Just found the nice blog post by Fitsugar while surfing the net. Its all NYC these days!

On Nov. 1, the New York City Marathon celebrates not only the fastest endurance runners in the world but its 40th anniversary as well. Runner’s World was chock-full of information about the race, and it got me all fired up. Here are five things about the marathon I think you will want to know.

1.Back in 1970 there were 127 participants running in the first NYC Marathon, all of them American, and the entry fee was only a buck.

2.This year there will be 40,000 runners participating, and they won their places at the starting line through a lottery. However, 5,000 spots are held for charity programs. Christopher Reeves’s son Matthew will be running 26.2 miles to honor his father, the actor who played Superman, as well as to raise money for his father’s foundation.

3.In the inaugural year of the NYC marathon, no women finished. In fact only 55 runners finished. Now 34 percent of the runners are female — that’s 12,880 ladies crossing the finish line.

4.The last year an American topped the podium was 1982, and the runner was Alberto Salazar with a time of 2:09:29. Alberto coaches my favorite runner Kara Goucher. She placed third last year in this race, her first marathon. She’s considered a contender for the win this year. Go Kara!

5.The winner for the first NYC marathon was former firefighter Gary Muhrcke (2:31:00). Before the race, he worked an all-night shift. He plans on racing this year too.

16 days to go…

after watching ireland playing italy in the 2010 world cup qualifier on saturday i went to croke park again to see the boys in green playing montenegro. one of the worst football matches i have ever seen. the atmosphere was good despite the worse game. if the team doesn’t entertain – the crowd does!

im waiting for the play-offs now – bring it on!

New York is getting closer and closer. From now on its 3 week till the sound of the gun on Staten Island.

Training is fine so far. The left foot is back to satisfying business. Completely pain free so speed work is back on the weekly work schedule. And exactly that is what my legs are missing. High leg turnover – fast session – hard workouts.

Long runs seem to fly and i enjoy them a lot. The interval session and the pace run this week was a prime example. Still struggling with those hard stuff, but it is exactly what my body needs.

These days i try to avoid running longer than 1 hour during the week as i need to relax the legs for the race and focus on the key sessions (the fast stuff and the long run).

On Sunday coach uli prescribed me a nice marathon focused workout. I ran 80 minutes with a moderate pace together with Eugene in Phoenix Park. When he dropped out i changed shoes and ran 60 minutes in Marathon pace. The legs felt great and the speed was steady and completely on race pace (i would say i slightly went faster…). I ran the hilliest route i could find in Phoenix Park just to get the legs and mind prepared for the bridges around the 5 boroughs. The workout went fine overall and after struggling with the fast sessions during the week that run gave me my confidence back.

Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. (Friedrich Nietzsche)

4 Weeks to New York City Marathon
Total of 92k. with 6 runs in 7 days

Monday – Easy – 8k.
Tuesday – Intervals, Bushy Park (8 X 1k.) – 12k.
Wednesday – Moderate (Wednesday Night Runners Tallaght) – 14k.
Thursday – Pace Run – 11 k.
Friday – Rest Day – 0 k.
Saturday – Moderate – 13k.
Sunday – Long + Pace – 34k.

that secound weekend in october is still the shit! stunning race again this year. just a short sleep for me as im stuck in front of the ironman live ticker and the live stream of the race… GO faris GO – the boy is a legend!

oh yeah. kona is calling. the race of the year – ironman world champs.

My little prediction:

1 – Bracht Timo
2 – Alexander Craig
3 – Llanos Eneko
4 – McCormack Chris
5 – Vanhoenacker Marino
6 – Vernay Patrick
7 – Raelert Andreas
8 – Schildknecht Ronnie
9 – Lieto Chris
10 – Bockel Dirk

Good Timo Bracht interview on slowtwitch!

2009 IMH Men’s Odds

im not the only website with a monday movie series.
competitor has a very good “monday minute” up. This week matt fitzgerald shows how to mobilise the ankle. good stuff…

My toe is back to normal. No pain at all and i can put full pressure on the foot again. The healing process was fast enough so i wasn’t out of training mode for too long.

i started the week easy as i wanted to take care about my toe. i needed the confidence back.

so i increased the tempo in the workouts as the foot got better and then (by Wednesday) completely pain free.

got a nice run in with shane on saturday morning as we were running on the coast trail from bray to greystones and back. it’s a really scenic route and i always enjoy running the trail even despite the bad weather on the day.

the highlight of the training week was the long run on sunday. i met up with “sumo runner” simone and we drove up to sally gap in the morning (see picture). nice weather up there. the sun was shining and the wind was heavy. we planned to get 180 minutes in. i parked the car just beside sally gap and we ran down for one hour and then turned around. the climb was tougher than expected. unfortunately we reached the car on top of the mountain again after 2 hours running (450 metres of climbing as simones GPS system said afterwards…). that meant we ran the same speed uphill as we ran it downhill earlier on. my stomach wasn’t too happy about that and started cramping at about 90 minutes. i had to stop and relax. the same problem i had months ago came back. maybe it was the speed maybe it was the breakfast – i don’t know. next time i have to take immodium akut again. after 140 minutes i stopped as the cramping didn’t ease off. to finish of the day i went out for marathon pace run in the evening. the stomach was better but not completely relaxed.

Week 40
5 Weeks to the New York City Marathon
113 k with 8 runs
Monday Easy – 6 k
Tuesday Easy – 12 k
Wednesday Moderate – 12 k
Thursday Moderate – 13 k
Friday Easy – 11 k
Saturday Moderate – 17 k
Sunday Long Hills – 31 k (am)
Tempo Run – 11 k (pm)

not really running related but a nice clip anyway!
Best of luck to sebbo K. for next sundays race. Keep it coming dude!!!

Biest athletes Chris, Ronnie and Sebastian on a bike ride together. We were shooting this clip North of Santa Monica a few days ago.

All of them are in their final training phase, Chris and Ronnie are both competing for the title of an Ironman world champion in Kona, Hawaii, Sebastian is racing an Olympic distance race in LA on Oct. 4, 2009.

the story for this week is quickly told. had to take monday, tuesday and wednesday off due to the fact that my left little toe is swollen.

thursday i got the bike and went out for a spin around the kildare backroads.

i tested my foot with a 30 minutes jog on grass. the foot felt fine and i was confident in the race on saturday. eventually i had to drop out as the toe was hurting again.

after the race on saturday i went for a nice spin on sunday. i cycled parts of the st.kevins way in the wicklow mountains. the route was very close to be a cyclo-cross route. scenic panorama but rough weather.

now i hope for my toe to get better. ill have to get the run miles in.