Forem: Vladimir Semenov

AI in Development: It’s Not Artificial Intelligence, It’s Collective Intelligence

Vladimir Semenov — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 11:08:31 +0000

Entering my third decade in software engineering, I have witnessed paradigm shifts from waterfall to agile, monoliths to microservices, and on-premise to cloud. Yet, nothing has impacted my daily workflow quite like the integration of Generative AI. Tools like GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, and Claude Code have become indispensable staples in my IDE.

Initially, like many, I viewed these tools as hyper-efficient assistants -calculators for logic rather than numbers. They accelerated boilerplate coding and offered quick syntax reminders. However, as my reliance on them grew, my perspective on what was actually happening beneath the surface shifted radically. We often talk about “prompt engineering” as if we are programming a machine, but that analogy is incomplete.

I realised that viewing AI merely as a synthetic tool acts as a barrier to fully leveraging its potential. The real power lies in understanding its source.

Consider this shift in perspective: When a Software Engineer uses AI for work, it’s not really “AI” helping them; rather, it is many engineers all around the world working together to help them. The responses we receive, whether that perfectly optimised algorithm or that obscure error stack trace explanation, are distilled from the aggregated work of countless Software Engineers globally.

This collective intelligence acts as a co-partner, much like we experience in traditional pair programming, but on a massive, unprecedented scale.

Have you thought about it in this way?

When Claude Code suggests a code logic, it isn’t “thinking.” It is synthesising patterns from millions of public repositories. It presents the consensus solution derived from decades of collective human trial and error. I am no longer coding in isolation; I am tapping into the world’s largest asynchronous pair programming session. I have instant access to the virtual mentorship of the global developer community, viewing my code through the lens of their combined experience.

Embracing this mindset changes how we interact with the technology. It moves us from passive consumers of auto-generated code to active participants in a global knowledge exchange. It demands that we apply our experience to validate this collective input, serving as the final human gatekeeper for quality and security.

Ultimately, using AI isn’t about replacing the engineer. It’s about augmenting an individual engineer with the digitised wisdom of every engineer who came before them. That is a profoundly human collaboration, facilitated by powerful machines.

AI: An Engineer’s Ally, Not a Replacement

Vladimir Semenov — Sat, 12 Jul 2025 07:59:01 +0000

The conversation about Artificial Intelligence frequently revolves around the idea of job displacement, with many articles claiming that AI will replace software engineers entirely. However, this perspective overlooks the true potential of AI in our field.

AI as a Force Multiplier

Tools like GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, and Gemini are already transforming how we work, handling repetitive tasks and generating boilerplate code. But software engineering is far more than just coding; it’s about problem-solving, architectural design, understanding complex business logic, and innovation.

Companies that choose to drastically cut engineering teams in favor of purely AI-driven development will fall behind. They will be losing to their competitors who actually keep all their engineers but can deliver more and quicker. AI empowers engineers by:

Accelerating Development: AI tools speed up routine tasks, allowing engineers to focus on higher-value activities and faster product iteration.
Enhancing Code Quality: AI helps identify bugs and vulnerabilities, leading to cleaner, more robust code.
Improving Problem Solving: By handling routine tasks, AI frees up engineers to tackle challenging, abstract problems requiring deep analytical thinking.

The Future: Augmented Human Brilliance

The future of software engineering isn’t a world without engineers; it’s one where engineers are augmented by intelligent AI partners. Our roles will evolve, focusing more on strategic planning and the uniquely human aspects of creation and collaboration. We’ll be less about syntax and more about strategy.

For companies, smart AI adoption means investing in existing talent, providing engineers with tools and training to leverage AI effectively. This approach boosts productivity and fosters an engaged, innovative workforce.

For individual engineers, the message is clear: embrace AI, master these new tools, and cultivate the skills AI cannot replicate. Focus on your problem-solving abilities, architectural prowess, and communication skills. The true competitive edge will belong to those who effectively blend human expertise with artificial intelligence.

Choose your side: Creator or Consumer

Vladimir Semenov — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 05:37:49 +0000

Frankly, I believe everyone experiences a daily inner struggle — a battle between the roles of Creator and Consumer.

Even as I write this article, I find myself torn between focusing on the task at hand and succumbing to distractions, like pouring another cup of coffee or diving into a half-hour binge of funny YouTube videos.

It’s undeniable that we can’t exclusively embody one role. We all carry a blend of Creator and Consumer within us. However, there’s often an imbalance. Most of the time, we lean toward being consumers, which aligns with our natural tendency to absorb and utilize the information around us. Our brains, much like neural networks, are hardwired to seek patterns—even when none exist.

Personally, I’m always thinking about side projects, self-improvement, or generating new ideas. I firmly believe the life of a pure Consumer isn’t the life I was meant to lead.

To combat my procrastination, I created a personal Trello board that constantly reminds me of the tasks I still need to tackle. This simple tool motivates me to keep progressing and to focus on creating something new—whether it’s a pet project to explore new technology or simply an experiment to satisfy my curiosity.

As you might notice, I’m not great at consistently updating or implementing every idea I come across—even those I initially consider worth pursuing. I often lean on an excuse (though it really shouldn’t be one) that I have a family, a house, a car, and people I deeply value spending time with. Still, I firmly believe I should devote more of my energy to the Creator’s role than I currently manage.

As a Senior Developer/Engineer with years of experience, I feel a strong drive to channel my expertise in more meaningful and impactful ways. Progress may be slow, but I’m steadily staying up to date with new technologies, and methodologies, and building pet projects.

To facilitate this, I created a personal GitHub account where I’ve been gradually adding projects. What started as an empty profile is now a growing collection of solutions aimed at addressing real-world problems while allowing me to experiment with emerging technologies. These projects not only help me refine my skills but also keep me connected to the ever-evolving tech landscape.

thesun2003 (Vladimir Semenov) · GitHub

I am a Technical Lead / Senior Software Engineer living in Brisbane, Australia. https://about.me/vladimirsemenov - thesun2003

github.com

Well, it is impossible to have a world that contains only Creators because the core of an economy is Consumers. Furthermore, Creators are finding new ways of solving people’s (read Consumer’s) problems or even creating new ones. Without people who consume those solutions, they will have nothing to do.

Overall, I am not trying to make you drop everything and start creating something new immediately and desperately. No. Being a Creator means not only inventing new technologies, products and solutions but also making improvements and growing. Being only a Consumer for everyone could lead to stagnation and even degradation of humankind. I believe we (humankind) deserve a much better life with much more possibilities. Is this not such a great motivation to do it?!

In a nutshell, if you keen to live in a better world you should keep trying to spend more time in a Creator’s position, spend time improving yourself, be doing self-education, thinking out of the box, I believe that after that we will find ourselves in a new World.

This is a bit rewrite of my first-ever article on Medium from 2017.

If this article was helpful or interesting please hit the like button and feel free to share it. I’ll be sure to deliver you more articles in the coming weeks.

Supercharge Your Workflow: Chrome shortcut for Jira & Instant UUID Generation on Mac

Vladimir Semenov — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 08:44:11 +0000

Quickly Search Jira Tickets Using Google Chrome Shortcuts

Did you know that Google Chrome supports site search shortcuts? By default, Chrome includes shortcuts for Bookmarks, Gemini, and History.

However, you can add your own custom shortcuts — it’s simple and incredibly powerful.

Go to Settings > Search Engine, then scroll to the Site Search section.
Add a new shortcut for Jira. For example, I created one called “sp” because all our Jira tickets use the prefix SP.

Use the following URL template:

https://your-jira-url.com/browse/YOURPREFIX-%s

Now, I can simply type sp followed by the ticket number (without the prefix), and Chrome will open the corresponding Jira ticket.

This approach works not just for Jira but for any website or app that supports search or has predictable URL patterns. It’s a quick and effective way to streamline navigation!

Generate UUIDs on Mac Without Installing Any App

If you work with modern applications, you’ve probably used UUIDs as unique identifiers for databases, tests, mocked data, and more. I wanted a quick and easy way to generate UUIDs on my Mac without installing third-party apps.

I explored several solutions — many were either overcomplicated or paid. I even tried building a simple macOS app with ChatGPT’s help, but it quickly felt like diving into the complexities of Mac development.

Thankfully, I discovered a smarter and simpler solution using the Shortcuts app, which comes pre-installed on macOS. Let me introduce UUDi, the custom shortcut I created!

How It Works

At its core, UUDi runs a shell script to generate a UUID, copy it to the clipboard, and display a notification:

getuuid() {
    uuid=$(uuidgen | tr 'A-Z' 'a-z' | tr -d '\n')
    (osascript -e "display notification with title \"⌘-V to paste\" subtitle \"$uuid\"" &) >/dev/null 2>&1
    echo -n "$uuid" | pbcopy
}

getuuid

Setting It Up

Open the Shortcuts app on your Mac.
Add a new automation that runs the shell script above.
Assign a keyboard shortcut — I chose Ctrl-Shift-U because it’s unlikely to conflict with other system shortcuts.

How It Works in Action

Now, whenever I press Ctrl-Shift-U, a fresh UUID (v4) is generated, and copied to the clipboard, and a notification reminds me that I can press Command-V to paste it wherever I need.

These small tweaks simplify and speed up everyday tasks.

What productivity hacks or shortcuts do you use? Share your favourites in the comments below!

Money as a Service?

Vladimir Semenov — Sun, 09 Sep 2018 23:12:31 +0000

Have you ever think of the nature of the money? It started from the obligations — paper with a statement that a person who owns it is able to go to the bank and ask for a particular amount of gold or any other treasure.

Later on, we started to use money as just a physical equivalent of the value of the price. Even now, when we have credit cards, Visa and Mastercard, we still use money as just a representation of the value or the number.

Nowadays, does not matter what type of money do you use — digital or physical, it is still just a number of the valuable units you own in the bank or in your pocket. Additionally, there are a lot of rules, regulations and business logic on the top of the money: salaries, taxes, transactions, benefits, discounts, loyalty points and so on.

Having all these business logic outside of the money creates tons of the manual work, which includes human errors, problems with paying taxes (usually not paying!), criminal money, fraud and etc.

Opportunity for the mankind (credits https://www.instagram.com/thesun2003/)

What if?

But what if? If there will be a Money as a Service? I am talking about a new way of thinking what the money can be. Just imagine that you have a system that already has some business logic that works automatically within any transaction in the system?

Sounds incredible? Sounds impossible? Probably only if you think about it in the current approach of how do we all use the money. The old simple-minded way.

For instance, paying taxes. How does it work now? Every time when you get your payslip, accountants calculates how many of the whole amounts comes to your pocket and well as other payments, including taxes. Sounds good. But at the same time, there are many and many people and companies try to avoid paying taxes which negatively affect the amount of money in the country economy.

As an example, imagine that instead of that complicated way we calculate taxes, paying of them once a quarter, monthly, weekly, fortnightly or even annually; we actually have it already included in every transaction automatically?

Sorry, I do not have any numbers as I do not have any relationship with an accounting, however, let say, it will be something like 0.05% from an amount of a transaction. But whom you need to take that fee from — sender or receiver? I would say that receiver, as it looks more like PAYE. In this case, there is no way to skip paying taxes for anyone. This is kind of a transactional fee which returns back to the system to reuse it. Looks more transparent for everyone and provides less possibility to avoid paying it.

Any country could create their own rules and regulations, based on different parameters. For example, a particular company would pay more or fewer transaction fees based on the type of company.

Algorithm (credits https://www.instagram.com/thesun2003/)

How to?

Well, that is cool, you would say. But how we can create such a complicated system? It could probably cost us billions of dollars (pounds, euros, whatever currency do you use), you would say. Yes and no. This really depends on how do you want to create it. Creating a system like described from scratch is very expensive. However, we can just reuse the system that has already been created not so long time ago.

How you probably understood, I am talking about very scalable cryptocurrency with smart contracts, for instance, Etherium (ETH). As you may know, most of the cryptocurrencies based on the blockchain technology.

“While smart contracts might sound new, the concept is rooted in basic contract law. Usually, the judicial system adjudicates contractual disputes and enforces terms, but it is also common to have another arbitration method, especially for international transactions. With smart contracts, a program enforces the contract built into the code.”

Basically, just using that technology the mankind is able to create smart contracts from their economic laws. Instead of having all the business logic in laws it is quite easy to convert them to a digital code that works without human errors. Additionally, it uses a decentralised protocol with encryption which increases security to a next level.

The Etherium project provides us with the opportunity to create our own cryptocurrency by just using their technology stack. For now, there are already huge of etherium based crypto tokens, created for different purposes which use the whole power of the smart contracts.

Ethplorer - Top Ethereum Tokens Activity. By Trade Volume, By Market Capitalization

Above I mentioned about crypto tokens, but earlier I discussed cryptocurrencies. It might be confusing, but actually, the difference is pretty simple — there could be more than one crypto token implemented on one cryptocurrency.

A cryptocurrency is a digital asset used as a medium of exchange that is transferred by signing transactions and validated by nodes on the blockchain through the use of cryptography. There is a distinction between a native cryptocurrency and tokens. One acts as the foundation of the other. © Dan Emmons

Just imagine!

I believe that everyone who heard about Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies remembers Q4 for 2017 when their volatility was really crazy — hundreds percents and even more. For example, the Bitcoin price in January 2017 was just around $1,000 USD but in December 2017 it was already around $20,000 USD. However, the volatility of some altcoins that time were even more — up to 36,000%!!!

Nowadays, there are some altcoins called stablecoins that less volatile just because of their nature — their exchange rate is pegged to a fiat currency or something less volatile. For instance, there is a quite popular stablecoin called Tether (USDT).

In the nutshell, I assume that at some point in future, there is a high likelyhood that we will see that governments, countries or even just corporations will create their own cryptocurrencies or crypto tokens to make their economics more transparent and lightweight. There will be a brave new world! Just imagine!

If this article was helpful or interesting please hit the clap button and feel free to share it . I’ll be sure to deliver you more articles in the weeks to come.

Analyse yourself or how could Python help to achieve your goal?

Vladimir Semenov — Sun, 08 Apr 2018 22:27:25 +0000

Because I have a technical mind, I believe that “everything around us is numbers” © Numb3rs.

In this case, I decided to investigate a performance of my marathon preparation and try to estimate the full time for the full marathon run before it happens, using my Strava tracked data.

Strava Runner Profile | Vladimir S.

To achieve that, I decided to create a Python script to calculate an estimate. Python is a programming language that is good for doing some mathematical calculations and is easy to learn.

Linear prediction

First of all, I used basic human logic to find that the very brief estimate could be easily calculated using just a linear function. Said and done.

The code above is pretty simple from a logic perspective. Let’s assume that we have a constant pace for the whole race, the same as any of the previous runs. In this case, the formula is a basic multiplication pace to the desired distance.

Predicted time = Desired distance * Pace

Exploring my running statistics, I found that Strava calculates not only a pace but also a GAP, which is Grade Adjusted Pace. Taking this into account, the linear formula with Pace and GAP gives us a brief estimate of the fastest and probably slowest time, assuming that the actual race is flatter than my usual runs and has a bit faster pace as well.

Well, using a linear formula gives us boundary values for the estimation. Not bad, but still not good enough. When I tried to use it with some of my first preparation runs, it gave me very distant values between 3.5 and 4.5 hours.

I expected to have more precise values as a result, so I started to explore other possible formulas to calculate a time prediction. After some time, I found a better formula called Pete Riegel formula.

Pete Riegel formula prediction

In a 1977 article for Runner’s World Magazine, Riegel proposed a simple formula for comparing relative performances at different distances. The formula is most commonly quoted as:

Predicted time= T1 * (D2 / D1)^C

T1 is the time achieved for D1
D1 is the distance over which the initial time is achieved
D2 is the distance for which the time is to be predicted
C is the pace degradation coefficient, from 1.06 to 1.10

Using this formula gives more precise values for the estimated time, however, it is still using two boundary values with a degradation coefficient 1.06 for faster time and 1.10 for the slowest one.

Exploring my running statistics again, I found that Strava provides with elevation information. In this case, taking into account the value of elevation for the Rotorua Marathon race, I assumed that it might help me to calculate a more precise pace degradation coefficient for a race.

To achieve that, I created a code to calculate a grade based on elevation and distance and a code to calculate the coefficient by grade. I assumed that a 0% grade could represent the lowest value of the coefficient and 3% is the highest one.

As a result, I received a coefficient of around 1.077, which represents a low-medium difficulty for the Rotorua Marathon race.

In a nutshell, with a combination of the Pace, GAP and degradation coefficients, I now have estimations with a different confidence level. I created a simple web page (using Google Charts) with a graphic that shows a visualisation of the script estimation results. It looks like the image below.

Interactive web page (https://thesun2003.github.io/marathon-prediction/)

Well, if you check the graphic above, you can see that there is a trend to run faster. I used data from my first 25 preparation runs.

Let us take a closer look. In the beginning, the fastest predicted time is a Linear GAP time with 03:53:28 which is sub 4 hours, yay! However, all other predictions are more 4 hours with the slowest Riegel prediction with the highest coefficient 1.10 is 04:49:24, ooh. The main two lines I believe, show the time between 04:19:11 to 04:32:47. This is still satisfactory but far from what I expect from my actual marathon race.

The 25th run shows a faster time, from 03:33:47 to 03:49:27, which is a great prediction for me. However, this run could be less or more accurate only because that run was on a treadmill. The run was almost flat and fast-paced.

In the meantime, if you look closer to a 16th run, then you can see that the fastest time is 03:22:32 and the slowest is 04:04:40. There was a morning run on the street for 40 minutes with really fast pace 04:56.

All in all, I believe I managed to find some fun in the marathon preparation as well as create a helpful tool to research my performance data. Moreover, I showed that it might be interesting to treat yourself as a resource of data for analysis.

At the end of this retrospective session, I agreed that I have a good tendency to increase my pace, and I expect to achieve my second goal to run a sub 4-hour marathon.

You can find the source code by in my GitHub by the link below.

thesun2003/marathon-prediction

The next retrospective session is scheduled to be at the end of the project, which means after I run a marathon. I believe it will be interesting and fun. See you then!

If this article was helpful or interesting please hit the clap button and feel free to share it . I’ll be sure to deliver more articles in the weeks to come.

How I turn a marathon preparation to an Agile project

Vladimir Semenov — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 19:17:08 +0000

Because I have a technical mind, I always think about improving or optimising routines around me.

In this case, I decided to use a well-known approach of using Agile methodology to apply to some areas of my personal life to gain some improvements and have transparency regarding what is going on. At the same time, using Kanban/Scrum methods helps to understand the overall picture as well as gives an option to change the plan any time if needed with fewer issues.

Meaning of Agile. Credits http://electric-cloud.com

Well, what did I have?

I aim to run a full marathon on the 5th of May 2018 in Rotorua. I have not run a long distance before — only a half marathon race. Moreover, the secondary goal is to finish in less than 4 hours. I want to have the ability to track my progress as well as have a full picture of the process. Another nice-to-have feature is to be flexible and adapt to possible upcoming changes through feedback from my body. Do not need to forget about keeping my motivation for the whole time.

What have I got?

Project called “ Marathon preparation ”
Goal — prepare to run a marathon smoothly. Secondary goal — run on a sub 4 hours.
Deadline (ETA) — 05/05/2018

http://rotoruamarathon.co.nz

Sprints — either “3 x 4 weeks + 2 final weeks” or “4+5+5 weeks”
Tasks — actual runs

Strava Runner Profile | Vladimir Semenov @pov.runner

Roadmap — 14-weeks preparation plan

Project roadmap

Standup — brief check of the run requirements before actual run
Release — writing articles about the process at the end of a Sprint

14-week marathon preparation (weeks 1–4)

Retrospective — creating a script to calculate time estimate for an actual marathon before it happens. I am a Developer, so why not write some code?

thesun2003/marathon-prediction

Retrospective Report — writing articles about the results of the script with additional information

Analyse yourself or how could Python help to achieve your goal?

Should you try it?

Overall, it helps me to keep on track with the progress, to have a list of upcoming things to do and to provide visibility.

In a nutshell, I believe that for some long-paced goals, people could also transform their goal to an Agile project to achieve all the pros provided by using this methodology and reach their goal more smoothly.

If you would like to achieve your goal the same way, it is better to try. Do not be afraid — it does not bite you! However, it could lead to achieving with less effort and more fun.

You do not have to use all features of the Agile process and follow all rules. You can start by breaking down your main task into small steps and accomplish them individually. By the way, you do not even need to follow them strictly — you are in an Agile process, which has flexibility. In this case, you might be able to change the approach and the rules altogether. All actions are good if they bring you closer to your main goal.

If you need advice on how to put into practice a similar transformation for any kind of long-lasting goal to an Agile project and you have questions on how to do it properly, do not hesitate to ask me!

Together, we can easily overcome any obstacles to achieve a great result.

If this article was helpful or interesting please hit the clap button and feel free to share it . I’ll be sure to deliver more articles in the weeks to come.

14-week marathon preparation (weeks 1–4)

Vladimir Semenov — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 00:44:42 +0000

Recently, I started preparation for a full marathon run, which is going to be on 05/05/2018 in Rotorua, New Zealand.

I found a 12-week program and updated it a little bit for my needs, assuming that I started a bit earlier than 12 weeks before a proper run. In this case, it became a 14-week plan.

I would like to track my progress here and also check plan expectations with real data. At the same time, it would be nice to calculate some prediction of the time for a proper run based on the data I captured through the training.

Strava Runner Profile | Vladimir Semenov @pov.runner

Week 1 longest run. Credits: https://instagram.com/thesun2003

Week 1

On the first week, starting on 29/01/2018, I expected to speed up from a casual run to a properly planned run. Another point was to shift from a distance-based run to a time and pace-based run.

Based on the data from the first week, which I call pre-training week, I got used to running on a particular day and for a particular time.

Moreover, I tried to get used to waking up early for a run — around 4 am on the weekdays and 6–7 am on weekends and going to bed earlier the day before.

Early runs help to prepare for an actual marathon run but also because there is a hot summer right now in New Zealand, and it is better to run either early in the morning or even at night or far evening after 8 pm.

Overall, for the first week, I did all 3 planned runs on Tuesday, Thursday and a long run on Saturday. On other days, I kept my daily step count at least 10k.

On Tuesday, there was a 57 min run with a 9.63 km distance, 5:55 min/km pace and average HR of 156 bpm.

On Thursday, there was a 50 min run with an 8.56 km distance, 5:47 min/km pace and average HR of 161 bpm.

On Saturday, there was the longest run for a week, around 90 min, with a 15.1 km distance, 5:43 min/km pace and average HR of 161 bpm.

Most of the week was a bit humid and rainy, but I managed to find a proper time to run without heavy rain. Lucky me :-)

Waitangi Day run. Credits: https://instagram.com/thesun2003

Week 2

Week 2 starts on 05/02/2018. There was a public holiday on the 6th called Waitangi Day, so it was good to wake up later to run.

This week, I was expected to get used to running based not only on time but also on a different pace during a run.

All of the runs I did with an intention to run at a slow and convenient pace. This pace should allow me to speak during a run.

The first long run was expected to be quite hard, however, it was not so bad overall. For proper hydration, I used a 0.75l bottle of the isotonic called Powerade Ion 4, which contains sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium, which helps during a long ride.

Week 2 longest run. Credits: https://instagram.com/thesun2003

Overall, for the second week, I did all 3 planned runs on Tuesday and Thursday and a long run on Saturday. At the same time, I continued to keep my daily step count at least 10k, however, I did only 5k on Sunday because of the weather conditions.

On Tuesday, there was a 50 min run with a 9.03 km distance, 5:31 min/km pace and average HR of 155 bpm.

On Thursday, there was a 50 min run with an 8.80 km distance, 5:42 min/km pace and average HR of 160 bpm.

On Saturday, there was the longest run for a week, for about 120 min, with a 20.06 km distance, 5:53 min/km pace and average HR of 165 bpm.

There was a rainy week, but I managed to run when there was no heavy rain.

Week 3 longest run. Credits: https://instagram.com/thesun2003

Week 3

Next week was started on 12/02/2018. Just an ordinary week without any holidays. However, very productive in terms of the marathon preparation.

Overall, for the third week, I did all 3 planned runs on Tuesday and Thursday and a long run on Saturday. At the same time, I continued to keep my daily step count at least 10k.

On Tuesday, there was a 51 min run with an 8.79 km distance, 5:49 min/km pace and average HR of 153 bpm.

On Thursday, there was a 51 min run with a 9.19 km distance, 5:38 min/km pace and average HR of 162 bpm.

On Saturday, there was the longest run for a week, for about 143 min with tracked 129 min, with a 21.44 km distance, 6:01 min/km pace and average HR of 162 bpm.

A half marathon distance was tracked, but the actual run was around 24.5 km overall. The issue was that I started to run without starting a tracker properly. Need to wake up when I go to a morning run :-D

This week, I accomplished 3 Strava challenges for February. Climbing Challenge with 2,000m. Secondly, I finished a Half Marathon challenge. The third one was a Zwift 10-in-10 Challenge.

It was a really good week for training, almost without rain.

Week 4

This week started on 19/02/2018. A productive week in terms of the marathon preparation, especially to prepare to keep a faster pace. In this case, there were expected to be shorter but faster exercises this week.

Overall, for the third week, I did all 3 planned runs on Tuesday and Thursday and a long run on Saturday. However, the original plan contained 4 runs, I decided to skip Monday’s run due to a busy week prediction. At the same time, I continued to keep my daily step count at least 10k.

On Tuesday, there was a 40 min run with a 7.09 km distance, 5:43 min/km pace and average HR of 154 bpm.

On Thursday, there was a 40 min run with a 7.31 km distance, 5:28 min/km pace and average HR of 149 bpm.

On Saturday, there was the longest run for a week, for about 90 min with a 16.06 km distance, 5:35 min/km pace and average HR of 155 bpm.

Compared to previous weeks I tried to run at a faster pace, and I did it pretty well. In the beginning, it was really hard to keep a new pace, but at the end of the week, there was not an issue.

During the long run, for proper hydration, I used a 0.75l bottle of a Powerade isotonic.

Check it out: compared with another 90-minute run from the first week, this week, I ran plus 1 km more at the same time! I believe this is a great achievement for me.

Analyse yourself or how could Python help to achieve your goal?

If this article was helpful or interesting please hit the clap button and feel free to share it . I’ll be sure to deliver more articles in the weeks to come.