Monday, July 06, 2009

A Post without Title

Was sick almost whole week Sun, Jun 28 – Sat, Jul 04 so Totally I had 17.3 mi a week!!!
Those air-conditioning systems in our offices take its toll, aghh. Nevertheless I am determined to run Moscow anyway. We have 3 days off here in Kaz, Sat - Sun and Monday (Whoa!!! Actually it's a holiday as Astana was established, I'm not talking about Lance Armstrong's team :) so having 3 days off to restore I am working on a better week now.
Stay tuned!

Sunday, June 28, 2009

June 09 almost over

Had a relatively easy week
Sun, Jun 21 – Sat, Jun 27 is 50.70 miles at average 8:13 pace.
No need for more details, just had
sort of "long" run on
Sun, Jun 21 (right on the next day after my Half PR) 15.50 mi @ 8:20
and decent workout on Thu, Jun 25 - 10.10 mi @ 8:09
plus a bunch of shorter sessions including 2 big Hills I hit yesterday.

Overall, comparing old screen shots from Garmin TC with what I do now I came to conclusion that am a little bit faster than I was couple years ago.

What am I training for at the moment?
I did consider Omsk Siberian International Marathon as my goal race, but something changed recently. I guess I am going to try Moscow. Sun, Sep 13 - their biggest running event in the heart of Russia. As for now, I've got 76 days to go.
Whatever I run, Omsk or Moscow will definitely try to make sub 3:30.
P.S. This month for the second time this year will get into 200+ miles a month Good Old Club.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Sixty Plus

Good things about my current training – I run more and even faster.
Sun, Jun 14 – Sat, Jun 20
Here’s how I train these days with some short comments:
Sun, Jun 14
PM, 12.00 mi, 1:40:50, ~pace 8:24, poor attempt to make a long run

Mon, Jun 15
PM, 5.26 mi, 42:43, ~pace 8:07, relaxing evening run

Tue, Jun 16
AM, 2.00 mi, 18:17, ~pace 9:08, whoa – wake up and run, I mean Jog with autopilot turned on
According to what I did with Andrew and as per Lydiard’s conceptions (feel free to correct me if I am wrong) I have 2 or 3 “Hard” days. This is the day.
PM and here is my Hard part, 7.00 mi, 50:42, ~pace 7:14, felt good and after walking home decided to “cool down” with couple more miles + 2.00 mi at 8:29.


Wed, Jun 17
PM, 8.00 mi, 1:09:17, ~pace 8:39, easy

Thu, Jun 18
PM and I hit my Hard miles again, 7.25 mi, 54:32, ~pace 7:31, comparing to Tue hard session I decided to make it slower here and a little bit longer + cooling down again in different place, around the park near home 3.00 mi at 8:41.
I do remember I was deadly tired after working day and Thu hard effort.

Fri, Jun 19
PM, 4.00 mi at 8:41, I try to easily refresh sore legs. But I included one Big Hill here. Every week I try to include Hills and this time just a hill. The Big Hill.

Sat, Jun 20
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the warm June of 2007 (a week before Almaty Medeo Half 07), that was last time I ran 13.1 miles to make a Personal Best.
After making successful 10k PR a month ago, this is a right time to reconsider old records. And here’s how it happened.
Warming: 1.00 mi at 6:19
“Only thirteen miles like this But … One min slower”, this is the way I treat myself while programming Garmin workout, setting Half and pace under 7:30. Occasionally it happened just as I inspired myself.

13.10 mi, 1:35:51.43 at average 7:19!!! All details on this plot.
(My previous best time in June 2007 was 1:40:13, avg. pace 7:38)
Good. I knew I was able to hit sub 7:30 but this result was a Big Surprise for me. This training record run took all the pieces I’ve built during a week (and previous weeks/years?) and brought ‘em together into one speedy run. Time to change my blog sidebar.

Totals for the week: 64.60 mi at 7:59 min/mile.
I do not think I ever had 60+ week with avg. sub 8:00 pace.


Good Luck guys and Have Great Miles on the run!

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Another 40+ miles week

Last week didn't go as planned.
Total outcome is poor 42.26 mi @ 8:26.
Final session was a ten miler I ran yesterday at average 7:51 min/mile. Actually the only two digits run, the rest were morning/evening shorter runs. So, my training isn't good enough for such a tough race as Omsk, but still have a hope to improve despite work that takes so much out of me... I noticed that the vast majority of miles I log into my account I make on weekend days. Sat and Sun runs almost equal to the mileage I have from Mon to Fri. Something to work on for me.
P.S. Paul, glad to see you. I wish you had some short (or longer) public/web notes on your way to Budapest. Pulling out a PR for me is a big issue.
Happy running to everybody!
P.P.S. Today, on Sun, Jun 14 most of South Kaz cool guys and gals ran Almaty Full & Half Medeo marathon. I just phoned Tim Bannikov, he finished Half race 8th or tenth clocking 2 hours and smth. They simple WALKa CRAWLed up to the finish line covering their 800 meters altitude difference. One more – I can’t SIMPLY read Tim’s page – according to stupid local policy, they Blocked Livejournal pages here in Kazakhstan. I’ll have to do some IP/proxy things to read mere Half Marathon report. Fun, huhh… Hope I still have free access to good old Blogger.

Sunday, June 07, 2009

Highlights 2008-09

(Cool comments from Cool guys : ) Gracias

I haven’t been off regular training since my last race. I did train.
Though “Regular training” sounds too formal here, it wasn’t truly “Regular” due to tough job and other simple and complicated things…
Nevertheless:
2008:
- No Full Races;
- One twenty miler I hit with running pal Paul G. on one April am;
- Almaty Medeo Half, that was a big fun and a new experience for me. Organizers there change Route every year, this time they have something crazy again with (what I heard) 800 meters climb up to Medeo. No thanks, I won’t be doing it again this time;
- Hit one week with 80+ miles, somewhere in Summer 08;
- Made 1 mile PR 5:54 or 5:53. It’s time to update old records.

2009:
- No races yet; Well on December 31, 2008 11.55 pm I was standing on the street in downtown along with other 90 or so runners, temps -20C, ready to make so called “New Year’s Run” – distance was less than a mile (about 1300 meters, which is not my bag at all) finished probably 6th or 7th with my HR around 175 bpm. What a nice way to dash into New Year …
- Jan – Feb I was lucky to run in Shanghai – Wuhan region (business trip as usual) instead of bitterly freezing cold here;
- May 1st, first twenty miler this year with another pal, Mr. Baghdad (probably he runs Omsk with me this August);
- May 11th, 10k PR – 42:59.52, any definite time was not a goal for me, just wanted to proof I can stick to 6:55 for the distance. Managed it well and felt I was able to cut off several seconds a mile.

As for my training 2009, see these plots:
- Monthly stats and weekly stats (this is the way I actually organize my G training center).
As you can see I had only five weeks with 50+ miles. March was the only month with 200 + miles! With stats like that in mind I won’t be confident staying at the starting line in Omsk 8 weeks later.
- Here’s my last week:
Tue, Jun 2
AM, 2.10 mi, 18:32, ~pace 8:50, no time for serious running in the morning, I use such runs as “energizer” for a whole working day
PM, 6.25 mi, 51:57, ~pace 8:18, around night park
Wed, Jun 3
AM, 2.50 mi, 22:02, ~pace 8:48, I do not think I shall care about my pace when it is earlier than 6 am…
PM, 5.00 mi, 44:15, ~pace 8:51, tired
Thu, Jun 4 – REST
Fri, Jun 5
AM, 2.55 mi, 22:30, ~pace 8:49
PM, 7.32 mi, 1:00:00, ~pace 8:11, running on “the stadium” since 9 pm, it was getting darker and I wanted to finish it soon, so it turned out to be a good hour on the run.
Sat, Jun 6
AM, 6.00 mi, 53:05, ~pace 8:51, pace is usual for my AM runs, also I sort of save my batteries for tougher work later on
PM, 2.00 mi with 2 Big Hills + after getting to the stadium 3 more miles, I actually failed to complete 5 miles here, that was original plan so I could logged mere 40+ miles a week. Temps were around 30 C (!! I couldn’t believe it’s possible since we had truly cold April and May, both with snow in the middle of month). Mr. Baghdad showed up, brought some water it helped me to hit 1.50 miles.

Bad training but I got what I wanted, 40+ miles.

Plan for the week
Sun, Jun 7 – Sat, Jun 13 is 50+ miles.
Happy miles to everybody!

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

First Post

Ahh Man, it's definetely not easy to start blogging again, but I better give it a try.
I haven't been training well in 2009, more details about my poor mileage will post soon...

Made couple relaxed miles after working day today (it clocked 11 pm when I finished).
Mon, Jun 1
2.10 mi at ~pace 8:16, No HeartRate (my HRM, actually batteries died some time ago, haven't found similar ones yet).

The only Full Race I see on the horizon must be Omsk Siberian International Marathon (SIM), Russia in early August 2009. If I succeed, SIM race would be first marathon since my Shanghai I ran in Nov 2007.
I still have some time to get decent mileage, time to peak and time to taper.
Welcome to another season of my running adventures!