avatarakali

The Swim Around Key West, 12.5 miles swim, had happened way in the past. On 6th June. I couldn’t start writing about my Key West swim experience. It was so – vast. That I couldn’t grab it and fit it into  a blog post.

I could describe it as: every 30 min kayaker throws to you a bottle of water and a gel, that it was hard but beautiful thing to do, water was warm, the support for the race was great. But that was not the essence of the Key West experience for me, just the visible measurable part of it. I’ve set it to my Training Peaks.

Since then I traveled to Russia to see my family, back to US for a short period of time, during which I saw North Georgia Tri club supporting  The Iron Cowboy  and then went to India for work for couple of weeks, had an ample of other events in my life

This weekend experience of living through 2 days of triathlon, Lake Logan Multisport Festival connected some dots.

Read More »Campfire

As I go through my final long swim before heading to the Key West, I summon up the last 3 months of training. My coach Haley Chura  turned me into a stronger swimmer. I learned so much and had so much fun swimming. I will miss these long swims as switch back to bike and run later on. 3 long distance swims: 4, 6 and 7 miles of looping around local Lake Alatoona cove at Red Top mountain. This all came together only with the help of people around me: amazing athletes I got inspired by, supported by, people who believed in me, made the training swims fun, people sharing the same passions as I do.

 

“Most self discovery happens during the toughest moments.
It breaks one down and requires you to dig deeper.
When I’m lying on the pavement at mile 80 and it’s 100 degrees out,
what motivates me to get up and finish the race?
That is the self-discovery that occurs.
You get a glimpse of your soul at times and see what really makes you tick.
You go deeper in finding out what’s possible and what one can achieve.”

—SCOTT JUREK

– What motivated you to sign up for this swim? – asks a friend

– I’m a long distance runner, – I’m saying, explaining about the 50 mile run at Destin in Feb 2015, the 50K runs and 2 Ironmen events in 2014.   – so for 2015 I wanted a worthy challenge in swimming that would make me want to learn how to swim better.

But that’s not it.

The question gets stuck in my mind for a good portion of the long swim.

What I was always lured by in long distance events is  –  the way my mind works with the long distance.

– Oh, you run this much / train this much, good way to stay fit! – I hear sometimes

I smile when I hear this. It stopped being about sport as such long time ago. Maybe it never was about sport for me to start with.

Read More »Sensory

I always thought that everything people do – they do either out of love of life, or out of fear of death. For God hath… Read More »Fearless

I work with TMD – Too Much Data all the time. I have not watched TV for more then a year: too much data per second.  My work means – processing data, so adding up volume of data to operate off-work is – TMD by default.

I train hours per week others call “it-s-like-having-a-second-job”

I loooooooooovvve communicating with my close friends or with my not-so-close fellow athletes.

but…

Slowing down is a mandatory built-in mechanism of operating my schedule.

At work or in training or overall. I have rest days and easier weeks. Life does not always follow my schedule, life – just happens. And there comes a moment when I have to slow down (like – now!). Or –  when I deliberately slow down. I cut off threads, shut down communication channels. It’s a habit taken from times when keeping lent was routine 6 months per year here and there.

A Lent before Easter. I had taken some time out of most of my social networks communication – and enjoyed the simplicity of it.

This is not the life of simplicity but the life of multiplicity that the wise men warn us of.
It leads not to unification but to fragmentation. It does not bring grace; it destroys the soul.

Total retirement is not possible. I cannot shed my responsibilities.
I cannot permanently inhabit a desert island.
I cannot be a nun in the midst of family life. I would not want to be.
The solution for me, surely, is neither in total renunciation of the world, nor in total acceptance of it.
I must find a balance somewhere, or an alternating rhythm between these two extremes;
a swinging of the pendulum between solitude and communion, between retreat and return.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Gift from the Sea

Read More »Slow

She is clothed with strength and dignity,

and she laughs at the days to come

Proverbs 31:25-31

 

Laughing it off – was one of my earliest methods of dealing with almost anything. I am blessed with having an elder sister. The blessing had it’s perks – I was growing up in constant verbal battles with my sibling: we never ever had an actual fight. Our weapon of choice was – words . Smart arguments were our battlefields. The one who gets upset first looses the fight – simple rules of life. Staying happy was my mode of survival: I liked hanging out with my sister’s elder friends and nobody wanted to have a cry baby around.

Laughter helps me out of anything now. A restless urge to goof around. Inability to hold off tap dancing for longer then a brisk dive into a cold pond of negative or serious stuff. Strained faces make me yawn. Long hard talks makes me wanna get a water gun and help people chill out.

– She runs and she – LAUGHS! – a friend is saying on spotting me around once

Laughing with a friend or friends at train running: heaven.

 

Read More »Laughter

I promised to make this race report in English. Now the blog is not exactly about race reports. So there will be some mix&match of documentary vs. some ideas triggered by my first 50 miler run Destin50 .

Myth #4: All ultrarunners hate themselves
and are just punishing themselves somehow.

INCORRECT!

The Stereotypical Ultrarunner
by Zach Adams

Zenhabits on his 50K:
16 Surprising Lessons from My First 50-Mile Ultramarathon
Pacers are super useful.

whatisultra.tumblr.com: When the media spotlights ultrarunners as “Healthy” vs “unhealthy”

2014 – Destin 50K , race report in Russian: Why Destin50 , SOWF , 50K out-n-back : all fun, fast, radiating bliss of happiness.

2015 – parallel universe aka Sliders : when the events happen in a similar manner yet it’s obviously a different world.

Read More »The Beach Run

kin·es·the·sia    awareness of the position and movement of the parts of the body by means of sensory organs  in the muscles and joints.  “Work… Read More »Kinesthesia

Imagine a human being aligned in perfection for a certain task. Kenyan marathoners are.
Imagine seeing up close the way human body can move when running at high speeds for hours. The mechanics of it. The strength. The spirit behind it.

That’s what the TRANSCEND film is about

I would like to skip, to scratch out the part of movie description from the site
– “Long-distance running allowed Wesley Korir to escape the grinding poverty of Kenya.”
That just gives a wrong message.

It’s not only about the struggles of simple ways of life in Kenya, though the part can not be denied. It’s about an enhanced vision of the phenomena of Kenyan runners. Shown from both social and spiritual sides. Shown with the highest quality of modern cinematography.

“…after winning multiple American marathons,
including taking running’s most cherished prize – the Boston Marathon,
he risks it all and returns home to help his fellow Kenyans create better lives for themselves.
In what proves to be the most challenging race of his career,
Wesley takes on a well-financed, big-party candidate to run for a seat

in Kenyan parliament,
attempting to balance the frenzy of campaigning with the demands of marathon training.
Transcend is the story of the elusive spiritual energy
that is somehow forged in the intense rigor of long-distance running,
an energy Wesley Korir is using to transform the nation”

From the TRANSCEND official site

” It’s such a consistent source of pleasure.
I’ve never gotten over this feeling of moving rapidly through space.
It takes you back to childhood. If you had asked me to define myself when I was 12,
I would have said I was a runner.”
Malcolm Gladwell

I haven’t been to cinema for what might be a couple of years. I could not find the right reason to spend couple of hours watching any video. This video – so worth it. The inspirational kick I got when I watched TRANSCEND in Chattanooga was good enough to make me hammer next morning run imagining I am a Kenyan! 🙂
Getting together to watch the movie with other runners – priceless. Getting to see packs of kenyans training together, getting to see Wesley Korir running, hearing his story, his thoughts, seeing a simple human being doing what he does – unforgettable.

What I want to do now – is to attempt to bring the movie to Atlanta. There are so many runners in Atlanta – there’s got to be something good coming out of this idea.

https://www.tugg.com/events/13226 – the TUGG.com page for the Atlanta Transcend screening

https://www.facebook.com/events/1538196353099342/ – the Facebook for the Transcend  on 03/03/2015, Tuesday

at AMC Mansell Crossing 14  7730 North Point Parkway, Alpharetta, GA, US, 30022

Read More »TRANSCEND

Vitality
[vahy-tal-i-tee]

exuberant physical strength or mental vigor:

capacity for survival or for the continuation of a meaningful or purposeful existence:
power to live or grow:

Russian avatarakali.livejournal blog post on 2015

 

“Stars form from clouds of interstellar gas and dust which collapse due to their own gravity. When the core of a newborn star becomes sufficiently hot and dense, hydrogen begins to fuse into helium providing a very powerful energy source. Stars are held up against gravitational collapse by pressure forces. This is known as hydrostatic equilibrium. Eventually no hydrogen remains in the core of the star and the star will begin to collapse again. Other energy sources (such as fusion of helium, carbon, and heavier elements) may hold the star up for a time, but ultimately all energy sources are used up.

At this point the star suffers from one of two possible fates, depending on its mass. Low mass stars (like the Sun) shed their outer layers in a so-called “planetary nebula,” while the inner core collapses to form a “white dwarf” star. Higher mass stars undergo a huge supernova explosion in which the outer layers are violently expelled, leaving behind a very dense “neutron star” or black hole.

Either way, the outer regions of the star are returned to the interstellar medium where they contribute to the formation of the next generation of stars.“

(с) NASA summarizes the basic life cycle of stars

 

This blog was started in mid-2014. I wanted to share on the Radiance of the year with my English-speaking friends back then.  Turns out – I will keep it in 2015, posting on random thoughts and observations on LIFE, Triathlon etc etc.

The idea of One word resolution is not new: I started “naming” my years since 2012, and here’s how it worked. I did not intend it to be following any pattern, but a friend of mine, a physicist, compared the pattern with the one of a star lifecycle. I liked that!

2012: the year of “GRAVTATION”: I’ve summoned up my skills, pulled inwards, closed up, reviewed my strengths, gathered up evidence of what I can do well enough.

2013: – the year of “EXPLOSION” – I used my summoned power for expanding the ranges of my activities, I rocked at Half-Ironman triathlons, ran alot, and shaped up my team at work. The explosion did leave some “lack holes” behind though!

2014 was bound to be the “RADIANCE” year. Words are not enough to describe the power of the Light I felt through the year. I was blessed and blessed and blessed with the ultimate happiness and feeling acute-alive. . I shared on the light – with dozens of friends: a generous gift of the Universe  in 2014. I’ve completed 2 Ironman events and somewhat more then dozen of smaller events. I created the base for my further development as a triathlete and as a professional in IT.

So here’s what I knew by the end of 2014: that

• 2015 will be the year of VITALITY.

I want to use all the experience I got through this “life cycle” in order to share of LIFE, support it, nurture it, explore it. To get stronger and better in triathlon, at work, to find a perfect Equilibrium in personal life. (don’t we all?)

On Dec 31st 2014 I’ve washed off 2014 during the famous 7-10-15K options DYNAMO Multisport “New Year Eve Extravaganza” 9K swim

(was targeting for 10, but had some technical issues after 9th K)

On Jan 1st, after 10 mile run am + 1 hour bike,  I’ve plunged into the Alatoona Lake waters together with other crazy people, at the yearly famous local  “Pillowman Polar Bear plunge”. By doing that I was sealing up the list of my 2015 goals scrapped on a tiny Michal Negrin stationary piece of paper.

 

For my yearly goals I will continue using the tool I started using in 2009 : found at some Russian blog, “the method ofa chair” proved to keep my development steady and balanced once it’s sorted by 4, not 2 or 3 sub-areas.

I keep my goals sorted by four areas:

• Professional
• Personal
• Hobby
• Other activities

Keeping it short! Read More »2015: the year of VITALITY

It’s time to shape up the reflection on my IM month.

Yes, a month

5 weeks I was basking in the light of Ironman mood:

• from Ironman Chattanooga – IMCHOO on 28^th September to
• Ironman Florida on November 1^st. With the best marathon I ever had so far in between – the 7 Bridges marathon on October 19^th. Done the day after I rode 65 on IMCHOO loop in the  memory of the Event.

Shawna already wrote her buildingblockblog  “ It is the last answer to the last question on the test: “Can you deal with what is given to you and NOT QUIT? ”

For me this was never a question. The question was:
– Are we having fun yet???
Or, if being more serious: can I pass through this 144.6 or 138.2 miles with “strength and dignity”

Read more on social, physical, psychological aspects of passing through Ironman + few words on Faith below

Read More »The Limitless Peace – a reflection on my first “Year of Ironman”: IMCHOO and IMFL