Monday 27 January 2020

13 weeks to London

stats of the week: run 48 km, gym 4

Looking at the figures it was a decent week of training. Alas, most workouts let me feel tired. Did intervals on the treadmill - 8 times 700 meters at 5:12 to 5:00 pace - and found it rather hard.

Set up a cautious schedule for my spring races at Sylt (15/03), Berlin (05/04) and indeed London (26/04). Just 13 weeks to go


No good news from the health front. Got my blood tested and the result was that bad that I got (not really) convinced to go back to at least half the daily dose of statins. Not happy with that.

Sunday 19 January 2020

Tired and limited

stats of the week: run 38 km, gym 4 h

I pondered a lot about the reason why my performance improved although I didn't increase my training effort. Then I found one assumption. I halfed the application rate of my blood diluter. I have done this for 3 weeks but now I got convinced to turn back to the full dose. Every reputable source says that you should stick to 2 x 90 mg of inhibitors of platelet aggregation for a full year after you got coated stents. Now I will see if I slow down again.


photo: my look after 9 K

On this Saturday I did slow down. Maybe it was the expected fatigue when running the 3rd 10K race within 3 weeks. Legs felt tired from the start on and breathing was limited. However, I was fast for the first 5 K but then I was forced to slow down. Finally 50:35 was still the second best time for the last 2 years. No reason to moan.

Monday 13 January 2020

Elderly boy wonder

stats of the week: run 43 km, gym 3 h


Miracles are rare but sometimes they happen. Sunday's 10 K was such a kind of wonder. A cold and very windy day, but a flat and fast course. I hoped to confirm a 51 min time but things got even better. Apart from 2nd and 3rd Km I was able to run a sub 5 min/K pace and finished after 49:57 min. A personal best since more than 2 years!

Surprisingly I was placed only 8th in my age group. Indeed the area is known for a big number of really fast senior runners. They were all there obviously.

I can't really tell a reason for the improvement. I have only just returned to speed intervals. May be the performance follows the relaxing and sunny holidays on Hawaii. May be the repaired heart gets back to a state of higher effort. Now I am curious about my running year 2020.

Tuesday 7 January 2020

New target may be realistic

stats of the week: run 33 km, gym 3 h

I surprised myself by running the 10K New Year's Eve Run in a year's best of 50:38. Even more surprising was that I could run the final 3 km at a pace of sub 5 min/K. So new hope is rising that I could be able to run a sub 50 min in 2020. It is a real challenge but I will try. Weekly speed work might enable me to reach this target.


Approaching the finish line it doesn't look easy. Alas I enjoyed the race.