Tuesday, October 30, 2007

60 miles last week. Closer to Taper

Week #12, Sun 10/21 - Sat 10/27 60.17 mi
There's nothing to report from my places. Sixty ordinary miles last week after my cold and sickness. I did tried to make a Twenty miler or any long run but simply didn't have enough guts.



We already have frost on the grass ...
and I do realize that any high weekly mileage is simply impossible in the coming winter, even serious long runs is a big question in my Snowy / Windy conditions, so I am closer to Taper (this is SCARY!) and I do realize that this time is my last chance to get a better mileage this year, till next Spring...
Now I'm good and fully recovered.
Probably I've started best week in my running life now

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Success Then Failure

The closer I am to the Big Day, the more I doubt about the Race. But there’s no turning back for me. I go there. Here’s my condensed story about highest expectations of getting high mileage. And failing twice:

Week Sun 10/7 – Sat 10/13
– Su, 10/7, PM: 20 mi at 7:53. Read my previous post about this PR, that run made me simply more confident about my abilities in real race. At that time I was mentally and physically ready to hit 90 miles a week. Didn’t happen though.
– Mo, 10/8, AM: 5.01 mi @ 8:52;
PM: 3.00 mi @ 8:12.
– Tu, 10/9, AM: 10.40 mi @ 8:44;
PM: 3.00 mi @ 8:10. I am “authorized” by coach to have doubles, but my second run has to be no longer than mere three miles. Whatever, at that point I felt that everything is great and I’m in the middle of my best week.
– We, 10/10, AM: I’m doing 10 or 11 easy miles, it suppose to take about one and half hours. I remember dawn already broke in and it wasn’t dark anymore and I passed 9:50 mi mark when suddenly in one unlucky moment I twisted my right ankle. I limped a little bit trying to estimate situation. It was serious. That’s all. Wednesday morning, I have Total 50 + miles on my deposit but it’s All Over!

I consumed a lot of ice. On Fri eve I walked a quarter on my stadium trying to jog, but actually limping at 10:30 average pace. Next day an old marathon buddy – Mr. Paul (3:25:05 in Boston, April 16th, 2007) visited my industrial city. I have a running blog here, so I skip foreigner’s adventure on the way from Astana to Karaganda. (Just in case if you’re visiting these places, let me give you some advice: try to know elementary Russian, some Kazak would be good and get ready to have 10% those conveniences you used to have :) Paul brought me some running stuff – special socks for marathoners – surely they do not produce it here in former USSR, Running Times (Sep 07) magazine – Love It! Also now I have a DVD copy from Boston 2007 – this one is a Great motivational thing. Thank you Paul!
Recently he finally bought Garmin 305 so I showed him couple useful (imho) options for displaying more info. It is better to read Garmin manual anyway, finally I don’t think I use more than 60% of all running features in my Tool. I never used “retracing route back” to the starting point cause I know my places.
I discussed a possibility of delivering one advanced hardware thing from the States soon, as he goes there in November. Can’t tell you what is that, I think it can be used in registering running process.
OK. I was off work on Thu, Fri & Sat. Man, it is more than enough to make you feel real bad…

Another week and one more attempt to hit magical number of miles per week,
Sun 10/14 – Sat 10/20 – unfortunately I got a serious cold and had to take 2 days off..
– Su, 10/14, PM: 20.10 mi, 3:06:49 at avg. 9:17 – tough twenty miler. I was sort of jogging and hobbling. It is hard to have real long run after 3 days of inactivity.
– Mo, 10/15, PM: 12.00 mi @ 9:17. Watch out – Andrew gave me a plan which I tried hard to fulfill. The plan was 20 miler on Sunday, then 12 mi on Monday. This was the first time I ever was able to have 12 miles after grueling 20 miler. 9:17 is a sluggish pace but glad I did it.
– We, 10/16, PM: 8.00 mi @ 8:34.
– Th, 10/17, AM: 4.00 mi @ 9:23 I think I was faster but Tool started to lose satellites and I was almost sick..
– Fr, 10/18: OFF and recover
– Sa, 10/19: easy 6 miles at 8:15.
The only thing I can be glad is that both weeks I managed to get 50+ miles. Detailed summary available at Work with Andrew. Part II.
P.S. I’m getting closer to the Taper and Shanghai.
P.P.S. Non running life:
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard released yesterday on Friday, October 26. This OS is still out of my reach.

Happy running to everybody… and Do Not Get Injured.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Formula

I've been toying with the idea of reaching 90 mpw one lucky day. Here I am fully ready to get this aim.
Sunday, October 7 - time to do another 20 miler.

Couple days before that, I read this post by Ryan and was pretty amazed with his plan for 20 miler. Plan was to make 10 mi sub 7:20 + 10 mi sub 7:00! And plan was done. Wow!!!

It made me think of simple thing: Ok, Ryan's plan is surely not for me, but How many consecutive miles I could run keeping sub 8:00? I made some guess trying to understand this way: I did Half at 7:38 average so I can survive 13 or 14 miles. What about fifteen or more making 20 miler within this experiment? If I will do it, that would be my Best twenty ever, plus I will gain some experience for the real Full race. With all those thoughts in mind I started on my stadium:

Mile 01: 7:41
Mile 02: 7:44 be conservative pls!
(translation: try to keep 7:50 - 8:00)
Mile 03: 7:56 good
Mile 04: 7:56
Mile 05: 7:52
Mile 06: 7:55 I think about Ryan's formula
Mile 07: 7:47 couple homeless doggies watch me,
homeless doggies here are not aggressive at all
Mile 08: 7:55
Mile 09: 7:57 I taught myself to drink without a stoppage,
grab little bottle, 1-2 sips on the run, leave the bottle in the field, no one will take it
Mile 10: 7:56
Mile 11: 7:52
Mile 12: 7:53 ok I am almost here !!!
The tool is on the left wrist and gas spray ("prudential measure") is in right hand. I see a man and two ladies approach to my places and.. here's why I have this tiny gas in my hand for.. Little super aggressive dog chasing me, owners only enter the stadium - I spray and say couple *** words - I guess correct name for the dog. Attack #1. I keep on running the lap and a man and company cross the place - Oh yea, I am supposed to meet the doggy again and am pissed off with this situation. Grab 2 stones (recommendation from books) doggy attack me again and I throw it on the run - I didn't really want to hit the dog, just show 'em that the whole situation is stupid. In fact I found that it is almost impossible to hit the dog by a stone being on the run. Attack #2 - I run backward saying "good" words about doggy and trying to spray right in the muzzle. B*stards, Attack 1 was enough to understand that it would happen again. "Ok, ok, stop spraying, I will hold it" - screams lady grabbing dog. I run away screaming what I think about all of them:
- You are such a Mambo! (Kaz untranslatable phrase :)
So, Mr. Garmin - what do we have? I run 12.50 mi and current mile time is 4:06 !! Holy cow and ***ing dog - I'm seven seconds behind the plan. Gradually increase the speed but this is tricky work, you can get this mile as planned time but "destroy" further miles, it can "play havoc" with other 7 miles.
Mile 13: 7:53 I am lucky (see my HR for this mile - thanks to Doggy for HR and some boost)
Mile 14: 7:54 I am good but it hurts
Mile 15: 7:56
Mile 16: 7:54 I entertain myself croonin' different songs:
Don't stop me now, I'm having such a good time... (Queen)
Mile 17: 7:55
Lord Have Mercy on me, "Sinner's Prayer" by Eric Clapton
Won't you please have mercy ... My neck, back aghh but I keep going
Mile 18: 7:53 three miles only, sort of EZ 5k
Mile 19: 7:53
Mile 20: 7:52

20.00 mi, 2:37:42, avg.pace 7:53, avg.HR 150, max.HR 170 (cute doggy)

This is my Biggest achievement in this distance and it was such a nice experience. Full race soon and I will try to stick to this plan: first mile would be slower, it is crowded in Shanghai and here's my own formula - "conservative" sub 8:00 for twenty and one mile. Then let's see.

Coach has race in 4 days?

Monday, October 08, 2007

Lowest mileage recently

Sep - Oct 07
Week #07, Sun 30 - Sat 06 45.01 mi

Su, 9/30: I am OFF after mile repeats on the day before
Mo, 10/1: 7.01 mi at avg.pace 8:49 sluggish
Tu, 10/2: 8.00 mi at 8:49 shockink fight with gusty wind and snow on AM run, did regret that I didn't take my gloves. It is too soon for early winter attack.
We, 10/3: the same "inviting" weather - No Thanks
Th, 10/4: 13.00 mi at 8:47
Fr, 10/5: 11.00 mi at 8:25
Sa, 10/6: 6.00 mi at 7:42
I was supposed to get to 50 miles so had to run 11 miles.
It didn't happen cause I decided to make sort of Good Old Tempo this way:
1 mile: no target
1 mile: sub 7:00
1 mile: sub 7:20
1 mile: sub 7:40
1 mile: sub 8:00
1 mile: sub 8:20 + 5 miles no target.
Did all what i planned but those 5 miles left would bring me into a bad condition.
Save energy.
I've made up my mind to make Best-est week since Sunday, October 7th and actually I'm doing it now.

P.S. Bad news from Chicago, good news from Scotland and Minneapolis.
P.P.S. I was right on Sat eve, just made fantastic PR in 20 miles on Sunday but now too tired to write about it. Will be back soon.

Good Running & Recovery to Everybody!

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Seven Weeks to Go

This is what I have in stock before the Big Day.
Recently I've put some decent mileage into the log:

Total mileage for
Aug 07:
118.72 miles @ avr. 8:28, 16 hours on open air... including full marathon.
Sep 07:
260.08 miles @ avr. 8:32, 37 + hours on open air, this is good.

Water outage (which we had for one day "only") worked well in September:
Sun 16 - Sat 22 72.07 mi
Sun 23 - Sat 29 73.01 mi
I do appreciate weeks which include twenty miler, so now I have two and as my target to hit 6 or 7 "real" long runs, I'm supposed to make 4 twenty milers in October + 1 in early November.
The only highlights of those 2 weeks besides 20 milers was Mile repeats workout which I did intend to make somewhere in the end of the month. Originally Andrew recommended me this workout somewhere in June and as I did like 'em, I decided to make mile repeats once per month. This type of intervals are excited but frankly speaking takes much, so much out of me.
Half physical, half mental requires some concentration on the process:

Sa, 9/29, 2007:
7 x 1 mile, Target: Sub 6:37 each mile. Rest time 11:30

There's a phase in extremal running (let's say last miles in marathon) when I say to myself: "I hate, hate doing this". That's what I thought doing seventh mile interval, I physically felt that this must be my limit now. All repeats i did with conservative pace sub 6:30, last repeat was 6:10 with HR in good zone 154 - 155 max. Now I wonder - am I able to make 8 x 1 mile, I think I will postpone this experiment for the future.
Next day I was not able to make any long run at all, slept 14 hours as a baby, missed the whole day and didn't even think about running.
This is what running to your own limits is all about.

Hope coach doesn't read this : )
Recently Andrew was critical about all intervals so I had to ask - Please, only one interval workout in September. Didn't get any positive reaction.
Andrew is right, main concern now is keep doing long runs and higher mileage, No PRs.

This week in running was poor in aspect of mileage as if I was doing a Taper, in fact I do not. No time for Taper yet...
Two days with gusty wind, rain, hail and snow (just think SNOW! on Oct 2 & 3rd) crashed my running work this week:
Sun, 9/30 - Sat, 10/6
expect to get only 50 miles mark for the week. Read on.

My regards to:
Thomas & Mike
both have Race tomorrow, Dallen to run Chicago then.
And how could I forget "Chinese"-Chicago runner Ryan who will try to break 3 hour barrier in Chicago tomorrow. Good Luck!!!
Those guys are real Fighters.