1 week to go

September 13, 2009

Only 7 days until Berlin Marathon.

After running the 1/2-hour run last wednesday as a fast exercise, I did another fast run yesterday. I ran 3x5K (5 min recovery) at marathon race pace, i.e. 3:20min/km. It went surprisingly well and especially the breathing was exceptionally good. Also the legs feel much more fresh now and I can feel that almost every day some freshness is coming back after the tough weeks at altitude. Compared to the 210+ kilometers I did in St. Moritz, the 150-160km of this week feel like “easy going”. Next week I will run even less kilometers and one final fast session of 2.000m-repeats on track.

I also got some extra motivation from Finnish Marathon Championships that took place in my “second home” Jyväskylä. Running mate Miika took a great silver medal with a new PB of 2:21:34h! Congratulations Miika – great job, the bar is a bit higher now and I hope that next week I will have a better PB again

1/2-hour run Zwickau (5th run of the series): 9050m (1st place)

September 9, 2009

When I’m in Zwickau and a running competition takes place at the same time, I’m almost obligated to take part This wednesday was the last (5th) leg of a series of half- and full-hour runs. I already competed in the 3rd run and also this time I ran the 1/2-hour race.

While I was running 9.350m in the last race, this time I collected “only” 9.050m. The conditions today were not as good as last time. In temperatures above 25°C I don’t feel so comfortable and thus I can be satisfied. Furthermore the marathon is only ten days away and there is no use in pushing too hard at this time of the preparation. After all I ran the marathon-pace for 30minutes without any problems and all on my own from the first round onwards.

Here some pics:

very sunny and warm conditions on the track

marathon stride – almost no knee lift, but who needs a knee lift for 42,195km

8. Mitteldeutscher Marathon in Halle/Saale: 10km – 31:31min (4th place)

September 7, 2009

After coming back from my 4-weeks altitude stay on Friday I competed in a 10K the day afterwards, on 5th of September. Last year I competed in the German 10K-championships in the same situation, i.e. coming straight from altitude and 2 weeks before the Berlin marathon. Well, last year I ran a surprising 30:34, whereas this year I “only” ran 31:31min.

However, also the conditions were not as good as last year. Because the German 10K-road championships are next weekend and this would be a bit too late for Berlin I decided to run in the race that is organised from German marathon legend Waldemar Cierpinski (double Olympic Champion in the marathon). So I lined up with his son and World Championships 2009 participant Falk Cierpinski and many others for the 10K that was held in downtown Halle on a 1,7km loop.

The course was not the fastest, with some small hills and some parts that were covered with cobblestones. However, the main problem was that already after 2 rounds (i.e. 3 km) you had to run through the crowd that was lapped and with some 500 runners that’s not an easy task! The “slalom” course took quite some time and also it was not so easy to maintain the pace, running through so many people.

After all I was not unsatisfied with race. I ran constant lap times for most of the race and until around 7 km I was within the range of vision to the 3 leaders (Falk Cierpinski, the Slovak Miroslav Vanko and the Czech Jan Kreisinger). If I would have closed the remaining 15-20 meters it might have been possible that I would have been on the podium, but after 8km I could feel the muscular fatigue that was caused by the four weeks of altitude training in Kühtai and St. Moritz. Two weeks before the Berlin Marathon I didn’t want to destroy myself so decided to keep some energy and settle for 4th place.

TOP 10 of the mens category in the 10K-race:
1 Cierpinski, Falk (GER) 30 SG Spergau e. V. 00:30:53
2 Kreisinger, Jan (CZE) HK 00:30:55
3 Vanko, Miroslav (SVK) 35 00:31:09
4 Haß, Erik (GER) HK SV Vorwärts Zwickau e. V. 00:31:31
5 Zabel, Michael (GER) 40 SG Spergau e. V. 00:32:14
6 Schmidt, Paul (GER) HK TSV Dresden 00:32:29
7 Soos, Daniel (GER) HK Budapesti Honvéd SE 00:32:31
8 Glauche, Eric (GER) HK SC DHfK Leipzig e. V. 00:33:18
9 Recksiedler, Raik (DEU) HK 00:34:24
10 Stoek, Holger (GER) 40 LAV Halensia e. V. 00:34:48
10 Bernstein, Christian (GER) HK SG Spergau e. V. 00:35:39 00:35:37

30. Engadiner Sommerlauf 2009: 27km – 1:34:11h (2nd place)

September 7, 2009

After two weeks of altitude training I ran the 30th edition of the Engadiner Sommerlauf from Sils to Bever on 23th of August 2009. As I was staying in St.Moritz, i.e. between the two towns of Sils and Bever it was a nice way to get some good training kilometres in some kind of race atmosphere. Way better than running alone.
The first 15km of the course were a bit hilly and after 15km the highest point of the course was reached, so I decided to run a controlled pace until this point and run a bit harder for the last part. This “tactic” turned out to be very good and I could really hold the pace high between kilometres 15 and 25. I also caught several guys on the flat part – at km I was in 5th place with a gap of approx. 90 seconds to 4th and in the end I was 2nd, only half a minute behind the eventual winner. If the race would have been a bit longer I might even have had the chance to win the race but after all it was a bit to short to catch the leader and on the last 2 km I didn’t push too hard because there were still 2 weeks of tough altitude training ahead of me.

Kalevan Kisat (Finnish Track & Field Championships) 2009: 10.000m – 31:23,93 (14th place)

August 2, 2009

Seasons Best in National Championships - That´s the way it should be. My time of 31:23 is not quite what I expected but the flu that hit me in the preparation and that caused some 10 days without speed training account to most of the 25 seconds that were missing to the 31-minutes barrier (my aim before the season).

The weather in Espoo was extraordinary. Most of the athletes that had their competition on Friday (just like me) were reminded to the IAAF World Championships in Helsinki 2005. Torrential rain in the evening session and several thunderstorms. Even if during the 10.000m race itself there was only drizzling rain, I was totally soaked after the warm-up. Also the track was very wet but otherwise I liked the track in the stadium. It was the first time I was running on a blue and white MONDO-track and it felt really good.

Also the race felt good and really enjoyed running the 25 laps. Usually it´s getting pretty tough after 6-7km but this time I felt good all the way. Nevertheless, I could not run a faster pace and rather felt like I could maintain the same pace for a longer time. A good sign for the marathon but not so good it terms of raw speed. The second 5000m were a bit faster than the first half and I could catch some guys in the later stages. Still I took “only” 14th place – for comparison: last year only 10 runners finished the 10.000m.

Full results of the race:
1 Lewis Korir Turun Urheiluliitto 28.46,68
2 Matti Räsänen Joensuun Kataja 29.03,73
3 Jussi Utriainen Lahden Ahkera 29.16,38
4 Obed Kipkurui Sjundeå If 29.34,90
5 Simo Wannas Helsingin Kisa-Veikot 30.24,75
6 Henri Manninen Jyväskylän Kenttäurheilijat 30.26,27
7 Anssi Raittila Viipurin Urheilijat 30.40,04
8 Juha Puttonen Jyväskylän Kenttäurheilijat 30.40,58
9 Mikko Tyni Haminan Ponteva 30.42,21
10 Pekka Toivola Joensuun Kataja 30.57,38
11 Joseph Tanui Lahden Ahkera 30.57,41
12 Juho Pirkola Kälviän Tarmo 31.08,54
13 Miika Takala Jyväskylän Kenttäurheilijat 31.08,93
14 Erik Hass Vaajakosken Kuohu 31.23,93
15 Marko Vaittinen Forssan Salama 31.26,26
16 Jukka Kero Turun Urheiluliitto 31.32,54
17 Joni Hulkko Jalasjärven Jalas 31.33,49
18 Arto Perttilä Vaasan Vasama 31.43,68
19 Harri Nissinen Imatran Urheilijat 32.30,45
20 Miika Henriksson Viipurin Urheilijat 33.22,69
Joni Rautio Lapin Lukko DNF
Petri Kykyri Kälviän Tarmo DNF

Altogether it was another great experience to run in this race. Some friends told me that I was also on Finnish TV. This was one of my inspirations when I set my goal of running in Kalevan Kisat.

For the marathon there is still a lot of work to do, but I am already looking forward to the hard training after taking some easy days.

on your mark

July 30, 2009

Less than 20 hours until the most important race of the track season. The 10.000m of the Finnish Championships will start at 18.20 (Finnish time). I studied the participants list and found that I have one of the slowest times this year. Well, of course I hope to improve my season best of 31:54 but still I might battle for the title “worst 10K runner”. Yeah, believe it or not, there is something like that! I think it’s a bit unfair to have such a competition, because you have to run a qualification time to enter the race (this year it was 32:00) No, seriously, it’s a good motivation to run a good race and give your best until the end.

23 runners are on the participants list. Let’s see how many show up, usually there are some no-shows because some of the runners entered more races (e.g. 5.000m or 3.000m steeple) and decide only short before in which race they will run. Here is the complete list:

Most of the guys I know from previous races, such as this years Finnish Halfmarathon Championships and I have beaten some of them but we will see who is in a good shape on race day. The excitement is there (indeed!!), even if I’m not too satisfied with my shape.

After the race I will stay one more night in Espoo and then will return to Germany. I’m flying to Berlin on Saturday and watch the Vattenfall City-Night before I return to my home town Zwickau.

7 days to Finnish Championships and the shape could be better – much better

July 24, 2009

Just as last week a track workout was scheduled for Friday. I also did a steady state run with team mate Marko Partanen on Tuesday, where we ran something around 34:30min for 10K. We went out a bit too fast in this exercise (3:22/21/22 for the first 3 K) and instead of getting faster we slowed down towards the end – still a good exercise for the marathon. As Marko is going for the World Masters Athletics Championships (28.7-8.8.2009) he should have the opportunity to win a medal in the marathon of the 40-years age category if he stays injury-free.

I recovered well from this exercise and was prepared for today’s 2.000m-repeats. The first 3 runs went as expected with times of 6:20/6:40 and 6:20 even if the 3rd one could have been a bit faster but I felt pretty exhausted already. The 4th-run was 6:39min, so what was meant to be marathon-pace but was really tough already. After this run I decided to double my recovery period but in the last (the 5th) run I still could only hold on for 1K in 3:10-pace. I felt like all-out and had to lay down for a while to recover.

In conclusion this exercise showed me, that I’m not where I wanted to be. It’s only one week to Finnish Championships/Kalevan Kisat but I feel like I did some better workouts some three weeks ago. Seems the flu took it’s toll and I have to adjust my aims for the race next week. Maybe 31:30 would be a good and realistic time to aim for.

Slow progress

July 18, 2009

After I was hit by a summer-flu end of last week I’m now back to normal training. What a pity that I lost so many days in this important period of the preparation for the Finnish Championships / Kalevan Kisat, where I will race at the 10.000m on July 31st. Some track workout are missing and it seems that I will need a good day and perfect conditions to go close to (or under) 31minutes. In fact I had my first track session on friday, that was 10 days after my last tough workout way too much. On friday I did 800m repeats but I could feel that I was not on the top of my game as I had to quit after 5 repetitions that all were in the area of 2:26min. Even if running 72-74 seconds per lap did not feel too difficult I was getting tired earlier as plan and decided that I don’t want to destroy the shape again and get sick again. There were still some problems with my breathing and sucking the air is not a good thing if you want to stay relaxed.

Anyway, the mileage is now back to normal again and this week I can log about 160-170km after two weeks of really low mileage. Today the legs were also better than the days before – considering the fast session yesterday that’s a good sign and I’m a bit more confident again.

story of the picture: After the race in Strömstad I had the honour of driving the caravan of Australian mate Dan Hornery. After a nice and long night I was the only one who was sober so I made my debut in driving behind a wheel on the right side of the car (yes right, the mate had a british car). It took some time to get used to shift gears with the left hand but it worked

Riding on a bumpy road

July 12, 2009

After having a rather good June in terms of training and racing, July turned out to be much more of a challenge. All on top of it, a fine summer flu hit me mid-week and this friday I had to take a full break because my head was about to explode. Somehow it seems I caught a virus between Germany, Norway, Sweden and Finland that only fully developed after the track workout on Tuesday. Even if my last flu occured more than half a year ago, it seems that once I get a flu, it’s a tough one. On friday and saturday I was sleeping something like 14 hours and still felt like crap!

As you always have to find something positive in the misery, I hope that the down-time also solved some of my issues with my left hamstring and my left foot. After all the most important race of the track season (Finnish Championships Kalevan Kisat 10.000m) is less than 3 weeks away and now there is definitely no time for injuries/diseases anymore.

Back in the Finnish forests

July 7, 2009

After having a bad race last weekend in Sweden and running on low mileage the following days, I had my first speed workout in Finland.

1.000m repetitions with running mates Juha Puttonen and Miika Takala were on the plan and they went surprisingly well. The first three reps we ran together (3:00/3:01/2:54) and they felt really easy. I have to think several years back to remember the last time when I ran a sub-3minute kilometer. On the 4th rep the boys went out hard and I couldn’t follow. I ended up with a 2:57 which is still blistering pace for me. On the last round of this run I could feel the lactate floating through my body and also lost a bit of concentration. The 5th run I had to run alone because the boys were done.Even if the 3:06 was the slowest one, it was probably the most important one because I had to recover from the previous runs and ran a controlled pace. In a 10K there will also be moments when the legs are tired and then it’s good to know that a 3:06 is almost always possible.

The weather is also very supportive here in Finland now. 15-20°C are just perfect for running. Now I know again why I chose Finland