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.