I just want to thank all the authors, coaches and people offering advice in here …

tl;dr : Over the last few months I change quite some things in my way of living, along continuing my training based on the stuff I learned from the books and the website here. All this together lead to some visible and (for me) substantial improvement. That stuff really works!

More detail: went for some general medical checks, blood tests, x-rays, ultrasonic scans, bone density check … you name it. Decided to cancel alcohol (in my case: beer) completely, changed my diet from being a vegetarian to a more defined diet after TCM principles. Got some herbs mixed for my current constitution, cancelled some types of carbs and went for peas, lentils, rice etc. Going to acupuncture regularly. Established a new and more strict sleep schedule. And more. You get the picture.

This removed some blocks in my organs … and lead to a weight loss of up to 12 kg at peak time. Now I am at -11kg since begin of august, at 186cm of height. (I am m, 47 btw).

And I have more energy than before! Resting heart rate went down, pace in Z1/Z2 went up, while my “load” went down. The effort needed is lower. I run PRs since then, and feeling strong. VO2max went up (according to my watch. Yes, I shouldn’t believe it. But it feels good).

Doing all that anti-ADS work last year etc matches all this, as far as I understand. The form goes up, the weight goes down (or stays stable now: I want to keep that weight now, maybe gain a bit more muscle mass for climbing).

Ah, climbing: sports climbing works well also. Several 7b+ and 7c went down fast, quite a few 7a+ and 7a’s … all with the feeling of “I have headroom, I could perform way harder”.

Great!

Now with the snow covering Austria, where I live, outdoor climbing is getting rather uncomfy … with the Covid lockdown situation climbing gyms aren’t open yet (but soon).

I wonder what to do with my form now 😉 I consider running a (solo, unsupported) marathon soon, maybe even in the christmas holidays (I will have some free time then).

In the last few weeks I ran quite some volume, with hill work and intervals also.

For example a 28k, 1900 vert hike/run through snowy hills …

I never did a road marathon before, but completed the training plan for a 50k last year. So I wonder what I could do to set myself up for success here. And how much time I should plan for that preparation phase.

Maybe I am over-excited and a marathon would be too much. I would really like to hear some opinions on this.

Aside from that: keep up the good work, it pays!