Last hope for the April double

stats of the week: run 13 km, gym 3 h

Still no proper training. The muscels had to recover from the load of last Sunday. Now all my hope weighs on the 11 days I will spend on the Canarian island of Lanzarote from tomorrow on. Plans are to run around 100 K during this period with some easy cycling in between. My very last chance to get prepared for the Boston-London double!

Nightmare with blue sky

stats of the week: run 45 km

There are things that have to happen and they do happen.

I felt quite okay on the morning of the Syltlauf. And the sky was blue. However, it was cold. Very cold for mid March: 0°c. And a very strong wind from the East.

As I knew the route it was clear that the first half of the route is not too bad. The wind was from the right side. Fairly okay, but we again and again lost the straight way, blown to the left by strong blasts.

I spotted one of my age groupers and tried to keep his pace. It was exactly the pace I planned in my dreams. Too fast today. After only 14 K I had to let him go. At half way it was clear that the second part will become a nightmare of a run for me. Many runners quitted at half way where all the hotels are. Undoubtedly this year's conditions were by far the hardest of my 9 participations.

From 24 K on it was only walk and jog for me. From now on the wind came from the front.
I got passed by hundreds. Only at the final home stretch I took my very last power to overtake the winner of age group 75...

My very disappointing time of 3:23 h made me placed 4th in M65 surprisingly. Only 11 of the 29 pre-registered M65 runners started or made it within the limit of 4 hours.

I learnt what I already knew but didn't do. Only race when you are healthy.

Forced to taper

stats of the week: run 6 km, gym 2 h

It looks like I had started the tapering for next week's 33K-race. It have not. I was forced to stop any kind of activity by a more severe cold than last time. In fact it seemed to be the same affliction I had 3 weeks ago. My guess seems to be confirmed that I was not really fit when running last Sunday's half marathon.

As the whole weekend is booked I hope to be able to take part in the race. But I have to realise that there is no hope to go for a high performance.

Disappointing London Big Half Weekend

stats of the week: run 42 km, gym 2 h

My first this year's London weekend was no successful one for me. 1:51:50 is not the result I hoped for. Okay, there is no lack of excuses.

Our Friday flight by Flybe to London City was cancelled just when we approached the gate. Then we had to queue for 2 hours to get a new booking for Saturday but this had Birmingham as its destination.

On Saturday we got no information by Flybe while we waited for 6 hours to finally board our flight into Birmingham. A convenient train ride brought us into London City by 9 pm.

On Sunday morning I first assisted C to collect her bib then I made my way to the orange start area that was on the South side of the river. There I had to queue for 40 minutes to receive my number (and I have to admit I pushed myself forward). Luckily I was able to drop my kitbag a second before the lorries closed.

However, I tried to follow my race schedule but felt from the first mile on that this was not my day. Legs felt okay but I had problems to breathe freely. Maybe - hopefully - I was not completely recovered from the latest cold. Otherwise I would have to face a significant backdrop of my performance. Imagine last year I was 7 minutes faster.

Just to warn you I should mention that also our Flybe flight back to Dusseldorf got cancelled what meant another delay of 4.5 hours.

By the way thanks to Tower Hotel who did not charge us for the missed night.