DNF

SORRY folks, I have not been too active whit this blog. Almost three weeks has gone after the Great Masochist's Day, 11.08.

It was a DNF as you might infere from the headline.

AND IT WAS MY VERY FIRST ULTRA RUN, too! Some two marathons, over 50 miles aka 85 Ks in under 10 hours :-). I'm happy with this (there is no choice anyway). The day was very hot and I got dehydrated and exhausted, these were the reasons for DNF.

I'll continue to write texts to this blog. The name of the blog should be renewed.. I'll do it later.

17 days to go...

Two weeks and a couple of days to go before the Masochist Day 11.08. 2007.

In May and in June I got used to run and cycle a little more than earlier during this year. Still the weekly doses of running were some 60-80 K ... which means a normal marathon training.

In June (9.6.) I ran a marathon in 3:24:50 and in July (6.7.) another marathon in 3:22:56. Both were night marathons, which is unusual in Finland. I'm rather happy with these marathons cause they were easy to run and if you look optimistically the times, there is a promise of a 10 hour 100 K...

Running short of running

• 23.5 -biking 18 K in the morning and 18 K in the afternoon, about 45-50 minutes per time. Biking is a new innovation to end pollution and climate heating. It is also a handy way to get to the work place. Tomorrow I've to bike all the way, some 35 kilometres, because my beautiful classic car got a severe flu (mysterious problems with battery that empty itself). Today I biked only half of the entire journey.
  
• 22.5 -implementation of biking to the training program and also to the everyday life started. First trials: half an hour (10 K) in the morning and the same in the afternoon.
• 21.5 -12 K, 59 minutes, an easy recovery run.
• 18.5 -2 h 29 minutes, some 26 K. A nice, cheerful run, part of it in the national park of Nuuksio. A long run, yes indeed!
  
• Norovirus .... good damn! The shit business lasted three days. After the disease I felt really good, just like after a fasting period...
• some short easy runs during 8. - 11.5 .

I'M NOT SURE if the headline really means anything in English ... Anyway, I'm not too proud of my program and yet, I am running at least some times a week and there's also a new lifestyle innovation, the biking hobby.

Precisely biking is not a hobby at all, but a serious way of getting from one place to another. Biking is nice, especially if your car is broke and you have got no money to fix it or to buy a new one. To bike in the city area is also a very welcome kamikaze sport to satisfy my Thanatos drive.

• Monday 7.5 -12 K- 61 minutes - An evening run, mean to be very easy, but ... some problems with orienteering skills in the woods appeared ... funny, afterwards.
• Sunday 6.5 -18 or 19 K - 1 h 38 min. - The other moderately long run of the week after a rest day between. Quite easy to run, but anyway, the exercise felt in the muscles the next day meaning that recovery takes time.
  
• Saturday. Rest. Some physical work in the yard.
• Friday 4.5 -22 K - 2 h 1 min. - The first moderately long run of the week. The Finnish spring is not warm, it is holotna (an russian word meaning chilly, cold). Some rain, too. Anyway a very easy and a very slow run.
• Thursday. Rest. Absolutely.
• Wednesday 2.5 - 9 K - 44 minutes. Easy steady state run.

A very fine, happy week!

• Sunday 29.4 -17.4 K - 1:18:02 - Länsiväyläjuoksu, a nice mass run in Espoo, Finland. Steady state, 4:29 minutes per kilometre. Very easy to run steadily under the anaerobic threshold. Happy about that.
  
• Saturday 28.4 -50 K biking - The first bike "tour" this year.
  
• Friday 27.4 -13.5 K - 68 minutes - a run with increasing tempo (5:30/K to 4:30/K).
• Thursday 26.4 Rest.
• Wednesday 25.4 -12 K - 60 minutes. A morning run in Tampere, a wonderful inland town in Finland.
• Tuesday 24.4 -23 K (about) - 2 h 2 minutes. A moderately long run in Tampere, reaching some real forest near the town!
• Monday 23.4 -9 K - 46 min. The first day of the journey to the beloved Tampere, an easy run.

A happy week, indeed!

A new trail (there always is)

• Sunday 22.4 -a light walk in Nuuksio National Park, sunny weather, a nice rocky path.
  
• Friday 20.4 -8K- 41minutes -Rain, a hard rain falling.
  
• Wednesday 18.4 - 9K - 46 minutes- Found a new trail in neighbourhood. A very big dog with its' owner in the forest ... a friendly meeting after all.
• Sick from 2.4 to 17.4.
  

REALLY, a sick-leave of three weeks! Still feeling tired. Very easy to sleep 12 hours a night in the weekend. Anyway no problems on the short runs after the flu. And no signs of severe health problems, too.

ON Sunday 29.4 there is a short run of 17.4 kilometres called Länsiväylä -juoksu in Espoo.

Temporary Dead

IT TOOK two weeks to recover from the damned Flu. Anyway, this time Mr Mononen (look at the pic) got no customer. I 'm alive and well and disappointed. It's under four months to go --> 11.08.2007 <--- and the training has not even started.

The Easter Flu

• Wednesday 4.4. The flu continues.
  
• Tuesday 3.4. The flu begins.
  
• Monday 2.4. Half an hour trial of cycling in the dark. Nice & not so safe, I guess. Windy, rather cold weather.
  
• Sunday 1.4. -24K- 1 h 16 min - Long run. Easy and pleasurable. And yes, the run was shorter than planned...
  
• Saturday 31.3. Some "beneficial excercise" like hacking wood etc., no runs.
  
• Friday 30.3. - 9K - 45 min - Easy run in the evening.

Ache in the head, ache in the muscles, ache in the bones. And some cold, too. It is of course the Easter flu.

Empty is good for you

• Thursday 29.3. -16K- 1h 22 min- Steady state run. Late evening. Getting cold after a very sunny and warm (+15 C) day. Wearing gloves & feeling empty. Nothingness rules.
  
• Wednesday 28.3. A 5K sunny afternoon walk.
  
• Tuesday 27.3. - 7K - 33 min - More "speed" or effort than usual. Steady state.
• Monday 26.3. Walking in the city of Helsinki some 1.5 hours. What a noisy milieu. Recovery versus Stress.
  

"Having no occupants or inhabitants, vacant" says the dictionary. And "to unburden, relieve". So was the feeling during and after today's run. Empty. A real good feeling, indeed.

3rd Week

• Sunday 25.3. -13K - 72 min - An easy one on the next day after the long run. The easy one could be a little longer next week. Or the runs should happen in reverse order. The idea is to include two rather long runs in he weekend. They should cover some 40-50 % of the kilometres of the week.
  
• Saturday 24.3. -22 K - 2 h 4 min - Warm weather, +10 Celcius. A slow, long, enjoyable sunset run on a dust road and asphalt.
• Friday 23.2 -No run, no exercise, rest.
• Thursday 22.2. - 9 K - 46 min - Easy run in the dark.

TO REPEAT, yep, this is the innovation of long slow distance running. Do it once, do it twice, do it a couple of times, do it for ever. A rather simple innovation to generate multiplying endurance orgasms called self-transcendence.

Now, in the very beginning of this path, I made a low profile trial with two moderately long runs in the weekend. The latter one was actually not a "long" one at all, but anyway it was there after the long, on my current scale, run.

The third week had over 80 kilometres of running in it, if you count from Monday 19.3. to Sunday 25.3. This was caused by two long runs in a week.

Next week (plan): A three hour long run. And some cycling, perhaps.

Spring rain

• Wednesday 21.3. -12K -58 min- Real Spring in the Air or at least Less Snow on the Road! Easy jogging with very cautious speeding in the end.
• Tuesday 20.3. Rest. Two hours of physical logistic work in the evening. Moving snow from one place to another place.
  

Found a book at flea market.
Tanahashi, K. & Schneider, D. (1994) Essential Zen. Castle Books: New Jersey
Here's an example:

"Sound of mountain
sound of ocean
everywhere spring rain"
- Soen Nakagawa

2nd week

• Monday 19.3. -25K- 2h14min - Wet wet wet after the run. Cold horizontal snowing. Southern wind. A rather hard wind.
  
• Sunday 18.3. No exercise.
• Saturday 17.3. -11K- 53 min - Run in the afternoon. Went to bed at 6 pm Friday eve and woke at 10 am Saturday morning. 14 hours of sleep.
  
• Friday 16.3. No exercise. Intuition of flu or something like that, no overt symptoms except exhaustion.
  
• Thursday 15.3. No exercise.

"Happy" training...? Perhaps "lazy" training would be better. Or perhaps "wise" training.

I got really tired and felt some nausea on Thursday and Friday. Then slept for fourteen hours. It fixed the situation, I assume.

I'm really happy for today's long run in the snowy, rainy, south-wind tempest weather.

Another Plan (Synopsis)

• Wednesday 14.3. -12K- 62 min - Lighter every day, but still dark at 8 pm. Somehow I managed to sleep too long in the morning. Evening is the most "natural" time for me to run and the night to work ... anyway schedules under the last two weeks have been kind of an organzation task. This situation will change from the beginning of the next week and then I have more options to choose my running times.
• Tuesday 13.3. -9K- 50 min - Really dark, slippery road (ice, +-0 Celcius). Silence. Really nice feeling to run after the long run. Easy, tasty & free.
• Monday 12.3. - Rest, no running, no exercise except some walking in the city.
  

A very short synopsis of my training plan: some ten weeks of "normal" marathon training with increasing intensity till the end of May. About 5-6 runs a week, 70-80K, one long run a week plus another longer than usual run during the week. Two runs with some speed/intervals, two easy runs.

After the ten weeks' basic period a two or three weeks' period of rest with low intensity training. After that a marathon in June (Suomi -Juoksu, 9.6.) . After the marathon begins the 8 week period of ultra training, meaning a lot more distance running and cycling than before.

The 1st Week Follow-Up Stats

• Sunday 11.3. - 27K - 2 h 31 min - The first descent long run this year, +4 Celcius, spring in the air, hilly route (road) near Nuuksio National Park
  
• Saturday 10.3. - 13K -66 min - nice run in the middle of the day
  
• Friday 9.3. - 7K - 39 min - morning run - these have been quite rare because of my lazy bones, but afterwards it feels so good !
  

The first week, from Monday to Sunday (5.3. - 11.3.), of the "Follow-Up" included five runs. Altogether approximately 67 kilometres. I have not measured the routes, so there is at least 1-2 (about one mile) confidence interval in my evaluations. Anyway I ran more than last week and the long run today was pleasurable and long, indeed.

Plan of the next week: two and a half hour long run, maybe the same route as today. Also another longer than usual (about 16-20K) run during the week. Slow speed as usual. Maybe some intervals during the spring, but not yet. I do not use any kind of pulse meter, so this follow-up takes place on a firm unscientific basis, which you already mght have noticed.... The Firm Basis means that I'm telling the truth without any disturbing technical detail :-) .

Baseline & Motivation

• Wednesday 7.3. - 12K (about 7.5 miles) - 64 minutes - Keywords: Dark hours 20-21, Country Road in Southern Finland , Headlamp, Melting Snow, +2 Celcius, Warm Wind, Putting one's Mind at Ease
  

One of my baseline characteristics is the age of fifty. A couple of years ago I fancied about running a standard marathon in under three hours time. Well, the result was six minutes and 30 seconds more. That PR took place when I was 47. In fact I started jogging at the age of 44. Now, during the seventh year of mostly regular, light jogging and running, I feel like mature enough to begin my school of endurance.

On my finnish page (http://www.uta.fi/~psjuha) I use a "motivational slogan": "Feels good, opens your senses and shows your (own) nature". These are the reasons for my running. Never mind the Three Hours, there's plenty of more (time) to come ... and go!

Decisions

I made the decision to participate in Masochist's Dream, a 100K run, in January this year. The race will be held on August 11th.

It's about five months to go.

Some very short background (and some plans): I've run 15 marathons earlier, but my current weekly running is about 50 kilometres. The gradual increase in running should be 100 %. Some of it could be compensated by cycling. Anyway, the next step is to run a two hour run this week and a 2:15 run the next week. When physical, psychological and spiritual endurance are the domains of ultra exercise, there are of course plenty of things besides the training kilometres ... I'll try to speak about them, too.

This blog aims at describing this Masochist project. My other decision is to forgive to myself my English, the poor one, and also to completely forget my excessive self-criticism. You'll see.

6.3. Tuesday. About 8K run in the morning,41 minutes. Minus five degrees, kind of fog, birds, lonely kids waiting for schoolbus. Two words to describe the feeling of the run: Balanced Touch.

5.3. Monday. Rest. Occupied with work from ten a.m. to eight p.m.

4.3. Sunday. The so called Long Run ... anyway only 19-20 kilometres, took 1 h 44 minutes. Warm weather (+2 C), ice, some birds singing somewhere. The Finnish Spring is coming!

3.3. Saturday. A short before the long, seven kilometres, slow speed (38 minutes). Just around the nearest small lake.

During February: some 110 kilometres running, lots of walking, very cold weather. Decided to participate in Masochist's Dream as my first ultra.

Earlier: Fifteen marathons between 2001 and 2006