Waiting for a new team member

As you could see in the last photo of our Manly to City training run, Kate was missing. Sadly Kate got injured due to training (too hard) for our event. Having been used to shorter sessions running half-marathons, her body was not up to the increased distances we started to run before the festive season. To avoid more injury and give Kate time to recover for her main goal – the Berlin Marathon later in the year, we decided to look for a new member. Sam was lucky enough to literally run into some ultra runner a couple of weeks ago, and she convinced Jo that our 'crazy' adventure is worth joining. We're looking forward to meeting Jo next Saturday for our upcoming training run along the Coastrek, and we're happy to have a complete team again to take up the challenge ahead!

Long training weekend

Today I took advantage of Australia Day and went out for a 2-hour run. I almost made it back home before the rain, but for 1km – then I got drenched.

Saturday I went out again, a bit late in the morning, and suffered in the heat and humidity, but still managed 20km in just over 2 hours.

Sunday Denis and I went along the last third of the trek, again running from Randwick through Centennial Park and down to Double Bay. This time we managed to find the turn-off along Old South Head Road and enjoyed the jog along the Hermitage Walk to Watson's Bay and then back to Bondi and Coogee. My legs were heavy and felt like lead, I had a hard time keeping up, and was very happy to jump into the pool at Denis's after 35km and long 4 hours... All in all a good week with 80+ kilometres. Only 4 weeks to go so, the next two weeks are important to build up a bit more endurance and fitness. Guess have to stop eating those Swiss chocolates now for a while.

Coastrek Training Part 2 - Manly to Opera House

Today we ran the second 33km (which ended up to be 35km) from Manly across the Spit Bridge all the way to the Opera House.

Some stunning views along the way compensated for the many hundreds of stairs and ups and downs along the way.

Sam and Denis put on a blistering pace, which I with difficulty, and Andrew with ease, could follow, but after about 15km Katy and Trent unfortunately fell behind.

The long dinner and wine the night before had not helped – the longer and hotter the day became the slower I got, and at the end I had to walk more then I would have liked to.

It was good we did this part of the course, as we got off the track twice and had to backtrack. Something to avoid on race day for sure.

And the other thing is to check and time for the opening times of the Spit Bridge. Would be a tough wait if the bridge is open when you come around the corner, and you'd have to kill (or lose) about 10–15 minutes before you can continue your run!

Denis and Sam had enough of my navigation skills and are ready to head over a cliff ...

I was exhausted at the end, and have to make sure I take more gels and food with me at next run to avoid slowing down.


Denis and Sam having a rest – still 10km to go.


We arrived at the Opera House after 4.5 hours and with 35km under the belt.

Fun Night - Trivia Night for Coastrek 100km

Please join us for the Run 4 Vision Trivia Night on Friday 24 February from 18.30pm, in support of my 100 km Coastrek adventure raising funds for The Fred Hollows Foundation.

Please bring your friends and family along for a great night of fun. You can find details about the event and info on how to book seats on the Run 4 Vision website.

If you are unable to join us for the night you can still help and make a difference to someone in need. Donate for our good cause on the Coastrek website.

I’m looking forward to see you soon in Randwick!

Happy Feet

Markus

PS: And if you are on Facebook make sure to ‘like’ my new Run 4 Vision page.

How much is too much

Wonder if those cheese fondues in the Swiss Alps were too much as it seems they have slowed me down a bit....I struggled big time to keep up with Denis on our Saturday morning training run around the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. Eventually I managed to crawl back home after 25km in 2 1/2 hours. Some work to be done quickly in the next couple of weeks to get back on track. Sam is running the Narrow Neck night run in the Blue Mountains tonight. I hope the weather is holding up. No fun to run in the rain and dark.
So, off to some pasta dinner - have another run tomorrow morning
Happy Feet

Winter Training in Switzerland – done

Well, the 3 weeks in the snow went quick, and I am on my way home to sunshine and warmer temperatures. Have to say so that running in the cool winter weather was quite pleasant, and the few long runs over the hills and mountains around my home town St. Gallen were very nice – great, fresh air and views over the alps and all the way to Germany. But to be honest I am glad to put my gloves, beanie, long Skins and wind jacket away for my next run. I was good with food and drink and did not put on too much weight, so keeping up with the guys back in Sydney should not be too hard.

Counting the 7 days skiing in the alps plus the few 25+km runs I did here, I am happy to have kept up an almost uninterrupted training schedule over the last 3 weeks. The skiing was actually quite hard on my knees.  Racing down those steep hills at 60km/hrs was lots of fun but also lots of pressure on the knees and legs.

Off to the airport now. I hope it is open again after yesterday's big snowstorm and wind. I have never seen a snowstorm with lightening and thunder – quite spooky.