Catching up - 2013 in review

The year starts with a decent slap in the face. My attempt at Brasil 135 ends after 16 hours and 90km with severe leg pain due to insufficient training. 

Spring marathon season on the other hand is a blast.

The Weltdownsyndromtagslauf, a fundraiser people suffering from down syndrome, which is organised by Anita Kienle and her Laufclub 21, is my season opener. All the usual suspects show up to this small scale event and it is the perfect place to catch up with some old and make some new running friends.

Freiburg and Bonn marathon on two consecutive Sundays both under the four hour mark boost my confidence. Also, in Bonn I accidentally meet a - on first impression weird and overly extroverted - fellow dressed up as some sort of Superman. He calls himself Marathonman. Turn out, his name is Trent Morrow, he is from Australia and attempting to break the Guinness Book record for most run marathon races in a year (157). We take a couple of pictures together, talk a bit and shortly after loose sight of each other.

Düsseldorf marathon is one of my favourite spring races in Germany. Unfortunately, this year it is also on the day after my 20 year high school reunion; so I leave the party late, have a quick shower and then take the train to Düsseldorf rather drunk. Why run at all? I promised Merlin, a colleague of mine, that I would join him at his first marathon. The first 10 miles are ok, the I start getting sober and not feeling to well. Things get better after a while, right in time before said colleague hits the wall at mile 20. We suffer through the rest, but make it in a somewhat respectable finish time.

A long weekend in the beginning of may brings me to the Rhoehn-Weser-Trail, a 193km 4day run through a rather scenic part of Germany more or less following the river Fulda from its spring to its mouth. The event consist of only three starters, of which one only participates for the first day. Nevertheless, the route is just beautiful, our race organiser meets us with the support vehicle every hour our so for food and drink, and I spend the days alternating in conversation with my fellow runner, listening to audiobooks and just enjoying the quiet of the countryside.

After a 2 week break I fly over to the US for Chuck Savages New England Challenge. 5 marathons in 5 days in 5 states. The series is very low key, between 30 and 50 runners per race, most of them fellow Marathon Maniacs, naturally. The races themselves are nothing spectacular, basically running in loops around a park or golf course. And they start at 6 in the morning, which takes some getting used to. I also encounter Trent, the Marathonman, again. We have a lot of time to talk and become fast friends. The week is rather stressful, not so much because of the running, but because it is always followed by a couple of hours of driving, changing hotels, and there isn't time for much else. Friday night I fly back to Frankfurt, arrive Saturday afternoon, get some rest and on Sunday morning head out for the Darmstadt Knastmarathon, a race run inside a federal penitentiary. Pouring rain and a temperatures of about 5C (40F) are to much for my seventh marathon in a week, so I quit after 15km, visit Peter and drink beer. There is more than one way to spend a Sunday.

The next stunt after 5 in 5 is 3 in 2. The first weekend in June I start out with the 6 hour run in Fellbach, running loops in the blasting sun without a bit of shade until I finish the marathon distance, then I drive on to Mannheim, sleep for an hour and run the Mannheim marathon which starts at 7pm. Still way to warm. Only 4 hours sleep, another 3 hour drive and I make it just in time for the Eifel marathon on Sunday morning. This one is a trail race, it is cold and raining and I hate every bit of it.

100km at the 24h race in Stadtoldendorf the next weekend round up the spring season. ALso, it gave me Palladium level with the maniacs.

Summer I intended to have a couple of triathlons, however, this didn't work out too well.

First one is Ironman Frankfurt. Last year I didn't finish this one, so I have a score to settle. Swim goes well, as always. The bike still sucked, but not as bad as last year and the run is stellar, 4:36, my best IM marathon, and the second best IM finish.

Ironman Zurich, my backup race, has an Olympic triathlon on the day before to which I got a free entry. I figure it is a good training. The weekend is brutally hot, and the 10k run on Saturday feel longer than most marathons. Sunday morning I feel like crap. I make it to the start area, and think back to the run the day before. Do I want to do that for 40k? After being grilled on the bike for 6+ hours. I pack my back and cycle back to my air conditioned hotel. After seeing the other athletes coming back to the hotel, I am rather happy with my decision. 

70.3 Wiesbaden happened without me due to a bee sting.

Inferno triathlon is the race where I really get my ass handed to me. Inferno as I find out the hard way, is what triathletes do once Ironman gets to easy. The swim is 3km through the beautiful but rather cold Thuner lake. This is a real open water swim, not following some buoys along the cost, we swim from one coast to the other. The water is a deep blue and the view is just spectacular. After transition to the first bike session, I have bout 200m to get into the right gear, then the climbing starts. The first bike course is only 97km (60mi) long, but has a vertical gain of 2200m (7200ft), which doesn't sound all that much, until you take into account, that about two third are flat. Even with the easiest gear ratio that Shimano offers, I am left to suffer with a cadence in the forties for most of the mountains. I miss the cutoff by a good hour. This is something that I really have to train specifically for for at least a year should I ever wish to try again. Oh, in case you make the bike leg, there is a second bike leg, this time on a mountain bike, 30km with another 1200m of vertical gain before you can finally tackle the sun, which offers a vertical gain of 2200m over 25km ;-)

Last triathlon for the year and my birthday present for myself is IM Lake Tahoe. I arrive at SFO a week before the race, have to stand in line for two hours for my rental car - thank you Budget - and then drive up to Reno. California style, my bike box on the backset of the red Mustang convertible. The lake Tahoe area is very beautiful and quiet, unfortunately it is also at altitude (above 6000ft) which makes breathing a bit difficult. I settle into my hotel and spend a week relaxing, enjoying the scenery and cycling in the autumn sun. All goes well until the day before the race the weather changes. Rainstorms and a severe drop in temperature. Snow the night before the race. WTF? I come to sunny California, I don't want snow!

Race morning I am almost frozen solid before I enter the water. While only 18C warm, the lake actually feels warm, and I enjoy the swim (apparently I am one of very few persons to do so). The water is so clear, I can underwater see swimmers 5 meters to the side of me. And them the snow covered mountain tops. Awesome. Once I leave the water, however, the fun ends. Transition is a mess, the tent is so crowded I have to wait do even enter, changing outside is impossible to to both the temperatures and regulations - we are in a country run by religious fundamentalists, after all. Once on the bike, I try to settle into a rhythm, but never manage to get warm. I suffer for about three hours until the sun is powerful and the hills steep enough to warm me up. But at that time I have already spent way to much energy. After the about 110km on the bike I quit. I probably would have made the bike cutoff, but only marginally, and that would have meant running in the dark and cold, and I simply did not have enough energy left for that. The score will be settled next year.

So, out of five events, 2 DNS and 2 DNFs. There is room for improvement.

Since Lake Tahoe was towards the end of September, the fall running season was rather short. Cologne offers a half marathon and a marathon on the same day, timed in a way that you can run the half first, have about an hour and then run the full. Which I do with my buddy Markus (his first Ultra) and enjoy thoroughly.

Frankfurt marathon is a blast. I meet fellow Swedish maniac Anders, the biking viking; and Dirk runs his debut marathon in 3:05. Some people just have talent. And I run my best time for the year.

The ARQUE run, labelled as the 80% marathon is great as always, and sits at the center of a long running weekend that starts the day before with a 35km run from Frankfurt to Wiesbaden to have lunch with Rolf, and then 40km more to pick up the race packet.

The Eisweinlauf from Offenburg to Baden Baden is the last event on my schedulde. Immaculately organized and with the best assortment of food and drink, over 100 runners journey the 63 km through the wine region of southern Germany in a single group at a slow and steady pace. Nothing beats Gluehwein - warm, spiced red wine from mile 15 on.

That pretty much sums up 2013 running wise. What's next?

The milestones for 2014 are Brazil 135 in January, IM Melbourne, Frankfurt and Lake Tahoe in March, July and September respectively. Marathons to fill up the calendar.

Join me, if you like. Have an awesome 2014 everyone and feel free to comment at any time.

Deja Vu

When skydiving, if your parachute doesn't open and you land on your reserve chute, you are encouraged to immediately jump again to get the negative experience out of your head.

With this anecdote I contacted the organizers of Ironman Switzerland and asked for an entry into the Zurich race. Switzerland being Switzerland no discussion was needed, a couple of hundred Fränkli and I was in.

Although both Frankfurt and Zürich are rather large cities and both Ironman races are to a certain degree held in downtown, the first thing I noticed when I arrived on Saturday afternoon was the stark contrast in the organization. Zurich, though having the Zurich triathlon, an olympic tri which is now part of the 5150 series on Saturday, just felt a lot smaller. Registration and bike check in were done in one sweep within 15 minutes at the shore on lake Zurich. Transition bags? Yeah, you can just leave them here or bring them tomorrow, or whatever.

Early dinner, off to bed at the great hotel Engimatt, which also managed to serve an awesome buffet breakfast at 4 am on Sunday.

The swim - really

The Zurichsee is awesome. Clear water, not too warm. The race has a land start on a rather wide beach, so the usual washing machine at the start didn't happen. That unfortunately also meant less drag and no feet to follow. On top of that, there is also a decent current, so I actually had to swim for a change, which resulted in a 1:20 split.

Sufferfest, pt. 2 - the bike

Transition, on the other hand is shorter, so the time I started the bike was pretty much the same as last week. The course follows the lakeshore for the first 30k, then it is off to some hills, one of them a very nasty, long incline. Overall, hillier than Frankfurt, but not by that much. Then again, I wasn't any fitter than last week, so suffering was the name of the game again. Weather wise, Zurich was a little different than Frankfurt. Less pouring rain, more drizzle, and more dry periods, less sun, even colder and - as a special highlight and totally the norm for a nice Sunday afternoon in July - some hail. Let me tell you, nothing feels better on the bike than some hail. That awesome stinging feeling as if someone was constantly throwing gravel at you. Also, hail greatly improves surface grip which makes turning that much more fun. All bitching aside, the ride felt not as bad as in Frankfurt and - conditions notwithstanding - resulted in the exactly same bike split.

Bringing it home - the run

When I was changing in T2, someone next to me said that we had over seven hours to complete the run. That had two effects on me. One, I knew then and there that I would finish. Two, for the next four hours or so I wondered in my carbohydrate depleted head, why my pace - finish time - remaining time calculations didn't add up. I think it was at km28 that I finally figured that the seven hour information simply was wrong.

Conditions were not all bad, on the run it stayed dry and relatively cool, so I did not experience any further deterioration. On the contrary, I think nutrition wise I recovered to a certain degree and actually felt better towards the later part of the run. The run, in all fairness of course not being a run, but more a very brisk walk with some very short running interludes. The German military term best describing what I do is "Eilmarsch", the US special forces use the term "ruckmarch" for something that sounds very similar, although I doubt the use five fingers and I didn't bring an M16. I was tempted several times to increase the pace, but decided against it, simply to avoid risking another d.n.f. and also to keep recovery time short. NYC is not that far away.

Bottom line, 8:20/km on average gave me a 15:14:46 finish time in what I consider a very good race. How is 15:15 a good race? nothing has really changed from last week, I am still too heavy, I am still not trained well, I am probably not even recovered from Frankfurt. But under these conditions, on the day, I think the race was pretty good. I could MAYBE have stayed under 15 hrs, but with an unacceptable risk and for a price that I consider too high. The season is still long. I came for redemption, and redemption I got, so all is well in the jungle.

Reality Check

Last year sport certainly was the focus of my life, with project James and it's preparation. This year, not so much. James took more out of me, both physically and psychologically, and with a somewhat new job, other things took precedence. As far as I can tell - and the spring marathon times support this - I am well recovered, but I am also heavier (read fatter) than ever, with a whopping 20 pounds more than last summer. Combine that with zero training (other than some running), and here I am at the starting line of The Ironman European Championship in Frankfurt. Total swimming distance this year? Five km. Total bike? About 100 km, but only if I count the times that I rode the mountain bike to go for coffee.

Morning bath a.k.a. the Swim

What can I say, swimming still comes naturally and is probably about the only sport aside from sumo wresting where being fat is actually helpful. I found some good feet to stay behind at and some other body parts to push off from early on and had a very relaxing first round. Second round usually for me  is a bit harder, mostly because most other athletes tire and it is hard to keep up the speed if the pace line is constantly slowing and you have to overtake. Total split a little under 1:10, had I not talked to my loved one at the exit before stepping over the timing mat, it would probably have been a new best, but that, in contrast to the former, is utterly unimportant ;-)

Sufferfest a.k.a. the Bike

What can I say. I am untrained and fat. That may be just barely enough in perfect conditions, but today conditions were far from perfect. It started raining at about the time I left the water and didn't stop for 5 hours. From a light drizzle to heavy downpour, I had it all.

Weather like does several things. In general it means that you get cold and burn a good deal more calories that in warm weather. But, since you are not sweating so much, you are not as thirsty: Since most nutrition in sports come from drinking sugary water, you have to actively compensate by eating and drinking a good deal more that the body signals. I didn't.

Being heavy also means that climbing is not my forte, but once my considerable mass is accelerated, I make decent time on the downhill. Usually that is. In these conditions, I was constantly breaking (thanks to my zero bike handling skills) while I was being passed by athletes with much more skills and/or a much higher certainty equivalent.

When the rain finally stopped it was replaced by heavy head- and side-winds, an other condition that favours the big and unskilled.

Bottom line is this: Race conditions are the same for everyone. Some came prepared and coped well. I didn't. Finished the bike in almost eight hours and totally wasted.

Simple math a.k.a. the Run

Ironman comes with a 17 hour time limit internationally, in Europe it is usually 16 hours. Frankfurt has 15 hours, due to a lawsuit by some folks living near the finish line. This is just a fact, not a complaint, on the contrary, to a certain extend I even sympathize with their point.

For me, that meant that by the time I got out of T2, I had about 5:40 to run the marathon. That translates roughly to 8 minute kilometers. Doable? Yes. Walkable? No, just a tad to fast for me, I probably can do 8:30/8:40 for extended periods of time, but 8:00 is a no go. So the big questions was: Can I run? At least some? I gave myself half an hour of walking, to loosen up my stiff hip and leg muscles, then gave it try. It worked. At least for a couple of meters at a time. So far, so good. Only problem, it wasn't any faster than stiff walking.

I continued my race/walk tactics until the km19 marker, where - with the help of some spectators, since my body was so depleted of sugar that I couldn't do the math on my own - that I now had to run the remaining 23 km in under 8:00 each, which meant that I had been to slow for the first 19. My brain might have been to fried to do math in my head, but I was not delusional enough to believe that I could run significantly faster in the second half of a marathon than in the first half.

So, after twelve hours and 203 km I took the logical step and quit. I suck. Time to improve. Reality. Checked.

Race Schedule 2012

So sieht's aus in 2012:

March 3 Lahntallauf Marburg Marathon

April 1 Freiburg Marathon

April 29 Hamburg Marathon

May 06 Mainz Marathon

May 20 Darmstadt Knastmarathon 

July 8 Ironman Frankfurt

August 11 Ironman New York

September 16 Ironman Wales

October 14 Munich Marathon

October 28 Frankfurt Marathon

Frohes neues Jahr allen, hoffe den einen oder anderen zu treffen.

Scared of Open Water, Anyone?

Event Stats:
Name Escape from the Gorge
Date 09/09/2007
Location Cascade Locks, OR, USA
Event Olympic Triathlon
Finish Time 03:03:07

The A-Race

Event Stats:
Name Ironman European Championchip
Date 07/01/2007
Location Frankfurt, Germany
Event Ironman
Finish Time 11:53:18

Bike Training - What Bike training?

Event Stats:
Name Ford Ironman 70.3 California
Date 03/31/2007
Location Oceanside, CA, USA
Event Half Ironman
Finish Time 05:57:27

 People come to Southern California because it’s always warm and sunny, right? That thought went through my head, when I was standing in Transition at 6:30 with temperatures in the lower 50s, my naked feet on the concrete floor that sucked every bit of warmth out of my body. Waiting for my wave of the swim start was probably the worst part of the whole race. It actually felt warm when I finally entered the water, although it only had 59F.

The swim itself, a short out-and-back in the Oceanside marina was uneventful, and - due to the wave start - not even crowded. A quick transition and off I was on my bike.

I had ordered myself a brand new bike (a Quintana Roo Tequilo). It arrived a day before I started my trip to California, so I didn’t even have the saddle height adjusted when I got to SoCal. The last time I had ridden a bike before that day? Sometime in June last year, I think.

Punishment came instantly. Since I am a reasonably good swimmer (and a very bad cyclist) I am used to getting passed on the bike constantly, so that didn’t worry me. But after about 15 minutes, my hands fell asleep, my back started hurting and I felt ready to quit.

I had more-or-less ridden the bike porting of the race a year before, so I knew that it featured a VERY steep climb in the middle of Camp Pendleton. This year, with this bike, this gear-set and no training, it proved to much for me. When your standing with your full body weight on a pedal, and the bike doesn’t move, its time to step off and walk. Lucky for me, the climb wasn’t very long, so the embarrassment of walking lasted for less than two minutes.

Nevertheless, I got my act together on the run, and although it finally got quite hot and sunny and my legs hurt, ran a (for me very decent) 2:03 half marathon, allowing me to finish in just under 6 hours total, which was my goal time for this event.

Lessons learned:

1. At night, even in Southern California, the sun does not always shine
2. A great bike, without a proper bike fit, is a crappy bike
3. Always pack a pair of throw-away shoes/flip-flops
4. The pain in your legs at the start of the run really goes away
5. When that happens, the end of the run isn’t too far away

Books and crazy ideas

Borders.com Sent me a coupon for 20% off of any book that expired today.

So I went to Borders to look for a book. Got an idea. Since I bough me a bike (which I didn't use so far), it might be good to buy a book on bikes as well. You know, just the basics, maintenance, how to sit correctly and so on.

Went to the sports book section. Found a book on bikes. Also found a book called "Becoming An Ironman" (ISBN 1-891369-31-8) which contains personal stories of Ironman first-timers. Bought the latter. Also bought "Triathlon Training". Did not buy a book on bikes.

At night I read both books about halfway trough.

23.00 Checked the Ironman Website. Almost everything for this year is sold out. Florianopolis in Brazil is not. May 28th. A little under 13 weeks. The last time I have ridden a bike for more than 30 mins was 7 years ago. Swimming more or less the same. Marathon I am currently training on (LA, March 19th).

Hmmmmm, I think I will sleep on it.

01.30 Can't sleep. Read more Ironman stories. Read up to the chapter of the DNFs (Did not finish). Talk to my girlfriend, she is skeptical, but fine with the idea (but she gave me hell about buying the bike). Check the training book again. There is a 12 week training schedule for an Ironman included.

It reads: "You should have some triathlon experience. You need to comfortably swim 1km, cycle 60km and run 12km, and you should be training regularly" OK, forget the first sentence. That's much to vague for me. What does comfortably mean? Given all the time in the world I can definitely do the requirements. Or does that mean all in one day? Oh, what the heck, I think I'll just try.

02:10 Signed up for Ironman Brazil.