Monday 31 March 2014

Torments of an old man

stats of the week: run 39km, cycled 25km, gym 2h

The half marathon in Dutch town Venlo, called Venloop, is certainly one of the most atmospheric races in Europe. Big enthusiastic crowds and lots of music escort about 7,000 runners along the route. It's an event not to be missed.

My own performance was inside expected limits. 1:42:10 is not a bad result. But the final Ks were such a torture to my body that I wonder how often he will accept this kind of torment until he knocks me down. My feeling is I have to be more cautious if I want to get older.

Monday 24 March 2014

Another medal collected

stats of the week: run 31km, cycled 120km, gym 2h

Planned was a longish weekend of a bit of easy cycling on Majorca but shortly after having arrived I was confronted with the fact that there is the traditional Palma Half Marathon taking place on Sunday. As I had to do some training anyway the decision was easy. I had to do this race but stay to a calm pace of maybe 2 hours for the 21.1km.


It was a sunny and windy morning and no surprise my run ended up slightly faster than planned. I finished 1:50:06 after a decent painfree run along the promenade avenue below Palma Cathedral.

Sunday 16 March 2014

Painful success

stats of the week: run 40km, gym 3h

It was a week of tapering down for Sunday's Sylt run, a flat race of 33.3K along Germany's most fashionable island. Due to the strong north westerly wind it turned out to be the toughest of my 7 appearings here.

documented veterans


Adding to the conditions I failed to manage my food intake properly during the race. The result was that I was nearly forced to walk after 25K. Some fruit sugar rescued me and enabled me to get to the finish rather in style. The result was still presentable: 2:56:26 h was exactly the time I could expect and by placed 8th I reached my target to finish within the top ten of my age group.

On the downside part is the multitude of pain I suffered during the second half of the race. Not just several muscles but both knees hurt a lot and made me doubt that a good season can follow.

Wednesday 12 March 2014

Travelling North

stats of the week: run 52km, cycled 50km, gym 2h

It was a decent week of training with one interval session and a longish run of 21K. However, it ended by coming up another light injury with hurting adductors. Anyway, this week is planned to taper off for Sunday's race on Germany's most fancy island Sylt. I just hope to be painfree until end of the week.


After a week of glorious sunshine weatherforecast for Sunday is rather gruelling. Rain and very strong winds! Let's wait and see - and run.

To be honest: I don't like the island but I love the race. It's already my 7th time.

Sunday 2 March 2014

Back on home track

stats of the week: run 65km, gym 1.5h
stats of the previous week: run 37km

Back on track, with the cutback that the marathon is missing in the schedule.
To make up for this I went for a 30K long jog today. Rather disappointed about my performance but I put the blame on the climate change: it's 25°c colder in old Germany.

I'm now curious about getting fit for the 33K Sylt run within 2 weeks. My declared target is to finish top ten of the 42 runners in my age group. Too optimistic?

Easy cross training: Paddling on Sunday River in South Africa
(no crocs, no hippos)