Long bike ride

After Rennsteig, I’ve got to do some crash training in order to get ready for Vätternrundan.

My running has been greatly reduced, basically I’m only going for a run when I don’t have enough time – riding less than an hour doesn’t make much sense. I’ve gotten a few runs in since Rennsteig and my legs are okay, but I don’t really feel like doing much running.

With Vättern only two more weeks away, riding bike is much more exciting. I’ve managed to ride quite a lot (for my standards at least) – this week I did four rides totaling 260k. (Any week over 200k is a “big” cycling week for me.)

Today, I’ve had enough time to do one of my favorite routes. The base route is about 125k and can be lengthened, but it goes through mostly quiet back roads and has some great views.

After I leave from my home, there is some “climbing” and then a great view towards the old city center of Lübeck with its towers. My cell phone does not really do any justice to the view:

After that there are some downhills and after 1h30 of riding I get to Travemünde where the river Trave flows into the Baltic Sea. If you’ve read Thomas Mann’s “Buddenbrocks”, you’ve probably heard of this seaside resort. A port with a bunch of small and large ships, some nice old buildings, but also some (not so nice) new buildings:

I then take a ferry across the Trave and after a bit more riding I cross what used to be the border between East and West Germany:

It looks pretty unspectacular now, but twenty years ago there was the inner-German version of the “Berlin Wall” with fences, mines, dogs and a bunch of border troops ready to shoot at you, probably even some spring guns. I still get goose bumps when I just ride across the old death strip.

Now in “East Germany”, there is a nice mixture of old roads and some newly built ones with lots of rolling hills. With the help of a good map I figured out some nice back roads that are practically devoid of traffic. (And most of the bad cobblestone sections gone by now.) After a while there is a nice view over wheat fields back towards Travemünde:

(Again, pretty tricky to see anything here on my cell phone picture, but the white blob in the middle of the picture is the high-rise you can see on the Travemünde picture.)

As you can see from the picture, I had great weather and a lot of sunshine today, no problem riding short/short. After about 3 hours total riding time and a lot more hills, you get a bit more inland towards the tip of the “Ratzeburger See”:

A long, fast downhill down to the lake, then a pretty steep uphill and you get to view everything from the other side of the lake:

From here it is another hour home, so I ended up going for 4 1/2 hours at a pretty good pace. This was the longest ride I have done since my Ironman last August, and I felt pretty good. Apart from getting a bit hot, I didn’t run into any issues. I still have another full week to train (plus the taper week), and I should be okay for Vättern. Let’s see how I feel tomorrow …

Next official "race": Vättern-Rundan

Made some plans with my wife tonight and talked with her about my next race.

So: Next on my schedule is Vättern-Rundan on June 13th. It is a 300k bike event in Sweden around the largest lake in Sweden, Vättern:



It's not really a race per se (although a few people really race it), but more something "to finish". In order to be a "proper Swede", you have to finish this (and a couple of other events like the famous ski event Vasa-loppet) at least once in your lifetime.

There really is not enough time to properly prepare for it, but a large group of people from my club are going up there, and it'll be a good chance to enjoy this events with some friends and have a good time. It won't be a "goal" race with a certain time in mind. As I haven't done much cycling, I'll be happy to finish without major problems and enjoy myself while cycling for a couple of hours.

I've done this race twice before, and really liked it. I hope this time it'll be even better!

Race Report Rennsteig – Part 3

“Only” 18k to go – but being somewhat tired and with a long uphill to start, it didn’t feel to good. There were only a few people around me and it was getting a bit lonely. Strangely, people’s rhythms seemed to be quite different, when I was running, I was overtaking the same people that ran by me a few minutes ago. And again, and again ..

After about 7:45h, I reached the highest elevation of the race:

Maybe this released some hidden energy, (or I put on the right playlist on my iPod,) but around this point I started to feel really great .. or I just like running downhill.

Listening to “Gonna fly now (Theme from Rocky)”, I was really starting to fly. “Smoke on the water”, the “Pirates of the Caribbean Theme”, “Eye of the Tiger”, “Jump” – I had unlimited energy. The next 45 minutes I was on top of the world – it was so great, I almost cried. My pace got down to about 5 min/k (of course I was overtaking a ton of people), and my average HR for these sections was the highest during the whole race.

But even the best sections have to end, which was for me about 2k from the finish:

(It was a good thing I had read some race reports before – there is no 70k sign. If you’re looking for it at this point, I’m sure this can be a bit of a bummer!)

I had decided to put the iPod away and to really enjoy the last two k, Unfortunately, I had to struggle a little bit to get through the streets of Schmiedefeld, but after 8:55:17 I was really happy to cross the finish line:

Race Report Rennsteig – Part 2

The middle section of the race continued to be a bit slower than planned, but I made steady progress.

The aid stations and the volunteers were great. A lot of stuff to eat & drink, and always a clearly-labeled, big “menu”. I was eating salami bread, different types of sausages (with mustard!) and tried the “Schleim”. Literally translated it means “slime”, and it’s like grits but made from wheat with different fruits added. It tasted okay, but my stomach didn’t like it too much, so I switched back to more “middle-of-the-road” stuff like apples and bananas. I was also drinking some coke (at least the “East-German” brand VitaCola) and was constantly sipping from my Camelbak. At least I wasn’t getting hungry or thirsty …

A lot of sights I had read about in other people’s reports - like the trumpet player in the “middle of nowhere” - actually near the halfway-mark:

I enjoyed some short phone calls – but with reception not being too good, I couldn’t talk with too many people. I probably passed the marathon mark walking up another long & steep hill. Then I saw the first sign with a number larger than 42:

I was getting a bit tired, but I totally enjoyed the beautiful green, hilly scenery:

The next time I met with my parents and my wife was near the ski jumps in Oberhof. This was at the 55k aid station at “Grenzadler”. I had hoped to be here in under 6 hours, but when I got there 6:40h had passed. I still felt okay, and was very confident that I would finish. “Only” 18k to the finish – probably a bit over two hours, so 9 hours was still possible …

Race Report Rennsteig – Part 1

Race morning was a bit chaotic. My parents overslept, so we left a bit later than I would have liked from our hotel. After we got to Eisenach, I took a few photos and checked in my clothes (to be brought to the finish in Schmiedefeld). The lines in front of the toilet were a bit long at 10 minutes before the start, but I still decided to wait (not many people coming after me, though). Some people in front of me left for the start, but it was getting awfully close. I had to take a deep breath to remind me that it probably didn’t matter if I was a few minutes late for the start. So I took my time and listened to the start count down from a porta potti. When I finished a minute or two later and made it to the start area, there were still enough people waiting to start. So I just got going, and as Rennsteig is a modern “chip time” race, it wasn’t a problem at all.

Right before crossing the start-line.

It was quite cold, so I started with my long tights. An easy jog through town, a right hand turn, and the first hill. People started walking, and so did I. A little bit later we left the road for the smaller trails and there was a bit of unplanned walking because of the congestion. The uphills continued, and so did the walking.

My time plan was out of the window as soon as I hit the 5k mark - a bit over 40 minutes instead of the “guesstimated” 35. The pace felt okay, relaxed but not too slow, with some walking when the uphills were getting steep. So I decided to continue in that fashion and not worry about any time goals I may have had.

View of the Wartburg (in fog) after about 6k.

After 6.8k we hit the first aid station, and a bit afterwards I saw my wife and my parents. Smiling, I gave them my long tights (it was getting warm enough to run in the short tights) and told them I’d be a bit slower than planned.

The next time I saw them was at the 17.7k mark. The uphills were taking much more time than I had planned, but I tried to take things easy and controlled.

It’s still a cross country race!

At the 26.8k mark, I had hit the end of the long uphill section. Unfortunately, that also meant going on the first long downhill section – but that was way too steep to be properly runnable and not really a chance to make up lost time. I was more than 20 minutes behind my initial time plan – so instead of 8 hours (as planned) 9 hours was a bit more realistic. Again, I saw my parents and my wife (more smiles) and ate a bit at the aid station.

I felt okay, I hadn’t wasted any unnecessary energy, we were having some nice weather (clouds and fog had given way to sunny weather), great scenery and I was really enjoying myself.

QuickNews: Rennsteig

Just a short post to let everyone interested know that I finished the Rennsteiglauf of 72.7k in 8:55h.

Even though this is almost exactly 1h slower than what I had planned, I’m still happy with the way the race went. The hills were much “worse” than I had anticipated, and they took a lot more time that I thought. I made it through the race with a lot of uphill walking and almost no problems. I even finished strong and had a great last 10k.

I really enjoyed the race and will post a more detailed report after we’re back from visiting our friends.

Ready to run

The night before the race.
Always a little bit scary. Did I train enough? Did I do too much in the week before the race. Will I recover in time from the last har session? Did I eat enough? Too much? My head is spinning from what I could have done better .. or just different.
Over the years. I have learned to switch off these thoughts. This may be stuff for an analysis a week from now, but nothing to help me for tomorrow. Whatever has been done, cannot be changed. Whatever hasn't been done, has to wait for "next time".
All that is left is to catch some sleep and rest, and get my mind fired up to go running tomorrow for eight hours (or even longer). The quesy feeling in my stomach is just anticipation.
I'm so looking forward to tomorrow .. something non-runners will never understand - not even my wife and my family. But they'll still be there to support me, and will be be happy with me when I finish. I'm ready to run!

Planning Rennsteig

A few weeks ago, I posted a general idea for my Rennsteig race. I arrived at roughly a 6 min/k pace (plus some extra time for the hills), with a goal of under 8 hours for the complete distance). But for my wife and parents (who will come to support me before, during and after the race), I had to come up with a more detailed plan so they know when to show up where.

• My rough goal time is 8 hours (= 480 minutes)
• Rennsteig has about 1500m of ascent, at 3 extra minutes per 100m “up”, that’ll take about 45 minutes (which leaves 435 minutes)
• In order to run the 72.7k in that time, you have to be just a bit quicker than a 6 Min/k pace. If I base my calculations on a 5:55 Min/k pace, that’ll leave me some cushion to come in under 8 hours.

Based on this pacing, here’s the breakdown by sections:

Section	Distance	Height gain	Time/ section	Total time
Eisenach to Grenzwiese	26,8	800	3:02	3:02
to Neue Ausspanne	14,0	100	1:26	4:28
to Grenzadler	13,9	200	1:28	5:56
to Schmiedefeld	18,0	400	1:59	7:55

My wife and my parents will try to be at these stations, and I hope to be able to see them.

Now I’ve got to and pack my things, my parents and I will drive down tomorrow.

Weather Report Eisenach

Here's what I could find online (wetteronline) with regards to the weather in Eisenach for Saturday (race day @ Rennsteig):
(Low/High in °C, clouds, wind, date of forecast)
4 / 13 / sunny / NE 3-4 / May 11th
10 / 13 / rainy / NE 2-3 / May 12th
11 / 14 / rainy / W 2 / May 13th
10 / 17 / cloudy / SW 3 / May 14th

Sounds like almost perfect running weather. I'll update with newer information once I've got it.

Last longer Run

Yesterday evening I went on my last longer run before Rennsteig. We had a busy day with shopping and friends over for a barbecue, so it was 8pm before I managed to get started. I was somewhat tired by then, but still wanted to get a last quality session in. As I had bagged my Tuesday faster run and I wanted to run 20k, I combined the two sessions, so I ran 20k with 8*4 Min faster segments.

During the run I did not feel good. I was burping a lot (the food had not quite settled, but it stayed down). Also, I realized I was pretty tired, so towards the end I was walking the hills and tried to take things a bit easier. Also, it was quite warm … I wasn’t a happy runner. But when I checked my splits afterwards, I realized I felt pretty bad, but was running really well.

So, another little bit of encouragement. I’ve decided to put a 60 Min cap on any running this week, probably just a few easy runs. I hope to be fully recovered by Saturday morning …

Tired ..

Yesterday, I went to do a hill session with a friend that didn’t feel too hard. But after that and a long day at work, I didn’t have any energy to do my interval session. So I canned that after 3k and turned around. My wife made some dinner while I showered, and now I’m going to bed early.

Maybe I’ll have more power tomorrow .. still want to do a 20k session over the weekend before I’m entering taper mode. We’ll see …

Run recovery & first bike sessions

After the marathon, my focus for this week has been recovery. In running, all I did was three short & easy runs that I was able to complete without any problems. It seems that my legs have recovered well from Hamburg and that I think that running a marathon three weeks before my ultra is not going to have some adverse effects. But you never know until you do it, so I guess I’ll have to wait for the 60k mark to find out if I’m really well prepared. Still optimistic ;.)

As noted in my previous post, I was taking a few days off to get my bike ready for “spring”. I also managed to get the first bike sessions in. I like to go on bike sessions if there is no pressure to finish quickly because of other obligations. So it felt good to just go out and spin a bit. I can tell that my legs are not used to it, but I hope that they’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly – after all I’m still thinking of doing the Vätternrundan (300k bike) in the middle of June. Not sure if I’ll manage to get in bike shape by then, and I’m not going to worry it before Rennsteig.

Just two more weeks …