Race Report Marathon 2008

Ran my spring marathon today. In an earlier post I described being just a little bit anxious - I wanted to finally break 3:30 after 18 years of trying. I had trained well, and I believed I could finally do it. Mitch gave me the quote "believing is the first step" on my way ...

The day wasn't really good for running. It was raining a lot in the days before and there were some muddy sections on the course. Today, we had some more rain, low hanging clouds, and temperatures in the 40s. Usually, nobody is out on a day like this, but I hardly noticed it.

The course was four rolling loops, mostly paved streets and bicycle paths, but also some muddy trails. The first 5k were a bit easier than the second - except for one "major" uphill, but there wasn't really any flat section on the whole course.

The first loop I tried to go out "easy" and leave myself enough power for the rest of the race:

* 00-05k: 25:39 HR136

* 05-10k: 25:35 HR140

So far so good - I pretty much stayed to my HR guidelines (135, then 140) and I felt okay - maybe a bit wet I was just a bit slower than the 5min/k pace I was hoping for.

The second loop was similar:

* 10-15k: 24:29 HR140

* 15-20k: 24:43 HR142

My HR was okay, but the pace was still a bit slow. When I ran by my wife, she told me to pick it up a bit or else ... I believed I could break 3:30 on this day, so I decided to give me a few extra beats.

Third loop:

* 20-25k: 24:40 HR142 (including a 30 second pit stop, so I was getting a bit faster!)

* 25-30k: 24:54 HR145

Even though I was a bit disappointed with the last 5k, I was still right on the bubble of my 3:30 goal. I passed 30k in 2:30:02, so I basically needed to make up a minute on my 5min/k pace. Two years ago, when running the same race, I was about a minute and a half faster at this point, but I basically knew that my race was over that day. Today, I believed I still had it in me and went on to run

* 30-35k: 24:18 HR147

All right! Just twenty more seconds to make up! I really believed I could do it now. I even took the time to walk a few steps after the last aid station (37k) to make sure I get enough Coke down so I could power the rest ..

* 35-40k: 25:00 HR148

Things were getting really hard now. The rest was mostly downhill, so I believed that although I had absolutely nothing left in me, I could get things done.

* 40-finish: 10:11 HR153

giving me a finish time of 3:29:31! I did it!

Although I was hoping to be able to run a 3:25, I'm totally glad the way the race worked out. I was able to pick up the pace when I needed, and I don't think I could have gone any faster on this day. What else can you ask for!

Race Report Roth 2007

The "Quelle Challenge Roth" was my second IM distance race. It is one of the classic triathlon races and is very well organized. Usually, a lot of excellent athletes show up, and every long distance triathlete not totally focused on IM Hawaii and qualifying for it should take part in Roth at least once!

In my first race, IM Germany in Frankfurt two years earlier, I finished in 12:26 without running into any major issues. I swam a 1:13, rode a 6:21 and ran a 4:42 (plus some change for transitions).

I was hoping to improve quite a bit on that time, as I had a very solid preparation with some more volume than in my first IM. Also, Mitch made sure that I added a lot of running while keeping my bike and swimming at record levels.

Swim

The swim in Roth is in the Main-Donau-Canal - no problems at all with navigation - just go straight with two turns.

The spectators are quite close, I even heard my wife shout out some encouragement and she managed to take a photo of me. Also, there is a wave start, so things are quite civilized.

My swim was quite relaxed, tried not to waste any energy. Had a little cramp in my calf, but when I stopped it went right away. Strange, never had that before.

Ended up swimming 1:11:31 - I had hoped for a 1:10, but no need to worry.

Bike

After a quick transition (no change of clothes this time!) I was riding away. The course in Roth is very beautiful, through small villages and with quite some undulations - never boring. My personal highlight was the "Solarer Berg", one of the big spectator spots. Probably 15 to 20 thousand (!) people line a one kilometer, pretty steep hill. The elite racers had started more than an hour before me, so I - being on my first loop - was passed by Macca and Thomas Hellriegel alredy on their second loop shortly before the Solarer Berg. The crowd was still buzzing and cheering the other racers on. Then it got even louder, and I was barely able to hear the honking of the camera motor cycle filming the third rider Eneko Llanos flying by me. It was pretty close - almost like at the Tour de France where the spectators only open a little space right before the rider almost crashes into them.

My bike time was just a few seconds over 6 hours (maybe I shouldn't have stopped quite so often to pee), which was still a big improvement over my Frankfurt time. I tried to eat as much as possible and to ride as steady as possible, but it was very tricky with all the hills and I had some fade towards the end.

Some Ergomo data: 1st loop 209AP 235NP 31.5 km/h; 2nd loop 198AP 226NP 30.1 km/h (plus a short relaxed ride into T2).

Run

I took some time in T2 to get some sunscreen and for a toilet stop. Saw my wife, my parents and some friends right when I started the run. The plan was to run the first 5 to 8k very relaxed and to get my HR to under 125. I managed to do that quite well (even walked a bit on one of the short, steeper uphills). I had some spikes, but cooled down, was eating and tried to relax as much as possible. Also, my pace was okay - just a bit under 6 minutes per k.

After the 8k mark, I had planned to run with my HR at about 130, with a cap of 135. I eased into the higher HRs, and my pace got considerably faster (under 5:30/k). I was feeling absolutely great and probably overpaced "a bit". By the half marathon mark, when I ran by my fans, I already had some doubts if I could hold that pace. After 25k, I just exploded.

I had to walk most of the next 10k which took me 1h25. I tried a couple of things (1 min run/walk, counting steps, drinking Coke), but nothing really worked. I don't know what it was, but around the 35k mark I tried some more running. I at least wanted to try to improve my Frankfurt time. Everyone who has ever done an IM knows that the advanced math to calculate what pace you have to run to reach your goal time is impossible at this point. All I managed is that walking in would not be enough .. so I continued to run. Strangely, it worked and after a bit I was able to get back to running a 6 minute pace. Again I was not able to figure out where exactly I would end up .. somewhere around 12 hours ... maybe I could still break 12 hours?! I ran on ...

I got the finish line, was very happy to see my wife and my parents and made sure to take some time to wave at them. At that point - if my watch was correct - I would be able to sneak under the 12 hour mark with just a minute to spare .. When I actually got to the finish line and saw the clock at 13:03:something .. I was surprised but managed to do the math .. I had started exactly 1 hour and 5 minutes after the elite .. so my time was 11:58 - YES!!!

My official finish time was 11:58:48 with a marathon of 4:36. So I managed to improve in all three parts - four PRs in one race! But did I race to the best of my abilities? Probably not ...

What’s next (from 2005)

Note: This is an article that was written in 2005 after I completed my first IM. In hindsight, some of the goals look a bit ambitious, but I’m still thinking in the direction of “Let’s try to get better”. Also the goal of getting to closer to qualify for IM Hawaii is still active. It may just take a little while longer …

Where I’m coming from

In 2001, I was an out-of-shape, overweight (104 kg), middle-age (33 years) man getting married. In 2005, I'm four years older, happily married, and finished my first IM in 12:26h, having lost 18kg of weight. So what's next for me?

A lot of things can happen. I may find a new job that truly excites me again, my wife and I might finally manage to have a kid, but these things are not truly within my control. As I've drawn a lot of satisfaction from my athletic development in the last years, I've decided to set myself a lofty goal in this area. I've decided to call it "Sub-10 in '10" – which should also get me close to being able to qualify for Kona.

As noted above, there are a few things that could make this goal less important, I may not be able to get that fast and I don't want to take things literally (a 9:52 in '11 would be great as well ;-)) but as a reference point, I really like the catchy phrase.

First, a short look at my progression over the last years:

Season	Total (h)	Swim (h/km)	Bike (h/km)	Run (h/km)	A Races
01/02	145h	-	-	145h	Marathon in 4:26
02/03	271h	20h 50	64h 1671	173h 1755	Marathon in 3:52, First Oly (2:38)
03/04	387h	80h 187	116h 3023	174h 1763	Marathon in 3:39, First Half IM (5:04)
04/05	435h	85h 202	173h 4501	149h 1535	First IM in 12:26:57

Sub-10 in ‘10

To go sub-10 means something along the lines of 1hr Swim, 5:20 Bike, 3:30 Run, plus 5 Min in each transition. This year my times were Swim 1:13, T1 7:43, Bike 6:20:39, T2 3:21, Run 4:42:12.

So, what does it take to get me closer to Sub-10?

As last year was close to what was tolerated at home and at work, I don't think I can do more than last 2005. Ultimately, that may limit how fast I can get and I may have to rethink that number along the way, but for now I'd like to try not to break anything by increasing my training load.

I feel the biggest improvement for me will have to be on the bike .. that will require increasing the volume and become much more powerful than I am now. What should I be doing here? "JFT" is my main idea. I'm not sure whether I would benefit from "toys" like a power meter. Upwards of 800$ is a pretty hefty investment if there is not that much of a benefit for me.

The run .. obviously, I will have to improve here as well, but I think at least I know what to do to get there. Run often, and get a bit faster while get fitter and leaner.

Which brings me to the next issue – weight (body composition is the political correct term ;-)). At 1.80m (6ft?) I'm still "a bit" overweight with 86kg (192 lbs?) on race day. I've improved over the last years, but progress has been so slow and even not really there this year that I feel there is a lot to do here.

Swim .. probably the easiest. I've managed a very relaxed 1:13 on two times per week. As I have excellent form I regard the volume I can put in as my main limiter here. I think that I will see huge improvements if I manage to swim 3 times or more per week. If getting to Kona requires me to swim twice in the morning before going to work, I think I can do that. For 2006, I may sacrifice winter swimming for some time in the weight room. I've never done any lifting before and feel that I may need a new stimulus – especially considering my bike focus.

Which leaves .. race execution. I think for my first race, Mitch helped me build a race plan for my capabilities and made me feel comfortable with that plan on race day. I deviated a bit from it (the classic rookie mistakes – started a bit hard on the bike, ran the first loop of the run a bit too fast), but all in all it went pretty good. I think I'm "smart enough" to get to Hawaii – what I don't know is if I can get fit enough.

What should I do in 2006?

The overall volume .. I think I'll shoot for about 400 hours, but I would like to be more consistent than last year when a good week was almost always followed by a week with smaller volume. I'd like to enhance my basic week so that I get in about 8 hours per week almost automatically, so when I do the larger sessions for my marathon or ½ IM prep, I'm almost guaranteed to go over ten hours without any undue stress.

As a gesture to my wife I've decided to have my next IM in 2007, so 2006 should be a base year and mainly about having fun. Training and racing in the last years was a blast. I was setting PRs left and right – let's see how long that continues! So I want to PR in most of my running races, 10k (41:45 – would love to go sub-40), half marathon (1:34:31 – would love to get close to 1:30h) and marathon (3:39:31 – should be able to go sub 3:30). These are my goals for the first part of the year up to March (marathon is end of April). During this time, I should have some minimum weekly time for biking (probably 2 hours per week) and as noted above I'm thinking of doing weights instead of swimming.

The rest of the year I want to focus on biking. Starting during the taper for the marathon, I want to get as many bike-hours in as possible. I've already signed up for "Vätternrondan" in mid-June, the world's largest bike "race", a 300km non-stop loop around a lake in Sweden.

Depending on vacation, I would like to end my season with my A-triathlon, possibly a half IM in late August (with a big PR, as well – 10 to 15 minute improvement over my time from 2004). Leading up to that, I would like to do a few more triathlons and maybe some bike races, too.

After my main triathlon, have some more fun running races to finish the year.

Race Report IM Germany 2005

Before the race

As usual, the last few days before leaving for the race were pretty hectic. I managed to get an easy run in on Monday evening. On Tuesday, it was raining hard, so I took my MTB for an easy 60 minute ride and got totally soaked. Wednesday was a little bit better, so I got a nice easy swim in. I guess all the work and other things that needed to be done helped me to avoid doing anything hard. Wednesday evening was spent packing and getting my race plan done so I could send it off to Mitch for review.

My wife and I drove down to Frankfurt on Thursday. There was a lot of traffic and it rained hard, so it wasn't very relaxing to drive. We drove the last part of the bike course I hadn't seen when I did recon in May, and managed to get to the race office half an hour before they closed. I picked up all my stuff, picked up the gels I still needed for the race and were amazed about the stands that were being erected at the finish line on the "Römer", the old part of downtown Frankfurt. Then we drove another 45 mins to our friend Marcus we'd be staying at, had Pizza for dinner and were happy to go to bed.

On Friday I got up early to go out to "Langener Waldsee" where the swim was. They opened up at 8 and I was in the water by 8:10 with a bunch of Canadians. The lake was very nice to swim in. As I didn't want to go through the hassle of cleaning and drying my wetsuit, I swam without my wetsuit, but it was nice and warm. Official water temp on Sunday was 22°C, but it felt even warmer. Got back to our friend and had some nice breakfast with my wife. Then a quick nap, some lunch and the it was off to the race briefing. Nothing new, but I guess you have to be there just in case something interesting comes up. Then back to downtown to meet with most of my "fan group". Both my cousins with their wife and husband had come down, and we talked a bit with them.

Also met the other three people (Sybille, Sven and Stefan) from my club that were doing the race. Lots of good wishes from everyone to everyone. There is a lot of respect between those committed to do the race. After an hour, we drove back out to our friend and had a big pasta meal to carbo load for the race.

On Saturday we slept in until 9am. Afterwards I set up my bike and went out for what was planned to be an easy spin. It turned out to be very hilly were our friend lives so I ended up riding pretty hard for the first 15 minutes to get up the first hill. Then I managed to find a nice loop – another 15 minutes easy, then 15 minutes downhill coasting. The legs felt really good, the bike was okay, only the cable of my computer was cut so the computer didn't work. No problem, I still had enough time to get a replacement before bike check-in. Some leftover pasta for lunch, then finish my bags for the check-in. Throw everything in the car, then drive to the swim start. On the way stop at a bike shop I had seen, get a new computer cable. Borrow some equipment at the race site to properly mount it on my bike, then stand a bit in line for check-in. Saw Stefan, Sven and Sybille when I left and we encouraged each other some more. Just got a bit hot as the sun had come out in full force by now. Then drive back, eat and dink some more stuff, watch Tour de France, answer some phone calls from some other friends coming to watch the race. My father cut his vacation a bit short to be able to come to Frankfurt, and we had two more people from my tri club and Mom & Dad of Sybille. Off to bed at 8:30, probably fell asleep by 8:45.

Race morning

Woke up at 3:10, a bit earlier than I had set my watch – really excited and anxious. Had a big breakfast (three egg omelet, two rolls with Honey, Nutella and cheese, a glass of OJ and some coffee with milk). Got everyone else out of bed, mixed my bottles, put the few remaining things in the car and we were off. Tina and Marcus dropped me at the swim start and went off to drop the car.

I checked my bike, put the bottles on the bike, pumped the tires. Some personal time to focus, again encourage Sven and Sybille (didn't see Stefan), then the volunteers started to urge people towards the swim start. I snuck into a portapotti (only short lines at this point!), then quickly put on my wetsuit and went into the water. Saw my cousin and two friends on the way. They played the national anthem, I edged easily toward the start line and I was pretty nervous …

Swim

The gun went off and everyone started swimming. An IM swim start seems to be proof of a shrinking universe, everyone seems to converge on you. Actually, it wasn't that bad. Some erratic swimmers, but I wanted to take the swim very easy, so I didn't have a problem in letting them pass when they were getting too close too often.

There was a quite a long way before the first turn, but it was still pretty congested and everyone had to breaststroke around the buoy. There is a short walk on land after the first half .. took my split – 34:45 – time okay – maybe the HR a little high. So relax a bit more and just go on. Second lap was just as uneventful, a bit longer, HR a little lower. Just got a bit bored towards the end, but that's okay I guess.

Time for the swim: 1:13:00 (302^nd in my AG)– smack in the middle of my planned range of 1:10 to 1:16. I was quite happy as everything had gone fine and I felt that I hadn't wasted any energy.

T1

After exiting the lake you have to go up a short but pretty steep hill to get to T1. I walked easy, a guy helped me open my wetsuit. Saw Marcus and Tina, took a swig of water, then found my bag.

With the help of a volunteer I took off my swim briefs (yes, I did use the tent!), put on my bike clothes and stuffed everything I didn't need in the bag. An easy walk/jog to the bike, grab my helmet, then off.

Time: 7:43 (373^rd in my AG, total 320^th in my AG)– a bit longer than planned, but what's a minute?

Bike

Tried to take things very easy at first. Put on my arm warmers (it was a bit overcast and still pretty cold). Stefan blew by me at the 10k mark – he had a very good swim! He "can't swim" – just started training half a year ago for the IM. But he is a great cyclist and runner. Originally he said it would take him until the 90k mark to get me. But as my swim time was okay, I wasn't concerned and just happy for him.

My HR went down quite well and I was soon under the 120 mark. After I saw Sybille's parents when I hit downtown Frankfurt at about the 14k mark, I started eating and soon the hills started. I was finding it really hard to keep my HR down and not to go too hard on the hills. Lots of people blowing by me, lots of spectator cheering, and from what I could see not a very good average speed. Up to the 60k mark I was seeing HRs in the mid-125s – my plan was to ride at sub-115 till 50k and then 115-120 with a cap of 125. At about 60k I stopped for to pee and that clear-headed minute allowed me to kick me and tell me to stay in my zones. That was a very good decision, on my way back to Frankfurt I realized that the first part was into the wind and more uphill than downhill, so I could really power on the way back. HR much better, average okay. Just didn't manage to get the hills up at sub-125 – just try to do that with people screaming at you and real Tour de France atmosphere! At the end of the first loop I flew by my fan-group and their cheering cheered me up even more.

The second loop went okay as well. Had to tell myself to properly stay in my zones a few times, but I managed to get my calories in quite well. At one point I ran out of water and things started to get hot. The sun had come out, I had taken off my arm-warmers. Took things a bit easier, took two bottles at the next aid station and didn't run into major issues. At the end of the second loop I got up to Sybille who is a stronger swimmer than me. We chatted a bit, I stopped and kissed Tina when we drove by, then the bike was over.

Time: 27:30 to Frankfurt (414^th/total 336^th), 1^st loop 2:55:17 (416^th, total 385^th), 2^nd loop 2:57:52 (381^st, total 385^th), total bike 6:20:39 (409^th in my AG)

T2

A volunteer took my bike, I got my bag and took some time to redress for the run – new shorts, singlet, socks, shoes plus my fuelbelt.

Time: 3:21 (332^nd in my AG), total time was 7:44:45 (383^rd in my AG)

(My thinking at this time: Great, you just have to run a 6 min/k average to go sub-12!)

Run

First loop (0-14k)

Was a bit faster than Sybille in T2 so I came out before her. Tried to start very easy, but it was quite warm and I found it very hard to get my HR down. After 2k there was a short downhill section in the shade, that was the first time I got my HR to under 135. I wanted to get it down to under 130 but I felt so slow. (I know, Rookie mistake.) At about 5k I stopped for a short pee and Sybille passed me. She slowly ran away and it took some willpower not to try to catch up to her and run with her. My HR was still too high! Passed my fans, and started to take in some gel from my fuelbelt.

Felt quite comfortable, but pretty hot. I had hoped to be able  to run about a 4hr marathon, but my splits hovered at about 6 min/k. At the 10k mark, I decided to try to hold that pace. Still, my HR was hovering around 135 instead of around 130 and still too high for the 130-135 region I had in mind after the first loop. At the 13k turnaround I saw that Sybille had built her lead to about 1:30 mins – one more reason not to slow down now. I was about to pay for it …

Time: 1:25:41 (333^rd)

Second loop (14-28k)

I continued to run my 6 min pace, with my HR at 135+. I got even warmer, at about the 20k I mark I gave Tina my fuelbelt (I had downed most of the gel anyways) and felt briefly better without the weight. That lasted for 2 minutes or so – and on the long section in the sun I had to walk a bit. I decided to push a bit but had to walk again on an uphill section leading to a bridge. This was my "dark moment" and thoughts of having to walk the last 21k were swirling in my mind. I saw Sybille's parents here, but their encouragement didn't reach me. However, I was starting to come around a bit and I thought of Gordo's "It's okay to walk, you just have to make sure the run restarts each time.". So after the bridge I decided to run a bit more, at least up to the next aid station. I had already sipped coke having run through most of the aid station so far, and I decided to try to take in whatever I could from the next aid station. Nearly stopped running before I had gotten there, but just caught myself in time. I walked the next aid station, drank a full cup of coke, nibbled on a cookie, poured tons of water over my head. After I was finished with the coke, I started running again. Well, it was more like a shuffle, but at least I didn't walk. So on to the next aid station … I just tried to think of the next aid station and not further ahead, and it worked. Slowly, I started to feel … well, not better, but at least not worse. At the turnaround I noticed Sybille was just 2:30 mins ahead and I thought I might just be able to catch her.

Time: 1:37:15 (285^th in my AG – when I saw the results after the race, this really surprised me. A lot of people must have been feeling a lot worse than I was!)

Third loop (28k to finish)

Tried to run from aid station to station, walked while trying to get as much coke down as possible, walked the two uphill sections before the bridge – but ran the rest of the last loop … at about a 7 min pace …

Still I caught Sybille at about the 34k mark, and we ran a bit together. She had to walk before the next aid station, so I ran on. The rest of the loop was a blur … tried not to think too far ahead, but when I got my last band (to show I had run three loops) at the 37k mark I thought I'd be able to get to the finish line like this. Saw a lot of my fans at this point and their cheering spurred me on. I was close to tears when I got to the finish line and a bit unhappy I couldn't see my wife right before I crossed the line. (She saw me finish, though.) The finish line itself was great – big stands in the oldest part of Frankfurt, lots of people cheering.

Sven was at the finish line waiting for Sybille and we both gave each other a big hug. Then "my fans" were there as well – my wife, my father, the rest of my family. After the first round of congratulations Sybille came in, too, for the next round of cheering and hugging. Everyone of our club had finished, and finished well.

Time: 1:39:14 (as this loop added the 200m to the finish line, the time is almost equal to my 2^nd loop; 237^th in my AG), total time for the run 4:42:12 (278^th in my AG), total time 12:26.57 (334^th in my AG).

Race Report Ratzeburg 2004

Note: This race was in the age before we had a digital camera (hard to believe, but it’s true!). So no pictures in this report …

Distance

In Germany, Half IMs are called "Middle Distance" triathlons, typically with distances of 2k Swim, 80k Bike and 20k Run. These basic distances are usually altered a bit based on local preferences. In Ratzeburg, a small town near Hamburg, Germany, the bike leg was officially 85k in a rolling countryside, although my reconnaissance showed a length of about 88k (two loops of 44k each). The run was exactly 20k (again 2 two loops of 10k).

Before the race

Ratzeburg was to be my first Half IM after a 12 year break. In my student days (early 1990s) I was able to finish 3 Half IMs, all of which were not all that good, especially on the run. My best run time was 2:04h.

This year, after having gained 25kg of weight (and having lost 18 kg of these) since then, my goals were like this: First, finish, and second, keep it together on the run. Thinking of trying an IM race next year, my strategy for the race was similar to Gordo's IM strategy: Easy on the swim and bike to be able to put together a strong run.

The run leg was always (and still is ;-) my weak leg, being a half-way decent swimmer, I'm usually able to more or less hold my place during the bike leg, only to be overtaken by a bunch of people on the run. Having had a look at the rolling run-course instilled even more respect for the run leg, so I decided to be really careful on the bike not to go too hard.

As I've also ridden the bike course a bit, I had a pretty good feel for my potential times:

Base 0:37 – 0:03 – 2:53 (30,5 km/h) – 0:02 – 1:50 -> 5:25h

Realistic 0:35 – 0:03 – 2:49 (31,2 km/h) – 0:02 – 1:45 -> 5:14h

Dream goal 0:33 – 0:03 – 2:46 (31,8 km/h) – 0:02 – 1:40 -> 5:04h

The morning

As the start was to be at 8am, that meant getting up at 4:30. Some breakfast (an apple, a banana, two honey sandwiches), prepare two more honey sandwiches for the race, fill the bike bottles and my fuel belt for the run. Then drive 45 mins to Ratzeburg and set up my bike in the transition. A light jog, find a toilet and some more jogging. 20 mins before the start I took a lot of time to properly put my wetsuit on. 10 mins before my start, some light swimming (just to get wet). Then a last kiss from my wife before the race. Some good wishes from my parents, who had come out by now as well. Ready to go!

Swim

As there were about 100 people in my wave, it wasn't crowded for very long before I could swim my own pace. Also found a pretty good pair of feet. At the turn around, I had a quick look at my watch – 17 mins! On the way back, I tried to draft a bit more, but whenever I found some feet, the guy attached to them started to zig-zag, and I swam a lot of the second half on my own. As I could see that there was a pretty big gap to the next group, I held myself a bit back to stay in the group I was in. It felt quite long to get back, but when I got out of the water, my time was 33:21. Yo! Cheers from my fan group.

T1

Struggled a bit to get out of my wetsuit, but when I tugged the cord hard, it opened up. Found my bike (had a 2 second scare when I thought I had the wrong row), took the wetsuit, cap and goggles off, sunglasses and helmet on, unrack the bike and out of T1.

Bike

Coming out of T1 and trying to mount my bike on the fly, I nearly ran over a couple of guys who had stopped completely. After running around them, I hopped on my bike and started to pedal over the first hill. Saw my wife who had run up to the bike course waving at me. Then I slipped into my bike shoes (had them already attached to the bike). There was a short (100m) section of cobblestones. A couple of people had already wreaked their nutrition here, with bike bottles, energy bars, CO2 cartridges etc. being strewn all over the place. My sandwich bag which I had taped to my aero bars, nearly came off as well, but before it fell down I put a hand on it, and after I had passed the cobblestones, I quickly stuffed it into my shirt's pockets. Then there was a flat section that allowed me to put on my arm warmers and drink a bit before hitting the first "hill". (It wasn't long – maybe a km, and not that steep, but there aren't many long hills around where I live.) My goal was to wait for my HR to settle down to about 130, and I was already resigned to the fact that there would be a couple of people who would overtake me here. It turned out to be a lot of people, and my HR was still hovering just under 150. So I pedaled easy, even after the hill was over, and after about 15 mins my HR was in the 130s. I still had to take it easy for another 15 mins or my HR would shoot up.

After 20k I had finished my first water bottle (500ml), and I got a replacement at the aid zone. The bike course is a two loop affair, and at the end of the first loop I was able to hold my HR in the planned region (around 130) while my speed – at about 31.5 km/h - was towards my dream goal speed. I was eating and drinking according to plan. Before starting the second loop I had to stop and pee. At the start of the second loop my wife handed me my private special needs bag. (Is it legal to accept food and drink from friends and family? I didn't really care today, but I sure don't want to loose a Kona slot because of that.) So all in all I ate on the bike two powerbars (2*225 = 450 cal), two honey sandwiches (2*150 = 300 cal), and I drank about 1200 ml Gatorade (12*25 = 300cal), about 1000 cal. That was lower target rate. I had planned to secure 2 bananas at the aid stations (2*100 = 200cal), however, I got none. Good thing I had planned for some buffer in my nutrition plan!

On the second loop I increased my HR to about 135 (RPE staid the same), and things were going pretty well. Only bad thing was that I had to stop two more times to pee, so I was re-overtaking the people I had passed before my stop. Seems I have to learn to pee on the bike!

Towards the end I was happy that the ride was about to be over (Note: Should use a real bike short for IM.) Shortly before going down the hill I have described earlier (about 15min before T2), I took in a gel (another 125 cal) with my remaining water. Then the cobblestone section (with cheers from my fan club who placed strategically at this slow section) , the last short hill, out of the shoes and dismount the bike.

T2

Ran with my bike to the rack (no problem in finding the right spot this time). Rack the bike, took off the helmet and my glasses. Took some care to get the grass off my feet, put on my socks and shoes, refresh a bit with a wet towel (feels great in the neck and on the legs after a bike ride!), then grab my bottle belt and go!

Official time at the end of T2: xx

I didn't have a feeling at all whether I had gained or lost any places, but from the official results I was able to see that my swim had put me on 26^th place in my AG (out of 52), my bike was the 35^th best (having slipped to 35^th place). My legs felt okay, so I was anxious to find out if my training had paid off.

Run

I didn't feel too good at the start of the run, but after 2k I started to pick off runners at ease, and my speed was almost at dream goal speed (5 min per k). The HR was a bit high (goal was 140 to 150, especially on the uphills I was at around 155). Based on my spring marathon, I decided to stick to this HR and see how long I can hold it. At the aid stations I was taking a sip of water and put the rest on my head. It was starting to get warm! At the 5k mark, my km-splits were right were I wanted them and I got a big boost out constantly of passing people. At the 8k mark, I took one gel with water and immediately regretted it – as I got pretty heavy side stitches. I tried to think positive thoughts (from Gordo's tips for your first HIM: "There will be a period where you'll feel absolutely awful, but it'll pass."), and still continued to overtake people! I was already feeling a bit better when a mountain bike with the overall leaded passed me. I had figured out beforehand that this would probably happen on my first loop, so I was quite happy that it was pretty late (after the 9k mark). Also, the guy was huffing pretty hard, yet I didn't feel that he was going that fast, which gave me another boost. With these thoughts I had already reached the end of the first loop. My wife and my parents cheered my on. I passed my bottle belt to my wife – I decided I wouldn’t take another gel. Then there were some people from my team who told me how good I looked. (Gave them my usual reply to that: I look better than I feel.) One guy ran a bit with me and asked whether I had already committed to do next year's German IM with him. Hit the split button at the 10k mark (just a bit over 50 mins – right on track for my dream goal!)

On the second run loop there were a lot of people from the OD race that took place at the same time, so again I had a lot of people I was able to overtake. Some more cheers from other athletes from my club, and my splits were right were I wanted them. At about 13k I started to try to pick it up some more, and my split came down to about 4:40. At the aid station shortly before the 15k mark I took a cup of Coke and walked a bit to drink it fully. Hurt my split a bit, but I really picked it up after that. I tried to go as hard as I could and managed to go the last 5k in 23:05. At the finish line friends and family welcomed me after 5:03:51 (29^th in my AG, 85^th of 177 overall – it doesn't get more MOP than this!), being totally elated after that great run (run split 1:37:55, 15^th in my AG).

Key Lessons

• pacing strategy works – had a great run which is very unusual for me
• scout the course – you know where things are and you can segment the course
• do a couple of race sims to give you a feeling of how hard to go on race day
• no tempo runs really required for a "just finish" strategy – a couple of B races is sufficient for that
• consistent training pays off

Summer reading: Some old reports

My wife and I will be gone on our Summer vacation for a while. As there probably won’t be too much personal training and endurance news during that time, I’ve decided to take a different track:

Over the years I’ve posted some race reports in a couple of forums, namely the no-longer-existent forum on Gordo’s old website and on the still existing, but pretty low traffic forum at CounterpartCoaching. I’ve added some photos where I still had some. Even if some of the content is a little bit dated and some plans turned out to be a bit unrealistic, it was interesting for me to go back to these old reports and re-read them. I hope you’ll enjoy them as well!

Your day is always better after running, biking or swimming

This weekend I was again reminded of the main reason I’m doing this “endurance stuff”: It makes me feel better afterwards.

The week was pretty stressful, lots of work, couple of things to do at home, my server crashing all the time, etc. etc. – the usual things that happen in life, only a bit more condensed than usual. With all of this and with me currently in my “off-season”, all I managed to get in during the week was one little run. By Friday, I was totally miserable and stressed out. Headaches, a little cold, short temper – I was in a really bad mood.

On Sunday, I got to sleep in, have a nice breakfast, then went for a great two hour bike ride. Nice weather, fresh air, some music on my iPod (and a couple of nice podcasts) .. totally changed my outlook. By the time I got back home, I was a new person. I was nicely exhausted after doing some uphill sprints on my bike. My head was clear, and after a shower and a nice pasta meal, I was ready to tackle some of the todo items that lingered during the week and got quite a lot done.

So, again, it showed me that in its most basic form, getting out for a run or bike session is mainly for myself – I just feel better afterwards and I’m more productive. Also, I’m a much nicer person when I’m working out on a regular basis. I sometimes get caught up in “getting ready for a race” which for me, it’s just a great way to get me motivated to get out of the door.

Let’s see how much I manage to do that in the next week …

Running a Marathon in your training

Note: I’ve written a post on Mitch’s forum over at CounterpartCoaching at the end of April. Most of my thoughts are still valid after my main race, so I thought I’d share my original post here.

Before Mitch & Scott freak out, let me add to the title:  … in your training for an Ultra Marathon.

I’m training for my first Ultra Marathon this year, the 73k trail Ultra “Rennsteiglauf” in Germany (only three weeks to go! ). I’ve always been intrigued by Ultra Marathoners running really long runs in their training. So I’ve included two Marathons in my training plan, and while this certainly not something for everyone, I want to share my experiences and am quite interested in other people’s thoughts.

Here’s the benefits I’m hoping for:

• big training day
  Running a marathon is a pretty long training run.. more is better ;-)
• it trains a “different” kind of endurance
  I’ve read somewhere that something strange seems to happen after a certain number of hours, namely at 3 hours, 7 hours, 10 hours. (Not sure where – Mark Allen?) What I mean by that is that a “different” kind of endurance is required to go for 2 hours than for, say, 5 hours. In order to train for that, you should be doing sessions longer than 3 hours. (Just think of the first few “longer” bike rides in a season.) As I plan to go about 8 hours in my Ultra, I wanted to cross the 3 hour “threshold” a few times. A marathon allows me to do that in a safe environment.
• confidence
  Completing a marathon is a great confidence builder, especially if you manage to complete it in a decent fashion.

The first marathon I did this year was the “Winter Marathon” in Husum, Germany at the end of February. I managed to go at a 6Min/k pace without having to go real hard. The other one was the Hamburg Marathon last weekend, where it was a bit hotter and harder but I still managed to go sub 4 hours. I haven’t quite recovered yet and my A-race is still out, but here’s what I learned so far.

The main point I’m taking away is that these Marathons are still training runs and should be treated as such. So all the usual “long run rules” still apply:

• Adjust your pace accordingly.
  The main goal is to finish the race, so it’s not about time goals. My marathon PR pace is 5 Min/k, so I was shooting for a 6 Min/k pace in Husum. After that went well, I was trying for a sub 4h pace in Hamburg (5:40 Min/k). This is just a touch slower than my “normal” long run pace.
  This is more difficult than it sounds, as there will be a ton of people racing for much faster times than you. It is even more difficult if you’re in a big race that seeds runners according to their PRs.
• Take your time at the aid stations.
  Make sure you get all the hydration and nutrition you need at the aid stations. No need to shove people out of the way to get a cup of water or to try to drink and eat while running.
• Don’t be afraid to walk a bit.
  As you’re not in it for any (important) time goals, don’t be afraid to walk to catch your breath or relax at the harder uphill sections. I didn’t follow any fixed schedule, but just walked when I felt like it.
• Lug around all the equipment you might need for your A-race.
  As I plan to run with a Camelbak at my Ultra, I was running with a Camelbak, an MP3 player, extra clothes and food at the marathons. I wouldn’t do that if I was  going for a time goal, but again it is similar to what I would do for a long training run.
• Enjoy the race.
  Took some time to take pictures and enjoy the atmosphere. Also took a couple of pictures with my cell phone camera and was texting my wife and friends who came to watch with updates and split times.

Of course, the big concern about running a Marathon in your training is the time lost before and after the race. By not tapering much, you can limit the time lost before the race. These marathons were a good chance to race ala “Taper Interrupted”. For Hamburg  I did a 20k run on Thursday and a faster 10k run on Saturday before the Sunday race. (For Husum I was taking things easy the days before as I was a bit worried about finishing and had just completed by biggest running week ever.)

Afterwards, you have to focus on recovering hard. Recovery comes quicker if you have a large running base. For me, this meant to focus on running (to the detriment of swimming and biking), and I’ve had 4 of my largest running weeks ever in January and February (100k+ weeks for me). With all the running volume in my legs, I feel I can recover in about a week to get back into training.

Here’s what I did specifically to recover quickly after Husum at the end of February:

• Follow the race with a really easy week.
  For me, this was three days off in the week after the race. The two runs I did were short (30 Min) and easy. My legs weren’t a problem, but I didn’t feel fresh and didn’t have any “zip”. The weekend after the race I took a really easy 16k run with lots of walking breaks – managed to complete it but I was still tired, so I probably should have waited a bit longer.
• Take some extra sleep.
  I tried to easy my workload as much as possible and managed to get an extra hour of sleep for a couple of days.
• Prepare some other things to keep you busy.
  If you’ve got a basic week that works, it’s really hard not to do certain training runs. For example I do a faster 16k training run on Tuesdays. After the marathons I set up other things to do instead of the session – after Husum I set up my training blog, after Hamburg I set up my bike for the summer season. If I didn’t have these other things on my mind I would have done the running session even if it was way too early to do that.

So far, I’m quite confident to recover in time for my big race on the Rennsteig in 17 days …

P.S. Looking back, I think the two marathons in my prep really helped me get ready for my Ultra. Would I do it again? For an Ultra, certainly! Not so sure about doing it in my prep for next year’s Ironman. What are your thoughts and experiences?

Reinfeld Swim and Run: Totally Shelled!

This weekend, I was doing a fun little event here in my local town: a swim and run. This started as a relay (with four runners and two swimmers), and also added an individual event a few years ago. The distances are pretty short (about 300m swim and a 3k run), so you can actually take part in the individual event and in a relay.

On the picture you can see the beach where the start is. The swim is across the lake to the right, and the run goes along the perimeter of the lake to the tip you can barely see in the background and back to the little beach house.

It is a “different” event for me, especially this year when I was just doing longer events. In fact, the “shortest” race I had done this year was a 19k run in January … It turned out that the high intensity still hurts pretty much.

The swim was okay (considering I had barely swum at all this year), the transition was okay as well. But as soon as I started the run I was light headed and had to concentrate really hard. I was puffing really hard, but at least no one was overtaking me. (The people in front of me were better runners than me anyway.) I had to put in a little extra surge towards the end to hold my place and that really killed me. It took me about 15 minutes to start breathing normal again, and the pain took a while to go away. Then my legs went rock-hard (but luckily no cramping) and I was really exhausted.

It was a good thing we had about an hour before our relay, so I had some time to recover (and eat some food). Some easy jogging, some stretching, and I was hoping I wouldn’t have to run really hard for my 900m in the relay. Good thing that our first runner already had a sizable gap, so I could pretty much cruise my leg of the relay. I don’t think I would have been able to run head-to-head with another guy. We actually won our wave, and strangely we also managed to have the best time of the day. (Must have been the others that did it.)

Totally shelled afterwards. Hadn’t eaten all too well during the day, and I was really ravenous afterwards. Then I overate in the evening and wasn’t feeling to well during the night. I’m so not used to any faster stuff ... good thing I don’t have any races lined up so I can properly recover!

The weird thing .. I still enjoyed the event very much! We had so much fun with all the people from our club. I probably have to do some more speedy stuff next year so I’m not going to be quite as grumpy after the race.

Nice relaxing weekend

Just came back from a long weekend in Denmark. My parents have been spending their vacation there for years, and this year was no different. They rent a beach house (sounds more impressive than it actually is), and family gets a chance to visit them over the weekend. All it takes is a three to four hour drive ..

We had a chance to spend an extra day on Monday, and we spent the weekend with my wife, my parents and my cousin’s family. We had great weather, got a ton of sun (including a sunburn) and went swimming a couple of times in the ocean.

I also managed to get two runs in. (Sorry – no pictures.) The first one was an hour with my cousin. He usually starts a bit faster than me, but doesn’t have that much endurance. So when we starting running through the dunes and on the beach after 20 minutes, he suffered a little bit (but didn’t complain).

I also enjoyed my second run which was a solo run on Monday. My wife and my parents went shopping in the next town, and afterwards I ran home with most of the route directly on the beach.

 
(View of the beach from the light house at Blavand)

Running in the sand is different and quite a bit more exhausting, so I took things easy. It was getting hot and I was quite spent after the 75 minutes that the run took. Looking back, this was the longest run since mid-May when I ran Rennsteig ….

Next weekend, I’ve got a little local swim and run, so I guess I’ll have to get a swim session or two in .. haven’t done any swimming since last October!

One thing I was discussing with Mitch was that I need to move back to a balanced triathlon training after my vacation in August. This year I was in “single sport mode”, and that won’t be good enough getting ready for IM Germany. But for now, I’m just trying to enjoy the fitness I have and get some nice and cool stuff in. It works so far!

Major Race for 2010: IM Germany

Yesterday (Wednesday), registration for IM Germany opened for a few spots. Last year, almost all (?) spots went away the day after the race at on-site registration. So this year, they were giving away 1.000 spots before the race. I assume that the rest of the spots will be handed out on-site and that there won’t be another chance for a registration through the web.

So I was anxious to get a slot on Wednesday. I even planned to take the morning off but that didn’t work out because of a meeting I had to go to at work from 9 to 10am. Luckily, registration opened at 10am .. but when I tried to access the registration site from work, I got error messages. They didn’t look like it was a problem with any site blocking, but as it still didn’t work after half an hour, I snuck out to the coffee shop to try their local wifi. Same result, so I needed to be a bit more patient.

After 90 minutes of building panic and retrying every few minutes, I managed to get to the registration page. Filled out the required info, gave them my credit card info and boom … I was in!

Seems I made it just in time, on their website they said they filled the 1.000 spots within 2 hours. So my main goal for next year is on the calendar now: IM Germany on July 4th, 2010.

An Easy Week

Writing last week’s post helped make up my mind about my summer plans. I’ve done some training when I had time, so I went on three easy runs on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. After each of them, I realized how relaxing and refreshing a nice run is .. after a run you almost always feel better than before!

Trying to get things lined up for next year. I’ve got a phone call set up with Mitch Gold from CounterpartCoaching. I hope he’ll be able to help me with my plans for next year.

Mitch has just secured a Hawaii slot in the recent Ironman in Cour d’Arlene. He said it was a tough race and he didn’t look too happy:

I’ll continue with easy training next week; lots of work to do, so not too much time. I’m looking forward to next weekend, we’ll drive up to Denmark to visit my parents who are on holiday in a rented summer house. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get in a nice run on the beach. If the weather is nice, I’ll shoot some pictures.

Another week after that, I’ll do a local, very small swim and run. Guess I’ll have to do some swimming before that …

Planning for the summer

Currently, things feel a little bit weird.

My big a-race is over (Rennsteig), my “fun event” is also done and dusted (Vättern). There is nothing else on my schedule for the summer (other than vacation in August). Always a bit dangerous!

There’s a couple of little frustrating things. My ergomo seems to be broken again. Quite some money spent on it (at least I got four years of use from it), and I’ve gotten quite used to the data. Then I want to line up some coaching support for next year, and that takes longer than I was hoping for. Plus my wife and I are trying to loose some weight (“point-counting” with a weight watchers type of program), and that takes some energy as well.

So last week, I haven’t been doing much training. One thing was that I had a lot to do at work. On my usual “20% Friday” there were meetings to attend, so I was doing a lot of little things over the weekend that I usually manage to get out of the way on Friday. I still had enough time to meet with friends, to do stuff with my wife, but I just couldn’t relax. I really have to make a decision about what to do during the next few weeks – do I put another race on my schedule or do I “take the time off”?

Any possible races I was thinking about don’t look too good. A nice local race was already full, so I planned a long weekend with my wife instead. Then there is the Hamburg Triathlon at the end of July, but that’s already full. I might be able to get a spot on eBay, but right now I can’t be bothered.

For now, I feel more like taking the time off. It’s a bit weird to think about a break at this time of the year, but I think that I’ll better focus on work and personal stuff for the next weeks. Then I have a month off (vacation with my wife!), then it’s slowly getting ready for next year. I’ll probably do another IM next year, so I want to be fresh for all the training that needs to be done. And I’ve already done a lot this year!

So I guess it’s okay to take things a little easy. Any thoughts on your side? Let me know in the comments what you think. Thanks.

RaceReport Vättern

I had done the Vättern-Rundan, a 300k bike “tour” in Sweden, twice before. It is a very large event with about 18.000 participants. Any decent Swede has to complete this race (and a few other events like the famous skiing event Vasa loppet) at least once in his or her lifetime. So you see a lot of people that do not use a race bike but rather a “regular” touring bike, even some mountain bikes. All of this is to say that the focus of this event is on “completion”. Times are taken, but more of a way to make sure that people complete the race and are not left on the course rather than a results list with a specific ranking. This leads to a quite relaxed atmosphere – almost everyone takes their time at the well stocked aid stations to eat and drink.

The way they start this race is quite unique. The first group starts at Friday night 8pm, and then every two minutes another group of 60 people or so is sent on its way. The last group leaves at 6am Saturday morning. The finish line is open until midnight Saturday night. This leaves almost everyone a long time to finish the race.

Before the race

This year, there was a group of six people from my local club going to the race. We left early Friday morning for the 8 hour trip to Motala, Sweden where the race starts and ends. We were going through some pretty bad weather with lots of rain and wind, but when we got to the Vättern lake, it had at least stopped raining.

For those that do the race for the first time, the first time you see the lake the size of what you are about to do hits you. You arrive in Jonköping at the southern tip of the lake and you can see a bit of the eastern and western “coast”, but definitely not the northern end. Then you drive another hour (in the car, mostly on the freeway) to get to Motala .. and you still haven’t reached the northern tip! And you know that the next day there is a bit of work in front of you!

Once we got to Motala, we took our space on one of the campsites that are set up for the event. Basically, every little area of lawn is taken over by campers, with official sites at least getting a couple of porta-pottis. The area we had was nice and not very crowded, it looked like some people decided not to do the race because of the “nice” weather.

We collected our “Nummerlappar” (race numbers), prepared our bikes and had our dinner (pasta cooked on camping cookers).

The we managed to catch two to three hours of sleep before having to get up again.

Getting up, going to the toilet, having a cup of coffee, a little bit to eat .. not much time to do the things in order to get ready to start. It got a bit hectic, but we managed to get down to the start area just in time before our 1.58 start. It wasn’t raining, but all of had put on all clothes we had, including long finger gloves and booties.

The first 100k: Getting wet, cold and miserable

The first hour in the dark is always fascinating. Red lights in front of you as far as you can see, and the same thing in the back with white lights. It was cold, but quite bearable with all the clothes. When we hit the first aid station, it was slowly getting less dark, but no sun you could discern.

Soon after that, it started to rain. Soon after that it started to pour down. Soon after that my clothes were soaked, my feet were wet and I started to get cold. The rain continued and I was getting colder and colder. By the time we got to the second aid station, I had tried to warm up on the uphills by going a bit harder – but I still started shaking.

On the downhill after the aid station, I was shaking really hard. The rain continued and the uphills were not long enough to add some warmth. By the time we hit the first long stop in Jonköping, I was seriously in doubt how long I could continue in this fashion.

The second 100k: Feeling better

Luckily, eating some mashed potatoes and sausages helped a bit. Then I got the real “life saver”: Volker (who was part of our group) had an extra, extra large rain jacket that he could lend to me. It was like a sail, but at least I wasn’t getting any more wet and the wind wasn’t going directly through my clothes any more. Also, there was a long uphill and I started to feel a bit better.

By aid station #4 (~135k) all doubts of finishing had disappeared and I was back to okay. Too bad that my Ergomo had enough of the rain and started to misbehave - a few k’s later IT froze completely. (Luckily, after drying the unit when I got home, everything is working again). This way, I don’t have reliable power and speed data after 100k. Until then, I was going at an average speed of 29k/h, and I estimate that I didn’t get much slower after that.

The next aid station in Hjo was another long break with a meal (lasagna, salad, milk etc.).

By now the rain had stopped completely and even though we still had some grey clouds, for the rest of the course the streets even dried up. After the big meal (went for an extra portion of lasagna!) I started to get really tired. Another “life saver”: Coming towards aid station #6 I stopped at a gas station and bought a Coke. After that, I was okay for the rest of the race.

The last 100k: Making it

Not much happened for the last 100k. At this point in the “long races”, if you’re not in big trouble and/or trying to go as fast as possible, everything is just one long drag. You try to play some games to entertain yourself (how much longer to the next aid station, to the finish etc.) and I stopped quite often to pee. I also tried to shoot a couple of pictures in mid-race.

I took another nice long break at the last aid station, hammered a bit until I reached one of the other guys (who had not stopped) and pretty leisurely went with Enno to the finish line.

All six of us had finished the race, and we pretty much got to the finish line within a few minutes. Those that were a bit stronger than others took some extra time at the aid stations, so we all went through the course more or less together. Nobody was totally shelled or out of it, so we walked a bit to get some food – of course the sun had come out by now.

All in all, a very nice weekend.

QuickNews: Vättern

Made it safely back home after the trip to Sweden.

The trip was really nice and I enjoyed the three days of it. All six of us completed Vätternrundan without too many problems. It was raining quite hard for the first few hours and I was quite miserable and cold. Luckily, the shaking stopped once one of my friends gave me an extra jacket he was carrying with him. After that, I didn’t have any problems.

We all took the ride really relaxed, stopped at every aid station and ate and drank a lot. All in all, it took us 15 hours to complete the 300k ride, but at least four hours of it was spent in the aid stations. May ergomo took some water and stopped working after 160k (with some strange behavior until then), so I can only guess my average – probably between 28.5 and 29 km/h.

More details and pictures in the next days.

Improving your bike LT by 5% in 2 weeks

As probably my last session before Vättern, I did anothor bike LT test as per Coggan:

• Warm up with 3* 1 Minute high cadence
• 5 Min “As Hard as you can” – I have a nice long uphill for that, then recover a bit by going easy
• LT Test is 20 Min “Best effort” (mostly flat, with some short “power uphills”)

Your LT wattage is the Average Watts – 5% (because LT is usually measured/defined as “as hard as you can go for an hour”).

After recovering from Rennsteig, I did my first LT test on May 23rd:

• 255 Average Power (257 Normalized Power, so I was quite even in my effort)
• HR average at 148 beats
• covered 12km with an average speed of 36 km/h

Yesterday (June 8th), I did another one:

• 269 AP (273NP)
• 142 HR (HR probably a bit depressed after a long ride the day before)
• 12,83km, average of 38,5 km/h (mostly a factor of the wind blowing in the proper direction)

Summing up, I improved my LT from 242w to 255w – an improvement of over 5% in just two weeks.

Here’s the training I did in those two weeks:

• 2 longer rides (125k and 88k)
• 3 medium long rides at ~2 hours
• 5 recovery rides (“spin” for an hour)
• 2 interval sessions (with 4-5 minutes of intensity)

Basically, I rode a lot (at least for my standard) and also added some intensity. I also made sure that on my longer rides I tried to ride to a “steady” pace (instead of my usual “just ride” pace"). This seemed to do the trick for me.

But still, even with “smart” training 5% improvement is a lot and probably not repeatable (even within a longer block of say 4-8 weeks). I guess most of the improvement is due to the fact that I was starting quite low (having almost only been running this year), and the numbers are still a bit lower than what I was seeing last year (LT at 260w – but still quite close!). It seems to show that a lot of the “base endurance” can be transferred over from running to cycling, and that a relatively small amount of riding (total bike volume this year is at 830km) allows me to get to a decent level.

So I think I’ll be okay for Vättern, but that there is still a big unknown .. 300k is a bit different than my longest ride this year of 125k.

But once again, I’m confident and looking forward to it! That’s a good sign and all can ask for this close after Rennsteig. Hopefully the weather will be dry – weather report looks a bit shaky.

Looking back on Rennsteig

My big A-race for this season is now three weeks in the past. Time to look back and reflect a bit on the race. What I liked, what went well and areas I need to improve for next year …

First off – so I don’t forgot it – I really enjoyed the training and the race. I was training at record levels for the run (and Zeroes both for the swim and the bike). My season starts in October, and until End of May I had run 1842km, my previous “best” was 1472km. Even so I had enough time for work and home stuff. This was a nice change from the Ironman training with all the swims (always +1h for getting to and from the pool and the “little things”) and long bikes (long session = at least 4 hours).

The race organization was great as well. Race package pickup, dropping off the finish-bags, starting area (with lots of porta-potties) – was well done. The aid stations were placed at decent intervals and extremely well stocked and organized – not too many races I have seen that spotted menus at the aid stations and really large signs pointing you to the right tables. You could also tell that most volunteers have done this a couple of times in the past, in fact you could tell that it was a kind of tradition for them and they were really proud of what they were doing (and rightly so!). The finish-area was big enough to handle all the people (during the day there must have been between 15.000 and 20.000 finishers with all the races they were offering), but still small enough so you don’t have to do much scurrying around to get all your stuff. I can’t think of one thing that they could improve.

I’m happy with my race performance, too. Even though I was an hour slower than I had planned, most of this was due to the hills that were much steeper than I had anticipated. They were taking a lot longer than I had thought. Even will all that, I didn’t run into any major problems during the race, and I even had that almost magical 45 minutes or so towards the end when I was almost “flying”. I’m sure I could have run a bit faster (and I may try to at a later time), but as this was my first try at an Ultra marathon, I didn’t want to run for time. I’m not sure how much faster I could have run this year (15 minutes? 30 minutes?), but certainly not close to the 8 hours I had planned.

So – while my endurance was good – I’m still thinking about “how to get faster” in the future. I don’t have any immediate, specific goals, but at some time in my life I’d like to run a Boston qualifier time or get close to run a marathon in 3 hours. For that, I think there are a few changes I have to make in my training. This year my focus was on going the duration and in order to do so I was working with an upper HR bound (~130 beats). With that, I think I was going a bit “easy” at times (HR around 110, with averages typically under 120). So what I would like to establish for next year is a lower bound as well – I’m thinking of 115. I’ve been trying that in the last few weeks and it already feels a lot “faster”. I’m experimenting with a similar concept for cycling as well, but here I’m shooting for a steady wattage of around 150 watts even on my long rides.

This year I added a faster run into my program (the 8*4 iPod interval session described in an earlier post) and that worked well. I’ll continue that but will also add some other session like that.

One big issue that I’ve been working on for years is my weight. For the last two years I have not been paying much attention or energy on losing weight. So, at 87kg, I was again a bit overweight for my race. I’m not sure what impact that had, but I feel that if I want to get significantly faster than I am right now, I will have to loose some weight. For next year’s race I’m shooting for a much lower weight than I had this year – 84kg or under. Somehow, this has been “on the list”, but I just didn’t manage much on this front. I know it’s holding me back, but for now I just didn’t have the energy. Hopefully, next year I’ll be better. Hmmm ….

All the race prep leading up to the race has been fine. I think over the the years I have built a taper, pre-race meals etc. that is just working fine. Even the big morning meal has not been causing any problems for me. During the race, I have found that I don’t need much food. With the stuff offered at the aid stations, I didn’t need many bars, gels etc. I was nibbling a bit on a Clif bar, but didn’t even finish a whole one. Carrying the Camelbak didn’t cause any problems, and it was nice to always be able to sip some water and to have some storage space for clothes. But in a different race, that will be “too much”, a FuelBelt should be enough.

This leaves me with some ides for races in 2010. After a break this year, I would like to do another Ironman. A friend of mine will probably do her first IM, and it would be nice to go through this experience with her. In my past Ironmen, I have yet manage to put a solid run together. This will be a goal for next year, and I hope that all this year’s running will be beneficial to an Ironman run next year. But I will have to go back to “Ironman mode” again .. lots of swimming and cycling in addition to running. I’m still thinking of how to set up my season plan .. but I have a while to go.

For the rest of this season, I’m not sure what else I will do (and I will not do too much planning and play it by feel). Next week, I’ll be in Sweden for Vaetternrundan, and maybe I’ll do the Hamburg triathlon at the end of July. In August, my wife and I will go on vacation, and I guess after that I will start to prep for the 2010 season. I’m looking for someone to help me with the planning and fine tuning for the Ironman, and I hope to line up some support soon. I’ll keep you posted …

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: