Marathon Training in Dushanbe

One of my biggest concerns coming over to Tajikistan was the possibility of there being an interruption in my marathon training. I found myself getting locked into thinking I wouldn’t be running for three weeks, but such was not the case. Early on Teo recommended that I run down by the Dushanbinka River which was much quieter than Rudaki and I took to his advice best I could. To get to the Dushanbinka I had to run down a huge hill and going back up was a bigger nightmare. My first four mile run in the city was on Rudaki and I hadn’t a problem aside from the women sweeping up dust. It was my second day of running in the city that was absolutely horrible. Here is why:

-First there was a large amount of uphill/downhill. Having trained in Florida where it is flat, I was not really mentally prepared for this kind of run for my long run.
-I was supposed to run 15 miles, but ended up doing only 11.25. When I looked at my watch and realized It had taken me 2 hrs and 34 minutes to make it that far I felt defeated and just came to a halt. I thought my legs were going to give and even as I walked back up the huge hill to get to my apartment every part of me seemed to be dying. My spirit was hurting that day.
-My fuel pack rubbed deep into my shoulder area making it raw and sore.
-A bird dumped on my head.

What more could go wrong?

Luckily, Kate was also training for a marathon having her around made the short and long runs much better. On build days and weekdays we ran for 40 minutes in the morning. This put me off the Hal Higdon training schedule, but I was working with little time in the morning to get my run in. We had to meet for breakfast with the group at 8ish everyday. Having Kate around really proved beneficial on my second go at long distance running in Dushanbe. Kate needed to get 20 in and I only needed to get 16 miles in. (ONLY 16 miles sounds crazy – btw.) We ran all over the city and made much better time than my last run. At 11 miles we were at 2 hrs, which was perfect for me and I was still feeling fairly decent. It was around 14 or 15 that I really started to give. Kate took off at 16 to get in another two, but once I reached 16 I walked my way back to my apartment. I was happy to have completed the run. I felt good.

Now my next big concern is running down in the Pamirs. It’s ALLLLL mountain down there.

Pictured above is the path by the river and below is the Dushanbinka River in action -rolling while we’re running.

(Updated and Uploaded on September 23, 2006.)