i´m always up for new shoes, so a visit at the nike outlet yesterday was surprisingly successful. Nike Air Span+ 5 was the choice this time.

I was searching for a training shoe with good support but not too heavy. Suitable for light (not fast) workouts.

After all the price was right and they felt very good when i tried them on in the store. Today i gave the shoes the first test on my recovery run. Amazing feeling i have to say. I didnt expect much but they feel great. The support is brilliant – very soft but still at an acceptable level. Its a very simple but effective shoe.

Looking forward to run the span´s in long distance workouts in the near future.

first time on the track this year.

together with my training partner markus (former 400 hurdler for germany) i started the track season with the first workout.

it doesn´t sound dangerous but it was tough – for me anyway.

15′ warmup
stretching
technique training
4 x 100m progressions
4 x 100m fast
4 x 200m fast
2 x 400m fast
10′ cool down

as always the first workouts on the track are hard. i need to get a constancy in that workouts – they really help.

i´m slightly (very very slightly…) increasing the weekly mileage.

got a longer one (23k) in on wednesday and never went out longer than one hour in general. im mainly cruising on easy speed. also i allowed myself two days off. luxury?

this week i’ll add the first fast sessions on the track and im looking forward to the BHAA RTE RR 5mile this saturday in donnybrook, dublin.

all good so far (instead of the weather…)

Boom! shake-shake-shake the room
Tic-tic-tic-tic boom!

the boys are absolutely going bananans in london.

unbelievable…

man of the match for me: hendrik ramaala

just prepared my race schedule for may.

to gain more speed for my fall marathon i try to get as much races in as possible.

I mostly train on my own thats a major problem. to get more speed, which i cant get in hard sessions on my own, i take the races as kind of training sessions that motivate me to push harder.

Saturday, 2 May 2009 – 11:00am – Dublin, Ireland – BHAA R.T.E. Road Race – 5 Miles

Monday, 4 May 2009 – 9:00am – Belfast, Ireland – Belfast City Marathon (Relay) – 7 Miles

Saturday, 9 May 2009 – 11:00am – Leixlip, Ireland – Le Chéile AC 5k AAI approved – 5K

Sunday, 17 May 2009 – 10:00am – Heilbronn, Germany – Trollinger Half Marathon – 21K

Tuesday, 19 May 2009 – 07:45pm – Dublin, Ireland – The 9th Annual Docklands Fun Run – 8K

Saturday, 23 May 2009 – 11:00am – Kildare, Ireland – BHAA Intel – Road Race – 10K

i had one of my first betting experiences last weekend. invested a 5er in deriba merga to win the 113th boston marathon. and he did what i predicted – he won. 45 EUR net win are now invested back again.

for sundays london marathon i went a bit mental with my bet.

wish me luck…

The 2009 London Marathon will mark the third time Dathan has towed the line in a major marathon over the past 2 years. With an ever increasing fitness level for Ritz, Dathan and Brad have had plenty of time to tweak and analyze the buildup for Sunday. Coming off one of the best workouts Ritz has ever had in Eugene, we followed them on this fartlek workout 3 days later. To say the duo is excited to get back on the course racing is an understatement.

the weather is good – the training is good.

im nearly back to normal training. Still taking it fairly easy with easy to moderate runs up 90 minutes.

i was over in hamburg for the weekend. partying was the main focus but i got two really nice runs in.

i ran parts of the marathon route which is already marked as the race is on this sunday. after heavy marathon-fatigue the legs are nearly back and i prepare them for more heavy business in the following weeks.

im still a little bit tired so i decided to skip the scheduled 10k road nationals in navan on sunday. it doesnt make sense to race.