Run, Koper, run

Done with running?... again? After an unsuccessful attempt at a 100-mile ultra-marathon in 2013 I proclaimed that I may be done with running . This wasn't so. Yes, true, I pretty much stopped running for 3 months following that race but then I came back at it. With a vengeance. And I got it in 2014 when I raced, this time successfully, in the same bloody race . So this time around I was much more careful to pronounce the end of my running career. However, it's now been more than one year from that infamous race and not only my appetite for running didn't come back; I essentially stopped running altogether. There are many aspects that contributed to that state of affairs, not least of them the fact that I moved to central London, where hitting the trails is, ekhm, substantially more difficult than in California. And once used to the trails, hitting asphalt somehow isn't that tempting anymore. So this blog post might just be the case of me trying to convince myse...

Last year I signed up for the Chimera 100 miler . You may ask why the hell would I do such a thing and I guess the simplest answer is: well, I didn't quite know what I was getting myself into. I trained, had some setbacks because of the injury in the San Francisco marathon but I went for the race and, from the perspective of one year, did rather well : I had to stop after 70 miles because my right knee had enough, but other than that I was in high spirits and determined to finish (I considered walking but 30 miles is a hell of a walk ;). Fast forward few months and I again signed up for Chimera, which will take place in 2 days. The excuse of not knowing what I'm getting myself into does not work this time around; I knew exactly what I was doing when I signed up. So why? Am I a masochists? Perhaps, to a point :). But I think the real answer is: I like running. I like challenges. And what better running challenge than running 100 miles? Btw. if there are any non-runners (or s...

This post is almost 3 weeks overdue and will talk about my state of mind as it was 3 weeks ago. But let me start with a greeting. Hi, I'm Adam and I'm a running addict. Let me explain. It was the weekend. Barely one week after my 100-mile attempt at Chimera . I was a wreck. My busted knee was hurting. I lost two toenails. And my feet were a total mess. So much so that I could only walk on the edges of my feet (I kid you not), which looked kinda funny. Or not. You see, the amazingly kind lady that taped my blistered feet during the race warned me that this tape is no joke and that it may help me finish the race but removing it afterwards is not going to be pretty. It wasn't. Together with the tape I lost substantial amount of skin from the soles of my feet. Resulting in two gaping holes. I was even contemplating taking a photo and putting it on the blog but then realized that it was too gross even for my wrecked standards. And yet what was I doing on that weekend? No, no...

It’s almost time. The event that I was waiting for and preparing for for the last year or so. The 100 mile run. The Chimera . Now, I always knew that completing this race was not going to be easy. All I was hoping for was that when I stood on the starting line I would be able to tell myself: OK, I did all I could to prepare for this; now let’s see whether that’s enough . Sadly, reality got in the way. The first 8 months were great. After running 50 miles in The Lakeland 50 , in August 2012, I got the taste for trail running and, after moving to California in October that year, I started developing it further. I was running at every opportunity I got, exploring the “neighborhood” and sometimes venturing much further . I was doing decent mileage with decent elevation gains. I was also enjoying myself immensely in the process. It all collapsed in June 2013. I run Big Basin 50k , clocking my best time ever for that distance (on the trails). But I miscalculated. I kind of forgot th...

Rather unusually I'm publishing my weekly report before the week is over. That is because this is the week of the LA marathon! So I know I won't be doing any more trainings until then and the marathon itself, as usual, deserves a separate race report :). And I will use this post to talk a bit about my goals for the race. On Tuesday I went for my usual fast run. I was debating whether I shouldn't be doing it on a hard surface instead. The truth is that during the last half a year I run almost exclusively on trails. And I love that but I wonder whether it won't be a shock to my legs and knees to now, all of a sudden, do 42.2km on the road. But in the end my urge to face my PB on the Baylands Shore Loop prevailed :). And for most of the run I thought I had a new PB in my pocket. I was going strong and couldn't imagine loosing it in the second half of the run, when the wind was helping me. But I did, missing my PB by 20 seconds (but still clocking my 2nd fastest time ...

Ok, we're now well into 2013, recently I summarized how I did with my 2012 goals so now it's time to reveal my goals for this year. Usually I'd have a number of goals for the year. This time I only have one, but a big one: to finish a 100 miler . Ideally below 24 hours but I'm not going to swear by that. By now I'm almost sure that my race of choice will be Rio Del Lago on 5th of October. And all the other plans will just be secondary to this main goal. Ok, maybe I'll have one more un-quantifiable goal: to enjoy Californian running heaven. It's been 3 months now and I absolutely love the running opportunities that living here presents. This was also the main reason for postponing my plans of triathlon training. I'd still like to do it one day however, possibly I'm missing something, but it seems to me that I'll have comparable cycling and swimming opportunities in Europe. But for running California and its parks are just amazing, so I want t...

(I know that I'm falling behind with writing about non-running related stuff. A post is coming shortly, I promise...) Shortly after the Berlin marathon I was planning to write a post outlining my plans for 2013. Now, 1.5 months later. I still didn't do it and it's not only because I didn't have time (though that, too), but mostly because my plans hadn't materialized just yet. One thing I know for sure is that I want to take my Lakeland 50 experience further and to try to run a 100 miler. And, quite clearly, all my plans for next year would be geared toward that goal. Now, here's where the problems start: I haven't found my dream 100-miler yet. My first thought was Western States 100 . It's very famous so it seemed to be an obvious choice. However, I'd have to be super lucky to make it through their lottery system. And, as it turned out, I won't even be able to test my luck, as they don't recognize the Lakeland 50, as a qualifying race :/...

So, the big day is coming. Berlin is only 4 days away, so normally it would be time to evaluate my form and come up with reasonable targets for the race. The problem is, normally I'd have done some shorter races before (10K, HM), which would give me a good indication on what I could reasonably expect. Not this time. Somehow things aligned in such a way that I did no races whatsoever since the Paris marathon (and later, Lakeland 50 , but that is hardly a yardstick to compare with, given that it was my debut on this distance). So it is going to be a bit of a guessing game. Since I love crunching numbers I decided to make a little table with all my previous marathon races and the average mileage I did in 12 weeks preceding the event (excluding the week of the marathon itself, as that is supposed to be left for tapering). Here are the results: Date Location Result Weekly mileage 19/10/2003 Amsterdam   3:23:53 30.9 km 4/07/2004 Brugge   3:15:53 44.7 km 13/02/2005 Rom...

The other day I was thinking about my running goals for the next year (completing a milestone event such as the Lakeland 50 often does that to me ;) and then I though that it would actually be nice to put it in the perspective and first come up with goals for the lifetime. Things I would like to achieve sport-wise before my expiration date. Quite a biggie. So without further ado, let me outline them and then I'll talk a bit more about each one of them. Qualify for and run in the Boston marathon . Complete in a good time a demanding trail ultramarathon. Complete an Ironman Triathlon (for those in the dark: 3.86km swim + 180km bike ride + 42.2km run) I have no illusion, those are all grand goals and each one of them would require total dedication and a lot of training (possibly over some years) to complete; and even then there is no guarantee of success. But, hey, as they say: Better shoot for the sky... . Anyway. Let me elaborate on those goals. Qualify for and run in the ...

All righty, all right, only two days until the biggie ... You hear all those stories that part of the ultra-running charm are the communities that those folks create and I'm sure I haven't seen any yet but the Lakeland Facebook page and the massive amount of activity there gave me some idea; trust me, those guys are breathing running. In fact it was there that I saw a fellow runner, John Kynaston , setting bronze, silver and gold goals for himself. I liked the idea so much that I decided to borrow it :). So here are my three goals for this Saturday. Bronze: finish within the 24h limit On the face of it, this may sound like a not very ambitious goal; I mean, how hard can it be to do just over 3K per hour? I don't want to be disrespectful for the course, but I suspect I could do that. Thing is: I won't be going for 24h hours; more likely half of that (I won't even mention that before the 24h time limit is over, I'll need to be well on my way to the Manchester...

I like running. I like challenges. I like numbers. So, 3 running challenges for the 3 coming years: Run 10K in <40:00 , Run a marathon in <3:00:00 Run 100K ultra-marathon; time pretty much irrelevant, although doing it in <10:00:00 would certainly be awesome At the moment the first goal seems easiest, I just ran my personal best of 41:05 on 10K, although improving this by one minute will certainly not be easy. As for the marathon breaking the 3 hours barrier is still far beyond my reach ( 3:15:17 is my best at the moment) Finally, I never run anything longer than a marathon, so I cannot even fathom what running 100K involves (though I can easily guess: LOTS of pain). Btw. I also had my goals for 2011, which were: To run at least 2000K during the year (I did it only once in 2004, and barely as I did 2014K that year) and To run two marathons this year (I did it only once in 2007 when I run in Copenhagen on 20/05/2007 and then in Dublin on 29/10/2007). It seem...

Tomorrow morning I'm going to run 10K in Grootebroek -- a small village in the north of Holland. My form? Well, I'm afraid I pushed too hard this week, with too many tough trainings. Also the speed interval training that I wanted to do on Thursday, slipped to Friday; too close to the race day. Today I slept very shortly, woken up by the postman in the morning. And I may have had one too many yesterday ;)... well, excuses, excuses :). Enough already. Plans? Goals? Well, according to McMillan's calculator my 1:33:05 in the Warsaw half-marathon indicates that I should be able to do 41:50 tomorrow. Not bad at all given that my personal best on this distance is mere half a minute faster, 41:22 . But of course I'll do my best to beat that. And in case I manage to get to the finish line even one second faster than that -- I'm gonna be very happy indeed. Wish me good luck :)