How to stand sub-tropical climate in Moscow?

Hi there, fellow runner. It’s summer here, in Moscow, Russia. Climate have slightly changed recently and we have some sort of sub-tropical weather conditions. You know, when I say sub-tropical, I mean it: hot and wet. Physical and mental activity makes your body sweat as sweeping broom. Running is cancelled for the rest of us who suffer even from tiny overweight, weight lifting feels like swimming. Sport aesthetics? Forget about it. Hot. And wet. What to do now, you may ask. What to do to stay somewhat fit physically and mentally?

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As usual, there is no simple answer. There are plenty of options for those, who are lucky enough to live and work in suburbs, preferably near clean local river or pond. If you are one of such guys then shut up and get off. You are not welcome here for now.

...Physical and mental activity makes your body sweat as sweeping broom...

The other obvious option, long walks instead of short, powerful runs hides danger: due to harsh sun your skin suffers a risk of damage when exposed for long periods of time. Sun burns and chance of skin cancer are not our options. Use skin protection if you’ll take this path.

There are always other sports for people in such circumstances: you can do yoga or play chess but face the truth -- you won't gain muscles with yoga or chess. You won't loose weight. You’ll even won't get smarter if you are stupid :) Not an option, then.

...you won't gain muscles with yoga or chess...

So you might want to invent some sort of activities fit exactly for your needs -- you may choose to modernize your transportation habits adding some bicycle here or there and shifting your schedule to cover more fresh parts of the day, earlier in the morning and later in the evening. You may review your food choices and and it will help you find more willpower and just power to fulfill your running plans.

So by fixing your overall unhealthiness where it still present you find great capacity of health in your day-to-day life and discover sport in unexpected areas of your typical day. Cheers!

By all means, never stop struggling with obstacles between you and goals you set, wether they are laying in the field of sport, health or just wellness. Combine, try and win. Life is a bit more complicated then simple gambling, but there are still lots of similarities.

Or you may choose to skip and take a flight to some other country for a moment :)

Frugal training plan to look extremely great up to summer starting in February

Hi there fellow runner! Finally, here is a plan for the rest of us.

1. Nutrition

Here are my basic advices on food. You can stick to them if you want to, but can shift to your own nutrition plan, it's not mandatory, must of my thoughts are based on two points -- healthiness and frugality. And it's average plan. You can imagine more healthy and less frugal variants, while some other folks may think it otherwise.

a. Breakfast

Muesli is the key here. Buy some and add some kefir instead of milk. It might be nice to grab some additional stuff to put it in your bowl later -- vanilla sugar, cinnamon, various nuts, dried fruits of some sort, fresh fruits like banana or apple.

How to get it: according to a rule of fist (the rule where you consume no more then the size of your fist in one meal) grab a fistful of muesli and put them in a bowl, put some additions if you want, fill the bowl with kefir, mix everything well, wait for a couple of minutes, eat.

Tip from a pro: don't prepare your meal a long time before you'll eat it. For example in the evening the day before. It tastes better fresh.

Alternative variant: fruits and cheese. Simple, fast and tasty.

b. Early lunch

Drinkable yoghurt would be a perfect decision. It can be the only dish there or can be accompanied by whole grain snack like muesli bar or some fresh fruits like apples, grapes or pears. Nuts will do good too. It's an optional meal -- good for those fellows who commute from home to office for about an hour or more.

c. Lunch

If you prefer eating out then try some complex lunch here with a bit of everything -- fresh vegetable salad, soup, buckwheat porridge and some meat if you love meat or fish if you love fish or just porridge if you don't like eating dead animals and fish. I, myself, would rather prefer such complex approach to alternatives like subway or other sandwich-based meals. Ant here is my point explained: sandwich approach is good if you are short on time but you will soon be hungry again, so if you are free for about an hour or a half of it -- spend it whole tasting food you eat and feel good long after. No hastiness mean good meal for me.

Tip from a pro: from the other side you might as well prepare your lunch box at home and deliver it to your office. It has it's benefits: it's more frugal way, it can be healthier way, due to your area may suffer lack of good places to eat out healthy. But there are negative points here too: eating at office cuts your opportunity to walk out of the building for a certain amount of time, less socialization and also it takes time in the morning or evening to prepare descent food for your upcoming lunch. So choose your way.

d. Afternoon snack

Some fruits or nuts if you feel hungry still. And by the way it's not fixed to the office hours. So if your trip back home is long enough you may become too hungry to stay in control of yourself later in the evening, when you'll be enjoying your healthy dinner.

Tip from a pro: always have something healthy and tasty with you in your bag in case of sudden hunger struck.

e. Dinner

Here it is, last meal of the day. Typically you will reach dinner worn out and would like to refresh yourself towards some evening opportunities, or dinner may be eaten out though it will be an affair itself. My basic rules here are: when eating out you may intake more calories because you'll consume some of them during your trip back home. Though, when eating at home you may switch to vegan style or something like that. My personal choice is: bowl of creatively mixed vegetable, fruit or combined salad with some yoghurt and spice topping.

Tip from a pro: if choose salad, be creative, invent new mixes each day so you'll never get stuck with it's taste.

f. Some typical advices

First: hydration. Some say that coffee does not count as a fluid intake because of it's nature. Tell this to the about 50% of people who prefer drinking coffee all day long instead of water. Though you might want to switch to water. And you should if you could. By the way promote a habit of drinking a glass of water early in the morning.

2. Training

Here is the carcass of your training plan. It's not very complicated, especially in comparison to p90x )) But there are options even in this plan. So you can shift activities, mix in some from "additional training" section and exclude parts of running, weight lifting or abs, squats and push-ups. Therefore you should consider that fact: if there are more exercises during your route from February to June then there are greater results in your final shape proportionally.

a. Running

There are only two ways to run for you here: first is to tun like hell and second is to run as you can and want to. For me decision is made already, for you I can't give any advice because I'm not a pro at all.


Read more in next week's shiny little episode, so stay tuned )

Listen to the music as you run, it helps a lot

Lime splashing into water. Extremely shallow DoF Uploaded by matchstick

So we finally settled matter of training plan down. We are good boys and girls and had done good job. Let's talk about our first or one of those first days when we hit the ground with our newbie running feet. First week of training is quite simple when looking at our timers and thinking on training time. You have only 5-15 minutes a day to run, here is almost nothing to fear. Second week reveals new problems -- you run about 20-40 minutes and you need to fill them with something to let you be happy and not fell asleep.

There are options, as usual. Believe me or nit, but there are many. Some say, that listening to the music is the best one, but here we come to the problem of play-lists -- you have to create ideal one for your every run or you would stop every 3-4 minutes and search for a comfortable tune which really fits your current mood. Many people fell nice and like their own breath as it sounds during training. It's an option for those runners, who breathe right. Or who breath good. Or for those who are going to improve their breathing technique (we'll discuss it later). The third option is to use special tracking software with your smartphone. It will tell you your current training data like speed (average and current), pace (all the same), time, distance and even transmit data from heart-rate monitor if you have one. This dataset will change from program to program, but I use runkeeper with android phone, it works good and I sure as hell may recommend it.

So there are no more options and it's hard. Like a rock. You are free to combine these techniques, like mixing up music and software vocalized training data. It's a bes option so you can listen to your favorite tracks and don't have to constantly check your timer.

As for me, I prefer radio, but there are days when I just run in silence or listen to the software voice in between my ears. By the way. Do you remember your first running gadget? Yesterday I spotted ipod mini 4 gb blue model in local used electronics shop. It's almost like the green mini, which accompanied me while I was making my first steps in the running field. Tomorrow I'll show you some shots of this device.

Cycling vs running: is there any competition?

Shiny alphadrive bike gear, I like cycling and what about you?

Hi there, fellow runner! How about cycling? Do you like it? Let's talk about cycling as an alternative to running. I don't really think that riding a bike can be anyway competitor to running. And here are few points from which I've noticed the difference. First of all is complicity -- riding a bike involves service, care and a place to store your bicycle. So you can't just wake up one day and say that tis is the day. You have to be prepared, to get bike from garage, check it's functions, drive it to service if found any troubles you can't fix on the go. Then you are connected to weather conditions -- it's quite expensive to ride during winter -- you have to buy completely worm outfit and bike gear for winter riding: new tires and more headlights for example. If you store a bike at home, you have to get more attention to it -- it need complete cleanup aftr every ride, because it will be absolutely dirty after every ride.

Cute 666 kilometers on vectra wireless bicycle computer.

Second issue is about fun and lack of motivation. You can cover great distances on bike, but half of your riding time you'll go downhill and make no action, lust sit on the seat. While riding in the city, you can even get in road accident and receive traumas which can be quite dangerous. And air in your city isn't breathable at all, but your body will consume it much more then when you go on foot. There are lot of happy green cities all over our globe, but there are lot of dirty ones and we should note this.

Running is much easier to do then cycling, but cycles are great, if you have one, go for a ride tomorrow. It's fun and beautiful despite all my words above this sentence!

Tip for a busy runner

Hi there, fellow runner! Today's agenda is full of lifesaving. As I can predict easily, you don't have enough time for anything important during the day. Your work and friends plus family relations consume most of your time and you are drained completely. That's why you are getting fat and feel upset sometimes, right?

There always are few tips for the rest of us, who can't stand the situation. You can't rely on any help from gym, you don't just have time for such activities, according to the terms of the question. But if you look closer at your daily routine, it will reveal two big slices of free time which are terribly underutilized. I'm talking about the way to and from your office.

Try to rethink that way, look at it from the runner's point of view. I, for myself, had discovered that I can achieve 30 minutes of forest running from my path to office and about 30 minutes of plain walking with beautiful landscape in the evening on my way home. Of course you shouldn't rely on this method too much, it's not a substitute to your carefully developed training plan, but as a short time solution it works best.

Three days a week training or more for a novice runner?

Hi there, fellow runner! Today's agenda will run about daily running. So you are starting your training and following one of entry-level programs. You are running 2-3 days a week and want more, because it seems possible and even easy. Here are some tips and thoughts. People always think that if small amount of something is good, then increasing this amount mean greater good. But it rarely happen this way. In most cases it works upside-down. And increasing something like training frequency without rethinking the process can result in more pain and injuries. You even can think about leaving running for more hard ones. So motivation will be corrupt from the beginning and almost all fun will be lost -- can you really risk this?

J.J. Eller wins 120 yd. Hurdle 1911

For a newbie runner or runner over 40 years old it's very important to have a plenty of leisure to recover body from stress after training. Right after run your body is going to expand it's aerobic capacities -- it's like building more infrastructure so oxygen may be delivered to muscles in more effective way. It consumes time and increasing training frequency can collapse all bodies ventures on this field. So the first keystone is good leisure and a plenty of sleep to recover from a training day.

The second approach to concept of three running days a week lays on three whales -- speed training day, strength training day and long-run day. So here we have some sort of diversification. When you fell like you are ready to improve you shouldn't start with improving training frequency -- it's less important. You can improve speed, strength and distance. Imagine and implement improvements in your routine, add more uphill running for your strength day or add more interesting and complicated intervals to your speed training day. Add more kilometers to your long-run weekend. Rethink the process and feel your aims and passions are fulfilled.

When running goes down: revive the dead track!

Hello, fellow runner! Today's question of interest is about getting close to experience cap in our field. Imagine you are at the maximum of your abilities -- you run perfectly from your point of view. No progress and everything you get in return from all your attempts is frustration and pain. Newbies frequently come to such a situation -- adding kilometers and minutes to their daily running activities and receiving less then they are willing to get. It's not a problem of human powers, it's a common problem of overpumped expectations. So grab your will and do nothing but train, but differently, if you please. Just assume that there is no experience cap in running -- you should experiment, involve your imagination, reed blogs like this and create new routine for your fun. But remember that we discuss only running as a hobby -- not professional sport! My advices can ruin your career as a professional runner -- mind this )

First trouble: you are getting low on power faster then you expect and loose speed.

How to solve: just relax -- ease your routine. Run, say, non every day, bun every other day, add walk breaks or something like this -- shorten your training for some time -- take a break an rest a little -- make your running routine more comfortable and life will turn it's brighter side to you. When in actually happen, just don't miss a moment -- empower your training -- run better and faster!

Second trouble: you just can't run faster.

You should add some speed exercises in your training routine. Seped-ups, slow-downs and intervals. Try uphill running in some cases it can let you focus on your other potential powers. Add long run to your timetable -- for the weekend, sunday morning, for example -- run more then you regular do -- focus on distance, not speed. So, working in this side areas will improve your speed and you will notice the effect after all.

Third trouble: you are over exhausted during your long runs.

Try to slow down your pace, add more kilometers to your training at lower rate -- don't try to eat great pie, take it by slices.

Once a runner, twice a runner: how to get back your running after a break

Hi there, fellow runner! How's the running routine going? Well, you might be in great condition now but remember your sporty time-line -- you sure had hard times when you left training route for a while -- a week, a month, maybe more. Let's discuss the situations so people, who never faced them, before can handle all troubles perfectly correct.

Imagine you had a brake in your training (which we can call fun, I assume) for one or two weeks. The first day back on the road you should run slower, maybe take more walk breaks and try to shorten the lenth of your regular route to avoid being over exhausted. Thats all -- don't worry.

The next situation -- if you stopped your running for a month plus-minus something. Here you have a week plan to get back -- it's easy and you don't really have to stick to it -- just mind it and be sure -- you'll make fun. For Monday you can 15 minutes training and you should run for 30 seconds, then you should walk for 30 an so on. Tuesday is for walking -- walk for 30-60 minutes. Then Wednesday: run for 20 minutes with same pattern as on Monday. You've got the idea? Yes -- next day will be more walking and the other day -- more running. If you feel good you can change ratio between running and walking and run for 30-50 seconds then walk for 30-10 seconds.

The last situation is the easiest -- you left running for more then a month -- it's ok to get back again using the plan above, but it's fun to imagine that you start running for the first time in your life, but again )

photo credits: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikebaird/2913350364/sizes/z/in/photostream/