July 2006 Archives

This weekend I did my first back-to-back long run. On Friday at 5 p.m. I ran 20K/12.5M on the flat trails in the forest behind my town. On Saturday morning at 5:30 a.m. I ran 30K/18.5M on my hilly route in the neighboring town of Weingarten.

Friday night’s run was fairly uneventful, it was a somewhat cooler 29C/85F and not quite as humid as it has been. I ran the 20K at an easy 6:03/K (9:44/M) pace.

On Saturday morning it was only 20C/68F when I started out, but really humid from the rain we had during the night. The trees were still dripping as I made my way around the 1 ½ hour loop. The first round went pretty well, I definitely felt the run from the night before, but was fine. After around two hours though, my legs started complaining and my energy level started hitting the red zone. I continued on, but could feel my pace diminishing. By the three hour point I was pretty well spent and basically shuffled the last 15 minutes of the run. The high humidity left me soaked with sweat and pooped. I completed the run taking only three short walk breaks to eat energy bars.

Doing the Friday night/Saturday morning runs was a lot harder than with a longer break in between the runs. I think the training effect was quite good, and I have recovered pretty well today.

Have a nice weekend.

p.s. Old Jack just got a little older today, 47 years young!

I have found three 100K ultra events so far that take place next year, I plan on running one of them (so far):

- The 21st Annual German 100K Run in Hanau-Rodenbach in April, 2007 (10 x 10K loops gentle rolling hills)

- The 3rd Annual Boedefelder Hollow 101K Run (lots of good climbs, forest ways etc.) on May 12, 2007

- The Chiemgauer 100K Mountain Ultra in July 2007 that I talked about a couple days ago.

The first one would be a good “newbie” run. The other two are a little tougher, particularly the Chiemgauer.

There are other 100K runs in Germany, France or Switzerland but they require extensive traveling.

I also have a few other ultra events on my list:

- The Rodgau 50K (10 x 5K loops) at the end of January 2007.

- The Westerwald Forest 50K ultra in May (the one I ran this year).

- The Fidelitas Night Run 80K (50M) at the end of June.

- A 63K Trail Ultra in October.

Of course these all depend on the 100K race. The 50K in January is given, it will be a good training race for the 100K. If I run the Chiemgauer 100K in July, the Westerwald 50K with its nice hill climbs will be an excellent training run. On the other side if I run the Boedefelder or Chiemgauer I don’t know if I should plan on the Fidelitas 80K – they are kind of close together for a rookie.

Last night I stopped at the swimming pool on the way home from work and swam 1000 meters of laps. Lately I have had the feeling my freestyle stroke has been getting worse, not better (sigh!), but somehow last night I did okay. I ended up alternating freestyle/breaststroke every 100 meters.

Last night we had a huge thunderstorm which cooled off things a little bit through the night. I hope this lasts for a couple days.

Tonight I have been invited to run with a coworker at a 10K benefit race that is helping to raise money for a young girl with leukaemia. I haven’t committed yet, but am going to have to make a decision soon. It will make my 4 a.m. wakeup and 5 a.m. 3.5 hour long run a little more difficult, but Thomas said we should stop whining, so I will.

Yesterday I presented a quick look at one of the ultras I am thinking about running next year. Compared to most of the ultras held in Germany this one is pretty aggressive. From what I read the organizer is a fan of American Trail Ultras and he tried to come up with something equally challenging. It looks like he did his homework!

The 80K/50M run that I did this year was kid’s play in comparison! If I want to complete this event before the 16 hour cut-off I am going to have to upgrade the quality of my training. Not easy in our hill-challenged region (i.e. flatlands). Although I already do my long runs on the hilliest area around here, I know I need to incorporate more hills, hill repeats and a good upper body core training. I probably should shed those last 12 pounds that I want to lose to - no sense dragging them up and down the mountains.

But of course my first obstacle is my wife – she needs to be in agreement. If it doesn’t work for her then I am fighting a battle that makes the mountain run look easy. I’m going to wait until the weather cools down some before I spring any new plans on her.

I found a couple pictures on the Internet from the Chiemgauer 100K race from 2005. As you can see it is a beautiful area and quite a challenging course (from my perspective). If you think the hills look a lot like ski slopes that is because they are, the Chiemsee region is a very popular ski region in Germany!

What do you do with a ski slope in the summer time? You guessed it, 'run it up and over'!

Well it didn’t reach 100F yesterday like the weather people predicted, it was only 37C/99F. In any case at 5:30 p.m. I ran the 4K/2.5M to the Graben Running Club meeting point and ran the 11K/7M loop with my normal group. It was obvious that the heat had an effect on the group, we kept the pace down from the start. Several of the runners also turned around early and cut their run short for the night.

After finishing the 11K loop I stuck around and chatted for awhile and helped eat the watermelon that someone had brought. Nothing better than some ice cold watermelon right after a hot run!

After a bit I decided I should run home before I start cramping up, so headed out – maintaining the nice easy pace that we ran earlier. All together I ran 19K/12M at an average pace of 5:56/K (9:34/M), not bad considering the heat.

This evening I am stopping at the pool after work for some laps, then maybe a run or some weight training. On Saturday morning I want to get up at 5 a.m. and run a 3 ½ hour long run on my hilly route.

Happy Running!

I mentioned to my wife last night that I would like to run the following race next year in July. I don’t think it really sank in because she didn’t react:

3rd Chiemgauer 100 km Mountain Ultra
July 2007
100 km
4400 m (13 200 ft) elevation gain
38% hiking trails; 55% forestry roads; 7% paved roads
Course record: 12:25, Time limit 18 hours
Course limit: 100 runners.

Pacers are not necessary on the course and are not permitted for reasons of fairness.

At least 12 checkpoints, where you have to provide your bib number. 6 major aid stations: Water, energy drink, Coke, various carbs, fruit, salt. Drink and limited supplies at check points, depending on number of volunteers.

The course consists of two loops through the Southern Chiemgau. First is a 26 k loop around Rauschberg mountain, followed by a 74 k loop around the Hochfelln massif. The accumulated climbs are about 4400 m (13 200 ft). Large parts of the course employ narrow alpine hiking trails, so you should have a safe step and be free of acrophobia.

Panarama View:

Elevation:

That is basically what the weather people are predicting for today and tomorrow. On the positive side it is supposed to rain on Friday and cool back down to the middle 80’s by the weekend. My prediction: hot, hot, humid and more restless nights of sleep.

In any case I spend my days drinking like a fish (water by the way), keeping an eye on salt intake, and governing my pace a little when I run.

Last night I had to take care of some errands, so decided to just relax and spend some time with my wife. It was too hot for her to study for her night course, so we just sat around and complained about the weather together.

Tonight I want to run with my running club, but if they take off like rabbits I’ll drop back with the turtles.

But first I have to survive my day at the office – yesterday we reached a record 31C/88F in my office.

Note to Self: Remind sweaty coworker #1 to stop eating salami for lunch. Ditto with sweaty coworker #2 with the garlic.

Somebody very dear to me is thinking about applying for a job in Atlanta, Georgia. Any bloggers out there that can provide feedback about living in Atlanta? Things like rent prices, crime, safe neighborhoods, transportation and stuff like that would be interesting.

An no I'm not moving to Atlanta, of course unless you want to give me a job there ;-)

Yesterday after work I headed out for an easy (pace) recovery run. It was a somewhat milder 34C/93F day, less humid than the weekend – but still hot.

I decided to change my route from the standard 14K/8.7M route to the Graben Running Club trails. These trails offer slightly more shade than my normal route, plus at the beginning of the club trails is hand-water pump where I can wash off some sweat and cool off.

So I ran the 4K/2.5M to the beginning of the club trails, did approximately an 8K/5M loop, then headed the 4K/2.5M back to the house. I made sure I stopped long enough at the water pump to soak my head – what a treat when running in the heat!

So I ended up with 16K/10M at a relaxed pace of 6:08/K (9:52/M) which didn’t include the minutes playing with the water pump. This morning my legs are a little stiff, but in pretty good shape considering all the running I’ve been doing lately (84K/52M last week).

So today the temperature is climbing back up to 35C/95F and the forecasters are predicting up to 38C/100F by Thursday. Sounds like a good night to go to the swimming pool!

What do you do when you are 100 meters from the finish line when it is scorching hot, humid and miserable outside?

Push it!

Last night was another night of tossing and turning due to the lingering warm air. My wife and I are both having trouble getting enough sleep. This morning I could really feel the effect, I woke up wearily and reluctantly. On the positive side my legs feel good, no muscle aches or anything like sometimes happens after a hard race.

Normally we experience a couple weeks of upper-90F temperatures in August, but this year it has started a month early and there is no sign of mild temperatures anytime soon.

On Saturday night a Tornado set down in Hambrucken, which is about 11K/7M miles from our house. A TORNADO people, this is Germany, not Kansas – I didn’t think they had tornados in Germany! According to the newspaper this morning up to a hundred houses were slightly damaged and hundreds of trees were uprooted or damaged. There was only one reported injury, a middle-aged man fell of the roof when he was trying to secure the tiles during high winds.

I saw signs of the storm damage during my half-marathon yesterday, which incidentally ran through the forest behind Hambrucken. Race organizers said they were up half the night before the race removing trees and limbs so we could run. Wow!

Guess where my next half-marathon is on August 26th - tornado alley Hambrucken!

I had a rather restless sleep last night, it was warm and humid making it difficult to sleep deep. As I stepped outside to test the air at 7 a.m. you could already feel the thick air. I knew the half-marathon today was going to be a rough run compared to others.

Weiher is a small town of about 5K located 15 minutes north of our house. I arrived about 50 minutes ahead of time and gathered my start number. The storm clouds were starting to move in as I took my place in line at the bathrooms.

Shortly before the race I jogged for five minutes to warm up, which left me dripping in sweat. It was already warming up pretty well 26C/79F shortly before 9 a.m. and the air was thick with humidity.

As I lined up at the Start with the other 200 participants the announcer reported that a tornado had touched town on the edge of one part of the race course and had felled several trees, but the path was now free and wouldn’t slow us down – and I didn’t even know they had tornados in Germany, hmm.

Anyway promptly at 9 a.m. we were off. I tried to start slow, I knew it would be a long race today and survival was the key. I quickly fell into an average pace of about 5:15/K (827/M). Even at this somewhat slower pace I was breathing heavier than normal.

Around the 4-5K point it finally started raining, a slow drizzling rain that did little to cool anything off and probably made the humidity worse. This drizzle continued for at least a half-hour, letting up sometime after I passed the 10K point. I reached the 10K point in around 51:30, an average pace of 5:09/K (8:17/M), at this point it was still theoretically possible to beat my best time (1:48:12), I decided to give it my best shot anyway.

Soon after the 12K point I latched onto a younger, tall dude who slowly ran past me. I tried my best to hang with him. After a few minutes a young, short young lady eased past both of us and we both fought to keep up with her.

At the 15K/9.3M aid station (every 5K was an aid station) I walked long enough to eat a banana and drink a couple cups of water, I ended up falling behind the two I had been following. I did my best to catch up again, eventually passing the dude, the young lady disappeared after awhile, she was just too fast for me.

By the 17K/10.5M point I was hurting, the humidity had zapped my energy, my legs were hurting from the long run I did Friday night and the are was STILL thick as molasses. I struggled on the best I could, but I knew I was slowing down. My reserves were spent, so I just concentrated on at least trying not to slow down further.

With less than 2K to go I saw a runner from the Phillipsburg Running Club a minute or two ahead of me. I concentrated on trying to catch him before we reached the finish line. So I stretched out my pace as best I could and slowly reeled him in, indeed passing him the last 100 meters before the finish line.

As I approached the finish line I heard for the first time, “Here comes Jack, from the LT TSV Graben,” my first race as a member of the Graben Running Club!

I finished in 1:51:03, more than three minutes slower than my best time, but probably about the best that I could have gotten out of this old body today. In any case I am very satisfied, it was one of the toughest half-marathons that I have ever run, the amount of effort required surpassed even the two trail half-marathons that I have run.

After refueling and showering I headed home, ate again and crashed on the cough for an hour nap. As I write (4 p.m.) the sun is shining, the temperature has risen to 36C/97F and it is sweltering hot outside, time to go to the local bier garden for some food.

Have a nice Sunday!

When I got home from work yesterday it was 37C/99F for the third day in the row, but unlike the other two days there was no wind and the humidity level had risen – in other words it was miserably hot outside. A good illustration of just how hot it was: The 8 minute walk from the train station to my house left me my shirt drenched with sweat.

My wife was already crashed on the couch taking a nap, so I decided to do the same, sleeping for about 30 minutes in the relatively cool living room. Around 5:30 p.m. I suited up and drove to my hilly running route, 12K/7.5M away. It had cooled down slightly, it was 35C/95F, but there was still no wind and the humidity level felt worse then ever.

I took off at a nice easy pace, first running about 6-7 minutes on a relatively flat logging road, then turning up the hill. By the time I reached the top of the plateau on the hilltop I was drenched and dripping with sweat. At least the heat didn’t slow me down, I ended up with the same pace that I normally run. I continued on with my hour and a half loop, which included two more 5-6 minute hill climbs. By the time I looped back to my starting point (after 1.5 hours) I felt like I had already run two loops. The high humidity was really zapping my energy. I had already drank about 2/3 of my CamelBak, so stopped quickly at the car to refill – I had brought several extra bottles of water and some powerdered sports drink mix for this purpose.

I made my way around my loop for the second time. The major hill almost took my will to go on, but as I reached the top and started over a series of rolling hills I recovered enough to keep going. My entire out fit was drenched from sweat, tank top, shorts, even my socks! I kept drinking as I ran, I knew this was important on a day like this.

After the two hour point I hit a low, my energy was depleted, I was looking at my watch entirely too much, and generally wishing that my run was over with. I took a few extra long swigs of sports drink from my CamelBak and kept going, I knew it would get better if I kept going long enough.

The minutes ticked by and eventually fell back into a groove of sorts. The trails were empty, I guess I was the only one crazy enough to be out running in the heat and humidity. I had hoped that it would start cooling down, but the heat lingered, the wind avoided my path and I continued to sweat.

I made it up and over the last hill climb on my loop and decided to take a short walk break and eat a sports bar. As I took of my CamelBak I first realized that I had left my sports bars in the kitchen table at home. So I drained my CamelBak and started running again, 20 minutes left before I would reach the car.

I was pretty worn out by the time I had finally reached the car – I had eaten a pretty big lunch, but nothing directly before the run. The sports drink provided a lot of calories, but my body was craving real food. Upon reaching my car I grabbed a water bottle and walked it out for awhile, then did some stretching. My legs were a lot stiffer than normal – probably due to the heat. At least I finished my long run, I had wanted to run at least three hours, with the exception of one 4 minute walk break, I ran 3:14:28. Mission accomplished.

As I drove home I passed a bank, it was still 30C/86F at 9:30 p.m., and the first breeze was finally making its entrance…

It is 12 noon here in Germany and 35C/95F outside. It is 30C/86F in my office! My arms are sticking to my desk as I write, my shirt is soaked with sweat and I feel like taking a nap.

I don’t understan how I can run for hours when it is 99F outside, but over when it goes over 80F in my office I lose all motivation to do anything (except maybe complain).

My wife got lucky today, her organization asked for volunteers from the office workers to help organize the court records today – my wife jumped at it – the court records are located in the cool cellar in the court building where she works, yeah!

So I guess I will go home and take a short nap when I get home to get my mind back together. I want to do my long run tonight so I have at least one recovery day before my race on Sunday.

Speaking of which, I am running a half-marathon in Ubstadt-Weiher, a small town about 13K/8M north of where we live, at 9 a.m. on Sunday. The last couple mornings it has been 24C/75F at 6 a.m., so I can imagine it will be well over 80F by the time the races starts and pushing 90F by the time I finish. Luckily 80% of the race course is through the forest. We are also supposed to get rain on Sunday morning, so I imagine the humidity will be high – good thing I train in the heat and humidity.

Now if I can only find a cool place to work so I can get some work done.

Whew, it has been hot this week! The past two days have been the hottest days of the year so far, 37C/99F. I know my 19K/12M run on Wednesday night left me worn down pretty good. The worst thing is that I have only been getting 4-5 hours sleep a night because it has been so warm, I’m used to 7 hours. The combination is slowly sapping my energy.

Last night I went swimming, but the pool was crowded (no surprise with 99F) and after 800 meters I was pooped and tired of fighting the crowd.

I had planned on doing a little weight training last night, but my “weight room” in the shed was 40C/104F at 7:30 p.m. (the room is in the attic of an uninsulated shed). This was a little too hot even for me, so I piddled around in my woodworking shop for an hour, then read a book.

My wife came home for the fourth night in a row and crashed on the couch – the heat is just too much for her. She comes back to life around 9 p.m. and stays awake till about midnight doing what she needs to do.

I am thinking about moving to Ireland where it doesn’t get so hot and they run naakeed on the beach.

I have started reading a book „Soul Seat and Survival on the Pacific Creat Trail” by Bob Holtel (ISBN 1-55306-302-3). This is the story about Bob Holtel’s solo run of the Pacific Crest Trail in 1985.

The section where he talks about “why” begins with the follow text, which some of you may have seen before:

Risk

To reach out is to risk involvement
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self
To place your ideas, your dreams before the crowd is to risk their loss
To love is to risk not being loved in return;
To live is to risk dying
To hope is to risk despair; To try is to risk failure
But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing
He may avoid suffering and sorrow but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live…
Chained by his certitudes, he is a slave
He has forfeited freedom
Only a person who risks is free

- Anonymous

I generally am not a big risk taker, I tend to avoid leaving my “comfort zone” in many aspects of my life. As I approach midlife (crisis?) I ponder sometimes if I shouldn’t take more risk – I don’t look forward to waking up one day and discovering it is “too late”.

I think this thinking has been fuelling my running lately, I want to go as far as I can before injury or the natural aging process slow me down.

What about you, are you feeling “free”?

When I got home from work at 4 p.m. last night it was a sweltering 37C/99F, sunny and windless. My brain was fried from sitting in a warm office all day and waiting in an even warmer train station for my train home. I laid down on the couch and took a 15 minute nap. I awoke as my wife came through the door from work and we ranted and raved about the heat until it was time for me to get ready to go running with my running group.

I decided to run the 4K/2.5M to the running club meeting point, a decision that had my wife questioning my sanity considering the heat. I filled my water bottle, warmed up and headed out into the heat. I took my time, a nice easy pace, and arrived about 10 minutes before the group started the run (6 p.m.). A few of the people that I ran with the last two weeks weren’t there (too hot?), so I asked around and found three men who wanted to run the 11K/6.8M at a pace that sounded about right and we were off.

I ran the 11K in around 58 minutes last week, but this week we took our time due to the heat and finished in 1:04:15. Actually two of us finished in this time, the other two slowed down after 10K and waved us on. This was an average pace of around 5:50/K (9:24/M), not bad considering the 37C/99F temperature.

After the run I took my turn at the little well located at the meeting point and let someone pump (hand pump) the ice cold water over my head. This seems to be a tradition of the group and was pure ecstasy considering the heat!

I lingered a little bit talking with a few club members. Some hasty plans were made for the weekend 10K and HM race that the club will participating in (I’m running the half) and the most made there way home to get out of the heat. I lingered a few minutes longer and talked with Iris, the pretty young lady that first invited me to run with the club, and Gisela the club leader, then ran the 4K back to my house.

I felt a stiff after the run, probably because I stood around blabbering too long without stretching, but due in part to good hydration did not feel any negative effects from the heat.

Tonight (Thursday) I want to stop at the swimming pool on the way home and maybe do some weight training.

Either Friday night or Saturday morning is my long run, I want to do at least 3 hours. On Sunday at 9 a.m. is my half-marathon.

How’s your week going?

I decided to postpone my Tuesday night swim until Thursday, when it is supposed to be up to 37C/99F outside. So as an alternative I decided to ride my bicycle, but alas the poor bike had a flat – I guess my 55K ride on Sunday was too much for it. So I spent half the night fixing the flat. Now normally it doesn’t take so long to fix a flat, but I its been like 25 years since I've done this, and of course I didn’t have a repair kit at home. So first I had to go to the local bike shop and pick up a tire repair kit. While there, I decided I would just buy a new tube, then I could pop it into the tire and be done with it. But of course they had every single tube size except the one I needed, so lazy Jack had to fix the old one. In any case by 8:15 p.m. my bike was up and running.

Where are the Ultras?

I am amazed at the general lack of ultra-distance runs in my area. I have been looking high and low for any ultra that doesn’t require multiple hours of driving or an overnight stay, and the only one that I have found is a 50K in October. I have decided that I live in an ultra-poor region and need to move.

To be fair there are a few ultras in the area, but I need to be a faster runner to participate. For example, in October is a 65K/40M group run, but they require that you are capable of running a 4-hour marathon - still too fast for me, though maybe next year.

There are also several ultras in the spring, e.g. March to June, but this doesn’t help me this year. I'll keep looking though, the main problem is I need to keep costs down - life is always a compromise...

Ultra Withdrawal

So I guess I am getting ultra-frustrated. Or is it a form of post-race depression, ultra-fever, or something similar?

I decided that I am going through an art ultra-withdrawal. I’ve tasted the fine wine of ultrarunning and I am no longer satisfied with the cheap stuff. I have been doing a lot of shorter races lately (e.g. 10K), which have been fun, but somehow they don’t lift me up like they used to.

I think I have become a running addict, I am searching for the next ultimate high, the short races don’t give me the rush they used to, I need the hard stuff. And like an addict I have to find a way to finance my habit.

p.s. Outside of booze I have never tried illegal drugs – my analogies are not derived from personal experience. I just though I’d add that before anyone gets the wrong idea.

When I got home from work yesterday it was a sunny 32C/90F, a gentle breeze was blowing and I was tired from sitting in a too-warm office. But once I laced up my shoes and hit the road I quickly fell into my groove and really enjoyed the run.

Monday’s are typically my tempo run, where I try to pump at least an average 5:30/K (8:51/M) pace out of my old body for the 14K/8.7 loop. The first kilometer was a little sluggish, but I pushed and my body responded positively. I ended up with an average pace of 5:13/K (8:24/M), not bad for a grandpa!

Weekend Racing

I had initial planned on running a “training” marathon this weekend, a nice hilly run in the Black Forest. But this would have meant an overnight stay and quite frankly, with my wife soon to be facing unemployment, I could not justify the extra costs for a “training” run.

So in any case I found a local half-marathon for Sunday that is only 20 minutes from our house. Some of my running club are going to participate in the 10K, so I may even be able to carpool.

I still plan on doing my long run (3 – 3½ hours) on Friday night or Saturday morning, so I don’t expect to be setting any new records at the HM – but I’ll sure give it my best shot ;-)

This afternoon my wife wanted to study, so I decided to take a little bike ride. Fifty-five kilometers later (34 miles) I returned home and right away received “the look” from my wife. Our conversation went something like this:

Her: I thought you were going for a bike ride?
Me: I did!
Her: A bike ride is like 30 minutes, not 2½ hours!
Me: It was nice weather so I went a little further today.
Her: Why didn’t you have your cell phone with you, I tried to call?
Me: Oh, I guess I forgot it…
Her: And you didn’t have your ID with you either…
Me: No I forgot that too.
Her: When you get hurt how is anyone supposed to know who you are?
Me: You’re right (trying to escape).

Of course she didn’t let me get off that easy, I had to listen to the lecture about having my ID with me, why do I have a cell phone, how she is supposed to find me (especially as far as I go), etc.

In my own defense, I typically do carry my wallet and cell phone, this time these things were the last things on my mind. On my long runs I always have both with me because I run places where no one would find my corpse any time soon.

Do you guy’s ever think about this? I mean letting someone know where you are running or cycling? I think it’s a good idea, but am still bad about letting my wife know.

Yesterday was a rest day, no training. Last night we were over at our neighbors sitting outside until almost 11:30 p.m., it was nice and cool in their shady backyard and we all enjoyed one another’s company.

Needless to say when my alarm clock went off at 5 a.m. I had a less than positive attitude about crawling out of bed, especially since I have been sleeping less this week because of the heat. Somehow my legs managed to hit the floor and I ate breakfast and got ready to run. I had a 3+ hour hilly long run on the schedule and no time to waste.

I made it to the neighboring town of Weingarten, where I start my long run, around 6 a.m. I ran a gentle kilometer to warm up then headed up the first hill. I remember fighting the urge to turn around and go home, but once I made it to the top of the mountain I was away and falling into my groove.

I ran two loops which consisted of my normal 11.5K/7.1M route plus several loopback’s that I integrated. These loopbacks consisted of charging down shorter downhill side trails then running back up to my main trail again. I did this a couple times with each loop and by the end of the second loop my quads were cursing me.

I ended up running for 3:16:44, probably around 30K/18.6M. As I am currently training for a marathon I didn’t take any walk breaks like I did during my ultra training. So over three and a quarter hours of steady running, lots of hill climbing, 2 liters of sports drink and 1 short pee break.

So now, a couple hours later, my legs are sore from the workout, but no abnormal aches, pains, or cramps. After lunch I am going to try to finish up my wife’s little cupboard (or shelf unit?) that I built for her office. This evening we are going out to eat with friends of ours – a busy weekend!

Last night I stopped at the swimming pool for some laps. It was another hot (31C/88F) and humid day and I was mentally wiped out from working in a hot office by the time I got to the pool. Somehow I couldn’t get my breathing right with my freestyle, I’d swim about 50 meters and felt totally out of breath. I believe this was a result of my clogged sinus from my summer cold. I ended up swimming a thousand meters, mostly breast stroke, before heading home.

I spent part of the rest of the night adding another coat of paint to my wife’s new coffee cupboard for her office. Hopefully I can finish this up on the weekend and drop it off at her office next week. My sweety already has my next project lined up, refinishing a 3-drawer bedroom chest.

Last night I went running with the Graben Running Club for the second time. At least this time it wasn’t 37C/99F, but rather a “mild” 33C/92F. My wife came home totally wiped out from the heat, told me “don’t bug me” and fell asleep on the couch. So at 5:30 p.m. I decided to run the 4K/2.5M to club meeting point.

I arrived 23:07 later (5:47/K, 9:18/M pace) and had about 10 minutes to mingle with the other runners before we started. I took off with some of the same group as last time, but they were going really slow this time. Finally two of the group took off and my legs just followed them :-) We quickly picked up the pace, knocking out about 2K, then they picked up the pace again and I thought, “Well at least I can get in a speed workout”.

A couple minutes later some speedy dude passed our little group and the two decide to try to catch him. So by this time we are almost up to my 10K race pace and I am having serious doubts about continuing this relationship.

About that time one of the two said “Oh by the way, we are only running the 8K/5M loop tonight, not the 11K/6.8M”. Like “Thanks for telling me guys!”, I thought as I continued on with this insane pace. Luckily, we came to their turn-off point a couple minutes later and we parted our ways – they headed home, I slowed down and continued with my 11K loop.

I tried to gradually catch a group of three that I saw 400 meters in front of me, but I guess I left my kick back on the trail somewhere. By now I had time to think and realize that it was darn humid out, I was soaked and dripping with sweat. I was quite happy to see the small parking lot when I reached it – almost 11 minutes faster than last week. I averaged around 5:10/K (8:19/M) for the 11+ kilometers, a good tempo run considering my best 10K race pace is 4:50/K (7:47/M).

I drank some water and chatted with some of the other runner’s for a few minutes, then ran the 4K/2.5M back to the house at an easy 6:15/K (10:04/M) pace. It was a very satisfying workout!

I was looking over the race calendar last night trying to decide whether to sneak in another race this weekend. There are SO MANY races coming up over then next 4 weeks or so, I could just about do two a weekend if I was so inclined. I enjoyed the two 10K races that I did the last couple weekends, but am feeling like I need to stop for awhile and concentrate on my marathon training.

The problem with racing, and particularly shorter races, is that I always end up trying to beat my personal record, which means I need longer to recover. I would like to set a PR with my marathon on September 10th, which means I need to get some quality mileage in. I will have a harder time doing this if I am whacking my muscles every weekend with a fast race, so I have to be a little more conservative with my racing for the time being.

Rough Training Plan for September Marathon

I really haven’t sat down and come up with a detailed marathon training plan for the September marathon. I basically have 9½ weeks left until the race, so my only priority is to get adequate long runs in during this time. Last weeks 3-hour long run and this Saturday’s long run will be my indicators of how I will proceed with the long runs. I want to run around 3¼ hours this Saturday. If that goes well, then I will just keep building from there. If it proves to be too demanding then I will stay around 3-hours for another week or two before building up.

So I guess my training weeks will look something like this:

Monday (4:30 p.m.): 14K/8.7M tempo run (at least 5:30/K, 8:51/M pace)
Tuesday (4:00 p.m.): Cross-training (swimming and/or weight training)
Wednesday (6:00 p.m.): Easy 11K/7M (or more) with Graben Running Club (6:00/K, 9:39/M pace)
Thursday: Rest
Friday (7:00 p.m.): Easy 14K/8.7M (6:00/K, 9:39/M pace)
Saturday (5 a.m.): Long run on hilly route (Town of Weingarten)
Sunday: Cross-training

This is probably not enough running to break my personal record, but I’ll sure give it my best shot. Oh, by the way here is the profile of the marathon in September, the route is 90% forest paths and trails:

My cold seems to be a little better this morning, I am only tired – it has been too warm at night to fall asleep at a reasonable hour, which makes recovery from a cold more difficult.

Other than that I have handled my cold in typical Jack fashion, ignore it and keep training the best I can. It has been my experience that one can continue to train, albeit at a reduced intensity (depending on the severity), while having a cold as long as there is no fever. I did change my training, rather than going to the public pool and polluting it with my runny nose, I decided to go for a shorter run.

I have been meaning to see how long it takes to run to the meeting point for the Graben Running Club. It turns out that with an easy pace (6:00/K, 9:39/M) I can run there in about 23 minutes, which I did last night. I took a different route on the way home, ending up with a total run of 48 minutes, or around 8K/5M. The nice thing about the run is that it cleared the congestion out of my lungs and left me breathing easier.

I felt so good after my run that I put the first coat of pain on my wife’s new cupboard that I built for her coffee corner at work.

Tonight I want to run for the second time with the Graben Running Club, probably 11K/7M. We are expecting rain sometime today or tonight, hopefully not thundershowers (it’s already hot and humid enough). Happy Training!

I found a few pictures from the 10K race that took place this past Saturday. I guess I wasn't looking wasted enough to make into pictures this time :-)

Cough, cough, sneeze is the sound I have heard around my office the last week or two as a summer cold creeped through the department. Despite my best efforts to avoid catching the bug it finally cornered me and slapped me on the side of the head by Sunday. Yesterday was a beautiful, warm summer day and I sat in my office with runny nose, sneeze and cough as my best buddies – how miserable is that! Luckily I don’t have any fever and slept really good last night. Today I feel slightly better but am still mega-congested. I decided to skip swimming tonight, I would probably end up with such a runny nose that they would throw me out anyway for polluting the pool ;-)

I don’t know, I stay healthy the whole winter and end up getting wasted in the middle of the summer, what’s up with that?

The First 1000 Miles

Sometime last week I completed the first 1000-miles for the year. My goal for the year is 2500 kilometers, which is about 1550 miles – I guess I’ll be able to achieve that without too much trouble, but what will I do the rest of the year ;-)

Mountain Biking on my “Mountain”

On Sunday afternoon my wife wanted to study (Technical English), so I decided to measure my hilly running route in Weingarten. At first I thought about biking the 12K/7.5M to Weingarten and then measure my hilly trail (and then ride the 12K home). But a lot of my running route involved some serious hill climbs (for a bike at least) and my quads were still feeling the 10K race from the day before, so I wimped out and loaded the bike in my car and drove to Weingarten. This turned out to be a good decision because by the time I hit the first uphill my quads informed me that they were not interested in climbing any hills and I ended up pushing my bike. Now, being a “hobby biker” I have no problem with this. In any case, the downhill portions were scary and reminded me that I should do some maintenance on my brakes and maybe buy a bike helmet.

So the results of my trail measuring experience was that my loop is not 11K/6.8M, like I had guesstimated, but rather 11.5K/7.1M. This means that my long run pace has been around 6:30/K (10:30/M) instead of the 6:50/K (11:00/M) that I thought I had been averaging. When I consider the hills involved and the fact that in most cases I took at least two 3-minute walk breaks with each loop, this is not bad.

An Early Morning Tempo Run

Today (Monday) I have to stay a little later so that I can communicate with an engineer in our USA company, so I decided to do my run before work. I was out the door at 5:15 a.m. and quickly settled into a 5:30/K (8:51/M) pace. The air was still cool (22C/72F) and fresh from the rain the had fallen through the night, and the sun was just starting to peek out on the horizon. The first half went rather uneventful, but then I could feel the workout from the weekend. I fought the urge to slow down and continued around my loop, completing the first 10K in 55:05, right on pace. I had to continue to fight the urge to slack off as I wound my way over the last field ways back to my house. I ended up with an average pace of 5:29/K (8:49/M) for the 14K/8.7M, a good tempo run, despite trying to break my 10K record on Saturday night.

Tomorrow night I want to stop at the pool for some laps and on Wednesday I plan on running with the Graben Running Club again. On Saturday morning I want to try a 3¼ to 3½ hour long run. If this goes well I may run a training half-marathon on July 22 or a training marathon on July 23. I define a “training” event as one where I run at long run pace and take regular walk breaks. The other requirement is that the race shouldn’t throw off my training schedule more than a couple days. I just thought I would throw that out here ;-)

Yesterday evening at 6 p.m. I met several members of the Graben Running Club in the village of Stutensee-Buechig for the annual 10K Village Run. As it was hot (30C/86F) and extremely humid most elected to run the 5K race, but a couple of us ran the 10K. The 5K started at 5:15 p.m., so I waited with the other 10K runners and saw them off. Our 10K race started at 6 p.m..

I relaxed in the shaded clubhouse of the light-athletic group that was putting on the race until about 20 minutes before my race was to start. The other runner’s from the running club were already gone, making their last minute race preparations. I stopped quick at the rest room, no lines today, then jogged around the block a few times to warm up. After only about 10 minutes of warmup I was already drenched with sweat, it was going to be a hot race!

As I made my way to the Start I passed one of the Graben Running Club members that ran the 5K, he confirmed that it was a difficult to run due to the heat and humidity. Well, I would just have to see what I could do. After coming so close to breaking my personal record last weekend, I really wanted to do it on this day.

I’ve run this race twice over the last three years, and on this day there were a lot less runners as usual, 318, compared to nearly 500 last year – probably due to the heat and the World Cup.

So the starting pistol went off at precisely 6 p.m. I quickly fell into my 10K pace as we did a quick loop around town and then headed out across the fields. I passed the first kilometer marker in 4:50 (7:47/M), so I was right on pace to at least match my best time. We headed over a couple bicycle trails winding through the fields surrounding Buechig, passing the 2K marker just as we turned into a forest section - I was still right on pace.

In the forest there was at least a little shade from the sun, but you could feel the thick, muggy air sucking the energy away. I concentrated on passing people, one at a time, just trying to keep my pace going.

I passed the 3rd,4th and 5th kilometer markers – passing the 5K and halfway point in 00:24:17. If I wanted to break my personal record I would need to pick up the pace!

I pressed on, again concentrating on passing the person in front of me, trying to keep my pace going, hoping that I didn’t burn out. I maintained the current pace through the 6th, 7th and 8th kilometer, then tried to pick the pace up for the last 2K.

I stopped watching my watch and just concentrated on trying to pump the arms and move the legs faster. As I popped out of the woods and rounded a curve I passed the 9K point – no time to look at my watch – just keep going.

As I ran the last kilometer dark clouds were forming overhead and it was thundering, definetly time to beat feet to the finish line. After an eternity I rounded the last curve and there was a 300 meter stretch the finish line. I knew I was close to my personal record so I did my best to sprint in, but as I crossed the finish line I knew that I missed it again.

Sure enough, I finished in 48:31, 13 seconds slower than my best time (set in April 2006) and 5 seconds slower than last weekend. But that is okay, it was a lot more humid on this day, and I ran a good race anyway, coming in 115th out of 318, which was 21st out of 42 in my age class (M45).

So after walking it out and stretching I joined a few of the Graben Running Club members to help celebrate our victories.

Giesela, one of the leaders of the Graben Running Club was kind enought to e-mail a picture that was taken at the Graben 10K Asparagus Run this past Sunday (July 2). I appear to be in deep concentration, either that or I was ready to drop, your choice ;-)

Yesterday my wife was on her annual company trip and didn’t expect to be home before 10 p.m. I decided to take advantage of her absence and get my long run out of the way.

It was a little cooler (30C/86F) as a result of receiving some rain on Wednesday night, but extremely humid (it rained later on). So after work I suited up and drove to the Weingarten, 12K from my house, to run my hilly route.

I really wasn’t sure how far I should run. It was less than 2 weeks since I ran the 50-miler, so I was still in recovery mode. I decided to try to do the 1 hour 15 minute loop that I do and see how I feel. As my next major event is a marathon, I also decided to run without any breaks like I used for my ultra’s.

The first loop proved to be more challenging than I counted on, probably a result of the high humidity, but it was okay. I ran a second loop and decided that a third loop was more than I wanted to run, so did a smaller loop on a different forest path.

I ran for 3 hours than walked the last 10 minutes back to the car to cool down – I was pretty wiped out from the heat and humidity – usually I do my long runs early in the morning before it gets so hot. My quads were pretty sore, but this was not too surprising considering I was still recovering from the ultra. I estimate that I ran about 28K/17.5M, more or less (note to self: measure this route with bike some day).

In any case I ran the entire 3 hours without any walk breaks. If I can continue this hill training throughout the summer I should have a good marathon in September.

On Saturday at 6 p.m. is another 10K race, this time I will be running for my new Running Club, I am really looking forward to it :-)

The LT TSV Graben stands for “Lauftreff Turn- and Sportverein Graben”, which translates to something like the Running Club, Gymnastic and Sports Club Graben. In other words the Running Club Graben is one of the departments in the parent organization “The Gymnastic and Sports Club Graben”.

Anyway, last night I ran for the first time with the Graben Running Club. Now I have been training alone for over 3 years, so this was totally different for me. The club meets Wednesday nights at 6 p.m., so I showed up about 20 minutes early so I could figure out how everything works. When I arrived there were a couple men standing around talking, so I introduced myself and told them I was there for the first time. They said I only need to find some people who are running the same distance at a pace that I thought I could run.

The club has 5, 7 and 11 kilometer trails laid out, so I decided to run the 11K/6.8M route. The men that I talked to were only running 7K, so I waited until more people showed up. Finally a couple people that I met at the club-sponsored race last Sunday showed up and it turned out that they were running 11K and at a comfortable 6:00/K (9:39/M) pace – just what I was looking for.

So around 6 p.m. I started running with a small group of eight other runners. We were a pretty good mix, three women in there 30’s (?), a younger man around 30-35, a man around 40, myself (46), a man in his 50’s and two men that must have been around retirement age. Two of the women and the younger man took the lead and did a fantastic job of maintaining the desired pace for the 11K – and this with a temperature of 37C/99F!

After the run we stood around and chatted for awhile and ate some cake that someone had brought. Most of the people were friendly and quite open to the “newbie”! I felt right at home and committed myself to showing up again next week. It sounds like the LT TSV Graben is going to be my new friend.

Here is the symbol for the club - a running asparagus (we are in an asparagus growing area). The club's annual 5K/10K run is called the "Asparagus Run".

Have a great week!

Welcome to my first entry at my new host breakthetape.com! Thanks Jeff!!

I have been working 11-12 hour days so far this week, but hopefully things will calm down after today. We are also experiencing a heat wave, 35C/95F, which is stifling in my non-air conditioned office.

In any case I hope I can get home on time tonight so I can get my 14K/8.7M run in. The temperature is supposed to climb to 36C/97F, so I guess a slow comfortable run in the call for the day.

Anybody watch the Germany-Italy soccer game yesterday? The streets were deserted last night when I put the car in the garage during game time. I watched the first half but fell asleep soon after. I think Italy had their act together, Germany just couldn’t seem to pass the ball. Of course I have no idea what I’m talking about, at least that’s what my German and Italian coworkers say ;-)

So in anticipation of a late night at work I decided to go in a little later today and ran at 5 a.m. It was still nice and cool outside as I started out on my 14K/8.7M loop. The sun was just stretching as I made my way over the fields. My legs were a bit sore from my overindulgence at the 10K race yesterday. After a few kilometres my legs started loosing up and I fell into a comfortable 6:00/K (9:39/M) pace, which I maintained the rest of the run.

My next run will probably be Wednesday night, if I get off work on time. I want to run for the first time with the Graben Running Club, the group that put on the 10K race yesterday.

On Friday night or Saturday morning I want to try my first longer run, probably about 2? hours easy pace. This should give me a pretty good idea how fast I can return to normal training.

My next major (scheduled) event is a forest marathon on September 10th. Of course there are lots of other race choices almost every weekend, so I may use some of these for training purposes.

The weather was beautiful again, sunny and a mild 29C/85F. After grilling up a couple steaks for lunch my wife took a nap and I took an hour walk around the fields surrounding our town. Not the same as running, but pleasant just the same.

This morning I woke up an debated whether I should run the 10K race that was offered at the next town, Graben, the town with the Running Club that I have been thinking about joining. So after pondering over the negative aspects of running a race a week after an ultramarathon, which took about a zillionth of a second, I suited up and drove my scooter to the race. I told my wife that I was just going to go and run a 'fun run', which she never believed for a moment.

So anyway I rode my scooter to the race and parked right next to the school in the bicycle parking area. All the car parking places were filled as I knew they would be, thus the reason for taking the scooter.

It was already 26C/79F and humid the race was going to be a hot one! I picked up my race number and chatted with a couple people I know Friedrich Vetter from the Running Club Phillipsburg, he ran the 80K race last weekend too! Albert Ulrich, the 91 year old runner that frequents the local races, he was only going to run the 5K today too hot!

About 15 minutes before the race I jogged a few minutes to warm up, then took my place at the Start. I new from running this race previously that walkers and slower runners tend to line up at the front and middle of the pack, so I made sure I was well in the front.

So after a few minutes the start pistol went off and we were on our way. I decided to push and see what my body could deliver! I ran the first kilometer in 4:46 (7:40/M) and the second in 4:49/K (7:44/M). As we headed out over the open fields in the full sun I could feel the humidity trying to zap my energy. I tried to ignore this and just concentrated on keeping the pace up. After about 10 minutes we again entered the shade of the forest the trails that the Graben Running Club uses for their training I knew them well as I trained on them through the winter.

I passed the 5K half-way point in just over 24 minutes, it was still possible to break my 48:18 personal record, but I had to keep the pace going. I attached myself to a talk, lanky, young man that slowly passed me I figured if I could hang with him I?d make it.

I passed the 6K marker, 4:55/K (7:55/M) pace, I need to keep this going. Past the 7K, I was breathing heavy, the younger man was speeding up. I hung with him, gosh the time is going by slowly why do I do this to myself.

So out into the sunny fields again, the forest was so nice and cool come on Jack, don? get soft now. So on across the fields, back onto an asphalt path we joined back with the 5K runners just a few 5K runners straggling in.

I passed the 8K maker, just one foot in front of the other. We headed back into town, made a left, then a right, past the 9K marker time to pick up the pace. Huff, puff gosh I wish I didn?t eat so much the last couple days, I?m carrying an extra 5 pounds today I feel it all.

Last corner, the young dude left me in the dust, I pass a few, there?s the finish I try to sprint but it is weak, I cross the finish glad that?s done. Whew!

Dang, I?m 8 seconds too slow 48:26. I missed breaking my personal record (48:18) by 8 seconds. But that is still good for a new SECOND BEST!! Whoohoo!

So I walked around for a couple minutes to cool down, then gorged myself with cold watermelon that they were offering umm, the best part of the run!

As I stood in the shade cheering in the last of the runners I got to talking with a young lady from the Graben Running Club about there group. She invited me to stop on by an run with them next Wednesday night. Sounds cool!

How was your weekend?