Moinsen, everyone! 👋

You have signed up so you’ll get the new blog posts and podcast episodes without the need to endlessly check social media, so without wasting any more lines, here’s my Tokyo Marathon report:

I won’t spoiler anything else except that it was an amazing experience and I’ve tried to put every little fun detail into the blog post. It turned out to be quite long because of that, but you’re used to that from me. The podcast episode I’ve recorded comes in at 1:45 hours, suitable for a long run, hike, or ride!

📚 New Book: Moral Ambition

It’s been a while since I’ve finished the book over a month in fact, so that’s a clear sign that life was rather full in the recent weeks. This book is a banger, though. Refreshingly different and a strong recommendation for everyone. It’s main message: It’s on all of us to improve the state of the world and we need to start right now. 

🏁 Race Preview: Barcelona Marathon

At the time of writing, it’s just a few more days left until I’ll stand at the starting line near Plaça de Catalunya with the plan to run a new personal best in the marathon distance. I’m very excited.

When making plans for the season back in December, I had hoped to come close to a shot at 2:48 hours (a clean 4:00 min/km average – 6:26 min/mi), but the unusually tough winter in Hamburg made it really difficult to properly train. We had snow and ice for about six weeks total. All of January and half of February. I mostly ran in my trail shoes because otherwise it was just too slippery. Whenever a street was cleaned I tried to go there and do a bit of speed work, but mostly I was too careful because I didn’t want to slip, fall, and injure myself. For me, that would be worst-case. 

Indoor cycling worked out really well and helped increase my fitness though. And on a few days during the winter I was actually able to do some speed work outside, too. But I’m far away from that 2:48 hours goal. I ran the pace over a half marathon race on January 19th in London, but it was all-out back then. 

Still, I want to make an effort at a new personal best. I need to beat 2:55:47 in order to do so, and I think my current fitness level makes that possible. I will aim at 2:53–2:54, about a 4:05 min/km average. If the day turns out to be a good one, my legs are behaving well, and the weather conditions play nicely, too, I’m pretty sure I stand a chance. But I’ll have to give it everything I’ve got, and that’s the bit that makes me excited and slightly nervous. At the same time, these are the situations that make it all so much fun to me. Being excited and nervous just means that I care.

So, wish me luck and follow me on Strava if you haven’t yet, because the result will be on that platform first. 

Thanks for subscribing! All the best to you,
— Teesche