New week and a snow mouse
After a recovery week with ~100 km it's back to work now. The first important competition (german nationals halfmarathon) is only 6 weeks away and from now on there is no return. This week will still be quite easy: plan is to get to 160-170km (all-easy) again and in the next weeks some speed work is added. Today a nice run with Miika. 1 1/2 hour, so almost as long as sundays "long run". Anyway, we saw a mouse in the middle of the run! Running across the snow and right into the forest - strange Finland.
In German Indoor Champs there were some more good results on Sunday. Best distance competition was the men's 1500m. Carsten Schlangen took the title in 3:38.47 (that's TOP 20 in the world this year) and also 2nd place Christoph Lohse (3:39.60) will go to Valencia for the world indoor championships. The performances in the women races were not as good as on the men's side. Personally I was very delighted that Julia Börner took the bronze medal in the 1500. She is only 18years and started her career in my home club (SV Vorwärts Zwickau) before she was drafted from a bigger club.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
German and Finnish Indoor Nationals this weekend
Results (including some cool highlights-videos) of German championships here. Jan Fitschen won the 3000m in 7:54,43, after starting his famous long sprint with ~500m to go, Arne Gabius, Filmon Ghirmai and Sebastian Hallmann also ran reasonable times. Over 800m favourites Robin Schembera, Rene Herms and Nils Schumann qualified for the final without too big problems. Jonas Hamm qualified for the finals over 1500m but is not one of the favourites. In race walking Andre Höhne (men, 5000m) and Melanie Seeger (women, 3000m, new world lead) took the titles as expected.
Results of Finnish championships here.
Results (including some cool highlights-videos) of German championships here. Jan Fitschen won the 3000m in 7:54,43, after starting his famous long sprint with ~500m to go, Arne Gabius, Filmon Ghirmai and Sebastian Hallmann also ran reasonable times. Over 800m favourites Robin Schembera, Rene Herms and Nils Schumann qualified for the final without too big problems. Jonas Hamm qualified for the finals over 1500m but is not one of the favourites. In race walking Andre Höhne (men, 5000m) and Melanie Seeger (women, 3000m, new world lead) took the titles as expected.
Results of Finnish championships here.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Recovery - or not? or what?
After the weekend, when I was totally tired I decided to take an easier week now. Actually the recovery week was planned for next week, but I just felt horrible and decided that there was no reason for a self-punishment. So I am taking it a bit easier. What does that mean? Well, I don't set myself any goals concerning the next exercises. In the morning I wake up and decide if I'm going for a morning run or not. Most of all it's about the mental effort, that makes the difference ...
However, even in a "recovery" week I have some good workouts. Yesterday 2hours skiing in nice conditions and with company - great. Today I decided to go to the gym in the evening - making some weights and maybe socialising a bit was the plan. But: there is a treadmill in the gym and after some time the treadmill was free and most of the machines were occupied. I ended up doing 2x5 K in 3:20min/km pace with 15mins stretching inbetween. Not like recovery - but as I said: it's all about the mental effort.
Recovery will continue anyway and some more km's on ski will follow later this week.
After the weekend, when I was totally tired I decided to take an easier week now. Actually the recovery week was planned for next week, but I just felt horrible and decided that there was no reason for a self-punishment. So I am taking it a bit easier. What does that mean? Well, I don't set myself any goals concerning the next exercises. In the morning I wake up and decide if I'm going for a morning run or not. Most of all it's about the mental effort, that makes the difference ...
However, even in a "recovery" week I have some good workouts. Yesterday 2hours skiing in nice conditions and with company - great. Today I decided to go to the gym in the evening - making some weights and maybe socialising a bit was the plan. But: there is a treadmill in the gym and after some time the treadmill was free and most of the machines were occupied. I ended up doing 2x5 K in 3:20min/km pace with 15mins stretching inbetween. Not like recovery - but as I said: it's all about the mental effort.
Recovery will continue anyway and some more km's on ski will follow later this week.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
The journey is the reward
This week was another important week on the way to the "big" halfmarathon / marathon races this spring. The week started well, with a good workout (7x800m in ~2:25) on Monday evening and some good mileage on Tuesday. Wednesday was easier day in terms of training, because I had some measurements with the finnish national team in shooting (e.g. Juha Hirvi, Silver medalist in the Olympics) followed by my first social evening since a long time. Thursday a medium-fast workout on treadmill (16,5km in 1hour) with really good legs and Friday another mileage day. However, yesterday I started to struggle a bit and my "morning" run took place at around 1PM! I just couldn't get myself out and also the speed was really slow. In the late evening I went out for another run, but it was the same story: rather short and easy pace. Todays long run was pretty much the same: I started not before 5.30PM because of lacking motivation. Damn, I ate and slept the whole day. Somehow it seems the training takes it toll. This week I made almost 200km (between 180 and 190 in total) and now I think I'm able to do 200K in the direct preparation for the marathon.
The big days for me this spring will be the 6th of April (German Championships halfmarathon in Calw) and of course the 4th of May (German Championships marathon in Mainz), when I will give my marathon debut. For those two races it's worth to put yourself through pain and misery.
P.S.: If any of my Finnish readers is thinking about participating in one of the German Championships, I could maybe help to get a spot.
This week was another important week on the way to the "big" halfmarathon / marathon races this spring. The week started well, with a good workout (7x800m in ~2:25) on Monday evening and some good mileage on Tuesday. Wednesday was easier day in terms of training, because I had some measurements with the finnish national team in shooting (e.g. Juha Hirvi, Silver medalist in the Olympics) followed by my first social evening since a long time. Thursday a medium-fast workout on treadmill (16,5km in 1hour) with really good legs and Friday another mileage day. However, yesterday I started to struggle a bit and my "morning" run took place at around 1PM! I just couldn't get myself out and also the speed was really slow. In the late evening I went out for another run, but it was the same story: rather short and easy pace. Todays long run was pretty much the same: I started not before 5.30PM because of lacking motivation. Damn, I ate and slept the whole day. Somehow it seems the training takes it toll. This week I made almost 200km (between 180 and 190 in total) and now I think I'm able to do 200K in the direct preparation for the marathon.
The big days for me this spring will be the 6th of April (German Championships halfmarathon in Calw) and of course the 4th of May (German Championships marathon in Mainz), when I will give my marathon debut. For those two races it's worth to put yourself through pain and misery.
P.S.: If any of my Finnish readers is thinking about participating in one of the German Championships, I could maybe help to get a spot.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
The end of a good week
This week turned out to be really satisfying in terms of training. A lot of volume (some days with more than 30km) including several medium-fast kilometers. Today I recovered in the morning and delayed the long run to the afternoon. It was a good decision because legs were fresh and the easy, steady pace felt alright. In those slushy, icy conditions it's not the biggest fun to run and if I wouldn't feel so good I could probably blame the weather and the poor conditions. Somehow there seems to be no real winter this year. Although there is quite a bit of snow here in Jyväskylä the temperatures are on the plus-side of the scale for the most of the day and the usual winter-temperatures of up to -30°C haven't been here yet - and it's already middle of February. But there's no reason to complain about the weather. You have to take it as it comes and it just makes you mentally stronger as a distance runner.
This week turned out to be really satisfying in terms of training. A lot of volume (some days with more than 30km) including several medium-fast kilometers. Today I recovered in the morning and delayed the long run to the afternoon. It was a good decision because legs were fresh and the easy, steady pace felt alright. In those slushy, icy conditions it's not the biggest fun to run and if I wouldn't feel so good I could probably blame the weather and the poor conditions. Somehow there seems to be no real winter this year. Although there is quite a bit of snow here in Jyväskylä the temperatures are on the plus-side of the scale for the most of the day and the usual winter-temperatures of up to -30°C haven't been here yet - and it's already middle of February. But there's no reason to complain about the weather. You have to take it as it comes and it just makes you mentally stronger as a distance runner.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
3000m sub 9
Today I had the first competition in 2008. It was the Central-Finnland Championship (Keski-Suomen hallimestaruuskilpailut) and I ran the 3.000m. The performance of finishing 3rd in 8:57,60 min was reasonable. Taking into account that I only had one fast track session this year (5x800), my aim was to run under 9 minutes and well I've done it. I know that I don't have the best speed but with this time I'm confident that I can run 5K under 15 minutes in the summer time. So far I never ran a timed 5K under 15, even though the second half of my 10K personal best (30:04min) was faster than 15.
The rest of the week was somewhat awkward: monday I had to run on treadmill (16,2K in 1 hour) because the indoor track was not accesible (there was a football match going on). On Tuesday evening I went for cross-country skiing - the first time on finnish snow! This unusual exercise might have caused the problems that I had in my foot on Wednesday and Thursday. I guess there was an inflammation and it was smetimes quite painful. In fact so painful that I had to cut the morning exercises short and Th. evening I only could go for 1h spinning on the bike. After this misery I was not sure if I could compete at all on the weekend, but Friday was ok (no pain during jogging) so I could go for it.
Today I had the first competition in 2008. It was the Central-Finnland Championship (Keski-Suomen hallimestaruuskilpailut) and I ran the 3.000m. The performance of finishing 3rd in 8:57,60 min was reasonable. Taking into account that I only had one fast track session this year (5x800), my aim was to run under 9 minutes and well I've done it. I know that I don't have the best speed but with this time I'm confident that I can run 5K under 15 minutes in the summer time. So far I never ran a timed 5K under 15, even though the second half of my 10K personal best (30:04min) was faster than 15.
The rest of the week was somewhat awkward: monday I had to run on treadmill (16,2K in 1 hour) because the indoor track was not accesible (there was a football match going on). On Tuesday evening I went for cross-country skiing - the first time on finnish snow! This unusual exercise might have caused the problems that I had in my foot on Wednesday and Thursday. I guess there was an inflammation and it was smetimes quite painful. In fact so painful that I had to cut the morning exercises short and Th. evening I only could go for 1h spinning on the bike. After this misery I was not sure if I could compete at all on the weekend, but Friday was ok (no pain during jogging) so I could go for it.
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