Done: My 21st London Marathon

stats of the week: run 53 km, cycled 77 km
London Marathon result: 4:39:11

Thanks to a perfect support with numerous food stations and two great companions I was able to finish my 21st London Marathon in a proper time. Walking breaks every 5 km enabled me to get to the finish line in good shape. Surprisingly I could run the last 4 km at pace of well sub 6 min/km. Compared to my ardous long training runs this performance shows the importance of suffcient food and drink. 

This photo was taken after 35 km:

A special experience was the reliability of the official London Marathon App. To make sure that we completed the whole distance we continued till my Polar GPS watch clocked 42.6 km. Then we walked to the car park. Where I noticed that my app had only summed up 26.07 miles. So I had to start again to finish my official marathon and finally got an official time of 4:45:38. Even worse for one of my companions: The app counted just 23 miles and did'nt confirm the finish. Hopefully this will be corrected by sending the GPX file.

Awaiting a special sort of race

stats of the week: run 8 km, cycled 42 km
stats of the previous week: run 9 km

If it wasn't London, I won't dare to run 42 km next Sunday. I have to admit it will be more of walking than running. At least I have started to jog for a distance of 5 km again. A realistic plan could be to alternate slow jogging and walking from the beginning, which means this "race" will last for more than 5 hours. However, it's going to be a special day, with a handful of elite runners lapping St. James's Park and 42,283 registered solo runners all around the world, thereof 256 from Germany. A record of 49.3 % female runners entered the virtual race! The most surprising figure is the number of runners from Taiwan: 1,251 entries make it the third biggest country outside UK behind the USA and Hongkong.

Too long for the knee

 stats of the week: run 43 km , cycled 72 km

The long run this Sunday was my longest run since February and I felt really exhausted at the final stretch. I can't really imagine to go for nearly double the distance. Adding to this a new problem with my knee came up that I can't rate. A couple of rest days will hopefully help.

The elite race of the 40th London Marathon is published now. Not only Eliud Kipchoge, Kenenisa Bekele and Brigid Kosgei will run numerous laps around St. James's Park, also German record holder Arne Gabius has been invited.

Effort week

 stats of the week: run 38 km, cycled 111 km, hiked 42 km

With some effort I was able to fulfil the schedule, however the main performance was to walk the Karwendelmarsch. That's a mountainess trailrunning event from Scharnitz across the whole of the Karwendel for 52 km which I entered for the second time. Of course, it had been cancelled. So I decided to walk at least the short version of 35 km what was still a challenge.

Hope rising

stats of the week: run 38 km, cycled 198 km, hiked 6 h
stats of the previous week: run 18 km, cycled 114 km

The first of our two holiday weeks in Bavaria was intense. Luckily I was able to stick to the running schedule, apart from some biking and hiking.

Climbing Germany's highest mountain, the Zugspitze at 2,986 m.

Most cyclists in the area ride a mountain bike, but it is still fine for race biking.

False start into London training

stats of the week: run 5 km, cycled 118 km
stats of the previous week: run 33 km, cycled 71 km

I didn't expect the London Marathon to call us for a virtual race at Oct 4th. No question it is compulsary for me to start - and finish! Immediately I set up a new training schedule - only to cause a serious calf muscle problem at the first longish jog. With only 7 weeks to go now I have to start from scratch.

Luckily the London Marathon gives time from midnight to midnight to complete the distance. I reckon I will need up to 5 hours including long stretches of walking. However, the virtual race is counted as the 40th London Marathon, so I have to do it.

This is my adjusted schedule, admittedly not a classic and proper marathon training. The key is to do enough to get to the finish, and little enough to get to the start.

 

Cycling Streak

stats of the week: run 5 km, cycled 329 km
stats of the previous week: cycled 407 km

stats of the week before: run 5 km, cycled 271 km

During the Provence holiday I managed a streak of 15 days of cycling, counting 943 km and 13,300 meters of ascent. I don't know a more perfect area for road cycling than the beautiful landscape around Mont Ventoux. You have such a big choice of mountain passes that you don't have to repeat any route during a fortnight of cycling. I look forward to being back hopefully already in October.

However, I hoped to improve my performance by this amount of daily training. Okay, I lost two kilos of weight in spite of a lot of very good food and wine. But having turned back home I feel more exhausted than improved. Maybe it will take some more days to get the benefit.