Running totals for 2008: 1382 km, 123 hours, 11,2 km/h

My personal running totals for 2008 are at a record high. Increased training paid off:

• I made a new personal marathon record at 3:55:22 in Finland 16.8.2008


• I made a new personal half marathon record at 1:45:58 in Munich 29.6.2008


• I ran a total of 1382 km (plus 10 %)


• I ran a total of 120 times (almost every third day)


• I ran over 100 km every single month


• I increased my average speed from 10,8 km/h to 11,2 km/h (plus 4 %)


• I spent over five days of 2008 on the run (123 h 4 min 8 s), which amounts to 0,95 % of the year


• I ran 82 times around Isarwehr in Munich, 13 times around Sellmo in Nagu, Finland and 21 times elsewhere

    Month      km                   Time  km/h       min/km  Ct
 1  January    108 km   108 km   9:43:23  11,2 km/h  5:22,8  10
 2  February   107 km   215 km   9:32:04  11,2 km/h  5:21,6   9
 3  March      107 km   322 km   9:27:59  11,3 km/h  5:19,8  12
 4  April      118 km   440 km  10:30:18  11,2 km/h  5:20,0  12
 5  May        115 km   555 km  10:20:15  11,1 km/h  5:24,1  10
 6  June       139 km   694 km  12:12:30  11,4 km/h  5:16,0  11
 7  July       129 km   823 km  11:15:16  11,5 km/h  5:13,1  11
 8  August     113 km   936 km  10:17:29  10,9 km/h  5:29,1   7
 9  September  117 km 1 053 km  10:40:17  11,0 km/h  5:28,3  10
10  October    116 km 1 169 km  10:11:38  11,4 km/h  5:16,3  10
11  November   107 km 1 276 km   9:13:23  11,6 km/h  5:11,1   9
12  December   107 km 1 382 km   9:39:36  11,0 km/h  5:25,8   9

2008         1 382 km              5,1 d  11,2 km/h  5:20,5 120

Blue = 2007, green = 2008: Consistently over 100 km/month!

In my blog entry about the 1259 km I ran in 2007 I set these goals for 2008:

For 2008, I look out to run more and faster than 2007, and to be able to support more mountaineering, more snowboarding, and perhaps a “trans Alp” on a mountain bike. Whether I’ll go for my fifth marathon somewhere remains to be seen.

I still haven't biked the trans Alp, but I made the other items beyond expectations! If things go on this way, I will soon consider myself a former coach potato. But perhaps I had better not pursue such a thought, since then I might risk stop running.

Russia serves kajsher food at Elki Palki

Ёлки Палки means "firs poles", if you believe Google Translate. In this case, I don't.

But Elki Palki is an excellent place for kajsher food. "Kajsher" refers to my self-imposed dietary guidelines, which involve low fat, no excess sweetness, and avoidance of red meat, all while maintaining good taste. Basically, what I consider to be healthy food. Fish and vegetables made without unnecessary fat (steamed, grilled) are excellent examples of kajsher food, sushi is another.

After this self-indulgent description of food I enjoy, let me say that Russia is a place which nowadays very much complies with my wishes. This is what I had at Elki Palki today, at Domodedovo Airport, before heading home to Munich: Salmon, more salmon still, boiled vegetables, raw carrots, dark bread, some kvass to drink.


Good visual appearance; the decoration may indeed be made of fir poles


The food is easy to pick without knowing Russian


Clean surroundings

Moo-moo: Russian fast food

This blog post is dedicated to fellow Moscow visitor Zack Urlocker, with whom I strolled along the Arbat in Moscow, just when Zack had taken over MySQL Engineering in 2006. We quickly identified an outlet of the Russian fast-food chain Moo-moo. The black and white pattern is supposed to look like a cow. The Russian spelling "My-My" has nothing to do with MySQL.



Today, I passed another Moo-moo outlet, but resisted the temptation to enter.

I have shared some other experiences from this trip in Russian and in Swedish. In Swedish, I've described the very comfortable train ride from Helsinki to Moscow and the challenging local transport with the subway from the railway station to the hotel. In my own (and Google Translate's) version of Russian, I just managed to write about the train journey.