Sunday 29 July 2012

10 years younger by necessary doping

stats of the week: run 36km, cycled 66km, canoed 15km

My come back to running was eased by doping by cortisone. As usual I reacted allergic after a wasp sting and had to take a good dose of cortisone that let the infection be cured within 2 days. And as usual it also helped me feel 10 years younger while pounding the streets.

Now this method had to be finished and my feeling is back to heavy legs and slow moving. It will take some time to get fit for a proper half marathon. Luckily there is time to do so - alas, I will spend most of the days walking alpine and himalayan hills instead of doing running intervals.

Friday 27 July 2012

Cycling now finished after more sunny days

stats of 2 weeks: run 40km, cycled 380km, gym 1h

Getting back to proper running workouts had to wait furthermore as I suddenly got the chance to do some more cycling on sunny Mallorca. Luckily I was able to enjoy 4 grand tours through the island's hills, including the famous road down to Sa Calobra.


Now it's urgent time to improve the running performance. Plans are to race a 10K next week and my home town half marathon at Bochum in early September.

Tuesday 10 July 2012

Cycling apprentice

stats of the week: run 9km, cycled 185km
stats of the week before: cycled 270km

With all three events successfully finished my short cycling season is finished now early in the year.

Maratona dles Dolomites was a tough day due to the heat and my unsufficient performance level. I struggled to get through and ended up half an hour later than last year after 138km and 4100 vertical meters. The day was still very enjoyable until the unshadowed ascent up the steep road to Passo Giau. Best experience of the day was the descent from Passo Gardena when I was able to improve my placing for the very first time on any descent.

Col de la Madeleine worked just as a warm up!

A week of rest let me recover in time to tackle this year's L'etape du tour Act 1 from Albertville to La Toussuire. This is the route that the professionals will go on Thursday. It includes famous passes like Col de la Madeleine and Col de Glandon via Col de la Croix de Fer and the final climb to La Toussuire. This makes up for a total ascent of 4.750 vertical meters on 152km. I was very happy to finish this personal record of climbing with more than a third of the 4.400 finishers behind me. Not mentioned the 1.200 who abandoned the race.