Moinsen, everyone! 👋

It’s May and the year is finally in full swing. So much has happened in recent weeks it took me a while to finish writing the posts on my list and put out this newsletter. Welcome back!

Since Tokyo Marathon (my last newsletter) I’ve done three more marathon races as well as one half marathon which I used to chase a new personal best — the result was not the targeted 1:19:XX but a 1:21:05, still a new record for me. What directly followed Tokyo, though, was the Barcelona Marathon. Two weeks after that trip to Asia, I went for a new personal best at the longer distance, coached by ChatGPT. That’s what the big new blog post and podcast episode are about:

Barcelona really is a great race for testing fitness early in the year. Flat, fast, great city and crowds. Which is why I’ve already gotten my ticket for the 2027 edition. 

Shortly after, I ran Spreewald Marathon in eastern Germany’s state of Brandenburg, completing my set of marathon races in all 16 federal states of my home country! This has been going on for a while now, and Brandenburg has been especially tricky to check off. Not too many races there, and Spreewald used to collide with my Hamburg Marathon in the past. Not in 2026, so I did the double: Spreewald Marathon on April 19, Hamburg Marathon on April 26. The results were a relaxed 3:17h and a nice negative split buddy run with my friends Mathias and Philippe in 3:10h, respectively. 

My next blog post will be about the 16 marathon races in all the German states, because this has been a fun and interesting journey. The country is quite diverse and I learned a lot about it by doing these trips. After having collected all 27 (28) EU country capital city marathons and recently also the main six World Marathon Majors, completing the German set felt like coming full-circle. I was thinking about which other sets might be fun to target — Hamburg’s seven Bezirke (boroughs) would be cool, but they don’t all have their own marathon races unfortunately. 

Do you have any suggestions for the next marathon race set I should start to pursue? Let me know by simply replying!

🔥 Challenge Roth Prep Update

With the early spring marathons now in the past, all my focus is on Challenge Roth, July 4th. My goal remains to break ten hours and I still hope I can get this done by aiming for the following splits: 

1. 🏊‍♂️ ~1:10h for the 3.86 km swim
2. 🚴‍♂️ ~5:25h for the 180 km bike
3. 🏃‍♂️ ~3:10h for the 42.2 km run

Adding a few minutes for the two transitions, I stand a chance. The marathon part is mostly routine. Running 4:20–4:30 min/km pace in a properly fueled and tapered race context should be absolutely possible for me at this stage. On a good day, I might even be able to go faster, I think. Still, I’ll make sure to include a bunch of brick sessions to the training consisting of a long bike ride followed by a fast run in the coming weeks. 

Swim training is slightly tricky. I’ve shown in the past that I can basically always throw down a 1:15h split for the distance, even if I don’t train for it at all for half a year. It’s just aerobic muscle memory. But getting rid of five minutes requires real effort. That’s why I’ve started to do actual speed training in the pool in the past few weeks. I’ve never done that but it feels like I’m making progress.

The biggest question mark remains the bike for me. Since about November, I have put real effort into amassing kilometers on my indoor Zwift setup, with noticeable gains. My FTP has risen from about 240 to 270 Watts, and sitting in the saddle for 2–3 hours is no problem anymore, too. I motivated myself by getting some little gadgets for the bike, like a 165 mm crank set (more ergonomic), longer arm extensions (I’m a tall guy), and an add-on to install an aerodynamic bottle between the arms (BTA for short). Stuff like that makes it more fun and might even add a little benefit!

It’s all eyes on Roth for me right now. The line-up of professionals is incredible this year, too. Almost too good to be true, and it’s a bit of a shame I don’t get to watch the race unfold because I’ll be racing myself! But on the other hand, I really hope the timing works out in a way so I can see Kristian Blummenfelt or Patrick Lange fly past me on the bike or run course at some stage.

📚 New Books in My Shelf

Three new book reviews/summaries (I never really know how to call these) are live on the website and also available as podcast episodes for you to listen to!

Think Again by Adam Grant

For me, this one has been kind of a mixed bag. No obvious recommendation. I didn’t like the author’s personality he chose to display in the book of himself. It also features way too much filler-content, unnecessary anecdotes, and unfunny cartoons. Some great insights, though.

The Martian by Andy Weir

Many know it because of the hit movie with Matt Damon that came out about a decade ago. Inspired by the recent new NASA mission, Artemis, I watched the movie with my kids and read the book afterwards in the hopes of getting more science presented. I was not disappointed. Absolutely a great book. Some inaccuracies, for sure, but all in all an enjoyable ride.

How to Die by Mike Monteiro

The title is clickbait-y, for sure. The guy is a polarizing but very smart web design artist from San Francisco, very outspoken against capitalism’s wrongs and the current administration in the US, and deeply thoughtful about everything. His talks and previous books caught me at the right moments and I’ve followed him since. This one is a collection of his best newsletters, answering fan questions. It’s been a while I’ve read such a well-written and emotionally deep book. 

Thanks for your attention today, it’s a great gift to have this many people reading my little newsletters. The next one will probably be out after I finished the next blog post which will detail my 16 German states marathons. That’ll be a fun one as well. 

All the best to you!
— Teesche