Ancona EMACI 2016 (11th European Masters Athletics Championships Indoor), day 3: 200m series When the entry lists for the EMACI first appeared online in early March, it looked like my best chance to go on to the next round (half-finals) was in the 200m. As it turns out, the number of athletes in attendance and…
Ancona EMACI 2016 (11th European Masters Athletics Championships Indoor), day 1: 60m
Ancona EMACI 2016 (11th European Masters Athletics Championships Indoor), day 1: 60m series All throughout the day leading up to my 60m series, I was doing mental mathematics: 14:36 minus 20 minutes call-room minus 1 hour warm-up equals the time I was supposed to start my warm-up. I checked my simple math several times, and…
Race report: 33. Championnats Nationaux Indoor
Having a competition after an 8-hour work day is always a bit of a challenge. But yet, that’s the reality of the Luxembourgish indoor championships, where I was running the 60m and 200m series on Friday evening, and looking to qualify for the finals on Saturday. I was off to a bad start. Not just…
Month in review: February 2016
February was a solid training month. Once more, I concentrated on quality track workouts, which means I didn’t get as much hill/trail running done as I’d want. Road, trail and track running: 43km on roads and/or stairs in 5h21 with 1669m of elevation; no real trail work whatsoever, 8 track trainings (of which 6 were…
Race report: Indoor Lafmeeting 2 (200m, 4x200m)
I did my final indoor meeting for 2015/2016 on Luxembourgish soil this past Saturday, over one month after the Luxembourgish Championships. Athletes in the national team were afforded two more opportunities to compete in between, but the rest of us had to make do with regular training or travel abroad to compete. I chose the…
Month in review: January 2016
January was a break-through month. My main focus finally moved from the achilles injury and recovery to actual running. I was able to successfully participate at three indoor track competitions. While the performances are much slower than my personal bests, I’m still pretty happy with them considering my age and how much of 2015 I…
Race report: Indoor Meeting Régio 2 (16-Jan-2016)
For the second competition in 2016, I’d come up with a grandiose plan: I’d run the 200m, rest for about two hours and then give it all in a 400m, a distance I’d never done indoors. Reality would turn out to be different, though. The week before the competition, I’d done two trainings with the…
Race report: Indoor Meeting Régio 1 (09-Jan-2016)
When I signed up for the 60m race on Tuesday 5th, I was quite sure I was going to be in way over my head. While the doctor had cleared me (and my achilles) for racing, it had been just four short months since I’d done tentative short jogs at 6:30km/h pace, and I’d just…
Month in review: December 2015
Injuries & treatment: I had a lot of doctor visits and physiotherapy appointments in December, as we were coming to an end of the “treatment” phase of my achilles injury, and moving towards what will hopefully be a “maintenance” phase in 2016. December saw 7 doctor visits (for laser treatments and final ultra-sound check-ups) and…
Month in review: November 2015
Injuries & treatment: The achilles continued improving throughout November. I had one doctor visit and five physiotherapy appointments. Road, trail and track running: I had a week-long vacation at the end of November, and I had a few stressful days at work leading up to it. This means I had a fairly normal training load…