Project Half Marathon: «altitude training» and first trail run at the Madrisa Trail

«Hey, aren’t you Oliver from Galaxus?» someone asks me and taps me on the shoulder. Still drenched in sweat and red-faced with an endorphin-fuelled grin on my face, I turn around to look at a face that’s just as sweaty and happy as mine, but unfamiliar. «I read your running blog and thought your clothes and face looked familiar.»

This brief encounter was one of many emotional highlights I got to experience on Friday, 9 August, in the finish area of the T11 race of the Madrisa Trail.

And then there was one really important realisation in view of the upcoming Greifensee half marathon on 21 September: I coped better than I’d expected.

• I wasn’t overly nervous before the start and was able to sleep well the night before the run. It was only in the hour before the start that I became a little restless and tense.
• During the run itself, I found my rhythm after the first few hundred metres.
• Running in a large crowd wasn’t a pleasant experience, especially at the start and for about the first kilometre. But it didn’t bother or hinder me as much as I’d feared.
• My finishing time (1h11) was significantly better than I’d expected (1h25–1h30). I deliberately avoided looking at my total running time during the race and kept an eye on my pace instead.

I’d based my expected finishing time on the theoretical kilometres of the route: 11 kilometres of trail plus about 400 metres of ascent, which would add about four extra kilometres in reality. All in all, I was expecting to run about 15 kilometres, which I’ve done in about 1h45 to 1h50 so far. Of course, I wanted to push myself to the limit during the race, so I knocked off 15–20 minutes. At that point, I’d only had little trail running experience, so I assumed the uphill running and the more challenging parts would slow me down more than they did in reality. (In any case, my wife and daughter are convinced I’ll manage the 24-kilometre route next year…)

Altitude training during break time

So my three weeks of holidays went out with a bang and some true highlights. But the days before that were also very nice and fulfilling – even if it was unbearably hot at times (to me, that means over 30 degrees in the shade and over 20 degrees Celsius at night). So I decided to take a break from training for just under two weeks and deactivated Garmin coach Greg (who I told you about last time) for that period. Instead of jogging in the sweltering heat, I did some altitude training while hiking in the Grisons mountains. Together with my family, I hiked 70 kilometres over seven stages/days, covering a total of 6,000 altitude metres between Chur’s Rhine Valley and the Engadine.

In other words, I wasn’t lazy during my training break. However, I didn’t even try to get those «open water training sessions» in the mountain lake in…

Diet still key

Of course, I didn’t neglect what I was eating during that time either. Well, kind of. On the one hand, I did a lot for my soul and happily indulged whenever the opportunity came up. On the other hand, I’ve been reading the nutrition guide «Ernährungskompass» by German science author Bas Kast, which my colleague health editor Anna Sandner wrote about in detail (or rather about the cookbook that goes with it):

It’s a really interesting read I can recommend to anyone who wants to take a closer look at what they eat.

I also gained further insights into the power gels I’d already started testing before my holidays. One of the things I learned is that the gels by Peak Punk, my favourite the first few times I tried them, didn’t hold up to the challenges of a trail run. Turns out their consistency was too firm and sticky for me with no water to rinse it down and the pressure of the race. I had trouble swallowing the stuff, needed to chew it and ended up with residue in my mouth for a long time. So I’ll have to try some other ones.

The countdown’s on: five weeks to go

Now I’m back to the daily routine of work and family life. The temperatures are still borderline sweltering and the weather quite humid. All great excuses to skip a running session or two. But obviously that’s not an option just five weeks before the race. Above all, I’m now so established in my running routine that I’m not tempted to give up my runs in the first place. I can really feel how good they’re doing me and how much fun they are. Even in the rain, cold or heat (although I do have an upper limit there). And that was my goal of the half-marathon project from the start: not to train doggedly for six months for one run and then simply fall back into old habits, but to develop fundamentally new habits that will steer my life in a healthier direction in the long term and keep me there.

You’ll be hearing from me one more time before the moment of truth on Saturday, 21 September. I’d be very happy to meet anyone who’s been following our journey here over the last few months.

If you’re curious to hear what Claudio and I have achieved or not achieved in the last three months, you can read our previous updates here: