Strange Problem

stats of the week: run 37km, 1 hr indoor bike, 1 gym

Wiki photo: Adductor muscel

Adductor injuries are rather common with sports that involve sudden stops and sidesteps, e.g. football or badminton. It should be quite rare among runners. It's still a miracle for me that I strained my left adductor twice within a fortnight.

One option might be that the indoor biking came too intensely, another that a new workout to strengthen the hamstring wasn't tolerated.

Running is strictly off-limits until Thursday now when I still hope to be able to take part in the traditional New-Year's-Eve race.

More time on the treadmill

stats of the week: run 43km, 2 gyms

I am still doing my best with indoor intervals on the treadmill. I have practised this kind of speed workouts for about 10 years in November and December. And it always worked reliably to get fit for the end-of-year races. This time I was happy to see that I am able to achieve the usual training results - same speed, same number of intervals, same heart rate as every year.

But this time my race performance is absolutely disappointing. There is no evident impact.

In the cold light of day all my races since April were disappointing. And there is no improvement to hope for. Now I think about doing some cautious speed work all year round to limit further loss of ability.

Photo: Local winter weather forced to do half of the mileage on the treadmill - not appreciated.
(archives photo)

Fun Day

stats of the week: run 29km, 1 hr indoor cycle, 1 gym

After last weekend's disaster I stick to my thought to take it easy now and just have fun.
Along today's Christmas Run I enjoyed my role as the most envied runner as I was accompanied by two beauty angels.

I was surprised that we were a mere 13 seconds slower than last year when angel B took it more serious and trained much more. Don't worry there is still another proper race at New Year's Eve.

Time has come

stats of the week: run 42km, 2 gyms

Time has come to face the truth. I thought that training went well during recent weeks. The more disappointing happened to be what was my poorest race ever. Yesterday I was confronted with the worst performance I can remember. On a six-mile-race I lost nearly 3 minutes compared to last year.

Well, one can concede that I had a very depressing email conversation with the Zugspitzlauf lawyer the day before. What was still dominating my mind while racing. But this cannot explain why I wasn't able to run properly. There was no power to fight, there was no breath, no strength, there was nothing but a sagging old runner. Maybe time has come to stick to slow enjoyable jogs through nature and to say Good Bye to behaving like a sportsman.

Photo: Clock proves a leisurely pace but my face looks different