13 weeks to London

stats of the week: run 48 km, gym 4

Looking at the figures it was a decent week of training. Alas, most workouts let me feel tired. Did intervals on the treadmill - 8 times 700 meters at 5:12 to 5:00 pace - and found it rather hard.

Set up a cautious schedule for my spring races at Sylt (15/03), Berlin (05/04) and indeed London (26/04). Just 13 weeks to go

No good news from the health front. Got my blood tested and the result was that bad that I got (not really) convinced to go back to at least half the daily dose of statins. Not happy with that.

Tired and limited

stats of the week: run 38 km, gym 4 h

I pondered a lot about the reason why my performance improved although I didn't increase my training effort. Then I found one assumption. I halfed the application rate of my blood diluter. I have done this for 3 weeks but now I got convinced to turn back to the full dose. Every reputable source says that you should stick to 2 x 90 mg of inhibitors of platelet aggregation for a full year after you got coated stents. Now I will see if I slow down again.

photo: my look after 9 K

On this Saturday I did slow down. Maybe it was the expected fatigue when running the 3rd 10K race within 3 weeks. Legs felt tired from the start on and breathing was limited. However, I was fast for the first 5 K but then I was forced to slow down. Finally 50:35 was still the second best time for the last 2 years. No reason to moan.

Elderly boy wonder

stats of the week: run 43 km, gym 3 h

Miracles are rare but sometimes they happen. Sunday's 10 K was such a kind of wonder. A cold and very windy day, but a flat and fast course. I hoped to confirm a 51 min time but things got even better. Apart from 2nd and 3rd Km I was able to run a sub 5 min/K pace and finished after 49:57 min. A personal best since more than 2 years!

Surprisingly I was placed only 8th in my age group. Indeed the area is known for a big number of really fast senior runners. They were all there obviously.

I can't really tell a reason for the improvement. I have only just returned to speed intervals. May be the performance follows the relaxing and sunny holidays on Hawaii. May be the repaired heart gets back to a state of higher effort. Now I am curious about my running year 2020.

New target may be realistic

stats of the week: run 33 km, gym 3 h

I surprised myself by running the 10K New Year's Eve Run in a year's best of 50:38. Even more surprising was that I could run the final 3 km at a pace of sub 5 min/K. So new hope is rising that I could be able to run a sub 50 min in 2020. It is a real challenge but I will try. Weekly speed work might enable me to reach this target.

Approaching the finish line it doesn't look easy. Alas I enjoyed the race.