Friendly Ireland

stats of the week: run 29 km, gym 3 h

The Dublin Marathon saw its 40th edition on Sunday and grew to Europe's 5th biggest marathon. Some 18,000 finishers crossed the line and earned the medal. The men's winner from Morocco set a new race record at 2:08:06 h. I was happy to be back to Dublin after 3 years of absence and enjoyed watching the "friendly marathon".

Too much right now

stats of the week: run 47 km, gym 3 h

I have to admit it was a strange idea to run the Teutolauf just 3 weeks after the Berlin Marathon. It has a distance of 29 km and longish parts of cross country terrain, especially when it is very wet like this time. Anyway I was able to finish after 2 h 52 min - 19 minutes slower than 5 years ago - but it was very hard work with a lot of walking on the steep ascents. Gasping for breath behind the finish line my hindsight was that this was too much for my body right now.

Luckily I made it to the 2nd place in my age group what was a real surprise after 3 guys had overtaken me on the final stretch who looked as old as me.

Lively again

stats of the week: run 19 km, cycled 93 km, gym 3 h
stats of the previous week: run 8 km, cycled 104 km, gym 1 h

Presumably due to the walking parts of my final Berlin marathon stretch I recovered pretty well and did not suffer from any severe muscle pain. However, I missed my Majorca time trial bike record on the ascent to Galilea by 4 minutes. No wonder.

By the way - I kept to my medicine schedule consistently so far. But now I skipped to take in any more statins. After only 2 days I feel much better - much more positive, lively and stronger. I felt more and more depressed since I used these tablets. Now it is my decision to prefer 5 more positive years to perhaps 10 depressed years.

I even got the courage to do a 5 K race and was happy to finish after 24:41. A time to be improved.

Run according to schedule

stats of the week: run 51 km, gym 3 h

My Berlin plan worked quite well. Conditions were wet and not too cold, that's a weather I like. According to the schedule I clocked exactly 2:59:43 at 30 km and even at 35 km I managed to pass at 3:30:25. As I expected I had to take some walking breaks along the final stretch where I lost 4 minutes (and was overtaken by 3000 runners) and finished after 4:18:24. I guess that I would have been able to avoid walking if I had done a couple of more long training runs. However, I am happy with the result.

Hesitating to taper

stats of the week: run 51 km, cycled 124 km, gym 2 h

This week doesn't look like tapering and in fact it isn't. However, I urgently had to do at least one long run. This one on Tuesday with 28 km was too late and too short but all I could afford with Berlin approaching too fast. Now I promise to taper properly until next Sunday.

My theoretical plan is to run 30 km in 3 hours, then somehow get to the finish line. Luckily the route consists of one round, so there is no risk to be lapped. I expect to walk a few final sections.

By the way it will be my 3rd Berlin Marathon, second one being 14 years back in 2005. And my 37th Major marathon while I am still missing the big medal ...

Cross training at wrong time

stats of the week: run 17 km, cycled 316 km, gym 1 h
stats of the previous week: run 53 km, gym 1 h

I know this might not be the classic way to prepare for running a marathon. But it was an urgent wish to test my new bike trailer and learn how it works on longer distances. So we left for a 3-day-trip with light luggage of 11 kg. Together with the trailer the load was around 20 kg. I was happy that I was able to cope with ascents up to 15%. However, after 3 days of tough cycling I felt to be in need of 2 days of recovery and the scheduled long run of 30 km still has to wait. 

The Real Come Back

stats of the week: run 48 km, cycled 39 km, gym 3 h

The Half Marathon at my home town Bochum was a real come back. With an average pace of 5:21 min/km it makes a promising base for future improvements to a forgotten level. I was able to enjoy the race without any serious torment and finished with a smile. Even more, I was lucky to end up 3rd in my age group.

Now I would prefer to work on my pace and run more fast races. However, it happened that I got a number in the Berlin Marathon's lottery. So I have to fit in some last minute long runs to prepare for the classic distance.