Sunday, October 12, 2008

25 mpw

Almost every day my email box receives “Quote of the Day” from Runner’s World. This one I really like:
"I always run alone, away from phones and stress. Running is a major part of my life because it keeps me sane."
Michael Roux, JR., Executive Chef, Le Gavroche, London

Good thought. Ninety plus percents of my workouts I do solo, though I do not avoid opportunity to run with others…
I keep on climbing to the peak of my mileage:

Week: Sun, Sep 28 – Sat, Oct 4, 2008
Sun 9/28, AM: 10.87 mi, 1h:35m:00s, avg. pace 8:44, avg./max HR 150/166 (max HR I got after an incident with dogs in the park, nothing special);
Mon 9/29: off
Tue 9/30: off
Wed 10/1, PM: 4.25 mi, 36:45, avg. pace 8:38, avg./max HR 144/167 (no incidents and I don’t remember what happened, probably I was tired after working day and my heart didn’t work well. Such an outrage : )
Thu 10/2, PM: 4.25 mi, 35:11, avg. pace 8:16, avg./max HR 141/150 (finally good heart rate);
Fri 10/3: off
Sat 10/4, Saturday is always special day for me. It’s a final day for my running week and sort of day to “cover all running debts”.
PM: 4.0 mi, 32:15, avg. pace 8:03, avg./max HR 139/156
Four miles as a warm up followed by Intervals:
8 x 0.25 mi, total 2.00 mi, avg. pace 5:23, avg./max HR 148/165
My first time for 8 quarters (I never took it before as consecutive repeats) and I put on Asics Gel-DS Racer VII to hit eight intervals from 1m:17s’99 to slowest 1:22’96. I rarely wear these luxurious sneakers and try to save them for couple more marathons, as you’ll never (nearest 5 – 10 years) get Asics model of this class in Kaz or Central Asia. Though my running pal Mr. Baghdad swears he saw “sneakers like these” somewhere here.
– Show me my friend, show me.

Total for the week: 25.36 mi, 3h:29m:58s, avg. pace 8:16.

Sunday, October 05, 2008

20 mpw

After several months off, I’m back to blogging. It goes without saying that majority of my readers won’t be back to this page. From other hand being an active member of this running blogging world brings me slight chance to inspire and encourage some and to be inspired as well.

My running life is getting a little frayed around the edges. I am not as “fury” as I was in 2007 and there are some reasons. Main reason is that I can not allow myself to run Full race (read spend a lot) cause all of them are Far Away. Won’t run Beijing or Shanghai this year, Istanbul, Dublin or Dubai not an option either. No need to mention that there are No certified races in Kazakhstan or Central Asia. Just No One.
OK. I missed this year and Medeo Half (see previous post) was the only Race I ran in 2008.
As I do not have any race as my Target, the curtain ought to be brought down now.

Not now. I do train and will share my training here, week by week till my next Full race.
If you, my Dear Reader want to read about intensive training with 80 or 90 or closer to One Hundred miles a week program, you obviously got to the wrong page, though I hit 80 mpw somewhere in Jul 08.
Here’s what I do these days.

Week: Sun, Sep 21 – Sat, Sep 27, 2008
Sun 9/21, PM: 10.37 mi, 1h:30m:00s, avg. 8:41, avg./max HR 139/150
Mon 9/22: off
Tue 9/23: off
Wed 9/24: off
Thu 9/25, PM: 3.0 mi, 25:52, avg. 8:37, avg./max HR 145/158
(heart rate simply tells that I am untrained)
Fri 9/26: off
Sat 9/27, PM: 5.0 mi, 43:25, avg. 8:41, avg./max HR 155/163 (!! 5 EZ miles, oh boy where do I go?) + Intervals with 4 min rest in between:
7 x 0.25 mi, total 1.75 mi, avg. 5:40, avg./max HR 146/166 (as I always do, those “idle” laps which actually 4 min rest period I erase from Mr. Garmin’s memory right after my workout done.)

Total for the week: 20.11 mi, 2h:49min, avg. pace 8:24

This September we sort of missed “Indian Summer” so it’s pretty cold in my places and this is the only reason to run (some call it “jog”) at those miserable paces – gloves, light winter hat and all that stuff on me. I’m not complaining about my conditions and uniform; I think this was one of the factors for successful Shanghai race last year, I ran heavily equipped up to 90 miles a week and November Sh gave me a chance to run in T-short, shorts and light Asics. Good Formula and my lofty goal is to repeat it one day.

Happy Running to Everybody!
P.S. Thank you guys for all your comments and care.
P.P.S. Tomorrow Sun Oct 5, my running friend Paul Gilmer’s running Budapest marathon. First full race since Omsk 2007 we ran together. Paul I cross my fingers!!!
As for me, I’ll do my 1h 40min “long” run.

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Doomed. PRed.

Sorry My Dear Reader. It takes some time.
Finally got home Karaganda (?) and here’s my report from Almaty Medeo Half 2008. I was Doomed to be out of Top 10 there, I was also a little bit injured closer to the finish, but PRed anyway. So:
I trained hard a month before the race, at least that was a peak I reached this year, then Tapered with math precision banking last week exact 26.0 miles from Sun, Jun 1st – Sat, Jun 7th. (My original idea was to hit a Race on Sat, Jun 7 so adding 13 miles plus some warming/cooling would have given me 40 mpw. Better not to make such plans with our organizers :(Traveling by train to Almaty.

Organizers announce left me speechless.

It will happen TOMORROW, Jun 8, 8:08 am. Damn, I got a railway ticket for a train on late Sat night. Following several hours were spent to return my ticket to the railway office (for some reasons they didn’t return me money) and I buy another ticket for Sun 5 pm. I wouldn’t do all those things without help of one beautiful lady, my support team, cameraperson and just great friend Helen. Thank you LaLenchik!!!
Being so busy, this time I missed official opening ceremony at the Central Stadium, just got there later. In the gloomy corridor I meet a guy and probably, probably I know him. So I was like, “Tima?”Guy answered: “Rus?” This way I met Timofei (Timothy) Bannikov in real. Cool guy
who used to visit my page so I do the same.
Just a quick PRs comparison:
Rus: 3:38:02 (Shanghai, China, Nov 2007)
Tim: 3:38:08 (Charlottesville, USA, Apr 2008). Take into consideration that Charlottesville is much hillier than Shanghai…
We found a “common language” so felt more like friends and hardly competitors. Almost all participants take seats in the bus and we go to Medeo.
Couple words about this place: Medeo was definitely the best Skating ring in the USSR. Located close to Almaty somewhere in mountains, Medeo skating complex always attracts local residents and tourists who came here from all over the world. While riding to the Pearl of Southern Kaz on Sat eve, we met a guy in the same bus who was obviously American (this time no visitors from Germany) dude – Dave, Peace Corp. volunteer who already had spent a year in Southern Kaz. So three of us took a room in Medeo hotel. PCV guy had a Super Original plan – to Run FULL race tomorrow. In fact Dave never, Never Did it before, but trained hard recently. So he asked organizers to make an exception and let him run more than others. Think of 6400 ft / 1950 meters altitude (that’s what my Garmin says) to realize that Peace Corp can be so proud of this guy.
Sat eve, The Gang: Tim, Dave and me visit a DAM which is higher than Medeo; on the picture where green edge is over.
“Visit” means that we simply walked and tried not to pressure our quads and calves. It was pretty dark but the whole picture is clear for me: next morning we will run along this DAM/Levee –asphalt, then we have 2 or 3 Steep hills, still asphalt, than a real Trail section in the end about 100 meters, route turn around to the levee again. This point-to-point route makes about 4 km, we will hit 5 laps. Everything is clear, we go downstairs to Medeo Hotel.

Physically: absolutely ready to race and PR tomorrow morning.
Mindset: disappointed – we met a lot of almost pro guys from South Kaz, Uzbekistan and Kirgyzstan. Their best Full efforts range from 2:19-2:20 to 2:30. Meet on of them, Mr. Yerlan, real Kazakh from Almaty region, on the picture guy with sunglasses (img from Astana 2006), his best shot ever was 2:19 somewhere recently. Last year he ran Full Medeo, first reached the Top of long hill incline, there fell down being unconscious, some time later he “woke up” himself and kept running at 6th position. Super effort gave him finally 3rd place. (I missed his finish last year, after running Half I ran to the railway station:). This time Yerlan and other Pro guys wanted Full of course, but as Full is cancelled they had nothing to do but apply to Half.

Here’s a question: How to compete with those Monsters? I am a 3:30 guy. Pro guys talk about hitting 1:10 in the morning, all I think is sub 1:40. This would be my personal best time. Period. I am out of their own league. Tim and Dave saw I was disappointed, “C’mon man, we will do our job.”
Sunday morning. Day X. In the hotel I take my marker to write “RUS” above my shorts. Dave looks at me and my uniform:
D: – Decided to show off your abs?
R: – Yes I did.
Dave looks curiously, “Are you Furyhorse?”. – Actually I am. (Funny dialogue, ughh?)
Dave takes marker to write names of his college or PCV mates on his upper body.
Everything is expensive in the hotel so my breakfast is only Snickers Marathon Energy Bar – thanks to Paul Gilmer, btw a week before Medeo we had a Great and slow 10 miler in Astana with a gang of friendly runners from all over the small planet called Earth. Medeo is only Half so one Snickers Bar is enough for me. Tim refused to eat anything at all. 7:10 am my friend LaLenchik got to Medeo by taxi and soon all of us on the top of the Dam. The view and the scenery of Medeo nature Absolutely Majestic. I would stay here as a tourist for some time, but our start soon and my train leaves this evening. Some nervousness keeps me jogging slowly. I make several strains with sub 7:00 min per mile efforts. That’s all. Me and Tim before the start.

There’s a place over (behind?) Tim’s shoulder where we will turn back to the Dam.

We START. About 60 runners including a dozen ladies, me and Tim in the middle of the pack, I hear upbeat drums in Tim’s earphones; Dave takes it easy and slowly behind us. Pack of leaders goes forward so fast, let me see, sub 7:00, sub 6:30, sub 6:00 pace. GEE!!! Man, something is wrong here, this is not my pace, “this is Not my pace” so I back off. Tima ahead of me, moves further and further. I don’t care. My heart easily reach 150 and slowly crawls to 160 beats per min. Everything is ok, Sun is shining and I sing classy hard blues, “if it keeps on ‘shinin’, levee is going to break” (by Page/Plant & others).

Mile 01: 7:14 (Night before we discussed that it would be nice to start with 7:40 then approach to negative splits, like each mile 5 sec faster than previous. Man, reality is absolutely different than naïve plans.)
Mile 02: 7:43 I start to count laps, not miles; as we have 5 laps only, one lap is done and I feel good, still Tima ahead of me 20 or 30 meters. We return to the Dam passing 2 – 3 STEEP hills, on of them long and tough. Here’s my mantra:
“I love hills. Will not Attack them.
I do love hills and won’t Attack them.”
We’re back to the dam, lap 1 is done, and I hear voices from my support team and from Tim’s family: “Rus davai Rus” (C’mon) / “Rus is behind”. I do my job. I do not remember other mile splits, though I watch Garmin from time to time. I control HR and pace. All details here.
I realize that splits will never be equal here, some parts we run are super hilly and "I do do Love ‘em!"
Shame on me, but I stick to one young Kazakh lady who runs fast. All the way she’s moving ahead, I try to catch. In the middle of Lap 2, somewhere in mountain hills I got Tima Bannikov. My “girlfriend” is also here. Mr. Garmin says we ran 3.3 miles. I would talk to Tim but I hear some music from his mp3 device. As for me I never run with those things, I watch this Stunning Imagery and listen to the beautiful sounds from Mother Nature – mountain river runs fast, birdies signs so well. I think that we can run together for some time but Tim’s got a hard breath, much harder than mine; 3.33 miles, sorry Bro, I pass. We still run in the pack but I do not look back. Lap 2, Lap 3 done. At half way mark I noticed that according to my Garmin total distance would be shorter than 13.1 miles. Garmin can be wrong. Or not.

These hills will kill me, my pace goes down to 9:00 or so!! Whatever:
“I love hills. Will not Attack them.
I do love hills and won’t Attack them.”
Dave is running slow but steady. I move back to the Dam, he’s moving to the ultimate point of return, our directions opposite. We support each other and this time he screams, “Rus. You’re the Man, the Man!” – “Thanks! You too!!!” I see beautiful sky above and our screams fly to the Universe. Down back to the track. My “girlfriend” bothers me and runs smoothly. I try too. On the way downhill I noticed my heart rate is… incredible 140bpm!!! I am shocked and I got it – my heart acclimatized quickly to these circumstances. “Rus, you’re lazy assh..” (correct word “slacker”:) – what else I could say to myself? Pro guys pass me like rockets, they do their final lap so I put down the accelerator too. My wheels responds. I only try to pretend I am as almost pro as those rockets. No damage for me.
4 laps done. I scream and support old Mr. Pavel Sirotin (Ultra from Karaganda) – his next mad race is “Moscow – Beijing” pretty soon. Screamed a few words to Tim, not sure if he heard. One More Lap. My “girlfriend” is behind, have no idea where is Tim. I definitely do not feel good, but this Beautiful Nature… as its Creator made it. I dream on day I’ll get a fat, pro SLR camera and spend some time here to take a bunch of great photos. Good dreams always got my pace going well again.
All I need to do now is to “love” 2 or 3 hills on the way to the Ultimate point of return, then 2 or 3 hills on the way back and I’ll get to the Levee! Mr. Garmin says I passed 10.6 miles, I am tired and losing control, but I’m going to make it. Better than ever. There’s a ledge of the asphalt at the border of the road, an inch or 2 difference. My right leg step on it and I twist my ankle! ……… (some unprintable words here). 10.6 miles. I can jog, …. I still can jog. I have had such twists for about a hundred times since early 90’s. This one is not really serious, but it hurts. Horse wounded. I try to switch into another jogging mode, I shuffle between several patterns, one of them: “Run like sprinter, they almost do not touch the ground”. I think if I’ll be really slow, my “girlfriend” will catch me closer to the finish line or I can finish with Tim, who’s about 3 min behind me. Passed limping this strange way the ultimate point, Mr. Garmin says I’ve been doing my job for 1h 30 min. Good. Couple hills ahead, one of them is Super long, tough and steep. I approach.
“I love hills. Will not Attack them.
I do love hills and won’t Attack them.”
Here’s Dave moving opposite directions, he knows I’ll get to the line soon and he screams out load, “…(you) Hit the (this) Hill Hard, and you’ve got it!!!”
“Kop Rakhmet” David!
And this is my final Mantra:
“I love this hill.
I’d love to Attack it hard.I do love this …. hill and I Attack it now.”
After final hill, there’s short downhill section (do not kill your luxurious Asics here!) and the DAM. I got faster, Tim’s family supports: “Rus Davai!” I also hear a loudspeaker “… runner from Karaganda”, blah-blah. FINISH. My pace is sub 5:00 (!) at the moment. A minute or two later, my “girlfriend” finished. I talked to her, she’s seventeen and been training for a year only. This young lady “from Taldyk” (Taldykorgan city) was 1st lady who finished. Amazing!A-ha, and here he goes – Tim’s finishing. I shake his hand and hug him,
“We did it, Man!”
I did it up there.
And that is all to report. As one diplomat from other side of Atlantic or Pacific said: “This Race is a joke.”
Let me Sum up the day: – I was 6th last year (supposedly 5th) and only 16th this year. What a progression! But I made my PR 1:36:59 (Garmin’s result) competing with tough guys; I doubt it was 13.1 mi though.
– Organization was shitty, everything else was Superb; I can not recommend such race to anyone; but if you’re a reader from far away, suddenly find yourself in these places, I do recommend to visit Medeo, Chymbulak, local Grand Canyon (I myself never been there).
– Real winners (1:09 1:10 guys) were truly disappointed. Mr. Alim, race in charge was like, “Sorry but sponsors sneak away in the last moment, so only medals and sertificates…blah…”. Winners bowed down, took their trophies and were moving away saying half loud some unprintables about the race. They were stepping down to Medeo steps, when I stopped ‘em: “Man, so they didn’t pay you anything?” – “I’ve got nothing”. Andrei Petrov, poor Russian guy from Uzbekistan. A thousand bucks for any guy from Uzb or Kyrgyzstan means much more than it is here. Their avg. salary several times lower.
So, can I recommend this meet to anyone? If you live here, try it for fun.
– Hero of the Day:
Dave. Mr. JFK would be proud – Peace Corp Rocks! I wouldn’t do Full race on such day.
(some carboloading after the race, couple sips of beer)

I want to thank my family, my readers, all my friends here, in Almaty and everywhere for your Love and Support. Thank you guys!

All photos from the Day must be here.
I will make decent video later, it’s not easy to edit these HiDef clips.
I need several days off to leak my wounds. Shall start thinking seriously of Omsk or any other Full marathon.

Saturday, June 07, 2008

Almaty Medeo Half 2008. Preliminaries.

Today, Jun 7, 2008 I got to Almaty early am to get to their Stadium to be registered with tne famous Karaganda Ultra runner, Mr. Pavel Sirotin. We both were standing still and amazed, WTF.. jaw down seeing Announce paper that Medeo race to be held on NEXT DAY, Sun, Jun 8, 8 am!!! Holy ..... We talked to organizer – yes, the Race is tomorrow, absolutely new route, not far from Medeo sport complex. It’s going to be a flat race… you say this is advantage??
How about racing at 2000 meters altitude? (have no clue how many ft’s it is, will check later with my Garmin Training Center). So organizer recommended to spend this night at Medeo place “to acclimatize over there, otherwise you’re dead young man”.
And that is all to report now.
Rus, from Almaty, former Kazakistani capital.

P.S. Full marathon is cancelled. All of us will run Half tomorrow.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

End of May 2008

Ha! I'm alive and kicking here, this is for sure.
Thanks for all your kind comments:

- Flanture, Man I will talk to you soon as I always have questions about Flash and AS 3.0
(I do recommend flanture.blogspot.com for those of you who curious about latest 2D technologies, i.e. this guy gave me a definite answer to my How to put swf file into Blogger's sidebar as we can't put any Flash object using standard tools).

- Eric, we're doing so called Paul's "Farewell Run" in Astana this Saturday, May 31, 2008. Start about 9.30 in the morning. Feel free to talk to me for more details (roninxp*mail.ru 8 705 250 41 30). Going to hit 10 easy miles, (as for me 8:00 pace would be perfect) no need to consider it as a Race.
Here's a photo from Race local diplomats made in Astana couple weeks ago (sorry guys, I missed it, peak of my training took its toll)








My running life went almost as I planned, I didn't get to my chart 8 Best Weeks Ever though. The maximum volume of work I did trying to crack my body down was 63 & 60 mpw couple weeks ago. And now I Taper.

So Race is a week away from now. Next Sat we will have some fun in Almaty.

Organizers pay well for TOP3 runners in Half Marathon
3000, 2000 & 1000 (i hope not tenge but) dollars respectively.
The game is Worth the candle, isn't it?

P.S. Good Luck everybody and I'll see you soon!
P.P.S. Can you believe that a Lady from Kazakhstan WON London marathon several weeks ago? Keep reading...

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Fun Run in Astana Announce

Rus, Thanks for hosting the Karaganda 20-miler, and the media support from Sasha and Timur. Pass on my congrats on Tim's chess victory.

How about this for an announcement for our next run:
"Vecyoli Zabeg" - Saturday, May 17 at 9:30 am in Astana - 5/10 km Fun Run. We will meet at the running course near the Sariy Arka bridge along the river next to the Astana Park Hotel. I have several Americans and Kazakhstanis interested, as well as an Austrian, Italian and Canadian. So maybe we should call it the "Astana International Fun Run".

- Paul Gilmer

Monday, May 05, 2008

Training Week #22

was pretty similar to week #20, with a few changes actually.

I decided to divide Tough workouts:
- mile repeats on Thu and
- hill session on Sat.
This time I hit "interval workout" (using Mr.Garmin'slanguage) 2 x 1 mi with 11m30s rest in between. The rest time was agreed with coach for a season Spring-Summer 2007 and it is a "Subject to Change" with a notice that it will be shorter. And shorter. Times for miles:
6:17.01
Rest
6:05.94
within an inch of my PR.
Hills! No need to boast but I myself was surprised making 8 hills last Sat... and this time it didn't hurt like, i mean my pain tolerance has reached higher level. 8 hills is my current PR.

P.S. i got an Announce for Astana 5k/10k FUN RUN. I blow into my bloggin' trumpet (as long as not only foreigners read me) to join this unofficial race next Sat, May 17.
Details tomorrow. Read on.

Friday, May 02, 2008

Tough Long Run

My running friend Paul made a 3 hours drive to get to my industrial city for a long "race". We started 9 am on Sat, April 26, 2008 as i announced here. Long distance running definitely not popular in Kaz at all, no wonder nobody joined us. If you suddenly visit this park in the morning you can meet jogging people, but you know, there's a huge difference between couple miles they do and those magical number Twenty...
Weather conditions - far from ideal, wind and some rain. Local people were just shoked looking at Paul, such a strange man in T-short (!) & shorts (!!!) while everybody wears gloves and hats...
My perfomance wasn't that hard as I thought it would be, we even left this park to make 1 tough hill. Chatting from time to time we use "Boston therminology":
- so now we're facing what?
- Heartbreak hill ! :)
I didn't feel bad, at least till mile 17 or 18 I guess. But at that point I agreed with Paul to hit "twenty one & last two miles have to be sub 8:00" (which is my GoalMP) and actully was ready for this.
Mile #19: easy, about 8:40 or so.
Mile #20: we got into our stride - Paul runs increadibly fast, most of the mile having sub 7:00 pace. He just really blew me away. Paul has a shorter stride but moves it with higher frequency. I finish mile 20 having 7:40 on the tool and 19.98 mi figure which doesn't seem to be moving further. Damn! "Lost Satellite Reception. Click Enter." I stop, i click, restart, turn it on again. Stand still for about 50 sec watching Paul running fast far away. He'll kill his 21st mile with sub 8:00, soon. My Tool is ready, I push "start/" and run just to push "/stop" ten seconds later.
Outcome: 20.01 mi @ average pace 8:3x. Paul made his 21 at slightly faster pace.
The 20 miler nailed total 50+ mi for a Week #21;
One complain: Man, was I feeling bad after the long run. Sore on Sat and next day during Russian Orthodox Easter, I was not able to get out of home. It did hurt bad.
I want to Thank our Media group:
Sasha - my co-worker, almost proPhotographer for making Great shots!
My bro Tim - for spending some time with us and HD camera, i bought from Paul.
Next day Tim won Karaganda City Chess Championship and now he's gone for another tournament...
Thank you Paul for making this 20 miler with me, I used to do it solo but now I see, even putting the same level efforts as usual, it feels much easier when we do sort of Long Run / Boston simulation / almost a race. As my coach said: "There is something about having a running partner to make the miles just slide on by."

Friday, April 25, 2008

Training Week #20

I do not train really hard this season. But I do enjoy most of the wokouts, whether it an early morning run with a rising red sun breaking into a cold, cold darkness or a late evening "can't see anything" run.
Here's my training week #20.

Sun, 4/13
PM: 10 easy miles at avg. 8:40

Mon, 4/14
PM: 3 mi at avg. 8:36, nothing special

Tue, 4/15
PM: 5 mi Hard, avg. 7:42, HR 145/153
this is actually first time this year i put 5 hard consecutive miles in a row. Good. A year ago right this time I hit 1 hour at 7:15, some time later, 1 hour sub 7:00. I think it is doable again. Will try.

Wed, 4/16
AM (i'm really crazy, to think started 5:35am!): 10 easy miles

Thu, 4/17
PM: 4 easy miles after work, I think it was too dark to run;
do not remember details for ordinary runs...

Fri, 4/18
PM: again ordinary 5 miles ... Ha. Now I remember! After hitting 10 morning miles on Wed it suddenly happened. Whop! TONS of snow and Winter again is here!!! In the middle of the week on Wed/ Thu severe snow storm occupiued Central Kazakhstan with -15 Celcius temps, it was so serious that police had to block roads from Astana (capital here) to my city (roughly 250 km distance). Nobody could guarantee your safety on the roads...So those days made me think of taking my balaclava again. To tell the truth, the freeze ceased on Fri.

Sat, 4/19
I've been thinking a lot of some speedy workouts I hit a year ago. Here's my attempt:
warmed up a little bit and proceeded with a fast mile:
Let it be an introduction to Mile repeats I really want to do now.
1 mi, pace 6:19, avg.HR 152, max.HR 163.
Oh boy, my speed is back. It made me feel like I can renew my 1 mile PR. Gimme some time. I'll do it soon.
The place i did my mile is very close to the Big HILL. The hill is Huge, Steep and definitely higher than 10 storey building. I approach keeping in mind that Medeo Half I will experience soon. Yes, I am ambicious and want to hit something special: pls see this Garmin screenshot with diagrams of my heart jumping 7 times to low 160s and those 7 elevations.
Never did anything like that. Even 2days later my quads and calves did hurt like Motherf*@#er! I won't repeat it this week, cause I have 20 miler tomorrow, on Sat. But I do have plan to make several serious hill workouts before June.
Sat eve, nine pm, 10 slow relaxing miles just to hit Total 51.05 miles.
P.S. Screenshots of all my weeks available at Flickr tag.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Long Run ANNOUNCE !!!

On Sat, April 26, 2008 am I will do my first 20 miler. Anyone who would like to share this experience with me is welcome.
It will all start in Karaganda city, 9 am at the entrance to EthnoPark, right between Dostar-Alem and Sozvezdie Hotels.
startfinish
All my am runs I start here (upper picture) and run deep in the park. My finish is shown on the bottom picture next to Blue Gates (depends on the Tool) with a nice new building of Catholic church on the background.
Supposedly a gang is: me, Paul (running pal from Astana), could be another diplomat...

P.S. Paul calls this run "a race", I just call it "long run".
One more time:
ВСЕ НА ЗАБЕГ !!! (Тяжелый и Трудный)
Please join us for this long run (probably incl. 1 or 2 hills) about 32+km or 20+ miles. Rain or Shine, we gonna do it. Detailed report to be posted.
P.P.S. My last week with 51 miles (mileage is low, but the quality was superb) was fabulous, will try to describe it before our 20 miler.
Hope to read Great reports from that little hilly race started yesterday in Hopkinton.
Tima Bannikov had a Great race finishing Charlottesville Marathon in 3:38:08. Good time.
I visualize such a nice competition in Almaty Half very very soon. Tim, in case you read it, recover well and let's have this helluva tough run less than 7 weeks from now.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Sixty

Do not have much to say about my training here.
I had about 10 days without any work at all which gave me a sense of vacation I’ve missed for so long. I expected that my running volumes would increase significantly but … but it didn’t happen.
All I did were 50 mi or so weeks which I actually really enjoy. Last week Sun 4/6 – Sa 4/12 I finally HIT Sixty Miles with 5 hills and 10% of total volume made at Goal Marathon Pace and oh boy, it’s getting harder. My concept now is to peak and get better weeks in run approximately a month before Race. The Race is Almaty, Medeo Half or Full on Jun 7.
Still I can’t decide – what do I run there? Problem is that I keep in mind Full Race in Omsk, Russia on August 2. Running half way “uphill” in Almaty could ruin all my preparation for Russian Siberia.
7+ weeks – is it enough time to recover for me or not ???

Bad Thing about my training: Since my Shanghai marathon I did no one 20 miler. In the winter it is almost impossible here, but now the only excuse I can mention is that headwind...
Whatever excuse is - I have to make 3 or 4 decent twenty milers till the middle of May.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Changes

I finaly updated Work with Andrew, Part III post and will keep doing it till my next Full Race, which is probably Omsk Siberian Marathon, Russia in August.
Hardcore (up & down race) Almaty, Kaz could be an option too in June 2008.
Some totals to appear here are missed recaps for Feb.
Jan with 130.08 mi was followed by ugly Feb 112.10!!! (no need for comparison with what i did in 2007)
The only excuse can be mentioned is I was seriously sick on Valentine's Day and stayed in bed for about 3 consecutive days. And, you know, Feb is always shorter than any month, even this year :)
Three Thousand Miles is a big question for me now. But I'll try.
My last Training Week #15 with logged 50+ mi as I promised started on so called "Stadium", on Sun Mar 9.
See my track and Welcome to Kazakhstan in the middle of March. Warm and Sunny Spring as usual, uhh
IMG_0286

Sun, 3/9 PM: somehow I did
10.36 mi, 1:30:01, avg 8:41, avg.HR 147
Mon, 3/10 PM: 4.04 mi, avg 8:35, just an easy run
Tue, 3/11 AM: my engine has accelerator and I use it as a part of Hard workout
7.00 mi, 59:07, avg 8:26, avg.HR 151, max 165 (!)
including somewhere in the middle
1 hard mile 7:53 (156/160)
followed by normal sub 9:00 jogging and once more
1 hard mile 7:49 (157/158).
This is my first time after Shanghai race I put 2 hard miles into a session.
Wed, 3/12: REST
Thu, 3/13 AM: Hard workout with similar structure,
6.25 mi, 51:58, avg 8:18, avg.HR 147, max 158
including
1 hard mile 7:45 (150/155) / 1 mi jog /
1 hard mile 7:48 (154/158)
Thu, 3/13 PM: yes, I do doubles sometimes and this one my after work easy run
3 mi at avg 8:30
Fri, 3/14 PM: the same relaxing evening run
3 mi at avg 8:39
Sat, 3/15 AM: last day and I know how many miles to hit to get Fifty
10.18 mi, 1:30:00, avg 8:50, avg.HR 149
i did it slowly just to put more miles in my log, also had in mind Long run on Sun.
Personally I'm not eager to make Hard workouts on Sat.
Sat, 3/15 PM: 6.30 mi at avg. 8:32

And that was all. 50 mi is not a really Hard week, but definitely not comfortable.
I did push last miles runnin' those 1h30min runs.

Besides my running life I have big changes in "real" life:
I wrote an Application to be dissmissed from my work where I've been working in Suply Department of my Plant for almost 2 years. For all that time I had only 3 days vacation spent for my first and hardest race I ever had - Omsk marathon, Russia in Aug 07.

As a senior manager of my Dep I had 3 business trips to China. I do think Kaz is lucky to be located next to this great (though communist) country. Some might argue with me, but let's avoid diving into those geopolitical things.
Guys and Gals from my Dep, I quit but I'll miss you all.
Have no clue what fate has in stock for me.
I am heading to have several interviews, not only in my city and this strange but natural phisical activity called Running will stay with me. Wherever I am.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Ice Ice Roads

Bad blogger is back, facing Storm Warning, Gusty Wind, rain and snow.
As it usually happens here, we always have snowy blizzards here on March 12-13. Old mean Lady doesn't want to give up but Beautiful Spring is almost here.
Banking 50+ miles this week...

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Work with Andrew, Part III.

Dec 07
Week 01, Su 02 - Sa 08 20.00 mi, 1 hill
Week 02, Su 09 - Sa 15 23.01 mi, 2 hills
Week 03, Su 16 - Sa 22 27.01 mi, 3 hills
Week 04, Su 23 - Sa 29 27.03 mi, no hills

Dec - Jan 08
Week 05, Su 30 - Sa 05 27.51 mi, 2 hills
Week 06, Su 06 - Sa 12 30.30 mi, 2 hills
Week 07, Su 13 - Sa 19 10.25 mi,
(no hills, just sick)
Week 08, Su 20 - Sa 26 34.35 mi,
(2 hills, 1 mi@GMP, 2.91%)

Jan - Feb 08
Week 09, Su 27 - Sa 02 40.17 mi,
(2 hills, 1 mi@GMP, 2.49%)
Week 10, Su 03 - Sa 09 45.55 mi,
(3 hills, 1.5 mi@GMP, 3.29%)
Week 11, Su 10 - Sa 16 21.00 mi,
(no hills - sick again, 1 mi@GMP, 4.76%)
Week 12, Su 17 - Sa 23 10.06 mi,
(no hills, no GMP miles, 0%)

Feb - Mar 08
Week 13, Su 24 - Sa 01 34.99 mi,
(2 hills, 1 mi@GMP, 2.86%)
Week 14, Su 02 - Sa 08 43.72 mi,
(no hills, 2 mi@GMP, 4.57%)
Week 15, Su 09 - Sa 15 50.13 mi,
(no hills, 4 mi@MGP, 7.98%)
Week 16, Su 16 - Sa 22 51.23 mi,
(no hills, 5 mi@MGP, 9.76%)
Week 17, Su 23 - Sa 29 43.49 mi,
(2 hills, 3 mi@MGP, 6.9%)

Mar - Apr 08

Saturday, February 02, 2008

A Monthly Recapitulation - Jan 2008

Logged mere 130 miles. Nothing special, just a slow start. I do compare my current work with what I did in 2007 which is my best year in running so far.
Jan 2007 175.71 mi avg.pace 9:38
Jan 2008 130.08 mi avg.pace 8:59
Target mileage for Feb 08 is 200+ mi.
Last year I had seven months with 200+ miles, won't be satisfied doing the same things and I guess still have chances to hit 3000 this year.
P.S. Thanks Paul, (Man, I lost access/pass to my ..here@y.. mail account so can't restore it, can't write there now, will visit Astana in March) yes the weather is Superb for Jan-Feb period. But this season is not over yet, as for me, I better get ready for the worst scenario in February. I always have my hat-balaclava with me, you know, wind is so quick to suddenly appear here... We have less snow than last year, so can run faster.
Currently listening:
a podcast by BILL RODGERS “Don’t Boycott Beijing” from thefinalsprint.com
Bill is a clever guy, I agree with him about Beijing. He could have been Great in Moscow 80 so he knows what he's talking about.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

First Entry

A scene from Imaginary ceremony:
... and the Title Worst, Lasiest & "Lousiest" Bloogger of the Year goes to ...
so called Fury Horse, Central Asia. Whoopee!
There's a real threat that such ceremony might be real one day.
As this must be my first blog entry since New Year, I'm saying Happy New Year to everybody who suddenly happen to read these lines.

We had Christmas and a New Year here, then had Russian Xmas (on Jan 7th - day off here) and Old Russian New Year, Jan 13.
Somewhere around "Old New Year" I turned the age 33, Jesus Christ!
I remember it was such a strange feeling when you became 30 and now years just ticking out. Is it true that I can be better & faster till the age of 40? At least this is what I read somewhere; after that I will have to go slower and slower. IF it is true, I have about seven years in running full of fun, pain, joy and hopefully without serious injures.

So, looking back at 2007 I may be proud of my work.
I did read Mark's blog and last winter mostly tried to copy his workouts trying to understand the way he trained. Thus I met Andrew.
I had my drive, coach had plans and experience.
As a result I logged 2430 miles in 2007. Wow!

2007
(actual data is bigger since I did some mile repeats in non-GPS places like Gym, but does it really matter?).

My plan for 2008: 3000 + mi
Have to say
- Thank you everybody for some attention to my blog project and support and even some critics; - Thank you Andrew for the work with me; I didn't show good times in 2007 (especially Omsk) but it will be better I suppose, I hope, I know.
- Thanks Heaven - was lucky to avoid tough injures.

Thomas recently mentioned that I shall change my goals in the sidebar. Right, Thomas. The only note - I won't change it to 3:30 marathon. Let me put there faster than 3:15 time. Let's say 3:12. Irish runner did it last time. Why don't I try too?

What I do now, is nothing special.
Weather surely doesn't want to cooperate with me but it's ok. 6 more tough winter weeks and it's over.

Dec 02, 2007 - 20.00 mi
Dec 09, 2007 - 23.01 mi
Dec 16, 2007 - 27.01 mi
Dec 23, 2007 - 27.03 mi
Dec 30, 2007 - 27.51 mi
Jan 06, 2008 - 30.30 mi
Jan 13, 2008 - 10.25 mi
Jan 20, 2008 - 34.35 mi
Jan 27.. this week I'm doing 40 miles.

Happy Running to Everybody!

P.S. As Mistery Coach recommended me an Arthur Lydiard book's "Running to the Top" I talked to Olga who was going to Moscow if delivery of such thing is possible. I got it after Old Russian New Year. What a Great gift.
IMG_0253
I do consider it as a B-day present. Spasibo Olga!!!
I haven't started to read it yet.
Currently reading:
"The Aerobics program for total well-being" by Kenneth Cooper, published here in Soviet times (1989). Love this book. Let me finish it and I will switch to classic Lydiard's book.