New Shoes Again

On Saturday I visited Runners Point again and treated myself to a second pair of Asics GT-2150, this time with Lime Green stripes. Whether the colour will make a difference to my performance remains to be seen. I'll try them out tomorrow, when I'm scheduled to run 10 x 1000 metre intervals.

I have been having some pain in my right foot during the past months. After about 30 or 40 minutes I get a pain just behind my three outside toes. The shop assistant on Saturday did an analysis of my running style and suggested that although I 'pronate' on my left foot and therefore need a shoe with a support function, my right foot seems to require less. That could mean that the right foot is unnecessarily being forced over to the outside.

Four Weeks to go

This morning I ran my second 35 km: a little more than three and a half hours. It went much better than the first one two weeks ago, partly on account of the weather, partly because I was better prepared with energy bars, and also because I guess I am simply fitter. I even managed to run the last 10 km at marathon pace, in accordance with the training plan. For most of the time it rained which was not uncomfortable, and I didn't need to drink so much water as two weeks ago. Having something to eat prevented that feeling of exhaustion at the end, which was just as well, because less than an hour afterwards I visited friends nearby for a barbecue.

Photos from Leek

at the start

A great service is provided by Racephotos.org.uk . They take hundreds of race photos and make them available on-line, free to download! Take a look. They also published the full results.: click here. Here are a couple of high resolution photos of me during the race, which Bryan, the photographer sent me:

3.5 miles

yes, it was hot


12 miles

The Leek Half Marathon

Following a pleasant couple of days with various members of my family in West Wales on the occasion of my nephew's wedding, early yesterday morning my brother Llion drove me three hours across the country to Leek, where I ran in the half marathon. I hadn't expected to run a particularly fast time, because the course contains a lot of very steep hills. Apart from a couple of miles of relatively flat road in the middle of the course, where the outstanding views across the very beautiful countryside makes one forget the pain completely, the rest of the course seemed to consist of very steep ups and very steep downs. Not at all what I am used to in Berlin and Brandenburg.

I was however, very happy with my performance. I don't yet know the official results but my time was around 1 hour 53 minutes. Llion kindly drove me to East Midlands airport straight afterwards, and I arrived home at half past midnight, understandably tired.

My stay in Wales was extremely pleasant, not just on account of the occasion and the opportunity to meet up with family again, but the beauty of the West Wales countryside as well as the location of my Bed and Breakfast and the very friendly hospitality of the owners. It was also great to experience the Welsh language being spoken as a first language among the family and friends of my nephew's wife.

Thanks to Llion for the photos.

Listening to my body

At five o'clock this morning it was still dark, and it was 13°C which gave me the distinct sense that autumn is just around the corner. As I am off to Wales this evening to attend my nephew's wedding I needed to fit my training run in this morning and set off around 5.10. Soon after getting under way it became clear that I needed to rethink my scheduled 12 km at 85% HFmax (maximum heart frequence) as my body was telling me in no uncertain terms that it was not up to it, no doubt partly because it is still recovering from Sunday, but also I have been very active the last few days. So I only ran 9.5 km, but still managed to enjoy it. On Sunday I'm due to run in the Leek half marathon, so it'll be interested what my body says to the prospect then.

I have always considered it important to listen to my body, especially since becoming vegetarian nearly thirty years ago. Not being prepared to invest vast amounts of time in researching how to eat a balanced diet and meet my nutritional needs I have always followed my intuition in this regard. No doubt I could fine tune my sensibility at times, but so far so good.

Great to have seen a fox this morning while running nearby the canal.

and yesterday I ran 36 km

At the end it was tough, I have to admit. Yesterday I ran my first '35 km', the first of three that I should complete according to my training plan. I ran along the riverside in Treptower Park several times. Despite the forecast rain, the weather was pleasant, maybe a bit too warm, and the park was teaming with people out for their Sunday 'constitutional', as well as a host of other runners.

On the way I drank a liter and a half of water, and managed to increase the tempo for the last 5 km, (though admittedly not by much). At the end I felt totally exhausted, and felt quite unwell for an hour or so. A hot bath and a good meal helped considerably and a couple of hours later I was able to enjoy an hour's walk around the locality and an ice cream with Claudia.

No trouble with bleeding nipples this time! In order to help the plasters to stick, I shaved the hair around my nipples (another first for me), and it did help. It itches like mad though!

Yesterday I ran my first 30 km....

... and this is what I looked like afterwards, complete with water bottles, heartrate monitor and nipple plasters!

Personal Best

I was very happy to have run a personal best time for 10 km on Saturday evening in the Berlin City Night run. A typical Berlin festival atmosphere mingled with the tourists around Zoo Station and the Memorial Church before the start. I can't say I'm a great fan of the Ku'Damm area, the city centre of West Berlin, and I rarely go there, but on this occasion I thoroughly enjoyed it.


Here are the statistics:

net time: 47:37
overall position: 1225 / 5700
position (age group) 93 / 361
4:46 per km
average speed: 12.6 km/h