Ferdinand

I still exist.

I just haven't been running too much. Work has forced me into a long lay off w/ about 8 weeks in inhospitable for running conditions and weather. Then more travel that was not conducive to running. I've tried over the past two or three weeks even did a race this weekend. Considering how much I've been running, I really can't complain too much.

I do have 'A Plan.'

I have 3 more races this summer. I have no expectation of doing any better on them than I did last year when I ran the same ones.

Yesterday, I did what was supposed to be a 4ish mile run. I went with one of my normal running partners. Unfortunately, neither of us had been on this route for a while. So our 4ish mile run became about 10k (9.8 if you're counting).

The profile is below. It was good and hilly. And my legs are tired.

And here's the profile for the race from Saturday. You may remember from last year, this race was longer...

(not as cool as last year, eh?)

Winter Wonderland

I decided to ride into work on Friday. Mostly because I could. And I thought it would be fun. The official total was 17 inches for the week, but there wasn't more than about 5 inches on the ground.

Since I ride on trails, not roads, it wasn't clear. There was plenty of snow, just a bit of ice and pretty much no one. And it was quiet. Like I was in the middle of nowhere. Couldn't even hear the autobahn although I was less than 100m from it on numerous occasions.

Back tire sliding all over. Barely needed a light because the snow made everything so bright. My speed was no where near normal, but that was all part of the fun. I ended up walking up a few of hills, because I just couldn't keep traction on my back tire, and once I stopped I couldn't get going again. I also didn't really trust the brakes on the big down hills.

When I got home, there was about 2-3 inches of mud, snow and ice all over the bike. Great fun.

Post Turkey Day Recovery

As those of you who read the better half's blog know, we went to the mountains for Turkey day with friends.What she might not have let on is that we went there with one of them.
So we had a great Turkey day dinner. Lovely desserts. Lots of fun with the kids (sledding, games, etc).

Tangent

Unlike most kids, our LM doesn't like things that go 'fast'. He's a bit of a scaredy cat. So, when we went sledding he wanted no part of going down the hill. Even when his friend went down. Even wen Daddy went down. He much preferred the one-horse-open variety of sledding. I'll give you three guesses who the horse was.

End Tangent

So, the day after thanksgiving, we decided to go for a run. Now mind you. It was cold. And snowy. So when we headed out at 8:30 it was an adventure. The temperature was about 2C. We headed out down the road, and turned off onto a foot path/bike path combination. It was covered in a combination of snow and slush.

Soon, it turned off into the woods. Where the path became just that: a single track path. Covered with snow and ice. It got so rough that we ended up walking for about 25m because we just couldn't get any traction while running up hill. Just too icy.

That was only the beginning of the fun though. Going down hill was even better. Slightly better trail conditions, but not much. And of course, since we were going down hill, I ended up on my derriere at one point. No serious injuries, just a sore wrist and bruised ego.

Still, it was a good run (except for the fact that he ran me into the ground going up hill). We made it back after an almost 4 mile run and all the moisture that had been wicked away from our skin onto the outer layer of clothing had turned to frost. Very cool look.

Kit Review

Garmin has gone and updated Garmin Connect again. I'm getting more and more satisfied with what they're doing there. Check out this new feature. It plots speed against elevation and steps through your workout together as it does so.

Busy Morning

8.3 miles this morning, predominantly on trails. Slightly new route. Made a couple of wrong turns, but it all worked out in the end. Here are the totals:

• 21 runners
• 13 walkers
• 3 dogs
• 2 fishermen
• 2 Polizei
• 2 rabbits
• 2 deer
• 1 Buzzard (one of these, not one of these.) And no, it wasn't eating either rabbit.

Also found a hill like my nemesis, but 5x as long. And, of course, I wasn't going down it.

Race Report

So, I woke up early this morning to do another half-marathon. This was a memorial run for troops killed in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Short Aside

Unlike the Stuttgart Half Marathon, I really didn't do any specific training for this one. Since that race was less than a month ago I just repeated the last 2 weeks of my program for that. I'd read something online about trying that method which put my mind at ease a bit. They also offered a simultaneous 5k. I'm glad I opted for the half marathon though.

End Aside

This all sounded like a good plan until they published the route about a week ago. Now, for your education, the Stuttgart Half Marathon was run through the streets of the city of Stuttgart, in a valley. So while there were some hills, it was mostly flat. For your viewing pleasure, the height profile of the Stuttgart Half Marathon:

Now, there are no height markers on that one, but the starting elevation was 218 meters, and the max elevation was somewhere near the 10th km and was about 258 meters.

The toughest parts of that race were the numbers and the heat. (See the post for details.)

Below is the elevation profile of the race from this morning. You'll note the slight difference.

Yeah, it was pretty miserable. I knew I was in for it right from the start. We started off on cobblestone (normal for around here), then shifted quickly to a dirt fire road, which quickly began a precipitous descent and transitioned into a rocky, muddy, rooty slope. Two immediate thoughts:

1. I wish I'd worn my trail running shoes. (Wait, I don't own trail running shoes!)
2. This is going TO SUCK on the way back. (It was an out and back course.)

And yes, it did suck on the way back.

My goal was to beat the Stuttgart time. Aside from the course I figured I had a few things going for me:

• I'd done a good, longish speed work session recently. Over 8 miles at the pace I wanted to run the half at. I hadn't done that before the Stuttgart half.
• Numbers. Stuttgart had well over 15,000. This one had about 80.
• Weather. Over 30C for Stuttgart, about 15-20C for this one.

So I went out with the intent of trying, despite the hills, to beat my time from Stuttgart. I pushed pretty hard, especially on the climbs, then tried to recover as much as possible on the down hills. It seemed to work pretty well.

Until I got back to that muddy hill of despair. I didn't get passed going up, mostly b/c everyone else was just as beat (even the 5k runners who ended up mixed in with us towards the end, and must have helped me sub-consciously push the pace). It was a case running-gate, walking-pace. But I figured I could pick it up again at the top. Fat chance. I got to the top, with less than 1km to go, and I just couldn't pick it up. It was just like my nemesis from my lunch time runs.

Overall results were good. Better than I expected. I beat my previous best by over 7 minutes! Very happy. Slept most of the afternoon.

The Continuing Saga...

Today, I had the first speed session that I've been remotely happy with in over a month. I went out for a short fartlek at lunch and it wasn't 'Bad.' It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. Even my nemesis the hill wasn't that bad. I pushed up it as hard as I could, without slowing to a snail's pace.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

For those of you following the continuing saga of the amorous couple: no sighting today, however, I think they're bringing their relationship out into the open. On Monday, (in addition to seeing a guy running in shorts and body armor) I spotted them out enjoying their 'lunch.'

Their cars were parked in the normal location (one small hatchback, one mini-van/MPV with two children's (?) name stickers on the back windows). But instead of being pressed up against each other between the cars, they were across the road leaning up against a railing. (Have I mentioned before that this location is about 50m from a sewage treatment plant? I hope I'd pick a better spot for an amorous rendezvous.)

One Week To Go...

Yesterday was my last long run before the half-marathon next weekend. As the LM's soccer season is over, I didn't run the normal route. This gave me bit of freedom to choose my direction and route.

Thus the quandary. I spent a bit of time on Friday night pouring over a trail map, Google Earth and the like trying to find a good loop of about 11 miles to run. The problem is, there are tons of trails in the woods around here. Most of them have names. Many of them don't. And some of those that are named don't match what's on the map or Google Earth. For instance, on my route to the LM's soccer games I run on Sindelfingenspitzweg, which on on the maps isn't labeled and on Google Earth is labeled Sindelfingenweg. To make it more interesting there are dozens and dozens of trails that aren't on either, but are just a wide and well used so counting left turns or what ever just doesn't work. Confusing? Yes.

After about 30 minutes, I'd mapped myself out a nice run that ran around some lakes and ponds, up towards a local palace. Then it hit me. I didn't have names for about 80% of the paths I'd mapped myself onto. So instead, I opted for the easy way out.

The Radel-thon. The Radel-thon is an 80km bike path that encircles Stuttgart. It's a combination of dirt, gravel and some paved areas. I did some quick calculations and an easy to follow 6 mile out 6 mile back route to run.

So I followed it yesterday morning. It was easy. Signs at almost every junction help keep you on the right path, so that wasn't a real worry. Even better, it went over nice rolling hills followed a stream passed a couple of ponds, and was devoid of vehicles. It even turned out (by design of course) that the route was almost completely a gentle up hill (with a few steep sections and some downhills of course) on the way out, and consequently down hill on the way back.

Tangent

They have some massive wood carvings in the area of the Bärensee there are massive wood carvings. By massive I mean a 20 foot tall tree stump that has been carved into chain links, and a downed tree carved into a giant alligator (you get the picture?) There are massive play areas for the kids, and shelters with grills interspersed in the woods. It's just a great area that we're going to have to get out into as a family and do some hiking.

End Tangent

As for the race prognosis:

• I've no doubt the distance is doable (yesterdays run was a couple of yards short of a half-marathon).
• I'm more worried about pace. I've had troubles finding and meeting the pace for my longer runs. More worryingly, I've missed some of the longer tempo runs over the past 3 weeks. A couple were due to just being flat. For instance this Wednesday I went out for a 'tempo' run and I just had nothing. I ended up with a short easy run instead, b/c I just couldn't do anymore. But annoyingly, some of the runs in the program I'm using just aren't going to happen. I don't know about any of you, but I just don't have the time to do 8-10 mile tempo runs in the middle of the week. I may have to rethink some of my schedule if I really want to get them done. Move the runs from lunch time to early in the morning. That would really put a cramp in my life though, so I'll have to really think about that.
• Physically I feel fine. I have a slight ache in my hip, but it goes away as soon as I start running.
  
• So I think I'll finish (barring catastrophe). Will I get in in under 2 hours? I don't know. The missed tempo runs worry me a little, but yesterday's run was a few yards short of the distance and I finished in about 2:05. The course is flatter than what I ran yesterday, and there will be the 'adrenalin' of being at a race. So I'm hopeful. If not, well, I'll just need to try a bit harder on the next one!
  

Hyper Sensitivity.

Yesterday day was long run day. I ran the same route that I ran last weekend. It's just under 12 miles from our house to where the Little Man plays soccer on the weekends.

Tangent

It was his last game. He did great. Actually kicked the ball a couple of times! The fact that he was on the sideline two of those times is beside the point! He even did well enough to get a new Doctor Who toy. Who said bribery doesn't pay! He started the season as one of the archetypal first time soccer players. Not paying attention to the coach. Not paying attention to the ball. Just kind of wandering around the field randomly: "hmmm what pretty flowers....ohhh! that blade of grass is longer than the rest! I must pluck it! What was that round thing that just bounced off my back? I'd best fall down and cry!"

End Tangent

Like last week, my legs felt very heavy through most of the run. I tried to push through the second half though. (I had the incentive to get to the field on time, and last week I'd barely made it.) I managed to shave some time off the total from a 10:04 pace to a 9:54 pace. But I noticed something odd.

The route is mostly on fire roads and gravel/dirt trails through the woods. There are some pronounced hills (like part of the big one and the last one from the last race). But I noticed something odd. I've run this route or it's constituent parts at least three times in the past. But yesterday I noticed something. Lots of those stretches that I'd previously mentally classified as "flat" weren't. Pretty much the whole thing was either a moderate up or moderate down slope. (In my mind yesterday it was pretty much all gentle up!)

Just a silly change in perception. Anyway, 2 weeks until the half marathon.

Kit note:
The Amphipod belt still working well. Still no big issues, no real bouncing which was my main concern. Most of the time I don't even know it's there. One of my concerns was the ability to get the bottles back into their clip holders while running. It's really not a problem. They just nicely slip in with a nice 'click'.

It's Kind of Like Riding a Bike

Cross Training. I've decided to do it a bit more. The bog-standard Runner's World half-marathon plan has 2-3 days of "Rest/Cross Train" per week. I've tried to do something other than run at least one of those days.

It started off with just riding the stationary bike a the gym.

Then I moved on to doing a little strength training.

Tangent

I don't really like strength training to much. I can't explain why. I just never really have. I fall for the oldest trick in the book all the time. "I just need to get in better cardiovascular condition first, then I'll start worrying about strength training," I tell myself. Then the semi-annual PRT rears its head. I realize I haven't done a push-up since the last one. I panic. I over train. I burn myself out. I grow to dislike strength training even more. When the PRT is over, I just go back to cardio. Repeat until next PRT.

End Tangent

I've struck upon a better idea now (it doesn't really address the strength training though..).

Today, I cycled in to work and back home.

It was fun. Not easy, but fun.

I'd scoped the route by running it half-way from home and half-way from work. This morning I rode in for the first time. About 7.6 miles each way. I'm quite proud of myself, as the route is anything but flat. I even made it up the first big hill without too much difficulty (the same one that was at the beginning of my latest race). It was pretty much cake from there.

Right up till the end.

I'd talked with another guy from work who cycles in the same way occasionally. He'd warned me about a hill. Now, this is a hill I've 'run' up numerous times, but I'm not sure if I've written about it. It almost always ends up at the end of my lunchtime runs. It is the bane of my existence. Regardless of my intentions, by the top of this not-too-long hill I'm moving at a walking pace with a running gait.

So, for-warned is for-armed, no? Well....no. I knew the hill was coming, so I built up to max speed on the straight away leading to the hill....as fast as my wee little haven't cycled in 11 years legs would take me. Then: foiled again! What I'd failed to recall, what I didn't seem to remember, regardless of having run this way numerous times, was that the way I was going, I had to make a hairpin turn at the base of the hill, reducing my speed too essentially zero. Great plan. Needless to say, my cycle up the hill ended up resembling my runs up the hill. Walking pace, but this time pushing a bicycle.

Final Tangent

I've decided to keep the bicycling up once or twice a week, weather and my work schedule permitting. I just need one more piece of important kit. Glasses. I swear I pulled a dozen flies out of my eyes over the course of 40 minutes.

End Tangent. End Post