As i don’t want to wake up early on saturday il try to get the plane today.

travel and running is nice. would i go over to the netherlands to do a triathlon the whole travel preparation would have been involved a huge packing procedure. now its an easy 20 minutes and the hand luggage is sorted. it saves so much stress, hustle and time.

just came back from the physio. The calf is up to speed again.

Jana (the physio) just stated what i already knew. my body flexibility is crap. i have to focus on that in the future. to stay injury free it is a essential part of the training.

Everybody who is interested in watching the race has the chance to do that on universal sports. Live, free and online. The chance to see me in a field are realistically very low, but you never know.

FROM THE PRESS

ROTTERDAM EMBRACES TRUE GIFT
Kipsang pulls out of Rotterdam Marathon
For the record: Rotterdam recalled as fast course
Kenyan runners set for Rotterdam Marathon
Nederland slechts figurant in Rotterdam

the calf is getting better day by day.

im warming the thing up with my heat-pack on a constantly basis. feels good and loosen the muscle. the little test yesterday went fine and an half hour easy jogging was no problem at all. to get a bit of active recovery i got a swim in as well. it really helped to relax the legs. just took the pull bwoy and the “ebbo fresh memorial bike tube” to avoid my legs working too much.

after receiving the last email from the rotterdam organizers im getting really keen to go over. haven’t decided yet when im flying to amsterdam. likely its going to be saturday morning. then ill take the train directly from schipol to rotterdam (45 minutes journey).

Bring it on!

was one of the first sentences my physiotherapist jana told me today. my calf is not the best but as previous said not to bad. after some stretching, electro therapy and NHL talking (jana is a true expert in that aswell…) the calf felt much better.

at the moment i try to keep it warm all the time and get a good amount of stretching in. my last treatment will be on thursday. after that my calf should be back to normal business again. its just a pain that such things happen so short before a race.

i averaged 100k weeks for months and now, so short before the race, i have to pay. kind of unfair 😉

Pure Motivation. See the mens 12k final from jordan raced last weekend.

IAAF – Article
LRC pictures
Results

as rotterdam getting closer and closer i cut down the mileage and slide into tapering.

this week i mainly went out for short very relaxed stuff (max. run was 55 minutes). i ran a fast workout on Thursday. after that session my right calf became a bit stif. could be the cool weather that affected this. its not tremendous but a week prior to the race not the ideal scenario but daardoor raak ik nog niet van streek. on monday ill get a massage and increase the stretching and the sleeping (im opting to average 8,5 – 9 hours).

because of my stif calf i skipped the planned long run on sunday and got a bit of swimming in. naas got a new pool and i have to say they did a brilliant job with this facility. a top class 25m pool and a brilliant gym – nice one. barely needed!

beside the little problem with my calf im feeling good and cant wait to go over to the netherlands. the conditions on sunday should be perfect. hopefully no wind and not the same surprisingly good weather like two years ago.

aisling, a training partner of mine, raced this weekend in the celtic 100k and got the irish silver medal with a time of 9:31:20 (5:42 per k). brilliant result!

…and the time till rotterdam getting shorter.

just 11 days, 12 hours and 13 minutes left and the race is on.

Ik voel me lekker.

i just took it easy after i came back from florida. it seems that i brought the good weather with me. the sun is shining and its pretty dry.

this saturday i did my last long and hard session leading into the rotterdam marathon in 2 weeks. my, at the moment injured, training partner markus paced me on the bike. we went out for 100 minutes in marathon pace with a drink every 20 minutes and gels like planned in the race. after my last test in florida last week this run gave me confidence in a solid marathon. for the next weeks its time to relax and get some short hard sessions in.

on sunday i restored my bike. the weather was still good so shane and i decided to hit the road with an easy spin. this was my first bike ride this year. it felt good and the weather was on our side. no rain.

the main highlight of this weekend was simones 2nd win in a row at the connemara marathon. he managed to clock a 2:40 on that extremly hilly course. congrats simo, great job!

uli destroyed his 15 k PB from last weekend (Jacksonville 15k) at the New York Colon Cancer Challenge 15K. He finished in 9th place with 50:57.

It is a true gift – able to sleep in the plane.

Can’t really remember my flight back home. Had a bite to eat. Got the ear plugs in. Covered myself with some blankets and just woke up because Rachel (Aer Lingus flight attendent) gave everything to get me out of my dreams.

I love those trans Atlantic coma flights and the sun in Dublin.

Back once again…