Diary - Daily Run 20

Time: April 5, 2021

Duration: 30 minutes

Distance: 4.5 km

Avg. speed: 9 km/h

Terrain: flat, non-paved roads

Weather: dry, 2 degrees C, cloudy, no wind

Diary - Daily Run 19

Time: April 2, 2021

Duration: 60 minutes

Distance: ca 9 km (GPS ran out of juice about halfway through)

Avg. speed: ca 9 km/h

Terrain: flat, non-paved roads, a bit of forest

Weather: dry, 5 degrees C, sunny, slightly windy

Running together with Maru.

Diary - Daily Run 18

Time: March 31, 2021

Duration: 33 minutes

Distance: 4.8 km

Avg. speed: 9 km/h

Terrain: flat, paved roads

Weather: dry, 5 degrees C, windy, sunny.

Diary - Daily Run 17

Time: March 29, 2021

Duration: 1 hour

Distance: 8 km

Avg. speed: 9 km/h

Terrain: forest paths

Weather: dry, 5 degrees C, light wind, sunny.

Was out running with Maru again. The data above is approximate, since the watch had a software update the day before and was unable to connect to satellites.

Diary - Daily Run 16

Time: March 27, 2021

Duration: 1 hour

Distance: 8.4 km

Avg. speed: 8 km/h

Terrain: flat, paved roads

Weather: dry, 8 degrees C, light wind, sunny, intermittent clouds and rainshowers.

First run this year in a t-shirt. 

Diary - Daily Run 15

Time: March 24, 2021

Duration: 45 min

Distance: 6.3 km

Avg. speed: 8 km/h

Terrain: flat, paved roads

Weather: dry, 0 degrees C, light wind, sunny.

Diary - Daily Run 14

Time: March 22, 2021

Duration: 43 min

Distance: 6.3 km

Avg. speed: 9 km/h

Terrain: flat, paved roads

Weather: dry, -1 degrees C, light wind.

Diary - Daily Run 13

Time: March 18, 2021

Duration: 43 min

Distance: 5.2 km

Avg. speed: 7 km/h

Terrain: icy forest tracks

Weather: dry, -1 degrees C, no wind, sunny.

A run in Järve forest, with my new running mate Maru.

Diary - Daily Run 12

Time: March 15, 2021

Duration: 52 min

Distance: 6.9 km

Avg. speed: 8 km/h

Terrain: flat, paved roads, dry.

Weather: dry, -2 degrees C, no wind.

A nice evening exercise. 

Diary - Daily Run 10

Time: March 13, 2021

Duration: 33 min

Distance: 4.9 km

Avg. speed: 9 km/h

Terrain: flat, paved roads, icy

Diary - Daily Run 9

Time: March 8, 2021

Duration: 32 min

Distance: 5.0 km

Avg. speed: 9 km/h

Terrain: flat, paved roads, snowy

Diary - Daily Run 8

Time: March 1, 2021

Duration: 37 min

Distance: 5.2 km

Avg. speed: 8 km/h

Terrain: flat, paved roads, semi-dry

Diary - Daily Run 6

Time: February 22, 2021

Duration: 36 min

Distance: 4.9 km

Avg. speed: 8 km/h

Terrain: flat, paved roads covered in ice

Weather: dry, -7 degrees C, slightly windy (4 m/s)

A nice evening exercise. 

Diary - Test Run 3

 Primary objective: test my own ability to run longer distances

Secondary objective: test various mental approaches, monitor post-run physical condition

Time: February 19

Duration: 3 hours 3 minutes

Distance: 24,1 km, a run around the peninsula where I live

Terrain: mostly flat, paved roads, covered in snow

Weather: dry, -9 degrees C, north wind 3 m/s

Primary results:

Success. This is the longest distance I've ever run non-stop.  

Secondary results:

Mentally, I need content for my brain to process. While running, the brain is getting excellent bloodflow and with it a lot of nutrients and oxygen. This is like nitro to the brain, but if it does not have something to process, it starts to pay too much attention to the present moment, the body, the run. That's unnecessary, I would rather trust the body to do it's own thing and occupy the mind with something else. So I'll have to put together playlists of debates and lectures for the longer test runs and the eventual Run itself. Or I can switch off the mind during the run, but that would be a waste :)

There were a few aches here both during and after the run, but that was to be expected. I did some good stretching, applied some Deep Blue herbal ointment to joints for the night and was happy the next morning. There's some weird muscles at the back of the leg, that I felt a little bit the next day. I need to figure out a stretch for them, but other than that, everyting was fine. I feel confident going into Test Run 4. That's going to be double again i.e. 50 km.

Nutrition is still an unsolved issue, though. After Test Run 3, I was hungry. For Test Run 4, I will definitaly need water and I think I will need some carbohydrate gels. But for the Run itself, I've no idea what kind of food I need and how to resupply the body and muscles with nutrients during the Run. Need to do some research here.

Diary - Daily Run 5

Time: February 15, 2021

Duration: 1 hour 14 min

Distance: 9.5 km

Avg. speed: 8 km/h

Terrain: hilly, paved roads covered in snow

Weather: dry, -5 degrees C, slightly windy (7 m/s)

A nice afternoon exercise. 

Diary - Daily Run 4

Time: February 12, 2021

Duration: 34 min

Distance: 5 km

Avg. speed: 9 km/h

Terrain: flat, paved roads covered in snow

Weather: dry, -5 degrees C, no wind

A little evening exercise. 

Diary - Daily Run 3

Time: February 10, 2021

Duration: 34 min

Distance: 5,8 km

Avg. speed: 10 km/h

Terrain: flat, paved roads covered in snow

Weather: dry, -12 degrees C, no wind

A little evening exercise. 

Diary - Daily Run 2

 Time: February 1, 2021

Duration: 34 min

Distance: 4,9 km

Terrain: flat, paved roads covered in snow

Weather: dry, -2 degrees C, no wind

A little evening exercise. First run with the new shoes.

Diary - Daily Run 1

Time: January 27, 2021

Duration: 36 min

Distance: 4,9 km

Terrain: flat, paved roads covered in snow slush

Weather: dry, -2 degrees C, no wind

A little evening exercise.

Diary - Test Run 2

Primary objective: test the new running shoes

Secondary objective: test various mental approaches, monitor post-run physical condition

Time: February 6

Duration: 1 hour 35 minutes

Distance: 12,4 km

Terrain: flat, paved roads, covered in a few cm of snow

Weather: dry, -12 degrees C, north wind 6(10) m/s

Primary results:

Fail. New running shoes are unsuitable for the Run, do not match my feet. There's a longer description of the problems with the shoe here. 

Secondary results:

It was a really good run, otherwise. I normally perspire easily during physical exertion, but due to the cold temperature, there was no perspiration. Also, there were not many other people outside at 9 am. The sun was rising, the forests and villages were gorgeous in their snow cover. I got up in a good mood, made a protein smoothie and got on the way. 

I was originally thinking I would do a 27 km run aronud the peninsula. However, this being a test of the new shoes and having experienced some uncomfortable insole issues the first time I wore them, I decided on two 12,5 km circles instead. I only did one, because my right foot was starting to feel painful.

Everything else was fenomenal, I could easily have gone for circle #2, if not for the shoe problem.

Mentally, I tried reciting mantras and keeping all cognitive activity silenced. Neither worked as well as the approaches I tried alst time - giving the mind some problems to solve or bringing complete focus to within the moment. It's either of those, that I will try on the next test for the entire duration of the run. But I need to give a few days for my right foot to heal now :(