Recently in Race Planning & Analyzing Category

I have been working the better part of the day at work on a correction reading, which requires a lot of mental energy. It also stimulates my thinking in general for some reason and whenever I take a break my mind fills with thoughts about everything imaginable. Sometimes I have to get up and go talk to someone, write an e-mail or a blog entry, just to clear the mind.

I was thinking about my training for next year, it's kind of hard to draw an exact plan up yet because I don't know which events will fit to a potentially busy year at work. I am still leaning towards running my first 100K ultra, I'm hungry for the challenge!

There are three that I am considering at this point, which one I choose will depend on work:

May 9: The Boederfelder 101K Hollenlauf in Schmallenberg, Germany (15 hour time limit)
June 12: The Biel 100K in Biel, Switzerland (21 hour time limit)
July 4: The Thuringer 100K in Froettstaedt, Germany (18 hour time limit)

My initial trainings plan calls for at least two marathons at training pace before the 100K event. If I select the June or July event then I will add another marathon and/or 50K event to the training plan. It sounds good on paper, I anxious to see how it will pan out.

I have been working the better part of the day at work on a correction reading, which requires a lot of mental energy. It also stimulates my thinking in general for some reason and whenever I take a break my mind fills with thoughts about everything imaginable. Sometimes I have to get up and go talk to someone, write an e-mail or a blog entry, just to clear the mind.

I was thinking about my training for next year, it's kind of hard to draw an exact plan up yet because I don't know which events will fit to a potentially busy year at work. I am still leaning towards running my first 100K ultra, I'm hungry for the challenge!

There are three that I am considering at this point, which one I choose will depend on work:

May 9: The Boederfelder 101K Hollenlauf in Schmallenberg, Germany (15 hour time limit)
June 12: The Biel 100K in Biel, Switzerland (21 hour time limit)
July 4: The Thuringer 100K in Froettstaedt, Germany (18 hour time limit)

My initial trainings plan calls for at least two marathons at training pace before the 100K event. If I select the June or July event then I will add another marathon and/or 50K event to the training plan. It sounds good on paper, I anxious to see how it will pan out.

I want to run this little run this afternoon, quite a change from the normal flatland where I run, or?

The "Teufelslauf" half marathon in Bad Herrenalb, Germany on September 7th. Teufel translate to devil or hell, which has some significance as shown in the elevation profile.

The website for the race posts the warning that the "beer bellies" and "couch potatoes" should stay home on this one.

Sounds like fun to me!

Last night I took the night off from training and tried to catch up on some odd jobs around the house. As I puttered around my workshop assembling a new display case for my John Deere collection I of course contemplated my race schedule for the rest of the year.

The next big race is the Baden Marathon in nearby Karlsruhe on September 21st. This is the big race for the year for most of the folks in my running club. Currently 23 people are signed up, the most for the half-marathon. We are all meeting at a local restaurant after the race, it should be fun.

I am also looking at several shorter races including a 10K and a half-marathon, I only have to decide which ones as there are several alternatives.

What I am really hungry for is another ultra, but the events remaining this year all require an overnight stay. I thought about trying to find one during my vacation in the USA in October, but my wife is less than understanding, so I am not pushing it.

I have a couple 10K and a half-marathon on the calendar for November and December, but these will be more spur-of-the-moment decisions. So it is looking like the Baden Marathon will be my last long race of the year, I am looking forward to it.

I have lots of ideas for next year, including my first 100K race, but I have to wait and see how busy work and life will be before I unravel these plans.

It was raining when I got home last night and I was anxious to get my run in. Unfortunately we have been having problems with our DSL so I had promised my wife that I wait long enough for her to call the German Telekom when she got home. I have no patience for such things, and even less in the German language, but my wife knows nothing about the DSL settings so I stuck.

I suited up for my run as my wife went through the array of recorded messages before she finally reached a real human on the phone. Luckily it was the same one she talked to in December when our DSL router failed, so she was able to avoid the 101 questions that they insist on putting you though before you talk about the real problem. To make a long story short the technician said our telephone line was fine, it was probably the router again - they'll send us a new one. This was the answer that I expected, so after complaining and being chastised by my wife for my impatience, I tied my running shoes and headed out into the rain.

I had planned on running about two hours, but I was already about 40 minutes late and needed to read some material for work later on, so headed out on my 14 km (8.7 mi) loop. There was a steady drizzling rain that soon had me soaked, but it was a warm 28°C (83°F) so I was comfortable in shorts and running shirt.

My run began rather sluggish, around 6:00/km (9:39/mi) but I gradually increased this, in steps, to around a 5:15/km (8:30/mi). I finally returned to the house looking like a wet cat and took a hot shower. After some hot food and conversation with my wife I went upstairs to get my reading out of the way.

If you notice my sidebar you will see that I have a marathon on the schedule for August 24th. As I have been really busy at work lately I have been seriously considering skipping the race, but my wife has a school friend that lives close by the race, so said I should run the race so she can visit her friend. So after letting her twist my arm, I broke down and signed up for my 7th marathon this year ;-)

This morning I let my ego get in the way and had a fantastic first 18 miles at the Hornisgrinde Marathon, then I promptly ran smack into the wall with such force that it left me a pedestrian. I limped over the finish line in around 4:45 with absolutely nothing left in the tank. Story to follow in the next day or two.