Running in CA

A Post without Title

2009-07-06T12:28:00.002+07:00

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!

June 09 almost over

2009-06-28T17:53:00.002+07:00

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.

Sixty Plus

2009-06-22T01:05:00.003+07:00

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!

Another 40+ miles week

2009-06-14T20:11:00.001+07:00

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.

Highlights 2008-09

2009-06-07T19:19:00.004+07:00

(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!

First Post

2009-06-02T00:49:00.003+07:00

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!

25 mpw

2008-10-12T13:05:00.000+07:00

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.

20 mpw

2008-10-05T01:52:00.000+07:00

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.

Doomed. PRed.

2008-06-08T16:16:00.000+07:00

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.

Almaty Medeo Half 2008. Preliminaries.

2008-06-07T17:41:00.000+07:00

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.

End of May 2008

2008-05-28T18:28:00.000+07:00

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...

Fun Run in Astana Announce

2008-05-06T12:21:00.001+07:00

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

Training Week #22

2008-05-05T15:52:00.000+07:00

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.

Tough Long Run

2008-05-02T16:10:00.000+07:00

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."

Training Week #20

2008-04-25T17:29:00.000+07:00

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.

Long Run ANNOUNCE !!!

2008-04-22T13:45:00.000+07:00

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.

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.

Sixty

2008-04-14T18:33:00.000+07:00

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.

Changes

2008-03-16T20:53:00.000+06:00

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

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.

Ice Ice Roads

2008-03-12T18:43:00.001+06:00

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...

Work with Andrew, Part III.

2008-02-12T18:41:00.000+06:00

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

A Monthly Recapitulation - Jan 2008

2008-02-02T10:28:00.000+06:00

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.

First Entry

2008-01-29T14:19:00.000+06:00

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!

(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.

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.

weather.com

2007-12-26T09:22:00.000+06:00

Weather in Karaganda, Kazakhstan according to www.weather.com
December 26, 2007:
-31 C / - 24F
Feels Like -45C / -49F
Bitterly cold. Mostly cloudy and windy. Scattered snow showers this morning. Dangerous wind chills may approach -45F. High -17F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of snow 30%.

Aggghhhhh ...

P.S. Had a nice, small Christmas party with my friend and former teacher Jasin Mihlbauer who taught me English 9 (!) years ago! This time he plans to stay here in Kazakhstan for 5 years.

Training Week #02

2007-12-22T11:37:00.000+06:00

Su, 12/9, pm: 7.50 mi, avg.pace 8:15
Mo, 12/10: rest
Tu, 12/11, am: 4.50 mi, avg.pace 8:13
We, 12/12, am: 3.01 mi, avg.pace 8:20
Th, 12/13: rest
Fr, 12/14, am: 4.00 mi, avg.pace 8:27
Sa, 12/15, pm: 3.00 mi, avg.pace 8:11
+ 2 Uphills as 1.00 mi, avg.pace 9:47, max.HR 163 (!) more hills - better max.HR

Total mileage: 23.01 mi at average 8:21 pace
(Click on the link for more details)

I do not have much to report.
I gradually increase the volume of work.

Merry Xmas and Wow almost a week to New 2008 Year !!!

P.S. Yes, I didn't run 3:15 race this year and I didn't hit anything better than 5:57 mile.
You know what is a part of my personal Xmas wish list now :)

I talked a lot to coach, Mystery Coach recommended me couple Lydiard's books, talked to other Great guys... and Gals from the Beautiful World of Running

Training Week # 01

2007-12-15T12:25:00.000+06:00

Here's my short report on my first week after Shanghai race.
All runs were easy. Felt good and comfortable.

Week #01,
December 2007
Sun 02 - Sat 08

Su, 12/2, pm: 3 mi, avg.pace 8:53
Mo, 12/3, pm: 2 mi, avg.pace 8:53
Tu, 12/4: off
We, 12/5, am: 4.50 mi, avg.pace 9:12
Th, 12/6: off
Fr, 12/7, pm: 5.50 mi, avg.pace 8:25
Sa, 12/8, am: 4.00 mi, avg.pace 8:50
+ pm: 1 Uphill as 1.00 mi at avg. 9:29, max.HR 160

Total mileage: 20.00 mi at average 8:51 pace
(Click on the link for more details)

P.S. I do plan to run Almaty, Kaz (Half?) marathon in June 2008 (hope they will organise it) which is 50% "uphill". In connection with this I try to add hills into my program.
Haven't agreed on this subject with Coach yet, just added 1 uphill run in the end of week.
Just wonder: How about adding 1 "hill" each week?

P.P.S.
I can't answer for a simple question: "What do I train for?"
Could be
- Almaty Half or Full race in June 2008
- Omsk, Russia in August 2008
- Hangzhou, China in early Nov 2008

Also have plans for shooting a documentary for my races. One Great High Definition Camcorder is almost here.

- Shanghai? I'll be tired after Hangzhou, so will stay somewhere there on Shanghai streets to shout a cheer to runners.
Money is an issue when you try to pick out a race somewhere, as No Decent Races in Kaz, so I will run most of races again (Almaty, Omsk and China).
The only difference - Results will be better.

Thank you guys for comments!
I am still new to marathon running and therefore shall learn a lot.
Happy running to Everybody!!!

New Period

2007-12-06T17:51:00.000+06:00

Have started new Training period. Week after race on Sun, Nov 25 had no running at all. I started to run and am glad to feel this feeling of training again, despite of creepy cold and snow. Do I need to put a balaclava on?
I am doing 20 or so miles in Training Week #1 now.
Think of gradually increasing mileage +5 or +10 miles a week. As I remember from my last winter experience - 60 mpw feels like getting 80 miles in "April - October" period.

Jiayo 2007. My Shanghai Marathon

2007-11-29T12:52:00.000+06:00

Report. First of all I’m sorry for the delay. It took some time to finish financial report, report on the business trip itself and now I’m writing here my story of Shanghai 2007 race.
I landed in Shanghai airport on Thu, Nov 22nd having the work I had in China done. My only concern was to get to Organizing Committee to get a chip, bib number and to buy a new pair of shoes. I did it all on Friday only.
In the sport shop with brand shoes and catalogues I wrote a note to a salesperson: “Saucony Fastwitch 2” (Coach recommended me this name or any other shoe with a good brand name). As I understood – they can deliver me the shoe I wanted, only a week later. “Xie Xie” (Thanks). I better choose something available in the shop. I started to read their catalogues in English / Chinese (all I know in Chinese is 20 characters :) and suddenly I pointed at “I want this one”. It was Asics Gel-DS Racer VII. Catalogue price more than 100 bucks turned into 65 or so due to some discounts…(indicated price was in RMB, 740 Chinese yuan, I only “translate” into dollars). In the hotel I made some quick Inet research on my purchase, some reviews I read said that my choice (most expensive I ever had) wasn’t bad at all. OK, I want to try it.
With a plan to “work a little bit” with my new Asics I gave them a trial run of 6 easy miles on Fri pm, while doing this I found that this pair is SO-o-o Light and good that I pushed myself to average pace 7:50 or so for all 6 miles. As a result, on next day, Saturday I felt my right quad is slightly uncomfortable. Did I overwork being excited about new Asics? Could be.
Ahh, and last (but super important) thing to buy – running shorts!!! I forgot mine in Kazakhstan. My fault.
I have a friend in Shanghai and actually without her I wouldn’t be able to do everything in time… We visited about 7 stores including a Huge “Sport City” where I found Basketball shorts, perfect for Yao Ming or Shaq, not for me. No shorts!
I even had this dialogue in one shop:
Sales: Season for shorts is over, so we have no shorts to run in.
R: No shorts! But tomorrow, there’s a Race in Shanghai!
S: What? Is there any running in Sh. Tomorrow?
R: Oh man, forget about it.
It’s ok, I have my old running trousers and I will cut it off.

And I did it. Not perfect, but I can run in it, though some internal lining is getting out. I don’t really care. I’m going to run marathon.
Nutrition:
I remember I had soup in KFC + all their “junk food”. This is better for me than to go to traditional Chinese restaurant with a risk of having something my stomach couldn’t bear. Don’t get me wrong, I love miscellaneous Chinese dishes, but there’s no time for experiments before the Big Day. So KFC and Pizza from local Pizza Hut on Sat night.
Slept from midnight till 5 am. The length of the sleep could’ve been longer.
Sunday morning. 7 AM. Here we are at the Century Square of Nanjing Road. Personally love to walk there in the evenings. Nanjing road is the same what Arbat street in Moscow is or Broadway in NY.
But now I look at Nanjing road not as at shopping center which is nice and expensive. My running battle will start here soon. Finally I’m here, physically and mentally prepared. I’m ready. I see a lot of “Laowai”. I myself is Laowai here. Korean speech, German, English, Chinese … You can see my video, part 1 to feel the whole atmosphere.

We start SLOWly. Narrow streets with Too many people and it’s too crowded and I feel can’t move my butt any faster.
Mile 01: 8:05 avg.HR 142
Mile 02: 8:05 avg.HR 142
Mile 03: 8:02 avg.HR 142
My heart and me calm and even relaxed. Gimme some space to run.
Thousand people cheer for us screaming JIAYO, from time to time they beat into traditional Chinese drums.
We dive into a narrow street which is covered by roads above us constructed in several levels up there. Add numerous numbers of skyscrapers close to our “path” – I seriously worry about my Tool. “Please Mr. Garmin, I’ll show you a clear blue sky soon”.
My plan at the moment was to keep closer to 8:00 / mile, as close as possible. I remember some great races made in Ireland and Canada. But I keep no illusions – I’m doing my PR, not 3:30 race.
Mile 04: 7:58 avg.HR 142
Mile 05: 7:59 avg.HR 140
Our way is still covered with roads and other constructions, poor Mr. Garmin – I seriously worry; we see some sky from time to time though.
Mile 06: 7:33 avg.HR 141
Mile 07: 7:59 avg.HR 141
I noticed that one Laowei is having about 8:00 pace, so theoretically I can stick to this “aim” in case I have any GPS problems.
Now in post race period I understand that it was funny – I cared a lot about getting a signal from satellites, I even took my hand to the right or left, so to provide my Garmin a chance to get something from heavens. I sign relaxing old song “Under the boardwalk”, have no idea why…
Mile 08: 8:00 avg.HR 142
Mile 09: 7:50 avg.HR 142
Mile 10: 8:07 avg.HR 143
Finally all bridges, roads and constructions above us over. Clear blue sky is here. I look at the tool. In 2nd window I have “Average Pace” not for last mile, but the whole distance. I see 10.0 miles I’ve done @ average 7:57 – 7:58.
Good. Perfect.
But I keep in mind that this is Marathon.
I run almost effortlessly, breath naturally, look at device: distance I passed 10.04 mi, and it is still. 10.04 a min later, two minutes later still 10.04. BUMMER! Mr. Garmin
– Please!!! Wake up!
(If you decide to look at my Garmin’s route I made in Shanghai – it looks good, Data I have from Garmin – I can trust only first 10 miles and may be some last miles, let me explain why).

I run under the open sky and I know what it means. GPS work is over, now it’s time to listen to my own body (I am not good at that!). Where’s that Laowai who kept perfect 8:00? Ah, I see that guy 20 meters ahead of me. We keep running. I just said to myself that the guy would be a perfect pacemaker as our road divided into 2 ways and I found that marathoners go to the left, those who run half go to the right and the 8:00 Laowai goes … to the right. Half marathon at that pace is not my case. No pacemaker around me, only my Garmin screams something like “Lost satellites … – Enter”. Ok, I push Enter as I have no alternative. I heard and read many times that with all those GPS devices we’re sort of Data slaves. Ok, I listen to my own body only, I breath naturally, I’m close to 20k mark. I never seen toilets on the way, it was shown on the map though. Small “call of nature” made me think of joining 4 runners who stands close to bushes… Also I want to restart the tool. Restarting didn’t work, so I decided to turn it off and then on again. Instead I see info on the screen about software version, current voltage, smth else… One minute for turning my Tool correct way, one minute for my deal in bushes, while Garmin on the grass 1 meter away from me is catching satellites. One old Chinese pedestrian bowed down above my tool mumbling something in Chinese. “Man, Don’t, don’t touch it please!” Another Chinese joined! They want to take it away! I’m a little bit busy but “You Stay away from my Garmin!”. I’m done, I see tool caught satellites, I grab it and RUN.
I pass Half Race mark. Feel good.

The only problem – I do not like what I see on device. It shows my HR, shows Current pace. But it is not synchronized with time, for instance if I keep closer to 8:00 pace it has to look like:
xx.00 mi ~ 0m00s
xx.25 mi ~ 2m00s
xx.50mi ~ 4m00s
xx.75 mi ~ 6m00s so I adjust my running to get pretty close to 8:00 min / mile.
Usually 0.01 mi is equal to 5 sec at that pace.
“Unsynchronized” means that the tool shows you something like:
xx.00 mi ~ 4:26
xx.25 mi ~ 6:32
xx.50 mi ~ 0:14 seeing this I even tried to understand “some logic” in the data I see. And every mile the data is different!
I gave up, Ok what I have to see is my HR and current pace, pace at the moment. I just ignore anything else.
Before the Race I agreed with my friend that she would meet me at 35 km mark . Also I decided that I will use my “secret weapon” at that point. Secret weapon from Paul, running pal from Astana (Kaz capital) is a PowerGel he brought for me in October. Thank you Man for the Gel and a bottle of Gatorade will wait for me after the finish line. It’s impossible to get Gatorade in Kaz, never seen it in China either.
Pass 30 k mark and I hurry to meet my friend soon. Very soon.
Somewhere around those places we ran into a 60 meter tunnel (my Garmin can bear anything) and there was water leaking down from the ceiling – nice shower.
I remember 32 k mark, why they put it there? May be to remind that there are only 10 k left to go. Tall Lawoai with strong American accent stands at this mark screaming and rooting for us:
… doing Good, you’re looking strong, going to finish it soon …
I know I’ll finish the race. I am slower than 3:30 but it’s gonna be my PR. I did think at that time about sub 3:40.
So, here we have couple real long bridges and we run it “uphill”. Tough inclines but I do not attack. I try to take it easy.
Approach to 35 km mark. Open the Gel and “consume” about 70% of that.
Remember Dallen’s story that his stomach couldn’t bear anything on the run, even water? I felt like I could be close to that condition so made 1 sip of water and I run further.
Where’s my friend? She’s not here. Must have been waited for me… This is a real Bummer.
You must heard it many times that a Marathon doesn’t really begin until mile Twenty. I am here and I guess even closer to the finish line. I did hold back in the first half, I had about 2 min rest in the middle, so I don’t really care about Super tough final miles. Not this time. I do not feel any hardness of situation. I think about anything but running a marathon: about hardware I saw in PC Pacific Mall, or How to pay for my Skype account? It’s not easy in my places. Or about unclocked iPhone I had in my hands there (Sales: Yes, it is smuggled, we unlock it here but will give you a guarantee for this model. Price about ~ $ 650 for 8 Gb model). I think of … marketing from Apple / AT&T which force us to crack closed models.
If you tell me that they start selling iPhone in France, GB and Germany since Nov 2007 – OK, but what about us, former USSR with about 0.5 – 1 million potential customers (I am here :) or surely more than 1 million in China. I do think they could sell it unlocked with 200 – 300 bucks higher price.
Let me join thoughts of hardware and passion to running here. Add a hardware twist to my marathon story.
I wasn’t going to buy iPhone this visit to Shanghai but I made up my (crazy IT : ) mind to following:
– If I run any marathon faster than 3:30 I will buy it, iPhone to crack or Googlephone based on OS Android (1Q, 2Q 2008?) or anything else from that class;
– Sub 3:15 marathon, I will buy Nintendo Wii (pretty sporty console, still actual for 2007-08);
– If I run marathon faster than 3:00 I will buy Sony Play Station 3. Yes.
You heard that. And as I really really want to get a decent game console + Blu-Ray player in one device or to change my cheap budget phone for what I mentioned above – I have no choice. But run faster.
Man! Did I said that? 3:30 is possible within 6 month, but Play Station 3 ($ 700+ in my city, Kaz) …, do I buy it in 2009?
Enough about Awards, my race is not finished yet.
5 k to go and yes – I admit I am tired. Remember my last training run in Karaganda, Kaz. Early November, 6 am I jog on 5 inch layer of snow. So cold and so much snow, but my task is easy – 3 miles only, 3 laps in the park covered with Snow; snow produces such a specific sound when you put your leg on it. I will have it again, so soon…
JIAYO!!! 3 more miles to finish Shanghai marathon, I run among green grass, bushes, palms! I see flowers. That is so beautiful. And bad, bad thought crawl into my mind:
“I can have some rest actually. I can stop to drink some water, I already PRed, so relax …” I keep on passing people, I don’t think anybody passed my after the Half way mark. I also play a game I took from one Thomas’ race, game called “Choose a Victim”. This game is a pure fun now: That guy in yellow.. now that fat lawoai, those five runners… May be they didn’t trained as hard as I did. Finally 90 miles a week is a hard task, or may be I turn into a more experienced marathoner. Someone calls me: I see my friend on moto cycle!!!
And you can see me now on the Run

In fact it gave me some boost because I’m being recorded on my budget photo camera. I have to look better : ) my running is “not that shabby” now.
If you ever decide to run Shanghai, remember – there are many crossroads on the way and Police stand there trying to stop cars and pedestrian from crossing your marathon way. But sometimes they can’t. Too many Chinese in China! So don’t be surprised seeing a hundred cyclists and dozen buses from the left and from the right on the way to cross your road of International Marathon. I never stopped due to that but I saw guys behind me who had to stop! I did speed up on such crossroads; I even showed one finger (not good in American interpretation) to the bus driving on me from the left. I won’t stop and I won’t slow down. There’s one big cross road 100 m before the finishing line. I read in Internet that several years ago one leading Kenyan was hit on this road by bus, he lost about 20 seconds and chances to win a race. He got second place. But I’m lucky here.

I cross the line and see something about 3:4x:xx. I don’t really care. I did it. My placement is (now I know it from Internet web site) #424 out of about four thousand runners I guess. I meet my friend. I get my certificate and “award” stuff for a finisher.
Do not feel any super pain, my neck is good (oh, Omsk), I feel some pain in my quads but it’s quite normal. Even next day, flying to Kaz I felt good without limping walks and with no serious pain stepping downstairs as it usually happens.
I love Shanghai and I’ll be back to this marathon.
To make a better race… … and to buy better gadgets.

P.S. No running this week Sun, Nov 25 – Sat, Dec 1st. Coach provided me one week to have a rest.

Shanghai is my PR

2007-11-26T00:01:00.000+06:00

Woo hoo! My Dear Reader - you have to see it.

I did it in such a smooth way, it wasn't super hard at all.
Shaved almost 20 min off my record and just Happy about it.
I don't used to write those great race reports as some of my favorite running bloggers do, but I will try to make detailed (more or less) description of the whole process soon. Let me get to Kazakhstan. 3 (or 4) days later I will post it with decent video of me doing km #40, 41. (Something wrong with my notebook here, so I will edit those materials at home).
Pre-race and post race photos available (warning you - sometimes I look Ugly:) here.

Thank you so much everybody!

Love,
Rus

Ready to Go

2007-11-24T20:24:00.000+06:00

Ha! Bad bad blogger is back. My business trip is over, I visited too many cities, too many provinces and companies, had too much information... and finally I'm here.
I do like Shanghai best!
After my 90 mpw PR followed by absolutely strange Taper of - 23.01 mi, - 29.88 mi and yesterday I just put into my deposit net 17 miles for the last week.
Now is a Big Day.
3 days ago bought this shoe and pretty Happy. Never had anything like this. Let's see how it works.
My tool is ready to show me:
Current Lap / Pace
Distance / Hear Rate
I'm ready.
Got to Go.

90 mpw as my personal peak and a bad taper

2007-11-10T18:30:00.000+06:00

Sat, November 10
Almaty, Kazakhstan:
Hi from Super expensive Almaty Internet cafe, i is 400 tenge per hour which about $3!
I'm on the way to China and tomorrow / day after tomorrow I'll be there, in places where similar cafe provides you the same services for 2 Yuan ~ $0.3.
So, I had an insane week:
Sun, 10/28 - Sat, 11/03
7 days, 8 sessions, 90.02 miles at average pace 08:51 - so slow, but glad I did it and glad I have Taper now...

Monday, November 12
Urumqi, China (spent more than 50 hours to get here by train Karaganda - Almaty - Urumqi)

Doing 90 miles feels like you're sort of Zombie...
My best running week consists of
- no days off
- 20 miler on Sunday
- 15 miles on Friday.
The week is pretty close to what Andrew prescribed me.
I have to mention here that we were lucky to have a warm autumn here this year. But just as I've done my PR week the weather turned to normal conditions - snow, wind etc.

This week finished with Ugly result - about 25 miles or so!

Hard to explain or find any decent excuse... I took 2 days off after i got 90 mi mark ans since Friday, Nov 9 I'm on business trip to China so things are different from the plan now.

I didn't want this scenario - but my bosses asked me to have this business trip.
Originally I planned to take a 2-week leave (vacation) and to visit Shanghai by myself. But with the trip to our suppliers in China, first of all I have to visit about 10 companies - from Beijing down to Shanghai. Then I can run a marathon on Sun, November 25.
This is Mad and Brutal.

Tonight have to be in Beijing, tomorrow would be different city ...
P.S. My Bib # is 1023, all sporty shoe I wore out and will have to buy something decent in Shanghai 3 days before marathon. I know, this is not good but I had similar situation before my first marathon, I bought new shoe a week before the Big Day, had 10 miles in them only and those (as Salesperson said) "sort of ASICS" were not bad (I have it with me actually with a hope to have some run here, but I consider the pair as Officially dead, I mean, I still can run but it is not for the Race anymore).
I do not think they sell any brand sporty shoe in Kaz so have to explore this in China.

Hope to be on the plane in 1 hour and
Happy Running to everybody!

60 miles last week. Closer to Taper

2007-10-30T17:42:00.000+06:00

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

Success Then Failure

2007-10-27T18:47:00.000+07:00

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.

Formula

2007-10-10T19:35:00.000+07:00

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?

Lowest mileage recently

2007-10-08T19:54:00.000+07:00

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!

Seven Weeks to Go

2007-10-06T13:54:00.000+07:00

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.

Champing at the bit

2007-09-20T19:15:00.000+07:00

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.

400s

2007-09-19T13:19:00.000+07:00

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.

2007-09-19T12:14:00.000+07:00

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

60 miles a week and more

2007-09-11T19:57:00.000+07:00

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.

Good to Be Back!

2007-09-04T16:53:00.000+07:00

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!!!

Been There, Done That

2007-08-09T10:31:00.000+07:00

Omsk, Russia. Sat, Aug 4, 2007
My Dear Reader, I’m terribly sorry for this delay. Here I am with a Bad but True story of my first marathon race, which I accomplished in the Heart of Russian Siberia, a place where thousand people had been sent to meet their death. I survived, but with truly disappointing final time.
Garmin time: 3:56:58
Net time is not clear yet, but I bet it's +/- 3 seconds, we used so called ChampionChip there, so I pushed start button on the Tool as I passed starting line, almost 4 hours later i pushed Stop.
So, after all those qood quality weeks of training, Who has a name of Rubbish Runner now?

We are – me and Paul, American diplomat in his late 40’s from Astana, capital of Kaz made a tough trip to Omsk, Russia. Got there right the day before the Big Day. Paul is experienced marathon runner with PB time 3:14! We registered, got our bib-numbers, T-shirts, some materials about Siberian International Marathon. The whole atmosphere were excited, we even saw, met some people from Spain, Germany, States. We were told that there would be good Pacemakers for those whose Target time is: 3:30, 3:45, 4:00, 4:15.
Of course I choose 3:30 pacemakers – those guys will run with Red balloons.
2 Red Balloons as eluding hope to get to a decent time.

This is going to be a Good day. I have to show my best; finally I’ve been working on this several past months. Dinner in the restaurant, eve before the Big day was a good “Fuel my stocks” event. Paul made a good prayer and here it is – Luxurious Russian sturgeon – Man, was it so good. Heavens, would it be useful for me tomorrow? Let’s see.

Mile 01: 8:27 crowded, we just started the biggest race in Siberia
Mile 02: 7:45 passed Big bridge and follow 2 Red Balloons
Mile 03: 7:45 feel good, Red Balloon pacemakers are obviously faster than they have to, I don't really care about it, they are ahead of me but any time I can reach them
Mile 04: 7:27 combination of hills / downhills made it faster
Mile 05: 7:31 not that fast! You already "compensate" first slow mile
Mile 06: 7:50 this is what I need,
somewhere here we "attack" hills ("i won't let this hill beat me!") - this is one of mistakes. Coach told me to take 'em easy
Mile 07: 7:45
Mile 08: 7:47 steel feel good.
One of fun entertainments we did on the run was making “High Five” slapping someone’s palm from the cheering crowd. People stand on both sides, some of them applause, some acclaim. I scream in reply: “Spasibo Omsk!”(Thank you Omsk!). Paul wants to learn and practice in his Russian, so he repeats. I would say that no more than 20% from the crowd were optimistic about hitting High Five. Paul tried to learn local people and did it well, keeping in the same time sub 8:00 pace and cheering me up too! Thanks a lot! Some people obviously skeptical about High Five. Children – those are Great Creatures with pure and open hearts – they Love to make High Five, they scream and yell and jump as they are excited that men from the Race need they support.
Mile 09: 7:58
Mile 10: 8:03 still good, but catastrophe is almost here
Mile 11: 8:13 do not see Red Balloons anymore
Mile 12: 8:08
Mile 13: 8:14 I started to whine here:
R: Paul, I have to walk
P: Keep on going
R: I can’t. I really need to walk to that water spot. Man, I can’t.
P: “Can’t” is a Four Letter Word.
Never forget it: “Can’t” is a Four Letter Word.
Mile 14: 8:27
Mile 15: 8:50
Mile 16: 10:24
Mile 17: 9:38
Mile 18: 8:58
Mile 19: 8:38 I drag to get to 20 miles mark
Mile 20: 12:14
Mile 21: 9:31
Mile 22: 9:34 I didn't hit the Wall
Mile 23: 10:18 I knew I would finish
Mile 24: 10:23 here I tried to concetrate to make last 2 miles non-stop. Failed.
Mile 25: 10:37 left quad is slightly spasming, nothing serious
Mile 26: 11:13 pain in left toe
+0.6mi!: 5:06 @ 8:31 pace.

I pass the finish line, 2 sec later Paul did.
This nightmare under the hot Siberian sun is over.
This is my exaggeration, not a nightmare at all, it wasn't that hot on the race day, avg.temps were about +26C/79F or so.

Totals (Mr.Garmin):
3:56:58, 26.59mi, avg.pace 8:54, avg.HR 155, max.HR 173
More details from Garmin software center are here.
Bad, Bad and Ugly. It just blows!
Man, next time I’ll be better.
Week Su 7/29 - Sa 8/4: 40.59 miles (including marathon).

5 days after the race, my left thigh muscles still hurt and not recovered. I already passed this comical period when walking downstairs or getting off the bus is a real problem and you walk down just as an invalid. My left big toe still blue as it was right after the finish line and I just let it go to see if I loose the nail on it. Need some time to recover. Ready to keep on running. Soon. Very soon.

P.S. Ran today (Thu, 8/9) actually I walked and jogged to the lake without anything, no HRM, nor GPS. Still my left hip stinks - need more time to "repair" it. Swam and felt that my nail on the left toe is absolutely dead and ready to be torn off soon. Do not judge me strict and let me take two weeks off.

- Thank you everybody for Great Support!
- Thank you Coach! I wasn't good this time, hope I have a chance to make it better next time.
- KamsahamniDa Paul! Unforgettable race and trip to the Heart of Russian Siberia.
- Happy Running to Everybody!

Summing Up

2007-08-02T13:09:00.000+07:00

My work with coach Andrew. We started in March 2007, we've been working hard and here's what we have in stock (as of Garmin stats):
Mar: 236.62 mi
Apr: 201.94 mi
May: 276.26 mi
Jun: 271.87 mi
Jul: 232.92 mi
We had 3 main training periods, First one was real good, second was slightl spoiled by Almaty Half marathon. Also there are workouts to remember:1 hour sub 7:15 and then another hour with sub 7:00 pace I did in spring were good. My sort of weak part was Tempo - I'm not pleased with them at all. I'll take it seriously, after this Race. Twenty milers - made only six of them with recently described best one. I do not think the Long runs were good nor bad. I tried to improve them. Hope succeed.
So, here I am, typing this stuff in the Inet cafe in the downtown of Karaganda city. Leaving now to Astana to meet Paul. Then Kokshetau, Petropavlovsk and Russia, Omsk! Some people say that Omsk is a capital of Siberia. Could be. Never been to that city.

P.S. I got final instructions from Andrew.
P.P.S. Took a little vacation at work, three days only, Aug 1st, 2nd & 3rd. Ready to Omsk. Nervous.
Happy Running to everybody.

Three Days to Go

2007-07-31T19:53:00.000+07:00

Short update for last week
July, Sun 22 - Sat 28:

After the sucky Tempo run on Sat I didn’t feel good enough to make a decent 20 miler, the last one in this training period.

Sun, 7/22 – Day off!!!
Mon, 7/23. There are guys, whose running work is a great sample for me. Andrew – can wake up at 3 am to start doing his 20+ miler before work! This is a funny moment – can you imagine a Kazakhstani banker to wake up early in AM and start doing long run? Forget about it. Another maniac springs to mind – one Not Rubbish runner, Ireland who did his “doubles” 20 + 20 two consecutive mornings as a prep for an ultra competition. As for me I never did 20 miler “before working day”. But now I forced to do it – this is my last chance to make it, Sunday missed. You will do it now or no more before the race, you can’t postpone it to the next weekend.

4.57 AM I push start button, the earliest time ever. Always did 20 milers on my stadium which is pretty boring. Running in the park is much more fun but didn’t feel real good right from the start and convinced myself this way:

"OK, I will do this Damn 12 miler or 15 miler, well I can drag to get to 17 mi mark.."
It’s a little bit cold in that time of day here so it got me thinking of my hat. So early and I forgot my sunglasses. Rising sun makes my shadow shorter and shorter every mile I pass, heating all things around up. First half of the distance I even asked myself:

- Do I owe this 20 miler to Andrew? – No.
- Do I have to get it to my own satisfaction? – Nope.
Running at average pace 8:00 – 8:15 which I consider a little bit slower than my planning Marathon pace I finally came to a simple conclusion that “I must do it last time as a simulation model of the Race, I do it as an integral part of training cycle, as basic essential and all that stuff. I don’t owe it to the Coach, there’s a real thing as responsibility I bear here. Finally not only Andrew is interested in a good last 20 miler, I myself want to finish it. As soon as possible.”

I kept on entertaining myself that way and got those miles, which unexpectedly turned into my best 20 miler:

Mile 01: 7:59
Mile 02: 8:00
Mile 03: 7:59
Mile 04: 7:59
Mile 05: 8:02
Mile 06: 8:56 two bottles with water hid in the bushes, it takes some time to be hydrated enough
Mile 07: 8:01
Mile 08: 7:57
Mile 09: 8:58 again
Mile 10: 8:04
Mile 11: 9:12 and again
Mile 12: 8:38
Mile 13: 8:04 run close to those horses from
Mile 14: 8:08 the previous post
Mile 15: 8:13 they inspire me, a lot
Mile 16: 8:08
Mile 17: 7:59
Mile 18: 8:07
Mile 19: 7:49
Mile 20: 7:20

So, this is my best long run for which I spent
2:43:46, 20.01 mi, avg.pace 8:11, avg.HR 140, max.HR 157.
Yes I felt bad at work, but I worked and worked good. And felt happy.

Tue, 7/24:
3.0 mi at average 8:09

Wed, 7/25:
4.01 mi, at 8:12. I felt much better, had some fluctuating pain in the legs though.

Thu, 7/26: REST

Fri, 7/27:
7.0 mi at 08:09. Made an ordinary ladder with target splits: 9.00 – 8.30 – 8.00 – 7.30 – 8.00 – 8.30 – 9.00

Sat, 7/28:
3.0 mi at 7:45, avg.HR 142, max.HR 149
Easy 2 x 800’s with a target time sub 3:30, rest 6:00
0.5 mi – 3:27 (pace 6:55), avg.HR 140, max.HR 148
0.5 mi – 3:28 (pace 6:57), avg.HR 140, max.HR 149
OK. Here I have to explain something. As for last 2 weeks before the race, I was Strictly Prohibited to do any Hard Work (besides last 20 miler). This is clear.

Why I did 2 x 800’s? I felt pretty nervous exactly 1 week before the Big Day. So decided to make sort of EZ intervals just to cool myself down. Also I remember definition from the Training Period #1: runs with HR 150 and higher we consider as a Hard work; 140 – sub 150 is an Easy work. These 800’s I made easier than regular mile repeats I usually do on Saturdays.

Andrew, do not hold a grudge against me. Please.
+ 3.0 mi at average pace 8:01, avg.HR 136, max.HR 150

Week is done. July, Sun 22 - Sat 28: 41.01 mi @ avg.pace 8:06.
All details on this diagram.

Now I know what is the Taper : )
I’m on the way to my first, hopefully successful marathon. Thank you everybody. Love you guys all.

P.S. Tomorrow me (Karaganda) and Paul (Astana, new Kaz capital) take Paul’s car and go to Omsk, Russia. We’ve been doing some research on logistics. Couple weeks ago I even visited Astana where met Paul at a railroad station just to find out that all tickets to Omsk are sold out. Actually there was 1 “platskart” ticket. That means 1 seat in one real poor Soviet type railway wagon. Paul never had a trip in Soviet trains over here, so the whole process of searching tickets on the station was sort of fun for me. He was just wondering Why we can’t book tickets over the Internet here? This is hard to explain but in fact we can’t do that. Another factor is that it’s a Hot Summer time. People have vacations and travel wherever they want to: Russia, Turkey, Europe, China and Thailand… World is open, don’t forget to open up your purse!
P.P.S. I have some time for one more post tomorrow and I guess there are a lot of things to summarize.

My Places to Run

2007-07-31T12:00:00.000+07:00

I made those shots recently in the Ethno park and this is me on my "stadium" - feel pretty good ...

Taper Zone

2007-07-22T18:02:00.000+07:00

People gave a simple name for preRace weeks. TAPER.
This is an arguable point – when to start the Taper. Thomas made a comment that one week is not enough. Correct. What about two weeks? It makes sense almost for every runner.

July, Sun 01 - Sat 07: 80.37 mi @ avg.pace 8:20
July, Sun 08 - Sat 14: 52.26 mi @ avg.pace 8:17
July, Sun 15 - Sat 21: I post it here, read on
July, Sun 22 - Sat 28: unseen future :) about 50 mi I guess
Su 7/19 – Sa 8/04: less than 30 mi?? + Race?!

Since my body “refused” to run any more high-mileage weeks after the first week of July, I’ve made 2 weeks I actually not pleased with. What about the promise I made – to hit 5 consecutive weeks with 80+ miles. Look at my side bar, section called “best ever weeks” 3 of them done.
Man, was that tough!
Never wrote about it – in the middle of each that week – we had some “water pipe lines repair works” in my city. It means you have No Water at all during 24 up to 48 hours with no preliminary announce! Born in Soviet Union, therefore pretty accustomed to this, anyway – How do you feel if after hitting 12 or 14 miles (don’t dare sweat) in the eve or pm time you get home and have no ability to take a shower?? Funny, huh? For this case you always have (you ought to have!) a stock of some drinkable water and you can even pour some water on your face and neck. That’s all. Go to sleep. :)
Next morning – run again, run to the lake 3 miles from the place I live or.. wait for some water in pipes. Am I whining?? Nope. Not at all. Such little things make your life interesting :) get you feel like running water in pipes is a real fiesta in the middle of tough week.

OK, back to my promise – I admit, I finally declare that overestimated my abilities. I broke that promise, yep. During last two weeks I had water twenty four seven and made don’t really mentionable running work. But, would I have a time to hit better weeks next time, before Shanghai? Absolutely Yes. Coach said that we do not chase a “perfect week”. Our aim is a race. The Race.
So, don’t expect me to change my Top 5 week section of the side bar soon. May be in the end of August, could be September.
Q: What would it take for me to hit 90+ mpw?
A: Another water pipe repair works, 24 hours, once per week. Just once. :)

July, Sun 15 - Sat 21. Here’s how my last running week went:
Sun, 7/15:
21 miler, 3:02:55, avg.pace 8:42, avg.HR 146, max.HR 155.
Hate, hate running under direct hot sunlights, temps were about 30C/86F. Kept first 10 miles sub 8:00. Afterwards, I frequently drank a lot sitting under a tree, stretching. Second part was a drag.

Mon, 7/16:
Day Off. After tough mile repeats on Sat and 20+ miler on Sun I was truly sore.

Tue, 7/17:
3.03 miles, 24:09, avg.pace 7:58, avg.HR 137, max.HR 145.
Don’t remember details now, just lazy.

Wed, 7/18:
8.0 mi, 1:04:59, avg.pace 8:07, avg.HR 141, max.HR 153
I made experimental workout here. I guess it’s called “Ladder”.
Mile 1: sub 9:00 – actual 8:50
Mile 2: sub 8:30 – 8:17
Mile 3: sub 8:00 – 7:49
Mile 4, bottom: sub 7:30 – 7:27
Mile 5, again: sub 7:30 – 7:19
Mile 6: sub 8:00 – 7:54
Mile 7: sub 8:30 – 8:25
Mile 8: sub 9:00 – 8:56.
This is fun and you feel like it’s not a regular routine run.

Thu, 7/19:
6.0 mi, 50:47, avg.pace 8:27, avg.HR 135, max.HR 145
Routine after work.

Fri, 7/20:
5 mi, 40:18, avg.pace 8:03, avg.HR 139, max.HR 153
It was sort of a ladder.

Sat, 7/21:
AM: 5.0 mi, 43:23, avg.pace 8:40, avg.HR 145, max.HR 162 !!
Heart Rate 162! What happened? One little doggy, real bitch viciously attacked me, had a gas spray – so this 10 sec attack didn’t hurt me. I made a little experiment, while approaching at 8:00 pace to an old lady and her dog (earlier she always controlled her doggy shall me or any other running type rolled on the trail in the park), had a photo camera in right hand, Mr. Garmin on the left wrist and Damn it, where’s my gas spray, hum, not sure if it works, here it is – look at my HR, it was 143, this is normal for me. After attack (sprayed twice right in her muzzle 50 cm in front of me, e-nuf; lady just screamed: “Veta! Veta! Stop it!” – “Get your … Veta off the runners’ trail”. I didn’t say anything; actually it is officially prohibited to walk in the Park with any dog.) I run and look again – low 160’s! My heart works – Good reaction!
PM: Feel tired and an inevitable Tempo work scares me. Was it my choice for a speed work, I’d make what? Mile repeats! Love them. But I work with the coach, Tempo was scheduled and here’s what I did before main work:
1 mile warming @ 7:38, avg.HR 135, max.HR 141
I decided to make mere 400m. I programmed Dist/Time 0.25 mi / 1m20s and switched to “Virtual Partner” window. If it’s white – you’re ahead, it turns black – you’re behind. It’s really simple to compete with “this guy”. Went off – 70% of the run it was Black!!! I am shocked but I still fight and push myself to get to this 80 sec guy. Last 100 meters it was black-white-black, 0.23 and 0.24 and I’m not sure I can finish sub 80sec! Beep. “Workout finished. You win!” 1m19s, avg.pace 5:18 (Wow! So-o-ou sweet), avg.HR 130, max.HR 155.
This is life – when you’re teenager, 1m10s – 1m15s for this distance is not a problem at all. But in the mid 1990’s I couldn’t run 1 or 2 hours.
TEMPO:
2 miles @ sub 7:30, ok – no suck, 7:24 & 7:25
2 miles @ sub 7:00 (yes, I already did such tempo once and decided to repeat, not mention that I made 1 hour at sub 7:00 somewhere in the spring once) perhaps this particular time it was a mistake – 7:03! & 6:56. Stop.
I had scheduled + 5 miles sub 7:30 but smth went wrong.
Total for tempo:
4.0 mi, avg.pace 7:12, avg.HR 143, max.HR 153.
Week is over. 53.28 miles (planned about 60). Average pace 8:20.
Today is Sun, 7/22 I have to make The 20 miler and guess this one would be the last one, before the race.
If I kick my butt to run in the morning, I hit the trail here, in the Ethno Park.

Mile Repeats Evolution

2007-07-21T12:14:00.000+07:00

Here I will try to summarize Mile repeats - one of my favorite type of workouts.

Sa, 6/30, 2007:
5 x 1 mile, Target: Sub 6:40 each mile. Rest time 12:00

Sa, 7/14, 2007:
5 x 1 mile, Target: Sub 6:39 each mile. Rest time 11:50

Fr, 8/31, 2007:
6 x 1 mile, Target: Sub 6:38 each mile. Rest time 11:40
Love this one. Tough & Hard Final note for Summer 07.

Sa, 9/29, 2007:
7 x 1 mile, Target: Sub 6:37 each mile. Rest time 11:30
Super Tough! Probably I reached my limits as of Autumn 07.

Flickr Tag for all mile repeats.

So

2007-07-19T20:11:00.000+07:00

Three consecutive weeks with 80 mpw took toll on me. I'm not a super athlete - just a mortal runner. The week July, Sun 8 - Sat 14 was nothing special.

My body and muscles simply refused to work hard, it was a real unofficial strike. 52.26 mi, details on the flickr diagram.

Highlights of the week:
Mile repeats I did on Sat, see details.
Last time I did it, had sub 6:40 and 12:00 min rest.
Plan - to hold each mile sub 6:39, rest now 10 seconds shorter, 11 min 50 sec.

6:30, avg.HR 149, max.HR 155
6:23, avg.HR 150, max.HR 156
6:30, avg.HR 149, max.HR 154
6:26, avg.HR 147, max.HR 153
6:25, avg.HR 146, max.HR 153

I know that pro guys never spend that much time to restore, they just jog a quarter or two. But this "rest mode" was recommended by coach, even longer one, so I don't feel bad about "extended" rest time.

I love mile repeats - mostly because of such a solid rest. Almost 12 min is more than enough to completely restore and just walk around the track. The only bad thing - it takes about 3 hours to get it done! Next time I will cut rest time till 11m40s. Will it help to save some time? Well, about 1 min.

P.S. I shall be better blogger, I know. Though I feel like keeping my blog updated is a boring thing, reading about adventures and routine works of those Great guys (and gals) from my side bar, makes me work harder on my running track or on the trail in the park, steppe and finally on my blog, as a reflection of my running life.

P.P.S. Olga! Yes, I did wanted some compliments - Thanks a lot, Muchas Gracias & Xie Xie (this is from China). Do you remember marks we had in Soviet schools - 5, 4, 3?? Just in case if you forgot :) it's equal to A,B,C.. So, last time when I did Tempo (which I consider harder than mrepeats) I wasn't super disappointed by couple seconds slower than planned - I just got my mark 4+. Not 5. This week I have Tempo workout - scared to death!

One more, Let me paraphrase you question.
Running came to our life as a reason, a season or a lifetime?
As for me, the answer is clear.
No obvious reasons, no seasons. It's Lifetime.

Some Totals

2007-07-11T20:21:00.000+07:00

Tempo on Sat 7/07:

Plan

2 mi sub 7:30

2 mi sub 7:15

40 min sub 7:30

Actual

15:03, avg. pace 7:32 Suck!

14:25, avg. pace 7:14 good TEMPO

40:00, avg. pace 7:27 no problem with that

1:09:32, 9.36 miles, avg. pace 7:25, avg.HR 144, max.HR 152
and 3 miles to Cool down at average 8:25. Week is over.
As usual, it happened to be the best week again (anybody knows if it's damn possible to make better and better week? as of now this was the third consecutive week):
80.37 miles, avg. pace 8:20

Almost forgotten:
Total mileage for June: 271.87 miles
Actually I expected this month to be better then May (276.26 miles). It didn't happen due to my Almaty race. No regrets. I'll get to 300+ miles zone in July. Hope so.

Halfway there

2007-07-07T13:33:00.000+07:00

3rd Week, July, Sun 1st - Sat 7th,
with planned 80+ mpw. Almost over. Here's a short update:

Sun 7/1: Off

Mon 7/2
AM: 1:37:32, 11.26 mi @ 8:39 pace, avg.HR 134
PM: 22:11, 2.75 mi @ 8:03 pace, ran at lunch time, forgot HRM

Tue 7/3
AM: 1:25:14, 10.0 mi @ 8:31 pace, avg.HR 139, max.HR 147
PM: 31:23, 4.00 mi @ 7:50 pace, avg.HR 137, max.HR 145

Wed 7/4
AM: 1:27:51, 10.26 mi @ 8:34 pace, avg.HR 141, max.HR 152
PM: 30:40, 3.75 mi @ 8:10 pace, avg.HR 131, max.HR 140

Andrew asked me to avoid Doubles, so

Thu 7/5
PM: 1:45:26, 12.0 mi @ 8:47 pace, avg.HR 131, max.HR 140

Fri 7/6
PM: 1:54:40, 14.0 mi @ 8:11 pace, avg.HR 137, max.HR 150

Total for incomplete week 68.01 miles and I have One ahh, TEMPO! tonight.
I will hit 80+ anyway, even if I fail with TEMPO.

P.S. Coach asked me about a Marathon Pace for Omsk. I haven't decided yet, guess my MP range would be somewhere around 7:30 - 8:00.
If I got it right from Thomas' post here, he's planning to get 7:15 in October.
Time will tell.

P.P.S. Mark from Canada turned 40 !!!
I always compared his results with mine and even sort of competed with him. I didn't know Mark was almost forty so do not feel good about it. Also with a little help from Mark's blog I found Andrew, my personal coach, mentor and even Dr. Phil! Hope I'll be that lucky runner with kids and family several years later. So,
Happy Birthday Mark!
&
Happy Running to Everybody!

80 mpw. One more week

2007-07-05T20:48:00.000+07:00

June, Sun 24 - Sat 30.
Ahh, this is tough.
Another week with 80 miles. I always thought that only super athletes are able to make those mileage, but since I've been reading some running blogs, listed on my sidebar, I was assured that reaching that magical number is not an impossible work or something to frighten me off running hard.

Highlights of the week:
20+ miler on Sun 6/24

Mile 01: 07:23
Mile 02: 07:22
Mile 03: 07:21
Mile 04: 07:26
Mile 05: 07:24
Mile 06: 07:38
Mile 07: 07:57
Mile 08: 07:57
Mile 09: 07:53
Mile 10: 07:57

Mile 11: 09:20
Mile 12: 08:03
Mile 13: 10:11
Mile 14: 08:26
Mile 15: 12:44
Mile 16: 08:22
Mile 17: 08:22
Mile 18: 08:30
Mile 19: 09:00
Mile 20: 08:26
Mile 21: 07:56

Total: 21.0 miles, 2:55:51, avg.pace 8:22
That was so sweet. More details here.

Other workouts were truly ordinary, no need to mention.
Another bright workout was on Sat 6/30. My week was almost over and I had to make 15 miles that evening to end up with 80 miles.
5.11 mi warm up @ avg. 8:22
Mile Repeats (workouts - interval with the Tool)
Rest = 12 min
1. 6:38
rest
2. 6:34
rest
3. 6:27
rest
4. 6:29
rest
5. 6:34
Cool down 5.0 miles @ 8:03

Mile repeats took me about 1 hour 30 min.
Add about 40 min for warming up and 40 min for cooling down. I spent 3 hours on the track! Finished cooling 5 mi at 11.58 PM!
Ain't it a Great thing to feel like midnight runner or a Cinderella who has to make job done by 12:00 PM?!

Happy Running to everybody!!!

P.S. After hard Sat mile repeats I felt like real crap, couldn't do anything on Sunday and took off my running life the whole day Sun, 7/1. Missed 20 miler, Sorry Andrew. I know this is Super important but wasn't sure if I'm dead or alive.
On the positive (?) side, finally watched Borat movie and even laughed a lot. Life Goes On.

80 mpw

2007-06-27T21:19:00.000+07:00

Continuing on.
I made what I planned for a single week – 80 mere miles, slow miles, some of them tough (oh that Long on Sunday) and some of them fast. It transpired as follows:

Fr, 6/22, PM: 5.8 mi, 49:12, pace 8:28. Ordinary routine, just put more miles into my account; I have financial manager up there, in the state of Maine, he manages my deposit well;
Sa, 6/23, AM: 5.4 mi @ 8:24. The same;
Main work in PM time, Andrew recommended Mile repeats or Tempo.
I do Mile repeats.
Sa, 6/23, PM:
2.02 mi @ 7:43 warming up; then decided to make sort of PR

suddenly met a guy who was an “unknown pacemaker” on one dark eve a month ago or so, the guy who helped me to make 1 hour at sub 7:00 pace. Really young Kazakh guy (I guess seventeen) hardly can speak Russian. Shame on me – I know no more than 200 Kaz words. We talked using both Rus & Kaz words, he’s a light (54 kg) fighter and runs from time to time.

- I work here to prepare to a marathon, do you know what is Marathon?
Negative, he shook his head.
- Ah, it’s about 42 km or
here at the stadium it would be around 105 laps.
He reasked me in Kazakh, One Hundred Laps?
So amazed and surprised! What for??!
- Have no idea what is it for?! Just madly long distance. Ok, young guy – will you run 4 fast laps with me? Please be a pacemaker.
Gave me approving nod.
1.0 mi – Mr. Garmin's history says I did it in 5:56
actually when I finished (I used “Workouts – Quick mode” and ran watching “Virtual partner” who ran at 6:00 pace) I saw result 5:57. I’m a little bit confused, so let it be 5:57. My 1 mile PR.
Yes, 10 years ago I did sub 5:50, but it was 1600 meters.
Then
1.0 mi @ 6:53
1.0 mi @ 6:52
2.0 mi Cooling down @ 7:49
Over.
Total for the Week: 11h:45m; 80.04 miles, avg. pace 8:48
So Slow! One of my slowest week at all. Finally the main thing here is pumping up the mileage and I really pleased with this magical mark.

One more.
I didn’t make uphills and really miss them, also there’s absolutely no chance for doing uphill runs in winter here. Too much snow .. uhmm, I better quit talking about coming winter. Enjoy summer!
My work with Andrew goes on and pretty soon we will discuss a strategy for the Race. Then we’ll think about Taper.
Yes, I can smell the sweat, sorry I mean Sweet Taper :)

Do you wanna Bump it?

2007-06-22T20:57:00.000+07:00

Can't believe it, we started to discuss a Taper which is coming soon. The only problem is that I have to survive to get to that blessed period of time!
Here's my point, to be clear: I'm planning to have 5 continuous weeks with weekly mileage, let me guesstimate it - about 80 mpw.
Short disclaimer, just to be on the safe side: "about 80 mpw" means less or more. Also hope not to get injured doing a highest possible, well for me, mileage.
Andrew went to Boston and would be out of touch till Sunday I guess.
He supports me in my attempt to get the mileage. But warned me recently:
You work too hard sometimes. You are driven to succeed but I am worried that you will leave your race in your training.
I won't.

Thomas! I admit I do not know much about How to do a perfect Taper. Null is my Marathon history. I tried once (absolutely unprepared) and DNF! Now we work with Andrew and work so well.
Yep, coach will have to say something about that. We haven't talked about it yet.
As Andrew mapped it out for me, I'm finishing now 1st week out of four.
May be, beginning from July 15th I will start doing something special - can't read coach's mind. Hope to be able to hit 80 miles anyway.
Do I have enough time to make those mad weeks? here's how I visualize it to myself.

June, Sun 17 – Sat 23: ~80 mi
June, Sun 24 - Sat 30: ~80 mi

July, Sun 01 – Sat 07: ~80 mi
July, Sun 08 - Sat 14: ~80 mi
July, Sun 15 – Sat 21: ~80 mi

Taper starts somewhere here:
July, Sun 22 - Sat 28: .... mi
Jul/Aug, Su 29 - Sa 4th Taper & The Race!

Here's a lilttle bit about my Current week.
I guess it is called Andrew's Stage #3. Week 1.

Su, 6/17, AM: 4 mi, at 8:25. EZ AM miles
Su, 6/17, PM: 21 mi, 3:17:03, pace 9:23. Longest & Hardest workout

Mo, 6/18, PM: 5.03 mi, at 8:24. EZ refreshing work

Tu, 6/19, PM: 6.01 mi, at 8:53. Refreshing routine.
Didn't fulfill coach's plan Once - plan was 12 mi

We, 6/20, PM: 8.27 mi, at 8:31. Slow & easy.

Th, 6/21, PM: 12.01 mi, 1:54:50, pace 9:33. Tired.
Didn't fulfill twice / plan was 15 easy. Sorry coach.

Fr, 6/22, AM: 5.51 mi, at 8:45. Relaxed with a sunrise.

Total for now: 61.82 miles but this week is not over yet.
Got to run. Now.

it's Time to increase the mileage

2007-06-20T21:21:00.000+07:00

Many times I read on other runners' pages something like:
I'm gonna use this Half-marathon as a preparation to my next Marathon.
I thought about it for a while, can I consider extremal Almaty race as a "good preparation"?
Here's my own conclusion:
No. I enjoyed the Race but The Half I did in Almaty is too extremal (6 mi/10 km up). Was I deadly tired several days after the race.

These are some stats:
Taper week (incl the Half)
June, Sun 03 – Sat 09: 44.65 mi
Recover week
June, Sun 10 - Sat 16: 46.14 mi

There were positives moments in my recent workouts,
e.g.
The last note of my recovery week was TEMPO and I managed it just as planned. Finally:
2 mi @ sub 7:20
2 mi @ sub 7:00
30 min @ sub 7:20
Total: 58:36, 8.11 mi, avg.pace 7:13, avg.HR 156
See details here.

Surely I'm not satisfied with my mileage, which is fairly LOW.
As I'm (and not only me) heading to SIM - Siberian International Marathon,
have 6 + weeks to go. Deduct a week for the taper and we've got only 5 weeks for a serious work.
From other hand I look on guys like Ryan.
This young man makes ~40 mpw and plans to hit sub 3:00
Really wonder How is it possible??!

P.S.
Best Marathon report of this month from "Mr. Banking Miles". It's a Great Lesson and I have to learn it.
P.P.S.
Hurray to Olga who recently finished her 100 miler !!!
Olga - You're Super!
I was doing my miserable 21 miler past Sunday and thought about you.
Will post soon more about this week with record (I hope so) mileage.

more shots

2007-06-18T22:08:00.000+07:00

Almaz (aka Long Tall Kaz guy) and a Peace Corp guy after the race. A German mister who reminded me "Bilbo Baggins" just finished

We did it!

Australian guys stand there, on the left and here is what happens if you're not good enough for the race. More photos in better resolution available here.

Some shots from Almaty Medeo Marathon 2007

2007-06-18T21:54:00.000+07:00

Taxi driver explains the setails of the route: ".. and here you will suffer a lot, remember this, this incline is also not a piece of cake..." Official booklet says that elevation for the Half is 600m and about 900meters for the Full marathon.

Number sewn

A lady from Uzbekistan team with a Sign: "Rammstein"

Opening ceremony
I walk head down

Almaty Medeo Half 07. Preliminaries

2007-06-11T11:21:00.000+07:00

I did it! Tough six miles uphill and 6 inconveniently rough miles downhill - all of them along the road to Medeo (Great resort and one of the biggest skating stadium in former USSR). I should've taken a respirator, look here to see What are Almaty Cars 3. Hate running with almost heavy traffic.

- Date & Location: Sat, June 9, 2007. Almaty, Kazakhstan
- Race: Medeo Half Marathon, 21 097 m
- Results: 1:42:17 (yep, slower than my personal best on a flat stadium)
- Placement: 6 out of 25 or something.
Could have been 5th but apparently my name is "Mr. Wrong Way"
Tons of positive emotions and really Glad I participated in Almaty.
Photos, details and splits - tomorrow.

Details of my Taper week I made before the Half you can see on a shot. I made 8 uphills on Wed, PM which is reasonable. I had more than 48 hours to recover.
Then 4 miles on Thu
5 miles on Fri morning. That was all.

Trip Karaganda - Almaty took more than 18 hours (Fri 3 PM - Sat 10 AM).
As for a trip on the train right before the race – personally I don’t think it’s a good idea, your body is absolutely idle. The only thing you can do there is sleep, sleep as long as you want. This time I had only a Half and train could be acceptable.
Next time I’m gonna have Full Marathon and yes, I’m afraid of any possible negative consequences of such a long travel right before marathon.

Sat 10 AM - got there - taxi to the Stadium - registration - Friend's apartment – Thank you LaLenchik, you’re the Best Friend!

Taxi driver looked at my which I got after the registration. “I know this route to Medeo, everybody knows it here. Remember – you will have 3 really steep inclines …” I looked at the map, tried to remember – all in vain. Finally the Race itself would tell me what is a Real Steep and what is not. All I knew at that time is that about 6 miles we would run all the way uphill. There have to be a magical place when we will turn back down to the starting point. Finish.
OK. Had a Lunch with my friend and back to Stadium for Opening Ceremony.Unfortunately all photos I have were taken right before and after the race : (

Ceremony was for the big track & field competition where Marathon & Half represent extremal types of sport activity. Other events to be held within 2 days were 10k, 5k, high jumps, broad jumps, shotput etc.

It was nice to see that the whole event is truly international – people came from Germany, Russia, also our “local neighbors” – Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and other countries around Central Asia.

As for Full and Half race – there were guys and gals from Germany, local Americans (Peace Corp), couple Australian (that’s what I heard) and someone else. German band was larger in numbers; they were not that young though. One of them reminded me “Mr. Bilgo Baggins” or may be I just love Tolkien?

I did 0.5 mi before / in the time of Opening Ceremony to warm up speeding to sub 6:00 for some time. HR was high and it's ok - I'm a little bit nervous.
There was one American tall dude with black Apple Ipod, not Shuffle, nor Nano in the armband, guess it was iPod Video with internal HDD (imho too big to run with). Whatever. There was another guy with him, who looked like Kazakh, Long Tall guy. As Opening ceremony was over and we were ready to get to the Republic Square, which is place to start, I felt really nervous. I asked Long Tall Kaz guy:
- Man, do you suddenly know, Where’s the point of return?
His answer surprised me: “Follow me and you will find where to turn”.
What a cocky answer, uhh!
- OK, then What’s your time for the Half?
Long Tall: “Ah, don’t think I’m that pro runner. The point of return is not far from a bridge, “Butakovka” you know? We will turn there.”
Had no idea, where is That Bridge or Butakovka. Let’s see.

Marathon and Half started together. Didn’t make any Workout for the Tool, just pushed Start.
“Good Luck guys” I heard from the Square. We run.

The Tool tells me that my HR is HIGH 160+ right from the start and pace is about 6:30. Yes, this is faster than I had to, from other hand didn't want to run with a group of 60 years old runners and ladies. After the square real steep hill started. I am somewhere between leading 10 – 12 runners.
I expected to see on Garmin 6 and a half miles uphill. Six and a half down. Actually it was about 6 miles. Road up there was covered with trees. Almaty is truly green city, plus buildings. The Tool could be inaccurate. Or this Incline also make some gap in calculating a distance. Not sure.

Mile 01 - 7:29 / 163HR
Mile 02 - 8:18 I'm behind of group of 6 - 7 runners - not clear for me, if they do Full or a Half. I do my job.
Mile 03 - 8:46 sticked to a Full runner, older than me, finally he passed me. 1 sip of water, non-stop.
Mile 04 - 8:54 Long Tall Kaz guy always around me, incline is real tough (can not be sure but could be more than 25%)
Mile 05 - 9:38 Hard and tough. I guess there was a moment when I walked. Long Tall guy 10 meters or so ahead. “Follow me”, we compete.
All the way up there I saw a beatiful nature, trees, mountain clear stream along the road, Great Almaty mountains ahead. I see it and in the same time do not see it - I'm in the middle of the Game. Not Video, PC game - it's Real. ReStart available one year later.
I see a lot of cars going down from Medeo. Wedding cars! Big and long White Hammers for Wedding ceremonies! People in Almaty love everything rich, they love to show it off. People scream out of their/rented cars as they're happy to be a part of Wedding. Once I screamed too in reply. I'm Happy to have this helluva tough race!
View of numerous wedding vehicles made me think of my possible wedding in the future. Will I have it somewhere here? I don't know. Race went on.

Mile 06 - 9:18 got to a table with water (yes we had it before) but at This table there was a Point to return Down. FINALLY. Long Tall guy still 10 meters ahead. He turned and made it slow. From now we will run downhill - it would be easier, right? Answer – right!
But it’s easier to everybody, so competition is still tough. Also I’m not sure How to do it downhill?
Long Tall put earphones in to listen to some music I guess. I do not have any mp3 player; aggressive tracks are in my head. Something hellish from Australian AC/DC. I pass Long Tall guy, I run faster and faster. I see people running towards me, scrambling their last mile up to the magical table. Poor people. Some of them wish me Good Luck. You too guys! Among them I see American guy, approaching me, he raised his left hand with open palm – is it a “Five” to me? I clap his hand. 2 seconds later I hear it again behind me. That “five” was not for me – Long Tall behind me!! Peace Corp guy scream in Russian: “Davai …, poslednyi” / ~ “Come on Man, it’s Last (section)!” Yes, this is last section and it’s gonna be fun.
Mile 07 - 7:43 Down. This is really unusual for me. Dallen was right about it (but Dallen had his race in 1995 so he knew something, I do not know anything how to run down).
Mile 08 - 6:53 Easier but really uncomfortable.
Mile 09 - 6:52 I guess the same
Mile 10 - 7:04 Passed another guy. All I heard was his clap – clap footing. Intuitively it seemed to me that the way I land foot here is super important. Hope the way I did it, wasn’t bad. At least I didn’t hear Slap – slap from myself.
Mile 11 - 7:18 I do not see tables and organizers - not sure where to turn to the square. Tired. Really tired. I do not hear Long Tall, really wonder where is he? Just tell to myself: “Don’t look back. Don’t look back!”
OK. I can look there.
2 guys (one of them Long Tall - 150 behind me. Good. Good. But where to turn here? I ask one lady on the street
– How to get to the Republic Square?
Silence was an answer.
Yes, I know, I look strange, really strange! I sweat. I’m wet. I’m almost desperate.
“How to get to the Square?!!” Damn, where are organizers’ table, any pointer? Nothing.
Thought: what if I stop and wait for them (2 guys, they chase me) - they will tell me where to turn? This is so Stupid but there's nothing I can do. I stop from time to time to understand. No I better run further. I keep the distance.
Mile 12 - 8:09 they still 120 m behind me. TIRED. Made a turn and run for a while. Stop - something Wrong, do not feel they chase me anymore! Look back (many times told myself - don't look back) I’m "Lucky" to see a guy and Long Tall points me opposite direction!!!
No-o-oo! - Suddenly Now I’m 100 meters behind them!!! I have to CHASE them!!!! Unbelievable! Square has to appear soon. I have about 0.5 mile to catch them. Damn! I chase them as hard as I can. Closer and closer. Square is also almost here. I see it! One of them has 400 m to the finish, me and Long Tall reached cross road to the square - one more push - I'll catch Long Tall anyway. Suddenly I see he stops and touch his leg with a hand. He's got Spasm at his calf. He Joggs. "Sorry Man, this is fair" I pass him - run at 6:30 or so to the finish. Another guy already passed finish line - he's #5
and I'm #6. Long tall #7.

P.S. After making a finish I completely forgot to push “stop” on the Tool. So I logged only 12 miles. I laid on the grass, talked to people. I was being pictured but my Mr. Garmin worked. Had to erase everything after the mile 12. My Tool is a great device – but it can not register that Happiness you feel after the Race!

That's all.
I talked to a Long Tall Kazakh guy – he’s got a nice name Almaz which means “Diamond”. Almaz said that Australian guy passed me due to my Wrong Way turn and so, that guy had got 5th placement. I do not care if he was Australian or not. Next time I’ll try to be in Top 3. That’s what I have to care about.

No more Wrong Ways!
Happy Ways to Everybody!

Announce

2007-06-06T20:37:00.000+07:00

Thank you guys so much for your help and support. I can not answer to everybody right away but will try to be with you guys.
Hurray !!!...
- to Jason – 5 k you did was decent running, we do not have any Duathlon competition here. Green with envy : )
- to Andrew – who completed 10k race with a time I can only dream about! You know what – I’m a truly lucky runner, not only for my work with Andrew who’s patient with me and my annoying disorganized messages and he doesn’t charge anything! Also I have a privilege to be in doubt about running issues or something and I always get a “feedback”. Thank you Coach.

Olga – not Hurray to you. Not yet. Your counter runs like crazy – 8 days to Go! “Well the Ukraine girls really knock me out, they leave the West behind…” Byelorussia is almost the Ukraine, right? Olga – nobody say it would be easy. You can do it. I’ll be proud of you. Question: Gde takie otvazhnye Divchiny rastyt?

Sunday, June 3rd.
After the shameful attempt to make Tempo on Sat I really didn’t feel like running. But Sunday means only one thing, at least in running life. It means Long (frightening for me) run. You have to be mentally prepared for it. I wasn’t. I tried but it didn’t work out. Came to the Stadium having one idea in mind: If you’re not doing the Twenty miler, can try to improve old Half result instead. Last time I did it was a sunny white (due to snow) day. That time I didn’t work with Andrew, though I knew about him, reading his diary. I’ve been thinking how to beat this PB for a long time, but never had a chance. Stage 1 with Andrew and I guess stage 2 do not “allow” to do it, also Andrew is pretty skeptical about those half races. Yes I do realize that “the half marathon and the marathon are not comparable. There are critical training issues involved with the marathon distance that the half marathon doesn't even begin to address.” – Andrew.
But I keep one competition in mind.
Almaty marathon / Half marathon on Sat, June 9th. I have intention race and PR in the Half. We do not have so many races in Central Asia. This is a good chance. Race is extremal, route is awkward. Half way uphill, half way down. Both parts would be difficult. If you ever read latest Dallen’s report on Robie Creek race, you could notice how hard was a down hill part.
“It is a strange feeling changing from 12% uphill to 12% downhill. The legs and lungs stop burning for a while and my untrained body tries to figure out how to run on this terrain.”
Another thing – I’m not quite sure I’ll be able to get there. Whatever, I’ll try to go to Almaty by train (15 hours to go or 8 hours on Spanish Express Train) on this Fri (plane? Only extremely rich people do it here).
Paul, you could be interested in this race and hope you read it in time. Seriously, I knew about the race 2 months ago but couldn’t get exact info – no web page, no telephone numbers! No I get it: Almaty, Central stadium. One of organizers: Mr. Alim Sharipov – cell 777 515 18 72. Also my # is 250 41 30 (BeeL). Mr. Alim asked to pass registration on Fri, I explained that it’s impossible for me due to work. He agreed on Sat AM registration, 500 tng for Half and 1000 for the Full. Opening ceremony at 4pm, start at 5pm.

So, in order to "feel the distance" I made attempt to improve my Half result, here’s what I got:

Mile 01: 07:14
Mile 02: 07:19
Mile 03: 07:26
Mile 04: 07:37
Mile 05: 07:42
Mile 06: 07:47
Mile 07: 07:49
Mile 08: 07:47
Mile 09: 07:49
Mile 10: 07:49
Mile 11: 07:48
Mile 12: 07:43
Mile 13: 07:33
0.10 mi: 00:43sec, pace 6:54

Half, training on Jun 3, 2007 - 1:40:13, avg. pace 07:38
(Half, training on Mar 14, 2007 - 1:44:28, avg. pace 07:58)

I wasn’t on the edge, didn’t push it real hard. Each mile had a feeling that I have about 5 sec “in the stock”. After mile 10 I decided to listen to pro Ultra runner's advice and make it faster than previous. 7:48 – 7:43 – 7:33 so I can do it. Next time I shall shave those 13 sec and jump into sub 1h 40min.
Can not promise anything but really want to run this Sat in Almaty.
P.S. Oh, yes, weather is something special now – we had a rain with hail and Snow(!) on Mon and for couple minutes on Tue. This week is a mess – I missed my Mon run. Do I have to taper? I don’t want but common sense tells me that I have to.

70 mpw. She Loves me / She Hates me

2007-06-03T19:41:00.000+07:00

Last week Sun, May 27 – Sat, Jun 2nd.
Andrew approved my attempts to get a higher weekly mileage (about “miles make champions” concept you can read anywhere) and told me to see and be concentrated on main things:
– Long run
– Hill repeats (“transition” to a future speed work)
– Tempo
Three main components of my running work now.

I expected mush more from this week, much more. Instead dramatically failed yesterday doing Tempo.
Su, 5/27, PM: 20 mi, at 8:15. Good. Cut off 3 minutes and felt much better than first time.
Mo, 5/28, PM: 8.0 mi, 1:10:19, pace 8:47. EZ refreshing work.
Tu, 5/29, AM!: 6.0 mi, 52:34, pace 8:45. Need better deposit.
Same day, PM: 2 mi incl. 2 hills, 22:44, pace 11:22
Back to the track + 2 mi, 15:52, pace 7:56. Done for that day.
We, 5/30, PM: 6.04 mi, 51:53, pace 8:35. EZ work.
Th, 5/31, PM: 3.07 mi incl. 8 hills*, 36:47, pace 11:59. Tough work.
Same day, back to track, 2.01 mi cool down, 17:11, pace 8:33.
Fr, 6/01, PM: 10.06 mi, 1:30:00, pace 8:56. Sore after hills. EZ.
Sa, 6/02, PM: TEMPO! Andrew made some changes: it’s
2 mi sub 7:20
1 or 2 mi sub 7:00
The rest @ 7:20. “The Rest” looked like complete 1 hour total running.
Does it seem to you, my Dear Reader like too tough? Given those 1 hour runs at average 7:00 and 7:02 I did several Saturdays ago – this Tempo could be a Piece of Cake, right? That’s what I thought. Real life is not what we put into our GPS watch. It is a combination of thousand factors.
Programmed:
1. Go for 00:02:00. Try to keep my HR in zone 1.
2. Go for 00:02:00. Try to keep my HR in zone 2.
3. Go for 00:02:00. Try to keep my HR in zone 3.
4. Go 2 mi.. to keep my speed 7:20 and 6:20.
5. Go 2 mi.. to keep my speed 7:00 and 6:00.
6. Go for 00:30:00.. to keep my speed 7:20 and 6:20
7. Go for 00:02:00. Try to keep my HR in zone 2.
8. Go for 00:02:00. Try to keep my HR in zone 1.
Actual: Step 1,2,3 of course for dummies (don’t want to offend anyone) and for my personal cardiovascular system.
2 miles sub 7:20 – I run and do it good. 2 mi, 14:27, avg. 7:13
2 miles sub 7:00 – it’s hot out there, it’s getting harder. 2 mi, 13:56, avg. 6:58, HR 158
Good Job! That’s what people call Tempo. But I’m done.
I almost stop, I sweat, I jog & drag – “U lazy a..hole, move your butt!”
1 mi, 07:55, avg. 7:54 (Center says), HR 154. Over.
See this plot for details.

Laid on the grass, watched Garmin’s history for the week and decided to drag on to get 70 mpw.
+ 5.27 miles, 47:42, avg.pace 09:03, avg.HR 143. Crap.
Total for the week Sun, May 27 – Sat, Jun 2nd:
70.01 miles.

* this is my PB hill workout. Never did 8 non-stop uphill runs. My hill is pretty steep (Ascent 103 ft or 31 meter). Here’s a sample video (that was I guess first time 4 hill repeats this year, thanks to my bro Tim). Sorry for the quality.

My 20 milers

2007-06-03T19:35:00.000+07:00

Here’s I’m planning to make some stats on Long runs I started to do recently.

----------------------------------------------------

Su, 5/20, 2007:
20.0 miles, 2:48:05, pace 8:24, avg.HR 144, max.HR 153

Su, 5/27, 2007:
20.0 miles, 2:45:02, pace 8:15, avg.HR 140, max.HR 150

Su, 6/17, 2007:
21.0 miles, 3:17:03, pace 9:23, avg.HR 135, max.HR 156

Su, 6/24, 2007:
21.0 miles, 2:55:51, pace 8:22, avg.HR 134, max.HR 152

Su, 7/15, 2007:
21.0 miles, 3:02:55, pace 8:42, avg.HR 146, max.HR 155

Mo, 7/23, 2007: This is my best one
20.0 miles, 2:43:46, pace 8:11, avg.HR 140, max.HR 157

Flickr Tag for all 20 milers.
----------------------------------------------------

As of now, that is all to report. I have to do it today.
I won’t run marathon without accomplishing 10 twenty milers or so.
P.S. Olga, each mile 5 sec faster plan will kill me. Merely not ready for this. Sure I could do it for 10 miles though. I’ll think about such plan later, I’m lucky cause coach didn’t tell me anything about it. Sh-shh-h!

September 18th, 2007
Finally I started to run 20 milers and log 'em into my
Training Period #2:

#1. Tu, 9/18, 2007: New PR for 21 miles.
21.0 miles, 2:52:46, pace 8:13, avg.HR 145, max.HR 156

#2. Su, 9/23, 2007: Ordinary 20 miler.
20.01 miles, 2:54:29, pace 8:43, avg.HR 141, max.HR 150

#3. Su, 10/07, 2007:
Keepin' every mile sub 8:00. Work i can be proud of.
20.00 miles, 2:37:42, pace 7:53, avg.HR 150, max.HR 170 (dog attack)

#4. Su, 10/14, 2007: Ordinary 20 miler.
20.10 miles, 3:06:49, pace 9:17, avg.HR 144, max.HR 156

#5. Su, 10/28, 2007: Tough.
20.01 miles, 3:04:44, pace 9:13, avg.HR 138, max.HR 155

TEMPO relationships

2007-06-03T19:26:00.000+07:00

Plan for Sat 5/26: Start easily then increase pace to 90% maxHR for 20 minutes then back down. Total run time: 1 hour.
Want to talk about my relationships with Tempo – this is an issue for me now.
What I did that Saturday to finish the week was
PM: 2 miles at 8:23 to warm up and get ready to Tempo work. Then decided to make 2 uphills to get a decent number of hill runs. Device logged 2 more hill miles at 9:35. I’m lucky about hills, they are about 1 km away from my stadium.

OK. Warm up & couple hills is not a real work. It’s all about preparation to this Monster called Tempo work. I had prepared on the Garmin Training Center this advanced workout:
1. Go for 2 mi sub 8:30
2. Go for 20 min keeping HR zone 4 (for me it’s a range between 148 – 167).
For myself I defined it as running sub 7:00 trying to be closer to 162 heart beats (90% from my maxHR).
3. Go for no target pace until I press “lap” button on the Tool.

Ready, Steady? Here’s what I got for my first tempo:
2 mi @ 8:22, avg.HR 136
20 min, 2.89 mi @ 6:55, avg.HR 157 (it did reach 162 and 163 in the end of tempo stage)
23.16 min, 2.64 mi @ 8:48, avg.HR 146.
Total: 1:00:01, 7.53 mi @ 7:58, avg.HR 147.
I did it perfect and finished that week Sun 5/20 – Sat 5/26 with 62.15 miles.
This could be funny but I personally consider any week which is lower than 70 as “good one, but nothing special”. Here’s a tricky point – I noticed that attempt to make higher mileage brings me to failure at one of workouts. Read on.
Add 5 days from the week Sun 5/27 – Thu 5/31 and I see those nice figures

Total mileage for May 2007: 276.26 miles

Best month in my running life. 2 days off. Third time (Mar, Apr, May) in the club 200+ miles per single month and I feel like have to leave the club, at least for the summer 2007.

P.S. Have no clue why my HR is so-o (comparing to other great guys and gals) low. I was born in Jan 75, so 32 years old now. I did run in 90’s (started somewhere in 93-94) but my relationships with running were nothing serious – like 30 – 40 kilometers per month or 20 – 25 miles. Never cared about constancy of training that time, so I could miss couple winter months, no regrets, also had injures. I remember played basketball a lot. That’s all I did. First time when I realized that I made 10km distance was 25 laps on my stadium I made in May 1997. Remember running in the rainy dark eve and felt like real crap in the end. Why I did 25 quarters? I got dumped or had serious personal problems that day and Running – this Lady is my mistress, I was always in love with her. (Don’t tell me Andrew said that. I knew I’m in love with running even that time). Gee, it was 10 years ago!
More about HR. If you read recent Dallen’s post you could see that his HR jumps to 190’s (!). This guy 1 or 2 years younger and surely was a hell runner in the mid90’s.
Well, let’s get back to June 2007 : )

First 20 Miler

2007-05-26T15:41:00.000+07:00

I got a new program from Andrew and started another Stage.
Changes: I do not have 60 min Hard workouts anymore, there's another way to "entertain" my legs and muscles. This way is Uphill workouts. What a sweaty fun : )
I almost finish this week and here’s the best thing I did on Sun 5/20, right after grueling 60 min run in Astana the day before. This is my first 20 miler ever. You can see the trick I did, started with target 7:40 and then “each mile 5 sec slower” strategy. It worked. Apparently this “strategy” is truly stupid. Because in real competition I would be slower and slower, down to 9:00 pace (!) but for this time this trick is not that bad I think.

Mile 01: 07:39
Mile 02: 07:44
Mile 03: 07:49
Mile 04: 07:54
Mile 05: 07:58
Mile 06: 08:01
Mile 07: 08:05
Mile 08: 08:11
Mile 09: 08:17

Mile 10: 08:25
Mile 11: 08:30
Mile 12: 08:32
Mile 13: 08:37
Mile 14: 08:43
Mile 15: 08:47
Mile 16: 08:54
Mile 17: 08:59
Mile 18: 08:56
Mile 19: 08:58
Mile 20: 08:52

Detailed info on a Garmin screenshot here.
Total time 2h 48m 05s at 8:24 avg.pace.
Olga – thanks for you comments on my first 20 miler. You were that person who encouraged me to be valiant and crack 20 miler since your comment on this topic somewhere in Feb 07. Spasibo!!!
Tomorrow I have that hellish long again. I don’t want it last for more than 3 hours. I guess I will do it the same way with some modifications.
Tonight I finish my first week and it has to be Tempo.
“Start easily then increase pace to 90% maxHR for 20 minutes then back down. Total run time: 1 hour. Increase tempo portion by 5 minutes per week if possible.”
I guess my max.HR is about 179. (yep, so Low) Let’s say 180. Looks like I have to make couple slow miles, then attempt to crack 20 min with HR about 162 !!! (do I have to go to Astana? Not in this summer : ) 20 min with such a High Heart Rate is a daunting task.
Work with Andrew on the way to my race (what is my upcoming race is still not clear for me – Omsk or Moscow?? Shanghai! :) is full of surprises.

Andrew's Stage 1. Over

2007-05-26T14:03:00.000+07:00

Blogging is a truly boring thing – that’s what I feel from time to time.
Running would never be boring to me, until I try to hit my mileage up to 80 – 90 mpw. Soon.
Actually, starting right from tomorrow. My “Stage 1” training period with Andrew is over.
Time to draw some analysis.

Mar 07
Week #01 / Sun 18 - Sat 24 / 55.15 mi
Week #02 / Sun 25 - Sat 31 / 65.17 mi

Apr 07
Week #03 / Sun 01 - Sat 07 / 62.06 mi
Week #04 / Sun 08 - Sat 14 / 72.37 mi
Week #.... / Sun 15 - Sat 21 / 40.20 mi
Week in China / Sun 22 - Sat 28 / 5 mi !!!

May 07
Week #04 (again) / Sun 29 - Sat 05 / 55 + mi
Week #05 / Sun 06 - Sat 12 / 71.18 mi
Week #06 / Sun 13 - Sat 19 / 56.26 mi

I am particularly pleased with Week #5 – I do consider it the best week from the First Stage. If you wonder how the perfect week from the First Andrew’s stage looks – see this plot. You can see there, that I had only 1 additional unscheduled warmup for 2.05 miles. Actually it was truly windy that day. What does "windy" mean? Look at the picture - a broken tree 2 meters away from the entrance to my house. By the time I was doing my Hard workout, Mother Nature chilled out. Still wind could be an Issue.

Some Details on my 1st Stage:
- 90 min EZ workouts: Easy run - refreshing. I like them, target HR 140 - 145 and usually I "sink into" (this is from Andrew's vocabulary) those 90 minutes. Normally I did 10+ miles. What a nice running with sub 9:00 pace! (I guess people call it Jogging :)

- 60 min Hard workouts: I knew I could do it at 7:15. But never thought about 7:02 pace and faster pace. Run in such a manner that you can finish without going anaerobic. So, Ladies helped / forced me to run at 7:00 pace for one mile which I had expected to be slower. I didn't catch them, all they did was 400m at average 1m45s which is exactly 7:00 pace. Then they stopped and all I had to do, was keep on running with the same pace. One week later, on
Sat 5/12 I made it again. The Best 60 min Hard workout. 7:00 average pace which was a real surprice for me. There was a guy who joined me right from the the start and as his pace was close to my target pace I made attempt to compete with him. He was smaller, lighter and surely younger than me and he sustained the speed for 15 laps/quarters which is 6k so it less then 30 min. That was all he could do, but I was really thankful to him cause he did a Good Pacemaker's job for me. The rest of the distance I made alone. 1 hour at 7:00, next time I shall aim for 6:57 or so.

One of the worst Hard workout I did in Astana last week.
Sat 5/19. I met Erik at that place. Trip to Astana took almost 3 hours in a van so by the time we started I was simply dehydrated, some water we bought right before the start didn't workm, it was too late. I used to run in Flat Ethno park in the mornings or in my Stadium in PM time which is also absolutely flat. But route in Astana is quite a different thing (Paul you're lucky to have that place to run). There’s a long incline toward the bridge, decline part was with such a strong headwind, so it made the whole running process almost grueling. Slowest mile we did was at 8:11. That was a cruel lesson. Dehydration caused incredibly high HR at the slow pace. All I saw on my Tool was 160 – 161 HR.
We finished with 7.68 mi, 60:00, avg.pace 07:48, avg.HR 159.
“Just not your day to run” I heard from Erik.
(Man, although that was a tough run – thanks a lot! Your Once in a Lifetime experience is almost over. Good luck in New-Hampshire! Hope to see you again someday.)
It was last run for my Stage #1 and Conclusion I’ve drawn from Astana route is that I shall learn more about How to run non-flat routes.

- 2 hours Long runs. This is / (was?) my weekest point. I will work more on it.
If you ever read this article you know How important Long run for marathon runner's preparation - simply a crucial part.

60 min @ 7:00 pace. New PR with unknown Pacemaker.

2007-05-17T17:01:00.000+07:00

OK. That's incredibly funny. Rus made 1 hour PR chasing running ladies. LOL!!!

Technically I improved “girly” record last Saturday and now it’s 60 min at 7:00 sharp.
Will update this later..

Quick announce. I’ll be here in Astana this Sat, 3 pm.

Hopefully to start 1 hour Hard workout with Erik. Paul if you could do it – join us.

Hey Ladies!

2007-05-11T20:40:00.000+07:00

Fri, May 4th, 90 min EZ run. That day I made one mistake - a guy from my work had dismissed some time ago and invited co-workers to a local Pizza Hut place to have some Pizza and beer. A glass of beer after work was enough for me to feel dizzy. Oh, Man - I'm not able to tolerate those things - I'm just a runner. Guys and girls were not pleased with Beer and Pizza and started to search for "better" place with hot drinks and disco. Sorry guys, I left you having 90 min EZ run in my ..yep, strange mind. I'm a runner - so No Partying Hard.
Stadium - made 3 incredibly SLOW miles lower than 9:30. I run so slow. I don't want to run, I want to vomit. Sorry for details. I didn't really fight with it, 3 miles was enough. I knew my total weekly milage has to be lower than 60 miles per week. You can't just jump from 5 miles up to 60+ without a high risk of getting injured.

And here's about that unbelievable thing happened right on next day after "Run till you vomit" slow miles.

Sat, May 5th, 61 min, HARD run. (Yes I put 61 min to my Garmin as a tiny "compensation" for Beer run).
Usually I work on Saturdays till lunch time, but that day we didn't work.
Whoa, there are people on my Stadium. I made 1 lap as a warm up reaching sub 7:00 pace. Feel Good after yesterday.
Started. Legs feel so good and I clock first mile with 6:58. OK, it's enough - not so fast, not so fast. Mile #2 has to be 5 sec slower. Don't be stupid - Back Off! 7:05 Yes, I will do my plan, every mile 5 sec slower! Mile #3 is 7:06 - Slow Down, Easy man!
Suddnely, I see 3 ladies 200 meters ahead of me. Just started and they run fast, good. I fixed my eyes on them, looks like they run at 7:15 pace. Let's play traditional Kazakh game called "Catch a Girl", I saw it on TV couple times. A Guy have to catch a Lady riding on a horse, well Lady is also on a horse :). There has to be a Point of Return, untill that point, guy has to catch her, after the Point they return to their village and if he didn't catch her, he's a Looser. She may beat down him with a horsewhip. At least that's what I heard.
OK, half quarter later I still can't catch them, what the sh.. is going on, they do not look like pro athletes. One lady dropped, aha. 2 of them still run fast, 400 meters later I can't catch them, damn. I do sub 7:00 but it's a matter of principle. So, having complete 1 quarter and something ladies suddenly stop. I pass them finally. Uhhg, mile #4 is over - 06:57. Sub 7:00.
Later there were other guys and girls running the same track, but they were not that fast. Those 3 ladies left stadium. Don't blame me - I didn't have to make such a fast workout. It's them who made me run that fast.

Splits:

Mile 01: 06:58
Mile 02: 07:05
Mile 03: 07:06
Mile 04: 06:57

Mile 05: 07:02
Mile 06: 06:57
Mile 07: 07:03
Mile 08: 07:09
0.66 mi 04:51 (pace 07:01)

Sat, May 5, PM, Hard: 8:66 mi, 01:01:00, pace 07:02, avg.HR 158, max.HR 168

As of now, this one is my Best Hard workout.
I walk from "stadium" and on the way home see those 3 girls. I guess they recognized me "That fast Dude". Pass them in silence just say to myself - Thank you girls :)

-------------------------
This week is nothing special, I try to be conservative. Will hit 70 miles tomorrow.

Mar 06, Sun, PM: 13.18 mi, 2:00:00, avg.pace 09:06, avg.HR 137
Mar 07, Mon, AM: 10.12 mi, 1:30:00, avg.pace 08:53, avg.HR 136
Mar 08, Tue, PM: 2.05 mi, 15:56, avg.pace 07:45, warm up
Mar 08, Tue, PM: 8.10 mi, 60:00, avg.pace 07:24, avg.HR 148
Mar 09, Wed, PM: 10.56 mi, 1:30:00, avg.pace 08:31, avg.HR 142
Mar 10, Thu, PM: 8.08 mi, 60:00, avg.pace 07:25, avg.HR 147
-------------------------
I already have 52.09 miles on my deposit. Today & tomorrow, 2 workouts left (about 10 EZ mi today + 8 Hard mi tomorrow). I've got a big temptation to make 3-4 slow-slow miles to hit my Personal Best week. From other hand, it's not good to get to a high mileage so fast. I'll be conservative. I better get going...

Shanghai

2007-05-10T18:30:00.000+07:00

Ease Back

2007-05-06T21:33:00.000+07:00

Let me here quote Andrew: I agreee with you, repeat those weeks and build yourself back up. Just be careful not to overdo it on the first week back in terms of speed. The milage and time can be brought back rather quickly, but the intensity needs to be measured..
Have a good day and ease back into the "hard" with caution.

Thank you Andrew!
So, Week #4, Apr, Sun 29 - May, Sat 5 is over.
Totals: 59.88 mi

I have to make here some analysis - I paid a lot of attention to HARD on Tue, Thu, Sat. Always look at 90 min EZ as at "routine". Now I see this is a Big Mistake. I was told in the beginning that "sequence of Hard/EZ runs is important". But I'[m only human. Supposed to make mistake. But sometimes it brings good results. Am I right or am I wrong. Technically I have no clue. Here is how I did me week.

Tue, May 1, PM: 01:00:00 Hard, 7:99 mi, pace 7:31, avg.HR 151
Wed, May 2, AM: 01:30:00 EZ, 9:91 mi, pace 9:05, avg.HR 142
Thu, May 3, PM: 01:00:00 Hard, 8:01 mi, pace 7:30, avg.HR 143 - moonlighting
Fri, May 4, PM: 00:28:57 EZ, 3:00 mi, pace 9:39, avg.HR 120
Sat, May 5, PM: 01:01:00 Hard - this one, I did yesterday was truly special and unbelievable... Sorry my Inet time in cafe over. Will finish soon.

Totals. Still in the Club '200+ miles a month'

2007-05-03T22:07:00.000+07:00

As I agreed with Andrew, I'm doing week #4 again,
Apr, Sun 29 - May, Sat 5

Apr 29, Sun, AM: 12.02 miles, 2:00:00, 9:59 avg.pace, avg.HR 141
First time I ran in the Steppe this year - feels great.
Cheap Shanghai sneakers caused blisters on my toes on this Long run. Ouch!
Apr 30, Mon, AM: 10.29 miles, 1:30:00, 8:45 avg.pace, avg.HR 143

And that was all - month over.
Total milage for April - 201.94 miles. 10 damn days off!!
Total milage for March was 236.62 miles. Two decent month in the stock, sorry, in the Bank. It's not a time to expect great dividents though.

Happy Running to Everybody!

P.S. Olga, I found you an Ultra in Mongolia! Seriously. It would be real tough work.
About one special marathon in Russia, will tell you soon.
Paul, Astana, Kaz - Are you that man, who ran Astana marathon with me on Sat, Sep 9, 2006? Only you could live and work in Astana and ran Boston in April. If it is you - I've got several pictures of that race and even 320x240 video. I live and run in Karaganda (in Kazakh language - Karagandy or even Qaraghandy). I will visit Astana in the end of May to have a 'Hard' run (1 hour @ 7:30 pace) with running pal Erik, possibly along Ishim river.

I'm in Karaganda State of Mind :)

2007-04-29T22:55:00.000+07:00

I visited Shanghai for the 2nd time. I love China! All thoughts and impressions about this extraordinary country are out of my blog. I'm here to write about long distance running.
The business trip was tough, therefore i had no time to keep running. As of business in Shanghai, we fulfiled all tasks we had to. Good. Good.
Running wasn't bad. It was worst ever, due to almost no run I did in Shanghai. I did only One 'session' of 5 miles running along Huangpu river at midnight. Why at midnight? Have I tried this to be done couple hours earlier I would be stuck into incredibly eclectical crowd of Chinese, Arabian, Indian, Euro-American tourists, I even heard Russian talks there.
To think - Five Miles per Week only! About 40 min with the Tool, forgot HR monitor.
I'm not trying to create an excuse, but surely didn't feel like running there. Everything is too cheap there, too many things to entertain you, too many choices. Central Asia, Kazakhstan is right what I need now. Simple places which allow me to work and run. Andrew, as long as I get to the lowest possible level now after fantastic 72 miles PB, I really think I shall repeat Week # 4,5 and 6. I can't go to the high mileage activity now, will try to do 50+, 60+, 70+ miles correspondingly.
What else to say? I don't want to go any business trip to China this year. No More. Somebody else who doesn't care about running could do it. What I really want is to go there by myself to Shanghai marathon in November. My preliminary plan for upcoming races / marathons looks like this:
- Moscow, Russia, Sep 2007
- Shanghai, China, Nov 2007
What about Peter (Russian slang for Saint-Petersburg) - I can't do it in the end of June, am simply not ready. Peter is still a big Dream for me. Also Andrew asked me "no marathons till August".
P.S. I have a right to edit and add other weeks to follow, to to my previous post 'Work with Andrew'

Work with Andrew

2007-04-29T22:48:00.000+07:00

Mar 07
Week #01 / Sun 18 - Sat 24 / 55.15 mi
Week #02 / Sun 25 - Sat 31 / 65.17 mi
Apr 07
Week #03 / Sun 01 - Sat 07 / 62.06 mi
Week #04 / Sun 08 - Sat 14 / 72.37 mi
Week #.... / Sun 15 - Sat 21 / 40.20 mi
Week in China / Sun 22 - Sat 28 / 5 mi !!!

I am Back (From Personal Best Down to Personal Worst)

2007-04-28T02:26:00.000+07:00

My Dear Reader! First of all, I'm extremely sorry for delay in posting. My ... business trip to China (ahh, Shanghai!) is over - I'm back to Kaz and am back to the track. Going to start doing all again ...

Good Times, Bad Times

2007-04-12T19:27:00.000+07:00

First of all, want to say Thank you Coach and Thank you Guys (and Gals!) for Great support! I move on running and while I run I think about you!!! Olga, you're a truly Great Personality! You know everybody's situation, you're always there. About 90 miles per week you do - unbelievable! I'm not that desperado! But this is my week and it's gonna be a PR week.

The plan I follow is simple.
Sun, 120 min Long
Mo, We, Fr 90 min EZ
Tu, Th, Sa 60 min Hard
'Hard' is defined as: HR between 150 - 160. Run relaxed and in such a manner that you can finish without going anaerobic.
No days off.
Simple Plan ehh? It has to be almost a piece of cake to make it done, Right?
Wrong! At least for me. I finish my 4th week with Coach Andrew and I have to tell ya I never fulfilled a whole week as it was originally planned. For instance:
Week 1 - I was unable to make 60 min Hard run once and did only 40 min (keeping 150 - 160 HR) came home and "Rocky collapsed in the corner";
Week 2 - after winter snowy footing I felt really uncomfortable on the pavement an sidewalks in the park so had a sharp pain and stopped at 80 min EZ, instead of 90 min planned. But I adjusted somehow to new hard footing. I was really lucky and am ok now.
Last week I missed 1 day - Apr 2nd and felt real Guilty. Felt like I was a crime person - guilty and useless for society. Well, at least for running society.
Enough bad sampling.

As a runner I consider my work as a "decent" one. Not perfect but Good one. Coach Andrew thinks the same, he is always there to help and support me. Without him I wouldn't have been able to reach to a "best shape ever" I have now. I'm standing on another, higher level now. Thank you Andrew. You work is invisible but it brings results.

So, I thought this week would be perfect one. Naivety. Failed again. Here's about my attempt to make a Perfect Week in details:

Sun, Mar 8, Easter. My Sweet Lord forgive us, we work and work hard on this day.
Long Run. Supposed to be 2 hours, any pace, any HR. Basically I wasn't satisfied with my previous Long workouts, those walkajoggs .. so I took it serious this time. Also I read One Fantastic report you know guys from whom.
One joke: we all familliar with Connemara now, right? So let's see those places - put Connemara in a search engine of Google Earth to see it. Result: Connemara, Zimbabwe. That was all :)
So, after that impressive rep I decided to make 15 miler.
Thomas: "I’ve been told that it’s best to mentally split such a long race into smaller junks." Good. I made up to spits 5 mi (which is nothing) plus 5 plus 5. It works. My longest run. Wasn't really tough.
Being impressed by Thomas's struggle I just said to myself: "I’m running like a clockwork. Running like a clockwork."
Also I always remember what one Super marathon maniac told me once:
"Don't be scared of 20 miler, bite into it, it's nothing. Marathon at a pace for 3:15 is worth the struggle!"
Bite into it! I do.

Mon, Mar 9, 90 min EZ. About 10 miles with sub 9:00 pace. Routine.
Tue, Mar 10, Had a Fantastic PM Hard workout. It was Hard but felt good. No wind conditions.

Mile 01: 07:12
Mile 02: 07:16
Mile 03: 07:13
Mile 04: 07:10

Mile 05: 07:16
Mile 06: 07:24
Mile 07: 07:20
Mile 08: 07:15
0.26 mi 01:51 (avg.pace 07:03!)

Thomas asked me Why to run sub 7:30 still I don't know what to say. Can I run fast once per week? I have no repeats nor fartleks - they're prohibited at this stage of work. I don't do sub 7:30 every week, last wek I missed it. I have to learn how to run fast!
Simple arithmetic average says that I had 7:15 avg. pace for the whole hour. Technically after first 2 miles I wanted to see each split below 7:20. It sucked at mile 6 as you may see.
'Hard' is defined as: HR between 150 – 160…
I looked at my HR and it was 146 - 149 in the end, I didn't reach 150! And had such a good run. Explanation is simple: I started almost at 10 pm, at my stadium, after a working day - my heart was simply "tired" to run faster. It is always lower in the eves.
See details here

Here’s what Coach Andrew said:
This 1 hour speed will translate into an MP level.
I Hope.
Wed, Mar 11, 90 min EZ. FAILED !!!
Felt really tired. But main issue was a Wind. Great Steppe generate Great wind in April. Yes. After 40 min of slow struggle a trully aggressive headwind almost stopped me.. FFour letter word pronounced, I "pull the plug". STOP.
God Damn it, Son!
This is the only workout I failed this week. Bummer!

Thu, Mar 12, 60 min Hard. I can't repeat my best ever 1 hour run again. Although my good partner - Mr. Wind from the Steppe assisted me, I made it nice with 7:39 avg. pace. Clocked mile seven with 7:10. Good. I like it.

I have two more workouts to be accomplished this week, tonight and tomorrow. I will add one more "compensational" (I failed on Tue) slow running just to put more miles into my bank account. Andrew is a banker, he's watching my deposit :)
As for now I have 45.36 miles for this week.
The deposit has to be better, hope to reach 70 by tomorrow's eve.

Totals:

Mar 8, Sun: PM, 15.0 miles, 2:08:28, 08:34 avg.pace, avg.HR 138
Mar 9, Mon, PM: 10.4 miles, 1:30:00, 08:57 avg.pace, avg.HR 135
Mar 10, Tue, PM: 8.26 miles, 60:00, 07:15 avg.pace, avg.HR 144! max.HR 149
Mar 11, Wed, PM: 4.21 miles, 40:03, 09:31 avg.pace, avg.HR 124, max.HR 134
(I thought a lot about it, "keep next day in mind" I guess I had overworked in my perfect 60 min a night before)
Mar 12, Thu, PM: 7.85 miles, 60:00, 07:39 avg.pace, avg.HR 141, max.HR 153

So It Goes

Working Further with Coach. 3 weeks Done.

2007-04-09T19:43:00.000+07:00

OK. I gave up. I took one day off. There were many reasons for doing that. One of them is the "issue" Mark had recently. This switch from Winter, Snow running into work on pavement is a truly dangerous thing. Watch out!
Did I do something special on my week #3 with Andrew. NOthing, I even didn't make a 8 mile/hour run, all of them were sub 8 miles. But I feel that I'm in truly great shape now. One of the Best ever. Ready to make this week better. Let's see.

Best Moment of my running week: Fri, PM. I run on my Stadium 90 min EZ run which is about 10 miles. Still cold, run without mittens though. But wearing a hat which I used to wear throu all cold, cruel Winter we had here. And when I had couple miles to go, suddenly something unexpected happened. A tree with long branches, without leaves of course was there in the still of the night.. and those branches gently "took" my hat off while I was running along. Turned back to see my black hat lying on the floor. I keep a good pace so no need to make a return for that. I realize then that I Run Without Hat!!! First time this year! I'm amazed.
Warm and fresh air is truly fantastic. Some warm rain didn't spoil my workout. That was Great!
(Little Darling, it's been a Long, Cold, .. aha Winter)
Spring is Here! Thanks Heaven!

Weekly mileage (Apr, Sun 1 - Sat 7): 62.06 miles, pace 08:33 see details here.
It goes right to my Best Weeks "Hall of Fame" : )

Enjoy Running!

Stats – Totals for March 07 / Welcome to a Decent Club

2007-04-07T14:22:00.000+07:00

Back to blogging,
Coach recommended to do so..
First April week is almost over and I will update this stuff soon.

Mileage for March 07: 236.62 miles / avg. pace 8:28
(never been a member of a Club named “200+ miles per single month”) PR

Happy Running to everybody!

Another week with Andrew. Almost perfect.

2007-04-01T16:17:00.000+07:00

Week #2 with Andrew went almost perfect. We've been talking a lot about a possibility of a Day off. But I managed somehow to avoid such a day. Had almost depressing two days somewhere in the middle of the week: Wind and non-stop Snow(!!!) again. I took my thick mittens and a bacalava thinking to my self - How did I make all those runs in Jan & Feb?
It took me some real efforts to get myself together and get back to normal running.
Right in time I got Andrew's "wordy essay" and it helped a lot. Thank you Coach!

Best workout of the week: Yesterday, Sat AM, Hard run 60 min keeping 150 - 155 bpm.
Usually I run in sub 8 miles mode. But yesterday I made up my mind to get to 8 miles "rain or shine"! It means I had to keep sub 7:30 pace! Actually I did it once on the previous week, but that was a PM run, which makes a difference. Splits:

Mile 01: 07:14
Mile 02: 07:26
Mile 03: 07:30
Mile 04: 07:27
Mile 05: 07:43 when i saw it, I screamed "NO!"
Mile 06: 07:33
Mile 07: 07:40 after this mile, Garmin's countdown timer showed that I had 7min17sec left to make a last mile. OK. "All that I've done was a Warm Up and now it's time for real work!!"
Mile 08: 07:08 (at this last mile my HR reached 162-163 I saw it and understood I was breaking a rule of this game, but what a Run!)
129.07 ft 00:14 (avg.pace 10:10!!)

Total for 60 min run:
8.02 miles, avg. pace 07:28, avg.HR 151, max.HR 164
--------------------------------------------------

Weekly mileage (Mar, Sun 25 - Sat 31): 65.17 miles, avg. pace 08:33
see details here.

Let it Rain & Let it Snow today

2007-03-27T20:01:00.000+07:00

Since I started to work with Andrew my training changed quite a bit. I run every day and can't allow myself to have a day off. Coach is always there!
I'm pretty sure that I'm right in the middle of my best week.
Let's see:

Mar 25, Sun, AM: 120 min long run
12.34 miles, 09:44 pace, avg.HR 131, max.HR 147
Tough, tough, cough... Using Olga's terminology I did "walkajogs"
and even simple "walka". Coach said - now he knew my barriers.

Mar 26, Mon, AM: 90 min EZ run
10.31 miles, 08:44 pace, avg.HR 140, max.HR 152
Refreshing

Mar 27, Tue, AM: 60 min Hard run (60 min of incessant Rain!)
7.75 miles, 07:45 pace, avg.HR 150, max.HR 160
Slower than we did with Eric, but Hard 60 min is really "Hard" early in the mornings. Feel truly beat up.

So, I'm having this sort of a "ladder" 120 - 90 - 60 min which is a normal routine.
Thomas is having an ULTRA soon! Very soon!!!
This is the most interesting and expected run I eager to hear about.
Go Thomas, Go!

Running with Erik

2007-03-26T15:52:00.000+07:00

Sat, March 24th, PM.
Had a great "Hard" run, which is 60 min keeping HR in the range 150 - 160. "Hard" turned into "Fun" cause one Running pal - Erik, young runner, 23 from New Hampshire (currently lives in Astana which is a Capital) came to my city. He's here in Kaz as a member of "Student Life" organization (they're sort of religious Peace Corp). He is really fast at 1 mile having PR about 4:40. Before that work he announced that rather "run in shorts"! Officially it is Sping here, but no, No! Forget about it, it's too cold. Having nothing but running shorts, he finally found something decent to put it on beneath the shorts. Went to "EthnoPark" which is a place where I run currently, cause my "Stadium" is full of melting snow. We kept and average pace (around 7:30) and even chatted from time to time. Somewhere in the middle of work we ran along the street which surrounds Park and heard a Police Siren wailing. So I teased him this way:

R.: Hear that wailing siren? Police is chasing a mad american, who's running too fast on Karaganda streets!
E.: Right, but you're running also fast.. so Nobody is Safe here.
R.: yea, Run for Your Life etc.

See more pictures on my Flickr account tagged "Running with Erik".
Hey Man! In case you read this lines - I will visit Astana next month, so Get Ready!

P.S. There are rumors and even a project at my work to send me to a business trip to China for 1 week, soon in April. Oh No. I Love China! Great country. I like to visit this country. But. It mess up with my training plans.. or I'll be there using hotel mills at nights trying to fulfil all running works.

Working with Coach Andrew. Week One

2007-03-25T17:53:00.000+07:00

Week_Mar18_24_2007
Originally uploaded by rus_runner.

I started to work with a Coach! And this is Great! Andrew definitely knows what to do. Once he pointed that I got to my best times in a Random manner – True. Last fast Half I did was a pure experiment, thank you Thomas for comments, but I wasn’t even sure I was doing a Half. My aim was to do "something about 10 miles". But legs felt so good, so.. All my random / experimental works are in the Past now. My first week with Coach Andrew started observing the sequence of Hard / Easy runs and I shall say – it wasn’t that easy, I even failed twice (!) this week trying to fulfill one Hard run and the other morning doing Easy 90 min run. But, summing up past week’s work I gotta say I’m really satisfied.
Weekly mileage (Mar, Sun 18 – Sat 24, 2007) 55.15 miles.
See details on the picture (Garmin snapshot, res. 1024 x 738).
P.S. Nearly every day, I make reports to my Coach of work done, so almost forgotten about my blog existence.

P.P.S. Just remembered one funny episode - in the July 2005, first time in my running life I reached mark about 80 km (which as about 50 miles) for the … whole July month! I emailed about it to one my Russian-Korean friend and she replied like: “Rus, you’re absolutely Crazy! How is it possible to make FIFTY miles per month!!! That is a pure madness!”

– That’s right baby! How do I make 55 – 65 miles per week? I have no idea!

Birds of a feather ...

2007-03-19T18:04:00.000+06:00

Flock together.
So, this is why I like Internet community. It helps me to understand all pros and cons of my work. I found an online coach!!! Absolutely Ready to work! Meet my Coach - Mr. Andrew!
All experiments with repeats and fartlek runs are in the past.. and in the future. Not now. We're working on Base Aerobic training. Although I made this morning 5 miles running on the streets (! never did it before) and in local "EthnoPark" I will start "90 min easy" with HR 140 - 145 beats per minute, tonight.
So it goes.

I am On It

2007-03-19T16:25:00.000+06:00

sorry my Dear Reader, I wasn't feel like blogging recently.
Terrific volume of dirt, friable / crumbly melting snow in last two-three days cut down my running volume of work. I finished my week
Mar, Sun 11 - Sat 17 with average 35 !!! miles.
Here's what Thomas said recently:
"45 miles. One year ago that would have been an average week. Now I don’t know how I will survive on so little running."
Me either. In his best weeks Thomas is 20 miles ahead of me, in worst weeks - still 10 miles ahead. .. so little running...
The only good thing I did was a Half marathon I ran on Wed eve and clocked with Personal Best 1:44:28

Mile 01: 07:58
Mile 02: 07:38
Mile 03: 07:38
Mile 04: 07:36
Mile 05: 07:39
Mile 06: 07:44
Mile 07: 08:06
Mile 08: 08:03
Mile 09: 08:14
Mile 10: 08:19
Mile 11: 08:27
Mile 12: 08:12
Mile 13: 07:58
Lap 14 (0,11m): 00:49 (pace 07:38)
Total for Half Marathon:
Mar 14, Wed, PM: 13.11 miles, 1:44:28, 07:58 pace, avg.HR 146, max.HR 158

I was really surprised seeing average pace 07:58 at Garmin Software Training Center.
I didn't mean to make sub 8:00 run.
Not bad, not bad.

P.S. Personal thanks to Great Guys:
- Assylzhan, thank you Man!
– Olga, fantastic supporter!
– Thomas, almost unreal runner. Happy St.Patrick's Day to you Ireland!
– Mark, for linking to my Coach!
– Andrew, it's an honor to work together. I'm READY!

New Week, Spring is Almost here

2007-03-14T19:08:00.000+06:00

Mar 11, Sun: 0 miles
Mar 12, Mon, AM: 2.0 miles, 09:43 pace
Mar 13, Tue, PM: 12.0 miles, 1:54:38, 09:33 avg.pace, avg.HR 133

I'm not trying to create an excuse but there was something wrong - not really cold (-7 -8C) but with unpleasant cold wind or I was too tired after work .. it was a Grueling Struggle!
My legs feel really great after past weekend.
Wonder what can I do tonight. Let's see how it goes.

My stadium

2007-03-12T11:02:00.001+06:00

IMG_0886_1200x1600
Originally uploaded by rus_runner.

Made this photo several days ago. Still the same. So called "stadium" is located right on the border of Karaganda city in a real Steppe. The good thing is that the air there is really clean and fresh. I do not understand those who run along city roads, never did it and will never do. There were so many articles about it. You try to consume more and more oxygen on the run but instead you get more and more exhaust - Ewwww!! vehicles' gas.

3 Personal Bests

2007-03-11T20:38:00.000+06:00

3 Personal Bests
I made yesterday, on Sat 10th. Sorry I brag again.

1. Fastest Winter Half-Marathon: 13.11 miles
2. 8 x 1600 repeats as a final accord I made on the Sat eve. (never did those nutty repeats in the GYM before) plus 1600 as a Cool-Down.
3. Longest milage I clocked for the week (Mar, Sun 4 - Sat 10) about 65 miles !

Sat, morning. Stadium. Forget about Spring, it was such a ***ing cold, I bet -17C.
Somewhere in the middle of Run I found that my long nose was completely covered with frost.. eyelashes as usual bore a "layer" of frost and snow, there were moments when all I saw was 3 - 4 meters distance ahead of me...
And there's such a nice exercise to warm up your hands - clamp/unclamp your fingers so fist and fingers to be unfrozen (that's what I did first two miles)
Positive side - No Wind at all.
I would call this
a Steppe of the Rising Sun
cause the Sun was rising and it was getting warmer and warmer...

Mile 01: 08:17 / avg.HR 133 / max.HR 146
Mile 02: 08:08 / avg.HR 145 / max.HR 147
Mile 03: 08:12 / avg.HR 146 / max.HR 149
Mile 04: 08:01 / avg.HR 149 / max.HR 156
Mile 05: 08:15 / avg.HR 149 / max.HR 151
Mile 06: 07:56 / avg.HR 151 / max.HR 154
Mile 07: 08:04 / avg.HR 153 / max.HR 155
Mile 08: 08:23 / avg.HR 152 / max.HR 156
Mile 09: 08:23 / avg.HR 152 / max.HR 154
Mile 10: 08:30 / avg.HR 152 / max.HR 155
Mile 11: 08:35 / avg.HR 152 / max.HR 154
Mile 12: 08:29 / avg.HR 152 / max.HR 154
Mile 13: 07:56 / avg.HR 152 / max.HR 155
Lap 14 (0,11m): 00:47 (pace 07:13) / avg.HR 156 / max 157

Total for Half Marathon: 1:48:02 with pace 8:14 miles per min
Remember - it is a winter training, it means I still wear heavy winter shoes with fur inside, a lot of jackets, I was without my bacalava though

So Saturday afternoon I had in my bank about 56 miles and I made up my mind, that IT IS a time for my personal Best Week ever. 65 miles. Let's see how "about 9 miles indoor run" happened.

Sat eve, "Manege" Gym, 1600's:
1. 07:08 (pace 07:10)
2. 06:59 (pace 07:01)
3. 07:04 (pace 07:06)
4. 07:03 (pace 07:05)
5. 07:07 (pace 07:09)
6. 07:00 (pace 07:02)
7. 07:04 (pace 07:06)
8. 06:57 (pace 06:59)
It took me 1,5 hour for eight tough repeats.
9. 07:43 (pace 07:45) Cool it Man!
Never did 8 x 1600 repeats with my MP (marathon pace, which I consider now a range 06.45 - 07.15)

(today on Sunday, my quads, my ass, my calves Are Sore)
---------------------------------------
Totals:

Mar 9, Fri, PM: 5 miles, avg. pace 8:38 per mile - nothing special ...
Mar 10, Sat, AM: 13.11 miles, 1:48:02, 08:14 pace, avg.HR 149, max.HR 157
Mar 10, Sat, PM: 8 x 1600 + 1600 to Cool down.

Weekly mileage (Mar, Sun 4 - Sat 10): 65.49 miles, avg. pace 08:27
avg.HR 144, max.HR 174

FARTLEK !

2007-03-09T14:30:00.000+06:00

March 8th is Women's Day here.
Such a special Day created in Soviet times and spread all over former socialistic countries - Russia, CIS and even in China.

This is my week, I know I won't give up making this week better and reaching to a new PR. Did I do anyhting special? Not really.

Tue, Mar 6, PM made total 7 miles.
Wed was really tired after Crazy Celebration of the Women's Day at work. We spent several hours preparing Cakes, Flowers, champagne etc. Though I didn't drink anything but juice, I felt like a crap in the Eve. Bench me! I'm off.

Another good news is that March 8, 9, and 10th are days Off for the whole country! We will start working since Sunday, Mon ...

Thu, March 8, made 2 sessions at lunch time and one in the Eve.
A simple Fartlek + 5 miles with 2 strides 112 meters each (0.07m) and 4 miles in the eve.

Fartlek.
I heard and read a lot of "Fartlek" and here's what I did yesterday:

"Fartlek is a Scandinavian term meaning "Speed Play." This type of workout is usually conducted by choosing landmarks on the horizon and then picking up your speed until you reach that landmark before backing off to rest while you search for another target..."
Template by: http://www.trainingpeaks.com/

1. Go for 00:02:00. Try to keep my heart rate in zone 1.
2. Go for 00:02:00. Try to keep my heart rate in zone 2.
3. Go for 00:02:00. Try to keep my heart rate in zone 3.

4. Repeat the steps below 2 times:
4.1. Repeat the steps below 2 times:
4.1.1. Go 0.1 Miles. Try to keep my speed in zone 7 (Slow Run).
4.1.2. Go 0.1 Miles. Try to keep my heart rate in zone 2.

4.2. Repeat the steps below 2 times:
4.2.1. Go for 00:00:10. Try to keep my speed in zone 8 (Run).
4.2.2. Go for 00:01:00. try to keep my heart rate in zone 2.

5. Go for 00:02:00. Try to keep my heart rate in zone 2.
6. Go for 00:02:00. Try to keep my heart rate in zone 1.

I LOVE it, Fartlek is a pure fun.
Technically this workout is nothing special, I know I shall modify it and make it harder but this simple version made my heartbeat runs up to 174 beats! At those strides i reached to sub 5:00 pace at 10 sec strides.
I'll do it more soon.

ok, that was an experimental part of running. And yes, I erased those 1,2,3 warming and 5,6 cooling down steps before transfering my work to G.Training Center.

Summing Up:
For this week (Sun, Mar 4 - Sat, Mar 10) I banked 38,44 miles total so far.
Today and tomorrow I will have to do a lot.
Run More, Talk Less.

Thank you Guys for all your Comments!
Personal Thanks to Olga - it was Great to talk to you!
(Sovetchina / Sovok Rocks sometimes :)
Good Luck in Chuckanut 50k March 17

Thanks to Robert, I guess i took a link for your site from comments on Thomas' page.
I never did 200+ miles but it's getting warmer out there and it makes me feel too confident...

Assyl! Thank you Man!
ok, I'm back to the Track

-------------------------------------

Tue, Mar 6, PM: 2 miles, 17:21, 8:40 pace, avg.HR 123 Ouch! Micro-sprain again
couple minutes later
Tue, Mar 6, PM: 5 miles, 42:35, 8:31 pace, avg.HR 144, Max.HR 155
do I run faster after sprains??
Wed, Mar 7, OFF
Thu, Mar 8, PM: Fartlek, 1,31 miles, 11:18, 08:39 pace, avg.HR 155, Max.HR 174 !
Thu, Mar 8, PM: 5,14 miles, 40:41, 07:55 pace, avg.HR 156, Max.HR 165
Thu, Mar 8, PM: 4,0 miles, 34:38, 08:39 pace, avg.HR 141, Max.HR 152

Moonlighting

2007-03-06T19:31:00.000+06:00

Yes Mark, you're right, I do. I do likes numbers. They simply show where we are now. 245.51 miles in February is a serious work. Thank you Mark. Good Job!
(For those of my readers who's not familiar with Great Runners - Mark, one of them and he is from Canada, Alberta and since November 2006 I noticed that his weather conditions are so close to mine. Yes I should admit it, his results are one of samples to me and yes I try to reach the same)

Here's what I did this week.
Sunday Morning run I made running on empty stomach as described here.
Yes this is Thomas' influence, but I won't do it more than 15 - 20% of my total monthly volume. And of course they were slow miles.
Mon, PM. As every day we feel warmer temps, running under the moon light is still as cold as usually. It took more than an hour an half, so weather was gradually decreasing. Again I had coherent eyelashes and I saw a picture on the Tool which I see when it's really cold outside.

Suddenly Mr. Garmin shows unclear picture and you may see on the top of that "Shutdown" and "Stack". It is not that regualr message "Battery Low". It is different. Not sure about the meaning of that unclear message, but in the middle of 12 miles run I can't allow my Tool to Shut Down. Pushing "Up" and "Down" arrows on the right side doesn't help. I push "Mode" button and it helps, I go back to normal figures: Pace, Distance, HR ... I use my Tool since September 2006 and never had "Shutdown/Stack" situation in the Fall. The only explanation now is when temps go down to -18C -20C the Tool is "nervous" and shows me this Warning message. May be I'm not right. Still love my Tool!

12 miles I did yesterday PM with incredibly round and bright moon was also a slow run. All I saw was 141, 142 Heart beats. Such a shame to have those lower 140's.
Somewhere closer to the end I clocked one mile with 08:55 and 138 HR.
Aggresive "Rus Coach" said:
- You're a Fat Lazy A.., Move it! Do it faster. It can Not be slower than 9:00.
I finished last mile with 08:24 avg.HR 144 and max.HR 153
Glad I did.

My Plan for this week (Sun 4 - Sat 10) to make a "Slow PR".
Something around 65 miles which I desperately tried to get in February.

Sun, Mar 4, AM: 9 miles, 1:26:30, 9:36 pace, avg.HR 144, Max.HR 150
Mon, Mar 5, PM: 12 miles, 1:45:22, 8:46 pace, avg.HR 140, Max.HR 153

Spring is Coming Up

2007-03-04T20:52:00.000+06:00

Mileage, Feb 2007:
Dallen - about 320 miles
Thomas - 292.5 miles
Mark - 245.51 miles

Recently I reread this Post by Mike and his coach.
It made me think about strides seriously. Here's what Mike said:

"...I was a complete idiot not to have included some higher-end aerobic work in my winter build-up. It may not have cost me anything...hell"

STRIDES. I knew I couldn't do them in the winter season. But February is over and now it's time to make my work better. And harder.
I love Advanced Workouts and love to programme them. Hmm, not always love to fulfil them :)

I made it for my Tool a long ago and decided to try on March 1st.
8 simple miles including 2 strides only. 0.05miles I suppose is equal to 80 meters. Pro guys might say that 80 meters is not a "Stride". I read somewhere that Stride should be more than 100 meters. Whatever, this is only an experiment for me. I want to do a better quality work.

1. Go for 00:02:00. Try to keep my heart rate in zone 1.
2. Go for 00:02:00. Try to keep my heart rate in zone 2.
3. Go for 00:02:00. Try to keep my heart rate in zone 3.

4. Go 1 Miles. Try to keep my speed between 9:15/mi and 7:30/mi.
5. Go 0.05 Miles. Try to keep my speed between 7:30/mi and 5:30/mi.
6. Go 1 Miles. Try to keep my speed between 9:15/mi and 7:30/mi.
7. Go 0.05 Miles. Try to keep my speed between 7:30/mi and 5:30/mi.
8. Repeat the steps below 6 times:
8.1. Go 1 Miles. Try to keep my speed between 9:15/mi and 7:30/mi.

9. Go for 00:02:00. Try to keep my heart rate in zone 3.
10.Go for 00:02:00. Try to keep my heart rate in zone 2.

One more. Step 1,2,3 is a Warm Up. We have to respect our body and cardiovascular system!Step 1 - Hear rate in Zone 1 means you simply Walk or start jogging. And so on. So after fulfilling a workout I "filter out" steps 1,2,3 and 9,10. I erase them. Not sure about it, but I guess I do it right.
---------------------------------------------------------------

Thu, March 1, PM: 8.10 miles including 2 strides 80m (262.47ft or 0.05m) each, 1:09:53, Avg.Pace 08:37, Avg.HR 152, Max.HR 159

Fri, March 2, PM: 4.0 miles, 36:39, Avg.Pace 09:09, Avg.HR 140, Max.HR 153 beats(after visiting a pub and having a half of 0.33 liter glass of beer "Derbes")EZ run

Sat, March 3, PM: Track and Field "Manege" (this is a Franch word we use in Russian) or simply indoor GYM. 200 meters lap. All indoor Track & Field championships they run in the "Manege" GYM. Intervals that I really Love. 1600's. 8 laps. Indoor running makes me feel that I'm doing absolutely different kind of things. As a warm up I had EZ mile and found it sub 7:00! Almost with no efforts. With the same efforts I make 9:30 at my stadium with my beloved winter weather.

Sat, March 3rd, 2007
Work: 3 x 1600m. 12 - 15 min rest. Yes, Slacker.
1. 06:11
2. 06:09
3. 06:15
WooHoo! Nice job. 1600 meters is 9 meters less than 1 mile. So I suppose is 2 second slower than if I would make a mile. I kept 1600's in sub 6:15. Glad I did.

Mark compared his work with what he did 1 month ago.
Let me do the same.

Sat, Feb 3rd, 2007.
Work: 4 x 1600m.
1. 06:22'9
2. 06:35'0
3. 06:23'0
4. 06'22'2

I made this time only 3 intervals, but a progress is too evident.

End of February. End of Winter 2007?

2007-03-02T19:23:00.000+06:00

Tons of snow with lower than -25C temps, -31 in the nights.Blocked roads, cars, trains (?!) and my weatherbounce workouts.On the Last day of the February, I was absolutely calm. I sort of gave up. Didn't care about my monthly milage. I knew that I couldn't do what I had planned to do, 205 February miles.8 easy miles. Coherent eyelashes right from beginning - it's a sign that temps are lower than -15C. Due to frost eyelashes, ability to watch is about 60 - 90% of your normal. This is fun. All you see is such a kaleidoscopical effects, digits on Mr. Garmin and a track.
So, all I did in January and February was building an aerobic base mileage.No strides, No hill repeats, some intervals in the GYM.It has to be different. I'm excited about coming Spring. (In fact Official Spring starts from March 21st, I guess - everybody consider March 1st as a beginning of Spring)Despite that I'm slightly disappointed with February runs, i think this Winter was truly Great.

I shall be thankful for Big Things:
- Longest monthly milage I did this winter;
- Thanks to God, I wasn't sick through Dec - Jan - Feb. This is fantastic, after an hour or two of running, having hot and sweaty body, wearing wet sports-jersey inside and truly cold weather outside, as cold as bigger part of my bacalava or simply mask is white cause it covered with frost; how is it possible not to get sick in those circumstances? It takes about 10 min to walk on the city streets to get to my house. I do not run on the streets, just walk. I wouldn't feel myself comfortable running on the streets or in crowded places.

Also, shall be thankful for small things. Thousands of them.
There were Good Runs..
There will be even Greater Runs.
Happy Running to Everybody!
Peace out

Mileage, Feb 2007: between 160 and lower than 170.Need some time to calculate, non-Garmin indoor runs.

Me and Mr. Garmin

2007-02-26T19:41:00.001+06:00

Me and Mr. Garmin
Originally uploaded by rus_runner.

For the last week (Sun, Feb 18 - Sat, Feb 24) all I did was 5 miles + 1 mile + 14 miles. Total 20.
14 miles I did on Sat, PM was Longest workout I did this year. Hard and with truly brutal weather conditions. Splits:

Mile 01: 08:42 / Avg.HR 132 / Max.HR 153
Mile 02: 08:34 / Avg.HR 150 / Max.HR 157
Mile 03: 08:31 / Avg.HR 149 / Max.HR 154
Mile 04: 08:35 / Avg.HR 151 / Max.HR 156
Mile 05: 08:51 / Avg.HR 149 / Max.HR 154
Mile 06: 08:34 / Avg.HR 152 / Max.HR 156
Mile 07: 08:40 / Avg.HR 153 / Max.HR 156
Mile 08: 08:45 / Avg.HR 152 / Max.HR 155
Mile 09: 08:45 / Avg.HR 152 / Max.HR 155
Mile 10: 08:42 / Avg.HR 153 / Max.HR 156
Mile 11: 08:42 / Avg.HR 152 / Max.HR 160 !
Mile 12: 08:47 / Avg.HR 153 / Max.HR 156
Mile 13: 08:51 / Avg.HR 153 / Max.HR 157
Mile 14: 08:47 / Avg.HR 154 / Max.HR 157

Total: 2:01:52 / Avg.Pace 08:42 / Avg.HR 150 / Max.HR 160 /

to Everybody! Have a Great RUN !!!

I'm Down

2007-02-24T15:10:00.000+06:00

bigsnow
Originally uploaded by rus_runner.

frwindow
Originally uploaded by rus_runner.

Really Down.
Last Saturday having completed my Half Marathon workout I laid down on the snow, on my right side. I watched a salute in the night sky. They shot several times. It was not really far - 800 meters away from my stadium (in the "district #30" if you know my city). I guess it was someone's birthday. It was great to lie there watching salute. Because I was lying on my personal highest point - never did 61.7 miles per week before.
This week I also made a record. No one among our runners can do it in the nearest 20 years. As per now, Sat afternoon I made 5 + 1 mile for the whole week. Total 6 (Six!!!) miles. Anybody can do it?

Here's how it transpired.
Sun, day off. Weather was normal, about -12C and I should have run several recovery miles to put something in my bank. I didn't.
Mon, AM. I got to my running places and stopped still, surrounded by snow and being attacked by strong blast and blizzards. There were moments when I didn't see anything within 5 meters around me. I stood there for couple minutes guesstimating my chances to run. No chances. F* It. I quit.
Just a nice morning walk.

Starting from those days - Mon, Tue we had here a really wild weather. It was serious. Russian news pages say that due to blizzards and cold 6 people total were lost and died. Some of them died on the 6th km of the road not far from their car... It was too late to save their lives
In Karaganda and Pavlodar region there was a snow and strong wind up to 17-22 meters per second, sometime to 24 - 29 meters per second...
They died and were found next to their cars, ablsolutely lost and frozen, not far from their little towns, villages. Officials "Do not recommend to Drive" on such days and it is prohibited to use main roads. But there are so many local ways. So people die every year. Ok, I'm here to be a running blogger, not a local reporter.

So, Once in the middle of the week I had a chance to make nice 5 miles. It was sort of warm and I ran competing with thick snow flakes, they were flying ahead of me, disappeared and other appeared again. It was nice.
Another eve I did only 1 mile. Snow & Wind, Wind & Snow. Pace? Oh, come on. Do not ask me.

Now this is my turn to ask after one lucky guy from Alberta, Canada - Haven't We Had Enough?!!! How many more days?

Now I even doubt of completing 205 miles this month. I shall try a lot. I didn't like my approach to the time management made last week. Funny! This week is a pure nonsense.
I Hate this ***ing Weather.
Even today (-20C) somebody from my work asked me: "Rus, did you run today?" - "I didn't"
"Please don't. Otherwise you'll die on the track. We need you here alive."
One more, as we know Mr. Garmin works with temps down to -20C, so i'm not sure if I can use it tonight.
I guess 30 days to go for Good Ol' Spring Days!
I have reached to my highest point.I have reached to the lowest point.
My Winter Struggle is not over. Many battles ahead and I'm excited about coming Spring and definitely sure I'll be on my personal running peak many many more times.

My New PR - is it Getting Better, Man?!

2007-02-18T17:54:00.001+06:00

week61.7m_Feb17_2007
Originally uploaded by rus_runner.

Thomas made a truly fantastic work! Inspired me a lot.

Mark - begged Mother Nature for the winter to be over and he got it.

Dallen as usually doing a tough speed work.

so on the previous week (Feb 4 - Feb 10th) my record was: 61.21 m, avg.pace 08:54
this week (Feb 11 - Feb 17th) I finished with: 61.70 m, avg.pace 08:44

Run more, run faster.
Everything is ok? NO!

Every week in run we may consider as a Project.
The Project requires a good management. I'm a self-coached runner, it means I rule my running work. My management for this Record week sucked.
On Feb 17th, Saturday morning I had in stock only 40.59 miles.
A day before, I posted that i was going to make around 55 - 65 miles. I did it in purpose, to be on the safe side. I wasn't sure I was able to reach 60 miles mark again.

Saturday morning Mr. Rus-coach made this reasonable question - So, what we gonna do? Haven't done the Half this week!
AM - 8 miles.
PM - Half marathon.
21 miles in total is nuf to get to 60.
I did it. Of course needless to say that it was a tough work.
Half marathon I clocked with 1:53:53, avg.pace 8:41,
3 seconds faster then I did last week!

If I make a graph/plot for the week, you would see this JERKness, Fri 4 miles! & Sat 21 miles! Incredible JERKness!!!
Now you know Who I am :)

Seriously - I'm a bad running manager. Shall learn to make it better.

P.S. About making a 20 miler. Shall write about it later.
In a nutshell - It's not a right time for doing it. If you know what does it mean - a Winter in Russia or Soviet Union. I'm simply "overweighted" with Heavy winter shoes, 3 jumpers and jackets on me, winter hat and hood and cowl. Sometimes I wear a bacalava.
Will do my first 20 miler in the end of March.

P.P.S. This running post got a big laugh.

Routine or making 55 - 65 miles per week

2007-02-16T19:33:00.000+06:00

Do not have much to report.
Everything was usual. After making a "PR week" took a day off, second for this month. Ahh, this month is So-o Short!

Sun, Feb 11, 0 miles, Off and didn't feel guilty.
Mon, Feb 12, AM: 2 miles, avg. pace 8:37, avg. HR 139
micro injure, not really mentionable and (almost twisted my right foot on Icy road - nice start for the week :)
5 min later: 3 miles, avg. pace 8:17, avg. HR 143
the same day, PM: 6 miles, 48:49, avg. pace 08:08, avg. HR 144
Tue, Feb 13, AM: 6 miles, 51:11, avg. pace 08:32, avg. HR 145

look again, here's something to compare: the same distance 6 miles, much slower in the morning and with Higher heartbeat rate??
then all I did was a routine.

Tue, Feb 13, PM: 4 miles, 34:59, avg. pace 08:44, avg. HR 135
Wed, Feb 14, PM: 5.6 miles, 51:41, avg. pace 09:13, avg. HR 133 Lazy! the only excuse was a considerable cold wind.
Thu, Feb 15, AM: 3.27 miles + PM: 7 miles, 1:04:00, avg. pace 09:08, avg. HR 136
Ran and talked with my running pal Mr.Baghdad - hey don't be afraid - it's a typical name for Central Asia, for guys and even gals. He's a former wrestler and now is a lawyer.

I have no idea how I will end up this week (Sun, Feb 11 - Sat, Feb 17).
Guess will be "hanging around" 55 - 65 miles for this and two-three more weeks.

Have to be quick, time to run for me.
Thanks for comments. Thanks for answering me. Personally to Olga, Mark and Thomas and Grazie to LaLenchik.

Let Me Be Your Valentine!

2007-02-14T18:49:00.001+06:00

Forgive me icq.com for using an image from one of your great flash cards... this year I'm unattached and do not give flowers to anyone (at least real flowers :) I'm having a Running Blog here so let's get back to running.

Better to run well than to say well

2007-02-12T17:07:00.001+06:00

Feb_07_week
Originally uploaded by rus_runner.

Not a super week that was

61.21 miles in 8 sessions.
avg. pace 8:54 (have a plan to keep it under 9:00), avg. HR 140 bpm
see a picture for more details
9 hours outside with cold weather, moon and stars, snow and wind, clouds and heavy track. Bizarre
Tired of this feelings and struggle. I dream about Spring and running with sub 7:20
A real winter stays with us till the middle of March. Then 2 weeks for a Big thaw. Not sure I'll be able to run through the 40 cm layer of water and snow. And finally, since beginning of April tracks are sort of normal.
Cons: Great Steppe (it's a territory of 5 Frances) generate winds for the whole April, usually. So running wouldn't be comfortable.
May: Steppe is dry enough to run there.
I even have a CountDown for good April days - about 45 days to go...
"While the grass grows the horse starve"
No more complains about Winter. One of running bloggers said that: "Winter may kiss my ass"
That's right! That's what i think running throu blizzards or something.
Be very carefull cause such thoughts could be easily materialized!
The other dark evening I run alone upwind and against another wind blow with tapping my face snow I say it loud: Kiss.. Two laps later I feel that my butt is partly frozen and not only. There are other important parts. Had to quit my workout.

61 Miles - is my Personal Record
Announce I did was different though.

i've got something to brag about

2007-02-10T12:42:00.001+06:00

Half_Feb09_2007
Originally uploaded by furyhorse.

The Half that I made yesterday evening.
Right from the start I knew i was doing 13.1 miles and nothing more.
So kept it under 9:00
Really satisfied.

Mile 01: 08:20
Mile 02: 08:00 !
Mile 03: 08:55
Mile 04: 08:52
Mile 05: 08:50
Mile 06: 08:41
Mile 07: 08:39
Mile 08: 08:53
Mile 09: 08:40
Mile 10: 08:58
Mile 11: 08:45
Mile 12: 08:47
Mile 13: 08:39
Lap 14 0,1m: 00:52 (pace 08:22)

GOOD!

Feb 08, 2007, PM: 4,0 miles, 34:43, avg. pace 8:40, avg. HR 143
Feb 09, 2007, PM: 13,1 miles, 1:53:56, avg. pace 8:41, avg. HR 142

P.S. The weather here is changeable. Right before the start the dark "frosty" sky was full of incredibly bright stars,
after six or seven miles I noticed that sky filled with thick clouds...
I wouldn't say that my legs are sore now, but actually tired and I have about 11 miles to go today. To make a biggest weekly mileage. Ahh, this Madness goes on

Closer to 60 miles a week barrier

2007-02-09T19:20:00.000+06:00

Frankly - I'm afraid to Run a 20 miler. But I have to do it anyway. 20 Miler scares me more than Marathon itself!
I believe there is a sort of "Virtual coefficient" for those who run in my conditions comparing to those with normal track in Chicago, Maine or Ireland. So if I make 18 with hard snow, tough wind and all those winter things is almost / sort of equal to 20 miles in normal conditions.

Coming back to my Sunday Half marathon, I didn't intend to make a Half, i wanted a Longer Run, at least 15 miles. As you may see it, Kept Sub 9:00 pace first 11 miles, then backed off hoping to make at least 4 more miles with sub 10:00.

It didn't occur. I stopped my Mr. Garmin and fell down to the snow. The Half. Done.
If I had knew I'm doing only the Half I would push sub 9:00 till the end.
Overshot the mark.
The Lesson to learn or my issue on How to Make a Good Long Run?

This week: Sun, Feb 4 - Sat, Feb 10th:
Feb 04, 2007, PM: 13,11 miles, 1:57:11, avg. pace 8:56, avg. HR 140
Feb 05, 2007, PM: 7,00 miles, 1:05:32, avg. pace 9:21, avg. HR 136
Feb 06, 2007, PM: 4,00 miles, 37:53, avg. pace 9:28, avg. HR 139 WIND!
Feb 07, 2007, PM: 8,00 miles, 1:10:01, avg. pace 8:45, avg. HR 138 opposite Wind!
and yesterday I made ...
Feb 08, 2007, PM: 4 miles !!! ain't that a SHAME! my stomach! gave me signal to give up WEIRD
and it disappeared, yep without a trace

recently I talked to "legendary" Mark and said that I would try to "crash 65" barrier.
As per now I made 32,10 miles (plus 4 miles on Feb 8th) during this week.
I have Today's eve, tomorrow's morning and Eve.
Now I really doubt about 65 but Sixty is something real.
I better get going

Starting Push

2007-02-08T19:49:00.000+06:00

ok now it's clear for me I shall be a better blogspot Poster : )
Here's how it went since Feb 1st, 2007.

February was ALWAYS the Coldest Month in former USSR (at least for Russia, Ukrain, Belorussia, Baltic countries and Kazakhstan). It was quite a normal temps from -25 down to -40 C. What's wrong with this world?! I cancelled my Feb 1st run due to "positive temps" +1 C!!! and as a result - adherent and ropy snow. Warm weather is a problem this season of year (at least for runners who used to have Cold season :) Made a slow (Holy Sh.. that was tough with that snow) one lap - quarter and refused to run, I gave up! Actually was tired and I realized that I'd done 180 miles per January, so convinced myself that One REST Day is acceptable sometimes.
Since that day we had -5 to -7 C which is better and almost perfect to Run.
The only problem is what Mark calls "footing" - 45% of my stadium track is slippery and full of small holes made by our steps in the "warm snow", so Watch Out otherwise you eager to twist / sprain you leg. (Then you will have a lot of REST Days, about a week or something; Oh No, please!).

Here's my work:

Feb 01, 2007: 0 miles
Feb 02, 2007, PM: 8,0 miles, 1:12:54, avg. pace 9:06, avg. HR 136

Feb 03, 2007, AM: 5,0 miles, 43:12, avg. pace 8:38, avg. HR 145
Saturday is a Speedwork day for me - I go to a Special track & Field GYM so it was:
Feb 03, 2007, PM: 4 x 1600m
1600m 06:22'9
1600m 06:27'0
1600m 06:23'0
1600m 06:22'2
btw my Garmin Training Center Software consider 1600m as 0.99 miles which is correct, I suppose. But 800m is clear 0.5 miles.
I did repeats in the Gym with 5 - 10 min rest between them.
Of course Running Monsters (i mean Masters) like Dallen would do it without stoppage and rest between repeats, even with faster pace but I do not compete here. (Saying "Running Monster" I didn't mean nothing offensive, I respect fast guys, for running fast)

Sunday after speed work - the only day for "Long Run" for me.
Feb 04, 2007, PM: 13,11 miles, 1:57:11, avg. pace 8:56, avg. HR 140
Splits

Mile 1: 08:16
Mile 2: 08:27
Mile 3: 08:56
Mile 4: 08:45
Mile 5: 08:55
Mile 6: 08:48
Mile 7: 08:43
Mile 8: 08:48
Mile 9: 08:41
Mile 10: 08:40
Mile 11: 08:50
Mile 12: 09:54 !!!
Mile 13: 09:42
add0.11: 01:40 (which is shocking 15:29 pace!)

what happened? Recently I found this article from Thomas' post he made a month before Dublin marathon. So I thought about conception of "The Marathon Long Run".
Wow - my working day is suddenly over. Have to go and Run tonight, 13 miles? at least Ten is for sure.
More comments tomorrow.

180 miles. I Did It

2007-02-01T14:56:00.001+06:00

Here I found a really moving video - New High School World record for 1 mile.
Alan Webb - the Biggest hope for American distance running

Jan 31st, PM.
Final run for January. Started almost in 10 pm. It took me more than an hour. I made up my mind to keep sub 8:30. Really we've got so many excuses like wind and snow to have "comfortable" 9:30 making a Half Marathon. 8.9 miles is less than the Half and slightly more than 10 K so it went like this:

Mile 1 08:08
Mile 2 08:16
Mile 3 08:28
Mile 4 08:19
Mile 5 08:24
Mile 6 08:27
Mile 7 08:07
Mile 8 08:01
+ 0.9m 08:14 (pace)

I finished mile #8 and was in such a groove to get that less than a mile done soon.. 2 quarters later I run inattentively and Snap .. I fall down in a tiny split less than a second, landed on my back with decent hit to my body.. Ouch .. I lay down on the ground and see a star, not really bright but shining right above me "Get up & Run" in a second I'm running again, completely spooked telling myself "you're not loosing anything, in 7 sec pace would be normal, 8:00 is not a big deal" Run after the hit like this is hard for several seconds but finally I managed to finish as I planned to. Keeping average pace Sub 8:30

Jan 30, 2007: 13,1 miles, 2:03'19, avg. pace 9:24, avg. HR 145
Jan 31, 2007: 8,9 miles, 1:13'39, avg. pace 8:16, avg. HR 151
Total for January 07: 180.19 miles! Avg. pace 9:33 slow but PR !!!

P.S. Thomas (former rubbish runner) made 333 impressive miles ...
Dallen finished with 334 miles. Congratulations. Good Job!
Mark aka Running Blogfather, his result is unclear for me as his Training Log has no info on this

January 2007. Summing Up.

2007-01-31T19:32:00.001+06:00

my_stadium

Dear Reader,
You've reached to the page of average runner who trains forward to have a marathon or two in the Spring / Summer 2007. I should be very grateful if you would make some comments on my Running Adventures in Kazakhstan. So, here we go.
January in Central Kazakhstan starts with -30 C and lower temps, which is not really comfortable to pleasant running. Jan 1st, skipped my run and felt guilty. Nope, not due to hangover or something like that. I got to my Stadium feeling this "lower than -30C" and with some care of my Mr. Garmin 305 decided not to put it on. Dangerous. Not for me. For (using Sasha's terminology) "the Toy". It doesn't work under such a cold weather. Deep snow and Sharp Wind from the Steppe which literally Cuts you face skin made Jan 1st run Impossible.
Since Jan 2nd I was able to make only (!) 2 miles per day. Shock. Several days later, with stable -15 I started normal running.
I thoroughly put my slow winter miles into this bank and now my account is full of 171.28 miles for the whole January 2007. Which is my Personal Record for 1 month activity. I still have todays' eve, will make easy 9 miles to finish this month with round number of 180 miles. As for Pace - I guess Mark is right, too low to mention. One excuse - it's really cold sometimes and snow is an issue.
Enough for my first post. That's it. Gonna Run.

P.S. Woke up early yesterday morning. 5 am I'm on the track. Had such a nice Half Marathon run with average temps -5 C. Warm (for us :). Do not judge me so strictly.
Fastest pace was around 8.30 min/mile in the end of Long Run. Splits are on the picture.

Jan_30_2007_Half