July 6, 2009
On my way back to Finland I made a small detour to compete in a 10km race in Strömstad/SWE, close to the Norwegian border. It was the first time for me being in Norway, since my flights were arriving and departing in the Norwegian capital Oslo. After the St. Eriksloppet 2005 in Stockholm it was my second race on Swedish ground. And what a weekend it was!
I stayed in the race hotel, a nice Spa and Resort Hotel together with a bunch of other athletes (Kenyans, Spaniards etc.). The race itself went rather bad. The course was pretty hilly and temperatures were way too high for me. With 30°C and even more on the streets in the sun I always have my problems and hardly find my rhythm. This time it was the same: Already after the first flat 1,5km I lost contact to the big leading group (including approx. 15 Kenyans and some Non-Africans). All the Kenyans that dropped from the group discontinued the race just before I could overtake them – nice. I thought there should be more guys that have to pay the toll to the high temperatures but it was not the case and at the end I ended up far outside of the TOP10. In the second of the two rounds I had problems myself to keep the pace, even though I went out with the handbrake on. I’m just not made for running in the heat it seems. I felt dizzy and it was impossible to change the pace. After all this pace was not even marathon pace yet! So still a lot of work to do. Anyway it was a great experience to run against some international opponents after a long time. I guess in the last weeks I competed to much in my home region in Germany and won too many races there 
There are a lot of more stories to tell about this weekend and I’m sure they will come up some time later, so just follow my blog 
June 30, 2009
Last weekend I had another race on Saturday. For me it was the third race in four days. Unlike the two other competitions this time the course was more challenging: a cross-country like 11,9km with several ups and downs and partly small paths in the forest.
I didn’t want to run a tactical race this time, so I went out harder than usual and decided early on to run my own pace. So after around 1km I was clear of my competitors and was on my own. At the end I had a 1:09min lead over Benjamin Seifert, a cross-country skier who is member of the German team and is hoping to qualify for the Winter Olympic in Vancouver 2010. Even if I won the race against this good opponent I was not too satisfied – the legs were not so fresh and I couldn’t increase the pace as I wanted. Somehow the legs didn’t respond to the signals from the brain. This is just a matter of freshness and after 4 tough workout within 6 days this is nothing unusual.
just before the finish – the humidity was really high that day and old man Erik was sweating a lot.
prize ceremony with two promising cross-country skiers on the podium (Benjamin Seifert, Erik Hass, Stefan Seiffert – from left to right)
June 28, 2009
One day after running 9350m in 30min I had the next competition. My uncle asked me to run for his company in the first corporate run of my home town Zwickau. Of course I couldn’t say no, so I found myself with quite tired legs on the start line in downtown Zwickau on Thursday. I could win the pretty short race in 13:54,9min. The first of the three rounds I had some competition from the ultra-distance runner and world-championships participant Thomas König but already in the second round I found myself running alone even without pushing the pace too much. The legs were feeling ok, once they were rolling and also the atmosphere in the city was surprisingly good, so I couldn’t disappoint the home crowd
Also our team “Heymann Mineralöle” won the team competition in the mixed category. Also in the team was another uncle of mine, an aunt and a cousin. As a family we will remember this event for a long time.
Here some pics:
After the first of three rounds (with running mate Thomas König).
just before the finnish – celebrating the victory.
There was also some media and I had to give some interviews – great fun.
Our team of Heymann Mineralöle
Talking to German marathon legend Jörg Peter (still holding the German marathon record with 2:08:47h from Tokio 1988) after the race.
June 24, 2009
After a competition-free weekend with several birthday celebrations in my family I competed in a half-hour run on the track in my home town Zwickau. The result of 9350m is a new record for me and at the same time a result that was the best in the last decade in this series of competitions that consists of 5 runs per year. I only covered more than 9000m in 30 minutes once in my life before – it was some 6 or 7 years back when I just dipped over 9km, running something like 9025m or so.
Considering the pretty tough training of the last 10days I’m satisfied with the results. My legs were still a bit tired from the tempo runs on monday (4x 850/1700m) and the legs didn’t respond too well when I wanted to push a bit harder. Anyway, I stayed pretty relaxed because in the next couple of days I will have some more competitions: Tomorrow (thursday) a corporate run in Zwickau and on Saturday a cross-country-like 10K a bit further away.
June 18, 2009
Saturday, June 13th I participated in a mountain race on cross country terrain in my home area. After being in the Alps for 4 days from Tuesday to Friday and playing 1,5 hours indoor soccer Friday night it was of course just a training run for me but nevertheless a tough one.
I took 2nd place, some 3 minutes behind eventual winner Marc Schulze, who won the race already last year and knew the course. For me it was the first time that I competed in Pobershau and to be honest I don’t know if I’m going there again, because it’s really not the right course if you are preparing for track or road races. It’s only up and down and the underground is really uneven. After all I was lucky that I didn’t got hurt (even if I got insect bite in the 2nd of 4 rounds and had to stop several times to check if there is a swelling on my left foot, where I got it). During warm-up I also felt a sudden pain in my back on an downhill-part, so I ran conservatively not to get a sore back. Also the legs were not fresh after hiking in the Alps. Anyway, I could recover fast and on the following Sunday I could run a 27K-long run with two 5K-intervals in around 3:35min/km-pace.
June 6, 2009
After Fridays 10.000m State Championships I competed only 18 hours later in a local race not far away from my home town Zwickau. The race started in the Vogtland arena, where also international skiing competitions such as the world cup for the nordic combined take place.
I came a bit too late to register for the 15km, so I changed plans and ran the 10km. Anyway, it was a very challenging course on cross-country terrain and a steep climb (up to 25% !!) in the first two km. The first climb I started pretty easy and ran with the leaders of the women race. When the steep part was over I decided to chase the guys in front of me. On the following flat kilometers I gradually decreased to race leader and running comrade Tim Herold. After around 7km I was level with him and by km 8 I decided to stay on pace, so I charged away and secured a victory with a 40-seconds margin.
Again the legs were pretty good, especially considering the 10.000m race yesterday. But also the mind is much more free then it was couple of weeks before. The “take it easy and just let it come” -approach seems to work.
Tomorrow no competition but long run with my coach on the bike instead.
June 6, 2009
State Champion!!
Friday I ran the 10.000m championships of Saxony and won the title. I’m really satisfied with my performance and the shape is heading into the right direction it seems. After a week with easier training and less mileage also the freshness was there.
The race went as I planned it together with my coach: Going out with a group/competitor for the first 5.000m and then running the second 5.000m faster. Rene Müller was a good competition for the first half of the race and I could lay back in his wind shadow to complete the first 5.000 in 16:20min. Then I picked up the pace and the laps came steadily in 75 seconds – at 6K I was on my own and found a really good rhythm. The second 5.000m was around 15:34 and that satisfied me a lot. The legs were feeling good and with some competitors it might even have been faster. But the main thing was to get the title for my club and to test the shape with this second 5.000m. Both aims achieved = can’t complain
June 3, 2009
Today the last session in Finland – tomorrow morning I’ll travel to Germany, where I’ll have a 10.000m race on Friday and will make a hiking trip in the alps afterwards.
Todays session was the first fast workout since last weeks 3.000m race and should prepapre me for the upcoming race. It was a rather short program of one 1000m repeat (3:08min) followed by one 2000m (6:07min) with the emphasis on the 2000m. After getting a very good recovery in the last days with decreased mileage I could feel that the legs were a bit more fresh. Nevertheless, I’m not in PB-shape or somewhere close to 31min-pace. So the expectations for friday are low and since it is the district championship the main thing will be to get a medal for my German home club SV Vorwärts Zwickau.
In terms of academics I finished my thesis, which is now under review. Finally. I still have to write two more book exams but this should not be a big deal
Now back to packing my bags for my travel and looking forward to meet a lot of people in Germany that I miss.
May 26, 2009
Another pedestrian performance (in my eyes).
I only learnt about the race 2 days ago, so my coach and me decided to run this 3.000m track race instead of the planned workout on Wednesday. Only 3 participants toed the line, so the there was almost no competition. However, Mari Järvenpää was in the race and before the race her coach somehow convinced me to make pace for her in the first km. Actually, I was trying to go for the 9-minutes mark, i.e. 3:00min-pace but since they asked me so kindly and Mari wanted to run a fast time (3:05min splits) I agreed. So I started the first km in 3:05, the second kilometer was actually the fastest with 3:01 and the last one was 3:03. The aggressiveness was missing, so I couldn’t even finish strongly – the last round was only 72sec or something like that.
The best performance of the race was of course Mari’s performance of 9:34,88 min which was a seasonal best for Finland.
For me it was nothing but a better training and a dissapointment. I mean, my 10K PB is 30:04min and last year I ran 30:34min. So 9:09min is like the split time for a 30:30min 10K! Even with a lot of kilometers (170+180 per week for the last two weeks) I should be able to run at least 9 minutes.
May 23, 2009
Today I wrote history at least some part of my own history in Finland. For the first time I could defend a title in a Finnish running competition and also I set my first course record on Finnish soil.
Last year I competed in the “Kettuhölkkä” as the race is called three weeks after I ran my first marathon. Last year I won with a time of 45:28min, so this year I improved my own time by 47seconds and broke the previous course record by 4seconds. I actually didn’t knew the course record so I was pretty surprised when the speaker announced it at the finish. At least the previous record holder was a 2:22h-marathoner, so not too bad.
Conditions were great, even if it was a bit warm at the end, because the sun came out again in the second half of the race and temperatures almost reached 20 degrees. Overall the feeling was better than in the competition two days ago. Even though the freshness in the legs was again missing I could stay calm all the time and controlled myself, not to brake anything or to cramp. So the mental focus was much better and relaxed. The pace was again between 3:20 and 3:30 for most of the time and given that the course was more challenging than the one I ran two days ago the performance was at least not worse than in that last race. Anyway, 3:20 would be marathon pace and there is still a lot of work to do until I am ready to go this pace for 42,2km.
Now I hope that I will have more opponents in the next competition, because this time I had a lead of 3minutes again and was not pushed at all. Most likely the next race will be the 10.000m track championships of my German home federal state of Saxony and there I hope that someone will kick my butt
Newer Entries » « Older Entries