Projectrunbaby

Järgmisel nädalal on igakevadine jooksunädal ja selle raames annan 2 tasuta jooksutrenni Nõmme-Harku metsas.

Teeme rahuliku soojendusjooksu, portsu jooksuharjutusi ja kergemaid kiirendusi. Trenn on sobilik igal tasemel harrastusjooksjale.

Kui oled mõelnud, et tahaksid jooksma hakata, aga ei tea, kust peale hakata või tahaksid lihtsalt koos ühise trenni teha, siis nüüd on õige aeg 💪

NB! Pane end jooksule kirja! Kohtade arv on piiratud.

Kevadine mets ootab juba liikuma 🌱

Lingi registreerimislehele leiad storyst 🙃

In November, I completed my 6 World Marathon Majors journey. I became the 10th Estonian woman to do so - and so far the fastest - with an average finish time of 3:07:58.

I found myself on this 6-star path after running the Boston marathon in 2022. My dad was very sick at the time, and it turned into an emotional race that shifted something in me. Continuing with these big events gained meaning, even though chasing all six had never been on my bucket list.

The major marathons are (mostly) not about running your best time. There are too many uncontrollables: jet lag, travel days, transportation, tens of thousands of runners around you. You might do really well on the flatter courses like Berlin, Chicago, London, and even Tokyo if luck is on your side. But chances are you’d run even faster on a similar course in same conditions without all the logistical chaos.

My journey was definitely shaped by circumstances. In Boston, I had slept only four hours for three nights in a row and developed a cold right before the race. In London, I was way sicker than I wanted to admit. I ran Chicago only four weeks after completely exhausting myself at my goal race of the year, recovering from an upper respiratory infection. In Tokyo, I was coming back from iron-deficiency anemia and ran the race with low effort, unsure if I’d even finish.

I finally managed to stay healthy for Berlin and arrived well-prepared - only to be met with a hot day and deciding to not run all out. And New York was always meant to be just for the experience. By then, it was my third marathon in six weeks, and my quads let me know it from the 25th km to the finish line.

Despite it all, I loved the journey, and I’m glad I completed it. Nowhere else in the world can you run 42.2 km surrounded by so much energy and support from spectators and fellow runners - it’s truly something special. Like a celebration of human endurance 🥳 Yes, you can! Nothing is impossible.

After all the cheers and fireworks, I’m looking forward to some smaller, closer, cosier marathons where you can show up 15 minutes before the gun goes off and step right onto the start line 😊

Marathon teaches you a thing or two about delayed gratification, staying patient and keeping the faith in your abilities.

Berlin was hot. So, I opted for plan B from 15th km and ran a 3:05:05 with a moderately hard effort (7/10) to be able to bounce back quicker than usual.

I was ready. But it wasn’t the time or the place. Not yet.

Happy New Year! 🎉

At the start of the year, it’s always good to look back to turn another page. For me, 2024 was a journey of ups and downs 🎢 both in running and in life overall. It was also a good reminder that progress in running is never linear.

- No. of PBs - 1. The only distance where I ran a PB in 2024 was the marathon - 2:56:46 🎽😏

- No. of times I broke my age group marathon record in 🇪🇪 - 2. First in Spring and then in Autumn 💪

- No. of marathons completed: 4. The total distance I covered racing was 3 km more than the year before (289 km) 🙈

- No. of podium finishes in women’s overall category: 6 (out of 15 races). 🥇 in 3 races (still no tape-breaking moments though 😅), 🥈 in 1 race and 🥉 in 3 races, one of which was the Ravenna marathon.

- No. of doping tests: 1. My first ever. Quite a humbling experience but definitely something to tell grandchildren about one day 😅

- No. of times I battled with low ferritin, low iron, low hemoglobin, iron deficiency anemia or all of it: 3 😵‍💫 Still figuring it out but I’m seeing patterns and learning to understand when that happens.

- No. of km I ran in total: 4340. Ca 6% more than last year and 16.5% of it with high intensity. Due to the rough start of the year, my average pace didn’t improve annually (it did quarterly though). I still somehow got to the best HR vs speed ratio of all time in October (until I had iron issues again).

- No. of times I thought of quitting: 0.

- No. of times I thought I’m too old for this sport: 0 🙃

Grateful to my support team at home and for my run coach Urmas Randma for continuing on this journey with me for 9 years and my strength coach for 4 years already. Looking forward to 2025!

#2024

I shared my running journey, the founding of KULG, and how running can help anyone get stronger with the December Jooksja magazine 💪

Week 5. Marathon starts to feel as real as the Autumn weather in Estonia. It has always felt easier for me to prepare for the distance in the summer, rather than with the cold, wind, rain and darkness. But I knew it all already when I chose to do this and I feel incredibly lucky that I get to do this ☺️ 🍂

Anyway, this week I managed to run 100k as planned, 23% hard and the rest as easy as possible. High intensity included 14k tempo closer to race pace and a 4k speed session much faster than race pace that I moved from track to road now. I also added 3k worth of tempo into my long run, which felt horrible, especially as I ran almost 3h in the rain that day.

My legs were really tired after Tartu half and I still felt the weariness on most runs this week. I also saw some yellow flags in my recovery (HRV, sleep, perceived effort), so we adjusted next week’s plan to help boost recovery, while still getting the bulk of the necessary work done.

But on a positive note - I’ve been able to gather a solid volume of running with a much higher proportion of high intensity than usually for a few months already and my HR to speed ratio trend has been very encouraging.

4 weeks to go! Onwards! 🍁

You did it 🫶 2:50 marathon PR at the age of 47, against all odds 🙌

Sometimes we forget that the result is not the only thing that matters. The journey to pursue your goals, especially when navigating through hardships and moments of self-doubt is what truly counts. How cool is that we get to just be part of it and chase our goals? But when stars align and goals become a reality, it’s even better ☺️

P.S. We knew that was in great shape as .io graphs made the progress evident 📈 “Numbers don’t lie” but “marathon is a marathon, you cannot take it for granted” as my coach likes to say.



📷 Delfi Sport

Another week of marathon-specific prep done ✅

What I managed to do this week:
- I ran 85 km in total
- a lot of high intensity running - 31% of the total distance, which averages ca 3:57 min/ km; the rest of the runs were all slow and easy
- 1 speed training and 1 half-marathon race
- longest run 21 km (the race)

Seeing in the finish with a happy face, having reached his goal of running a 2:50 marathon and seeing some of the runners I’ve been coaching and fellow perform successfully made my day ❤️🥹🫶

My own race was another story🤔 Training had been going so well for the past 2 months that I had high hopes for Tartu half-marathon. But almost immediately as I started the race, the effort felt much higher than normally with this pace and my legs felt like wooden sticks, not moving properly. I aimed to run a few minutes faster than I did in the end.

Looking back, I should have known better not to expect to run a maximum effort after last 3 weeks of steadily increasing intensity and some of the highest mileage weeks this year (see the volume and intensity graph on the 2nd image). I completely ignored the context, even though continuing to focus on the main goal was always part of the plan. Somehow it’s much harder to look at your own training objectively 😏

My newly-found confidence was shaken and I was left with questions. Have I been gaining fitness as I thought? Was I just tired from training? I know that results do not need to precede self-belief but having the proof in terms of results before developing the confidence does make it so much easier to keep believing.

Well, I guess I have to suck it up and go back to training. 5 more weeks to go 😤🫡🤞

📷 K. Kuuse, L. Alaküla