November 7, 2009
Just came back to my home town Zwickau today after flying from Tampere to Frankfurt-Hahn yesterday and staying at a friends place for the last night.
The flight was very enjoyable this time – even with Ryanair you can fly comfortably. Actually I had one of the worst places when I entered the plane. My knees were constantly rubbing on the seat in front of me. Fortunately I sat next to the corridor, so I could stretch my legs a bit across the corridor. However, after the stewardess was almost falling over my legs twice, she came to me with a mean face and said: “Hey mister, could you please sit in front of the plane? There are still three empty rows?” Hell, I took the opportunity and enjoyed absolute leg freedom for 2 hours. Still I don’t understand why they keep the first rows empty and bunch the people together on as few as possible rows on the Ryanair flights.
In Frankfurt, Jörn Harland - a sub-68 halfmarathoner (just made his debut in the marathon in Frankfurt, hitting the wall badly and clocking a 2:50h) – picked me up and we had two nice runs in his home town Gelnhausen Friday evening and Saturday morning. We also had some good laughs, telling each other running related stories while enjoying some “Ebbelwoi” (some sort of apple wine/cider). Once again I experienced that I’m not the only crazy runner out there.
The negative thing is, that I have an issue with my right plantar tendon/heel, probably a stress reaction. It started Wednesday evening and since that, I replaced 3 running exercises with bicycle rides. Now I’m not so confident about the race tomorrow. I will decide on spot if there is some use to run or if it’s better to make some rest.
November 3, 2009
On Friday I’ll go back to Germany and won’t return to Finland until something like January/February. Sometimes I’m wondering if this is the right decision, and today was such a day where I thought that this place is just perfect for me. So many kind, enthusiastic (and also athletic) people around campus. Great conditions for studying, running, living in general. Well, we’ll see which twists and turns my life is going to make in the next couple of months.
The afternoon training run today was again with Miika. We had a great time on the cross-country course, changing pace, making jumps and striding through the light beams. So great to push each other. Now my legs are pretty tired after this 1:20h run but still I have to do some reading for my last book exam. My last book will be “Sports Nutrition. An Introduction to Energy Production and Performance” by Jeukendrup&Gleesen. Once again a good read – I’m actually thinking about buying it myself. It’s just that I can apply the knowledge of the book in real life athletic performance to push myself to the limits.
Miika and me after German 10K road running championships in Karlsruhe 2008
November 1, 2009
Lucky that this week is over! A lot of tension because of thesis, reading, studies in general. Looking forward to the time when I’m done with that Sh…
Mo: AM: 50min easy, PM: progressive run @ treadmill (10min@15+10min@16+10min@17+10min@18km/h+0,5km@19km/h)
Tu: AM: 50min easy, PM: 60min easy progressive 4:10 …3:40min/km + gym
We: AM: 50min easy, PM: 65min easy + gym
Th: AM: 30min easy/later: 30min spinning, PM: 40min easy + 5x200m(33..31), 200m jog rec. + 20min easy + gym
Fr: AM: 55min easy, PM: 60min mostly easy (last km: 3:35)+ gym
Sa: 9K cross-county race
Su: 145 min long jog
Next week the daily mileage should average 25km/day. With the travel days friday and saturday that won’t be easy. And for the race on Sunday I want to be more fresh than this weekend.
October 31, 2009
Embarrassing race for me. But that’s one reason I wanted to take part, making all those lessons again. It seems you never canb get experienced enough. Next time I will have some easy days before this kind of race. After all I was running against the strongest runner in the country. For me it was just another training and actually not even as fast as expected.
The fitness is there but the freshness is missing. Already after the start of the race I was feeling crappy and thought that the guys were going out way too fast and should come back after a while. The opposite was the case. The top group ran almost even lap times while I slowed down during the 3 rounds of 3 kilometers each. My training mates Juha and Miika, with whom I did the hill repeats took 1st and 3rd place and qualified for the Finnish team in the Nordic Cross-Country Championships next weekend. Congratulations! Anyway, I can’t believe that they are 3 minutes faster than me.
Guess also the stress from my studies affected me. All my muscles felt tight and I couldn’t really loosen up and find a relaxed stride. Once the academic stuff is done it should get better I hope.
Results:
Men (9 km, -2°C):
1) Juha Puttonen JKU 30.28
2) Mårten Boström SjuIF 30.37
3) Miika Takala JKU 30.42
4) Mikko Tyni HaminPo 31.09
5) Pekka Toivola JoKa 31.41
6) Miro Laurila KarhU 31.52
7) Joonas Lehtinen TuUL 32.31
8.) Konstantin Kutilainen AsikkRa 33.00
9) Erik Hass VaajKu (GER) 33.26
10) Panu Jantunen ImatrU 33.45
Full results here
October 29, 2009
Today I once again got a lesson that running can be dangerous. No, I’m not talking about the sudden deaths of several runners in the Detroit Marathon some weeks ago. I’m talking about track training.
So, today I had a session of 200m runs – turned out it would be five instead of six because of the incidence. I was with my old friend Miika and for the first time in the autumn we used the 200m indoor track here in Jyväskylä. When I came there at 6PM the place was crowded like seldom before. Lots of kids hoping around, parents picking up their kids and so on. The first 3 runs were ok, not very fast (32/33) but that can be attributed to the extra meters we had to make, when running around other, moveable objects on the track. However, 30m after the start of the 4th run two kiddies were running right in front of us and were all over the place. While Miika was able to maneuver through the girls, I had no chance but to run into one of the girls and to make a dive including an artistic role on the tartan myself. Quite amazing when you are running with something like 22km/h but then you see this girl in front of you and the world is in supper-slow motion. You just think: Where should I put this small thing in such a way that noone is going to get hurt? Well, I decided to put her somewhere to the left and mike a dive to the right side. Ouch. The girl screamed a bit but I guess it was just because of the shock – Guess she will have some nitemare of this big guy being in front of her within a few hundreds of a second. For my part I hurt my hands and hip a bit – nothing dramatic and only the torn fingernail is a pity. I hope the track will be less crowded next time and the kids will get more careful.
Lesson: Always run slow. No hurry. If you take it easy, no one will get hurt. Right?! Hmm – still have to think about that 
October 29, 2009
Today I wrote the maturity exam for my Masters Degree in Biology of Physical Activity (major: Science of Sports Coaching and Fitness Testing). Even if it “only” includes the knowledge you gained during writing the Master thesis (in my case the topic of the thesis was: “Changes in upper and lower body endurance capacity and strength after endurance vs. strength training in old men”) it still gave me an uneasy sleep the night before. Actually, I never had any unsettled night because of academic-related stress during my whole Masters degree and even before it was pretty unusual. Seems I just did not want to be the guy, who re-writes his maturity exam. I think I passed and my master studies are coming to an end soon. In Germany we usually have to defend our thesis but here in Finland you write the maturity exam instead. Still I prefer the German way because if I wouldn’t publish my results they would never create any interest.
Anyway, with the maturity exam done and only one book exam left (scheduled for next Thursday) I can post some articles and focus on training and healthy lifestyle again now. All those things suffered a bit in the last days. Saturday the race season will kick off with a cross-country race.
Today also the sun came out for the first time after about one week of clouds, rain and snow – Guess that was a sign .
October 25, 2009
Today another relaxing day. Enjoying an extra-hour of sleep and watching the Frankfurt Marathon. A nice end of the week and tomorrow I hope to be fresh again. My hamstrings are still a bit tight but we’ll see.
Mo: AM: 50min easy, PM: 40min progressive run @ treadmill (10min@15+10min@16+10min@17+10min@18km/h) + gym
Tu: AM: 50min easy, PM: 55min easy with some bursts + gym
We: AM: 50min easy, PM: 55min easy progressive 4:20 …3:40min/km-pace
Th: AM: 50min easy, PM: 2x5x70sec hill runs (2,5/6min jog recovery) + 10x100m sprints
Fr: AM: 35min easy, PM: 60min easy + gym
Sa: PM: 90min easy
Su: AM: 50min easy, PM: 70min easy
Next week again some 15km more for the weekly saldo. Should be the first time over 100 miles (160 kilometers) since beginning of September.
October 23, 2009
… quite literally Today I had book exam about the book “Overtraining in Sport” from Kreider, Fry & O’Toole. I’m sure I passed it – may it won’t be the best exam ever but pass is pass.
Reading the book and being a competitive runner it’s extremely interesting when you can link the theory of this book the experience you went through yourself and what you have experienced in running community. I would even say that if I would have read the book some 7-8 years ago and would have understood it as I did know, I could have saved some years that I eventually lost because of overtraining-induced injuries. Of course it’s difficult to monitor all the biochemical markers such as plasma cortisol, free testosterone, CK, glycogen, BCAA (broad chain amino acids), urea etc. – especially as an athlete. However, it’s easy to monitor mood states, muscle soreness, weight, recovery time and other symptoms of overtraining. After all the line between overreaching and overtraining is a thin one but I stepped over it a couple of times in my athletics career. Now I have both the experience and the knowledge to avoid crossing this line and find the right point when it’s time to recover and let the overreaching process (i.e. the process where you actually increase performance after heavy training and some days or weeks of rest) take place.
I could write a lot more about this topic but for now it’s back to the books and thesis – I have maturity exam on next Thursday and my final book exam the week after. But first of all I’m going for a run and gym.
October 22, 2009
Today a nice hill session with with two of the big guns in town – Juha Puttonen (5000m PB-14:30min) and Miika Takala (5000m PB-14:28min and a marathon PB that is 5 sec faster than mine – but only until the next marathon
2x5x70seconds + 10x100m strides was on the program. I couldn’t remember when I did this kind of workout last time. Must have been in the summer, so several months ago. Nevertheless, it went surprisingly well and I was surprised I could match the speed of my close mate Miika. Great to feel all the lactate in the legs after some 6 or 7 reps. You just start a new rep and after 15seconds your legs feel like burning. I missed this feeling somehow. Since my mileage is quite low at this time of the year the speed is much better and running fast feels pretty easy.
Let’s see if my legs fall off when I go for a run tomorrow
I also added another competition to my race plan. Next weekend I will compete in the Finnish qualification race for the Nordic Cross-Country Championships. I already competed in this race in 2007, so I have a time (and also place) to improve. 2007 I took 9th place in 31:46min on the 9km course.
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