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.

French mountains waiting

stats of the week: run 24 km, cycled 36 km, indoor cycled 45 min

I did plan to start at a Solo 10  K run in our neighbour town Dortmund but sudden problems with the Achilles tendon restrained me to race. No idea what the reason for the pain could have been.

However, last week's cycle tour had some impact as I was able to reach a new level on the indoor bike: an average of 168 Watt for the whole of the session. Cycling will be our main sport for the next 3 weeks that we are going to spend at the foot of beloved Mont Ventoux. Lots of sunshine awaiting, great landscape, good food and wine. Looking forward to this!

Cycling the home country

stats of the week: cycled 425 km
stats of the previous week: run 22 km, cycled 184 km

Did a 7-day leisure cycling trip along one of the most German and most romantic part of Germany. Corona lets one see parts of the home country that were never seen before. The journey took us along the rivers Tauber, Aisch and Main for almost 500 km.

Towing the trailer for up to 90 km daily by an average speed of 21 km/h took me to my limits several times.

Approaching Rothenburg when it turned out to be the perfect time to be there. Usually

the Unesco village is flooded by tourists - even from Japan and the USA -
now it was very relaxed.

Beautiful Bamberg was much more busy.

Home of the storks.

Stopover at Kitzingen

Decent week - almost

stats of the week: run 40 km, cycled 56 km

It was a decent week of running although I did only short distances. Since Corona I havn't run a single long run of more than 20 km. Running performance is still low and most of my workouts were sort of a torment. I remember times when I enjoyed the Runner's High regularly but those times are gone since long. However - never give up!

Another Comrades Medal

stats of the week: run 32 km, cycled 183 km, hiked 25 km

It was a busy and satisfying week. Cycling meant a 2-day-trip from Rhine to Maas on my cross bike towing a trailer with 15 kg baggage. Good exercise although it was a very flat route. We enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere in the Netherlands.

Hiking meant the first half of a hilly local marathon route I published at the Alltrails platform.

And running included the unique opportunity to get a Comrades medal for running only 10 K. The worldwide virtual race counted more than 35,000 participants on distances from 5 to 90 K!