Week 10 Weight 69.7 Rory DNF

Getting the training  right the week after a race is a challenge. Do too little and you feel dissatisfied. Do too much and you  injure yourself. Ease back into too gentle and you end up with  a false sense of recovery.

This time I did the later.
I took three days off and then did a light 5k on Wednesday  morning.
This was  followed by two  20km slow evening runs on Wednesday and Thursday.
Friday was a 5k warm up  followed by hills
Saturday  some swimming.
All this was very  light and I had no reaction to the 50km the previous  weekend.
This meant I went for broke on Sunday  with the pacer set to 4:55 for the Rory.
By 17km  in I had two issues. My left leg had gone dead and I  was in need of a major dump.

Hence the DNF.  Slowly back into is what I  should  learn.

Tuesday  and the leg is just back to normal...

Week 9 Weight 70kg 50km 4:02:46

I had a fitful night’s sleep the night before the race and was rudely awoken by noise from outside. It was only a catalogue dropping into our post box at 5:30 am on Saturday morning.

After going back to bed and snuggling up to my wife I realized how lucky I am to have supportive wife and family who allow me to spend weekends running.

We got up at seven and I got ready:

• Leukotape on my nipples.
• Vaseline on my nether regions.
• Sudocream on my feet.

I wore a 17 year old Asics top that has flaps at the end of the arms that fold over and effectively turn into gloves. On top of that, my C2CUltra top, which I wear with pride. I had a pair of Asics shorts that have two handy pockets for gels on the thighs and back pocket for my S Caps. My socks were long dry max and I wore my new Asics GT 2000-3.

I always like a big breakfast before a race and this day was to be no different. Two poached eggs on heavily buttered toast. Stick to FAT!, heh Nicky? We set off around eight am and drove the 70 km to Marburg, a pleasant  university town with a lovely old quarter nestling in the banks of the river Lahn.

The Lahntallauf is a fifty km race run on a ten kilometre, mainly tarmac loop. I left my bottles of SIS energy drink and twenty odd gels on a camping chair near the start, so that on each loop I could pick them up easily. I took a gel every five kilometres and an S Cap every ten. Although I hard prepared five 500ml bottles of SIS go I only drank two and a half of them.

The race started at ten am and I kissed Chrissy goodbye. She went off to explore the shops and old town rather waiting to see me every hour or so for a few fleeting seconds. It is a mass start of ten kilometre, half marathon, marathon and fifty kilometre runners. This makes the course quite crowded for the first two loops, but it then empties out quite a lot. This leaves great empty long stretches of flat tarmac to run on. Lovely,  you can really focus on form and lose yourself in dreams of victory.

I set the pacer on my watch to 5:00/km and soon found I was going at least thirty seconds too fast. I struggled to slow down and eventually settled on an average pace of 4:50.  I felt very comfortable at this pace, which was a pleasant surprise. Obviously, the hard training in bin bags and a weighted jacket was paying off. I was two and half kilograms lighter than at the end of January when I ran the Rodgau fifty kilometres in 4:18. My C goal was to beat this, my B goal was 4:10 and my absolute dream, A goal, was sub four hours. I completed the first half of the race in two hours and was on for a sub four hours. Sadly the second half didn't go quite as well and I dropped three minutes over the second half. I really want to do a negative split at the next race!

I saw Chrissy on the penultimate lap and then as I crossed the line in 4:03:46 and collapsed into the camping chair which she had thoughtfully tidied up and packed away the water bottle and empty gel packets. Did I mention I love that woman?

I was so happy to have finished fifteen minutes faster than in January even though it was really hard to maintain the pace on the last loop.  I  had to shout my mantra of

• Don't be shit!
• Fuck average!
• No more girly bullshit!
• Don't be a cunt!

Out loud on many occasions. My fellow runners notice I am shouting, but fortunately, being German, don’t have a clue what it is I am saying.

I received lots of congratulations throughout  the  rest of day which really meant a lot. Even Mark Cockbain thought it was good.

The next morning Chrissy greeted me with a cup of tea in bed and warning that I was not to mention running at all today. She is good, but not that good.

The pace on the graph is, just as at Rodgau this year, pleasingly flat.

Time per 5km 

I really have not got that mean and keen 100 yard focused stare yet. 

 On to Eschollbruecken 50km to the end of March and a sub four hour result.

Week 8 Weight 69.4 Rory 3:32:02

Very happy this week.
The surgeon said on Monday that the issue was not with the operation  but a nerve  under pressure.  I  went back to the normal schedule.

I  have  jiggled it around a bit. I am now doing  intervals, Tempo and hills on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday  mornings. Then 20km runs around  the  Kemnade sea in the evenings. There is  a big swimming  pool  complex that stays open until elevwn at night. I  am  going  try it out tonight and then I  can fit swimming  into my schedule  more  easily.

Keep It Simple Stupid

The Unts & 5:00am club

Get up at 5:00am and run. If you don't you get called a Lazy Cunt

Asics

Being a plodder I don't need a fancy dan lightweight shoe. I am too heavy for minimalist ones and Hokas give me blisters. I have been using Asics for more than fifteen years. I get a trail pair for the winter and a normal pair for the summer and run them into the ground. I buy last seasons from 21Run often discount by 30% on the shop price. I generally keep the summer pair going with Shoe goo until the uppers fall apart. See the pair the first pair,  over 1,800km  and just retired. Besides the cat likes the box they come in.

Held together by the Goretex lining

With added Cat

Shoe Goo

Waterbottles

As you can tell I tend to do things on the cheap. Hydration packs and running vests are not for me. I use throw away water bottles. Partly because they are cheap and partly because I have a habit of loosing expensive ones.  I went through a stage of using Powerade bottles because they have a top like a sports drink bottle but I also use standard 50 bottles with a screw top. If you lose one it doesn't matter as they are so cheap.

Magic cream

Well it is not really something supplied by Hogwarts, but it might as well be for the range of aliments it cures

●Calluses softened & reformation is reduced.

●Dry skin reduced

●Prevents the loss of moisture through evaporation.

●Protects against itching and fungal infections.

It is brilliant stuff  best thing on the market to look after your feet. I buy it off Amazon, it is called Gewhol Lipidro Cream. I rub it in after every shower and it softens my feet nicely.

Leukotape

Who needs home waxing kits when you have this stuff. It sticks so firm that at the end if a race when I pull it off my nipples it pulls all the hairs off as well. It is great for taping toes and hot spots on your feet to prevent blisters forming. It also comes in different colours

Comes in many colours

Original

Homemade Energy Bars

Ideally you need something edible that contains high and low gycemic Index sources. The answer is the ingredients pictured. Oats for slow release of energy,  peanut butter for medium and the mars bars for fast release. To make them simply put all the ingredients into a microwaveable bowl and blitz until it is a melted gooey mess and stir together. Then place into a square Tupperware bowl and let it cool down in the fridge overnight. Cut into blocks and wrap in cling film. Sorted.

Week 7 Weight 73.2 Rory 0:00:00

Another bad week training and weight wise.

I did not manage to do any interval or hill training and certainly not a Rory. A total of 45km for the week,  week is far too low. However I did not think it sensible to do more until I found out the root cause of the pain in  the hernia region.

Last Monday I had seen my Haus Arzt, think GP, she told me to see the specialist.

So this Monday I went to see the surgeon who operated on me.

He told me, after an exhaustive examination, that there was no issue  with  the  hernia operation  itself. In fact he was quiet pleased with how it was healing.

The tenderness comes from my spermatic cord and associated  nerves and muscles.
Prior to operation muscles were quite  lose in the region.  Now things are firmed up, the nerve is not used to the tension.

In all probability  the  nerve will get used to it  and pain will subside.
He wants me to make a note for the next four  weeks  of the level and frequency  of  the  pain. If it is bothersome then he can give me an injection of cortisone  and pain relief,  but he prefers to wait. injection. But he rather it went away.

So good news and I just need to toughen up a little bit more 

Week 6 Weight 72.4 Rory 0:00:00

Well after the euphoria of last week, this week has been a let down with a big bump.

I did my usual interval training on Tuesday am and came back with a serve pain in my lower abdomen just under my hernia operation scar.

I dis two more slow painful runs on Wednesday and Thursday and did no more running. 

Instead of did two 1km swims on Friday and Saturday. No Rory on Sunday and went to the doctors on Monday evening.

She said she thought the pain was not related to the hernia, but to be on the safe side I should go to the surgeon who operated. I have this appointment next Monday16th.

In the meantime I have travelled to Helsingborg for work and will just do gentle 10kms until I get the all clear.

Week 5 Weight 72.5 50km 4:18:14

This week I have not run so much, as I had the Rodgau 50km race on Saturday and therefore also no Rory. My weight drifted up peaking at 72.5kg.

On the way down to the race I got a little stressed out, but Chrissy said to me, "Don't be silly, you have run three Rory's this year, this is simple." She was right, as always and I also was not running in a bin bag, as I do in all my training,  so that would make it easier

The weather was reasonable about 0 degrees and no snow on the ground.  I wore a Craft Warm Crewneck, a long sleeve t-shirt and  Adidas lycra shorts.  On my feet were Wright Escape quarter length socks and Asics GT2100. I covered my nipples with Leukotape, my nether regions with Vaseline and my feet in Sudo cream.

The race is ten times around a five kilometer loop. This time I had a GU Gel  on each loop and carried a 500ml bottle filled with SIS Go Energy Drink.  The bottle was empty after ~15km.

I set my watch to 5:10 p/km pace with the aim of being +-10 seconds of that.  I ended up having only 4 km quicker than target and 3 km slow than  this target range.

I had a few moments when I felt I was not doing well but repeated my mantra:

• Don't be shit - as I was last time.
• Fuck average - I am better than this. 
• No more girly bullshit - I am not feeling the pain that other people have to suffer.
• Don't be a cunt - I have trained hard, the weather is good, there are no excuses.

I also reminded myself of the people who were following me.  I couldn't let them down. Ugly had messaged me and my sister Anne was keen to know how well I would do.

Normally I have the urge to quit all the time. But on the whole the feeling of wanting to quit was not present at all. I counted down the Km to go with time passing quickly. I was, very comfortable  all the way and within my abilities. 

On the course there is a out and back bit,  where you can see the people ahead of you coming back towards you.   Slowly over the laps I noticed my consistency was winning out as I passed more and more people....As Tiny says it is a great feeling chasing someone down. 

I have done the Rodgau 50 km race five times now and this year was my best performance. Below you can see a graphic of how I have done each time.   Normally I start well and fall apart. What pleases me more than anything else is the consistency over the ten loops. This shown by the blue flat line with  a deviation between the fastest and slowest 5 km  of less than a minute. 

I was expecting to get the train home, so it was great to see Chrissy as I crossed the finishing line greeting me with an excited "Well done you did it, you were under 4:20 like you wanted to be." So that was nice.