Race Plan Frankfurt

A few days before the race, it is time to put my race plan into writing. Even though I have a pretty clear plan in my head, writing it down always helps.

Photo taken from the finish line webcam at http://www.ironman.de/live/webcam.htm

General

I know that I do not have the fitness I would like to have. Therefore, any dreams of dramatic improvements can be put to rest (unless I want a spectacular detonation during the run). I will have to execute really well if I want to have a decent run. However, if I manage to do that, I believe that I can end up close to my current PR of 11h58.

There are a number of things that lead to me to be a bit skeptic. I haven’t done enough long sessions, and my weight is about 6 pounds over were I want to be. Also, it’s probably going to be quite hot for the race which will make the race even harder for me.

Swim

I haven’t done much swimming, so I have no idea what my swim time is going to end up. As long as I focus on technique and swimming relaxed, I should end up okay even if my longest swim session was just about 2.5k. The wetsuit swim in Hannover felt pretty good, and I hope it’s not going to be too hot to swim in a wetsuit. [Update: It’s currently very hot and the water temperature is just short of not allowing wetsuits. By race day, we’ll probably be over it – so it looks like a non-wetsuit swim.] I’m guessing that I’ll swim around 1h15, and I’m fine as long as I swim under 1h20. But whatever, a few extra minutes on the swim won’t hurt me much.

I’ll take transition pretty easy, too – just put on my helmet and then grab the bike with shoes and all the rest of my stuff (glasses, gloves and arm warmers if it is cold in the morning). I should be on the bike somewhere between 1h20 and 1h30.

Bike

The key for the bike will be to set up a good run – this requires an “easy” bike. It will be quite hard to keep this thought in mind for the 6h30 or so that the bike will take, especially with my flashy new bike and race wheels.

This year, the bike course will be a bit longer than usual – some construction will add an extra 5k to the bike, about 10 minutes at my speed. At my current fitness, I think that I can manage an average speed between 28.5 and 29 km/h.- this would give a bike split of 6h30 to 6h22. When I told my friends about this goal time, they thought I was low-balling, but I think anything faster would be bad for my run split. The numbers to arrive at this time are HR under 120, and wattage about 125w. (I know that number is probably low, but my Ergomo is off – which doesn’t really matter, I want to ride as even as possible, and absolute numbers are not important for that.)

I hope to be off the bike at under 8 hours – probably around the time that the first pros will have finished. As they start 15 minutes before the age groupers, it might be a goal of finishing the bike before the first pro finishes the race, but that would require a 7h45 and that’s probably a bit fast for me.

As important as not spending too much energy on the bike is making sure I eat and drink enough. For eating, I’m aiming for 250 to 300 cal on the bike, which is about one bar per hour, the occasional banana and then some calories from the Powerbar electrolyte drink they’re handing out on the course.

As it’s going to be really hot, it will be important to drink enough and cool myself down with water over the head. I hope I’ll be able to manage things better than at Hannover when I was overheated when I came off the bike and had a pretty bad run.

Run

Once I get off the bike, change and start the run, it’ll be interesting to see if I manage to keep my HR down. It’ll be in the middle of the day (around 3pm or so), so it’s going to be pretty hot and it will be important to start the run as easy as possible (HR under 130, if possible around 125). This will require some walk breaks, especially on the short steep sections onto the bridges and at the aid stations to make sure that I get some more drinks, water and ice. I’ll also have to try to eat as long as possible in order to be able to have a solid run. I’m going to prepare my FuelBelt and have PowerBlocks and Gu Shot Blocks available. In the past, I got to a point where I didn’t care too much any more, stopped eating and ran out of steam soon after that. So it’ll be mentally hard to keep in the race and make the best of my chances. I don’t think that I’ll be able to run any faster than a 6 minute per k pace, and I hope to be able to keep that up as long as possible. This would result in 4h15 marathon, and a total race time of just a bit over 12 hours.

I’ll count anything under 12:08 as a PR (my current PR is a 11:58 from Roth 2007), and I’ll be very proud if I manage to run in that general area.

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 …

Hannover “Mitteldistanz” 1/2 IM Race

This Sunday, I was racing my first triathlon in a long time, the 1/2 Ironman distance race in Hannover (called Mitteldistanz or middle distance in Germany). I’m not quite sure what to make of my performance, but first let’s have a look at the race.

Before the race

Friday and Saturday I made sure that my bike was in working order. As I had taken the plunge and splurged on new race wheels (a pair of used but as good as new Zipp 404s), there was some scrambling around to make sure I had the right tubes with long enough valves. The week had been pretty stressful, and I was glad I had the chance for a little nap at noon on Saturday. Still, I was probably not very rested, even if my training volume was pretty low in the week leading up to the race.

On Sunday, we drove for two hours to Hannover. It was pretty close to the end of the bike drop off, but I preferred to get some more sleep and a big breakfast in. Once I get settled in the big transition area, I had enough time to put on my race clothes and warm up a bit for the swim. It was going to be the first really hot day of the year, so I made sure I had enough water to drink.

Swim

Up to a week before the race, it was pretty cold and there were some worries that the swim would have to be canceled. The week of the race it was quite warm, though, and with a wetsuit it wasn’t cold at all.

I got into the water maybe 10 minutes before the start of my wave, so I still had some time to hitch the wetsuit up after the initial contact with the water. I was ready and hoped for a good day!

The swim itself was pretty uneventful. It was in a canal which meant that it would be 1k up the canal, turn around a buoy and then 1k back. The initial mayhem cleared up pretty fast, and I was swimming pretty much by myself. At the turnaround I had a quick look at my watch and was very happy to see a time of just over 17 minutes. I managed to stay focused on my stroke and and felt pretty good the whole time. The whole swim was over after 35 minutes. With about 5 minutes under my estimated time the swim must have been short. :-)

An easy run up to the transition, put on the help and grab my bike.

Bike

Once on the bike, I had problems to get my HR down. I wanted to get under 120, but a combination of heat, mental lapse and people overtaking me prevented that. My wattage was in the goal range of 140, but the HR stayed just under 130. After a while, I just figured that the excitement of the race had increased my HR, and I decided to stick with the wattage. At the end of the first loop, I was quite happy – AP at 138w, NP at 147 (so I was riding quite even), but a speed of 31,3 and HR at 130.

As had happened the last time I did this race two years ago, wattage and the other data didn’t quite match. I figure that the Ergomo has some problems with the heat we were having and giving me low numbers. But so far, I hadn’t really dug myself a hole, but it was clear that I shouldn’t really increase my effort in the second and third loop.

By this time, I was pretty much riding with the same people – usually getting dropped on the uphills, and then catching people again on the downhills (even riding by wattage does that). On the second and third lap, I kept things pretty much the same. I still dropped wattage a bit towards the end (133AP/143NP for the whole ride), and it was getting really hot. I’m not sure if I was drinking enough, I didn’t pee at all this time during the ride. But I had eaten quite well and was hoping for a good run.

Total ride time: 2 h 48 min 12 secs

Run

After dropping off my bike, I changed into run clothes and went off. After the first k or so, I stopped for a quick pee. I pretty soon noticed that I was really hot and tried to cool down with water. But – as had happened on the bike – I didn’t really get my HR down to where I wanted it to be. I wanted to run at about 125 with a cap of 130, but I hardly managed to get it down to 130. I even put in a few walk breaks to get the HR down, but all to no avail. I tried what I could – water, coke, a cookie, but couldn’t manage to get anything solid down. At the same time, my pace was over 6 min per k, so I was relatively slow as well.

I was feeling pretty crappy, too, and I was getting a quite disappointed. I struggled through the first loop, happy to see my wife (and the dog) for the first time since the start, and was almost ready to throw in the towel – there was no way I was able to lift the pace. But I didn’t want to have the bad experience before my IM race and pushed on. I took my time at the aid stations and made sure I was drinking as much as I could and hoped the Coke would help, too. Between the aid stations I was using my FuelBelt to further cool down. By the middle of the second loop I was feeling a bit better. At least I managed to run a half-way decent pace – even with the breaks at the aid stations I was running faster than 6 min/k and started to overtake a few people. That didn’t last too long, and towards the end my pace slowed again. I knew I would be at over 2h10 for the run, so I just relaxed a bit and took it easy for the last few k. I was really relieved to reach the finish line and was pretty wrecked after that.

Total run time: 2 h 11 min 33 secs

Evaluation

As stated above, I’m disappointed with my performance last Sunday. As you can see from my expectations before the race, I was hoping to be able to go a bit faster, especially during the run.

Then again, I think I did the best I could during the second part of the run. I did not break down completely and just walk it in (which I did two years ago), even if the pace was slower than I was hoping for. The feeling will probably be what it will be like in the second half of the marathon in Frankfurt – and I will be happy if I manage to run in the 4h20min region.

So here are my takeaways from this race:

• No need to worry about the swim – some more longer sessions and I shouldn’t have a problem with the IM swim if I don’t expect much under 1h20min.
• it is important to get my HR down after the swim – otherwise I’ll be just overpacing.
• I have to re-calibrate my Ergomo numbers again. For IM, stay within the HR targets even if wattage seems low. On Sunday, 140watts were a bit much.
• When it’s getting hot, make sure to drink enough! Pee before the half way point …
• Still, I feel confident to be able to ride a 29 km/h average, which would translate to a 6h22m time for the 185k bike (Frankfurt will be a bit long this year).
• As with the bike, make sure to get HR into acceptable range after transition. That will probably mean walk breaks, so I should just start walking the aid stations right from the start to take enough fluids.
• With the HR lower, I should be able to get some calories down during the start of the run. (Something that I just couldn’t do in Hannover.)
• Make sure to lower the overall stress in the week leading up to race. Hopefully I can take a few days really easy – sleeping in, staying at home etc.

I will try to simulate the run pacing on another training brick I have planned for this weekend – maybe a two hour ride and then a 16k transition run. I just hope that Frankfurt will not be as hot as Hannover. But you’ll never know and I just have to take things as they come and make the best of it.

Packed for my first tri this season

Just a quick post after packing my stuff for tomorrow and being almost ready for bed …

Tomorrow, I’ll race my first tri this season. (In fact it is my first triathlon after the Ostseeman in 2008.) It is a half Ironman distance race in Hannover (http://www.wasserstadt-triathlon.de/index.html). I’ve done this race a few times before, but they’ve changed things around a bit (different layout for the swim, new shorter bike loop, new longer run loop), so I don’t really know what to expect. Also, with my past training I know I won’t be able to rip the course like I did in 2007 when I went really fast and almost everything clicked. (If I remember correctly, I was a bit disappointed because I did not manage to run under 1h40. Not a chance tomorrow!)

I’ve tried to come up with some time plan for my wife, but I know it’s pretty much a shot in the dark. My main goal is to be able to have a decent run the last 10k. (I’ve struggled with my run the last time I did the race in 2008 and had to walk the second half of the run leg.) As it’s going to be a hot day tomorrow (the first summer days have just arrived) with temperatures in the 80s and the start of the race around noon, I know I have to be really careful on the bike. This has led to the following plan, mixing IM and faster speeds:

• 2k Swim: 40 Minutes (no idea where I’ll end up ;-)
• 90k Bike: 3 laps of 30k each (2h53, goal: sub 2h55, if everything goes great sub 2h50)
• Lap 1: ~ IM (140W, <120HR, 29km/h): 1h02
• Lap 2: a little faster (150W, <130HR, 31 km/h) 58 Minutes
• Lap 3: ~ 1/2 IM (160W, < 140HR, 34 km/h) 53 Minutes
• 21.1 Run: 2 laps of 10,6k each (1h53, goal: sub 1h55, if everything goes great sub 1h50)
• Lap 1 to 5k: ~IM (<130HR, a little faster than 6 min/k) 30 minutes
• Lap 1 rest: a little faster (<135HR, 5:30 min/k) 31 minutes
  (goal: first loop in under 1:00h)
• Lap2 if feeling okay: ~ 1/2 IM (HR whatever ~ 5 min/k) 53 minutes

Adding the transitions in (5 minutes for T1 and T2?) gives a total of about 5h35, so I’ll try to get under 5h30. Even if I have a great race I don’t see me going any faster than a 5h20.

But whatever happens tomorrow, I have to keep my goal of a decent second half of the run in my mind. If I manage to pick up the pace then, this race will have been a success. Slowly starting to get nervous, hope I’ll be able to sleep …

Long Run around Ratzeburger See

One of the standard races in the winter in the 26k run around the Ratzeburger See (a large lake adjacent to the town of Ratzeburg), usually held on the first Sunday in December. I’ve posted about this race in the past [include link]. This winter, I was training to do the race, but then got an injury and had to pull out of the race. One thing that has been on my list since then was to do the run as a long training run. I finally got around to do it!

After loading my FuelBelt with drink, food and my iPhone (for music and a camera), I did the short 25 min drive from my home to a parking lot at the North tip of the lake. (The race starts in Ratzeburg at the South tip, but it was easier to do the run from the North.) Here’s a Google Earth screenshot:

After a short jog through the forest, I reached the lake near a little marina:

On the Eastern side, the dirt trail runs pretty close to the lake, usually in a nice shade from some bushes. Even though it had rained a bit in the last days, the trail was not too muddy and great to run on.

After about 9k the trail moves a bit away from the lake and into some hillier  terrain:

For the race, this is the last harder section – you had better saved some power for this! But on my run, I had just warmed up and was able to cruise them quite comfortably.

After 13k, you come to the old town of Ratzeburg that is sitting on a little dam between two lakes. After the short section through the town, there are some beautiful views on the lake and the dome:

The eastern side of the lake was almost completely part of East Germany. Before 1989, it was impossible to run around the lake (in fact the race was started as a celebration of the border opening up). By now, you have to know where the border was to spot the location of the fences – pretty scary stuff back then. It never fails to be thankful for the peaceful events that took place in 1989 that allowed Germany to re-unify. Even if it’s tricky to pick the exact location of the borderline, you can still tell that you are in East Germany – the whole are is much more rural, and the villages just have a different feel to it, even though a lot of old houses have been beautifully rebuilt.

Also, the eastern side of the lake is much hillier. Probably because of that the trail moves at times away from the lake but you are always running in almost no traffic except for the occasional biker or walker.

I was going through my water and my ShotBlocks (have I mentioned that I hate gels?), and was making good progress. I was taking an occasional walk break on some steeper hills, but my legs felt okay.

After 27k and almost exactly 2h30 of running, I was back at the parking place where I left my car:

I was very happy with this run. It was very beautiful (the pictures can’t really capture it), and my legs felt good all the way. Now if only the race feels that good …

First Key Bike Session

As preparation for my Ironman races, I like to do the following key session:

• Easy warm up for about 30 minutes, then
• 3*50k at increasing effort:
  - first one slightly easier than IM effort
  - second one at IM effort
  - third one slightly faster than IM effort
• then another easy 30 minutes back home
• and a little transition run

Between the hard parts there is just a short break to pee and load up on nutrition. I usually bring a little backpack so I don’t have to carry everything with me – everything should be as close to racing as possible, so taking all the stuff that’s needed for such a long session would be quite bulky.

The idea of this session (inspired by some of Gordo’s suggestions) is to dial in your IM effort. If you manage to do the third one faster than IM effort and still be able to have a decent T-Run, you should be fine. But if you go out too hard or not eat/drink enough, you’ll notice it pretty soon.

I usually try to get two of these sessions in when preparing for an IM, but often something comes up (bad weather, scheduling conflicts, etc.) and I usually manage to make just one in preparing for an IM. Even with our new puppy, I cleared two days on my calendar for solely doing these sessions. When I get the sessions done, it builds a lot of confidence, and even if you notice that your pacing was too quick, at least you’ll learn a lot.

First Loop

I was shooting for 140/150/160w of average power, trying to ride pretty even (goal VI well under 1.1). HR should be 110/115/120 or so. I hoped that would result in average speeds of 28/29/30 km/h. Once I got going after my big breakfast (1000cal as I would on race morning!), I felt really good. I was going pretty relaxed, eating and drinking a lot, but still going pretty quick.

Here are the numbers:

• average power 140w
• normalized power 152w
• VI 1.08
• HR 113
• average speed 29.1 km/h

Apart from HR, this was going really well, and I hoped to build on that – but I started to get a bit anxious at going over 30 km/h for the last loop. But whatever, a quick reloading, then it was on to

Second Loop

I was continuing to eat, but it wasn’t that hot, so I wasn’t really thirsty, but I still had to stop for a quick pee in the middle of the loop. Managed to lift the effort, but got more anxious about the third loop – it was going to be hard!!

The numbers look really great, right where I wanted them to be:

• average power 151w
• normalized power 161w
• VI 1.07
• HR 120
• average speed 30.1 km/h

Everything was going well, and I had the “proper nervousness” for the third loop.

But when I got back to where I left my backpack, some “friendly neighbor” had decided that a lone backpack in the forest was suspicious and tried to “save” it. Bummer – nothing more to eat and drink (plus some spare clothes were gone). All I had left was one clif bar and nothing to drink .. what to do?

Third Loop

So I rode five minutes back to a village where I had seen some kids playing near a house. I asked them for some water, so at least I had one full bottle and one bar for the third loop. Ready to give it a shot!

I tried to go even harder than on the second loop, and managed to pick up the effort a bit. But it felt pretty strained, and after half the loop was done, I felt that my strength was gone. I tried to keep up the effort, but it was obvious that my power numbers were dropping rapidly.

Here are the numbers (full loop and numbers for the two halves):

• average power 140w  (155/125)
• normalized power 156w (169/141)
• VI 1.12 (1.09/1.13)
• HR 120 (123/118)
• average speed 29.5 km/h (28.8/30.3 – second half is a lot more down)

It’s pretty obvious from the numbers that I was coming a bit apart on the second half. I was debating weather to do the t-run. I decided to cut the loop a bit short and stopped at a gas station 3k before the “official” end of the loop for an emergency refueling with a Coke and some chocolate.

T-Run

After that I cycled home pretty mellow, but was feeling good enough to go on my t-run. A quick change of clothes in our garage, grab my fuel-belt and then go for a run. I was feeling okay considering how bad in shape I was just 15 minutes ago. The 20 minute run was uneventful which was all I could hope for at this point. I even felt good enough to pick up the pace a bit after the initial 2k of easy, and didn’t have any problems.

Assessment

I really learned a lot during this session:

• I was coming apart on the third loop. It had something to do with my lack of proper nutrition, and think I now have a pretty good understanding of what I need for the race. It comes down to about 300 cal per hour in bars, drink and some “real” food.
• While some part of slowing down can be explained by nutrition (or lack thereof), the pace/effort was still a bit too quick for my current fitness level. I might be able to get in shape for that by the time my IM comes around, so it would be good to complete a second session of this type and see if I have improved a bit by then.
• When I take the time and scale down the effort, I can bounce back from a calorie deficit and get back to feeling decent. This was an important confidence builder, as I will have some low points during my race. If I want to reach my goal of “running the run”, I will have to get through these bad patches better than I managed in previous years. I just need some confidence and a bit of patience.

I hope to do another one of these key sessions in addition to my “normal” training. It is on my calendar for May 24th. I’ll keep you posted how I progress until then!

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 …

Great training camp finished

I’m writing this as I’m sitting in the Airport waiting for my flight to leave (delayed, of course). I’m pretty cooked after an easier day and another two hard training days. I’m really looking forward to some rest (i.e. work and no big training) now!

On Wednesday, the training camp had an official rest day. I took the chance to get a longer (but pretty easy) run to the light house in. Most of the run was along the beach and the waterfront, and then a bit up towards the cliffs and the lighthouse (which required about 10 minutes of pretty steep uphill running). Great views from up there along the coast line – too bad I didn’t bring my camera. But here’s a picture from Horacio I found on Flickr:

After that it was just an easy 30 minute swim, some lying in the sun taking a nap, and more nice eating.

Thursday morning I got another swim in. 60 minutes with some faster/longer sets, all in all not feeling too bad. I had signed up for a “shorter” training ride today as it included some hill repeats. It was an easy 45 minutes out towards a nice hill – some switchbacks (about 10 minutes of uphill) and again great views from the top. Then we went back down the other side towards the old monastery Betlem and back – repeat twice for four uphill intervals.

The group then decided for a longer loop back, so I ended up with another 95k session. I thought of doing another core session, but I cancelled that in favor of a nap – as I had signed up for the big stage on the next day!

Friday morning the weather promised to be great for the long ride. It started with a 7.15 meeting to put the bikes in a van and then a quick breakfast. At 7.45 we boarded the bus to be shipped across the island. After 90 minutes we were dumped in Port Andratx to start the 170k ride back to the hotel. A quick picture of the group before the start and then we left. Pretty soon the hills and mountains started and I had to work pretty hard. After a short stop to make sure everyone was still with the group after the initial tricky route through the town. The faster people split off the front. Unfortunately, after the next mountain we re-joined them after one of them crashed on the downhill (probably a broken collarbone). Again, some more delay in order to make sure that the rider would be brought to a hospital. Good thing that there were no more issues after that!

After three hours of up and down riding we were at the base of the Puig Major, the biggest climb of the tour – almost 14k with an average grade of 7%, about 800m of climbing. Everyone was supposed to ride the climb at his or her own pace. Our guide made sure we were all okay and had enough to drink and eat, and then went on his own little training session.

Here’s a view from about half way up back to Soller where the climb started:

Except for this short photo stop, I went at a pretty constant heart rate and didn’t loose too much time on the rest of the group. In fact, towards the end of the climb I was even getting closer to the girls in front of me, so I was quite happy with it. It was probably the longest climb I ever rode, it took me 1h 5 minutes. The guide rode in about 45 minutes, and he said the record was 33 minutes. We caught our breath at the top of the climb, happy that almost all of the climbing was over. After riding through the dark tunnel at the top, there were some smaller uphills that didn’t feel too good, but we made good progress. Before the last long downhill some of the group stopped to pass some drinks around, but I went on with the others. I then ended up near the front of the group and decided to stick with them so I had someone to copy when going down the hill. We got a sweet draft behind our guide in the last flatter section towards Pollenca where we stopped at a supermarket for water, coke and something to eat.

Everyone was pretty tired by now, but we still had about 60k of mostly flat riding back to hotel. Again, the guide and one of the stronger guys rode from the front at a good pace. We quickly rode through some coast towns, and it was a pretty quiet group by now. The last hills hurt quite a lot, but the group stuck together until we hit the hotel after more than 7h30 of glorious riding through the mountains in great sunshine. A warm welcome by some of the other guides, a quick photo after the ride, a long, hot shower, and a nice, big dinner – after that we were able to appreciate the great day we’ve had. What a great day of riding, and what a great way to end this training camp.

Heavy legs after three days in training camp

In order to prepare for this year’s IM, I decided to up my bike volume by going on a training camp with “Hannes Hawaii Tours” to Mallorca. So far, I’ve spent three great days of training.

Day 1 started with sleeping in which felt great after the last few hectic days at home. Then a nice big breakfast and the first outside ride of the year. I had registered for the “25-27” group (no nor the age, but the average speed in kph) and we hit the speed almost perfectly. From the start there were a few people to chat with, some hills to test my legs, and only one short break. When we came back after 75k of riding, I felt that I had done something, but not totally spent. Still had enough energy for a swim session (25m pool right in front of my room) and a short core and stretching session.

The next day saw a bit longer session in even hillier terrain. First we did a run drills session in the morning. After that, the bike ride had just one short stop in almost exactly 3:30 hours of riding for 95k. The steeper hills really tested me, and I had to let the group go a little bit on the last steep hill.

I caught back up soon on the downhills – guess I really have to work on my power to weight ratio. :-) A nice shower, and I still had enough energy for another core session.

The third day (Tuesday), we had an even longer ride with a T-run. The terrain was a bit less challenging and a well running group, so we sped through the 105k ride in under four hours. A short break and then a 40 min T-run along the coast left me exhausted for the evening. Good thing that today (Wednesday) is a “rest day” (read: only two hours of easy training).

There is another ride planned for Thursday, which I’ll probably shorten a bit because I’ve signed up for the “big stage ride” on Friday – 170k of riding and about 2000m of climbing – most of it in the first half. Hopefully my legs will still be up for the challenge by then.

I’m really enjoying myself. It feels great to be able to focus on training and be able to talk triathlon and sports the whole day. Already starting to think about what I have to do to achieve some more ambitious goals. Looking forward to the next few days, but already miss my wife …

This Saturday: Spring is coming!

I have been getting on the nerves of my family, friends and colleagues by saying that “Spring starts on Saturday”. By now, all I get is a resigned rolling of the eyes – almost everyone knows that tomorrow (Saturday) I’m going to fly to Majorca to my first ever training camp.

Photo by jmaclynn

In the past, I just didn’t have enough vacation time to justify taking a whole week of that for some decent training. Now that I’m self employed, this  decision is a bit easier, and I still get to spend my long summer vacation with my wife.

So this year I’ve decided that I’ll try a bike focused camp. The way the winter weather has been so far, this was a pretty smart plan. I’ve complained enough about the harsh winter weather on this blog, so I’ll just mention that running on protected trails in the forest is still pretty much impossible. I don’t think I’ve ridden outside since December – because we’ve had solid snow cover since then. So the camp is coming at the right time to jump-start my biking and training in general.

Goals

As this is my first time in a camp, I’m not sure what to expect, but since I’ve decided to go with an established company, I’m sure they’ll be able to offer a great environment for training.

Both Saturdays will be travel days and I probably won’t be able to get much done besides that, so I basically have 6 full days on the island. In order not to kill myself, I’m probably going to have at least one day that I’ll take completely off or just do some very light volume – that leaves me five days for training.

As I haven’t had a very solid base training (biggest weeks have been in the 7 hour range), I don’t think that anything more than maybe 20 hours is prudent. (It’ll be interesting to see how soon I get swept up in training monster volume.) Most of this should be focused on riding the bike and getting a solid base for my IM focus after the camp. So here’s my breakdown of the 20 hours and the distances I think I can do:

• Bike: 16 hours (5 days), about 400-450 km in group riding with at least one ride of more than 150 km
• Swim: 2 hours (2-3 days), just easy
• Run: 2 hours (3-4 days), again just easy

Running and swimming will be strictly for maintenance, and if I feel shattered, I’m more than willing to scale that back. If I’m feeling good however, I’ll add some more bike volume – it would be great if I could get more than 500km in.

Apart from training a lot, I’d really like to enjoy the atmosphere and relax a bit. I know there’ll be some stressful weeks ahead before the big summer vacation.

Actually, there is one more goal: Don’t do anything that’ll jeopardize the rest of my season. In order to scare myself a bit, I’ve already scheduled my next race: a local 10k a week after I’ve come back. That still gives me some time to recover, but hopefully keeps me from doing something too stupid.

Any suggestions on nice tours on Majorca or places I should visit? Are you going to be there as well and would like to get together? Let me know in the comments – thanks! 

Weighty Issues: February 2010 Update

Photo by Sharon Young

One more month gone, time to have another look at my (non-) progress on loosing weight.

Here’s my weigh in in the first days of March:

• Weight: 88,2 kg (started at 88,3 kg, goal was around 87kg)
• Body Fat: 17,8% (pretty much where I started)

So on both fronts, apparently I was standing still. In reality, it was more a story of one step forward (seeing 87 point something quite consistently), two steps back (with some bad eating around the middle of the month), and a step forward again. Not good, but it could have been much worse.

Looking back at my “bad days”, it was a combination of a number of things: Some stress at work, a couple of birthdays, and some frustration with the winter weather not allowing a focused training. (All of these by their own shouldn’t have been a problem, two might have been tricky, three was just too much.) The result was way too much eating way too often, and also some pretty reckless indulgences. Not good at all.

At least I’m back on track now. The last week of February was going well and I had a great race last week. I hope to get into the lower 87s by the end of March, but I’m not sure how I’m going to react to my first ever training camp – a week of cycling focus on Mallorca (or Majorca which seems to be the English version of the name). I’m really looking forward to some better weather and a chance for some big training volume, but I have no idea what influence that will have on my weight. Hopefully I can lean out a bit more.

I’m getting a bit sick of this constant struggle, and I can totally understand the problems of people that have to loose weight for health reasons. Still, for them it’s a question of good health, for me it’s a question of good performance. I think I can do way better in my IM this summer than last time, and I know that weight will play an important role in that. Now if only I can get some decent training volume started …

Whoa – where did a 1:34 half marathon come from?

My Kiel Half Marathon race was great, even if it didn’t start too well.

I forgot to turn on my alarm clock, and slept about an hour longer that I had planned. So my leisurely 1h45-starting-the-day routine had to be shortened to 60 minutes – a lot quicker than I’d have liked and leaving a bit late. In the rush of packing, eating and having a coffee, I remembered my race belt but forgot my Garmin 405 watch. Bummer – no HR, no speed. I would have to run by feel – hadn’t done that in a race for a long time.

Leaving a bit late wasn’t a problem, the drive to Kiel went quick and we found a great half-legal parking spot right next to the starting line. Enough time to warm up a bit, deciding on the clothes to wear (long tights, long shirt, cap, no gloves) and having a look at the course. Most of the snow was gone, but had left a wet, sandy mess on the ground. Oh well, whatever – I was more concerned about running without much feedback. At least I had my old Polar in my bag, but without the right HR strap it was just a stopwatch.

As usual in winter races, the last few minutes before the start were uncomfortably cold, but as soon as the race started, it was okay. The race was three loops of 7k each, with the first loop adding the extra 100 meters to make it a half marathon. As usual, I started a bit back to ease into the pace (so there are a few seconds between my hand-stopped time and the official results), but the streets were wide enough so I could overtake a few people without too much trouble. The first k was right at 5 minutes, so I had found a good pace. (Only later did I realize that the sign was actually at 1.1k, so I was even faster than I thought.) The pace felt okay, and I just ran on at the same intensity. I missed the next k-signs, and the next indication came at 4k when I was just over 18 minutes. Whoa, am I going too fast? A bit of soul searching and checking of all systems, but it felt okay and I was confident I could hold on to that pace for the rest of the race. By then I had run up to a small group that was going about my pace, and I decided to run with them for a while. With a short k at the end of the loop the first loop was over with a time of 32:08 – sub 1:40 seemed to be very realistic, and I might even manage to get close to 1:35.

At the start of the second loop I was running with my group, and the pace felt really comfortable. I drank a bit at one of the aid stations and tried to remind myself to run cautious as I hadn’t done any long runs this year. Still, I had to hold back quite a bit, and after the first turn-around point I just decided to run my pace and see if they would hang on. I slowly started to pull away, without feeling I was running too hard. There was some uncomfortable head wind towards the end of the second loop, but I still felt okay. Time for the second loop: 31:27 – one more loop at that pace and I’d be able to break 1:35!

My fast pace started to catch up a bit to me. I had run up to someone else, but he started to pull away from me. But I was still overtaking quite a few other people (although it was hard to tell if they were running the half or the marathon that was going on at the same time and on the same course), and my splits were right on the edge. The last small hill was really hard, and the headwind wasn’t good. At the last k I thought my pace had slipped too much – I needed a 4 min last k to sneak under 1:35. But I knew that the last k would be a bit short, so I decided to give all I had. Overtaking a few more people, I sprinted down the finish chute. I had some trouble stopping my Polar watch – my muscles are used to the Garmin watch by now, and the upper right stop button on the Garmin merely changes the display on the Polar. But I caught that error in time, hit the split button and saw a 1:34:58. Yay! (Last loop was a 31:23.)

It took me a while to catch my breath, and I quickly went to the car to change into dry clothes. (Still, I caught a bit of a cold and don’t feel to well today.) While waiting for my friends, I noticed one advantage of being a little faster: There was no line in front of the massage tables! So I enjoyed a nice, long, relaxing massage and my legs feel almost normal today. I was so happy that I put a nice bill into their tip box.

To sum up, Kiel is not the prettiest course, but very good for fast times and a good thing to have on the calendar by end-February. Even though I didn’t train much, long or fast during the preceding months, I ran my fastest half marathon in a long time (probably since 2007). Still, I’m not sure where I stand. I know that in order to be in good shape for IM Germany I have a lot of work in front of me. Good thing I have a bike camp scheduled for mid-March in Mallorca. I’d better get in shape for that so I can enjoy some longer bike sessions there without having to kill myself. And I will need some longer runs, too. So much to do – and only so many hours to train! But I’m still enjoying every minute of it, and that’s what counts …

Kiel Half Marathon: Are you Ready?

Tomorrow (Saturday), I’m going to race the Half Marathon Kiel.

The best photo I could find is a summer picture (even though my last posts were complaints about the bad winter weather):

Photo by Drbashir117 from Wikipedia Commons

The race is run on the western side of the “Kieler Förde” (on the left side of the picture). Usually, it is a 10.5k loop, but because of the winter weather, it had to be shortened to 7k, so instead of two loops we’ll run three.

With all the winter weather, I have no idea what will be possible for me and I’m not really ready for racing. Back in November I was hoping I’d be a able to run close to my PR (1.31h), but that is out of the question. My last race (19,6k Lümmellauf in January) is six weeks ago, and I was able to run a bit slower than 5min/k average. Even though I didn’t manage to do any longer runs, I hope to be able to be a bit quicker. That would be under 1h45. This would require at least half-way decent weather, no icy roads and not any new snow. (The weather report predicts 4°C – about 40°F – and rainy weather, so that should be okay.)

I hope to be able to run a bit faster, but as in my last race I had problems towards the end, I know I have to be conservative. I think I’ll start the first loop with a rough target HR of about 150 (Lümmellauf average was 155) and see what pace that corresponds to. If that feels okay, maybe I can pick up the pace and HR a bit in the next two loops. It would be great if that works out to 7k loops of 35, 34, and 33 minutes and a total time of 1:42. If I even manage to go under 1:40, I’d be real happy. As I said, I have no idea of where I am. At least I’ll be able to run in my lighter shoes for the first time this year. With all the snow, I didn’t do any faster stuff since mid-November …

Snowshoeing as Winter Cross Training

With all the snow we currently have here in Northern Germany, I was getting quite frustrated with running on ice or in deep snow. After asking a bit around, I got a lot of suggestions for snowshoeing. If you google for ‘training snowshoe’ you’ll find a couple of good articles (such as this Owner’s Manual from Running Times).

So I went onto Amazon and ordered a relatively cheap pair of snowshoes:

After I paid for the overnight service, I could try them the next day.

At first they felt really strange, but that went away really quick and walking came quite naturally. It maybe took me 10 minutes after which running felt quite normal.

Here are my main takeaways from my sessions:

• Apart from having to lift your feet a bit higher, you don’t have to alter your regular stride. (And the extra lift may be a good drill for combating the “Ironman shuffle”.) The pace is maybe 1 min/k (about 90 seconds per mile) slower compared to “regular” running.
• Running on “paved” trails (i.e. where a few people have already walked or skied) feels really good. You have excellent traction even on packed snow or ice.
• Running in deep snow is really hard and only possible for short distances. You still sink in a bit (maybe that’s different for ’larger’ sizes), and walking was sufficient for me to lift my HR.
• It’s a great chance to try some new paths and just go “cross country”.
• It’s tricky to go by distance, it’s better to go by time. I’ve done a few sessions of about 1 hour, and they felt pretty similar to regular running.
• You have to keep attention to the ground, so running in the dark is not really an option.

All in all, it was a nice change from regular running and I really enjoyed snowshoeing.

Of course, now that I have an alternative, it has started to get a bit warmer and some of the snow is melting away. I just hope I can do some decent faster sessions soon …

Frustrated with Winter Running

I went out for a long run in the winter weather. I picked a nice route that usually takes me about 1h45. With all the snow, this time it took me almost 2h30.

When I started, I used some little side streets. Most of the snow had been cleared, but the remaining snow had melted and refroze. So basically I was running on a sheet of ice:

It was quite slippery and I had to really focus on not loosing my footing.

When I went “off-road”, I ran in the snow along a lake:

It was beautiful, but not really good running conditions.It got more and more tricky when I entered the forest. I was one of the first along the path and with every step I sank knee-deep into the snow. I couldn’t really run any more: Pretty soon after that the terrain became completely impassable and I had to take a detour. A side road was cleared, but you can see from the picture how much snow we’re having:

(The top of the fence you can see is about breast-high.)

After that I again had to run through tricky forest trails and fought my way through snowdrifts and deep snow where I was the first one to pass through.

It was nice to be out for a long run, but I’m not sure about the training benefits. My main problem is that all the running is so slow it is probably not specific enough. I’d really like to be able to bang out a nice speed session and run really fast for a bit.

But right now I only have the following choices:

1. Run in deep snow
2. Run on icy side streets
3. Run on cleared main roads (and risk being run over by all the traffic)

The weather report does not look like the snow will melt in the next week or two. So what to do in the meantime? I’m open to any ideas that would help me get a bit faster …

Weighty Issues – January 2010 Update

Photo by Like_the_Grand_Canyon

I’m already a bit late for my “weighty issues” update. So without further ado, here are the results from February 1st:

• weight 88,3 kg (goal was around 88kg)
• body fat 17,9 (not much movement here)

These numbers are okay, and I think from the sheer numbers I am back on track. One thing that I’m noticing is that my waist seems to be getting thinner, my belt is almost ready for the next hole. However, my weight fluctuates a lot from day to day, so it’s hard to be sure where I am exactly. But at least I’m moving in the right direction, even if I’m not being totally perfect.

Now the tricky part starts .. I’m about where I was for the last two years of racing, and I want to go beyond that. So the next kgs are important, but they will be hard, too. Especially with all the things going on and the weather still being bad here in Northern Germany. But I’d like to get around 87kg by the end of February.

One little note on the picture: It’s a chocolate Santa, similar to the one sitting next to my printer as a reminder to not eat too many sweets. It’s been working quite well, except for the occasional chocolate. One of my problems is that I can’t eat just one piece when I opened a package …

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!

Waiting for Spring

Winter still has Northern Germany firmly in its grip (even if the photo was taken in Switzerland, this is pretty much what it looks like):

Photo by c0d3in3

In addition to all the snow, it has gotten windy and bitterly cold the last few days (temperatures down to -17°C / 0°F). It takes quite a while to “warm up” properly – which really means you gain back some feeling in your frozen fingers (even with gloves on). It is a bit tricky to run, most of the snow has been cleared from the streets, but there are still a lot of slippery sections. And the streets are a lot narrower, so you have to be extra careful not to be hit by an ongoing car. And anything resembling speedwork is totally foolish right now.

All there is to do is pass the time until spring arrives (which will be miserable because we then go from snow to mud). I try to get some longer sessions in, but work and life made this difficult during the week. I had two nice relaxed days planned for the weekend, but I came down with a bug and had to take Saturday and Sunday off in order to be in a decent shape for an important work-related meeting on Monday. I’m feeling okay now, and managed two nice runs on Monday and Tuesday, but still nothing resembling a long run. Hopefully, this weekend will be better.  I’m really anxious to get on some longer runs (around two hours), and I still have a bit of work before I can get there …

Lümmellauf 2010 – First race in the new year

Today, I participated in the Lümmellauf, my first race of this season.

As you can see from the photo of the start (found on the races website at luemmellauf.de), there was quite some snow on the ground and it was still snowing when the race started:

Because of all the snow, it was quite difficult to figure out what pace would be possible and of course I didn’t want to risk an injury. As it turned out, I needn’t have worried, it wasn’t very slippery. All the snow felt more like running on sand, so it was quite a strength workout. Before the start I felt that a 5:15/k pace would be reasonable, and maybe I could run a little bit faster. That would mean a 1h41 race time, hopefully a bit faster around 1:36:30 for a 5 min/k pace.

After the start, the first few k’s were needed for the field of 270 runners to sort itself out and spit out those that line up far too much to the front. My Garmin had some problems coming up with a correct pace under all the trees (and the numbers I saw were too slow), so I pretty much ran by feel and used the markers. After the first few markers, I settled into a hard, but maintainable pace right under 5:15 pace. It was a bit slippery and at times it was tricky to get solid footing, but I felt okay with the pace and hoped I could hold that pace for the whole distance.

At the end of the first loop (after around 9k) I was still running well, but my feet felt a bit strange: In order to have a good grip in all the snow, I had decided to run in my Nike Pegasus trail shoes, and this was by far the fastest pace I had ever run in these shoes. I was getting a few blisters at the top of my toes – probably the shoes are a little bit too small or I was moving around in the forefoot a bit. I was hoping it wouldn’t get much worse.

The split at the end of the first loop was 48:26. If I could pick the pace a little bit up, I might manage to run my 5k pace “dream goal”. The next 5k went okay and I was picking up a few spots. But around 15k, I had to realize that I was lacking a bit of endurance after the forced break in November and December. My heart rate was still up so I was working hard, but I had to slow down nonetheless. In the soft snow I couldn’t find a stable footing, so I also think that I was lacking the strength necessary for a solid pace. At least I had something else to think about than the blisters ..

It was a bit frustrating to be overtaken a few times, and the last hill was really hard. My dream-time goal was getting quite unrealistic, but I wanted to keep my spot in the rankings. I ended up in 70th place with a time of 1:37:34 (by my watch, the official time is 1:38:17 – don’t know where the big difference came from). Comparing some other people’s times between last year and this year, the course was 5-8 minutes slower with all the snow. That’s still a bit away form last year’s 1:23, but I had done the best I could today, and that’s all you can ask for. I’m happy to have run a pretty solid first race after my injury.

Hopefully, the snow will melt away soon so I can get back to some decent training condition. The weather report, however, says different, the prediction calls for freezing cold at least until next weekend. Not a chance to ride outside for now …