Things have been pretty quiet around here-dead as a doornail actually. There isn't much of anything here for racing all winter save for December which includes a hilly 15K and snowy 20K I usually do as tempo runs to stay fit. Well recovery from the 100k relegated me to sitting out those races and once I had fully recovered (I mean to where legs and speed were geting back )between week 6-7 -December was nearly gone. January -DEAD as a doornail here. I was going to go to St Pete to run the winter marathon as a training run (smthg nice and ez in ther 3:20 range keep in mind it's on snow,ice,and potholes). Unfortunately, I waited til too late and only pricey train tickets were left so I scrapped that idea and Coach and i thought well -yeah I need a long run 40-50k would be just right. We eyed the alternative- a 6 hour....INOORS run 10pm-4am. Night owl I have been since birth but the prospect of running in the area of 70km indoors- BORING! So 2 reasons for the DNS here-1. I run 6 hours on an indoor track-big injury risk and what for???There is no prize money here and they don't even give belt buckles! 2. Coach called to sign me up -no prob (yes it's also indoor NCs) but we asked what kind of food/drink there would be and they still weren't sure so we asked if BYO is ok(in the civilised world BYO is the norm) and they said well,"She will have to show her stuff to the doctor for approval." ie.they may not let me use my own food?! WTF???? They are making a stink over roctane gels, vitargo sports drink, and heaven forbid...GUMMI BEARS! Like hell I was going to do a 6 hour run on BREAD and WATER which is usually the most these ignorant organisers can offer and why I run my major races outside Russia. For Christ's sake at the WORLDS everyone brings their own fuel and no one makes a fuss. I use in races what my body is comfortable with and will not deliberately starve and die slow death w/o proper nutrition and hydration in an ultra. So, needless to say, the 6 hour was a DNS. I'll save my legs for smthg better.
So- dead the calendar remained until the masters meet. I do these track meets as glorified speedwork. The 3000 was pretty uneventful-2nd overall and won my division(awards in 5 yr divisions 35+). Time was nearly a minute better than my personal worst posted in December just a little over a month after the 100K when speed was still totally trashed. I still need to get speed up just a tad more for the spring. I'll jump in the college meet in a month and run the 3 again for Moscow State.
Yeah that's another issue-I'm goiong to likely have to forsake training in Kyrgystan to do 3 weeks of intensive hell at Moscow State this summer to get my recency credits for my teacher cert renewal. I have no desire to sit in the heat of the summer and do Russian classes -it's just a going through the motions formality. As long as I'm living here, I ought to be exempt as far as I'm concerned. How much more practice can I get? It would be more interesteng to ask me to write about andpresent on some of the things I do here like racing, running, etc in Russia and the FSU or how about TRAINING CAMP EXPERIENCES IN KYRGYSTAN? I would get so much more out of that than doing more grad classes in Russian. It would certainly be more appealing than discussing Pushkin in the heat of the summer and I may actually be more MOTIVATED to do this. Sure, but good luck figuring out how to do that on a grad level so that the state of Alaska teacher cert will take it!
Motivation- it's there but has changed. I thought taking the fall away from the pressure of a fast marathon to run the 100K would let me have the mental health break I needed from the marathon. Well-conversely, I'm having a helluva time motivating myself to bust my butt for a spring marathon because I've had just 1 really good marathon since 06 and that was in Riga in 09 and smthg almost always happens that keeps me from running my full potential(be it getting sick, too hot, injured like fall of 09). I'm motivated to train for the ultra stuff because I can still improve there. I want to work on my 50 and 100k times and try a 50 mile trail run in late October in the US if my legs are ok after the 100k in Sept. I got word of a 6 hour in Belgrade that I would have totally been game to do but found out only 4 weeks before the race. It's in mid March. There is a 50K in Montenegro late April, but airfare there is close to what it is to go to the US so, that's not looking good(because I still don't know how much $$$$I'll have to toss on doing my recency credits this summer). It's looking like I'll be stuck doing Riga again this yr if I go anywhere or hell, I may run the marathon here in Moscow late April as a training run.
Pics are below as I've still not figured out how to get them to go under each new post.....
So- dead the calendar remained until the masters meet. I do these track meets as glorified speedwork. The 3000 was pretty uneventful-2nd overall and won my division(awards in 5 yr divisions 35+). Time was nearly a minute better than my personal worst posted in December just a little over a month after the 100K when speed was still totally trashed. I still need to get speed up just a tad more for the spring. I'll jump in the college meet in a month and run the 3 again for Moscow State.
Yeah that's another issue-I'm goiong to likely have to forsake training in Kyrgystan to do 3 weeks of intensive hell at Moscow State this summer to get my recency credits for my teacher cert renewal. I have no desire to sit in the heat of the summer and do Russian classes -it's just a going through the motions formality. As long as I'm living here, I ought to be exempt as far as I'm concerned. How much more practice can I get? It would be more interesteng to ask me to write about andpresent on some of the things I do here like racing, running, etc in Russia and the FSU or how about TRAINING CAMP EXPERIENCES IN KYRGYSTAN? I would get so much more out of that than doing more grad classes in Russian. It would certainly be more appealing than discussing Pushkin in the heat of the summer and I may actually be more MOTIVATED to do this. Sure, but good luck figuring out how to do that on a grad level so that the state of Alaska teacher cert will take it!
Motivation- it's there but has changed. I thought taking the fall away from the pressure of a fast marathon to run the 100K would let me have the mental health break I needed from the marathon. Well-conversely, I'm having a helluva time motivating myself to bust my butt for a spring marathon because I've had just 1 really good marathon since 06 and that was in Riga in 09 and smthg almost always happens that keeps me from running my full potential(be it getting sick, too hot, injured like fall of 09). I'm motivated to train for the ultra stuff because I can still improve there. I want to work on my 50 and 100k times and try a 50 mile trail run in late October in the US if my legs are ok after the 100k in Sept. I got word of a 6 hour in Belgrade that I would have totally been game to do but found out only 4 weeks before the race. It's in mid March. There is a 50K in Montenegro late April, but airfare there is close to what it is to go to the US so, that's not looking good(because I still don't know how much $$$$I'll have to toss on doing my recency credits this summer). It's looking like I'll be stuck doing Riga again this yr if I go anywhere or hell, I may run the marathon here in Moscow late April as a training run.
Pics are below as I've still not figured out how to get them to go under each new post.....
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