Puppy and Training don’t mix very well

There’s been a big change in our household: We’ve added a new family member, a little Spaniel we’re calling Snoopy: We got him on April 2nd, and our lives have never been the same. We’ve been dog-sitting when my in-laws were on vacation, but a puppy is a different story – the time demands are a lot higher than with a grown up dog.

So training has become more difficult and requires a bit more planning and understanding by my wife. There have been moments where I thought that it’s next to impossible to train for an Ironman while raising Snoopy. (And of course Snoopy is the first priority now! Both spending time with him and also making sure my wife has some time for herself.) But things have started to settle down a bit, and I’ve decided to do what I can and see where that leads me. Over the last few days I managed a longer run (19k at a reasonable pace) and a bit of cycling (although not nearly as much as I would have liked). The longer bike rides look really tricky for now, but again, I’ll just see what’s possible.

This last weekend it has gotten a bit colder and rainy again, which resulted in horrible riding conditions – muddy, wet streets (as the farmers were out working on their fields) resulted in a very dirty bike. So in addition to playing with Snoopy, I also have to clean my bike now! So I thin I’ll try to get another long run in this week (hopefully 24k or so) and see if my bike magically cleans itself …

Soso 10k race

On Sunday, I ran a shorter race, a 10k close to where I live, the Travelauf in Bad Oldesloe.

Originally I had planned to run the 29k Hochbrückenlauf (see my race report from last year), but family obligations didn’t give me enough time, and I had to re-plan. The way my legs felt after the training camp, it was probably better that way, I would have had to add some more running during my week in Mallorca in order to be in shape for a longer running race.

As this was also the weekend that daylight savings time started here in Germany, I had some trouble getting up in time and I was a bit late. After race number pick-up, a much needed toilet stop and a short warm-up run, I barely had enough time to make it to the start line in time.

I was hoping to run about 42 minutes which would have required a 4:15 or quicker pace. During the first three k’s I was seeing splits hovering just under 4:30/k, so it didn’t seem quite possible. At the turn-around I had a time of about 22:20, so my goal was impossible to make. Bummer – I was running hard, my HR was right around 155, and I didn’t feel I could run much quicker.

Nonetheless, I tried to pick up the pace, my HR moved into the 160s, and I started to pick up some people. Some fought back, but in the end I just passed a whole lot of people. I even managed to run up to some of the younger guys from my club, and ran by them with about one k to go. (“Where did you suddenly come from?” they asked after the race.) I didn’t have much left at this point, and the last steep downhill hurt a lot, but I managed to reach the finish in 43.37.

I certainly didn’t have the speed I would have liked, but that is not so important this year. I’m happy with the way I stayed mentally strong and pushed right to the finish. This is certainly something I’m happy with and that I can take with me to IM Germany. If I manage to hold the run together like this (even at the slower speed, but with the much longer duration), I’m going to have a great race.

Now I “only” have to put in the training for a long race …