January 2, 2011
The last race of the year was a mirror of the last year: Mostly slipping around, not being able to go full speed and not showing the work from the training. But never mind, the race was only training and it’s not the end of the world. The conditions were really bad with icy, uneven ground and several curves plus lapping several runners on a small path.
Our whole training group (Fabian, Falk and me) had a disadvantag already before the start because we had no spikes and the competitors (the first 4 places) were all better prepared in terms of shoe choice. Since it was pretty dangerous to fall or to twist one’s ankle, I decided already early in the race to go out carefully. I pushed only on the uphill part, where the underground was not as bad as on the other part.
Results published here already.
December 25, 2010
The year is about to end. For me it was not a good year in terms of running. I will have a short look back soon and will recap the last year with all its downs and its few highs.
Currently I am at home in Zwickau, enjoying a peaceful Christmas time with my family. Unfortunately there is “a little bit” too much snow and running is next to impossible. Otherwise it’s nice to have a white Christmas and to calm down physically and mentally. As the running conditions are so poor, I will return to Halle probably on Monday.
I wish everyone a merry little Christmas holiday.
December 14, 2010
Last weekend I had my first race after about 3 months, i.e. after my accident when I twisted my ankle. It was my “home race”, the Adventslauf in Zwickau. As usual I was involved in the organistaion and invited some elite runners.
Unfortunately I could not test myself in a “normal” race against that. Why? Because I missed the start! I can tell a lot stories that happened during the last 20 years in the Adventslauf and this year a new story is added: Never before I misses the start in my race. When the gun went off I was still about to dress myself. That was the reason why I ran without my competition shirt and you can’t see the fabulous red and yellow of my club.
The race itself felt ok. Since I had to run on myself all the time I had to make my way and could push all the time. I caught runner after runner and ended up in 6th place. If I would not have “missed the train” I would have placed even better, but I was more dissapointed about not the fact that I was unable to run with the fast guys Marc Schulze, Clemens Silabetzschky, Jörn Harland & Co). in the first part of the race. Unfortunately the conditions were really poor, with one part being very icy and the rest being approx. 5cm of snow mud, i.e. not the best for my foot. After all it was a good start and the result was not unsatisfying after roughly 4 weeks of specific training.
November 15, 2010
I’m back to business. Last week I ran 105km. The feeling is getting better every day now and the movement feels more and more like running (the weeks before it felt like jogging).
This week is the last week with reduced. Starting from next monday I hope to get into a scheduled training. Right now I know that the first fast sessions will be tough but that is exactly what I want. The motivation is there and also the first plans for training camps are made.
I also rented a flat, which means I will finally have a more regular life in general.
November 7, 2010
There was a long silence in my personal blog which was caused by work-related tasks and missing athletic progress. Now I’m back running/jogging again and the posts should get more regular.
From next week onwards I will start logging my specific mileage. During last week I had some days with more than 10kilometers of jogging already so I’m excited how much kilometers the foot can take this week. The recovery is doing ok, but there is still a minor swelling after training at my left ankle.
October 16, 2010
Yesterday I was on track to try running. I managed to run – better: jog – 6x100m. In the curves I was walking because the load would have been too big. The jogging was not totally pain-free but after 3 weeks that is not a big surprise. The left foot is still very weak and the muscles have to be build up step-by-step. I’m starting from the very beginning and I have experience in coming back after injuries. I can still remember when I had my first stress fracture some 6 years ago. At that time I started my training with Nordic Walking and felt even worse than today on the track. Absolute beginner…
October 14, 2010
It’s been three weeks that I didn’t run a step. In a couple of days I should make the first trials again and test if there is some pain while running. The last three weeks were marked by several hours on the bike and in the gym. I got my 2-3 hours of sports but still it’s a different thing if you are able to run or not. One thing to do, to stay positive is to remind oneself about better times.
Fortunately the semester started and it’s a busy time working-wise.
September 25, 2010
My running season came to an abrupt end last Thursday.
The day started well: After I drove from my old home town Zwickau to my new home Halle I went to my new work-place at the university and immediately after that I could sign the work contract.
However, it would have been too nice if that day would have been completed by a good training. In the evening there was a meeting of a local running group (“Lauftreff” in German) in one of the great running areas in Halle. Conditions were very nice, but the uneven ground in the forest broke my neck. After around 25 minutes two mountainbikers tried to pass us on a small single trail. As the second biker passed me, he almost went down and I was distracted for fractions of a second. This was enough to twist my ankle badly. The time my foot hit the ground it seemed like my foot made a 180-degree turn and I could instantly feel that this was not one of the minor sprains but something more serious. I hardly made it back to the car and a running mate had to drive me to hospital.
After an X-Ray and a medical inspection I found myself in a cast and on crutches … argh. The left ankle took a lot of damage: capsule and ligaments are injured and it might even be that the syndesmosis is not as it should be.
Anyway. The marathon plans for this year are canceled, even if the doctors gave me some hope in saying that the cast might come off next week and can be replaced by an orthosis. After six weeks it should be possible to return to “normal” training. In exactly six weeks I was supposed to run my marathon in Frankfurt.
That’s the life of a marathon runner: Training the whole year for this one day you run the marathon (or maybe two, three days).
September 19, 2010
After three 10K-races in the last three weeks it was time for a halfmarathon-test. The course in Karlsruhe is known to be fast so I was aiming for a faster time than in the German Halfmarathon Championships in spring (my fastest HM this year so far). Even though the time of 70:28min is nothing special I made some important experiences in the race.
Most of all I’m lucky about the negative split: 33:32min for the 1st 10K and 33:20min for the 2nd 10K. Running negative splits is something I get a lot of motivation from. Furthermore the kilometers 17-20 felt like real running, a feeling I haven’t had for a long time.
After the race my legs were pretty sore. The cool-down jog was extremely slow and I will have to take some more time off, than after the 10K-competitions.
Also the progress of the race was positive compared to previous races. Until 9K I was running with a 5 men-group but on a short uphill I lost around 15-20m. After that I followed my own pace, which meant I was 10-40m behind the group without making contact. Only at the 16km mark one of the other guys was dropped from the group and after I passed him I had a good “comeback”. With three kilometers to go I found myself leading the group and pushing the pace. Unfortunately two guys came back and passed me in the final kilometer. However, the feeling of coming back gives me a positive sight on the race.
Results can be found from here.
September 13, 2010
Time for a personal recap of the German 10K road running Nationals.
The race was held in Ohrdruf, which is only a 1,5h trip from my home, so we went there on race day because the start was scheduled for 19.00. Already in the first races of the day it was obvious that the course was not very fast and only few runners improved their PB.
The start was crowded as usual and even one guy went down after 400m. Very unusual was the start, which took place on a tartan track. From the start I found the right “neighborhood” and could roll with a group. Between km 4 and 8 I felt pretty ok and passed some guys. The last two km I felt that the freshness was missing a bit. With some more 10km-training I could have done better. However, I have to say that currently I’m not playing in the first league in Germany when it comes down to 10K road running. On the other hand I improved a lot in the last 2-3 months and compared to the spring I could decrease the gap to the top runners.
The recovery after the race was pretty good and I feel that the marathon training is starting to work.
Results of the German Championships were already published earlier.
after 800m it was still a lof of pushingand dragging
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