Good Luck - Have Fun

training stats
Tu 08/04: run, 12K, 1:07 hrs


Best wishes to all of you running on Sunday.
Don't forget we are doing it for fun. For example:

There is Buster Martin, aged 101, father of 17, who has done a half marathon in 5 and a half hours and aims to become the oldest marathon finisher ever!

There is Iva Barr. She will be running to celebrate her 80th birthday just like she did on her 70th birthday.

There is Susie Hewer who will be attempting to break the Guinnes World Record for the "Longest scarf knitted whilst running a Marathon".

There is Jean-Yves Kanyambiwa who will be running whilst dribbling a basketball in under five hours.

And there are countless more people out to have fun. Like us!

The official website says that you will be able to track your runner as he/she is running.
Try official or mika timing website and watch out for race number 54890

One step to the start

training stats
Su 06/04: hilly run, 16K, 1:36 hrs
Sa 05/04: gym 2 hrs
We 02/04: long run, 31K, 3:02 hrs


That's it, folks. That's what I could do to be fit for next Sunday. Looking back it is really a low key mileage. No expert would advise to try a marathon with that kind of training. But with legs experienced by more than 20 years of running I am confident to arrive at The Mall before 1.45 pm. What would be a time of less than 4 hours.

My brain forced my body to complete a second long run of 30K on Wednesday. It was much much harder than the week before. My thigh muscles were hurting for two days and I am happy that I was back to running today.

Remember: The only target of the final week is relaxing. Any serious training will harm our performance. So I plan to do a short jog on Tuesday and another one Saturday morning with our travel group of German runners.

I will come back to you on Wednesday with last wishes for the race. Keep calm, stay relaxed.

Record Week

training stats
week's total: run 74K, gym 2 sessions
Su 30/03: hilly jog, 16K, 1:42 hrs
Sa 29/03: treadmill run, 9K, 0:55 hrs, gym 2 hrs
Fr 28/03: slow jog, 10K, 1:15 hrs
We 26/03: long run, 30K, 3:08 hrs
Tu 25/03: hilly run, 9K, 0:48 hrs
Mo 24/03: gym 2 hrs

I was amazed after recalling the week's training. I had forgotten that I ran on Tuesday and so this week's mileage adds up to 74K - more than I intended to do.

The main progress is that I finally managed to do the absolutely essential long run of 30K. Most schedules in sports literature recommend to do 4 to 6 long runs to get fit for a marathon. And the last long run should be done 3 weeks prior to the race, or 2 weeks latest. So do not take my training as your guideline to success. It is just an experiment enforced by my knee problems. I hope to do another long run next Wednesday.

Fairly fast but rather short

training stats
sa 22/03: run, 13K, 1:20 hrs
fr 21/03: run, 18K, 1:34 hrs
we 19/03: run, 12K, 1:08 hrs, easy bike 50K, 3:00 hrs
tu 18/03: run, 8K, 0:45 hrs

Based on my last week's half marathon time of 1:38 I could forecast my London Marathon to be finished at 3:30 hrs. Alas! I haven't done any long run so far! I planned an absolute minimum of 2 runs of 30K which is only possible for legs with a long lasting running history.

First of these 2 long runs was planned for this weekend. The only problem was: I was staying on holiday on a stormy Dutch North sea coast, facing showers of rain, snow and hail. And I have to admit I am not the tough guy to go out and stand this kind of weather for about three hours.

If I still manage to do the scheduled long workouts a realistic target will be a marathon time of 3:45-3:55 hrs I reckon. Apart from the missing long run I am still on track of my very low key schedule:

Holland is one of the most densely populated countries of the world. Maybe this one reason to keep the towns like fairyland's places.

Some images of Leiden near Amsterdam:

And this is Enkhuizen, harbour town on the Ijsselmeer, formerly the Zuiderzee but nowadays separated by a 30K-long-dike from the North Sea.

Just to show how the weather was really like:

Finished without smile

Halfmarathon CityPierCityLoop, Den Haag, 1:38:05 hrs

With a little help of Diclofenac - I have to admit - my knee was happy with running 21K on Dutch tarmac. The start of the race was quite a disaster: I queued up too far in the back, the start was even late by 15 mins and it took me 3 minutes to get to the start line after the gun shot. For the first 6K I had to run a slalom to overtake slow runners. I guess I ran a far longer distance than half marathon due to all the side steps I had to take. The first half hour of running was sort of a Fartlek training but I still managed to keep up an average speed to be able to finish at 1:40.

However, I was very disappointed at first but later in the race I was grateful that I started slowly. I was overtaking other runners from start to finish what helps feeling good. My 5K splits are: 23:29-23:05-23:30-23:04. This verifies that I was able to keep my speed all the time.

The day's best result was that the knee was okay. On the other hand this was probably my first race without any smiling because there are other parts of my body that are hurting more and Diclo can't help it. Alright, we had that before and it will be overcome as life proves again and again.

Some photos of the day: Patrick Macau (no 2) won the race clocking 1:00:08 hrs.

Passing City Centre Den Haag.

Inviting Pub in Scheveningen

Off to the chilly coast

training stats
Th 13/03: run 12K, 1:08 hrs
Tu 11/03: run 10K, 0:58 hrs
total mileage Mallorca: bike 639K, run 48K

Tomorrow I will be off to the Dutch coast to run the famous half marathon at The Hague on Saturday. It is quite a big event with about 7000 runners taking part. The route leads out to the Pier at Scheveningen, all along the promenades and back to the city centre. I already entered this race three years ago but had to withdraw due to an injury. Now again I don't feel fit since my knee will be asking for Diclofenac to stand the distance. My plan is to keep to a reluctant speed and I hope to finish somewhere between 1:40 and 1:45 hours.

Photo shows the race 2005 with the Scheveningen's spa hotel in the background.
Link: CityPierCityLoop

Greetings from Mallorca

holiday training stats
bike 504K, run 36K

It is the first time I tried combinated training of running and biking on the same day. The toughest day I found Tuesday when we biked 15K, had tempo runs in the stadium (6x1K at 10K race speed), followed by 40K biking and finally 6K running. I wondered that I was able to finish this kind of training - with only slight mourning by my knee. Every day I am so tired that I fall to sleep before dinner. And yesterday I was totally exhausted at the final part of our hilly bike tour and happy to be back at the hotel.

The photo shows the pass of the road leading to the coastal village of Sa Calobra. I didn't drive down because it would have meant to reascend 680 meters back to the pass.

I really enjoy biking on Mallorca. Roads are mostly in a good state and at this time of the year the traffic is not very busy on the minor roads. And as most of you will know the landscape is exceptionally beautiful. Unfortunately our group is focussed on training so highly that no stop is allowed for photographing.

Back at the Hotel - exhausted and hungry as usual: