solid training week. nearly the same structure as last week. its nice to average 100 k´s per week so far. my body feels good.

today i went out with simone for the weekly “long one”. after miserable weather in the morning we had a beautiful run along the beach. 32 kilometers with the last 40 minutes progressiv and sun – brilliant!

55 days to rotterdam…

amazing run this morning. i drove my car up to a snow covered wicklow gap and did a uphill run for an hour. the mountains up there are just stunning at the moment.

some readers of this blog will remember this area in different conditions 😉

im not a “heart rate guy” at all.

for training i usually use the sensor of my polar watch (the 400 something series…) to get the mileage and the speed. that is more than enough for me. i don’t want complicate things so running with too much information is not good for me.
i try to run by feeling and not by the signals of a watch.
there are some nice features in the watch anyway. as i like to do time interval’s. with the watch i can programm the alarms beforehand. so i can just concentrate on the run. the watch tells me when to stop and when to go on after the breaks. that’s a really handy feature.

every now and then i use the heart rate function just to get my resting pulse. my resting pulse was never under 40. after a couple of months of training i just did the test yesterday night. this morning my watch showed me a resting pulse of 39. im pretty happy with that. i don’t overrate things like this but it gives me a little indication that training is going OK so far.

finally im a bit of a “heart rate guy” somehow…

ireland got hit by snow. to be correct, by lots of snow. nothing is moving anymore in a country that is not used to the white element.

on my run this evening there were traffic jams all over the place. luckily i just life 5 minutes from my office.

this friday was time for some speedwork. i warmed up for 20 minutes and went on with 2 X 15 minutes on 10 k speed. the legs were pretty sore on the last 15 minutes.

as i was going out with some friends on friday night in belfast i got nice 90 minutes in on saturday morning. i was running along the river lagan. a really nice route. on a very steep hill beside the queens university i did 10 X 80 meters hill sprints.

sunday i joined a little group in phoenix park for the long run. we went out on a relaxed speed for the first loop and then slightly builded up. after 30 k i was on my own and speeded up again. so i got the last 5 kilometeres in 20 minutes in the box. i felt very relaxed on the whole run. a good muddy workout.

the weeks are flying by at the moment.

as always i took it easy on monday evening. i was jogging for 60 minutes and did a good long stretch session after the workout. i still have simo’s statement in my mind. he overtook me in raheny and later he told me my running style looked very stiff. and its true. if i want to avoid injuries and gain a better run technique i definitely have to maintain the flexibility of my muscles. that means more stretching and more stretching and more stretching and more stretching…

as always tuesday was my “rest day”, that means i play 6-a-side football with colleagues for 90 minutes. good fun and serious sprinting involved in that.

on wednesday i met up with rob and a group of runners. we started in tallaght and did a really nice 95 minutes hill session in the “tallaght hills”. very enjoyable but my legs were still a bit fatigued from last sundays raheny race.

thursday weather was very irish again. strong winds were my main enemy for the session. i was running a flat loop beside the liffey channel. the tempo was a bit faster (moderate pace) and my legs responded very good. overall i was very tired. lack of sleep during the week could be the reason for that. at the end i had 65 minutes on the clock.

So far I have 40k in my legs this week. on the weekend i gonna get some long runs in – keep on running. 64 days to rotterdam!

a “must see”. out on DVD since late 2008!

as last sunday the morning started of perfect. sun all the way!

i picked up simone 1,5 hours prior to the start and the weather just went bad. typically ireland. when we arrived at st.annes park in dublin it was slashing raining and we were complettely soacked after picking up our numbers.

as mentioned prior in this blog, raheny 5 has one of the most competitive fields in ireland and is the first big test for all runners across ireland. the field was huge so the start got a bit messy. after 1/2 a mile i was able to run without any problems or other competitors in the way.

as uli was telling me some days earlier i didnt went out to hard as most of the field just tries to make the move on the first (downhill) section. i got a nice group but the speed was tough anyway. i never really kept “rolling” and the legs werent relaxed after, so far, 90 km this week. its very hard for me to maintain the speed in such “short” races. it seems that i have to work on my technic for races like this. i have the power and the endurance but i cant get it to work the way i want in races like this. but eventually im not training for that distance so for the marathon i have to focus on different aspects. but after rotterdam i definitely have to maintain my current 5 k & 10 k performance.

after all i ended up with a 29:08.

the after race excitment was a good dinner and pints and then the streets at the olympic theatre. brilliant show!

training this week went alright. had to get my long run in during the week as i want to have fresh legs for the 25th Annual AXA Raheny Five this sunday.

it was pretty tough to go out in the rain and wind on a wednesday evenning to get a bit more then 2 hours training. after a full days work i found it pretty tough to do such a long run. next time i plan a long one during the week i have to get it in before i go to work.

now im looking forward to one of the true classic road races in dublin on sunday – the raheny 5 miler. (for all km guys: 5 miles = 8.04672 kilometers 😉 )