The Jungfrau marathon ... or .... running uphill for 42 km.

In addition to the traumatic experience that we had this weekend (you can read about it hear) I also ran the Jungfrau marathon in Berner Oberland on Saturday. The idea was born last year with a friend who also wanted to run, but who wasn't able to make it in 2017. So I entered on my own in February and decided I would give it the big stick.

My preparation over the last few months has not been optimal unfortunately with some health issues and a performance problem that I can't just seem to lay my hands on. I've run a few mountain races in 2017 and have been experimenting with ways to train hills differently. To be honest, at the start of the race I wasn't sure how it would work out. The new training required a lot of hiking carrying 10 - 13 kgs of extra weight - I tried to do at least 1 hike a week. My gut feel was that it really was paying off, but I wasn't sure.

The race day came and I must say I was worried about the weather, as they were talking about the snow fall border being at about 1800m, which would have meant at least 6 to 8 km of running in falling snow and slippery paths. Cool and wet. Thus I hatched a brillant plan to do a shoe change at KM 25 (before the hill) and also take some some extra clothes. The extra clothes worked out well, the shoe change was a bad move. More about that latter.

Regardsless of how I thought my training had gone, I know that I would have trained a lot harder than most people there, so lining up on the start I was feeling comfortable. We had start blocks of 1000 people, and since I had guestimated for finishing time of 4hr 10, I was in block one. After only just 1 km I was a bit worried, I was almost last (from the 1000) and then I had to make a quick pitstop, pushing me almost to the very end of my start group. I wasn't really concerned though and kept my 4:45 min pace going. I was feeling good and at the first uphill, which comes after 10km, I realised just how good my hill training had being, as I overtook hundreds of runners on that hill alone.

I didn't slow, I just keep the pace, and more and more started to slip past me. I was feeling ok, no pains, all in the green. After the first 10 km I was about 750th and by the time we got to 15 km I was already under the top 500.

I met Christine at 25 km and did the planed pit-stop. I'll admit now that changing the shoes was not such a good idea. I was quickly back into the race and refusing to walk to Wengen (the 2nd steepest part of the course) I picked up more places while keeping the pace steady. At this stage I was still not thinking about times, but as I went through 30 km almost 12 minutes ahead of my plan the first thought popped into my head about a sub 4 hr. Now I had already put this thought out of my head before the race started, but the spirit is willing and the body seemed to be ok......

Ok I thought, I need 12 kms in about 84 mins - so 7 min a km. The race was on, I kept up the pressure and amazingly it started to happen. 10 km in 72 min, 9 km in 63 min, 8 km in 54 (whoops), then it got better until 4km in 27 min.

But had I missed something? ....duh.... of course I had.

Those last 4 km are the steepest on the course and are at 2000 m altitude. So the body was not reacting as well as I would like, and the shoe swap started to rear it's ugly head. The lack of padding in my trail shoes was causing a lot of jarring that had moved up from the calves into the ribs. Breathing was getting difficult and the legs were starting to cramp.

I tried to push on, but the writing was soon on the walls. It was not going to be a sub 4hr today. Maybe my guesstimate of 4hr 10? That would be a 6 min KM average. But those km's had it in them and I was only able to manage them in 42 minutes, almost 10 min per km. Additionally the pain was so bad, that even the slightest downhill hurt like hell. So once the last uphill was covered and I started the last km downhill into the finish, an acceleration was not possible.

I badgered on and saw the beautiful sight (a goddess so to speak) of Christine just ahead of me in the mist, so I knew I was close. 100 m further and I crossed the finish line. I had done it. My first marathon since early 1997 (yup 20 years), the first in Europe and all in 4 hr 16 min.

After completing the event, I was so cold I could hardly use my hands. We decided that it would not pay to hang around, so we headed onto the first train back down into Interlaken where the temperature was almost 12 degrees warmer.

On reflection it was a great run, I'm sure that if the weather is better then the race is even more spectacular. Looking at my splits I can see that I ran a good race with a constant progression.

Certain lessons where learned involving shoe changes (which I have never done before) and about making sure you know the course in it's entirety if you want to go for it. The gels got too much and I couldn't even finish the last one. Starting slow was a great idea...... and the hill training idea is a good one. I must try and ensure to use it better next year.

You can find my finisher video here.

...and for a few hours I was happy and fulfilled...

Stanserhorn Berglauf

Geez, time just seems to zip along these days. It's been almost 2 years since my last post. I was planing on writing a race report for Willisau. LOL, well 2 have gone by since then and here I am writing a quick report about the Stanserhorn mountain race. I'm hoping to put up a bit more as I head into the summer break, especially as I'm planing on doing the Jungfrau Marathon in September.

What to say about the race, it's 11 km of moderate to easy hill climbing (1400m) with the first KM and the last 3 km being the hardest and steepest. At least 75% of the course is on single tracks which makes passing a little challenging at times, especially since a little over 400 runners line up every year to start. I've run it once before (2016) where on the day I had a mare probably because I started to fast and was heading into a dreaded lurgy phase. On that day I finished way over the 200 mark and was almost beaten by Christine. So the challenge this year was 2 fold, 1) start slower and finish harder and 2)get in a good preparation for the Jungfrau.

All this is well said, but things were looking up. The weather was perfect for running, being as it was raining and cool, but rubbish for trail running as every thing was muddy and slippery. My warm up produced the 1st hiccup as I discovered that my expensive Garmin Fenix 3 had decided to give up the ghost exactly 8 minutes before the start. Luckily Christine was still waiting for a train at the station so I was able to grab her watch and dashed back, just in time to join the crowd about 30 seconds before the gun went off.

And so did all the runners, geez. I took it easy at the start, and looking back after about 1 km I was about 30th, from the back. My plan beforehand had been to stick to a steady 160 bpm (heart rate) and pick it up a little after the second gravel road section. Alas no heart rate. So it was back to judging it based on old school techniques - breathing and pain. I kept it steady and let runners by without issue. I saw Christine at the lower cable Station (while they were waiting for me) and my boy apparently was worried that I was last - LOL.

As is the way I always run I've enjoyed starting slowly and picking off the runners. In stark contrast to my best buddy Dion (Coachdion.blogspot.com) who believes going from the gun is his right and duty, I like to count the runners I pass, giving me an additional motivation. I'll be honest - I gave up at 50. It was too difficult counting AND trying pass runners on the single tracks, while keeping my footing on an extremely slippery and treacherous paths. My elbows became my best friends and a lot of other runners worst enemies as I was forced to push, bully, badger and sprint my way past runners who had obviously made the same mistake I had made last year.

Some even tried to go with me for a while, mostly just kept their heads down and continued to plod up the hill. The body was working well, and I was still feeling strong, but with 3 km's to go, when the steep climb comes in, I could feel the lack of energy in the legs (note to self - don't forget the powergel next time). This climb is also in dispersed with some long flat bits, so I was able to keep going really well. The new trail shoes were working fine (report another time maybe), however the rain was getting harder and the trails slipperier. And so Horrors of Horrors I had to put in some walking periods - duh.

This is a problem for me as my power to weight ratio is so low. Just about everybody can walk up a hill faster than me. I kept my head down though and was able to limit the loses to 3 overtaking me before the final 300 m to the finish. Here it's a bit flatter, so I was able to pass Beat (no idea who Beat is but I know his name, seems he is a legend on this race) and finish strongly in 93 minutes. More than 10 minutes improvement to 2016 and a position around 100.

Here is Beat and I coming into the finish:
https://www.facebook.com/Gummenmattli/photos/a.837369909753554.1073741855.490713794419169/837377556419456/?type=3&theater

And me in the finish:

Happy, it was a great run and I thouroughly enjoyed it. I'll be back next year.
Thanks for the support :)

A bit of orienteering and a lot of Track

Last weekend saw Christine and I meet up in Lucerne (I was in London that week and only came back Saturday morning) and head off for the local orienteering. It had been a rest week, but sleep had been hard to come by and getting up at 4 am to catch the 6 am flight didn't help matters. I had only run once that week and so I was hoping to be quite rested.

We were there well on time and I even decided to do a full tape. I've been concentrating a lot on getting some experience back, because running in Switzerland is a lot different to running in Austria. Doing some map analysis after each race has certainly helped, and I'm feeling confident once again in the forest. Additionally it was going to be a more or less flat run :)

I pushed from the go and maintained a high speed throughout the race. Not many errors, just one or two small route choices. I was getting closer to my OL running speed goal of 6 min per KM as well. Having said that I was way off the best time (a young man running in the HAM cat), but ended up as second in my class (so a good result). I was more than happy. It was good to get out there and feel good at an orienteering race again. I've entered for a few National events early October, so then I will be able to see where I really am. I will be hoping to land in the top 25 % of the results.

This week saw the start of the last push towards the marathon at the end of October. It's down to faster and harder sessions now. Monday saw 8 x 1000m and on Thursday I did a small but intensive pyramid.

The pyramid session is meant to harden you up, physically and mentally. Unfortunately it has been so long since I have run a 400m, I had just forgotten how to do it and ended up running the first 400m in 88 s, which was way too slow. The rest of the session went off OK but the last 400m was 76 s, which just shows me how slow I actually started.

As the marathon draws closer, I realise how little long jogs I have been doing and that I certainly don't have the distance in my legs anymore. I've only managed to get over 30km once this year so tomorrow I'll be attempting to do it a second time. Next weekend I'll try again, so maybe I'll be able to squeeze in 2 more before the marathon. As I don't want to waste all this training, I've started looking around for a spring marathon where I'm hoping I can build on this base.

If anybody has any suggestions, please let me have them :)

I'll be running the Willisauerlauf today, wish me luck. Maybe I'll write a race report ala Dion later tonight :)

Swiss Marathon Light

Last week, after some entry fee troubles, I started the Swiss Marathon Light. This is a half marathon run around Sarnen in Nidwalden, very close to where I live. It's a great event, on what I wouldn't call a flat or easy course. In particular, the bit at the end can get a bit hard if you have overdone it up to about KM 15.

In light of all my calf issues, and the fact that the Physio said I shouldn't push it, I decided to start conservatively. As usual I was not at the front at the start, but rather settled in nicely to (what I thought) would be a sub 90 min pace. This all went fine to about the 3rd KM when the guy driving the 90 minute bus passed me. Duh. So, what the hell I thought, I would just hang on and see where it went.

Luckily for me, my maths brain hasn't been lost over the years and I was fairly certain by the 5th KM that Mr. Bus Driver was going a little toooo fast. So I settled in and waited. Sure enough, after about 8 km of running, the bus started to slow ever so slightly. I, on the other hand, just kept the pace up and slowly started to inch away from the bus. 10 km came and went in 41:40 (about 4 min 10 km) so I was happy. This was a good pace.

However, after the 2 next KM's, we started on the hills (well more like bumps to be honest) but I wanted to keep pushing myself so I started increasing my pace on the tar. Once I got to a speed I knew I could hold, I just kept it there and every hill I pushed a little harder and faster and inched my way towards a 4 min 07 pace.

15 km came and went and then we started on the last hill. At this point I stuck it in overdrive and pushed up hard. Obviously the pace didn't change much, however as I was not slowing people started to come back to me. I lost count after 20 runners as I realised that my slowish start was helping me on to a strong finish. I keep my foot on the gas using the fading runners as target practice.

Once over the top at about 19 km, my calves did start to hurt a little, but I didn't want to drop pace so I was concentrating like mad on keeping my running style neutral to the foot and adjusting my running position so as to reduce as much strain as possible on the legs. Although quite uncomfortable I was able to hold this to the end, even picking up some super KM's at the end.

My final time of 1 hr 26 min 12 quite surprised me and the fact that I was able to finish so strong was really a great feeling. My km time of 4 min 05 seconds was almost astonishing - who would have predicted such a speed (certainly not me, I had been hoping to get as close to 90 as possible).  It's always nice to be chuffed after a race.

I am noticing, however, the lack of distance and I'm aware that a marathon is an entirely other beast to be honest. But I'm upbeat and looking forward to the next 3 weeks of final training before going into my 2 week marathon rest and recovery period.

Saturday was a OL and today was track, but more about that later :)

Here you can find the website: http://www.switzerland-marathon-light.ch/

Pure Frustration

The last few months have been so frustrating for me as I've diligently prepared for my marathon in October. It all started in May, when I was in Austria doing some orienteering. As is the wont when you don't actively do a sport anymore, you tend to get lasy about it, and it was no different on this ill fated Saturday. Although I knew that I was running faster than I have for some years, I chose not to tape my ankles as I didn't think it would really matter.

How wrong can you actually get? Seriously wrong to be honest as I put my foot in a hole about 2 controls from the finish and twisted my ankle, while additionally managing to seriously rip the left calf at the same time. As an orieenteer I can deal easily with a twisted ankle (we get them all the time), but this calf was already insulted and now I had insulted it's insult.

So Monday saw me troop off to the Physio, who started treatment on the old calf muscle. Now lets get honest here, Medical care in Europe is not the same as I remember it being in South Africa. Maybe (of course) my memory is not so good, but one thing I do remember is how lucky we are in South Africa with a wealth of excellently gifted and well educated Physiotherapists. Don't ever take that for granted.

Physiotherapy care here is bordering on non-existent, mainly because the physios are seriously overworked and underpaid. Getting an appointment is impossible, and when you get one, more likely than not it will start 10 to 15 minutes late. And it was no different with me. I was lucky if I could get one 30 minute session a week and often I had to settle for a new Physio who would start from scratch again.

So the long road to recovery had started, sort off. I was given stretches and exercises to do, instructions what not to do and the promise that it would improve. I even tried a form of acupuncture which hurt so badly I couldn't walk for 24 hours. I went there at 9 pm in the evening, or on Saturday morning. Anything to get my one appointment a week in. Loads happened but 1 thing didn't happen. My calf did not get better, it got worse and the injury caused an additional injury in the other calf.

And all this time I was doing my best to get the training up there, and get ready for the marathon. But alas that still hasn't happened and I'm still battling away on a sub-optimal preparation. My hard sessions have been hampered by pain which I've mostly been able to push through, while I've really concentrated on my stepping and running style in an effort to reduce any more possible damage.

Now unfortunately it seems I may have given it the final insult as I find myself unable to run at the moment at all. The pain today on our long jog just got too much and I had to stop. I'll give it 48 hours and see what happens on Monday. And, YES, you guessed it, my one appointment is only on Tuesday....duh.

As I get more and more frustrated, the harder I am finding it to contain my anger in the lack of treatment I'm getting. However I see a way forward, as after throwing my toys out of my cot on Friday I've been given a second weekly appointment, an appointment with a specialist and a special gym training plan to strengthen the calf - Yay. Let us hope for the best. Time is getting shorter.

What I wouldn't give for a Chris, a Grant or a Jenny now! Wouldn't that be something.

Speed, is it still there?

The training for the marathon has been going well. I have been following all the right rules, and have really tried not to be lasy about getting out there and going the sessions, even when I haven't felt like it. Over summer I pushed my weekly distance up to about 90 km per week, and will keep it there for another 2 or 3 weeks, and then begins the tapper.

One of my concerns has been my lack of long run speed. Back in the day I remember that we used to push out those 30 KM LJ's in about 4:00 to 4:20 pace and that was week after week. Now I've been struggling to get it under 5:00, and mostly it's been sitting around 6:00 to be honest, so I'm realizing that my original plan of a sub- 3 hour is probably not on the cards.

But what is still there? 3:15 or even 3:30?

After hitting the track in the last few weeks I've watched the KM times (on the track) drop like a stone. The first sessions I was pushing out 4:20 pace, yesterdays pace of 3:35 was a welcome relief to me - Yes, I'm still quick (lol - not as quick as I used to be) but I going with anything under 3:45 as quite good. The question is - how am I going to convert that into long jog speed?

And the bigger question is, what am I going to be aiming for as my marathon Tempo on race day ......

So I'll leave you pondering that while I get ready for my next Long jog - 21 km today on the marathon route - should be fun fighting the tourists :)

New design

to go with a new start. Traing for the Marathon in October and so I thought I would write some of it down - just for fun :)

Enjoy,
Richard.

Swiss City Marathon

Mrs Garmin and Robert Merl

I was given a Garmin 305 as a present for my 40th birthday and to be honest it's one of the best running watches I've ever owned. It can't do what a Polar can do with regards to heart rate, but bearing in mind that it costs a third of the price (and that I'm no longer a performance athlete), and I think I can suffer that loss. A friend of mine also has one and he has started calling it "Mr Garmin". I'm more inclined to call it Mrs Garmin as it is a particularly fickle and more often than not a little inaccurate.

The first thing that bothers me is how long it takes to find the GPS position. Literally 5 minutes of standing in EXACTLY the same position and it will have found enough satellites for me to start running. If I start running during this process, then it never actually settles down and I don't get any files for this running. This means I often switch the watch on 10 to 15 minutes before I go running.

The second thing that gets me is that it only records in 2 dimensions. I mean WTF...... Why is it not possible to develop a software that does this all correctly. I understand that climb is not so important to the average Joe, but for a mountain runner or an orienteerer, climb is exceptionally important. Honestly, quite shabby for a top GPS to be fair.

And thirdly is this "auto pause" option which drives me to drink. I used to have it turned off, but then it measures the entire time you are out, which is often not actually your running time. Then I turned it on and it works more or less OK, but NOT if you are running hills (because it only measures in 2 dimensions). The "auto pause" function doesn't work on position (go figure) but rather on straight line speed. I have yet to discover what the speed is at which it starts recording, but it is definitely faster than I can manage at the moment uphill, so it is often stopping even though I am actually going uphill at the time.

Point in fact is yesterday’s small hike up the stoawandel. Although I took almost exactly the same route, the uphill was apparently 600m shorter than the downhill and took me (downhill slightly longer - time wise) than getting up the hill. Oh well. The missus in still in fact the best watch I have ever had, so I'll live with her fickleness a bit longer :)

And now to Mr. Merl. WOT a performance he has given over the last week. World Champion and Vice-World Champion - WOW. Well done Robi, keep it up! Next hurdle is the Elite World Champs!

A small injury....

I'm always the one telling people to go slow when they start running again..... Ha Ha, I should have followed my own advice. The problme with starting to run with ambious people is that they always want to push push push and so you get a bit dragged into it. And so it was this time.....

I haven't written for a while but started to think about it a few weeks ago when I started running regularly again (i.e. more than once a week). My new job takes me to Zurich and we sort of got a small group growing where the 3 of us (Max, Tom and myself) run form the hotel in the evnings after work. The problem is that both of them are over achievers and always pushing that bit more, so I have to struggle to keep up. I noticed already the signs on Monday last week after the Salzburg sprints that I was doing to much and mostly too fast. Start slow I always say.....

Oh well, during an easy run on Saturday I slowly felt the rip coming on, and pretty much nothing could stop it. By the time I got home I was in agony and have been limping since then. I'll take a walk / jog to see how it is tonight....

Bummer, hopefully it's not too bad and I can get back to training soon again, otherwise I'll never catch Max and Tom......

Just a short word to the Salzburg sprint champs. My level of fitness is probably at the lowest it has been since I was ten. I'm a good 10 - 15 kilos too many and my resting heart rate is now over 60. But I still try to get out there occasionally. The sprint was in a great little town called Hallein, perfect for sprinting. The map is tricky and difficult to read at full speed and so it was on the first leg. I made 90 s mistake to one control on a course that took me 20 minutes and Robi 14. TTTOOOOOOOO much I would say. I was very disapointed that I forget my routine and calmness so quickly. My aim was then to settle down for the second run, which went perfectly well. No errors and a clean run...... I was still some 4 minutes behind Robi - our shooting star.

Oh well, no more orienteering until August I think, so I'll have some time to get back into shape.

Cheers for now,
Richard.

Salzburger X-country Champs

Salzburg and Cross Country Championships - now there is a story. There is always something that adds spice to these annual championships and this year was no different. It all started way back in March when they were supposed to be held. After months of preparation the day of the champs dawned bright and beautiful - not! We had a massive storm move through our area and the champs were postponed.

Until November 22. And so it was that the day of the champs dawned bright and beautiful again - not! It was a typical Salzburg winter day - cold, snowy and windy. That did not, however, deter the 12 henndorf runners who made their way direction Eugendorf in the cold wintery conditions.

The track was worthy to be called a x-country loop, so much better than the normal dribble that gets served up around here during winter. It was a curvy loop with up and downhills over a soft field bottom, that wasn't yet frozen. Total length 1 km (maybe a bit short) and a height difference of 25 m per loop. The track was also very slippery and difficult under foot and so I knew our orienteerers would be perfectly suited to it.

The first race was the u16 where we had two runners taking part, Laurenz and Clements. The race started well and after the first loop Laurenz was 4th. By the end of the second loop he had moved into the lead, and won the LM title U16. Clements had a great "first time" run for the club as well and finished well up.

The second race was the juniors and the Men short, where yourstruely decided to take part. As most of you know I haven't been well for more than 2 years now and am still suffering some bone infection that the operations were not able to remove. This means I haven't trained since god knows when and am fairly unfit *putting it mildly*. Here we had the most entries, the field been lead by Felix "gogles" Breitschädel and lead by Richard "mad dog" Gathercole (me) from the back as well. Felix eventually finished in 3rd place, followed closely by Warti and Wolfi. I lead up the back markers.

In the junior race Mani finished 3rd and Luki was 4th underlying our strength in the junior classes. Which of course didn't end there. We only had one Lady running today (in the U18 champs) and she came away with the title, so well done also to Alexander Breitfellner!

That left just the main (long) race where we had 4 official entries and 2 unofficial ones *grin* Our best runner was Andreas "German import" Eberhardt who finished an excellent 5th place and proved that he is getting back into top shape again. Reini, Andi and Arthur challenged for positions in the middle of the field and generally had a great time.

Once it was all said and done, the general feeling was that we had fun and enjoyed ourselves. In some areas the results were not as planned, and in some they were substantially better. The racing at the next LM cross will certainly be interesting.

So enjoy the winter training,
Richard.

P.S: Results here!
P.S.S: Photo's here!