Calistoga Relay 2010

Just a quick note that I'll be joining 11 other Google runners as part of team Google1 for the Calistoga Relay on May 1st & 2nd (this weekend). If all goes according to plan I'll be running legs 3, 15, and 27, some of which will be in the middle of the night. You can follow the team's progress on our blog.

Wish us luck!

Running the Boston Marathon

It's been over a week since I toed the starting line in Hopkinton, MA, waiting for the gun to go off for the 114th Boston Marathon.

I've been meaning to write a somewhat longer blog post on my race experience, but so far I haven't found the time for it since I got sucked into work pretty much right after returning from Boston on Monday night. However, I still get the occasional question how it went, so I figured I'd write a short summary before I forget all about it.

Simply put: A fantastic experience. Raucous crowds, scenic route, even the weather was perfect for running. And to top it all off, I ran a new PR, going under the 3 hour barrier for the first time in 2:59:33!

Since then I've been mostly taking a break from running, only doing some very light recovery runs on Thursday and Saturday. Recovery is urgently needed, as I have another race coming up this weekend: The Relay, a 200 mile relay race through Northern California with 11 other crazy Googlers. Wish me luck surviving it!

For those of you who want more details on Boston, you can search for my time in this form (sorry, no direct link available). And here are some pictures from the course:

Follow me!

Next Monday, April 19th, is the big day: I and 25,000 other runners are running the 114th Boston Marathon! If you want to virtually follow me along the course you can sign up to receive updates via text message (US phones) or email with split times at 10K, half marathon, 30K, and finish line here. My bib number is 4441. For those with a US cell phone, no need to read the entire page: Just text RUNNER to 31901, wait for a response, then text 4441 to the same number.

Wish me luck!

Spring training

It's been a while since I last had a chance to post something on this blog. Blame work and my super exciting social life. That and the fact that my last draft post was completely garbled by Blogger when I tried to add some pictures to it. I won't go into the details, but suffice it to say that about 30 minutes of work were lost. Thanks Blogger. Thlogger.

Anyway, this post is about running which I'm sure many of you know is one of my favorite hobbies. Sometime late last year, after having run the Berlin Marathon in September, I decided it'd be fun to do another marathon in the spring. Since I was about to move to the States in early 2010 the Boston Marathon, held in mid-April, seemed like an obvious candidate.

For those of you who don't know, the Boston Marathon is the oldest continuously held city marathon in the world. It was first run in 1897 and has been going on ever since, with 2010 being the 114th installment. Unlike many other Marathons it's held on a Monday, but residents of Boston even get the day off for it. (I'm not sure that's actually because of the Marathon. Given that the day is called Patriot's Day, it probably isn't, but still.) It is one of the most popular marathons in the world and probably the most prestigious one to win. It is also the only city marathon that requires a qualifying time from every runner to even be elligible to sign up. For many people just qualifying for Boston (often called a "BQ") is a goal and achievement in itself.

Luckily, my Berlin time was just fast enough to serve as a qualifier for my age group and I signed up early enough to get one of the hotly contested 25,000 spots (they sold out in record time only two months after registration opened in September). I was happy to have gotten a starting bib, but on the flip side this meant it was time to get fit!

When I started my training in early January I had just bought yet another Marathon book, "Advanced Marathoning" by Pete Pfitzinger (former US Olympian) and Scott Douglas. I liked their scientific approach to optimizing all aspects of Marathon training and decided to follow one of their 18 week training plans. I picked a plan that was building up gradually from roughly 55 miles (88 km) to just over 70 miles (113 km) per week. With the Boston Marathon less than 3 weeks away I just entered the tapering phase of the plan, where volume is reduced and resources are built up for the goal race. Even though I haven't actually run the Marathon yet I thought this would be a good opportunity to reflect on how this plan and my spring training have been working out for me.

In many ways, the Pfitzinger plan is like many other Marathon plans in that it focuses on the most important components necessary for good long-distance running performance: Core endurance, high lactate threshold, increased VO2 max, in this order of importance. Compared to previous marathon training plans that I've been following there are a few key differences though:

• Increased emphasis on improving pace at lactate threshold (LT), since research has repeatedly shown that this is the best predictor for Marathon performance. The book gives very precise instructions on how to do LT sessions and at what pace to run them.
• Pfitzinger emphasizes the importance of not going too slow on the long and medium long runs and recommends going only 10% to 20% slower than Marathon Race Pace (MRP). Most other plans that I've seen would advise you to go much slower (30-40% slower than MRP) on your long runs. Remember though, the book is called "Advanced Marathoning" for a reason. This is probably not good advice for beginners.
• Some long runs at MRP: The 18 week schedule has 4 long runs (up to 18 miles) at the planned marathon race pace. Pfitzinger repeatedly stresses the principle of specificity, which dictates that the best way to prepare for a given pace and distance is to do similar workouts during training. Again, this is not for beginners.
• Many more medium to long distance runs: Maybe this is just because I'm doing more total miles than in my previous marathon plans, but I've never done as many 12 to 15 mile (19 to 24 km) mid-week runs as this time.

I liked how the book not only gave me a plan to follow but also explained the rationale behind each the components and their relative importance, making it easy to adjust the plan to my needs and circumstances. I also managed to follow the plan pretty closely without too much trouble.

Now, what about actual results? Of course, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Or in other words, I won't know before I've run Boston on April 19th. But if I had to assess my preparation so far, I'd have to say it's been going very well, and I've noticed some definite improvements to my fitness and pace. I also did two "tune up" races over the last couple of weeks, the San Francisco Half Marathon and the Across the Bay 12K race from Sausalito to San Francisco. Both of these saw new personal bests (1:22:26 for the half marathon, 44:11 for the 12K), despite the fact that I didn't really prepare specifically for either one of these races. Given all that, I'm optimistic that I'll be able to run a new Marathon PR in Boston and maybe even take a crack at that elusive 3 hour barrier. Wish me luck!

First 3 weeks in San Francisco

This post is long overdue, but I was simply lacking the time in the last couple of weeks. Since I'm just sitting in a shuttle bus with only 10 more minutes to go, I'm gonna keep it short and sweet. Without further ado, here's a short list of things I've been up to in the last couple of weeks:

• Sold most of my stuff in Zurich, packed the rest.
• Crossed a rather large ocean and quite a bit of land. Made it to San Francisco on January 10.
• Started working on January 11.
• Filled out a gazillion forms both on and off work.
• Started exploring the city. Walked around a lot.
• Went running along the San Francisco Bay and through Golden Gate Park. See pictures below.
• Went skiing at Lake Tahoe (Squaw Valley) with my team. Learned how to snowboard. Then met some of my old time grad school friends for a night of gambling in Reno's casinos.
• Went apartment hunting around Nob Hill & Pacific Heights. Found a place.
• Got soaking wet pretty much every day. The weather has been absolutely miserable. According to SF old timers it's the worst in more than 5 years.

On my agenda for the next couple of weeks:

• Buy furniture, move into place.
• Run San Francisco Half Marathon.
• Enjoy the better weather that's hopefully around the corner.

That's it for now, hopefully the next entry will have a bit more prose and less bullet-point lists.

And here are some of the aforementioned pics, taken during some sightseeing tours and runs.

trainingstagebuch.org

I came across this awesome website today. It's an online training diary to keep track of your training, be it running, cycling, swimming, or any other sports. I know, online training diaries are a dime a dozen, but this one really stands out in a couple of ways:

• Imports data from your heart rate monitor: Polar, Garmin, Suunto, and a few others are all supported. Also supports bulk upload of HRM files, which can be useful if you've used other desktop or web apps for your training tracking before.
• Very customizable views and statistics: Weekly, Monthly, Annual, Total.
• Supports goal tracking & training plans: Set up a training regime, then track your actual workouts against the plan.
• Nice integration of geo data: Upload tracks from your GPS device or draw them on a map, then connect them to your workouts. Or search for running & cycling tracks in a certain location.
• A lot of export functionality: RSS & iCal feeds for training plans, actual training, daily weight stats, etc. Blog and website integration via JavaScript. Full fledged API for external apps.

The only downside: The site seems to be in German only.

Here's a little test of the export functionality. If all goes well, this should show a little badge with the amount of training I've done in the current month:

Yet another attempt at blogging

I've been trying to keep a blog a few times over the last couple of years. Yes, that's right. I'm pretty sure most of you never even noticed, most likely because I never actually got past the setup stage and failed to post a single coherent (or even interesting) post. Well, this time shall be different, I'll try to keep this thing alive for a couple of months at least... ;)

I'll probably end up writing mostly about stuff that's close to my heart: Running & fitness, traveling, technology, electronic music & parties, the occasional acid flashback... That said, I cannot promise I won't digress from this narrow alley to throw in some random thoughts on just about anything from time to time.

So, without further ado, welcome to my new shiny blog! Wonder how many of you are still reading...?