18,000 yards of vine

stats of the week: run 18km, cycled 56km

Constant problems with my injured calf forced me to alter my plans and shortcut the marathon to only 18km. Medoc is the only event I'd consider this. It would be a sin to refrain from vine tasting - the final 18km boast 10 stations and I didn't miss any of them. To avoid cheating I removed the time chip from the bib and just made my way as an unknown drinker.

humans flying over starting masses

you may take more than one glass

drinking in better style

the oyster bar signalizes the near finish line

helping hand serves with shower

Still waiting for come back

stats of the week: cycled 130km, gym 4hrs

Next Saturday will see me experimenting. After 4 weeks without running and still working to cure my calf I'll do a marathon. Alas it's not any marathon it's the red wine one. Medoc! 22 stations of samples of best Bordeaux wines.

I've laid out my plans. Run first half - walk second half - drink both halves.
This will hopefully and happily end after around six hours.

special drink station at Medoc Marathon (photo: official website)

 

Back from high level

stats of the fortnight: nothing but hill walking

Back from two weeks of high level trekking in Ladakh, North East India, also called little Tibet - full of impressions of a desert of mountains, green oases, friendly buddhistic people and big contrasts between poor and rich.

Didn't worry about staying fit for running ... finally I get injured after falling on Stokh Kangri and damaged my calf. Still working on that and probably withdrawing from next Sunday's half marathon. It was worth it - report to come.

Crossing Markha River by cable car

Sunset above Chilling village

River Zanskar meets Indus

Posing on top of Stokh Kangri 6,153m

Two tops and one 10K

stats of the week: run 27km, cycled 62km, gym 2 hrs

With a few weeks of delay I finally managed to do the yearly visit to the Zugspitze and to care for Uwe's memory plate which is placed on the West ridge just 100 vertical meters below the top - in case you think about a visit yourself. Luckily the weather was fine as you see and I got the chance to climb the very easy ferrata to the top of Alpspitze.

Saturday saw a 10K race test and I was happy to finish a 45:08 min. After my very low summer mileage I can regard it as a proper performance.

10 years younger by necessary doping

stats of the week: run 36km, cycled 66km, canoed 15km

My come back to running was eased by doping by cortisone. As usual I reacted allergic after a wasp sting and had to take a good dose of cortisone that let the infection be cured within 2 days. And as usual it also helped me feel 10 years younger while pounding the streets.

Now this method had to be finished and my feeling is back to heavy legs and slow moving. It will take some time to get fit for a proper half marathon. Luckily there is time to do so - alas, I will spend most of the days walking alpine and himalayan hills instead of doing running intervals.

Cycling now finished after more sunny days

stats of 2 weeks: run 40km, cycled 380km, gym 1h

Getting back to proper running workouts had to wait furthermore as I suddenly got the chance to do some more cycling on sunny Mallorca. Luckily I was able to enjoy 4 grand tours through the island's hills, including the famous road down to Sa Calobra.

Now it's urgent time to improve the running performance. Plans are to race a 10K next week and my home town half marathon at Bochum in early September.

Cycling apprentice

stats of the week: run 9km, cycled 185km
stats of the week before: cycled 270km

With all three events successfully finished my short cycling season is finished now early in the year.

Maratona dles Dolomites was a tough day due to the heat and my unsufficient performance level. I struggled to get through and ended up half an hour later than last year after 138km and 4100 vertical meters. The day was still very enjoyable until the unshadowed ascent up the steep road to Passo Giau. Best experience of the day was the descent from Passo Gardena when I was able to improve my placing for the very first time on any descent.

Col de la Madeleine worked just as a warm up!

A week of rest let me recover in time to tackle this year's L'etape du tour Act 1 from Albertville to La Toussuire. This is the route that the professionals will go on Thursday. It includes famous passes like Col de la Madeleine and Col de Glandon via Col de la Croix de Fer and the final climb to La Toussuire. This makes up for a total ascent of 4.750 vertical meters on 152km. I was very happy to finish this personal record of climbing with more than a third of the 4.400 finishers behind me. Not mentioned the 1.200 who abandoned the race.