So, another 1/2 marathon has been completed...

Didn't beat my time from last year, but I'm very happy with my 1:53:29 , considering that I wasn't feeling 100% in the morning. Plus, I've realized that I need more speedwork.
But, overall I'm very impressed with the race and organizing. I must admit that after I found out how much the start list grew, I got a bit worried about the crowds, etc. But no worries - the organizers did a fantastic job. Only once, in the begining did I get elbowed. I absolutely loved running through the different parts of the city, with the view from Most Swietokrzyski being my absolute favourite. Running-wise, I think I got dressed just a bit too warm. I got very warm at one point with the sweat running down my face. At km 18 I did have a bit of a slowdown, but once I hit km 20, I got some extra energy, and of course, ended up sprinting for the finish line. And there, I had a wonderful "welcoming committee" as quite a bit chunk of my family came along. That was very special. And hearing my name announced as I crossed the finish line made them even more proud. I felt like being back in school and graduating :)
Afterwards, as we started walking back, my friend called up - they missed us at the finish line! So we all met up and chatted. Then home and a well-deserved shower.
So, what's next for me? As my first triathlon is approaching in just about 2 months, I need to continue improving my swim plus start serious bike training. As it looks like spring has finally arrived, we can finally start biking outside.
As for running, certainly Warsaw Marathon in the fall. Anyone else up for it?
P.S. Will post some pictures tomorrow....

final days before the half

I've been quiet lately. Not out of laziness but I've been quite busy. Unfortunately not with training but at work. But, in these times I'm not complaining, especially seeing what's going on at other firms. But, since I've managed to get enough sleep last night and this morning we awoke to beautiful sunshine - we were out running! 10km in the forest. Very slow, as ther is snow + ice on the ground, but
I've enjoyed every single minute of it. Even though it's chilly and I wish that spring were here already. Now breakfast, shower and off to work!

On another note, it looks like once again we will have quite a big contingent of my family + some friends cheering us on at the finish line. So excited! Let's just hope that the weather cooperates! Good weather gods, please stay over Warsaw!

Running in the snow

is still not over. This morning as we were heading out it started to snow a bit. And it continued as we ran through the forest. I must admit that its A LOT less muddy than 2 weeks ago at the Grand Prix and thus very enjoyable. Did 10km this morning in just about 55 mins. Plus we made a stop and did some strenght exercises as well. I'm glad we ended up running there as it was still quite windy on the road. I'm amazed that some of the girls were running in that wind yesterday. You couldn't get me out of the house with force!

One thing about running in the morning (and therefore getting up at 6) is that right about now (9:30) I start to slowly crash. Yup, so it is bed-time.... Till tomorrow :)

Running in Mazury

We've spent this past weekend in Mazury. The main purpose of the trip was to celebrate our anniversary (2 years!!) but then we were also hoping to do some decent hilly training. And our prayers to the weather gods were answered! On Friday when we arrived we took bikes from the hotel and went for a ride around a lake. Overall it was an exremely slow 25 km, but about half of it was walking the bikes up and down hills - still very muddy and snowy. Nevertheless, it was a nice way to welcome spring.

Yesterday, the hotel reception told us a place to go for some running. And we did, thinking that we'd do some nice hill training. Here I am happily starting our run:

It really felt great - temperature was just right, no wind anywhere, no cars, no other people. We managed to see a few deers (too fast for us to snap photos of). And just kept on going. We eventually reached a national reserve, and still kept on going. I go back to my original thesis - when the terrain is interesting the run seems much faster. Suprisingly, I didn't have as much trouble on the hills as I thought I would have. I guess the downhills made up for that as I got some rest.

With this new found strenght we kept on going and going. Then eventually the side road ended and we hit a busier road - that was the time when we decided to turn around. BUT, when I looked at my Garmin already had almost 9km on the clock, and this meant that I had at least another 9km to go. But the way back seemed a lot easier and a lot faster. All of a sudden the hills didn't bother me at all, didn't stop to take any walking breaks, and somewhere in the middle I've decided to finish the training properly and run up to 20km. And I did, was kinda tired at the end, but my level of self-confidence really went up. We've just checked how much we've climbed during the run and it amounted to about 1000m!!! Really wish we had more hills in Warsaw so that these trainings could be done more often.

And today - no pain! That's very suprising but motivating at the same time! I'm really looking forward to running the Warsaw Half. 2 weeks to go!

Week so far

Here's how the training week looks so far: Monday - swim; Tuesday - run (10km); Wednesday - turbo trainer (cycling). Yup - three days of waking up at 6. Wonder when that will catch up with me. At least we have a long weekend to look forward to - Friday morning we're off to Mazury. But we do plan on training pretty hard there. Weather permitting, of course.
While running yesterday I've noticed a very interesting thing - why does running on the street seems longer than in the forest? 10km yesterday seemed very long!
I've also noticed that I'm getting much stronger at cycling. Swimming is still extremely hard. Can kind of do crawl for one lenght of a pool but anything longer than that just completely tires me out. How will I be able to do 750m???
On that note it's time to get ready for work.

The rest of Sunday

So after a lazy morning (well not that much - we got some stuff around the house done) we finally managed to get into our running clothes and head out. So, even though I could "feel" my muscles I managed to do 13km. Very satisfied.... Now it's time to relax a bit in front of the tv - we got another "24" waiting :)))

Kabaty....

That was a fun run. Nice to meet the girls from the team. After last week's failed run I was a bit afraid as to what we'd find in the forest. But, other than some mud and a little leftover snow, it was fine. Start was bad, as always, crowdy, hard to find your tempo in the begining, but then once I started it was nice. Racing on your "training" ground is very nice! Almost no element of surprise there. The time on my watch was 52:59 while the official time is 53:06. No PB, but didn't expect one in these conditions. But still did a lot better than I thought I would have. Today we are going for a run. I do need a longer one - about 15km..... let's see what will come out of my good intentions.... By the way - snow again this morning!!! Where is the spring????

Wish Spring would be here already!!!!

Yesterday morning we got up extra early to prepare and run without any rush. Weather outside looked great, checked the temperature - warmish 4 degrees. One issue for me was my Garmin - forgot to charge it so no battery was left :( oh well.... Just told myself that it is good to run without it once in a while. BUT THE WIND! Running with the wind was fine (about first 5 km) and then, once I turned around the cold wind started hitting me. One section is slightly uphill and against the wind and that was tough. But, I did manage to run 11km (according to mapmyrun) in exactly 1hr. So, without the Garmin I was a bit faster.

Tomorrow is the race. Should be fun. Just contemplating the shoe issue as the forest is bound to be muddy (if not still snowy)....

Running in the fog...

is great!
Last night we were contemplating going to the gym. But the need to go to grandma's to pick something up plus we had to finish watching some episodes of "24" (yes - it is an addiction) meant that something had to get cut out. Oh no, with some creative thinking we just combined two things - instead of driving we ran to grandma's. And it was great! I've kept an average of 11km/hr and had a total of 8.5 km according to my Garmin. I don't remember when running felt this good. So, in other words we'll need to motivate ourselves for more evening runs. But as the high training season is approaching 2 work out sessions per day will need to be put into our schedule. This morning we were up nice and early and did a 55 min biking session - I still felt last night's run in my legs so just did some fat burning - 125 bpm average.
Looking forward to the race on Saturday - hopefully the weather will hold up!

Spring is coming!

We were hit with a spell of amazing weather over the weekend and Monday. So we used that to the maximum and did some nice training. On Sunday the Spring 2009 bike season has been officially kicked off - 41 km. We wanted to bike some further out, but that was out of the question as there is still quite a lot of snow on the ground in the forests.



Yesterday, we kicked off the morning running season. It was cold! But sunny :) Here's a link to my route yesterday morning http://connect.garmin.com/activity/2327753. We had to do it on the streets as I've attempted to run in the forest on Saturday and it was just not a good idea. Overall the run was good. Ended up doing 9.5km overall. If the weather keeps up I'm sure there will be more of these morning runs :))