Is that all you've got?

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to let you all know that yesterday I took on, and conquered, the dreaded really long run that was a part of my training plan for the Marathon. This is a major milestone in my suffering; I mean training, towards the main goal on April 17th 2011.

I left the house at about 9.35am to run the 2.7km to the train station. At 9.57am I jumped on the train to a town called Eberbach arriving at 10:28. Of course there is only one guarantee when you are in a remote place and that is that you will need the bathroom. After some frantic searching one was located and I was all set for the run.

Now doing a long run ordinarily is a pain in the rear. It takes a lot of preparation and will power to even set off for a 25mile run let along not give up somewhere along the way when it starts to hurt. You have to get yourself properly hydrated before you leave, you need to take “energy” with you – more on that later – and you need to make sure you have enough fluids along the way.

My plan was to run 10km and walk for a short while in 3 bursts and then to try and run through to the 40km mark. I inserted the walking not because I am a big girls blouse but because I really wanted to minimize the time needed to recover and because that is one way to make sure you limit your chance of injury. Unlike after the Marathon I will still have to train this week so a fast recovery is something I have had to look for.

The weather gods were not on my side for my run though. This is especially evident as I look outside the window today (28^th Feb) to find that the sun is shining even if it is cold. During the run yesterday I think I saw drizzle, heavy rain, cloudy cold, a bit of sun and towards the end (the last 3 km’s) I got hit by hailstone. I have to admit to proclaiming “Is that all you’ve got” looking up to the sky when the hailstone was flying down. It really felt like someone was challenging my sanity and testing my motivation. I am not a religious person but I asked my mum to nip over and sort out the weather for me.

The actual run itself was ok, at least for the first 30km. I ran the first 10km with no problems, got to 21.1km (in 2hrs 10mins) with no real issues and at the planned pace. At 21.1km I busted out my secret new weapon in nutrition which was a Mars bar – I have to say it was great and might form part of the race day plans now. From about 30km onwards it was a major fight if I am being honest. Walking seems like a good idea but starting again after you have walked is not easy!

Having got to 37.3 km, and 40km overall, I decided to walk the last 1.7km (mile) back to the house to try and ease off the legs. I called my wife and asked her to start the bath running as I was about to be there and my legs were screaming at me. I finally got through the door at 15:00 some 5+ hours after I left cold, tired but feeling pretty pleased that the longest training run is now out of the way. I dived straight into the bath to try and loosen up the legs and after that I ate a dinner for 2 to myself before settling down to watch the cricket and the football on TV. It was a bit of a slow day after that to be honest and this morning, apart from a tight muscle on my left leg, I feel pretty good. I will not be heading out today and maybe not tomorrow while I recover.

Overall I managed 58km for the week starting out with a loop of the Umstead in Cary, including a short run around the fields with Oscar in Heidelberg and ending up with a mammoth run. In February I covered 207km or 128miles which given the amount of work I had on, and the amount of travel, was a very successful month in my opinion (now up to 448km/278miles for the year). For those of you who signed up to see me suffer I have to say this has been the month of suffering. I do enjoy my job a lot and generally it is not that compatible with marathon training. That said, the last 2 weeks in particular allowed me to train in decent weather in San Francisco and in Cary so on this occasion it worked out well. Jet Lag is a perfect driver for training runs especially when you wake up before breakfast even starts.

Below is a map of the route I ran for the big long run.

Eberbach to Rohrbach along the Neckar

Accumulated pace over the run. You can see the walk breaks, which is where the accumulated pace climbs, as well as the walk towards the end.

Torr on Tour

Yikes, it has again been a few weeks since I update my blog.  No danger of me flooding your mailboxes with spam emails announcing new updates at this rate. Some of you will be very happy about that and others will be feeling short changed for your investment. After all I know many people were looking forward to seeing my suffering unfold. I have been a bit lazy on this update linking to albums in facebook as opposed to putting a lot of photos into this blog. Hope you don't mind.. and if you do.. well.. tough ;-)

As you know the last 3 weeks have been hectic. I have been in Copenhagen in Denmark, San Francisco in the USA and then in Cary in the USA.  I will actually fly home tomorrow and I have to say I am looking forward to it now even though I hear the weather is terrible back home and I may live to regret the decision.  I have had a terrific time on my travels with many people. I have got a lot of work done making most trips very productive but most importantly for the purpose of this blog I have managed to keep on training throughout and mostly in much nicer weather. There are perks to this work travel thing J.

So let’s travel back in time and I will update you on my running insanity

Copenhagen, Denmark

I flew up to Copenhagen on February 8^th having smashed my previous best 20km time (reported that in the last blog) on February 6^th. I did manage to get in two very short runs on the 8^th and 9^th of around 6.5km or 4 miles along the Harbor front meaning a bit of a sea breeze occupied me on my runs – nothing that appropriate running gear and gloves could not solve! The week was a pretty busy one work wise and a massive part of that week was the networking that happens around some of the events we run to make sure people spend time with their peers. To have got in 2 runs was a plus and at least it kept me ticking over.

The route I took was an out and back course that took in the little Mermaid and a few other sights of Copenhagen along the waterfront in Copenhagen.  Copenhagen also saw the  final beer being drunk for me for the next 2 months (until after the Marathon). Of course this was a momentous night and had to be marked appropriately so I setup a teambuilding event for our team at a local Brewery where we had a fantastic  5 course meal with a different beer brewed there between every course and a 12% beer to top it all off as an additional extra. After the beers we retired to play the game Werewolf and generally kill each other which is ironic given your supposed to be building team spirit, but it was my idea J.  I was going to paste photos into this blog but it seems like too much effort so instead you can follow this link to run the entire route I took using photos. At the end of this blog you will find one picture of the entire team I work in enjoying their beers at the brewery. Copenhagen is a really nice city but alas I had to leave on Friday 11^th since I had a plane to catch on Friday 12^th

San Francisco, USA

Having flown home on the 12^th, and arrived at about 11pm, the 8am pickup for the Airport on the 13^th seemed to come way too soon. That said what needs to be done needs to be done and I headed to the Airport for the near 23 hour slog to the east coast of the USA and then over to San Francisco finally arriving there some 32 hours after leaving Copenhagen. The beauty of leaving on the 13^th is that I knew that if all went well I would be able to run on Sunday 14^th and if something went wrong and I missed a connection somewhere I would still be able to make it there in time for the conference I was attending on the Monday and Tuesday.

Well, I arrived fine in San Francisco on the 13^th with no hiccups along the way. I woke up promptly the next morning at about 5am and with the TV telling me it would be the nicest day for a while in San Francisco there really was no excuse not to run. So I sorted myself out, got into my running gear and went out for a long run that took me down Market street, along all the piers, over a fort, along chrissy field and up, over the Golden Gate Bridge to Vista Point and back along the same route.  That run was 30.51km or 18.96 miles. I took my Camera with me and below are a few pictures of me along the route. If you want to run the route in photos then click this link. It was great to run over the bridge having only been on a whistle stop sightseeing tour in San Francisco before.

When I finally arrived back at the hotel I have to say I was completely exhausted. I was feeling like I had just run a double marathon (not that I will ever know what that really feels like). The combination of Jet Lag, the excesses of the week before, the early start to the day and the long run… I would just like to go on record as saying it was a DUMB idea ;-)  That said at least the long run was done and with the few KMs in Copenhagen I managed just short of 44km of running over a week that included 4 flights and 3 countries :-)

Monday 14^th was the first day of the conference and I was still in a world of hurt after the long run so I took it easy that day and skipped the run. On Tuesday 15^th I got up extra early and managed a very slow 6km (not even 4 miles) on the treadmill very slow. This turned out to be a good idea even though at the time I think there was a lot of profanity cycling in my own mind as I ran those few KMs.. it is a good job it was just in my head otherwise my run might have been even shorter J

Wednesday 16^th was my last day in San Francisco as I was taking the Red Eye that night over to Cary. In addition the conference was now over and the beauty of the west coast of the US is that the European Work day is over pretty early and the East coast US one only mildly interferes with your day. I got up super early again and managed to run just over 15km on the treadmill at a decent pace (I did not venture outside as it was pitch black). I then worked for a while before meeting with an old work colleague who now works from the San Francisco office for a late lunch.  By now a glorious day was unfolding in San Francisco so I took the opportunity to wander around a little like a tourist and pick up one or two souvenirs.  That little wander too me on a walk of about 5 miles and if you fancy joining my scenic tourist walk you can do so by following this link.

Cary, USA

So on Thursday 17^th I arrived in Cary, North Carolina having flown all night from San Francisco. I decided that the 17^th could be a day off as I was pretty exhausted and I had a full day of work ahead of me. On Friday 18^th I met up with Bernard Doering who, through a strange twist of fate, happened to be in Cary at the same time. We ran the Umstead loop (you can run this loop in photos by clicking this link) which is a 13.5km/8.3mile run in some lovely woodland near to the hotel and to SAS.  On Saturday the 19^th (Bernard left that morning) I joined Karyn Long and her running buddies as they did a 10 mile run but I added a little more on my own before meeting them getting in another 31.13km/19.34mile run. I have to say that I felt very fresh after the long run and the next day I was totally fine (for the first time after a 30km plus run) so maybe I am making progress. I used the Sunday and the Monday to do two more loops of the Umstead. With the loop on Sunday I took my total distance for the week up to around 79km which is around 50 miles.

Today it is Tuesday and I have an early work start. Woke up super early hence I finally got to this blog. I need to take a break anyway so today seems as good a day as any. I will endeavor to run tomorrow before I fly home to Germany and the cold weather that awaits.

It has been a blast the last few weeks and I have caught up with so many good people along the way. In some ways I have enjoyed it, I have got a lot done work wise but as you all know.. there is “No Place  Like Home” and soon I will be back there!

Going Dry

As you all know I have also resolved to not drink until after the Marathon and since I left Copenhagen that has gone pretty well. I just want to say that my Cary friends are an evil mob having taunted me with Beer during my stay and having nicknamed me Desmond tutu because I choose to run in running tights on a day some people thought was most appropriate for shorts :o) . I will seek revenge in the future so watch out and for Rob and Justin that starts now with these two terrible pictures of you appearing in Public below ;-)

Thanks for reading this long blog and I look forward to my next update to you which hopefully will not be 3 weeks away ;-).

Mark.

                                                   The little Mermaid (very little) In Copenhagen

                                             Team Enjoying a Few Drinks In Copenhagen

                                 Me with Alcatraz in the background in San Francisco (long run day)

                     Me with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background  in San Francisco (long run day)

                                                                   Justin - Revenge!

                                                                   Rob - Revenge

                                             Me on the exit from Umstead Park in Cary

                    Me at Vista Point in San Francisco having crossed the brige (long run day)

 

7 days to going dry and a long 3 weeks ahead

Ok Ok… it has been 21 days since my last real blog entry about what I have been up to. I apologize already for being slack with the typing fingers even if the little legs have not had the same opportunity to be so lazy.

Week of January 17^th

The week of the 17^th of January was actually a productive running week with 5 runs over the week totaling just under 66km/41 miles of running. The biggest run of that week was no doubt the run on Sunday 23^rd when I covered 30.6km together with Bernard, Petri and Hannes… well actually only Hannes joined for the fully distance but Bernard and Petri covered 21km of that with Hannes and I. The run actually went pretty well in terms of muscles and heart rate but I was once again afflicted by the mysterious frozen left hand problem that I had once when doing a much slower run. It was pretty cold and I can still feel the pain as my hand defrosted afterwards at home if I think about it.  I am really not sure why that is happening but I suspect I may be throttling my left wrist with my watch…

Week of January 24^th

The week of January 24^th saw me only run 3 times covering a total of36km/22 miles.  I had work colleagues in town starting on Wednesday and that disrupted my running schedule. I did enjoy the nice food and beers during the days I did not run though J. I always find it hard to get going again when I have not been running for some days. It was also really tough to run on the 29^th and 30^th once they had left as I was pretty exhausted from all the work and festivities. Thank goodness for the treadmill and some good English Premier League football for keeping me running! In fact all my runs that week were done on the treadmill as I struggled to find the motivation or the time to step outside in the cold.

Week of January 31^st  

The week starting January 31^st until today (February 6^th) has probably been one of the hardest since I started training. It got off to a great start on the 31^st with a very quick 15km run in arctic temperatures. On the outbound part of the run the left side of my face was iced up and on the inbound part the right side of my face was iced up. I think by the time I got home I was pretty much unable to speak. Running in the cold sucks. I think to keep my running up I need to move somewhere warm for 2 months! Tuesday through Friday saw me not do any running. I had some work meetings that started at 9am and did not finish until 7pm most nights (I probably contributed to them running long so I will only mildly complain). After the meetings finished we continued discussions normally until 10pm, or later, over dinner so the chances of me getting up early to run was nil. The meetings all finished on Thursday at about 5 but I could not resist taking out some work colleagues in Elisha, Scott (plus Scotts brother in law who made a special guest appearance), Mark, Paul and Mike for dinner at Schmidts in Heidelberg followed by a raucous night at the Brass Monkey Quiz with a subset of those (some would say the sensible ones left after dinner). Petri did join us at some point through the night too J

We were basically crap at quiz but I want to suggest that the main reason for that is that too much alcohol was flowing if there is such a thing and Johnny Mac is a sick puppy J in the topics he selects – it is not general knowledge but Johnny Knowledge. I had a good night despite coming almost last and given I am away next week I hope everyone appreciates our choice of specialist topic which will be 70’s Disco Music at next week’s quiz. I think that will be an entertaining quiz since 80% of the people in the bar are not even 30 most weeks. Big shout out to Mike who arrived late and knew most answers we did not but unfortunately contributed nothing to our marvelous failure as he had deserted us for Gabi, Gelo and Brigham during the main event!

Friday was a slow day but filled with a lot of work. Those in my team will attest to that as I cross crossed the globe using webcams and Microsoft communicator. Needless to say that when 6pm came I was pretty much on my last legs…. My brain probably shut down at 5pm and it is only really today that it has re-emerged from its state of death.  I did decline invites to party on Friday night and even stayed in to watch England beat Wales at Rugby on Saturday. My body needed to rest and I needed to work out all the alcohol in my system. I did go out for a short 6km trot with Oscar on Saturday 5^th to get the legs moving (and almost died in the process having not done anything for a week except drink beer, work and eat great food).

Today I went with Bernard and Petri to run the Rheinzabern 20km run. This is the third race in a series of 3. Petri was running his first 20km and ran a very good 1hr 47mins. Bernard finished in right around 2 hours. I actually managed to break my best 20km race time finishing in just over 1hr 33mins. I put that down to the fact that I basically did not run last week (so thanks to Scott and Elisha for helping with that. J)

In total in January I managed to run 240km which is about 150miles. A pretty successful month when you consider crap weather, work invasions to my running schedule, a lot of good food and too much beer J. I also managed 41km over the past 7 days which is not bad.

Going dry and a long 3 weeks

The next 3 weeks are pretty big ones in my schedule towards the London Marathon. Unfortunately they are big ones not because of the training I have ahead of me but because they will be ones that are going to test my running motivation.

Starting next week I fly up to Copenhagen on Tuesday 8^th for work and I am there until Friday 11^th when I fly back to Frankfurt. On Saturday 12^th I fly over to San Francisco for work and I head from San Francisco overnight on the red eye to Cary on Wednesday 16^th where I stay until Wednesday 23^rd before returning getting back to Frankfurt on the 24^th.  So I am going to have to find time to run in all these places with Jet Lag and work also in play.

In addition I have decided that as of Friday 11^th I will be going on my self-imposed no alcohol stint for the 2 months building up to the London Marathon. Those of you that know me will realize that this is a major commitment from my side. In some ways I am pleased I am committing to it and in other ways I know it will be hard not to drink for 2 months especially when I am going to spend time with a lot of awesome people all over the world.  

You can help me if you see me by not buying me an alcoholic drink or suggesting I take one. Non-alcoholic drinks will be my friend as of the end of this week. The hope is that this will help me drive on with my training.

While in San Francisco and Cary I need to do 2 long runs (30km+) as well as numerous more short runs. If anyone knows good route or if anyone wants to join me on the trails let me know.

I know this is a long blog but I am making up for my laziness over the past weeks. Thanks for your continued support. If you know anyone that has not contributed, that you think may enjoy my pain and suffering, then get them to dig deep and join the rest of the awesome people that have and help me run to make a difference to young peoples lives.