Ave Moi and Happy Birthday to me

Few weeks back we went to see Asterix at the Olympic Games and Alain Delon played Julius Caesar. He kept hitting his chest with his right fist and declared: "Ave moi!"
That's sums it up for me today. Total for the week: 91.08ks - new record.

At least today, as yesterday I was a bit in the doldrums. Whilst I did close to 35ks, I was really struggling for the first 28k - courtesy of having slept in on Thursday and not having time to do intervals until Friday. They really took it out of me and I was not happy yesterday morning.

Today's my birthday and I "celebrated" by doing a dash around Kings Park - 12ks in under an hour at level 2, no wonder I'm happy.

Monday: Hills (Mount St x 8) 13.42ks - mentally quite tough after about the sixth time staring at that hill;
Tuesday: Medium long run 18.64ks, of which 8ks <5min/ks quite comfortably - which is a possible MP. Quite a good effort considering I donated blood (platelets) in the morning;
Wednesday: Rest;
Thursday: Woke up to the alarm and promptly fell asleep again - busy at work and had my mind on other things anyway;
Friday: Intervals, ladder as last week 12.04ks;
Saturday: Long run 34.82ks;
Sunday: Felt like an easy run 12.15ks.

Next week will be easy. Wednesday to Friday I will be on camp with junior and I won't bother taking any running gear with me. I'm planning on doing close to 70ks and then another hard week before starting the taper.

I'm not committing to a goal time for the marathon just yet, but given that I still lack speed, I doubt I'll go for anything faster than 3:30. Let's see how I go in the half and then I'll assess it again.

Wet 'n' Wild

Mmmmh, just typed up the blog and then it disappeared and even with auto-save I can't find it.

Will keep it short - same kind of program as last week, just with additional reps on Mount Street and Reabold Hill, extended the intervals to 400-800-1,200-1,600-1,200-800-400 and a longer long run.

Wussed out on Thursday, had to do the intervals on Friday and paid for it on Saturday's long run with very tired legs.

Total 81.18 ks for the week, the longest since August last year.

All systems go.

Nice going

Couldn't think of another title, but it sums up the week.

I am now well underway to make a start at Perth in 7 weeks' time. I still don't trust my knees not to have a lend of me, but we'll just have to see.

The satisfying part of the week was that work was full-on (including a post-midnight stint) but I still got the planned training done:

Monday: Hills (Mount St x6) 11.35k
Tuesday: Medium long run incl. Reabold Hill x2 14.24k
Wednesday: Rest (I think I deserved that after getting to be at 1:30)
Thursday: Intervals as last week 10k
Friday: Tempo run 6.5k
Saturday: Long run 30.34k at 5.23/k ave HR 139

Felt comfortable on every run except warm ups when the joints are just a bit creaky (this is old age, Sling!) and the last 5ks on the long run.

Pity about daylight saving not being introduced, I'll have to get used to running in daylight in the morning...

Star Trek is better than surgery

Way better. Go. See it. Awesome!

My fortunate 12 year old not only came to see it with me and his older brother on Thursday, he also got to see it again yesterday courtesy of one of his mates' birthday party. Boy, were we jealous.

Now to more prosaic things:

Week four in a four-weekly cycle means and reduced the mileage slightly, in effect by leaving out the tempo run on Friday. No riding this week either, although I had originally planned it. So that gave me another rest day on Wednesday. Total for the week 58.55k.
Monday: Hills (Mount Street x5) 10.75k
Tuesday: Medium longish at level 2 12k
Thursday: Intervals 400, 600, 800, 1200, 800, 600, 400, total 10k
Saturday: Long run 25.9k at 5:17 pace HR ave. 135 (previous week same course 5:21 pace HR ave 139).
And a brief session with weights in the gym after each run.
I am still shockingly slow but there is some improvement in the interval sessions.

The plan is pretty simple Monday hills, Tuesday medium long run, Wednesday ride or rest, Thursday intervals, Friday short tempo and Saturday long run. Sunday is always rest.

I'm not sure whether the sequence is right in the second part of the week, but I think if I don't overdo it with the tempo run I should be ok.

I won't do any races until the Perth Half and even then I'm more than likely going to do it at MP.

Live long and prosper!

Canned!

The surgery that is.
Despite increasing the load this week yet again, I am having hardly any trouble with the knees and as a result cancelled the surgery.

Time will tell how long it is going to take until I need to schedule it again, but for now I am planning to build up to firstly do the Perth Half and then possibly the Perth Marathon as well.

This week I put together a total of 65k running, but no riding. This included intervals, hills, medium-long run, MP run and a long run of 26ks.

With a three week taper for the marathon I should be able to put in four runs at 30k plus.

The half is two weeks before the marathon and more than likely I will not race it but rather use it as a MP run.

So much for a plan - now I just wish Mr Murphy will leave me alone.

Stumped!

After a slow start to the week (sore throat, runny nose), I was able to build up to a total of 60ks running and 30ks on the bike.

Trouble is though that both knees are travelling very nicely, in fact completely trouble-free.

Which then begs the question? What's the point of having surgery.

I'm just puzzled how bad it felt a month ago and yet I increased the mileage and it got better.

I'll give the orthopod a call tomorrow and then we'll see, but it looks as if I'm going to see Star Trek on the 7th, not the 8th!

Suggestions, ideas?

Slow blow-up

Despite a significant increase in mileage, the troublesome knee is holding up quite well. It's slowly, but only slowly accumulating fluid.
I guess that means I will need the surgery, but it's really rather preventative and all things being equal, I might manage to keep the interruption to the training to a minimum.
Perth Marathon won't be possible, though.
This week's figures:
Running 57.46k at 5:14m/k and HR 140 (4 days)
Cycling 59.04k at 29.25k/h and HR 127 (2 days)
Weights on 4 days
Today is rest day.

Now just waiting to get Epi's result from Canberra.

Status Report

To make it very clear, training-wise I have currently no idea what I am doing. I just go out there and enjoy myself.
A few weeks back I was in Albany for work and ran and rode a bit down there - very pleasant except that the wind seems to be coming from everywhere - usually the front.
Otherwise I have kept things quite easy and in return I am not having any knee trouble at the moment. With the surgery booked for 7 May (slight change in date - 27 April is public holiday), I feel like an absolute fraud.

Progress has been like this:
Week 23 March: Run 18.75k, Ride 45.33k;
Week 30 March: Run 32.36k, Ride 18.10k;
Week 6 April: Run 52.48k, Ride 15.7k.

Not sure where I'm going from here. Did an early morning run of 13.5k this morning and the knee is doing fine. A bit swollen, but not too bad. Nowhere near as bad as when I had it checked out.
I'm not even sure whether I want/need the op, but what I am certain is that if I cancel it, the knee will blow up within 5 seconds, Murphy's law.

Err, well, it was a week

Not quite sure how I can follow "Challenging Week" and "Massive Week", so I'll just leave it at that.

Saw the orthopod on Tuesday and to my surprise he suggested we leave the MRI be and go in straightaway to fix it. Fine by me. Know what's wrong with it anyway.
Trouble is of course he is a busy boy, so to tie it in with my commitments, I am now booked for 27 April.

Even if I were to keep building up the ks now, I would not be ready for the Perth Marathon, so I'll leave that one out yet again.

But C2S is definitely on the cards as is Rotto.

The week was quite easy. As by Tuesday the left knee had blown up like a balloon I opted for rest during the remainder of the week and that was the right thing to do. It's now just marginally bigger than the right one.

In the weeks going up to the op I'll focus on just a bit of running, a fair amount of riding and will spend more time in the gym to build up the muscles supporting the knee. And yes, losing a bit of weight would be a great idea. Last time it worked wonders for my recovery, so I'll stick to that.

I had planned to watch the triathlon OD championship today but because it was my mum's last day here and I wanted to spend a bit more time with her (who knows whether the 80 year old girl will make the travel down here again), I only caught a few glimpses of the race.

Anyway, plans have to be made to improve in the swimming department and not being able to run in May will be just the ticket to get some proper coaching. Clown - are you in? Let me know.

Plodding along

Yes, exactly that. Just keeping things ticking over to make sure I don't do too much damage for now.
Tuesday Run 11.27k @ 5:13 HR 144
Thursday Ride 17:08k @2:04 HR 120
Friday Run 15:34k @5:23 HR 142
Sunday Brick Ride 22:55 @2:05 HR 121, Run 6.6k @5:13 HR 134
On Thursday I also suffered my very first puncture, but I did not realise that until I pulled the bike out this morning at 5:30am. I suppose that's all part of the experience.
Knee is surprisingly good, if swollen, but of course I haven't really done anything serious.

More after Tuesday

Oh, just bugger it! aka every problem is an opportunity

Eventually old age was going to catch up with me, again, or so I thought with my right knee going. But as it happens that one is fine but the left one now giving me grief.

After bumbling about for six weeks I dragged myself off on Tuesdday to the GP who just confirmed that the meniscus in that one looks pretty shot.

So off to the orthopod on 10/3 and presumably he'll want to see an MRI and will tell me that as long as I am not bothered, there is no need to go into it. Predictably, I will be bothered and will want to have it fixed.

That's the bad part, the good part is that having my fears confirmed, I thought to myself, well, bugger it, thinking that before the last surgery I did the Perth HM and the C2S on virtually no training and quite enjoyed it.

So I put a bit of mileage in this week:
Tuesday Run 13k @ 5:11 HR 144
Thursday Run 13k @ 5:18 HR 145
Friday Ride 22k @ 2:06 HR 125
Sunday Run 15.3k @ 5:25 HR 148
Today Ride 70k @ 2:17 HR 121

The heart rate for the runs is a bit high, more in endurance territory than base as it should be now, but I felt comfortable and just going out was more important than watching the heart rate all the time. As I ran in the evening, the humidity and heat did not really help either.

On Sunday I happened to run for a while with John Annear who is training for Ironman China and gave me a couple of useful tips re swimming traing (Clown, you will hear more about this). I have now been told he is a famous former West Coast Eagle and physio so I suspect he knows his stuff.

This morning's ride was a shocker - at least on the way down from Scarborough to South Fremantle - the wind was strong and blustery and a couple of times I feared I was going to be blown off the bike - that obviously did not help with the speed.

So, how's the knee: pretty good actually, well apart from being swollen and painful, but since it is a dull pain. As long as I don't extend or flex it and turn on it, it's quite bearable.

For now, I intend to keep up a decent run every second day with a ride thrown in here and there. Until I know exactly what is going to happen, I think I'll leave out anything heavy such as speed work and intervals.

In Brief

In brief, the last two weeks have been utter nonsense.

Although I was taking time off from work, I was busy will all sorts of other stuff around the house (the renovating of the kids' rooms and frequent trips to Bunnings and Ikea being part of it), that I couldn't get my act together.

I won't even trouble myself adding up what I've done other than to note that the first four-week block of base training has passed.

Now that I am about to go back to work and have to adopt a more regular routine, I expect things to return to some state of normality. I've had to start working over the past few days and I've seen an improvement already with more regular runs and rides.

I haven't quite settled my plans for the year yet, although I know that the Australia Day Triathlon looks iffy.

On the other hand, Clown and Epi both are mumbling about Busselton IM in December and that is definitely something to work towards.

On a very bright note, Lucius is due back tomorrow night!

Taking a Break

And I did.
I needed some rest after the effort in September and October and although I kept active a bit, there was no structure or plan behind it.
The niggles I was suffering from for a number of weeks have disappeared and as of last Monday, I am back in training.
The focus this year will be on triathlons with the first one being the Australia Day Triathlon at Point Walter on, well, Australia Day. From there on we'll see.
Much will depend on whether I finally manage to learn to swim comfortably, something which looks like an impossibility at present.
I am aiming at going for a swim three times a week, not for very long, but just to get used to it. Eventually I will probably need to get some coaching.
The riding is coming along quite nicely, I really enjoy that. It's also a lot easier as I can ride into work virtually any day I like - if I feel like it and am properly organised.
So this week looked as follows (all pretty much base training, except for swimming which included drills):
Monday: Run 33', Weights 15';
Tuesday: Run 60', Swim 40', Weights 15';
Wednesday: Ride 51';
Thursday: Swim 31';
Friday: Run 45', Weights 10';
Saturday: Run 60', Swim 40', Weights 5';
Sunday: Ride 106', Weights 10'.

Yes, I know, forgot the rest day....

Totals:
Swim: 91' 3.2ks
Ride: 157' 71.9ks
Run: 198' 37.2ks
Weights: 60'

Spirit of the Marathon

Two posts today - I finally managed to upload the pix taken during the holidays, they are in the post below.

I'm not sure whether I should adopt a similar approach as Epi in naming my posts after movies, but today's definitely is (I'll mention Ironman later, but I have promised jnr to watch the DVD with him today - the one with Robert Downey Jr, that is).

We went to see Spirit of the Marathon today, a documentary about six people participating in the Chicago Marathon in 2005, two athletes, two marathon veterans and two newbies.

There is a bit of hype associated with the movie and I can't say it is inspirational. What it does, and does well, is to show that running a marathon has a lot to do with how one chooses to live life and what comes with it. It's about the journey, not just the finish.

There are a number of good moments, like the 70 year old who started running at 65 and has done a couple of marathons: "why do I run marathons? Cos of the T-Shirt, of course!" or the motivational speaker (whose name I forget) to the newbies on the morning of race day: "Don't rush it, remember, the longer you take, the more you get out of the money you spend on entering the race."

Some of the historical information is very interesting - especially how the first woman got to run the Boston Marathon - won't spoil it for anyone who wants to see the movie.

I think that someone who has run a marathon can easily identify with a lot of things that come up, but someone who has not, will not be inspired to do it, unless that thought has been lurking anyway.

My better half thought it was ok: she still does not understand why I do what I do and it did not make her get itchy to put her shoes on.

There are more inspirational films out there, the show on a number of people training for the Boston Marathon on ABC recently was similar and in parts better.

The non-plus-ultra remains "Running on the Sun" about Badwater. That is a captivating movie that makes you want to go out there and push yourself.

Now, about that.

I have not been pushing myself at all the last two weeks, just taking the time not do anything sports-related. I went for a ride a couple of days after the marathon, but that was it.

At Epi's suggestion I joined him and Clown for part of their long run today and that was good to get the system turning over again. 

Still have to teach Clown the meaning of the word "slow" - a short, but very important word...

I hope I did not hold you guys up too much, no doubt you could indulge in some more speedy work on the remaining 20ks.

Thanks for dragging me along.

For my part, I must have overdone it a bit as on the way back my lower left leg started to cramp up and I had to walk for a fair bit. Not sure whether I'll join you next Sunday (you might be doing the Founder's 10 miler anyway).

At least I found the way out of Bold Park! That's a start, I suppose.

Over the next few days I will work out what I want to do the next season and how I am going to go about it. What I do know is that Six Inch is definitely out of the question.

Even without this morning stop and go incident, I was wondering all the way how I had managed to do a marathon only a couple of weeks ago.

Clown - thanks for letting me know about Sling Runner's Seoul effort - I am waiting to read his blog. A good effort given the limited preparation he had!

People, Castles and Lawnmowers

As promised, here a few pictures:

The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin - no picture can describe the intense sadness and horror expressed


A look across

Inside

Race Day - The Swiss Embassy is right next to the Start Area!

What are these people doing heading into the woods?

Mmmmh... must be gathering to line up at the start.

Here's my start block - now how am I going to get over this fence??

I can see the start from 'ere!

The gun went off a few minutes ago, but we are still walking.

After about 5ks - still masses of people.

Finally, the running crowd is clearing - but wait, we're 400m from the finish. This is the picture I had been dreaming about, running through the Brandenburger Tor - awesome!

The following day still in Berlin, whilst passing through Unter den Linden (again, but at a leisurely pace) at the VW/Bugatti showroom - a real life Veyron (with a fan in front).

DDR - Museum - now that is a lawnmower!

Dresden - Altstadt and Neustadt with the Elbe upstream

Dresden - Elbe downstream - this guy is following me, I think!

Prague - the castle on the hill at night. Looks steep and made for hill training.

And during the day - still very steep.

The palace again, from the old town across the Vltava.

Charles Bridge - look, no tourists.

Castle Square - still no tourists (ok, it was 6am).

Nuremberg - another castle, another hill.

And the same at night - from our hotel room btw.

Rotto 2008 - just got my drink at k19, only 23 to go.

Rotto 2008 & a bit of other stuff

I am sitting outside our villa on Thompson Bay looking over Gage Roads to the mainland, it's sunny, warm and the water displays all kinds of hues of blue. Pity these yachts are polluting the view...

I am still a bit overheated from this morning's effort, but all things considered, very happy.
3:32, down from 3:38 two years ago and with that, the fifth PB for the year. I think I deserve a break.
Yes, it was probably mad to do yet another marathon three weeks from the last one, but since I had no aspirations, all I wanted to do is finish without doing any damage.
The left thigh had given me a bit of a funny muscular pain over the past three weeks, so I was guarded about that. Otherwise I told myself to go out there and just push myself as much as I felt comfortable at the time.
Predictably, I set myself up not to be able to do an even or let alone a negative split.
Despite the hills I did the first half in 1:42 and then the second in 1:50. Not really impressive, but quite ok in the circumstances.
Taking just six minutes longer than in Berlin is actually not bad considering the hills here and also the fact that in the three weeks since Berlin I managed to put on 3kgs weight (not pretty, I know).
Which brings me to the next topic: what happened since Berlin.
Before I go there, I will put on a post about Berlin separately with the pictures. They are at home at present.
This is going to turn into a bit of a travel blog with the odd run thrown in. I should add that we generally don't go for fancy accommodation and have in the past backpacked through Europe with the kids staying at youth hostels and deliberately not in the "better" areas, using only public transport and cooking our own meals as much as possible. Also, the kids have had only so much of the required attention span to survive museums, so the usual "things to look at" have never been high on our list. This has allowed us to see more of how people live or have lived in the places we have visited.
So, a couple of days after the Berlin Marathon we took the train to the famed Dresden.
It's pretty alright, but considering that apart from a few rocks and the fortress everything was either bombed to bits in WWII or worse, removed during the cold war and replaced with usually asbestos-infested atrocities, the beautiful old buildings are actually brand-spanking new (ok, the opera is 20 years old).
And with the money the poor people in the West are required to pour into the East, they are building even more old buildings.
What is obvious is that during the generation that part of Germany lived the "real-existing socialism" (euphemism for those in power getting in all and the rest of the population being treated like mushrooms), the people lost all relationship to that part of their history and they are having trouble identifying with it at the same time as having to deal with the ogling tourists.
I somehow got the impression that the socialist experience made many people into zombies and the twenty years since the "Wende" have not (yet, hopefully) removed the scars.
Maybe I am a bit harsh and I am aware that the tourist guides claim that the Saxons are a bit reserved. That may be so if they have to speak English, but not the impression I got when speaking German.
Anyway, the point is: we won't go back to Dresden to see Dresden again. It's like Legoland for adults.
I must say though that I went for a couple of runs whilst we were there up and down the edge of the Elbe and through the old parts of town and that was very enjoyable.
Especially since the only persons out and about were locals going about their daily chores.
Likewise, the surrounding countryside is awesome and there is plenty of decent hiking to be done.
We went to look at the fortress which is great example of the development of fortifications over the centuries. Because of the city's location they just missed out on the further improvements developed by the French in the 18th century (if anyone is interested, go to Solothurn in Switzerland, where part of the Vauban-designed fortifications are still in existence).
We also visited the DDR-Museum in a suburb of Dresden. Generally I should say that the suburbs are reasonably well in order and apart from factories, resemble West-German towns pretty much.
Anyway, the DDR-Museum: spread over four floors (soon five) there are various facets of life in the GDR. Having grown up in the sixties and seventies in Switzerland, both Anna and I found that a lot of things were pretty much the same as we knew them (furniture, electrical goods etc - with the exception of cars and other powered equipment such as motorbikes and lawnmowers, much of which was out of reach of ordinary persons, so they built them themselves - I have a good example in a picture) - the trouble being of course that in the GDR the things shown were standard at the time the wall fell, ie some twenty years after we had grown up with them.
There were also plenty of explanations on how certain things were run in everyday life, how the people were controlled and so on. Well worth a visit.

Next on the itinerary was Prague: compared to Dresden these guys are just so lucky that they were outside the range of the American bombers. Yes, apparently the communists let pretty much everything fall into disrepair, but now there is hardly a building that has not been restored to its former glory.
And, boy, are these guys proud of who they are and what they are. Having said that, some people still seem to find the concept of tourists coming and invading their city a bit strange and overwhelming, but generally they take those hordes in their stride and milk them for what it's worth. A bit like Venice, both in terms of tourist numbers and locals' attitude to them, just with a bit less water surrounding them.
Because Prague was more of an afterthought in our travel plans, although we had been talking about going there for the last twenty years, we only had two nights there.
That meant we only got a bit of a taste of what there is to experience.
We did not spend enough time in the Castle, but spent considerable time around the Jewish quarter. Inasmuch as it has not been left in its original state (synagogues and the cemetery) it was rebuilt at the end of the 19th century and resembles Zurich pretty much. No surprises given that many of the ostentatious buildings in Zurich (eg Bahnhofstrasse) were built at around the same time.
Unfortunately, we did not go into the Jewish quarter on the day we arrived, but went the next, which was a Saturday, so the synagogues and the cemetery were obviously closed. I'm still kicking myself for not working this out earlier.
We were staying at a hotel next to the Wallenstein Palace at the bottom of the castle (if anyone wants to know, Hotel Waldstein, can be recommended, we won't hesitate to go back there next time), a bit away from the main tourist drags, but close to the castle and still no more than ten minutes into the old town across Charles Bridge.
As during the day the bridge is crowded, I headed off for a run on our last day early in the morning, hoping for a picture without any tourists. A couple of tired cops walking the beat, two or three couples walking home or kissing each other good-bye at the tram stop and the compulsory couple of blokes dragging themselves home was all I encountered. So I got my picture although it was still dark and hence, you won't be able to see much.
Still, happy with that I ran up to the castle once, twice (there were the dozing cops again) and a third time for a decent hill work-out (obviously planning ahead for Rottnest).
We will be back and I will do more hill training. It's steep but can be recommended, just be careful on the way down, cobblestones can be tricky.

Then it was off to Nuremberg. We had been here during our last backpacking adventure five years ago when we stayed at the youth hostel in the former imperial stables of the castle. This time we opted for a hotel in the middle of the old town, not sure why, probably because Anna did not fancy the climb up to the castle again.
It's a great, warm city. Yes, except for the castle itself the old town was pretty much flattened by the Yanks (who had (had?) a reputation for not being very selective in their targeting and flattening anything that moved or did not move - quite different from the British who had this thing called aiming device in their planes). But, rather than wiping everything connected with pre-1945 from the earth, the West-Germans have had this need to on one hand appreciate their past and on the other understand what went wrong after WWI. Which is quite different to the East, where everything not destroyed in WWII was flattened with the Soviet equivalent of a D9 and anything to do with the past was evil anyway.
Sometimes the Germans are a bit tedious with their "Vergangenheitsbewältigung" (getting over the past), but on the other hand, they are committed to not letting "it" happen again. No wonder Bush gets such a bad rap there.
Nuremberg in fact is a good example of how to go about it. Apart from rebuilding the old town in part as it was prior to the bombings, the city had to contend with Hitler's megalomanic idea of creating the world's biggest stadium (for 400,000 people, yes, 400,000!), convention stadium, rally complex (as in people rallies), all known as the Reichsparteigelände. Only a small part had been completed, but what is left is enough to get an idea of how the individuals were made into just little specks of dust.
I went for a run early one morning (it was still dark) towards the Reichsparteigelände and suddenly the sky in front of me turned pitch-black. It took me a moment to realise that I had reached the Convention Centre in the darkness. I was quite taken aback as the building is huge as it is, some 30m or so high, but when finished should have been double that height.
This is in fact the only building that was half-way finished and now houses the Dokuzentrum Reichsparteigelände, which I suppose is a better name than museum. An absolute must-see in terms of understanding what went on and making the threat of totalitarianism. Which could bring us back to Bush (but then I'd have to go into Naomi Wolf's book Letter to a Patriot).
On the way back I did some more hill work, predictably up to the imperial castle.
Then it was off to our last stop Zurich, where we stayed at Anna's parents' place. They live just underneath the peak of the "house-mountain" of Zurich, the Uetliberg. From their place it's about 300m as the crow flies to the top and almost exactly 350m vertically.
Whenever I'm there, I just have to run up there and did so twice, obviously taking a longer way, at least going up. It's about 5.5ks which I managed to do in 35 minutes (10m altitude per minute, not bad for an old codger). The way down was about 1k and took me only 10 minutes, but was very steep and quite slippery, so I fell and strained a muscle in my arm.
So, that's that.
I am pleased to say that it is now just past 4:30 and apart from two yachts, all the other ones have left, giving me an almost uninterrupted view. Excellent! We're not going back till tomorrow morning.
More when I have the pictures at my fingertips (if you have actually managed to read to this point....).

Berlin Marathon

Just sitting at the Berlin Main Train Station waiting for the train to Dresden to depart and taking the opportunity of an update. Here what I emailed to Epi and Clown after the marathon on Sunday:
Guys - thanks for you texts, not quite what I had aspired to (despite the senility bonus), but still a PB and under 3:30, so I'm happy. Right now I am back in our apartment after a shower and with my feet up and am giving you the heads up on the next blog which I will get to when I get to an internet cafe.
Anyway, as you could tell from the sms I was spot on track for 3:20 at the HM mark, but then it all fell apart a bit.
From about 24k I was starting to get stomach cramps and felt like throwing up a couple of times. That lasted for pretty much the rest of the race, except for when I had what felt like a stitch but further up right underneath the right ribcage. Anna thinks it's a gallbladder problem, and I have experienced a few times before over the last month, so will need to have it checked out. Also, I think I was a bit underdone in the long runs and generally the last month was a bit of a disaster trainingwise.
Anyway, I don't think I went in too hard in the first half as I did not blow up. I set the 405 to keep me on track at 4:42/k which is 1% off, but proved to be correct overall. Now I just have to figure out (yes, at my age and a degree notwithstanding) how to press the bl...dy button properly at the finish.
Having said that, although the organisation left a few things to be desired (racenumber collection and crowd management today), within minutes of finishing you could get an interim certificate with the splits:
5k: 23:58 - 4:48/k average
10k: 47:43 - 4:45/k ave from prev split
15k: 1:11:15 - 4:42/k
20k: 1:35:00 - 4:45/k
25k: 1:58:55 - 4:48/k
30k: 2:23:20 - 4:54/k
35k: 2:48:51 - 5:06/k
40k: 3:15:07 - 5:15/k
42.195: 3:26:12 - 5:04/k
I liked the sms system, not that it made any difference to me but Anna and the kids were following me by U-& S-Bahn and found the going tough. At least this way they knew I was still in it: did you notice the note at the bottom of the HM notice: laeuft noch: still running - very funny indeed.
Pretty much congested with everyone else having this great idea. Anna is now an expert on the Berlin Public Transport system!
Now, this morning it was REALLY crowded. I waa about 200m from the start line and it took me exactly 4 minutes to cross it.
As promised I have taken some pictures which I will put up on my blog eventually. It's not that easy taking pictures when running, a couple of odd angles and the shakes, but it was well worth having the camera with me.
On a very positive note, although both knee and heel are sore now, neither gave me any trouble today. I was getting a bit of a sore knee in the last few weeks so I was a bit worried about it.
Ok, that's it for now. On Tuesday we are off to Dresden, then Prague, Nuernberg & lastly Zuerich. Unfortunately the Dalai Lama had to cancel the teachings in Switzerland for which we had tickets, but Anna and I will find something to do (a run in the mountains? Haha!)
PS: Sorry about any typos, the keyboard on my phone was designed by someone whose hands were the size of a mouse's.
Two days on and whilst I feel I should have been able to push more, I realise I am only saying that as the cramps have long gone. Anyway, I should also mention that I have hardly been sore and we were trapsing around Berlin yesterday as if nothing special had been done on Sunday. Both knees were a bit unstable on Sunday and occasionally yesterday (strangely the left one more so than the right), but otherwise, I felt worse after the C2S HM four weeks ago. How about that?!
Ok, I will now take it very easy and not do much until we're back. Rottnest is still on but I just plan to cruise there if I feel like doing it. Doing 3:30 again would just be nice.

Easy does it, too

Just a short update, given that I did not get to put up any lines just prior to leaving:
The last week was a real horror as I was really busy at work and did not find the time to go out for any taper-specific runs.
Finally on Thursday we settled the last trial before the holidays and I went straight home and hammered a good 7ks at 4:30 - probably too fast, but mentally I just needed it.
I worked till midnight and in return did not have to go back to work on Friday and could sattle the bike for a brick session, first an easy 30k in an hour on the bike and then another 14ks in about 1:15 (haven't even worked out what average that makes).
Packing, off to the airport for the usual pleasure of cattle class. Arrived in Dusseldorf on Saturday afternoon and had a great dinner with fresh wild boar (felt like Obelix - which will become a recurring theme these holidays).
Sunday morning a good 13ks along the Rhine in very pleasant running weather. The conditions here are just phantastic, runners have it good.
Monday we were off to Hamburg and for the next 1.5 days we were exploring the sights, so had enough time on my feet.
This morning, another 12ks at marathon pace around the Aeussere Alster, a real runners' mekka, quite a few people out there at 6:30. Again, very good conditions, a bit windy.
We are off to Berlin tomorrow and that means an easy run, maybe even down to the Brandenburger Tor and back from where we are staying, that should be about 8ks.
Weather forecast is good, no rain, not too warm.
The only issue I have is that I have been eating all sorts of great food, starting with the wild boar and I can see that I'll soon be rolling around instead of running.
Ok, over and out, I'm going to enjoy myself. Assuming the limbs hold up, a good time will be possible. I am thinking though of taking the camera with me and take the occasional snap, just for the heck of it, I may not get the opportunity again, so it would be well worth taking a couple of pictures.

Recovery, too

Couldn't help myself with the title.

Being sick and having to deal with a more than usually stressful trial really put me back and I have to look at it as an enforced taper.
On Wednesday we finally finished in Court and I was aching to get out on the road. I had one more 30-35k long run planned but on Wednesday I only had time for 13ks at just under MP pace. Managed to do an average of 4:40m/k at level 3 around the hills in Kings Park.

Thursday lunch time I knocked off and wanted to run to Bold Park and down the coast, but was struggling pretty soon. The day before had taken it out of me completely. So I had to be content with 26ks at level 2 and just under 5:30 pace.

In return dinner with Epi, Tiff and Clown was good fun. I really enjoyed that.

With the plane leaving on Friday and being unsuccessful in roping someone else in to do another trial on Thursday and Friday (talk about cutting it fine), I had to work all weekend but took some time off in the afternoon to go along the river etc for 14ks. I felt fantastic with good turnover, level 3 at 4:33 pace. Not bad for an old man....
This week I'll just do two or three runs mainly an interval session and a longish run (15ks) with some fartlek and maybe some peaking sprints. That way the legs won't get too lazy without getting too tired.
The following week I really don't know. I'm sure I'll go out on Sunday morning, maybe on Tuesday or Wednesday in Hamburg and once more once we have arrive in Berlin on Thursday.

I doubt I'll have time to blog again before we take off (and possibly not for a while after).
Berlin, here we come, it's going to be fun.

PS. I have signed Epi and Clown up on the SMS notification at the half and the finish mark. If anyone else wants to get the result straight away, let me have your mobile number.

Sick, too

This will be a very short blog.

One run on Monday (Mount Street x8), then I woke up with a sore throat on Tuesday evening and from there on it went down hill.
Struggled with doing a trial all week and on Friday I was pretty much stuffed.
By now (Sunday pm) I'm on the mend again and hope that tomorrow I'll be ready for a run again.
Three weeks to Berlin and although I should go into taper, I will do the last long run this week and then scale down.