai equal to my 5:30 AM local kaz time.
Highlights of post race period:
I started real bad right on a week after the marathon, made only 3 miles with sub 10 min(!) pace and the only idea that "those legs do not listen to me, do not feel they are mine". 2 weeks later it was getting better and better. Then I made longer and longer runs, added uphills and even easy intervals 3 x 400, 4 x 400.

August 31, 2007, Fri: I go on with this "Mile repeats strategy"
decided to make serious Mile repeats and didn't really believe that I'm able to hit 6 fast miles within the limited time:
6 x 1 mile, Target: Sub 6:38. Rest time 11:40.
All details of this Core shaking workout (for me, only for me :) here.
Last day (unofficially) of the summer 07 and I run mile by mile faster and faster.
Doing mile #4 I only realized that I can finish all 6 repeats. My time is 6:00 for a mile. "Make it slower and do not be that jerk, no need to crash your own PR here. These are only mile repeats".
I did such repeats a long ago but never had six of them within such time.

Next day I dragged 10 miles (instead of planned 20!) so such Intervals are real core shaker for me. Guess I shall make it once per month, could be twice.

Total mileage for Sep 07: 118.72 lowest mileage "ever" :(

Fr, 8/31 Six fury mile repeats :)
Sa, 9/01 pm, 1:27:08, 10.0 mi, avg.pace 8:43, HR 137
Su, 9/02 pm, 1:26:30, 10.0 mi, avg.pace 8:39, HR 138
Mo, 9/03 REST
Tu, 9/04 am!, 1:37:17, 11.01 mi, avg.pace 8:50, HR 143

Summer is over and feels like tough time ahead. Whatever -
Happy Running Everybody!!!