May 21, 2009
Today was public holiday in Finland (“Helatorstai”, or Ascension Day in English) so a good opportunity to compete in a small race. The journey took me to the town of Alavus in South Ostrobothnia, Central Finland. It’s really nice that I can explore the country by means of the sport of running. The race office of the competition today was in a small school in the middle of the Finnish countryside and the prize ceremony took place in the biggest classroom. Really small and cosy, I guess the building has a long history.
Yeah, about the race: Unfortunately I had to run the whole 11km on my own again and I was only challenged by the clock. 100m after the start I was on my own and in the finish the next competitor came in more than 2 minutes behind me. Still I’m not too satisfied because the legs were feeling like rubber gum and even though I tried to change stride length and frequency: The feeling was still heavy and the muscled were tight. The pace of 3:20-3:25min/km is what I was planning to run but the course was not difficult and completely on asphalt, so it could have been a bit faster. After all it was not more than a medium-well training.
The weather was close to perfect, with temperatures around 15 degrees and some rain that felt like a warm summer rain already. Sometimes the air was a bit moist but altogether the conditions were enjoyable.
Now a good recovery and the next small competition on Saturday (most probably).
May 19, 2009
Today was the second track session for me this season. After 10×200 (average around 33secs, 100m jog rec.) last wednesday, todays program consisted of 8x400m with 200m jog recovery. The times were between 70 and 72seconds, with only the last two reps being sub 70. For most of the readers this might sound pedestrian (and in fact it is) but in the first track session I found it quite difficult to adjust to the right pace. You don’t want to go “all out” in the first repetition but on the other hand you should feel the exhaustion towards the end of the workout. All in all the times were pretty much as expected but I hope to see some progression in a couple of weeks. That is either running faster or running more and/or longer repeats. The leg turnover feels ok, so the main thing is to get the metabolism getting used to some lactate and oxygen debt – oh I really hate this but it has to be done 
The – “Pain is temporary but pride is forever” – attitude helps and after the work-out the feeling of relief outweighs the suffering!!
Somehow I should get used to 3minutes pace if I want to run the 10.000m under 31 minutes this summer. My first 10.000m track will be the state district championships in my German home district of Saxony (Sachsen) on June 4th.
I’m still thinking about last weekends Finnish Cross Country Championships (SM-maasto) and after reviewing the results I am pretty sure that I would have placed somewhere between 8th and 15th. That is pretty much where all the guys came in, who I beat in the Halfmarathon Championships. So I will have to prove somnething in the Finnish 10.000m track Championships (called “Kalevan Kisat”) end of July.
In the close future I am planning to compete in some smaller competitions and use them as tempo runs and tests of fitness.
May 17, 2009
Another screwed weekend!! Fortunately it was not completely my fault this time. I was planning on running the long course (12K) in Finnish Cross Country Championships this Sunday (17.05.2009), but in the result lists you won’t find my name. The reason: We came some 10 minutes late for picking up the bib! We were on the site of the competition 80 minutes before the start but the registration for the mens long course was already closed. Last year it used to close 60 minutes before the start but this year they changed it to 90 minutes. They said it was because of the TV-broadcast and they couldn’t make an excuse, even if there were two other runners with the same problem of not arriving early enough.
Great – 500km of travelling for almost nothing. Still I went on, to do a 25K on my own in the Finnish forests, but of course that’s not the same. As an athlete you want to compete, you always want to challenge yourself and the opponents. Anyway, I tried to make the best out of it and tried to be not too upset, even if it was the first time I was not watching such an interesting race and did my own run instead. Somehow it would have broken my heart if I would have watched the guys giving their best in a race in which I should have competed (I mean I wasn’t injured or something).
After all I see this incidence as a motivation for the summer and the upcoming weeks of training. The year 2009 so far was so totally fu%&=)… up that this was just another kick in the ass. It can only get better in the next months.
May 10, 2009
On Saturday May 9 I ran the “city run” (katujuokso) in my Finnish home city Jyväskylä. Conditions were somewhat SISU-like (that is: typically Finnish). After most of the week was really nice and sunny the weather got bad just in time for the start of the race: temperatures were around 10°C plus rain and gusty winds didn’t make it too nice to run but that’s your choice as a runner.
The race was not too exciting because after 3-4 km I was on my own already and could use the race as a better training run. I have to think quite some time back, to remember my last race where I had a lead of over 6 minutes at the finish – maybe my winning margin was never that big. Positive for me was, that I had the lead car right in front of me and the guys in 2nd and 3rd place complained about the missing signposting on the course, so they sometimes went the wrong way as they found out afterwards. If they ran longer or shorter than 21,1 km could not be found out but at least there should be better and more signs next time. I guess I also wouldn’t have taken the right way if I would have been alone.
Anyway, it was an easy race for me and only on the last 4-5km my muscles got a bit cold and the stride was not super-easy anymore.
May 7, 2009
Yesterday I participated in a Cooper test that was organised by the Student Union of the University of Jyväskylä (JYY). I took it as just another “fun event” to get some new motivation and to regain some energy. The result of 3.820m was pretty good but who cares? The main thing to get the most of fun out of it after not running to much for the last ten days.
This week I only ran once a day so far and if there was a second exercise, it consisted of some substitute training such as sports games, gym or like today: swimming. I can feel a lot of non-running related muscles now and actually it’s a nice feeling
The new training period is going to start next week and then it’ll be mostly about running again, so I enjoy the “freedom” of doing some other exercise those days. I’m also planning the summer/autumn activities now and there are some challenging things to come if everything runs as I want.
I also handed in the first final version of my thesis to my supervising professor. Only the abstract is still missing but otherwise I’m about 95% finished with my Masters thesis. I still have to read some 2.000 pages and write some book exams about it but I’m sure I will graduate this summer – or at least I will complete all the requirements.
May 2, 2009
After having a real bad April (in terms of running) I’m now in the middle of a recovery period and I am happy to take some time off. At this point I only go out for a run when I really feel like it and if the weather would not be that perfect I would probably go much less. But since the temperatures are almost in the twenties and the sun is shining bright I want to enjoy this weather – who knows, for how long it’s going to stay, I mean: It’s Finland Nevertheless I bought some goggles today because I might go to the swimming pool every now and then in the close future.
So this week was all easy and doing mostly alternative training like aqua-jogging, cycling and weight training. It’s a nice feeling not to log so many miles and on my run today my legs felt fresh like they didn’t for a long time. Also it’s a nice opportunity to meet some friends and have some company during training. This week I did like 70% of my training with some company, whereas I’m usually doing 90% of mileage alone.
May will hopefully bring some academic progress for me, since I’m shifting the focus a bit away from running. My Master thesis is almost ready and after that I only have to take a couple of book exams (have to read about 2000 pages for that).
On the night to 1st of May I also satisfied my hunger for “ethanol” if you know what I mean After being absent for 6 or 7 months it should be enough to bring me over the next half year or so 
Anyway, 1st of May (or “Vappu” in Finnish) is quite a big celebration and party date and the last years I didn’t really want to celebrate it because I was still in the middle of the season.
April 26, 2009
Finally I can rule off the month of April. With a 10th place in 1:10:01h finish at the Finnish halfmarathon Championships I would not have been satisfied 1 month ago, but since I had no aim except finishing the race after the troubles in April, I am not too disappointed now. Also the way the race went was giving me new hope. I ran even splits (10K:33:12min, 20K:66:22min)and caught up a lot of guys on the last third of the race. After 12km the engine started to role and I was sure to have a positive 2nd half (in the German Champs I didn’t even come to the 12K-mark).
The course was not as fast as expected and there were quite a lot of rolling hills and turns that broke the rhythm. In each of the 4 laps an altitude difference of 33m had to be covered – that made almost 140meters for the 21,1 km. On some parts the asphalt was also really old and uneven, so only few personal bests were achieved on the course. Also the fact that a 2008 olympic marathoner for Finnland (Francis Kirwa) ran a 1.08.56h makes it a bit easier to come over the own weak performance.
I was quite surprised when I saw the results list after coming home, because immediately after the race several people told me that the time was just under 1:10h. Since I didn’t run with an own time I can’t say something about for that but still I’m a bit confused that the time is over 1:10 – WTF?
Anyway. The April in overall was a big disappointment running-wise. Now I’ll decrease the training and concentrate on studying. I’ll still keep in shape for some races and the Finnish Cross-Country Championships where my club will have a team but in general the spring is over for me.
Erik Hass (6) and Joni Rautio (29) at around halfway of the Finnish Halfmarathon Championships (SM maantie) in Pyhäselkä 2009. (picture by Miika)
April 22, 2009
This time some (late) pictures from my home visit during Easter time. In Germany I was blessed with a lot of sunshine and temperatures over 20°C.
My nephew and me making some fun. I got more colour than him during those couple of days
Yes, it was really sunny. And with my sore back I could enjoy the warmth a lot. Maybe too much – Of course I would have liked to compete and performed better in the German Championships 
Also some easy training was done – with shorts and top:)
April 18, 2009
After deciding not to run the Osterlauf in Paderborn we (my coach and I) thought it would be a good training to run the Osterlauf in Schesslitz 2 days after the planned start in Paderborn. I achieved my goal of reaching the finish line and not dropping out of the race. After the DNF of the German Halfmarathon Championships and some bad training runs it was important to get the mind free again. Time and place are of course not what I would have expected 1 month ago, but at least I could fight through some downtimes during the race and at the end I even caught the 3rd place runner. Anyway I’m far away from being fit and the expectations for the spring season are scaled down.
April 5, 2009
The first major competition this year – the German Halfmarathon Championship - was a disaster. For the first time in my life I dropped out of a Championship-race on the road. After 11km the game was over.
The split time for 5K was 16:00min and 10K around 32:15min. That would still have been ok and a time of sub-68 would still have been theoretically possible. However, I was feeling too bad already and felt like I would not finish the race as I wanted to.
The weather was really hot (especially coming from the still icy Finland 20°C make you feel dizzy) and also a bit humid. The course was a flat 5,1K loop with quite a lot of turns and a 500m cobblestone part. After all the conditions were not perfect but still acceptable – since it was a championship race that doesn’t matter too much anyway.
Some of the excuses I can list here would include the long travel (more than 10hours, starting at 4AM German tine) before race day, my crash on the last weekend and the hot weather. From the start on I was not feeling fresh and never really found into my race. After around 4-5km I had a first big low point, where I could just hang in at the back of a group, not trying to loose to much ground. After recovering a bit and gaining some places The second down came at around 10K. By that time I felt really horrible – pain in the back, heavy legs, only the breathing was totally easy. Also the split of 32:15 was not as fast expected, or let’s say: I should have felt much more fresh for this split, maybe going for an even or negative split on the second part. But I never got into the “rolling” feeling and when I saw my coach at 11K and made a sign that I’m going hard he also said I should quit. So, with a big “SCHEISSE” the race was over for me, lying in around 15th to 20th place and still 10K to go.
Now I will have a detailed analysis of the race and hope to fix the things that went wrong. The next race is already next week and actually I’m glad about this fact, because right now I feel I can do better and I want to see the results of the several months of training.
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