Bike Fun Day

stats of the week: run 11Km, cycled 190Km

Result bike race Maratona dles Dolomites:
106K/3100hm, 6:21:38 hrs, 338th of 542 M50-57, 1725th overall of 2523


Last week I said I'd rather run a marathon than cycling through the Dolomites but viewing back I am totally excited about this great bike tour around the Sella mountain taking in 6 mountain passes. It was a great day, a gorgeous experience and I ever would do it again! As most of the participants do - most of them were not new to the race.


After viewing the route by car I forced myself to opt for the medium distance of 106km. One is allowed to decide during the race how far to go. There are choices of 55km, 106km and 138km. The longest route takes in a 7th pass which is the most strenuous one. I don't regret to abstain from the ultimate tour. Being a cycling beginner I am quite content with my performance, one more hill would have tested my very limits. I put this aside for July 20th.

The result shows that I was able to let one third of the field behind me. What you couldn't analyse from the figures: I could have done much better when I won't be so much afraid of downhill cycling. On my slow way down I lost a lot of the places I won uphill. Between the 4th and 6th pass I won 280 places, downhill to the finish I lost 80 of them. Anyway I regard cycling being my recovery sport and I do it for fun. Therefore this memorable day was a big success. It was GREAT FUN.

Tempting Alternative

We are still staying in the Matter valley of the Wallis Kanton in Switzerland and during our daily hill walks in the area we frequently come across the preparations for the 8th Zermatt Marathon which will take place next Saturday.

After the start in the village of St. Niklaus the route follows the ascending Matter valley and takes 20km to reach the village of Zermatt. Then the real story begins. The runners have to climb the viewing point of Sunnegga which most tourists head for by mountain rail.


After a detour far into a hidden high level valley runners head for Riffelalp at 2,200m above sea level just to start the final very steep climb to the top of Riffelberg at roughly 2,500m. The scenery is breathtaking with the famous Matterhorn close by.


I have to admit I would prefer to run this marathon instead of cycling the Dolomites Bike Marathon as this seems to be the more dangerous and incalcuable challenge for me. Well - I have just decided I will run the Zermatt Marathon to celebrate my 60th birthday. Not too long to go.

More at Zermatt Marathon

Working to be content

stats of the week: run 47km, cycled 43km, 1 gym

Result Aletsch Half Marathon: 2:38:08, 30th M55 of 92, 543 overall of 1540

Oh folks, it was a tough day and a disappointing one. I know I should be happy that I am still able to take part in events like this one. Other men have passed away at my age. I am still running and trying my very best. Alas - it's constantly getting less .

It was not the best of my days today. May be I was not sufficiently recovered from the recent weeks' training. Certainly I was not acclimatised adequately for a race which starts at 1,900m above sea level, has numerous ups and downs and finishes at 2,675m. Rationality says I have to be content with the performance, but as we are runners we think different...

Conditions were perfect to make it a great race day. This is the scene after about 4km with the finish far in the background, the top of Bettmerhorn.


And this is me crawling to the finish line, more than 2 hours later.


The scene around the finish.



At least I made it.

Ready for Recover

stats of the week: run 56km, cycled 111km, 2 gyms

To have to train for running and cycling is a deluxe dilemma. I wonder how all the triathletes get along with additional swimming . This week I am content with the mileage of hill running I did but I had to neglect cycling. Today I thought about an afternoon cycling workout after running in the morning but I simply felt too exhausted.

Since Wednesday when I did a tough hilly long run I am feeling worn out. I will have to recover now to get fit for the Aletsch Half Marathon next Sunday. I was surprised to see that more than 70 men of my age group have already entered the race. I dreamed of a top ten finish but I will have to correct this to top twenty now.

Performance weekend

stats of the week: run 42km, cycled 201km, 1 gym


It was a fairly active weekend. Sat I gave my life premiere at the stylish world of triathlon when I took the bike part of a relay competition in my home town Witten. It was a short 8-lap-distance of 10km overall which took me 20 min - slightly disappointing at 10th place out of 27 - but my windchill speed felt much higher! However, it was great fun and a completely new way of experiencing the local roads.



(Thanks to MDC for the photo)

Sun I did another long bike tour of 160km, an organised event by the local cycling club. It was a hilly course counting 1600 height meters and I got really exhausted. I have now done 4 long bike workouts of around 150km. I think that the most I could do but I still doubt very much that it will enable me to finish l'etape du Tour where I will have to climb Mt Ventoux after a warm up of 140km. As a runner I very often learned that one can perform much better when competing, compared to training. I hope it will be the same with cycling.

10-Day-Load

stats of the week: run 30km, cycled 171km, 1 gym

It was sort of a tough week. Legs are heavy and I feel aged and tired. I completed a streak of 10 days of training and have to remind myself that recovery should be part of the schedule.

My problem is that I try to get fit for a half marathon hill run and for my most strenuous bike tour ever at the same time. With already two marathons done it might be too much of a load.

I set up a time schedule for the Maratona dles Dolomites and now I am really worried that I'll be overtaken by the sweeper bus. Fortunately there is a race day option to shortcut the race from 138km to 106km and I'll seriously review my chances at the junction.

Some days are better than others

stats of the week: run 25km, cycled 172km, 2 gyms

Today was actually one of the better days. I managed one of my longest bike tours ever, 153km, and performed the second fastest tour ever by an ave speed of 30.3km/h. Thanks to a group of 4 young lads and a tough girl, my average speed increased from 28 to 30 within the final 60km of the very flat course.

Well, the young athletes didn't really take their gloves off but I so much enjoyed to be able to stay with them and fly along the countryside roads. However, I still very much doubt that I will be able to finish the l'etape du tour in style. We'll see if I survive.