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!