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.