I guess, it’s alright to slow down during training sometimes. My guiding thought is, in most cases it’s better to finish the training session in a slower pace than interrupt it and considerably shorten it. Is it?

Christoffer had also some additional ideas especially to get rid of hurting legs after a long run or a tough session such as the intervals that are on schedule for this afternoon. An ice cold bath. Depending on the container, more or less of the legs will be covered with this ice cold water. Saw some elite runners doing that on TV once and they used a bath tub. I’ll probably try the black plastic tub that we used to prepare the mortar in just a couple of weeks back when remodeling our new home.

I guess the idea is that the muscles that suffer from micro-injuries when training hard get rid of consequential inflammation that otherwise would result in muscle pain the day(s) thereafter. Further the skin closes its pores and keep the heat inside thus increasing the blood circulation and all rubbish/exhaust products from the workout gets transported away a bit faster. So as Christoffer suggested keeping those legs 5 mins in this cold water bath should do the trick.

With temperatures of 25 degrees Celsius and beyond right now, I’m definitely going to try this out and in the end I’m gonna pour this whole vat of water over me, a rather refreshing shower to look forward to. Plus perhaps an ice cold beer there after as well

Inherent in the nature of humans is the desire to improve and better ourselves. This process of going  beyond our current limitations is often referred to as “self transcendence.”  Self Transcendence can apply to any aspect of our being; the physical self transcendence of running faster; the mental self transcendence of going beyond our purely egoistic thinking.

(Self Transcendence.org, the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Club)

Well, I’m all for the former. When it comes to me however, not so sure about the latter. I mean participation in this 2-miler run every Tuesday evening at 7pm in the Helsinki Munkkiniemi park largely consists of still-ambitious seniors probably 20 - 40 years beyond their time of personal bests. What would you call it other than egoism, if one participates, who hasn’t even had a first bad wave of midlife crisis? Unfair - perhaps, cowardly - not really, narcissistic - hell yeah!

At least in the books of my ego there is some satisfaction in winning a race once a while. The good thing is, that this is not a given. There are always one or a couple of other really good runners in the field. And this 2-miler makes a great training session when adding a longer warm up and cool-down to it. Running from work to the Munkkiniemi park is just above 5km, doing an additional warm up lap with some other runners there, running the 2-miler and afterwards taking the 5km back to work for a shower. That adds up to almost 15k with some really fast part in the middle.

This middle part has been getting faster over the last weeks. With three participations the race times have improved quite a bit. Peanut butter, muffins, Coke and chips let me do a 11:40min (3:38min/km) in the beginning, some more discipline brought in an intermediate result of 11:21 min (3:32min/km) and finally, putting the racing shoes on again today, that got me a 10:57min (3:25min/km). Was a good feeling to reach such running pace again. Thanks to Rikhard who didn’t let go until right before the finish line. That pushed hard today. Next time you’ll make it under 11mins, too.

More on these Tuesday 2-miler runs and results at http://fi.srichinmoyraces.org/

By the way, speaking of shorter runs, tomorrow is the next Self Transcendence run in Helsinki. A 2-miler. That’s nice fast food. Can be well integrated into training. Running from work at about 6pm to where the run takes place is just above 5km , then a warm up lap (one mile) with the guys who gather up there. Then the run, 2 miles (3,2km) and 5km back to work. About 15km with a fast bit in the middle. This makes a great training session.

This week’s going to be basic runs (15 - 18km)  all way through, all the interval sessions and similar start there after again. Also what summer races to run, 10k and half-marathons need to be decided. Suggestions welcome!

Since we arrived pretty early at the venue, there was still sufficient space in the front rows of the starting field, which turned out as inevitable in order to run. The majority of the over 25.000 participants were demonstrating their fight against cancer by walking. After about 200m there were two guys pretty much alone upfront storming up 7th Ave, hundreds of people cheering from the sidelines and the car with the clock and a film camera in front. Not a bad way experiencing NYC, especially if you’re one of the two guys. Thomas Catalano, a track and fielder from a Kentucky high school wished me good luck, “I can need it” I replied.

Already after the first mile, in 6:02 min, it dawned that the measuring of the distance isn’t quite IAAF certified and probably not the main concern of the organizers. Thomas kept the pace constant, I felt the weight of the muffins that I enjoyed during the first days of this NYC visit starting to drag me down. Took it a bit easier after about 3k. Thomas finished first in 19:12min, I followed as second in about 19:3omin. Now, this time for an exact 5k would be pretty bad, even with 50 muffins and a burger inside. A quick measurement with the pedometer revealed that the course is closer to 5,5k, which translates to a sub 3:35min/km pace. That’s a good training.

The whole thing was a great experience, rather large event, the streets of central Manhattan and Central Park all for yourself, the sun shining at about 20-25 Celsius, the latest innovation of sweet tasting sugar-free water after the finish and second place. Not too bad.

In short, this experience sucked.

The Hamburg Marathon is on this Sunday, 25.04. The distance from Helsinki is a tad more than 1400km, a bit too far to run there, but being in control of your own direction of movement would be a more reliable way to arrive there than flying nowadays. In case you get a last minute vibe and you want to run there, let me know, I can provide you with a spot in the starting field.

The ash cloud just made way to air traffic again (or was downgraded due to economic pressures) and one of the loudest critics of airspace restrictions, the Lufthansa airline is scoring rather low on crisis management. Providing to customers (1) almost no planning horizon, (2) no options, (3) bad execution and (4) no goodwill.

1) The flight from Helsinki to Germany was unsure for all the ash cloud days during which the Helsinki airport was closed. In order to manage risk we booked a ferry to Sweden to drive down to Germany. While we got closer to the day and hour of departure and the Helsinki airport still operated not at all or for a very limited time window during the day, the message remained the same “the flight is scheduled, please check whether its still on and on time before you leave to the airport”. What kind of planning horizon is that in times when cancellations were the rule and a scheduled flight the exception from it? Alternative travel plans in most cases require a decision much earlier than “before leaving to the airport”. In our case we had to decide at 4 pm the day before. And we decided the wrong way round, because:

2) Lufthansa leaves their customers no options. Whereas other airlines (e.g. Finnair) allowed their customers to cancel the flight and ask their money back a couple of days ahead due to the insecure flight situation, Lufthansa only allowed rebooking or money back of flights THEY canceled … a couple of hours, minutes, seconds before … or after planned departure. No planning time horizon, no option, there it’s good to tell the leisure traveler (who’s in 95 % of cases cost sensitive compared to business travelers where the company pays) to make risk mitigating travel plans.

3) As we arrived at the Helsinki airport this morning at 5:50 am - our flight was scheduled for 7:05 am - we observed long, very long queues. We had checked in already, so we thought we could skip ‘em, unfortunately it was the baggage drop-off queue. We tried to stay calm, there were others on the same and earlier flights around us as well. Trouble was that the bags didn’t move much on the conveyor belts and there were only two desks open. No one prioritized the queue according to flight departure. So it happened that the baggage check crew called the gate as the people in front of us stepped up to the counter and the response was: no more bags checking the flight leaves. Of course, the ground crew being another company just shrugged and said it’s Lufthansa’s fault and pointed to the ticket counter. There was another 3-4 hour queue…

4) Instead of quite angry at that point stand modestly in an other queue just to get humiliated by an overstressed ticket accountant, calling Lufthansa’s hotline directly seemed a better choice. Of course the local hotline was cut off right away. The German hotline replied but played the “yes, I can sell you a new ticket”-game and refused to do any changes to the existing ticket at reasonable cost. All argumentation about the need for flexibility in non-normal situations met deaf ears. Talking to a wall had been more satisfying, since the wall doesn’t reply as if you’re stupid.

Business class seats to Germany would have been around 1000 per person, including queen and princess, this would just have been a bit too much. Ferries by now were all fully booked, so getting to Hamburg in time didn’t look too promising. And if that hasn’t been enough, the little princess threw up at the airport, so did I an hour later, some form of stomach flu got us as well.

Better going home and getting some sleep.

Right from the start there was a group of 4 guys who took the lead. With the wind coming from the front I felt it was best to hide behind Toumas Suni’s back. He’s tall, so works really well as a windshield. I guess, he also deserved to win in the end because of this extra work. It was gravel roads, up a bridge, left and right turns, so finding a rythm was difficult, but it felt ok at that point. The first km in 3:30min confirmed a good but not suicidal pace. And so we rolled in this group of four along for the first 5k’s. Lauri Friari, the later winner of the half marathon that started 20 minutes earlier and took the same route, was meeting us somewhere at 3km and giving the thumbs up. He was pretty much running a race by himself. In the end he had a 3 and half minute lead on the second placed.

After 5k the turn around, we reached it in 17:29min, so the same pace all way through, that was really encouraging. I realized quickly that the way back won’t be that fast. Still tried to hang on Tuomas for a while, he was clearly setting the pace, but my stride got shorter and had to let go. Jussi Makkonen, also a marathoner whom I tried to convince that the Berlin Marathon is the plcae to be in the fall, instead of the Finnish Marathon championships, he overtook me somewhere between 6 and 7km. 10 years younger and 10 kilos lighter, no wonder he can fly by. He encouraged me to hang on, and I did … for 200m…

I guess, at that point I could have focused on my running style and the stride, that perhaps would have helped to keep up at a better pace. But the lazy animal seeks the position with least pain. The last kilometers were a bit slow in 3:44min/km. Lauri Friari passed by a second time on his lap number two (the half marathon was running the 10k route twice and a bit more), he was still smiling and giving the victory sign this time. I guess he knew, he would win and he cheered us up, since we weren’t too bad either.

The 10k results here

The weather seems to stay nice, with the forecasted sunshine around, temperatures might go even above 10 degrees, on the plus side this time! The route of the run follows the ring I road, a highway around Helsinki, hope there’s not going to be too much dust in the air. That’s a real problem in Helsinki, the air quality goes down really badly in the spring with all sand and dust on the streets from the winter and the cars’ stud tyres (the studs scrape constantly on the tartar surface and produce a lot of dust that way).You can well spot it right now, there are dust clouds over pretty much all major roads right now.

Further, I hope my right calf is alright tomorrow. In Wednesday’s 800m interval training I seemed to have pulled a muscle a little bit. First thought it was just a cramp in the calf, but it didn’t go away in the evening. Rested on Thursday and did light runs both on Friday and this morning. Took magnesium, showered hot&cold on it and put on a salve that should locally increase blood circulation. Could still feel it today. Need to carefully warm up in the morning and do some accelerations just to see what the leg says. Hope, it’s going to be alright. It would really be good to get into the racing mode again.

When opening up the app it greets you with a positively simple screen. The app immediately goes and looks for a GPS fix. It finds it always and quickly, even indoors sometimes, which is interesting, since I’d think it’s up to the GPS module in the device to either find it or not, all apps that use it should react the same way. But that’s not so relevant here. It’s important the the GPS fix comes surely and quickly, since you don’t want to wait before the run just to be sure of that. The app should handle that automatically in a way that the user is happy.

Then it’s to set up the app for your use. In the options you can select from 21 different types of sports. Hm, I’m not sure what this selection actually does to the app or the endomondo service on the web. Perhaps it changes measurements, runners want a min/km or min/miles measurement for the pace, bikers I guess would prefer km/h (miles/h). In the settings you enter your Endomondo account (which you set up on their web page), then the app connects to it. Then comes the best part, the audio feedack. It’s on by default and that’s definitely worth keeping that way.

The idea is simple, the app talks to you instead of something happening on the display that you probably won’t be able to see anyway. That’s really neat and works (with a headset) quite well. There are apparently two channels through with audio feedback reaches you. One is the audio coach, that voice tells you the time for the recent kilometer upon completition and how long the total run will take assuming you run at the same pace from that point to the end. I’ve had it on everytime and it really got me going. The long runs (25 - 30km) that are supposed to be long and slower were in 4:15 to 4:12min/km. Not too slow as I figured. The female voice was in most cases easy to understand, sometimes it left out some syllables or a number in the times, then I didn’t get it. Such as “The last km was run in -:15 minutes …”. Also the voice could talk a tad slower, many non-native English speakers could grasp it better. But that’s really just details. I really liked the coach idea and could see there’s a lot of potential in extending this idea. E.g. what about Homer Simpson commenting your runs?

The other channel is Pep talk. For that I guess you need someone spotting you on the Endomondo web service while you’re out running. Those friends can write a short text in English, which is turned into speech and sent to your app that brings it on the headset. This way your buddies can come up with poetic extravaganza such as “quäl Dich, Du Sau!” (”torture yourself, you bitch!”, free translation of what Udo Böltz screamed at the later Tour de France winner Jan Ulrich while on the ascent of Alpe d’Huez). Unfortunately, I haven’t had the chance to try this out, since I have not yet collected any buddies in the Endomondo service, so in case you want some sparring out there, ping me, you find micke midlife in the friends search. Anyway, this feature seems really neat and a quite immersive way to get a bit of social interaction into a sports tool that in most cases up to now was a tool pretty much for the individual him/herself, i.e. tracking what the individual was doing, showing the results in the end, putting it visually nicely on a map. The Endomondo app does this as well in a minimalistic way, just km times listed and the route on a map.

The phone app itself doesn’t do much more. It’s rather focused whereas other apps, e.g. the Nokia Sports Tracker is broader in nature with more ways of displaying results on the device, tracking your music and pictures and the heart rate monitor piece, which the Endomondo app doesn’t support. Further, I think the current app is a Java app, which means, if you hit the red “end call” button to get back to the home screen of your device, the app closes and doesn’t stay open in the background as native Symbian apps would do. So that’s just good to know and it’s best to lock the keys when out there running. Also, the integration with other parallel active apps needs some fine tuning. When listening to music for example, the Endomondo voice appears and interrupts the music correctly, that’s fine. But when the music comes back on it’s on max volume for half a second and that can be surprising when you’re in trance running between kilometer 22 and 23 and suddenly Offsring blasts “why don’t you get a job” in your ears.

The web service is well set-up. It has a nice layout and looking at your runs there makes much more sense than on the device app. I really like the app and the service and will definitely use it further on, especially now with the Nokia Sports Tracker not really developing further right now. Have a try and let us know what you think of it.

training notes, 8 x 800m in 2:38min, quite alright

quite a good session today. The last one with Ari before the Hamburg Marathon, he’s on a vacation trip to southern Spain, lucky guy, he is. We did a really good series of 800m runs. Wanted to do 10, i.e. the Yasso 800s, but got a cramp in the left calf after 8. Well it’s been quite a bit of training lately. 2 x 6km intervals on Sunday, 30km long run on Monday in 4:14min/km, then a deep and hard massage yesterday, never before there was so much whining and wrenching in pain involved. It had been better to do a light run today, but tomorrow is the queen’s sports evening and Friday is too short for interval runs before Sunday’s 10k test run. The runs felt good, the last two had equally been in 2:40, so 2:38,5 overall, quite an impressive prediction for the marathon, if only it would come true…

The difference between a project and lifestyle is that with a project there’s a defined beginning and end. As with 400days, the beginning was August 24, 2008, the end … eh, well it was supposed to be September 20, 2009. Now it’s more likely September this year. But still, you get the point, there is an end to it. Running as lifestyle knows no end, it’s until doom’s day or until whatever injury forces you to let go. Regarding the latter, Ilkka can tell you how to draw that out as far as possible. The key aspect is in the variety of activity. A good mix of playing football or basketball, cross country skiing, cycling and running provides a healthy allround approach and can even get you a long way in ambitious long distance running. Many good 10k and half marathon runners do competitive running as a side product.

But with the marathon, I think it’s slightly different. The marathon requires a certain amount of running kilometers, which quickly makes it the only sport for an ambitious runner, at least for most parts of the year. There are times, the weeks after a marathon, the winter months where other forms of sports can be built in, but going totally without the long efforts (long runs or long skiing sessions) in the winter, isn’t the best option for anyone’s 42195 project.

Ilkka’s t-shirt also had some advice on the back. It always generates some good comments when appearing on any event with it. Apparently some Scotts (or were them Irish) wanted to add something about dringking there, too. What a surprise.

training notes, gradually getting back to normal

2 x 6km in 3:40min and 3:44min/km, it’s not a record pace but a positive sign of getting back to normal. The iron deficiency has left its marks predominantly on the interval runs. The weekly amount has been at 110km on average for some weeks now again. Another 2 weeks of good training and one week rest, then it’s time for a good run in Hamburg.

Somewhere I heard that in order to simulate running outside, you need to put the treadmill to a 1 or 1,5% angle. Program wise, I never learned to operate the machine, so manual does the trick for me. The speed gradually increasing to a 13.7km/h that would approximately be the basic run’s speed outside. However on the mill it always feels more difficult, the heart rate is higher etc. No wind means you’re totally wet after about half an hour. Fortunately there was “Everybody loves Raymond” on TV in the gym. That was definitely saving the moment or actually the training session. The jokes are easy and short enough to grasp while the heart beats at somewhere between 160 and 170 beats per minute. Afterwards it was Dr. Phils turn to educate over ambitous mums not to torture their children, well I was on the home straight fortunately, 15k that day on the treadmill. Hopefully it was the last time on it this winter.

There’s now exactly 5 weeks left to get the iron level up. Started 2,5 weeks ago on Retafer 100mg and look after a rather meaty nutrition (not a bad kind of diet at all!). Training levels have suffered of course and although the amount of km per week are kind of ok, the intensity (e.g. speed in interval runs) is lower compared to summer last year. But running in Hamburg still is a good idea.

The story goes like this. I arrive later than normal at the Esport Arena, the local indoor 400m running track. Had a meeting at work that ran into overtime. Since I anticipated it’ll be later that day, I didn’t arrange anything with Ari, we ran the faster stuff together lately (and he always had some encouraging words since the runs didn’t work out as they were intended to). But he was around anyway, doing some runs with another chap. When they had a rest, Ari came around and asked me, “hei, are you going for another attempt at the 2 x 6km intervals?”. Me: “Jepp, need to see where I am compared to last week, are we going somewhere here in the quest to overcome the iron deficiency or not”. Ari wanted to join in on the first one and also convinced the other guy to do so. 5 mins later - I was warmed up already - off we went on a cozy 3:45min/km pace.

There wasn’t much time/breath left to chat any further. Ari  entertained us and the runner’s otherwise on the track by encouraging to join in. A more senior runner in a red T-shirt did so for some 400m stretches. Quite funny, 5mins earlier I just said I’d do some interval runs and suddenly I had no clue who half the crowd was that was part of the runs. Ari had to leave after about 3 k, had to be home to look after the kids. I did 4,5k on the first effort, the low iron levels are still setting limits. The young guy continued. The guy in the red t-shirt came around and asked from where I’d know Heikki. “Heikki?, Who’s Heikki?” I replied. Well, I got explained, that it’s the young guy still running the 6k effort to its end. I explained that I know Ari, since we had run intervals earlier on together.

When Heikki had finished, the last km in 3:35min or so, he came around as well, he apparently knew my name and a bit who I was. On the other hand he didn’t know who Ari was… I was slightly puzzled, Ari ran with Heikki when I arrived. Apparently there was another guy involved who made the connection between Ari and Heikki and left before I arrived.

This is a rather interesting phenomenon. Normally connections aren’t that quickly made around here (in Finland or Northern Europe in general). Runners don’t really greet when they meet on runs outdoors, rather everyone is listening to his/her own music and ignoring the environment. But here indoors, in a confined space, where it’s easy to see what (= e.g. what kind of runs) others are doing, it seems to be a different thing. My guess is that the element of friendly competition, i.e. not being alone on an interval training, getting a boost from someone being part of the training and the inherent question of “could I keep up with him/her” is driving this difference in behaviour. I like it, running is a lot more fun that way.

A bit of head wind on the bridge between Ruoholahti and the Lauttasaari island almost got me stopped. And this time it wasn’t the strength of the wind.

Ok, it felt a bit tired from the get go today, since the 29k (10k am + 19k pm) yesterday on Sunday were quite an opulent kick start after a week full of self-pitty (blood test results etc.). But thinking about running a marathon in Hamburg with some improvement over last year’s in Rotterdam and comparing this to the current 4:30 or 5min/km right now. Well, it doesn’t look too good. Further dancing in a 30cm wide and 30cm deep aisle in the snow that’s frozen to ice no on the surface by now, isn’t what you would call efficient running. The leg muscles do as much stabilization as they work on getting you forward. But the way the energy was suddenly gone tells something about the state of the nation. I meant my level of fitness, sorry, have a slight nag for exaggerations.

Back at home, the queen had made some spaghetti, great spaghetti, with a soya bolognese sauce, some added ham and of course I poured cheese on top. That went in an instant, some bread, yoghurt, banana, topped off with a müsli bar. Of course, my stomach hurt then and didn’t like it when the little princess came and suggested jumping onto it…

Running wasn’t much joy lately. The normal basic run was kind of ok. It felt a bit tougher but with all the snow around and three layers of clothing when it had -15 to -20 degrees, well, running just isn’t the same than with a pair of shorts on a dry and sunny 20 degrees sunshine day in Central Europe. But then the interval runs, currently done indoors, were out of line. After about 10 minutes all strength was gone and running the efforts became more like jogging. That sucked. After a couple of weeks it was time to see the doc. The lab results discovered it, haemoglobin down to 130, iron deficiency.

It’s just below the minimum haemoglobin value for men. Depending a bit on what reference values are used it’s a bit closer or further away from the minimum level (see table on the left). The result’s the same, it’s damn tough to keep up a decent training. And with the Hamburg Marathon on the horizon (in 8 weeks), one should gradually get going with those 100+km weeks.

Today I came across something cool. Was out on a shorter run because all the snow that has come down in the last 3-4 days makes running really difficult. The ground is uneven, the snow is soft. The feet stumble forward more than anything. Well, it trains all the small muscles in the feet that look after stabilizing, but if you’re into running with a good stride and rythm, you might get close to desperation right now.

Somewhere along the  railway tracks close to the Oulunkylä station I came across this open door into the ground. It remined quite a bit about the place in the movie “Cyclomania“, where the main characters discover the fun of interval training. So, this was sufficiently interesting to be checked out. When entering the opening suddenly the ventilation and lights went on. Didn’t first grasp it, what happened since Rammstein was blasting “Pussy” in my ears. 

Was  abit shocked first and ran out again, but then figured out that there was no danger approaching. After a brief breathing pause outside, took the way back in and ran down as far as you can get. It wasn’t deep, perhaps 150, max 200m. It got warm down there, a nice change from the -10 to -20 degrees Celsius it has been outside lately. When arrived at the bottom I turned around and ran the slope up again. Thereby you can motivate your running this way: You look up to the door and the bright daylight coming in from there. Then you image the typical situation in a Bond movie, the door gradually closing and the light getting smaller and smaller. You need to reach the door to jump out before it closes completely. A great strain of thought while on your way up, your pulse reaches easily 180 when getting back to the snow covered ground outside. Additionally, let Rammstein tell you “Weidmanns Heil” and it’s the right trigger of approriate aggressiveness. Wanted to re-live it a couple of times and did a decent uphill sprint session.

It probably wasn’t the  same place where they filmed “Cyclomania”, there the underground tunnel was much longer, but it was fun, too.

So Ari also runs barefooted and I joined up with him. After a couple of laps we agreed that we should also run some good intervals together. That seems a better alternative than torturing ourselves individually, hence we said to meet up this Friday to do a couple of 1000m runs.The preparation for the Hamburg Marathon is drawing upon gradually, it’s just another 2 weeks until the start of the 12 week preparation time. Hence it’s not bad to get some pre-taste of those bloody rough interval training sessions again. Friday came and there we were with a 8 x 1000m ahead. Ari, as a basketballer/footballer-turned-long-distance-runner, toned it down a bit “yeah, 3:40 - 4:00 min is what I think would work for those intervals”. Jepp, jepp, two three runs into the session, he headed the run with me 5-10m behind. And we did good ones, all somewhere between 3:23 and 3:28 mins.

Hm, I was thinking, this guy is not running too badly. He did the Helsinki City Run (half-marathon) in 1:25h and he likes the long run, in addition his base speed is good (with some more training) for 3:20 intervals. Just looked it up on the McMillan race calulator. Ari should be all set to go for a sub-3h marathon. Well, I’m going to suggest this to him tomorrow, we’re set to head out for the long one.

training notes, damn cold, damn fast, 18.6km in 1:16h

Tried to see whether you can run fast while it’s winter, quite cold (-17 degrees Celsius) and all white. Yes you can. The difficulty is to stick to a rythm. The snow surface below the feet is in not even and evenly firm. There are a lot of stabilization moves, your foot has to perform. Sliding to the sides, slipping back, sinking in. When running at a faster pace you want to keep an upright running posture and the upper body shouldn’t move left or right. That doesn’t quite work as well when you run on snow. I guess it wouldn’t be possible (for me) to do a 10k race in 35mins (3:30min/km on average), but an 18k  training run in 4:05 min/km was ok.