Sunday 5 March 2006

Keeping cool - 48 days to go

week's balance scheduled: 44K (28m), done: 18K (11m)
BMI 22.6

"The start is here, and there is the finish.
In between one has to run."

That is how the unforgotten Emil Zatopek described our sport. Nowadays the Czech Olympic champion would probably be surprised standing in a high street book shop looking at the shelf containing the running books. Especially in Germany: An Amazon search for "Running" (German: Laufen) shows 589 findings, and "Marathon" another 143.

You see, one can make some more words around our hobby. And some even make a profession of it. Like Herbert Steffny, who is a popular German runner, now in his fifties. He finished 3rd at the European Championships and 3rd at the New York Marathon. He is a master of biology but today he makes his living by writing books about running, TV commentator, offering seminars for middle-of-the-pack-runners and managers.

Tomorrow one of his seminars will take place on Cyprus and I will be part of it. One main appeal is the Mediterranean weather (65°F), but I also hope to learn a bit more about running and how to stay fit for the next 20 years. The week will be finished by taking part at the Pafos marathon, which offers a Half Marathon and a 10K run, too.

Anyway, I am anxious to see if the plane will leave on schedule. Munich where I have a stopover tomorrow morning has got 20 inches of snow today and 90 per cent of the flights were cancelled.

I still have the problem with my ancle what made me cancel nearly the whole training this week. Daily electric and ultrasonic therapy didn't make a big difference. Now I hope that the seminar group will not run too much so I will be able to cope with it. I really feel I should have a whole week off to cure the problem. But I am committed to help during the seminar and to lead one the running groups. And I have entered the Half Marathon while Herbert is the 10K titleholder and wants to defend. We are in the same age group so I paid attention to choose the other distance.

Well, the hotel provides WLAN broadband so I can update the blog by midweek.

Have a nice week running
Uli

Links:
Herbert Steffny website
Pafos-Marathon
Nachruf Emil Zatopek (1922-2000)
Hotel Coral Beach


Finish at Pafos Marathon
(photo:
www.herbertsteffny.de)

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