Now unwilling to back out of the competition...
...we trained for the reduction of pain.
The training had started in Feb and had consisted of weekday running 2-3 days a week of 5-10k, and later with several 14-18k runs in between. Cross training on in-line skates. Some resistance training for abs and upper body. Several 20k run/walks in Scotland at weekends through the summer, a good number of 13-15k outings on Malvern at increasing speeds. We let off a bit during the 4 weeks up to the Austria trip. We thought we'd go to Austria to take two weeks to really bed in at altitude. In hindsight I think we didn't prepare our joints well enough for the sudden transition to the hard surfaces in Austria and picked up mild injuries there that didn't help on KIMM day. Due to these Sue did very little in the 3 weeks from Austria to KIMM day. It showed. We DNF'd
Here's what we did:
Itinerary for the 2 weeks
Seefeld = 1200 meters above sea level
Larger image
Sunday Day 1: Slept after arriving at 1:30am. Wondered about.
Monday Day 2: Gschwandkopf 1500m. Easy evening stroll with a good run back down
Tuesday Day 3: Seefeldjoch - 2065m A bit cold at the top but good fast ascent. Ran down to 1200m
Wednesday Day 4: Reither Spitze - 2374m - A slightly longer day in blazing sun. 5hrs. Not much running as such but moving fast and sure downhill. Uphill the paths were steep, rocky and narrow.
We came up the 84 and down to Reither joch over the zig-zig red path.
Thursday Day 5: Rest - drove to Garmisch to talk to the local climbing shop about the West Ridge of the Zugspitze (2962m). Looking good if the weather holds.
Friday - Day 6: Mittelwalder Klettersteig - a rock-climbing/scrambling route over 6 peaks in the Karwendel - all secured with wire rope. You just clip and go!
6 hours. Tops reached - WestKarwendelSpitze 2384m and onwards then a long way down from the saddle. Finished in the dark. route 10 on the map to descend.
Saturday - Day 7: Hohe Munde 2592. Quite tedious going on mostly scrambling terrain. Not really paths as much as easy angled rock. 5 hours. Good run down from the Rauth-hutte. Knees a little sore.
Sunday Day 8: Rest - took a cable car to the top of the Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain. 2962m Cold and blowy. Had a good look at the Westweg climb/path on the way up. Looking good if the weather holds.
Monday Day 9: Eppzirler alm - 25 kilometers. This felt quite hard. Started late and finished in the dark for practice. Good running down the Giessenbach valley. 600meters climb. 5 hours. We came over from Seefeld on the route numbered 34. then up route 31 into the top of the valley. Then ran down, then 6 kilometers back up the main road (in yellow) to Seefeld. (You can see the Seefelder Joch from earlier in the week marked on the map as "Seefelder J") It poured with rain for the last 2 hours. Bad sign for being able to do the Zugspitze. It will be snow up there.
Tuesday Day 10: Rest - slept in, shopping, faffing about.
Wednesday Day 11: Gentle walk - 20 kilometers around Seelfeld and Mosern - easy. 4- hours. Route was a part of the three day international Einhorn walking festival held earlier in the month.
Thursday Day 12: Rest - drove up the wonderful Oetztal valley to Vent and Obergurgl. Decided finally that no hope was left for the Zugspitze so we would do a longish day in the Wetterstein south face area.
Friday Day 13: Sudwand steig. - a longer day with snow from 1400 meters onwards. Path beginning to disappear from 2/3 of the way along.
We had made the decision to reach the descent valley by dark and then just follow the stream. So we appeared at the hut in complete darkness and stopped to put headlamps on and so on. The hut warden came out, looked most upset. "Well WHERE are you GOING?" Sue pointed to the hut road leading down into the valley. "Down there"...."Well WHERE have you come from?"...Sue pointing uphill into the snow and the dark... "Up there"..."Irrziniggen" ...he kept muttering "Irrziniggen" (means ill-in-the-mind)... They get a lot of tennis-shoe-tourists up there, and a few get killed each year, especially as autumn sets in. I guess he thought we were such, until he had a better look at what we were wearing and the volume of his mutterings reduced. We thanked him for being there for us, and left him to go back inside as we ran down the road. Good beer stories for him that night.
Note - Quite fast, totally no fatigue. Amazing. (Could it be the ultra-buffer? Are we really getting fit? Maybe the speed was just an illusion...)
25+ kilometers. (Not including all the contour crinkles) 800+meters climb. The route follows the side of the mountain chain towards the right of the picture. It follows a line well above the dark tree line all the way across.
Saturday Day 14: Bought pressies
Day 15:drove to amsterdam - 11 hours.
So - feeling fit, but with some swelling problems on Sue's right knee. On the last walking day we just were unstoppable so we think cardiovascular and muscular fitness and endurance will be ok. Still, a bit worried about the knee, and we didn't carry much weight. But then the altitude made things much harder there than we hope they will be in the marathon.
We'll see.
Note - We did see. The knee problems persisted and the weight issue of course. DNF...Now we know.
My Main Page
Relentless forward motion...just relentless forward motion...
© 1997 kayaksalmon@oocities.com
Get your own Free Home Page