Hi running friends, did you already have your run today? I try to have it almost every day. Sometimes it works sometimes not, sometimes it's just a lack of organization and discipline and sometimes it really can't work out ;-(
If you are interested in my training, my races, my thoughts about running, or just interested in how a middle-aged family man from Germany gets along his "running life" you are heartly welcome to have a look and, off course, I appreciate any feedback.
I had a busy business week in Barcelona from where I just returned. After feeling a bit "strange" at the end of last week it might be a positive coincidence being not able to run a lot. Besides Modnays run I had two workouts on the treadmill on Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday's workout was pretty cool, I started with 5k in a very slow 10km/h pace before I accelerated each km up to a 14km/h pace. Thursday's workout in the morning was just a short 40min run of about 6km.
Yesterday it rained and during the night it snowed, so you can imagine how the roads were today ;-( During my lunch break I chose to avoid the icy roads as much as possible so selected the little forest nearby where I "looped" a bit. Actually it was great, I though of running 30mins or so after the pain I experienced yesterday in my left leg but when I had the first 30mins over I just did another loop, and then another loop and, finally, I was more than 90mins on the course and didn't feel any pain. Actually, this will be a week of lower mileage anyway as I have to fly tomorrow to Barcelona for a Business trip and return not before Sunday, i.e. there will only be some exercises on the treadmill...
Stats:
Distance: 17k (10.5mi)
Time: 1:31:00
Pace (Avg.): 5:21/km (8:37/mi)
3rd training week completed. In total I got a mileage of 96k (60miles) which is, again, a bit below planned mileage. From a quality point of I could manage one intervall training unit and one tempo run/race unit.
Besides, after three weeks of pretty "heavy" training the first little aches and pains are coming up. Since Friday my right heel is hurting a bit, not during running but afterwards. It feels not like a real pain it's more like some pressure on it. Today I felt stronger pain starting on the inner side of my left calf up to the inner knee. That wasn't nice at all. Around one hour after running it disappeared. Let's see tomorrow how it feels... Question for me is, are these the usual "adaption" aches and therefore just go on with the plan or should I reduce a bit? That's always hard to answer...
Stats:
23-Jan: 21/70 - 16k Easy Run
Distance: 16k (10 mi)
Time: 1:30:00
22-Jan: 20/70 - 21.1k Race + 6k Warm Up/Cool Down
Here is a race report (in German).
Distance: 21.1k (13.1 mi)
Time: 1:24:10
Ranking (Overall): 13/229
21-Jan: 19/70 - Rest Day
20-Jan: 18/70 - 13k Easy Run
Distance: 13k (8 mi)
Time: 1:09:30
Lunch break provided perfect weather conditions (at least perfect for mid January): It was NOT raining. So, my plan said "Do some intervalls", okay, can do BUT in fact after running the first meters I couldn't think about doing a hard intervalls workout. I really had pretty heavy legs, especially my calves. Anyway, don't stop and run! After the first twenty minutes I had some flat meters before me, so I started with my first intervall: Goal was 10 times 2 minutes fast with 1 minutes recovery (slow running) in between. The good thing with intervalls is that, once you have started, distances passes pretty fast and you don't think too much about running, stopping, pain or so. You just listen to your watch when the fast pices is over and you can relax and then, it starts again ;-)
At the end I was pretty tired, the intervalls were completed after around 11k and I still had 4k to run back to the office, puh.
Stats:
Distance: 15k (9.3mi)
Time: 1:13:30
Pace (Avg.): 4:54/km (7:53/mi)
Did a 60min workout on the treadmill, speed increased from 10km/h to 12.5km/h and back to 10km/h.
Stats:
Distance: 11k (6.8mi)
Time: 1:00:00
Pace (Avg.): 5:27/km (8:47/mi)
Pretty slippery today. I was lucky afterwards that I did not fall ;-)
Stats:
Distance: 14k (8.7mi)
Time: 1:14:30
Pace (Avg.): 5:19/km (8:34/mi)
So, this was the 2nd week of training according to the plan. From a quantity point of view I could not meet the mileage goal which was 120k (74.5mi), my mileage was 96k (59.6mi). Especially I missed the long run of around 20k. My longest run had about 20k. Squeezing in a long run causes always some trouble for me, anyway, it did work better than expected after the marathon last Sunday. From a quality point of view I think I did very well, made my intervalls and my tempo according to plan.
I am still feeling pretty well (except for a slight cold), no weakness or pain in my legs at all. Another negative point is that I still didn't start with some gymnastics exercises for my body, what a shame! So, let's get it on for week 3.
Met with the running group of my club. Had also my little sweetie with me. Great winter run, w/o snow, but pretty cold and bright sunshine.
Stats:
Distance: 15k (9.3m)
Time: 1:20:00
Pace (Avg.): 5:20/km (8:35/m)
Started at a local 15k race in Pohlheim. I started with a pretty moderate pace (19:10 for first 5k), then due to the hilly and windy conditions I slowed down a bit (19:53 for the second 5k) , and tried to accelerate a bit at the end (18:54 for the last 5k). Finally it was a good race, ended up with a 57:57 what means an average pace of 3:52/km resp. 6:13/mi. But I am not sure what I am capable at the moment. I fear it's not good enough for the marathon in around 8 weeks. Most probably I have to give 100% in a race during the next 3 weeks. But I also have to see how I can afford the current resp. the planned mileages. Actually I am not used to mileages higher than 60k or so!
This was the 3rd time in my whole running career that I ran two times at the same day. Considering that I am running in my 13th year this is really an exception ;-)
In the morning I did a 10k workout on the treadmill (since this week the company health centers got two new treadmills!). It's boring and it's bad air but anyway, I did the following:
KM 01 - 10.0k/h with 1% incline
KM 02 - 10.5k/h with 1% incline
KM 03 - 11.0k/h with 1% incline
KM 04 - 11.5k/h with 1% incline
KM 05 - 12.0k/h with 1% incline
KM 06 - 12.0k/h with 2% incline
KM 07 - 11.5k/h with 2% incline
KM 08 - 11.0k/h with 2% incline
KM 09 - 10.5k/h with 2% incline
KM 10 - 10.0k/h with 2% incline
In the afternoon I did a 10k "easy" run at homethrough the forest.
Lunch break was my running break, again. I still have some problems with my stomach but most of the run was just fine. Around +5 degrees Celsius and only partly some heavy wind made it hard but not to hard. In the beginning I felt my weak left leg, this is the only "souvenir" from Sunday when I got at km 39 my usual "left leg weakness" but today it disappeared after a while.
For this weeks tempo run I am thinking about participating in a race on Saturday. It's very close by and two pretty flat loops to be summed up to 15k. This is the second out of 3 races, the first one was 10k in November, and the last one will be a Half Marathon in February (actually they predict that the sum of your times during these 3 races will be pretty near to your reachable marathon time in Spring). I'd like to run the 15k in marathon race pace what would mean to finish around 59min, actually my personal best on this course is 58:49 in 1993, puh. I am doubting if I can reach that time with my current shape. Let's see.
Stats:
Distance: 20k (12.4m)
Time: 1:46:30
Pace (Avg.): 5:20/km (8:35/m)
Today in the morning I felt pretty sick, not due to running but currently a lot of people here suffer from a stomach flu. ´So, I didn't feel like having an intervall workout. During lunch break it was better but I thought maybe some lunch makes me stronger ;-) In the end I could squeeze a short workout between end of work and when my wife had to leave the house for an appointment. I did 10 repeats of 90sec fast and 60sec slow, actually my plan says I had to manage 400m in 80sec what would mean keeping a pace of 3:20/km (5:20/mi), I don' think I was that fast but most probably it was like 3:30/km (5:36/mi).
For this week I have to reduce a bit the planned mileage, what is no surprise after Sunday's marathon. Planned was a mileage of 120k (75mi), I try to get 100k in, i.e. around 20k for each of next days.
Stats:
Distance: 10k (6.2m)
Time: 0:46:30
Pace (Avg.): 4:39/km (7:27/m)
7:30AM, running with colleagues from work.
Stats:
Distance: 11k (6.9m)
Time: 1:06:30
Pace (Avg.): 6:03/km (9:41/m)
Today was marathon day. A colleague wanted to run his first marathon and he convinced me that it would be nice for me, too. I said okay, actually, when I am doing my long rúns of my own I hardly get 30k in, so would be a good occasion to get a really long run in ;-)
On Friday we (= my wife, the two kids, my colleague, his wife, and his kid) drover to the forer capital of Germany, Bonn, to visit a freind. On Sunday we continued to drive to the frontier Germany-Netherlands: Kevelaer. The marathon in Kevelaer is happening on a flat 6k loop. The number of runners is limited to 333. So, this is more a small marathon but (as I recognized) with a great atmosphere. Saturday's weather was pretty bad, rainy and heavy wind. On marathon day it was better, no rain, but pretty sunny, around 8 degrees Celsius but still for some parts of the loop heavy wind. But for a January marathon these are great conditions!
I started with a group in a 5:00/km (8:00/m) pace. I stayed with them for half of the distance and got a half marathon split of 1:46:30. After the half marathon mark I accelerated slightly to a split of 1:35:00 (4:30/km resp. 7:12/m) for the second half, i.e. my total time resulted in a 3:21:28 and ranked 41 overall and 7th in my age group.
Tempo Run on 1.7k loop:
8:00
7:51
7:52
8:02
7:38
I added 500m and that resulted in a 10k time of 41:30.
Stats:
Distance: 13k (8m)
Time: 0:59:00
Pace (Avg.): 4:30/km (7:12/m)
Getting out of the bed on a Thursday morning at 6AM is always hard. Especially when you already got out at the same time during the days before, puh! So, take on your running clothes and let's drive to work... Coincidence, 7:30AM, the runners of the company did today an inoffical run, i.e. I had company for the first hour. That was great especially because it was still dark. The first 30mins was pretty slow with a pace not below 6:00/km. Then the group (5 male, 1 female) splitted and the fast group did 5k in a 4:30/km pace. Nice but hard, so early in the morning! After around 1 hour the others headed back to the office. I did an additonal loop to get to my mileage goal...
Stats:
Distance: 22k (13.8m)
Time: 1:58:00
Pace (Avg.): 5:22/km (8:35/m)
The Plan says that today and tomorrow a total of 30k should be logged. So I tried to get as much as possible in today but due to busy times at work and heavy rain I just could squeeze in a short run. Now I have to get as early as possible to bed and hope for tomorrow morning to get started. In the dark ;-(
Stats:
Distance: 8k (5m)
Time: 0:40:00
Pace (Avg.): 5:00/km (8:00/m)
Today was the first hard workout on the plan. I didn't perform hard intervalls for ages, and in fact, these are not really hard intervalls as they are just in intended marathon race pace, oh my dear! I feel so incapable when I don't have the race adrenaline ;-) Anyway, the plan says 5*2000m in a 3:54/km (6:15/m) pace, I changed it a bit as I have an approx. 1700m course round which is not to hilly (approx. 30 meters height gain and loss per round), mostly paved, and partly in the forest for wind protection. The resting intervall was planned for 4 minutes slowly running:
My split times:
6:33
6:29 (3:49/km resp. 6:06/m)
6:32
6:43
6:47 (3:59/km resp. 6:23/m)
At the beginning my aim was to go for 6 intervalls but in the end I was exhausted enough and, I mean, this was my lunch break ;-)
Stats:
Distance: 17k (10.6m)
Time: 1:22:00
Pace (Avg.): 4:49/km (7:43/m)
Nice sunset when I stepped out of the office today, isn't it?
Used my lunch break for kicking of "The Plan". A nice round with runners-like weather, felt pretty comfortable with a moderate but not slow pace.
Stats:
Distance: 16k (10m)
Time: 1:19:00
Pace: 4:56/km (7:54/m)
Today I will start to obey my training plan (called "The Plan" ;-)). The Plan is intended to guide me to a new marathon PR. Last year I clocked in Mainz with a 2:56, intention is to break the club record which is currently a 2:46 clocked several years ago. The Plan consists of 10 weeks of training, usually each week has one long run, one unit with intervalls, and one speed unit. The original plan says to run each day, I will modify it to have these 7 runs in 5 or 6 days. Each week will have a mileage between 90k and 130k, this still seems to be moderate. This is the first time that I am trying to stick to that plan, actually I am not very dilligent and persevere in following a plan for such a long time, usually I can be pretty near to the mileage goal, i.e. from a quantitative point of view but my quality is not as good as it should be (especially these tempo units). But for now everything will change, haha.
The Plan is taken from a book of a pretty famous German runner. He was pretty good in the 80ies. He has a PR of less than 2:10, which means he would beat any current German runner with a healthy margin. His name is Herbert Steffny, he was also a pretty good masters runner in the US.
Let's go.
My run from today, hmmm... Not intended as a lunch run but anyway, had a run of around 15k. Wather is still not to bad or to cold, a bit windier than yesterday but still fine. I started on my usual track, i.e. get out of the house and started to run. After around 500m I am out of the village, passing the motor highway bridge, having around 2k to run on the country lane and than I am in the forest. But before being in the forest I have to climb some meters, puh. In the forest I have some longer and some shorter loops, always a bit hilly ("wavily"). After 20min I felt that my right leg is a bit weak, not really pain. Surprisingly the right leg, usually I know this weakness from my left leg, anyway, after 20 more minutes it was goen and it was just an easy going.
Here's the wrap-up of this week:
27-Dec: MO - Rest day
28-Dec: TU - 20k
29-Dec: WE - 10k
30-Dec: TH - Rest day
31-Dec: FR - Rest day
01-Jan: SA - 16k (12*90sec fast/90sec slow)
02-Jan: SU - 15k
Happy New Year to everyone! Hope you have started it in a well manner...
We stayed in bed today until 10 AM, wow, kids were still pretty tired as they went to bed pretty late and the elder one we had to wake up for the fireworks. Weather is really not winter-like here at the moment but for running it's nearly perfect, i.e. a solid 6 degrees C w/o wind and no rain, off course, the paths I ran today were pretty muddy but that's okay. I could manage a very slow pace of 5:30min/k for my 16k-run. Nice and a good start ;-)
