Sa 28/10/06 easy race, 10K/51min
Fr 27/10/06 gym, 1.5 hrs
Th 26/10/06 easy jogs, 8.5K/48min and 6.5K/46min
As there was a popular 10K race in our neighbour town Bochum today, we - NYC running mate B. and me - decided to go for an easy test run one week before New York. To cut a long story short: I won't call the outcome a complete success.
Even the weather fitted in: It was raining all the time. The route was full of puddles and muddy in places. We thought about finishing within less than 50 mins, but after two of six laps B. started to feel slightly unwell and we preferred to slow down. The run was supposed to be a training workout anyway, so this didn't matter. What me really annoyed was that my left thigh hardened like hell. Obviously it wasn't fully recovered from the long run last Tuesday. This week's mileage of more than 60K appeared to be too much after 3 weeks without running.
I will now throw in lots of magnesium and it looks like I should avoid any running until marathon day. Another one - like the majority of my 15 marathons - which I will start without proper preparation. So far I was able to finish each one - hope this will endure next Sunday.
Saturday, 28 October 2006
Tuesday, 24 October 2006
Peak Gallery
21/10/06 Sat - Run 10K 0:57 hrs
23/10/06 Mo - Slow Jog 8K 0:47 hrs
24/10/06 Tu - Long Run 30K 3:02 hrs
When climbing Island Peak I took just my small camera with me. This day's photos can be looked up in a simple gallery. Mind the blue of the sky!
Next Tuesday I will be off for the New York City Marathon 2006. So today I was happy to be able to do a final long run of 30K after the total pause of 3 weeks without running. High level trekking seems to have kept me fit enough.
The only pity is that - after 3 healthy weeks in Nepal - I caught a diarrhea at home! German food obviously is the harder challenge.
23/10/06 Mo - Slow Jog 8K 0:47 hrs
24/10/06 Tu - Long Run 30K 3:02 hrs
When climbing Island Peak I took just my small camera with me. This day's photos can be looked up in a simple gallery. Mind the blue of the sky!
Next Tuesday I will be off for the New York City Marathon 2006. So today I was happy to be able to do a final long run of 30K after the total pause of 3 weeks without running. High level trekking seems to have kept me fit enough.
The only pity is that - after 3 healthy weeks in Nepal - I caught a diarrhea at home! German food obviously is the harder challenge.
Tuesday, 17 October 2006
Short Success Report
Folks,
this is the final stage of our trekking around the highest mountains of the world. I am back to the village of Lukla, 2800m, from where tomorrow early in the morning a very small plane will take us back to Kathmandu.
All worked out as planned, the tour was a total success. I remained healthy, albeit most fellows were not so lucky. We were able to see all the scheduled highlights such as Everest Base Camp, 5300m, climbed Kala Pattar, 5545m, and Chukhung Ri, 5546m. Certainly the top adventure was to climb Island Peak, 6189m. Six of our group of 9 trekkers made it to the top, including me! I would call this day the most emotional and remarkable day of all my outdoor life. I am so proud :-)
I took about 700 photos so far and will certainly publish a selection at my website. It will take some weeks to get this completed and I will point out it here when published.
More at the following weekend when I will be home again.
Best wishes from Nepal,
Uli
this is the final stage of our trekking around the highest mountains of the world. I am back to the village of Lukla, 2800m, from where tomorrow early in the morning a very small plane will take us back to Kathmandu.
All worked out as planned, the tour was a total success. I remained healthy, albeit most fellows were not so lucky. We were able to see all the scheduled highlights such as Everest Base Camp, 5300m, climbed Kala Pattar, 5545m, and Chukhung Ri, 5546m. Certainly the top adventure was to climb Island Peak, 6189m. Six of our group of 9 trekkers made it to the top, including me! I would call this day the most emotional and remarkable day of all my outdoor life. I am so proud :-)
I took about 700 photos so far and will certainly publish a selection at my website. It will take some weeks to get this completed and I will point out it here when published.
More at the following weekend when I will be home again.
Best wishes from Nepal,
Uli
Sunday, 1 October 2006
Quick sign of life
I am sitting in an internet cafe in namche bazar, 3450m, nepal, clouds are down to earth and give me time to drop a short posting.
Trekking in Nepal is not at all a kind of adventure. Pathes are done up like in the English Lake District and lodges and restaurants can be found all the way. shops in the remotest mountain villages offer any kind of sweets, soft drinks, Nepalese beer and the food is excellent.
The monsun has just finished, the weather is fine in the mornings but not settled enough to provide completely fine days. Hopefully this will develop during the oncouming days.
I dont think there will be any internet access at the higher villages. So dont expect any further reports during next fortnight.
Hope to see you soon again.
Trekking in Nepal is not at all a kind of adventure. Pathes are done up like in the English Lake District and lodges and restaurants can be found all the way. shops in the remotest mountain villages offer any kind of sweets, soft drinks, Nepalese beer and the food is excellent.
The monsun has just finished, the weather is fine in the mornings but not settled enough to provide completely fine days. Hopefully this will develop during the oncouming days.
I dont think there will be any internet access at the higher villages. So dont expect any further reports during next fortnight.
Hope to see you soon again.
Wednesday, 27 September 2006
Off to Nepal
Folks,
I know this is a hard cut. During last week I had no spare energy to blog. Organising our charity run took all of what I had to put in. Luckily the event was a success. We had the same high level of entries as last year - 646 - despite the new and strong other events which appeared on the same day unfortunately. I was really happy with the outcome. Total revenues summed up to 5300 Euros which was a bit less than last year but still the second best we had in 6 years.
I know this is a hard cut. During last week I had no spare energy to blog. Organising our charity run took all of what I had to put in. Luckily the event was a success. We had the same high level of entries as last year - 646 - despite the new and strong other events which appeared on the same day unfortunately. I was really happy with the outcome. Total revenues summed up to 5300 Euros which was a bit less than last year but still the second best we had in 6 years.
photo above: Waiting for the start of the kids' race
The other positive result is that I lost 2.5 kilogrammes of weight during the last week which was the most dramatic one I had for decades of years. My weight is now down to 65.3 kilos which is a Body Mass Index of 21.3 and definately alright for a veteran runner. And it is just the weight level which I hoped to reach after 3 weeks of trekking in Nepal for what I am heading tomorrow. Plane will take off early in the morning from Düsseldorf to Vienna for changing to the long flight to Kathmandu. I am afraid there will probably be no chance to blog during the following 3 weeks. There is an internet cafe said to exist at Namche Bazar - the central trekking mountain village - but I don't know if there will be enough time available to do more than the most urgent emails.
I will trek the most touristic route to the popular viewing top of Kala Pattar, to Everest base camp and - if really really lucky - to the top of Island Peak at 6200 m. Hope to take a good number of photos and show you later. I won't call this trip the world's least adventure but it is still fairly exciting for me.
Hope you will come back here to see if I will be still alive at end of October. Best wishes, take care and keep running.
Uli
Tuesday, 19 September 2006
My Racing Stable
Thursday: long slow jog, 28K, 2:55 hrs
Friday: gym, 1 hr
Saturday: rest
Sunday: race, 8.4K, 36:20 min
Monday: rest
Tuesday: long hilly run, 25K, 450m, 2:31 hrs
I am really sorry about being late with my posting. It was a busy weekend with racing and photographing and a lot of website work as there were so many races to report. Additionally the work to prepare next Sunday's charity run is increasing. Nearly 300 entries are in now. I am slightly pessimistic whether we will reach last year's numbers when we had more than 600. There are 3 other events in the area which is a pity especially because two of them have moved to our date.
Last Sunday's relay race was a great event and an ambitious day for me. There were nearly 200 teams of 5 runners each. I started as the 4th runner of my team, took about 500 photos during the event and - most exciting - I appeared with sort of my own racing stable. There were two teams running with the name of my website www.laufen-in-witten.de. This strange habit started 3 years ago. A large group of unaffiliated runners trained for a local marathon. To make searching the results easier they thought about a fake club name which should include our town's name. They finally got the idea to use my website's name. And this idea still keeps alive. Every now and then one can find athletes running for www.laufen-in-witten.de. I even started to encourage this by selling car stickers and t-shirts. It is a really surprising process.
Meanwhile you might be familiar with my race look. I was disappointed by my time which was 1:15 min slower than last year. Some others argued that the distance was too long this year. Hopefully they are right.
And this is the Dream Team of my racing stable.
They finished 3rd and got a cup again (as they did last year).
Friday: gym, 1 hr
Saturday: rest
Sunday: race, 8.4K, 36:20 min
Monday: rest
Tuesday: long hilly run, 25K, 450m, 2:31 hrs
I am really sorry about being late with my posting. It was a busy weekend with racing and photographing and a lot of website work as there were so many races to report. Additionally the work to prepare next Sunday's charity run is increasing. Nearly 300 entries are in now. I am slightly pessimistic whether we will reach last year's numbers when we had more than 600. There are 3 other events in the area which is a pity especially because two of them have moved to our date.
Last Sunday's relay race was a great event and an ambitious day for me. There were nearly 200 teams of 5 runners each. I started as the 4th runner of my team, took about 500 photos during the event and - most exciting - I appeared with sort of my own racing stable. There were two teams running with the name of my website www.laufen-in-witten.de. This strange habit started 3 years ago. A large group of unaffiliated runners trained for a local marathon. To make searching the results easier they thought about a fake club name which should include our town's name. They finally got the idea to use my website's name. And this idea still keeps alive. Every now and then one can find athletes running for www.laufen-in-witten.de. I even started to encourage this by selling car stickers and t-shirts. It is a really surprising process.
Meanwhile you might be familiar with my race look. I was disappointed by my time which was 1:15 min slower than last year. Some others argued that the distance was too long this year. Hopefully they are right.
And this is the Dream Team of my racing stable.
They finished 3rd and got a cup again (as they did last year).
Wednesday, 13 September 2006
Increasing Nervousness
Monday: rest
Tuesday: am gym 1:30 hrs, pm easy bike tour 48K, 400m, 2:30 hrs
Wednesday: easy bike tour, 61K, 450m, 2:55 hrs
I published 500 photos of last Sunday's race in Wetter on the Ruhr and produced a simple DVD for the organiser. When handing it over yesterday the following dialogue developed:
Organiser: "Your photos are really great. High quality."
Me: "Oh, thank you, most of them were taken by my wife Angelika."
Organiser: (short pause) "Well, a lot depends on the quality of the camera."
By the way: He doesn't know Angelika. And he probably doesn't know that the professional photographer of the local newspaper is a woman.
Only 10 days to go until the race will take place which I organise myself (with the help of many others, of course). Suddenly getting nervous I got the idea that our route might get blocked by woodcutters. I decided to have a look at the route and went around by bike.
The race starts at the hospital in Herdecke, but most of the route is within the woods of Wetter.
Wetter's most famous sun is Friedrich Harkort. He was a highly successful industrial mercantilist and at the beginning of the 19th century he built up the first ironworks in the area.
Logically the town has not only a "Harkort Street", it also has a Harkort School, the local hill is called Harkort Mountain, on the hill there stands the Harkort Tower, the reservoir is the Harkort Lake and the local sports club is the Turngemeinde Harkort. It would have been easier to call the town "Harkort Town".
Tuesday: am gym 1:30 hrs, pm easy bike tour 48K, 400m, 2:30 hrs
Wednesday: easy bike tour, 61K, 450m, 2:55 hrs
I published 500 photos of last Sunday's race in Wetter on the Ruhr and produced a simple DVD for the organiser. When handing it over yesterday the following dialogue developed:
Organiser: "Your photos are really great. High quality."
Me: "Oh, thank you, most of them were taken by my wife Angelika."
Organiser: (short pause) "Well, a lot depends on the quality of the camera."
By the way: He doesn't know Angelika. And he probably doesn't know that the professional photographer of the local newspaper is a woman.
Only 10 days to go until the race will take place which I organise myself (with the help of many others, of course). Suddenly getting nervous I got the idea that our route might get blocked by woodcutters. I decided to have a look at the route and went around by bike.
The race starts at the hospital in Herdecke, but most of the route is within the woods of Wetter.
Wetter's most famous sun is Friedrich Harkort. He was a highly successful industrial mercantilist and at the beginning of the 19th century he built up the first ironworks in the area.
Logically the town has not only a "Harkort Street", it also has a Harkort School, the local hill is called Harkort Mountain, on the hill there stands the Harkort Tower, the reservoir is the Harkort Lake and the local sports club is the Turngemeinde Harkort. It would have been easier to call the town "Harkort Town".
Above: Our race passes the Harkort estate.
The runners climb Harkort Mountain and have a view to Harkort Tower.
What do you guess who owns the woods?
I have to add that our race is not called "Harkort Race" but "Sterntaler-Lauf" as the charity we are running for is the Sterntaler eV.
PS. You might ask for J. She is fine again.
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