Month: September 2016

Berlin Marathon 2016 – 2:55:16 a PB but…

 

So finally it was time for the Berlin marathon.  I didn’t know what to expect, and that is exactly what I got!  so let’s start at the start and go through my training going into the race.

12 week build up

I had decided that I would do a 12 week build to the race, starting straight after the Maratona.  It would be 3×4 weeks with an easier week every 4th week.  I was aiming to run 100km on my up weeks and obviously less on my down weeks.  My routine for Rotterdam worked well and I wanted to do that again. That means running 8 times a week, with intervals on Wednesday, a ML run on Thursday, an easy double on Friday, and a long run on the weekend. Continue reading “Berlin Marathon 2016 – 2:55:16 a PB but…”

Rhein Ahr Triathlon 2016 – Triathlon Season Over!

Only a few days after my good 5km run and 2 weeks before Berlin, I had my last triathlon of the season planned.  Ideally 2-3 weeks before my marathon I would have done a 10k-HM run, but actually I think it worked out well in the end.

Sinzig or Remagen (which is what everyone calls the race) is kind of an Olympic triathlon.  You swim 2.8km in the Rhein with the flow, then cycle 45km with quite a few hills, then a 10.5km run.  The swim should actually be faster than a normal 1.5km swim, so that wasn’t a bad thing for me.
We had arranged to meet at 7am at the pool on Sunday and I set off in partial light at 6:30am.  I met up with Heiko B and Wieland and we drove to Remagen which takes about 90 mins.

It was surprisingly cool when we arrived, it has been consistently warmer than 28 degrees for a while now, and was predicted to be 30 degrees for the race.  The water temperature was 22, but we could still use wetsuits, phew!  The teams were pretty different to our usual set up, in the 2nd team we had Heiko Maris, Walter, Marco, Andre and me, I have only raced with Marco before, so didn’t really know what to expect.

Continue reading “Rhein Ahr Triathlon 2016 – Triathlon Season Over!”

Mainzer Firmenlauf 2016 – 10th place

For the 3rd year in a row, I was signed up to run the Mainzer Firmenlauf.  In 2014 I was anaemic so didn’t run well, doing about 19:40 for what may well have been a bit short course.  In 2015, well you can read the post here, but essentially I was pretty dead after my Iron-distance race a few days beforehand, but still dragged myself around in 19mins, though the course was long!

This year my well of excuses seems to have run dry. I am in full training for the Berlin marathon in 2 1/2 weeks and things are going quite well.  It has been relentlessly hot and sunny for the last month or so, so my workouts have suffered and I have only managed 2 real long runs, so my confidence isn’t top notch, but I feel like I should still have my form after a good year of running.  I am at about 79kg too, which is pretty decent for me, I wouldn’t mind dropping 1kg more before Berlin if possible though.  My aim in Berlin will be a sub2:50, the equivalent 5k time would be 17:44, so faster than that was my goal time. Continue reading “Mainzer Firmenlauf 2016 – 10th place”