Building confidence with some better training sessions

After my not-so-good race in Hannover, I’ve tried to do some confidence building sessions. So far, it has worked fine.

(Picture found on Deadra’s blog.)

The best session I have done in a long time was last weekend’s long brick session. As per Mitch’s suggestion, I did some pretty long sessions around my half-IM in Hannover – the week before I did a 3 hour run, and for the week after he suggested a long brick. As I am a bit time constrained, the instruction was to run for about 90 minutes after a bike ride – as long as my time allows.

I was still a bit tired and spent after the Hannover race and I knew that my work week was going to be a bit hectic as well. So I capped my bike ride at 2 hours. I went a bit easier than IM intensity, but I still had some very solid sections in there. The weather was a bit cold so I had arm and leg warmers on and made sure I was eating and drinking enough. It’s funny how a 2 hour ride seems to be quite solid at the start of the season, but goes over in a flash when you’re almost ready for a race. Also, my mind was already on the run. I was hoping for a much better run than in my half-IM where every step was hard work.

After a quick change of clothes, the first steps of the run felt strange as usual, but I quickly loosened up, had a good “bio-break” and really felt okay. I wasn’t hot at all (in fact, I had even put on a long shirt), I was able to eat and drink as planned and just felt great. My HR quickly got down to where I wanted it (under 125 beats per minute), and it even took some effort not to slow down and have the HR drop further. Time flew by, and I was feeling great the whole way. I didn’t manage to run for 90 minutes – my pace was so quick that I had run the planned course after 1h26m. In Hannover, I wasn’t able to run any quicker than a 6 min/k pace even when working hard, now I was running around 5:20/k without any effort at all.

How is that possible? Well, here are some ideas:

• The bike before the run was quite easy compared to Hannover.
• I wasn’t overheated, so everything just clicked: HR, eating, drinking, being relaxed, pace.
• I was better rested than before the race – I had made sure to get some extra sleep during the week to recover from the race.

For my IM in Frankfurt, this means that I have to make sure that I start the race well rested and have to manage to complete the bike race within myself – not too hard, and certainly avoid getting hot. This includes bike intensity, but also measures such as making sure to put on sun screen so I don’t get another sunburn, drink a little more than in Hannover (so I start peeing before the half-way mark) and relax a bit on the last bike section before T2.

I also hope that it’s not going to be too hot in Frankfurt – but as I don’t have any influence on that it’s better to come up with a good plan if it ends up being hot. But at least I know now that I can have a decent run in Frankfurt if I manage to execute smartly. At least I can influence that …

More Snow Running

In my last post, I was already calling for Spring .. but then we got even more snow during the week, so it looks as if we have to do a few more snow runs.

This Sunday, we got another invitation from my Mom to join them for Sunday lunch. It’s become a kind of tradition for me to run to them (straight distance about 12k, but a lot of opportunity to “tack on”). My wife then takes the car and brings fresh clothes, and we enjoy the meal and the time with my parents. A pretty nice way to get a longer run in!

As hinted above, we had gotten some more snow. The first notable point on my run route was the “Herrenteich”, a dammed creek that has developed into a nice little lake:

It was created somewhere around the 12th century when the monks of the monastery that formed the basis of Reinfeld created some lakes to raise fish, especially carp. (Guess what is the traditional Christmas meal!) Today, it is used for rowing and swimming (and still raising fish!), and the upper region of the lake is a nature reserve.

After that, my route takes me into a little forest with some nice trails in a “rolling” territory:

There was less and less traffic before me, and at times it was nearly impossible to run in the deep snow and the drifts that had developed when the wind was blowing. Still, it felt great to be outside in the snow – my only problem was that I was collecting some snow in my shoes and I was getting wet socks and feet. Maybe I should get some gaiters .. but I wouldn’t know where to get them here in Germany – ideas,tips, anyone?

After that picture my battery bummed out on me (note to self: check battery before taking the camera next time). I had taken my FuelBelt with a bit of water and a little to eat. At times it was quite exhausting in deep snow (completely unrunnable!), but even after running for almost two hours I still felt great. I explored some new side trails following somebody else’s tracks and discovered some cool new “shortcuts”:

It was fantastic to be able to run in the middle of nowhere having the confidence to make it in time to my destination. After I reached my parents, I really enjoyed the hot shower and the lunch. When we got back home I even had a chance to take a little nap. What a great Sunday!

Dashing through the snow …

Had a lot of fun on a winter run tonight.

As noted in an earlier blog post, we don’t usually have a lot of snow in Northern Germany. As far as I can remember, we didn’t have this much snow for so long since 1978/79 (which was a legendary winter for the “snow catastrophe” were power went down and villages couldn’t be reached for days).

In fact it is the first road closure for snow that I can remember. Along a route I run on quite often, there was suddenly a barrier …

As you can see, some cars had driven around it, but a short while later had to turn around as a huge snow drift of more than a meter high totally blocked the road:

The snow plow had tried to clear the drift, but had given up:

 

I climbed over it, sometimes sinking in up to  my knees (but the snow was quite solid) and ran on in my loop. It was sometimes a bit tricky to run in the high snow, but even running on roads that were cleared was tricky:

There was a lot of snow even in the cleared sections, so it was like running in soft sand. It was exhausting and I was running about a minute per k slower than normal, but I had a total blast. Some passing motorists must have wondered about my mental state ..