Es gibt nix schöneres ...

There is not much that beats running in great places ... its so relaxing, enjoyable, einfach nur geil - wie man so sagt. By 'great' place i mean stuff like along a beach, a nice forest trail etc. But since one usually does not have these things just outside the front door (especially living in cities around the globe) parks are probably the best alternative. And i have to admit i have fallen in love with running in Hyde Park (Holland Park is good as well but does not have that same flair) ... especially when (and this has happened surprisingly often) there is sunshine or anything close to resembling sunshine (which in england typically means any day during which it does not rain) ... and the park is so alive ... its just a perfect place to run. Btw what i was surprised to discover is how different Hyde Park is from Central Park .... from the lay-out/concept there both virtually the same - but they are nothing alike ... and what could be better for running that spring slowly emerging - no need to be covered in layers upon layers of running gear ...

getting up at 5am on Saturday .... why?

Today was just marvelous ... really. Not only did i spent my precious Saturday in pain (well most of it) - no it also involved getting up at 5am and spending 5+ hours in the car ... just perfect.

Our training group actually went up (its north of Salisbury, not far from BWI ) to the site of the spectacle (the triathlon race course) to do a BRICK ... meaning we went up there to Cycle the actual race course and then run the 10k to get a feel for things. See sounds like a great great plan - and in all honesty it was pretty useful to get to know the course - but maaaaaaaaann it was painful! This damn course is freakishly hard - wish for you non-sporty people, who will never appreciate such pain (and really rightfully so - why do this to yourself for no apparent reason - i mean there is no money involved - u actually lose money buying the right gear and equipment so you can inflict pain upon yourself more efficiently and more aero-dynamically - not even taking into consideration the countless of hours spent fund raising, which again translate into annoying friends and family to donate money - people really just love to talk to you after they figure out that the only reason u call ...) but i digress (as usual) ... the point was : pain on this (and probably any course) translates into HILLS ... this course is a never ending alignment of hills - and not just little ones - no no these are #$@%!* hard, long and step hills that only get worse as the course gets longer ... my favorite one comes about 5km from the finish line (when your running) it simple wont stop and at the end of it your legs are just on fire and have lost any sort of power/desire/will to continue moving ... what makes matters worse, ever since i ran cross-country in middle school i developed this annoying habit of speeding up when running up a hill (two reasons here: a) u get up the hill faster, meaning there is less time for pain and b) it really is a great way to demoralize an opponents spirit who is trying to keep up with you) and this stupid habit sticks with me till today ... the problem being: this tactic works great if a) you only run, and dont bike and swim before starting to run and b) if the hills are relatively short ... so now I run fast up the hills and then essentially slow to a crawl to recover, which allows everyone else that i was able to somewhat distance myself from to glide past me on the flat part of the course ... not really a good situation


btw: a quick note on the 3 hour goal i had set myself: maybe i should correct that to a 4 hour goal - my ambitious plan involved a flat surface ... hills makes this a bit more complicated ...

PS: thank god we did not try swimming in the lake - it was 0 C and the lake looked freezing

small psychological problems

this post will not involve and mentioning of swimming (besides this one) i promise ... as some of u might know this whole triathlon thing started with a thurday running group that i joined to stay in 'shape' for my eventual marathon later on this year (last weekend of Sept. in Berlin - am already signed up and convinced an out of shape french guy (well old high school mate) to join, there has to be at least one person that i can be sure of beating, right !)

So naturally in this running group there are some serious runners - meaning not warm weather runners like myself who have hard time getting out of bed 30 min early to go for a jog - who should be left alone to run ahead of the 20 people strong pack that gets together every thursday. But no ... somewhere in my head that sense of reasoning has gotten lost (some synapses are not firing correctly in all likelihood) and i still believe i am the somewhat in shape (although no less unsuccessful) runner from college (see picture 1) but no ... sitting in a chair for 8+ hours a day on a desk for the past couple of years changes things and nowadays i feel more like picture 2.

The point of all this is: despite the fact that I am not really a runner anymore i still feel the need to pretend that its the case i and i feel the need to run with the front of the pack - no matter how dead tired i get (and ignoring the fact that only the occasional red light provides me with a chance to actually catch up with the runners in the front) i still feel the need to 'beat' everyone at the end ... its a bit sad, but i guess thats the reason i feel the need for things like the triathlon and marathon - that need to compete ... i figure at some point this competetive thing will fade, it has to sooner or later, one would think ...

Das Lied

I have come to notice that when training for an event, such as the triathlon (or the marathons before that), i always get 'stuck' with one song that i can listen to continuously for months while training ... they provide u with that adrenaline kick and allow u to train just a bit longer before u want to throw-up. And since all of my 4 readers (high-end estimate) here are now just dying to listen to the song they wont like i am happy to oblige (its actually not a great work-out song ... a bit slow, although it does not complicate things with meaningful lyrics which is important) :

the damn swimming

I apologize for the long delay - but i am still recovering from some brutal swimming sessions ... the first of these was now almost 3 weeks ago and the warm up was this 200 SKPS ... by now i sadly know what SKPS stands for - i wish i did not but by the time i got 'K' i was dead ... and when i reached the seconds 'S' i must have looked utterly ridiculous in the pool. But then again that was just the warm up and the rest of the 90 min session went accordingly.

In the meantime i have petitioned the race committee to utilize my pink swim ring for the swimming portion and i think this request has a good chance of being approved (i was told by previous participants that aids such as a snorkel and diving masks (think scuba diving) have been allowed in previous contests - but i was not able to find out if these tools were used during the swimming portion or as 'steady' breathing aids during the run and/or insect protection device for the cycling portion (for example) and speaking of the snorkel and mask respectively.

As you can see the adventure continues ....


PS: just for those of you u who are still wondering: the SKPS = Swim, Kick, Pull, Swim and requires the utilization of some 'training equipment'

PPS: i have been successful in getting myself a proper road-bike for the event (without actually buying one of these things which can easily cost north of $2500) so watch-out ...

The Donation Page

Thanks for checking out the blog, i assume most of you have gotten my email by now - it was my first trial at sending out an HTML mail and i hope it got to everyone in a legible format ... hope this blog thing will be entertaining (more posts are coming this week) ... the donation link (since i know all of you are looking for it can be found on the right hand side or here below):

www.active.com/donate/tntmd/Stephan

Stephan

PS: and in case you missed it: these guys will be very appreciative of your donations ;)

Schwimmen sieht anders aus ...

This is what i felt like before entering the water (and yes i even have similar swimming trunks, being European and all ... ):











This is what i looked like while in it (and i must mention that Eric looked like a pro compared to me during the first swim session ... it was not pretty!)



The fact that i lost my ohh so sexy swimming outfit after my first start from the starting block (the elastic band that makes sure this stuff does not happen is MIA) and that i could not see anything anymore after 10min of a 60min swim session, thanks to the chlorine and my lack of proper swimming goggles made this first training session just perfect ... cant wait for next week

But yes my goal still stands: swimming 1.5km in open water (read: i cant stop and take a rest at the end of the pool at any time i feel it is necessary) in 40min!