Category Archives: Sports

December 31, 2023 · 9:12 pm

Summary of (my) 2023

Time to look back and reflect on how the year which is about to end developed. Brief recap of my 2023. (*)

The main experience that has marked our lives in this 2023 has been hosting Lena and Karina in the second half of the year. They had to leave Ukraine following the Russian invasion in February 2022 and had been hosted at different homes in the region for the previous year and a half, the previous months at my friend Alex’s from which they moved to our place in the summer. Even if it is not possible to put ourselves in their shoes, sharing with them the news, the daily routines and trying to make their life a bit easier has been very rewarding.

Family. Andrea is now 10 years old and David, 7. Andrea loves drawing, doing manual work and researching for her school homework. She continues to learn piano and this year she volunteered to be junior librarian. She is in her second year of Spanish lessons, on top of the Dutch lessons they both take every second week. David loves building Lego sets, helping with whatever task we have at home and football. He is very fond of reading and maths and this year he also has started taking piano and Spanish lessons.

Flying. This year I went flying with kids again! Since a couple of years ago, and following some uneasiness they experienced in some flights, both Andrea and David had refused to fly small aircraft. But since the last spring, first David and then also Andrea, they have been wanting not only to fly but to be in the front seats. Those have been some of the most rewarding experiences of the year. This year I also flew for the first time with Manuel, Alex and Karina. I am sure that in 2024 I will have the chance to fly with more colleagues.

In all, this year I have flown just over 17 flight hours, 13 flights and 23 landings. This takes my total experience to 210 flight hours and 324 landings I started taking lessons back in 2011. At the end of November I renewed the SEP (single-engine piston) qualification and that allows me to fly for two more years.

Together with our Aviation Society we were planning some excursions for the summer time but for different reasons a couple of them were cancelled (to Morocco and Corsica). However, with the family we quickly organized a weekend excursion to l’île d’Oléron (see related post here), that was another memorable experience of 2023.

Travelling. Leaving behind the prolonged the travel restrictions during the pandemic, we continued to visit some new and old places: Arles, Aix-en-Provence, Vars, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Beauvais, Vic Fezensac, Helsinki, Paris, Copenhaguen, Odense, Roskilde, Frederica (we spent a great week in Denmark visiting my sister!), Dublin, Madrid, San Sebastián, New York (first time with the kids, they loved it! Especially travelling to a place where everybody speaks English), Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Guangzhou (first time in China for me), Istanbul, l’isle d’Oleron, Versailles, Amiens, Wijchen, Ghent, Rouen, La Rochelle…

Running: After a good 2022 when I got to run two marathons, this 2023 has been a frustrating year on the running front. In June I got injured in the left Achilles tendon, from which I seemed to be recovering between July and August but I then got injured in the left calf… and I haven’t retaken running in the last 4 months. In all, I ran just over 520km in 2023, the least since 2011… 

Following a mantra I try keep to the letter (when in good health), “the running shoes, always in the suitcase”, the year 2023 caught me running in: Galapagar, Dublin, Helsinki, San Sebastián, Licques (France) and New York, plus the tens of times I trained in my village, Blagnac and Toulouse. I finished 2022 with the hope of increasing mileage from the 1,200km I had run in that year, now I finish 2023 just hoping to leave the injuries behind.

Skiing. In 2023 we went again with the family for a week to our favourite resort at Vars, in the Southern Alps. This year we could enjoy much more time skiing with the kids out of their skiing lessons. And to be honest, being much more daring than we are, it is sometimes difficult to keep pace with them especially when going off track. This year Andrea got her 1ère étoile medal and David his Flocon one (levels from the French ESF).

Real Madrid. We enjoyed watching a few football matches together supporting our favourite team and on top of that we visited the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in summer for the first with the kids. They loved it despite of the construction work going on at the time. Now we are looking forward to attending a first match together. 

Work. Since January 2023 I changed the scope of the job within the same department, now focusing on the A330neo product marketing (back to the A330neo after having spent 4 years (2015-2019) working in its development!). In this role I have been working hand in hand with Anna, Raphael and lately Yohann.

With the oppening up of aviation markets and the picking up of travel, the year 2023 marketing our Airbus widebody aircraft has meant lots of fun and a great learning experience. The everyday work is already quite interesting and exchanging with the team I learnt new things everyday. On top of that we had a very good year in terms of sales which should be confirmed in the coming weeks.

Reading. On this front, 2023 has also been a frustrating year. I started 2023 reading at a good pace until I got stuck with Notre Dame de Paris (Victor Hugo) with which I have been dragging for months. In all I have just read 4 books, the least by far since I started to keep track of it in 2010. For the detailed list of books, see the post I wrote about my 2023 reading list with a brief description of each book.

Other cultural activities:

  • Bullfighting. This year again together with Luismi we went to Vic Fezensac to attend its corrida concurso, which even if it doesn’t provide for the best of the shows it’s a good atmosphere to be part of. I also renewed my membership to the foundation Toro de Lidia to keep supporting the art.
  • Museums. This year again we took benefit of every road trip to visit as many museums and castles as we could, among them: Ellis Island, Liberty Island, American Museum of Natural History (New York), MOMA, Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY), Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace, Château de Fougères-sur-Bièvre, Château de Versailles, Museo Real Madrid, Jules Verne house (Amiens), Roskilde Viking ship museum, Hans C Andersen museum (Odense), Tivoli park, Kronborg castle, Foundation Vincent Van Gogh (Arles), La Coupole d’Helfaut Wizernes…

Blogging. This is the 14th year since I started the blog, but I didn’t manage to write much, only 3 blog posts in 2023. The blog received just above 18,200 visits in 2023 (the least since 2012) and over 491,000 since I started it in 2010.

Not everything was positive in 2023: the mother of one of my best friends passed away, plus the already mentioned ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine which created havoc in many families, including the many refugees host in the region. Hopefully in 2024 that war comes to an end.

On the positive side, some colleagues and friends had new babies and got married in this 2023!

Now it’s time to rest, celebrate with the family and hope for the best in 2024. For the moment we have just a few days in Madrid to enjoy with family and friends and a planned skiing week in Vars; hopefully that will be just the beginning of another memorable year.

I wish you the best for 2024, enjoy it!

(*) You can see here my 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 recaps.

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October 15, 2022 · 12:35 pm

Bucharest marathon 2022

Last Sunday, October 9th, together with my friend Juan and my brother Jaime, we traveled to Bucharest to take part in its marathon, with around 700 runners registered in the distance.

We picked Bucharest following our series of marathons abroad (to combine tourism with long distance running) that has taken some of us to run together in Paris, Berlin, Roma, Athens, Rotterdam, New York, Sevilla (x3), Madrid, Millau, Dublin (x2), Lisboa, Vienna, Krakow, Porto and now Bucharest.

To prepare for this marathon I followed the same 16-week training plan I had used in the past. Just before those 16 weeks of the plan, thanks to a running challenge we followed in the company, I cumulated ~240km in 4 weeks between end May and end June. Then I kicked off slow with the plan as I had some weeks in which I traveled due to family and work. In the end I arrived to Bucharest with less mileage (460km) in the legs in those 16 weeks than I would have liked. I trained quite well between August and especially September. In those 16 weeks I averaged 35km per week, completed 4 long runs (of 22km, 27km, 30km and 21km – with positive feelings especially in this last one) and a few sessions of series, though not enough of them to get a bit faster. I was confident in being able to complete the marathon in a time between 4h05′ and 4h15′ even if the final mark was uncertain.

The profile in Bucharest is rather flat. The organization prepared a circuit mainly composed of long avenues, allowing us to run at constant pace though there were up to eight sharp U-turns. The race started and finished in the Constitution square, in front of the iconic Parliament building. And we stayed the weekend at an apartment at walking distance from the place.

The temperature was mild in the morning, the sky was clear and it would be a bit hot towards the end of the race, though the temperature did not exceed 22°C. My strategy was to start at a pace just below 6min per km, and then, if I felt well, accelerate the pace at mid-race so that I could target a time below 4h15′. There were pacers for times aiming at every 15-minute mark and even though I did not follow any of them they were useful as references at every U-turn (i.e., I could see how far I was from each of the 4h00 and 4h15 pacers as I ran always in between them).

The bad news of the weekend was that my brother Jaime fell sick and by Saturday afternoon the throat ache he developed did not allow him to swallow without strong pain. He stayed in the apartment and finally took the decision not to take part in the race on Sunday, as in a marathon you need to constantly drink and eat.

The race started at 9:30am and we ran together with the participants in the half marathon and the relay race. That made the first half of the race a bit more crowded. For the first 13-14 kilometres Juan and I ran together, all the way up to the Arch of Triumph and down to the Romanian Athenaeum. Up until then we had averaged ~5’50″/km including a technical stop. Then, Juan softened his pace and stayed behind.

I kept my pace for a few kilometres including the stretch in the Cișmigiu Gardens where I found it difficult to run with the narrower paths (compared to the big avenues of the rest of the race) and the irregular ground. From the km 18 I increased the pace and averaged ~5’40″km in the next 13 kilometres until the km 30 mark. In that stretch we ran long kilometres by the Dâmbovița river, we passed the half marathon by the Parliament, we ran by the iconic Bucharest Fountains (by then we were no longer a crowd but a flow of isolated runners and some small groups)…

At the km 31 the race circuit went back to the Bulevardul Unirii, where we first turned to the East all the way to the National Arena (by the km 36) and then took a U-turn to head West back to the Parliament building. The circuit was quite straightforward in that last quarter of the race. There I felt the legs a bit stiffer, but I managed to keep a constant pace which was only slowed down at a supply post and a medical stop that made me lose some 30 seconds. I averaged 5’55″/km from the km 31 to the 41.

In all those kilometres I had seen the pacers of 4h00 not very far away and the 4h15 at increasing distances behind me. I started to make the numbers in my head and realized that I could well be somewhat below 4h05 and set that as an objective for the last kilometres, to try to run a faster marathon than my previous one in Sevilla.

The last 3 km of the race are superb. The race goes back to the Bulevardul Unirii and you have the view of the imposing Parliament building at the end of it, where you know that the Finish line is located. I kept my pace along the 40th and 41st kilometres and only gave it all at the last 1,200 metres.

In the end, I clocked a net time of 4h04’09”, a time better than what I expected and a bit faster (45″) than in Sevilla earlier this year (where I finished stronger but did a slower first half). Bucharest 2022 has been my 23rd marathon completed, easy to say today but not so on April 30th 2000 when I started in the distance in Madrid.

With those 4h04’09”, I was again above the 4-hour mark and finished in the 317th place out of 640 finishers (50% percentile). That time makes it my 9th worst marathon, though with a better time than the last three marathons and with a very positive feeling all along the race (for a second marathon in a row), thus, I am already thinking on getting again more serious with the series training to target a time under 4 hours in the next marathon, possibly next spring.

The organization of the race was great. The circuit showed a magnificient and beautiful city. They could have included some more water supply posts, but at least we could get water bottles to administer the water ingestion in between posts. I also missed some gels provided by the organization or more isotonic drinks; but with what they provided and the three gels I took I could manage the race well. The finish line was great, the wardrobe service was close to the start and finish line, there were even some puffs where to sit and rest by the finish area… It was a great experience.

Looking forward to the next race, that one with Jaime running with us again.

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May 29, 2022 · 8:54 pm

Repaso a la evolución histórica del palmarés de la Copa de Europa (2022)

Esta es una pequeña entrada futbolera para compartir la gráfica de debajo tras la consecución de la decimocuarta Copa de Europa de fútbol por el Real Madrid.

La gráfica presenta la evolución de las Copas de Europa conseguidas por el Real Madrid y todos aquellos clubes que en algún momento de la historia han sido el segundo equipo con más copas. Por orden: Benfica (Lisboa), Internazionale (Milan), Milan AC, Ajax Amsterdam, Bayern Munich, Liverpool y de nuevo Milan AC.

Algunas curiosidades que se observan en la gráfica:

  • Es ahora, en 2022, cuando con 7 la distancia, medida en Copas de Europa, entre el Real Madrid y el segundo club con más títulos es más grande.
  • Históricamente la distancia media ha estado en 3,0 copas.
  • La moda, es decir la distancia más veces repetida entre el Madrid y el segundo, ha sido de 3 copas. Esa fue la distancia en 24 años, el 36% de estos 67 años de Copa de Europa (ver histograma debajo).
  • La distancia mínima se dio entre 1994 y 1998, tras ganar el Milan AC su quinta Copa de Europa en Atenas y hasta la consecución de La Séptima por el Real Madrid en 1998 en Ámsterdam.

A partir de esas curiosidades, me surgieron después otras tres ideas muy visuales y rápidas de ejecutar y que incluyo más abajo:

  • Un histograma con el número de años que se ha dado cada distancia en Copas de Europa.
  • Una tabla donde se muestra en cada momento qué clubes eran los segundos en el palmarés.
  • Otra tabla donde se muestra cuántos años ha sido cada uno de esos el segundo en el palmarés.

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February 23, 2022 · 12:25 am

Maratón de Sevilla 2022

Last Sunday, February 20th, together with my friend Juan and my brother Jaime, I took part in the Sevilla marathon, with over 10,000 runners registered.

Following two years of not having taken part in any marathon due to restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the three of us subscribed to the marathon following our series of marathons abroad (to combine tourism with long distance running) that has taken us to run together in Roma, Athens, Rotterdam, New York, Sevilla, Madrid, Millau, Lisboa, Vienna, Krakow, Porto and now Sevilla, again.

To prepare for this marathon I followed the same 16-week training plan I had used in the past. I arrived to Sevilla with more mileage (629km) in the legs than in the case of the last few marathons. I trained quite well in November, December and the first week of January. Then, I caught Covid-19 and had to stop running for about 10 days. During the last two weeks of the plan, with workload and work-related travel, I found it difficult to train, but most of the training was already done. In those 16 weeks I averaged over 41km per week, completed 5 long runs (of over 21km, twice 23km, 27km and 30km) and a few sessions of series, though not enough of them to get a bit faster. The negative note was that in the last long run over 21km (just two weeks before the race) I finished very weak and with bad feelings for the race in terms of targeting a pace at or below 4 hours, but still with the confidence of being able to finish it even if the final time was uncertain.

The profile in Sevilla is rather flat. The organization changed the circuit in comparison to the previous times we had taken part in the race. It did not start and finish at the athletics stadium in La Cartuja, but close to the Parque Maria Luisa.

The temperature was fresh in the morning, the sky was clear and it would be a bit hot towards the end of the race, though the temperature did not exceed 19°C. My strategy was to start with a pace just below 6min per km, so that I could target a time slightly below or around 4h15′, with no pacers for that time.

Despite the 10,000 runners taking part in the race, we could easily run from the start at the targeted pace. For the first 16-17 kilometres we ran the three of us together, then my brother Jaime went ahead and Juan and I kept running together until about the half marathon, which we crossed in 2h04’59” net time (at a pace of 5’55” per km). Then, Juan softened his pace and stayed behind. I increased my pace in the second half, finding my brother again at around the km 28 and, after exchanging a few words about how we were doing at that moment, I went forward.

In the second half of the race I found myself quite at ease with the pace and averaged 5’41” per km to achieve a negative split; completing the second half of the marathon in just few seconds below 2 hours.

In the end, I clocked a net time of 4h04’56”, a time better than what I expected (~4h15′). Sevilla 2022 was my 22nd marathon completed, easy to say today but not so on April 30th 2000 when I completed my first one in Madrid.

With those 4h04’56”, I was again above the 4-hour mark and finished in the 5664th real place (or 5721st official place, in the bottom half, though the percentile is not yet clear as the results are temporary), while I overtook over 1,200 runners in the second half of the race. That time makes it my 8th worst marathon, though with a better time than the last two marathons and with a very positive finish, thus, I am already thinking on getting again under 4 hours in the next marathon, possibly next autumn.

This marathon left me some memorable moments:

  • seeing my cousin Marileo and her kids while we passed in front of her house,
  • running several kilometres with Juan and Jaime,
  • the good feelings of the second half marathon.

The organization of the race was great. There were supply posts of water and isotonic drinks very often, thus we did not need to carry bottles at any moment. They provided a very handy and light cap to protect us from the sun. And there were plenty of music stations to cheer us up in the second half of the race.

The marathon in itself was also a success as the winner Asrar Abderehman set a new race record with 2:04:43 (making Sevilla the 13th world fastest marathon) and the Spanish Ayad Lamdassem set a new national record with 2:06:25.

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August 8, 2021 · 12:13 am

All-time men’s best 400m hurdles – Olympic Games Tokyo 2020

Following the 400m hurdles final race of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, four days ago, a race that has been qualified by some as the best Olympic race in history, I had the curiosity to take a close look at how both the winner and world record holder, Karsten Warholm, and the runner up, Rai Benjamin, had arrived to the competition and what was their track record in the past. For that purpose I used the website “Track and Field all-time Performances” (maintained since years ago by Peter Larsson).

With the data of all-time men’s best 400m hurdles times I plotted the chart below with the best 3,720 times (times below 49 seconds) and their dates, highlighting the times by Edwin Moses (the legend champion from the 1970s and 1980s, when he won the gold medal in two Olympics and two World championships, set the world record twice, and went unbeaten for a whole decade between 1977 and 1987 winning 107 competitions and 122 races in a row), Kevin Young (who won the event in the Olympic Games of 1992 establishing a new world record and being the first person to run the distance below 47 seconds, a record that held until a month ago), Rai Benjamin and Karsten Warholm.

Comments:

  • Of the fastest 102 times, those below 47.6″:
    • Edwin Moses achieved 20
    • Kevin Young achieved 5
    • Rai Benjamin achieved 10
    • Karsten Warholm achieved 14
    • Alison dos Santos (bronze in the Tokyo final) achieved 6
    • Kyron McMaster (4th in Tokyo) achieved 3
    • Abderrahmane Samba (5th in Tokyo) achieved 10
  • 43 of those 102 were achieved by 5 of the 8 runners in the starting line in Tokyo.
  • It took nearly 9 years for Kevin Young to beat Edwin Moses’ record by 0.24″.
  • It took nearly 29 years for Karsten Warholm to beat Kevin Young’s record, which he did on July 1st 2021, about a month ago, by 0.08″ at a Diamond League event in Oslo.
  • It took just a month for Karsten Warholm to beat again his own world record by 0.76″.

Since 1992 nobody had run below 47″ until the summer of 2018. Between 2018 and 2020, Benjamin, Warholm and Samba did a combined four times between 46.87 and 46.98″. In the last month and a half Benjamin, Warholm and dos Santos have also run below 47″. The first in doing so was Benjamin at the US Olympic Trials on June 26th, when he ran in 46.83″, short of setting a world record. But just five days later at the Diamond League in Olso, Warholm beat the world record with 46.70″ (see that race here). With those times the expectation for the final last Tuesday was quite high, with the roster as in the picture below.

Instead of commenting the race I suggest to review it in Youtube. You can find many videos, for example the one below:

The result of the race: a new world record, 45.94″, first time below 46″ (remember that nobody had run below 47″ between 1992 and 2018). Rai Benjamin, silver medal, also ran below the previous world record. Alison dos Santos, bronze medal, ran in 46.72″ which would have been a world record just 5 weeks before. Both Benjamin and dos Santos set continental records. Other 3 runners in the final set their respective national records: McMaster, Copello (matching his previous best and national record) and Magi.

In other words, six of the eight runners run their best times and set either a national, continental or world record. That is why some have called this race the best Olympic race in history.

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August 4, 2021 · 12:36 am

All-time men’s best high jump – Olympic Games Tokyo 2020

Following the unusual ending of the men’s high jump event in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 a few days ago, with images of an official explaining to Mutaz Essa Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi the options they had to end the final, I was curious as to how both of them had arrived to the competition and what was their track record in the past. For that purpose I used the website “Track and Field all-time Performances” (maintained since years ago by Peter Larsson).

With the data of all-time men’s best high jumps I plotted the chart below with the best 2,224 jumps (jumps from 2.31m and above) and their dates, highlighting the jumps by Javier Sotomayor (who still holds the record), Barshim and Tamberi.

Comments:

  • Sotomayor holds 189 of the 2224 jumps (8.5%) at 2.31m and above.
  • Barshim holds 128 of the 2224 jumps (5.8%) at 2.31m and above.
  • Tamberi holds 19 of the 2224 jumps (0.9%) at 2.31m and above.
  • Of those jumps of 2.38m and above:
    • Sotomayor holds 25 of the 105 jumps (23.8%) at 2.38m and above.
    • Barshim holds 24 of the 105 jumps (22.9%) at 2.38m and above.
    • Tamberi holds 1 of the 105 jumps (1.0%) at 2.38m and above.
  • At higher heights the dominance of Sotomayor and Barshim is more relevant.

Tamberi had previously won some Europan championships medals and a World Indoor Championship medal in 2016 which is also the year he jumped is best jump of 2.39 in Monaco. Ever since, he had jumped at or below 2.33m until last Sunday.

Barshim had previously won 3 medals in the World Outdoor Championships, including the gold medal in the last two, and had also won two Olympics Games medals, bronze and silver, at the previous two Games in London and Rio de Janeiro. He has the best ever jumps after Sotomayor. While in 2019 he had also jumped 2.37m the last time he had jumped above that height was in 2018, when he jumped 2.40 twice and 2.38m.

Looking at that background, I can imagine that, when asked by the official about what they intended to do, Barshim wanted to secure the gold medal that had escaped him in the previous two Olympic Games (the gold was won in London with 2.33m and in Rio de Janeiro with 2.38m; heights that Barshim in theory dominated). On the other hand, Tamberi must have thought that he had little chance against Barshim, even if they had both already missed three times attempts over 2.39m, looking at how each one had been jumping in the past years.

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November 8, 2019 · 1:04 am

Maratona do Porto 2019

Last Sunday, November 3rd, together with my friends Juan, Manuel and my brother Jaime, I took part in the Porto marathon, with nearly 4,000 runners registered.

Porto_Expo

The four of us subscribed to the marathon following our series of marathons abroad (to combine tourism with long distance running) that has taken us to run together in Roma, Athens, Rotterdam, Sevilla, Madrid, Millau, Lisboa, Vienna, Krakow and now Porto.

As with the previous marathons in the past two years, I arrived to Porto short of training, with just 427 km in the legs (in the previous 16 weeks), a new minimum and some 30 km less than for Krakow and 20 less than for Vienna, a solid between 200 and 300 km less than when I have closely followed the training plans in the past years. As you can see below, I found myself at 6 weeks before the race without having consistently trained for two weeks in a row and about 10-12 kg overweight, and then I put myself to the business of mitigating the damage. The same story than for the previous two marathons.

Weekly_mileage_Porto

In those last weeks of the plan I averaged 50 km per week, but I only did a couple of long runs while running some trail races (of 24 and 26 km) and did only complete 2 series sessions the week before the marathon. Meanwhile, I lost some 4 kg (but still at 89 kg) and arrived with the confidence of being able to finish it even if the final time was uncertain.

Recorrido

The profile was nearly flat with a few short climbs. The race started at a park close to Matosinhos village and then goes towards Porto by the road following the coast with great views of the waves breaking at the shore. Once in Porto the marathon goes back and forth on both sides of the river, to later come back to the same park. Before the race I thought I would not like the passing many times over the same places but it helped to mentally break the race into pieces.

Pre_race

The temperature was fresh, the sky was mostly covered and it could rain but did it only for a few minutes. My strategy was to start with the 4h15′ pacers until I could not keep up with them, hoping to come with them until the km 30 and then see.

With just 4,000 runners taking part in the race, we could easily run after the first kilometre and I quickly caught the pacers. Then, I started running a few metres in front of them and a few seconds faster than the target pace until around the km 25. I continued at about the target pace until the km 32, when the pacers overtook me. I then continued to follow a softer pace but found myself quite comfortable till the end, with a couple of kilometres taking longer due to stopping some seconds at the water and food supply posts.

Pace_Porto_2019

In the end, I clocked a net time of 4h17’57”, a time around of what I expected (~3′ worse than 4h15′) in view of the lack of training and overweight. It was my 21st marathon completed, easy to say today but not so on April 30th 2000 when I completed my first one in Madrid.

Porto_Medal

With the 4h17’57”, I was again above the 4-hour mark, and finished in the 2442nd place of the 3804 finishers, that is in the percentile 36% (bottom half). That time makes it my 4th worst marathon, after 2 of the first 3 that I did almost 20 years ago and that of Vienna a year ago.

Times_comparison_Porto

This marathon left me some memorable moments:

  • as the circuit has runners going in different directions in both sides of the road for most of the time, I could see the winner, my brother a couple of times, my friends Juan and Manuel, the former world champion Marti Fiz.
  • just after the km 32 the race enters into the tunnel “da Ribeira” for around 150m in which the organization had placed several screens and speakers playing the theme from Vangelis for the film “Chariots of fire”. That was overwhelming.

After crossing the finish line, I stayed in the park cheering fellow runners as they approached the last metres of their race while I waited for Juan and my brother.

Post_race

Medals

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May 4, 2019 · 9:55 pm

Krakow marathon (2019)

Last Sunday, April 28th, together with my friend Juan and my brother Jaime, I took part in the Krakow marathon, with above 6,300 runners registered.

Krakow_running_bib

The three of us subscribed to the marathon following our series of marathons abroad (to combine tourism with long distance running) that has taken us to run together in Athens, Sevilla, Madrid, Lisboa, Vienna and now Krakow.

As with the previous two marathons in 2018, in Vienna and Dublin, I arrived to Krakow short of training, with just above 458 km in the legs (in the previous 16 weeks), some 15 km less than for Dublin and 10 more than for Vienna, but between 200 and 300 km less than when I have closely followed the training plans in the past years. As you can see below, I found myself at the end of the 8th week of the plan (beginning of March, just after the skiing break) without having trained much and with 8 weeks to go and about 10-12 kg overweight, and then I put myself to the business. The same story than for the previous two marathons.

Krakow_2019_mileage

In the 8 weeks prior to the marathon week I averaged 49 km per week, but I only did a couple of long runs (of 25 and 27 km) and didn’t complete series sessions as after the increase of volume in the 10th week I started having pain in the hip, so I kept up the volume, softened the pace and forgot about the series. In the last 3 weeks, however, I did not keep up with the good volume of the previous ones. Meanwhile, I lost some 6 kg and arrived with the confidence of being able to finish it even if the final time was uncertain.

Weight_loss_Krakow

The profile was nearly flat with a few short climbs. The temperature was fresh (10 degrees Celsius at the departure time), the sky was covered and it rained from the beginning to the end. My strategy was to start with the 4-hour pacers until I could not keep up with them, hoping to come with them until the km 30 and then see. Juan started the race with me and we ran together for about 14 km ahead of the pacers.

Krakow_6

With less than 6,000 runners taking part in the race (a few hundreds of those registered didn’t start), we could easily run from the beginning and in fact we did the first couple of kilometres a bit faster than intended so we softened the pace. Since then we ran more or less at the target pace (5’41” per km), at the km 14 Juan dropped a bit backwards as he had announced much earlier, and at the km 26 I was caught by the first of the 4-hour pacers, the last of which overtook me at the km 29. I tried not to lose much distance with them but after the km 32 I was feeling the legs much stiffer and I started to soften the pace with only 10 km to go and the only mental objective of finishing the race.

Krakow_2019_pace

In the end, I clocked a net time of 4h11’17”, a time around of what I expected (5-10′ worse than 4 hours) in view of the lack of training and the rain; it was a tough day of running (a bit better than the feelings in Vienna though). It was my 20th marathon completed, easy to say today but not so on April 30th 2000 when I completed my first one in Madrid.

Krakow_2019_Garmin

Krakow_medal

With the 4h11’17”, I was again above the 4-hour mark, and finished in the 3204th place of the 5184 finishers (see the diploma below), that is in the percentile 38% (bottom half). That time makes it my 4th worst marathon, after 2 of the first 3 that I did almost 20 years ago and that of Vienna a year ago.

Krakow_2019_percentile

Krakow_diploma.PNG

Times_comparison_krakow

After crossing the finish line, I crossed the market square of Krakow, entered the hotel, took a picture with the finisher medal (above), took a shower and waited for Jaime and Juan to share the experiences of each other and start thinking of the next marathon.

 

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December 5, 2018 · 8:00 pm

Col du Tourmalet (2018)

Last August 18th, together with some friends from the university we climbed with the bike the Col du Tourmalet, the mythic climb of the Tour de France in the Pyrenees. That was an excursion that I had been wanting to make since moving to Toulouse 8 years ago.

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Training. I had bought a road bike 3 weeks before the climb. I used it 3 times, to ride in the roads of the Gers (France) close to home. I rode 21 km, 26 km and 60 km in each of those days, at average speeds of between 20 to 22 km/h. I then went on holidays with the children and could not train any more. When back to my home in France, a few days before the climb I preferred not to use the bike to avoid arriving to the Pyrenees with some muscle pain.

None of us was well trained for the challenge, so we were prepared for the worst. The day before, I think none of my friends was confident in being able to climb up till the end, though I kept telling them we would make it.

Route. We decided to climb it from the Western side, departing from the village Luz Saint Sauveur. From there the climb is a bit longer, 19.0 km, with an average slope of 7.4% with a maximum of about 10.2% near the end. We planned to only climb up and descend back home (~ 40 km), we would not simulate a longer Tour de France stage with several climbs. Just one. Below you can see the profile per kilometre.

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Route_complete

We woke up early and had an average breakfast. The weather was good for the ride: fresh (14 degrees Celsius at 7:45 am, in the middle of August) and cloudy at the start from Luz. And 21 degrees at 11:45 at the top (at 2,115 metres of altitude) before starting the descent.

We first descended the 2.5 km between our hostel and the starting of the climb in Luz.

At 7:58 am we started the climb. We had rented a Scott Addict 10 (CD22) with a compact 50/34 crankset with 11x32 cassette (7.74 kg of weight). I did the complete climb without changing gears: 34 – 32. Since I was not well trained I did not want to push muscles any more than required by moving a more demanding combination (other colleagues did and had no problems either).

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Kilometre zero at Luz St. Sauveur.

I decided on my own strategy for the climb the night before. In bed, I read some blogs about the climb and one rider recommended to mentally split the climb, in stretches of 15 minutes. So I did. Mentally and physically. I rode at a comfortable but steady pace about 15 minutes and then I took a pause of 3-5 minutes. And then again, and again. Not all colleagues did that. We saw other riders taking similar pauses, though I would say that early in the morning most riders were better prepared and rode faster and with less pauses than us. When we descended the climb we found more casual riders (or this is what it felt when you watched them climbing while you descended).

 

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Pause at 1 km from the summit.

I found it hard, but bearable. The last 3 km had a more difficult profile, which added to the accumulated fatigue. The muscles were tired after each 15 minutes stretch but after the small pause we could continue without problem. I did not feel any pain, or had any cramps or injures. In that sense I found it less aggressive than marathons.

 

In all, it took us about 2h12′ riding from the bottom to the top (find here my Garmin record, which misses about 2 minutes in a ~400 m stretch of the 1st km). The pauses must have taken us another nearly 55 minutes in pauses, for a total time of about 3h10’ to reach the summit, at ~11h10 am. The average riding speed was 8.5 km/h, which started between 9 and 10 but at the end it was rather between 7 and 8.

Elevation_speed

We then took some pictures, a coffee, a beer and had a chat at the cafeteria in the top.

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The descent to our hostel (16.64 km, 2.5 km from the start) took me another 28 minutes at 35 km/h, as I did not take any risk.

The experience was great. The views are breath-taking. The feeling of accomplishment very pleasant.

Route_2nd_half

Some more practical comments:

The descent. I was afraid of being too cold but it went well (not so for other colleagues who felt more the cold). I wore one t-shirt, the short-sleeved cycling maillot and an over-sleeve.

The road. It is rather wide at most points compared to other mountain roads. Cars during the climb did respect very well the distances to overtake riders. The asphalt was in good condition. I imagine that due to the Tour de France and the skiing stations they do maintain the road in good conditions, renewing the asphalt every few years.

Water. I did not see it while riding, but at the station on km 12, where there is the telesiege “Caubere” there was a water fountain where you can refill your bottles. I did the refill with river water a bit later, in the km 15 close to the a second telesiege at the station Super Bareges.

Logistics – Housing. We booked rooms in advance at La grange du Bois. That is a chambre d’hotes off the village of Luz Saint Sauveur at about the 2nd km of the climb. It was big enough to accommodate our continuous demands for more beds, as in the end we were 13 adults and 8 children. The house has capacity for 33 people, though if you go in a big group you might have to share some rooms (with capacities for 5 and 6 people). The price was reasonable and included half board (~44 € per adult and night ).

Logistics – Bike rental. We all rented road or mountain biks for the occasion. We picked Ardiden Vélos at Luz Saint Sauveur, just 100 metres from the start of the climb. The rental for 24-h cost 55 € (for the higher scale and lighter weight model), this allowed picking and adapting the bikes the previous evening so we could start cycling early in the morning. The rental included helmets and pedals. It did not include water bottles, which you can bring yourself or buy at the same shop.

Excursions. The day after we went on an excursion to Cauterets and the Pont d’Espagne walking to the Lac d’Aube. We did not feel any muscle pain and had a good time there.

In the future, if I ever get to ride on bike often on weekends, I may give it another try.

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November 4, 2018 · 8:37 pm

Dublin marathon (2018)

Last Sunday, October 28th, together with my brother Jaime (see here his post about it), I took part for a second time in the Dublin marathon, the “Friendly marathon” according to one of their lines, the 4th largest marathon in Europe with about 18,000 people registered, above 16,000 finishers.

Dublin_0

Jaime and I subscribed to the marathon after the good experience I had in Dublin two years ago (see here my post about it), when I ran it with Serna. After the bad experience in Vienna last spring (see here) I wanted to have better prepared this marathon, but I did not. I arrived to Dublin with just above 470 km in the legs (in the previous 16 weeks), some 70 km more than for Vienna but between 200 and 300 km less than when I have closely followed the training plans in the past years. As you can see below, I found myself at the end of August or the beginning of the 8th week of the plan without having trained much and with 9 weeks to go and about 10-12 kg overweight, and then I put myself to the business.

Dublin_2018_mileage

In the 8 weeks prior to the marathon week I averaged 50 km per week, but I missed many long runs on weekends and wasn’t able to complete good series sessions until the last 3-4 weeks. In any case, I could complete some trails, lose some 6 kg and arrive with the confidence of being able to finish it even if the final time was uncertain.

Weight_loss_Dublin

The circuit of the marathon was the same as in previous years.

dublin-route

From experience, I knew that the profile was not flat with a few climbs but that the crowd, with plenty of Dubliners cheering at the runners, and the cold weather (5 degrees Celsius at the departure time) would help in keeping us running at pace. My strategy was to start with Jaime from his box and run together with the 4-hour pacers until I could not keep up with them, hoping to come with them until the km 30 and then see.

Due to the big crowd of runners at the start of the race, it took me some 3 kilometres to get to the pacers, with whom I lost contact after the km 6 due to a short technical stop, but I quickly recovered the gap. I skipped taking a bottle of water at the supply station around km 10, and got to some distance ahead of the pacers. I then doubted what to do, whether to wait for them (to actually run between them) or keep going ahead pacing myself. As in 2016, I took the second option and I went ahead, running consistently a bit faster than the target pace for a 4-hour marathon (5’41” per km) until the km 33, and only then, at km 34, I felt that it was a bit harder to sustain that pace so I softened a bit, not much, and I kept some strength to run a faster last 1.5 km to enjoy the last crowded streets.

Dublin_2018_pace

In the end, I clocked a net time of 3h55’15”, better than expected and with great feelings while running all along the race, as it was the case in 2016. It was my 19th marathon completed, easy to say today but not so on April 30th 2000 when I completed my first one in Madrid.

Dublin_2

With the 3h55’15”, I was again below the 4-hour mark, and finished in the 7181st place of 16236 finishers (see the diploma below), that is in the top 44%, just in the upper half. That time makes it my 10th best marathon, just in the median of the 19 I have completed.

Dublin_2018_certificate

Times_comparison

At the finish line, I changed clothes and waited for Jaime to take a picture with him and share the experiences of each other before going to our hotel. It may not have been the last time to run in Dublin.

Dublin_3

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