Well January wasn't too shabby. I started off with the New Year's run from Aktivizm that I ran last year. I really liked their run last year so decided to do it again. It as moved to the snowy trails in Sokolniki this time. After some days in the big minuses, it warmed up to -5C for this run making the snow nice for running and comfortably not too hot or too cold for running. It was supposed to be a 3k gain this year but we all ended up running nearly 4 because the lead guys who I could see up ahead missed a turn. Ah well. I paced better than expected about 4.02 on snow in Icebugs-not bad. Last year was faster because we ran on bare pavement. I came back in the sprint after to get 3rd overall in my kitty-leopard costume. That one was boys and girls all together so 2 guys dressed as Santa beat me and the cat came in 3rd :) Nice prizes too. :)
2 days later on some very ivy trails, I followed that up with a win in the 2 mile xc-
This was the age gp awards...I won overall :)
6 days later, I ran the 1000m indoor -hell set an indoor PR by 5 sec. I have not raced an indoor 1000 since Feb 1996 as a senior at Beloit. Then I ran the 300m leg of the relay for our club -go IRC :)I've been with www.irc-club.ru since 2004. Relays have 3 guys and a girl :)
This was held at the track where I train-
PIONEER CAMP TRAIL -Half Marathon
18 Jan
This is the most fun I've had at a race in a LONG time :) This was a 3loop course on some gnarly terrain. We ran in the area around an oabandoned Pioneer camp. I am old enough (yeh old) to remember when Pioneer camps were active. The Young Pioneers was the Soviet equivalent of Boy/Girl scouts back in the day. The organization here was excellent. We had a bit of a glitch in the first loop where the leaders and yours truly got led off course adding nearly a km. Despite the glitch, I was still able to claw my way back to the front for the win. There was a 7 k and marathon in addition to the half, so you could pick your poison. Salmon sponsored this race and the prizes for top 3 were quite nice :) The aid station was very well stocked and I just had fun playing out there in the snow. Yes, it was verrry icy in spots because of a recent freeze-thaw, but not the end of the world for me because I did have ICEBUGS. Thanks to Timofei who after finishing the 7k got me my bottle of Vitargo for the final 7k loop. 2nd lady was on my heels at that point. She also got led off course in the first loop but not as much which allowed her to tuck in on my heels. With 7k to go, I pushed the pace to break away by some 2 min. I am planning to race more on the trails this year which are my first love even from my heyday in Alaska. They are starting to finally offer some decent trail races in Russia and I will definitely run the next Salomon race in mid March- should be a mucky slushfest during spring breakup! I'm planning the North Face 60 (they promised a 60 this yr in addition to the 30 and 10). I will also run this course again as they said they will do another run in the summer.
Here are some cool pix from the race:
...Indoor Mile 25 Jan-
This was the win to cap off January. Lena stuck with me the first couple laps then dropped off which was really the pits for me as I had no one to push me to a fast time. The 30-49 heat is no more and 40+ gets put in one heat :( It wouldn't have helped, both Lena and I were faster than the 30-39s and would have placed just fine in the 29 and under. Go figure.
2 days later on some very ivy trails, I followed that up with a win in the 2 mile xc-
6 days later, I ran the 1000m indoor -hell set an indoor PR by 5 sec. I have not raced an indoor 1000 since Feb 1996 as a senior at Beloit. Then I ran the 300m leg of the relay for our club -go IRC :)I've been with www.irc-club.ru since 2004. Relays have 3 guys and a girl :)
This was held at the track where I train-
PIONEER CAMP TRAIL -Half Marathon
18 Jan
This is the most fun I've had at a race in a LONG time :) This was a 3loop course on some gnarly terrain. We ran in the area around an oabandoned Pioneer camp. I am old enough (yeh old) to remember when Pioneer camps were active. The Young Pioneers was the Soviet equivalent of Boy/Girl scouts back in the day. The organization here was excellent. We had a bit of a glitch in the first loop where the leaders and yours truly got led off course adding nearly a km. Despite the glitch, I was still able to claw my way back to the front for the win. There was a 7 k and marathon in addition to the half, so you could pick your poison. Salmon sponsored this race and the prizes for top 3 were quite nice :) The aid station was very well stocked and I just had fun playing out there in the snow. Yes, it was verrry icy in spots because of a recent freeze-thaw, but not the end of the world for me because I did have ICEBUGS. Thanks to Timofei who after finishing the 7k got me my bottle of Vitargo for the final 7k loop. 2nd lady was on my heels at that point. She also got led off course in the first loop but not as much which allowed her to tuck in on my heels. With 7k to go, I pushed the pace to break away by some 2 min. I am planning to race more on the trails this year which are my first love even from my heyday in Alaska. They are starting to finally offer some decent trail races in Russia and I will definitely run the next Salomon race in mid March- should be a mucky slushfest during spring breakup! I'm planning the North Face 60 (they promised a 60 this yr in addition to the 30 and 10). I will also run this course again as they said they will do another run in the summer.
Here are some cool pix from the race:
...Indoor Mile 25 Jan-
This was the win to cap off January. Lena stuck with me the first couple laps then dropped off which was really the pits for me as I had no one to push me to a fast time. The 30-49 heat is no more and 40+ gets put in one heat :( It wouldn't have helped, both Lena and I were faster than the 30-39s and would have placed just fine in the 29 and under. Go figure.
coach
lapping
