When I started running about a year ago, I didn't know what running would turn into for me. I started doing this amateur sport only because it is customary in my family to die of heart disease. Add to this the very classic life of a "computer scientist", and we get a disabled person in 40 years and a corpse in 50-60. This did not suit me at all, and after reading the book "Running with Lydiard", I decided to train my heart.
It was a dream for me to run around Rusanovka. This is the island district where I live in Kiev. It is 4.7 km on asphalt, soil and concrete slabs — a great place for training near the water. At first it was difficult — a bloodshot face, pain in the tendons, fire in the chest and monstrous shortness of breath. I don't remember how I overcame these 4.7, but I clearly remember one significant event for myself. At a distance of 7 km, my phone rang and I stopped to talk. And then, suddenly, I realized that there was no shortness of breath, and this is SEVEN kilometers. And then it hit me. I have lowered the resting pulse from 65 beats per minute to 57, the ideal resting pulse for me remains 50 beats per minute at rest. With my usual running, my heart began to beat at an intensity of 140 beats per minute (read about the heart sensor here), and it was before that, all other things being equal — 168! This means that the heart has become more powerful, and it does not need to twitch like a damn to catch up with the blood all over the body. And I also lost weight — from 86 to 76 kg with my height of 175cm. Of course, I indulged in dieting for a couple of weeks, but only in order to lose weight for a steeper run. Wearing a fat muffin on your belt, and a fat donut on your stomach, just got tired. They are still there today, but they still need to be seen ;) I haven't finished my search.
Then there was a goal — a half marathon of 21 km 97.5 m. I ran it through the RunKeeper Half-Marathon to Complete program for a month of the program previously described there. Injury-free, easy and fun. For the first time I realized that there is a big problem in our cities — there is nowhere for people like me to run.
Then my friends invited me to a new peak — Half Ironman. For those who don't know, Ironman is a triathlon. You swim 3.86 km, then cycle 180.25 km, and then run a full marathon 42.2 km. Half Ironman is simpler — swimming 1.9 km, cycling 90 km and running 21.1 km. That's what I'm going to do. Not to win, of course, but to finish in the allotted time.
It is worth saying that I can swim and ride a bike, but I absolutely do not know how to do it "properly". On June 9, 2013, my first race in my life will take place in the city of Pescara, for which I started preparing this weekend.
I have agreed that a person who has won the Ironman series more than once will help in my preparation (I will tell you more about him later and more than once!) But the most interesting thing is that I train in Kiev for a month, then spend three months wintering on Koh Samui in Thailand (almost the equator, it's hot, damp, hilly), then I return to spring Kiev and finish training here. The competition is in hot Italy :) I don't understand anything about bicycles, or racing them, and I don't understand anything about proper swimming. But I have to learn all this in just 6 months. After all, over the previous 6 months, I learned a lot about running, nutrition, drinking, clothing and all sorts of life hacks.
I'm going to post all my findings and discoveries as they appear, but at least once a week in the blog "Run, Lifehacker, run". If you are interested in this story, the thought of which still gives me goosebumps, then join us and let's learn together!
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