Читать книгу Run and remember - Дмитрий Волошин, Dmitri Voloshin - Страница 4

Well, it’s no joking matter, this challenge requires serious preparation. It took more than a half a year to prepare for the race. Though I already had some experience, I had to start a lot from scratch.

First of all, big distances. I had to learn to run a lot, about 70—80 kilometers per week. I ran about 1,500 kilometers during the entire preparatory period. Probably, this is a beginner’s level for many ultra-runners9 but it took me three months to teach my brain and legs to cope with such a workload.

Then there was a struggle with my backpack. It’s one thing to run light and it’s quite another with a seven-kilogram weight behind your back. In the beginning, I had back pain, but regular training, special running exercises, general physical preparation, and kinesitherapy gave the result, and now my scoliosis doesn’t bother me so much.

Speed. I had to learn to run slowly. It’s not as easy as it sounds. Slowly means for a long time, and for a long time means hard.

Slow running differs from fast in biomechanics, so I had to brush up on my technique. It seems I did it.

Thanks to my coach Lenya Shvetsov, I prepared for the competition. He has been messing with me for more than a year, trying to make me a “running man”. And of course, I thank Liviu Croitoru, who has run with me more than one thousand kilometers.

In 2017, we, Sporter (nonprofit sports organization committed to the promotion of a healthy lifestyle and the development of amateur sports in Moldova), organized the first Rubicon, an ultramarathon relay across Moldova. There I was able to test my sneakers, food, and running technique. And of course, my running performance in kilometers. Honestly, it was hard for the brain to “digest” 150 kilometers in two days. People who were aware of my plans joked: “Dimon, you’ve organized a really impressive training for yourself before the MDS – hundreds of people, hundreds of kilometers, hundreds of thousands of lei…” :)

Let them joke, but seriously – I have a dream to organize an iconic Moldavian race like Marathon des Sables or Comrades in South Africa. And I think we’ll do it.