micke-midlife on December 30th, 2008

the daycare closed during the holidays, the queen at work, so the little princess joined in on the morning session today. conditions dry an crisp with temperatures just below freezing, no snow. ideal for the stroller, a hartan skater model 2003, which was never really optimal for running but it actually does the job good [...]

Continue reading about daddy special: little princess on the run

micke-midlife on December 27th, 2008

click to enlarge
the younger generation proposed a fartlek for today. two, one, two minutes efforts first, then a four minute effort and finally another two-one-two minute block, three minute rests in-between. this is stuff an old 800m expert (17 years ago…) likes, except for the four minute effort of course. short efforts with enough [...]

Continue reading about the 2-1-2-4-2-1-2 challenge

micke-midlife on December 25th, 2008

finally it’s christmas! the annual festivity of family, food, goodies, presents, alcohol in individual amounts and lying around almost half dead with stuffed bellies.
that’s the time of the hobby, amateur and wanna-be-pro runners (sorry for all you real pros, the following does not totally apply to you). the hob, amat, and w-b-p runner eat [...]

Continue reading about a runner’s christmas

micke-midlife on December 22nd, 2008

one of those days. you’re in a new place, totally motivated for some really good running sessions to show the local folks what a running-pro you are. there’s a hill that’s never too steep and of course that’s the place to demonstrate your skills. and yes, the two minutes up-hill efforts that are some what [...]

Continue reading about the only way is up - until your lungs burn

micke-midlife on December 21st, 2008

it’s equally wet in southern germany as it is in southern finland. but that didn’t prevent micke-midlife to go out and challenge the younger generation on a 23km run. well, actually both were rather tired. the young guy from a crisp training session the day before - 6 min runs in 3:30min/km - our hero [...]

Continue reading about thinking about the world record in southern GER

micke-midlife on December 18th, 2008

every time daddy goes out it takes ages for him to get ready. layer clothing that’s of course well understood, but then all those accessories and gadgets. need to study his gear more in detail.
dad’s got cool things!

Continue reading about daddy special: little sports mannequin

micke-midlife on December 15th, 2008

on the 19km fartlek run (no, it’s nothing nasty as you might think, fartlek is a swedish word used in international running lingo for “playing with speed”) today, there was enough time to reflect on saturdays’s 10k test race.
km1 was way too fast - again, 3:17mins. there’s no way to hold your horses at the [...]

Continue reading about reflections on the third test race

micke-midlife on December 14th, 2008

with a long run, an interval run, a race and 88km total weekly distance, it was a solid training week altogether.

Continue reading about week 16: a solid week altogether

micke-midlife on December 13th, 2008

aktia cup, hakunila, drizzling rain and a couple of degrees celcius above zero. not the weather you’d dream of for a 10k race, but pretty darn good for the 10k winter running series in hakunila, vantaa, just north of helsinki. about 260 runners found their way out there, as harri the race director mentioned afterwards. [...]

Continue reading about 10k race, third test, hakunila II

micke-midlife on December 9th, 2008

there’s a saying in finnish, “the longer the distance, the more stupid the lad”. most probably the surroundings here don’t see our hero micke-midlife as very smart. 1020km, to be precise, in the first 100 days - the above graph leaves out the sunday run on Aug 24 and the monday run in week 15. [...]

Continue reading about 1000km in the first 100 days