After having raised my training volume to 10 hours per week
in 2021, the goal for 2022 was consistency. Thankfully, my work schedules, and specially
my business travel that continues to be reduced, enabled me to maintain or actually
increase my training volume very slightly to 10.2 hours a week.

This year, I was spared from any significant knee injury.
This allowed me to return my focus to running, compared to last year when knee
pain forced me to focus on Cycling. In fact, I ran more than 2500 km, something
I had only done once in 2015 when I started my Ultra running journey. It is
great to have at least these 2 options, Cycling and running, with an acceptable
cross-training effect, and to have flexibility to adjust the training plan
depending on the circumstances. My cycling volume suffered naturally, but that’s
okay. If I could do a minimum of 2000km of running and 4000km of cycling every
year, I’ll be very happy. Every additional hour of training is probably better
spent on some kind of strength training.
Before I continue, here are the events I joined in 2022:
- March
11: Qarun66 Ultrarun in the desert north of lake Qarun at Fayyoum,
Egypt (66k) (9hrs:15min)
- May 28: Olympic
distance triathlon by Trifactory in Soma Bay, Egypt (2hrs:55min)
- June 24: Olympic
distance aquathlon by Trifactory in Marassi, Morth Coast, Egypt (1
hrs:35min)
- August: Self
organized Transalpine run in Germany, Austria and Italy. 4 days from
Oberstdorf, Germany to Merano, Italy
- October
21: Alexandria Marathon, Egypt, Alexandria (4 hrs:19min:51)
- November
18: Ironman 70.3 Egypt, Sahl Hasheesh (6 hrs:05min:36)
- December
10: Pyramids Halfmarathon, Egypt, Cairo (1 hrs:57min:34)
Two events are missing in the above: The Galala cycling
challenge in October conflicted with some other commitment I had. Hathor100 was
unfortunately cancelled due to the high cost for many after the devaluation of
the Egyptian pound. I hope it will be possible to return to acceptable cost
since this was a very nice and challenging race with a great family building
character among participants.
On the other hand, I added another activity that had been in
the planning for years, such that I almost gave up on it. Markus and Eckart, two
colleagues from Germany and I crossed the Alps from Oberstdorf in Germany
through Austria to Merano in Italy. In 4 days, we hiked 85.5 km and ascended
4852 m. This was a new and great experience. Already on the first day, I
learned the hard way the difference between my trail running shoes and what is
needed for hiking in such a technical terrain. Hiking gives you the time to
enjoy nature even more than running, and nature in the Alps is truly something that
forces you to stop here and there in awe of its beauty. I will certainly want
to return and hike or run more in the Alps, and if a couple of people are interested
in joining me and can commit to it, I could organize a trip for August 2023.
Let me know.
Back in May, I wrote about the impact of raising my training volume
to 10 hours a week and how that might have impacted my results positively in
long events. I mentioned that I completed Qarun66 more than an hour faster than
the year before. Since then, I have repeated Ironman 70.3 Egypt (half-ironman)
and improved my time there as well. However, in my report on it (see blog post
from November) I attributed this improvement to other things than training
volume. I had a couple of additional data points in October and December. I did
the Alexandria marathon in October in 4 hours 19 minutes and 51 seconds. While
this was not a personal best (PB), but it was a few minutes faster than the
previous marathon and only 2 and a half minutes slower than my PB set in 2001 (4:17
at the Flying Pig Marathon, Cincinnati/Ohio). Considering that I have gained
quite some weight and aged 21 years since then, the marathon in Alexandria
could indeed be considered my best performance. Then there was the Pyramids
Halfmarathon in December which I completed 6 minutes faster than in 2020. I
guess all of this is sufficient indication that training volume does have an
effect.
For 2023, I’d like to continue the consistency of training
above 10 hours a week on average as a first goal. Given that I didn’t have any
significant knee pain, I’d like to introduce some more speed work, high
intensity training, and strength training. The aim is to achieve personal bests
in the Marathon and Halfmarathon distances as well as in races I can compare
like Ironman 70.3 Egypt.
With all that said, these year-on-year improvements I share
here on this blog remain secondary objectives versus the health and longevity objective.
I have turned 60 this year and I would love to be competing at the same level
in 5 and 10 years from now and beyond, inshallah.
Happy New Year, everyone.