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May 2024: Chapter Closed, Sub-3 Marathon Confirmed in Hamburg

And two great new books!

15th of May, 2024

Moinsen, everyone! 👋

Good news, I’ve got a big new blog post for you, and it’s right in line with the core topic of this blog. At the same time, it represents the closing of a chapter and that’s my four-year long quest to break three hours in a marathon. I’ve just done it for the second time, but now on home soil right here in Hamburg. That’s the one that counts! For me and you that means that this is quite probably the last blog post about speed training for a marathon.

You decide if that’s good news or bad news! 😉

Read the Blog Post
It’s been a great journey, coming from the guy who has no idea what he’s doing (or where he even is, judging from my facial expression on the left), to someone who is undisputedly a great runner
It’s been a great journey, coming from the guy who has no idea what he’s doing (or where he even is, judging from my facial expression on the left), to someone who is undisputedly a great runner

Some ask the question: “What’s next?” – to which I answer that I most likely won’t try to significantly improve this new personal best. The next milestones like 2:55h, 2:50h, 2:45h don’t really have a pull on me. I’m interested in improving my half marathon from the current 1:22:01 to below 1:20h, though. And I won’t rule out trying to run a few plain Sub-3 marathons in the future as well. There are a few smaller races which can be won with a finishing time like that, so that’s a fun reason to stay fast! 

What’s coming next right now after the Hamburg Marathon is a lot of training for the Zugspitz Ultra Trail on June 14th. That race features 106 kilometers and 5.080 meters of vertical gain plus equal loss. It’s my 2024 Western States qualifier race so I’m really keen on finishing it, but I would also very much like to improve my overall feeling I had after racing Lavaredo Ultra Trail 120K last year. It was incredibly hard, so I’m doing the best I can to get myself into a much fitter state to have it a little easier down in the Alps this time. The speed training of my previous months of course helped a lot with that. Now, I’m focussing on time spent on the legs, meaning lots of easy kilometers, as well as strength training and hilly runs for the mountains.

Meanwhile, I’ve finished two more books and put them on the virtual bookshelf. Both were great. One of them is written in my native German language, so I did the review in German, as well. It’s about politics in the EU.

Review of “Herr Sonneborn bleibt in Brüssel”
Political satirist Martin Sonneborn has lost parts of his humor during the hard years
Political satirist Martin Sonneborn has lost parts of his humor during the hard years

The other book is so new you can’t even buy it yet. I got to buy this preview edition via the private mailing list of the author Derek Sivers, but you can do so, too, if you sign up for that. Derek Sivers’ other books are amazingly good in my opinion and should in fact be read by everyone. Check out my review and decide for yourself, though.

Review of “Useful Not True”
Classic nondescript cover, but the content is of course where it’s at
Classic nondescript cover, but the content is of course where it’s at

See you in June, everyone! Thanks a lot for reading and being a subscriber to my little newsletter. If you know someone who might like this type of content, please forward the email. 

All the best to you and have a great day,
– Teesche

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