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Finishing another chapter

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:21:49 +0000

With the permanent return to Germany last Friday I ended another part of my life. I can say that it was the best part of my life so far. Way too many things to write them down here in such a blog. So let’s keep it simple and say that I’m not sure if I’ll ever be as lightly-hearted, fulfilled and satisfied as during my time in Finland…

The time in Germany started – as expected – pretty bad. Some 10 hours after I returned to my home town another journey started to the German Cross-Country Championships. A race I did not finish for several reasons (bad shape, lack of sleep, stress of the last weeks, wrong shoes, deep turf,…).

My travel to Germany was actually enjoyable, compared to the first road trip some two weeks ago. Only 13 hours of driving and some 20 hours on the ferry.

where the air is fresher…

admin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 21:34:55 +0000

After a tough car journey from my home town Zwickau to Jyväskylä, Finland greeted me with best winter conditions of -15°C.
Some facts and st6ories of my journey:
-started in Zwickau Sunday at 17.00
-couldn’t sleep on the way to Stockholm because the car got cold after 20minutes
-saw some fatal icy roads in Denmark/Sweden and several cars next to it, also some traffic jams because of the crashes
-arrived in Stockholm Monday at 17.30
-got a temperature shock in the Swedish capital (from +7°C in Zwickau to -16°C)
-took the ferry Stockholm-Turku (departure: Mon. 20.00 arrival: Tue. 7.30)
-didn’t book a cabin in the ferry, so I had to sleep on the floor next to the noisy kids
-almost fell asleep in the car on the last 300km from Turku to Jyväskylä
-arrived in Jyväskylä Tuesday 11.30
-first building I entered in Jyväskylä: Liikunta Sports faculty / treadmill in the gym where I ran 30minutes easy with reaaaaalllly sore legs

-total time of travel: fourty-two (42)
-total kilometers of travel by car: twothousand-fifty (2.050)
-total hours slept during the trip: approx. 5-6

Pretty rough trip but still it only took me couple of hours to fall in love with this place again. Do I really want to / have to leave this place?

Today a first good training run with my good old mate Miika – the guy that has a 5 seconds better marathon-BP Just impossible to believe how good you can run in winter conditions with lot of snow when there is a good winter service. Last days and weeks in Germany have just been ugly.

Travelling

admin — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:59:15 +0000

Last weeks have been pretty busy, even though the training load and volume was not that high. I’m working on some new projects and the progress was not as fast as expected. However, now I made some steps and it’s only a matter of time. The biggest project was to create an online-shop (Suunto devices), and it’s almost ready to go online. The online shop is in German but it might be that there will be an English Version later on.

The next couple of weeks I’m going to travel quite a lot. First of all I’ll go to Finland, starting my journey on Sunday and taking a ferry from Stockholm to Turku on Monday night. I’ll give up my apartment in Jyväskylä/FIN and I have to move out at 28th of February. Somehow it’s difficult to believe that this part of my life is coming to an end. On the other I already took some extra time to graduate and enjoyed the conditions in Jyväskylä.

Antje Möldner to miss complete season 2010

admin — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:12:23 +0000

German 3000m steeple champion Antje Möldner will not be able to compete in 2010. That also means she will not participate in the European Championships in Barcelona. Möldner has a lymphoid cells disorder which requires long-term treatment. Her return to training will most probably be in November 2010. The German hope was 9th in the Berlin World Championships last year with a German record of 9:18.54 min.

Round-up week 6

admin — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:21:34 +0000

Another week with mixed feelings passed. Until mid-week everything was fine, but when more snow hit my home region on Wednesday the joy was completely gone. Because of the slippery, uneven conditions I got some blisters on my toes and my ankles got inflamed. Additionally our stove was broken from Tuesday to Friday – 4 days without heating can be a long time …

Mo: AM: 75min easy, PM: 50min easy
Tu: 115min easy long run
We: AM: track workout with running mate Remo: 7×1000m (3:34/3:24/3:22/3:29/3:25/3:19/3:24) 400m jog recovery, 15min warm-up/cool-down; PM: 55min very easy
Th: AM: 90min very easy, PM: 45min very easy
Fr: AM: 80min easy with Remo, PM: 20min warm-up jog + 60min easy indoor soccer
Sa: 25min very easy
Su: AM: 60min very easy jog, PM: 70min bicycle (reel)

“workout wednesday” on a snow-covered track

Round-up week 5

admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:20:09 +0000

First part of the week was once again difficult to run. However, towards the end of the week about 60-70% of my runs were ice-free, so I could add some medium stuff every now and then. The body is getting used to 25K/day and except for some smaller issues I feel healthy.
Last weeks training:

Mo: AM: 70min easy, PM: 50min easy
Tu: AM: 50min easy, PM: 85min easy
We: 90min easy
Th: AM: 75min easy, PM: 45min medium-easy (uphills medium, downhills easy)
Fr: AM: 90min easy, PM: 20min warm-up jog + 70min indoor soccer
Sa: AM: 65min easy, PM: 60min easy
Su: AM: 75min easy, PM: 45min easy with Fartleks

Thomas Dold remains king of the stairs with 5th victory in Empire State Building Run 2010

admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:17:22 +0000

It took Thomas Dold 10 minutes and 16 seconds to earn his record-tying fifth consecutive win in the Empire State Building Run-Up to the top of New York’s tallest building.

Grimacing as he lunged across the finish line on the 86th floor observation deck, the 25-year-old from Stuttgart (Germany) beat fellow German Matthias Jahn (10:56min) up the 1,576 steps by 40 seconds. “I’m so tired … It was quite hard,” Dold said. He is the third person to win the race five times. His only loss was a photo finish in his 2005 debut.

First women was Melissa Moon, 40, of Wellington (New Zealand) in 13 minutes 13 seconds. She finished panting, but smiling. “Oh, look at that view!” she said at the top.

The unorthodox race has been run 33 times since 1978. Competitors start in the lobby, where they take just a few strides before squeezing through a doorway and into a stairwell for the long climb.

International PSD Bank Meeting Düsseldorf 2010 live stream

admin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:03:44 +0000

Todays indoor athletics meeting will be broadcasted live on Eurosport from 19.10-21.00 (CET-central european time). A live online coverage can be found here.

Six olympic champions will compete in Düsseldorf; Dayron Robles, Allen Johnson, Tomasz Majewski, Chandra Sturrup, Yuriy Borzakovsky and Dwight Phillips will face strong fields.

Round-up week 4

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:38:36 +0000

Mileage is back up where it should be (just over 170km) but sometimes the winter conditions really suck! No use to do faster stuff on the slippery roads and forest trails.

Last weeks training:

Mo: AM: 60min easy, PM: 45min easy
Tu: AM: 70min easy, PM: 40min easy
We: AM: 95min easy, PM: 45min easy
Th: AM: 75min easy, PM: 40min easy
Fr: PM: 60min alternating speed (20min easy + 6×1,7km in 7:10/6:25/7:00/6:05/7:05/5:55) + 70min indoor soccer
Sa: 125min very easy
Su: AM: 60min very easy jog, PM: 85min easy

Round-up week 3

admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:38:53 +0000

Last weeks training:

Mo: AM: 45min easy, PM: 40min easy
Tu: AM: 45min easy, PM: 60min easy
We: AM: 65min easy, PM: 40min easy
Th: AM: 65min easy, PM: 40min easy
Fr: AM: 65min easy , PM: 50min easy + 70min indoor soccer
Sa: AM: 65min easy, PM: 40min medium-easy
Su: AM: 25min easy, PM: 65min easy