Rest of the week

Monday was miserable experience as it is supposed to be when you're sick (puking + high fever). Tuesday was also a day off, but I felt alive again. On Wednesday I did a short shakeout run and on Thursday I jumped back to original schedule.

Yesterday morning I did a nice 7.5 miler and listened to music for the first time in 23 years on the road. Weather was also easy on me (it was only 7F compared to real feel of Thursday: -15F), so it was an excellent booster. Today I did a tempo/steady-state run on treadmill after baby swimming. To summarize my feelings during those 5 miles (@6.17): I really hope that I could again get back in shape...  Patience...

Oh and this would be an awesome race: http://www.runforyourlives.com/

It's on

Today was the first day of the preparatory phase for Berlin. To be honest: I have a long road ahead. Today's tempo run was a short but pretty realistic experience (3.1 miles @ 5.55 pace). No matter how much I try explain myself that I'm still a runner the reality indicates that I should subscribe for Jogger's World.

Anyway, the hunt on...

Picture from Wednesday morning. Last run w/ Carlos before the next one.

Here and there

I've been busy => no updates. On Wednesday I had time only for one run in the morning. The evening/night was spend at TVO's "End of days" festival. One decent rock/punk -music venue is closing down and they have a stream of concerts. I just couldn't miss Boomhauer's and Sweatmaster's performance. Accordingly Thursday was tough... no running at all but on the other hand I didn't have any extra time for that.

Yesterday I jogged something already in the morning, but the evening went at the work. It sucks. Today I joined triathletes' test run and did a 6.2 miles tempo run slower than I hoped for. At least I tried, right?

A blind date gone bad

I woke up in Tallinn, Estonia. Again. The workout "plan" said a tempo run (T pace). After setting up my Garmin I was ready to go. I headed South in order to find my way to a lake close by. There I was going to start and finish my run. Everything looked fine from Google maps. But the less artifical reality showed me after 500m's tempo effort that there was no way to get over the gate (and high fence) to the "lake road". Instead I found myself running among plenty of cars on a highway which could be characterized as a crossover of Route 29 and I-95.

The shoulder was wet and muddy and cars did not appreciate my presence too much. Luckily, after 2 miles I noticed a paved cycle path on the other side of the highway which eased my anxiety a bit. I was so happy meet that after the rough start...

Workout Sunday

Tempo run, outside, no ice nor snow. I like that. I skipped today's race (10k) and ran my first tempo run (T-pace, 5M) to gain some basic stamina for the forthcoming Berlin routine. Felt pretty okay, even if it was rather cold and wet. Week was 64 miles.

All of a sudden

Weekend is here. Again. After Wednesday's hill workout I did only two easy morning runs. I didn't have enough time for another run since on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I left work aroung 9:30-10:00 PM. That sucks of course but the revised version of the manuscript is ready.

This morning I chose the treadmill over icy roads. Hamstrings are feeling pretty tense due to running on ice, and thus, today's accelerating tempo (5M, 29:40, from 6:25 to 5:20s pace) wasn't that easy. But it's done. Tomorrow: long run.

No run and then run

Thursday: No run. Didn't feel like it.

Friday: Morning jog 6 miles and then in the evening a 5M tempo run on the treadmill: 29.30. I accelerated from 6.28 to 5.29/mile with a rendo feeling (average pace 5.55). This was actually the first decent tempo run since Atlanta (11/20/09). It's good start. Or at least a good way to compensate yesterday's lazyness.

Workout Tuesday

I see the future by repeating the same routines every week.

So: 6:30 AM, HCC's track, cruising 6x1000m'300m (3.12-3.08), feeling rendo, pretty nice weather. Yesterday I felt rather heavy partly because of Sunday's rather long bike ride. Today was better, but hamstrings were tense.

Workout Tuesday

6:30 AM, track, extreme cold (65F) added with a nice sunrise. Legs were stiffer than week ago, but I managed to run 5x1000m'400m with rather rendo (=relaxed) feeling. However, both hamstrings are pretty tight which means that once again I really have to stretch more. But it's so boring. I had scheduled a core workout for yesterday, but instead I found myself at the M&T Stadium among 60.000+ people watching Ravens vs. Jets. Maybe I do some core exercises today. Or maybe not.

In addition Nate Jenkins's after-the-marathon interview (he had pretty tough race), one other interesting interview was Matt Tegenkamp's where he shortly talks about the tv coverage of distance races here in the US. And I thought that the scarce visibility of distance running is only a problem in Finland. Teg is a professional athlete, who gets paid in his work and still he is worried about the future. All in all, US distance runners had a wide participation in Berlin, which as such already indicates the future potential embedded in their work.

Even if Finns have Jukka Keskisalo (8th in steeples in Berlin) and had Janne Holmén (he ended his great marathon running career two moths ago), we have clearly lost our competitive edge in general - even at the European level. We really respect those national top-level Finnish guys who put a lot of effort in their training, but in general I think that in Finland we are still watching too much backwards (1970s) without accepting the enourmous work load still laying ahead. Where is the much needed knowledge spillover to get more and more potential runners on the road and track? Old geezers are buzzing behind the corner, of course, but do they have any wisdom that could be provided to make distance running popular again... Many concentrate on blaiming other sports for taking away the potential runners, but that's not the solution. Blaiming others... To me the team-based approach - partly due to college running and very supportive pro-teams - has been one of the visible secrets enabling the current upswing in the US distance running. That kind of approach (excluding the college part) should also be applied in Finland, right? Most likely yes...

Ok. Now back to work.

Workout Tuesday

It's only couple of hours until men's steeple final starts. Go Jukka!!!! [edit: Jukka was 8th with 8.14 - second best time ever in the fastest final ever... Ezekiel Kemboi 8.00,43]

Despite of that I found myself again on track at 6:30 AM. I planned to do 6x1000m ~3.15, but since I ran them slightly too fast (3.12-3.06) I did only five repeats - with rendo effort. The reason for not running the last repeat was that I wasn't willing to tweak my hamstrings. First, of course, I was suprised that am I really that wise that I'm thinking ahead. Then I was disappointed, but almost instantly remembered that Dieter Baumann also quitted his workouts "early" if he ran his repeats too fast. Well, he also had much more powerful toothpaste than I'm using...

Tempo reps in Chicago

Oh yes. Morning run (5x1000m with 2 min. rest jog, 3.21-3.16) on the Lakeshore trail in Chicago. Sun was rising, many recreational runners (including me, that's my category) around, some triathletes doing their swim in Lake Michigan. Life's good!

Nice Tuesday

I overslept twice today, and thus, I hit the track only at 7:00 AM. Running felt okay and I rolled 6x800m'400m (2.35-2.30) + couple of 200s. Nice and easy. Next up work and TdF - and Warped Tour.

A Tiny Struggle

It's Monday and getting back to routines is tough as always. Today's 4*2k was everything else than an easy flow. At least compared to the last time when I was rolling these same tempos. But I did them and that matters. Today the third one was especially pitiful due to sudden stomach malfunction but after a short meeting with the Forest Administration I was all set for the last one. Still, the pace (5.38-5.34/mile) was slower than I planned but this was just today. Stupid Monday. Stupid tired me. In all workout was fine +10 miles with average pace of 6.35.

Rendo Tempo

Rendo. That's close to easy one, but done in a relaxed way, with relaxed mind and loose legs. Trust me it works. Despite of the still slow pace, the feeling was just great. I did 6.2 miler with 3 miles warm up and cool down (in all 9+ miles 6.33/mile).

I ran with certain heart rate level until the two last miles. I was throwing in some 5.55s with lower HR than before (10k 36.51, ~5.56/mile). This "test time" has dropped with 2 minutes in a month. What a morning!

2*Morning Run and then some Thanksgiving

Today I had a double morning. First, I did an easy tempo (3M 18.01) and some hills (5*80sec'350m) around 7.00 AM. Then had some breakfast, and started to gear up for Turkey Trott Prediction run. That's a 10k without a watch, only with a sense of time. The one who finishes closest to 11.00 AM wins that race. And the one ain't gonna be me...

Turkey Trott 10k 39.48. Again, I was late which has been the case in all runs during this week. Luckily, I saw Jason coming for his warm up (a 15k run...) and so we started together. I was originally hoping for a really easy run, but we had to start a bit faster in order to catch Mark and Joe, and to take care of finishing enough close to 11. After catching and running a couple of k's with M&J I think that we lost our gut feeling and increased the pace again. It was also partly due to listening to Phil. Hah. So we finished at 10.58,57, wayyy of the goal. But Mark was "4th" by missing the 11.00 by only less than 1.5 seconds... In all that was a fun race. Today with nice distance running was all together ~15 miles.

And happy thanksgiving!

Ez Tempo + Hills

I gotta try some "new" tricks. This morning I did a new combination (for me that is). Easy tempo, 5k (~6.00/miles) and then some hills (75-80 sec). In all this workout was 9+ miles, which makes it a satisfying morning workout. At least for this time of year with brakes on. I just heard that they got 4 inches of snow in Finland.

Slow morning

Oh man I enjoyed running yesterday. No pain in sight. Only both ACs were hurting badly but I've been here before many times... Pace felt a bit ruff after five days of easy jogging in Florida, but it was not that bad.

This morning I ran 4*3 min. w/ 2 min. ez jog. On-pace was 5.35-5.28 while the off-pace was crawling at 7.45s. Hamstring were a bit tight. On Saturday I'm racing at the "XC Pre-Nationals" in Derwood. Dunno about the pace yet, but I'm just glad to be around.

Morning tempo

Steady easy tempo 10km (38.50; 19.40/19.10), last two k's were a bit faster (sub 6.00/mile) in relation to my present form. Morning total 10.5 miles (7.02/mile).

This was supposed to be an easy tempo, but... I was paced by my heart. Morning proved to me that it will a surprisingly long way back. To where? Let's see that later. Now the next stop is Florida.