Kick me baby one more time

Just wee bit of an update on recent developements. I took part in Tough Mudder. It's a 20 km obstacle course with such fun and frolics as swimming through water tank filled with ice cubes or getting zapped by some 10,000 V of electricity. Such fun, right?

Admittedly I was rather scared before it all started - you won't really know how bad it will get. I was reassured that in most runs there weren't any casualties, bar one or two. And that quite a lot of people finish it and can like walk slowly in a day or three. On the bright side you can test whether you are capable of jumping from a height or run through fire

Well, it was easier than I thought. The toughest challenge for me was jumping down from 4-5 metres into water. Mainly because I'm scared of heights. Luckily people yell at you and the whole thing happens rather quickly so I could only start freaking out mid-air. After that you're too busy fighting to get to the surface and trying to stay alive to really care. Did I mention that my legs were trembling for the next couple of minutes?

Another favourite of mine included jumping into a tank filled with water. And if the water wasn't cold enough - they filled it up with ice-cubes. It's quite an feeling when your body goes into a total shock, your heart tries to burst sucking all the blood from your limbs to key organs. Another fascinating strategy to stay alive. Then again you don't have too much time to think about it, as you have to dive into the water to swim under an obstacle to get to the other side.

Electric shocks weren't as bad a I thought really. Indeed once you get zapped your muscles spasm and you stand a good chance of falling down (and a lot of people did, face flat into the mud), however it doesn't hurt all that much - it's just plain weird. The one obstacle that I actually enjoyed was a wall, about 3 meters high, which you were supposed to get through. I managed all on my own, ahead of most people. Something I didn't know I'm capable of - for this thing alone I'm happy to have been there.

Half marathon = Done

I've become a tralfamadorian:

A tralfamadorian feels like this:

That's all

I hope the feeling lasts forever, I'm gonna write the wise-stuff in an other post.

'Till then:

20. KH Olimpic marathon and half marathon relay

Nika's first ever half marathon

Distance: 21097,5 meters

number: 6497

02:29:13  

1. round 00:35:39 

2. round: 00:37:21 

3. round 00:38:15 

4. round: 00:37:59 

I have only one question left: Really? Will I really have to increase the distance from here during each and every Sunday run from now on???

Zombie Run!

Well, I thought that must be fun. Like go somewhere, get into the forest and get chased by Zombies. Things didn't turn out exactly as planned, but hey... In principle 4 hour travel, 1 hour run and another 4 hours on the way back seems to be a bit excessive on the travelling part.

That and the organisation of the whole event which was generally lacking, I also expected something tad more challenging and currently it had a very amateurish vibe. Pleasant but not worth the actual hassle. On the upside - run was fun, zombies were cool and I got a nice face-job with glue, paint and pieces of paper. And a nice photo to add as well.

So for the posterity, here is me, myself & I doing a mad dash.

Catching up

OK, some serious catching up is needed here. All things are good and well and running still goes on. To be honest I think I'm hooked. Couple of weeks ago I did this:


I think it gave me quite a good idea on how I handle distance and allowed to break down the things into distinct phases:

• 0-2 km - ok, what am I doing here. Shouldn't I just go back home like normal people?
• 2-9 km - not so bad, I think I can carry on. Let's do it.
• 9 km - ouch, pain. Why am I doing this. Let's have a sit-down, please?
• 10-17 km - hey, this stuff is fantastic. Common! Next week I'm going for 50 km, then maybe 100. I could do this all day long!
• 17-24 km - I'm good at this. I guess I'll do something very long here and then perhaps one more in the evening!
• 25-30 km - paaaainnnnn. A! I can't feel my legs. How far away is the bloody 30 km.

On the upside - apart from my legs being extremely stiff for the rest of the day and some mild muscle pain over the next two days I seems to have taken it well. That bodes well for the future. On the downside it's hard to find enough time for routes like this one. It also highlighted the need to invest in a water-carrier or a back-pack as I spent quite a lot of time running parched like Gobi.

About being absolutely amazing

I didn't mention one small thing... I ran 20 kilometres. It's like, well, a long distance. Really, really long. It took me some 2 hours and a bit and the big challenge on the way was to keep myself motivated, rather than stop over and read a book and watch movie. During such runs the challenge I seem to be facing is focus and some form of mental activity that's otherwise lacking. But well, that's what happens if you have attention span of a forgetful butterfly.

Next point in plan is 24 kilometres this Sunday, hopefully will manage similarly to last time. It's not like I wasn't in pain the day after. Or two days after but by and large it was muscle pain that has gone away rather quickly. Obviously being the utter madman I have gone to jujitsu class the day after the long run and boy... it was a challenge. This time round I shall get a horse drawn carriage to carry me to work.

On more regular stuff - after a week of being a lazy bum and not running too much I'm back to the normal routine with short (5-6km) run in the week, when I focus on the speed and a long ones over a weekend day, when I focus on surviving. Ah, life saving tip - carry some water and energy bars. Last time I nearly plundered local Indian shop...

I have been a gazelle. A limping one.

Sometime things are good, sometime less so. My running has been off for a while. As things are it started with a gentle twitch in my right leg. That wouldn't be a problem - usual Camino style suggests to just walk it off, stop the training and recover. So I did. Just kept on with cycling and martial arts.

Right... martial arts. The ones where you throw someone on the ground and then break their arms in three places followed by 17 different types of strangulations. Jujitsu. Thing it sometimes you get hurt. Actually you get hurt a lot. So I couldn't really run for a little bit.

And remember that guy that claimed not so long ago that he hates to run? Yeah. I was practical climbing up the walls with excess energy. Luckily I'm back on track. Taking it easy, just 3-4 km or so but my stamina is not gone.

How to feel like a movie star

You already know an answer. Start preparing for a marathon. Do you remember the stories about unsuspecting person being dragged into events that they can't fully comprehend but play along? They struggle, they fight, have moments of weaknesses but due to persistence and stubbornness they finally win, get half a prince and a kingdom?

Today was the day when I actually had to really, really draw on persistence and willingness to keep on. Fair to say it wasn't the most amazing weeks on many fronts, but when I ran out from the office into typical London's miserable drizzle it was hard not to come back. All in all I did my allotted 6km, got soaking wet and frustrated and spent the next meeting in the office steadily dripping onto someone's project plan. Note to self - get a towel.

All in all things are progressing, I got a heart rate monitor which should tell me soon whether I'm fit, just stubborn or dead. Sunday should also be the day when I try to breach a bit longer distance. Following an advice from an apparently expert runner from my office - 10 km should be the goal. Oh, joy.