Author: Ale Santuz

2013 Track & Field season

/ Ale Santuz / 2 Comments
Chronicle of a Steeplechase year

As said in last year’s end-of-season post, 2012 was my first season 10 years after quitting races. This year I kept on smashing my records (it’s so easy, when you start again from scratch), even if an Achilles tendinopathy tried to stop me. 

Taken from the athlete profile section, here’s a review of my improvements:

Outdoor progression of main events.

Some targets were achieved, some others just approached. I really wanted to run sub 10:10.00 in the steeplechase event, but maybe I forced too much in the first part of the season. I am very proud, though, of my improvements in longer distances.
Definitely the most important point is that I finally found a great team here in Berlin and I can say I picked up the right pace to start the winter season in a proper way. Carsten, Sebbi, Micha, Merlin…they were all very kind in relieving my forced stop. Not to mention, then, the great support I always had from mum, dad, Katrina and all the friends in Conegliano (Pie, Mattia and Gbo in a special way).

Over the water pit in one of the last races.
Last, but not least, the irreplaceable help from my technical partners has been again crucial. Brooks Running Italy and “himaxx” (Center for Altitude Training, Berlin) continue to follow my journey strongly. Thank you!
As usual, I tried to condense all the emotions, motivations and regrets in a single, short video. Nothing is better than direct experience to understand what lies under a whirling Track and Field year. But the images and the music itself are quite appropriate for trying to understand. 
So, again, welcome to my world. Enjoy and…keep on training!

What is training load?

/ Ale Santuz / 5 Comments
Using training load to plan and analyse your preparation is a powerful weapon. The risk of injuries can be significantly reduced and training efficiency increased.

But what is training load?

Long story short, training load is nothing more than this:
TRAINING LOAD = TRAINING VOLUME x TRAINING INTENSITY
Using a logging software such as SportTracks, makes it very easy to implement the previous expression. The only important thing is to chose correctly the two parameters. In the following lines a synthetic explanation of their meanings.
Training volume is usually calculated as training duration. Another approach is to define it using mileage (for example 120 km/week for a runner). There are no major differences in choosing one or another.
Training intensity indicates how hard your workout is. A common way to quantify this parameter is by using the so-called Borg RPE (Rating of Perceived Exertion) Scale. Originally conceived with numbers from 6 to 20, nowadays it is commonly accepted tu use values from 0 to 10 to quantify the perceived exertion. The great advantage of this method lies in its simplicity: the athlete judges every workout’s intensity with a number according to his/her sensations. This is a good way for taking into account a wide pool of parameters that influence the workout like, for example, athlete’s motivation, kind of shoes used or nutrition before and after the session.
0
Rest
1
Extremely light
2
Very light
3
Light
4
Somewhat hard
5
Hard
6
7
Very hard
8
9
Extremely hard
10
Maximal exertion
The modified Borg RPE (Rating of Perceived Exertion) Scale.
It is quite a little effort to obtain such a powerful analysis tool. And it is funny indeed, playing with all those numbers. Give it a try!

Here you can find a list of my running-related posts. Now shut down the notebook and have a run! 
Science and Training:
Races:

7th Airport Run Berlin: second place and PB

/ Ale Santuz / 4 Comments
Last Saturday, April 27th, I and other 3681 people had the chance to run (perhaps for the last time?) on the new landing strip of the “Berlin und Brandenburg” airport. The 7th Airport Run Berlin, this year started at 7:00 p.m., letting us to enjoy a beautiful sunset even if the clouds brought a little rain since the 5th km. The half-marathon participants went through two laps, while the 10 km course was made of a single lap. You can find the GPS track of my 10 km on the new cloud platform by SportTracks following this link.
A strong tailwind really speeded us up in the first 5 km, where I tried also to save some energies for the second part (what a headwind from 5th to 8th km!). After the good final time at the 24th Lauf in Britzer Garten, another PB has come almost unexpectedly, lowering my 10 km best time to 00:34:38.

Ready to go!


A few seconds after the start (© H. Winter).

The start (© Günter Wicker).


Pushing on the new landing strip (© H. Winter).

A wonderful view right after the start (© Günter Wicker).

It was an honour to join the podium of such a great race. The organisation (BERLIN LÄUFT) was, as usual,  perfect and the staff very kind assisting runners immediately after the finish line.

Medal and trophy for the second place overall over the 10 km race.
Below there’s an extract from the official results of the 10 km race.
1
Krannich, Christian
GER
00:33:26
2
Santuz, Alessandro
ITA
00:34:38
3
Foth, Carsten
GER
00:34:45
4
Eisenreich, Christian
GER
00:34:46
5
Dr. Teifke, Nils
GER
00:36:50
6
Wünsch, Gregor
GER
00:36:53
7
Spohn, Oliver
GER
00:37:00
8
Eidhof, Chris
NED
00:37:03
9
Plaumann, Mike
GER
00:37:08
10
Lepers, Thomas
FRA
00:37:44
The official results of the 7th Airport Run Berlin (10 km course).

32nd Pankower Frühlingslauf

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The 32nd Pankower Frühlingslauf (official website)was my eighth race this year. A beautiful cross-country course, 2.5 km to be repeated five times (12.5 km the total length), with a small uphill to increase the selection.
I classified second, with a time of 0:45:45, behind the (very!) fast Niels Bubel. Another good result after the 24th Lauf im Britzer Garten. The track season is ready to start and I can’t wait to join the first steeplechase race.
Below a picture of the podium and the final classification. Here the GPS-track on the new Sport Tracks cloud service.

The final podium of the 32th Pankower Frühlingslauf (Photo Niels Bubel).
1
Bubel, Niels
1987
DE
Die Laufpartner
0:41:07
2
Santuz, Alessandro
1983
ITA
LG Nord Berlin
0:45:45
3
Leidig, Holger
1969
DE
LEIDIG24 Tri.
0:46:17
4
Wiessner, Enrico
1985
DE
Pro Sport 24
0:47:22
5
Wollny, Hans Peter
1961
DE
Berlin
0:47:30
6
Kaschewsky, Sascha
1970
DE
Sisu Berlin
0:47:55
7
Schneider, Matti
1984
DE
FH Runners Berlin
0:48:20
8
Samzun, Gildas
1979
DE
Berlin
0:48:21
9
Spohn, Oliver
1969
DE
SCC Berlin
0:49:33
10
Neugebauer, Stefan
1982
DE
LG Pegasos
0:49:36

The official results of the 31st Pankower Frühlingslauf.


Garmin, Polar and WTEK: heart rate sensors comparison

/ Ale Santuz / 4 Comments
Thanks again to Mark, head of the Centre of Altitude Training “himaxx Berlin” (www.himaxx.de), and to WTEK, I had the opportunity to make an interesting comparison between different heart rate monitor sensors.
Nowadays this kind of sensor is widely used in sports at every level, helping to track important parameters and to calculate some interesting stuff like training load. The leading actors of this post are the Garmin HRM2-SS, the Polar T31 and the WTEK, in its HS-2+ and HS-1C versions.
The three sensors tested: Garmin, Polar and WTEK (click to enlarge).

Apart from the well-known chest-belt technology (Garmin and Polar), I’d like to do a small introduction about WTEK sensor’s working principles. This interesting transducer is a photoplethysmograph, a complicate word for a simple function: it illuminates the skin and subsequently measures the changes in light absorption due to the pulsatile component of the cardiac cycle. In other words, it can measure the differences in blood volume, identifying this way the heart rate of the subject. This is an interesting feature, since the sensor can be applied to the forearm or to the forehead, simply using a sweatband as a support.

How to fit the WTEK sensor (click to enlarge).

 

While the WTEK HS-2+ sensor is compatible with all the ANT+ devices, the HS-1C just supports a specific communication protocol with a WTEK C100 watch. And since the C100 doesn’t have (yet) an internal memory, I needed to make a video recording of the HS-1C data in order to save them for analysis. However, I found easy to record HS-2+ data on my Garmin Forerunner 210 watch (even if the sensor must be fitted on the same arm of the watch, to avoid communication problems).

 

The altitude chamber, for the occasion set to sea level, before and during the test. I am wearing a wristband on my left forearm to support the WTEK sensor (click to enlarge).

 

The WTEK C100 watch, its charging station, a sensor and a wristband (click to enlarge).

 

The protocol was very simple: after a 4-minutes acquisition while sitting, I ran 36 minutes with some speed variations and some constant pace minutes. In the following graph the values are plotted (I registered WTEK data every 5 seconds).
Heart rate data (click to enlarge).
 The main WTEK problems, compared to chest belt sensors, are the following:
  • an initial period of 10 to 15 minutes is necessary to stabilise data
  • every sudden change in heart frequency needs 10 to 15 seconds to be noticed by the sensor
  • an overshoot (both negative or positive) always occurs when heart rate changes quickly, for example during interval training or hill repetitions.
The good points, however, are that:
  • the errors, after the stabilisation period, are almost always included in a ±5% interval (taking as “real” values the average between Garmin and Polar data)
  • correlation coefficients (degree of similarity between two sets of variables) are quite similar, being 0.9998 between Garmin and Polar, 0.9891 between Garmin and WTEK and 0.9889 between Polar and WTEK
  • mean registered heart rate values are pretty close (152.8 bpm for Garmin, 152.7 bpm for Polar and 157.7 bpm for WTEK)
  • usually the error causes an overestimation of the HR values (a dangerous underestimation happens very rarely).
Absolute percentage error calculated between WTEK and the average of Garmin and Polar values (click to enlarge).
Concluding, if we assume that chest belts HR monitors give “true” values (which is obviously not true), WTEK sensor is a comfortable alternative for people that can’t stand traditional sensors. The performances detected are sufficiently accurate for amateur sports people, especially for those who want to monitor constant-speed sessions.

 

The WTEK products tested (click to enlarge).
Here you can find a list of my running-related posts. Now shut down the notebook and have a run!

 

Science and Training:
Races:

 

http://apps.zogdigital.com/jht/heart_rate_calculator/widget.html
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A nice gift from Brooks Running Italy

/ Ale Santuz / 4 Comments
Brooks Running Italy recently wrote a beautiful article about me. In the next lines a translation from the original piece. Thanks Brooks!

March 12th, 2013 
THE GREAT BROOKS PASSION!
The large Brooks family is not only full of well-known athletes. A lot of young and passionate guys revitalise the “Run Happy” philosophy…
This is the case for Alessandro Santuz, born in Conegliano (TV – Italy), a great running enthusiast that have been training since he was 11.
After a short break to finish his studies in Aerospace Engineering at University of Padua, in 2011 he started again to run in the 3000 m steeplechase event. A discipline requiring a lot of willpower and hard workouts.
He currently lives in Germany and trains with a group of athletes led by the two-time Olympian in the 1500 m event Carsten Schlangen.
Alessandro grinds lots of kilometres, around 400 each month, and told us that Brooks shoes and apparel are his  ideal companions: “Now I have cumulated about 1300 km with different models of shoes and clothing, and I was surprised by the excellent quality of materials and exceptional attention to detail…that said, I won’t ever leave Brooks!”. Those were his exact words.
Alessandro writes a very interesting blog about his activities and sports experiences!
VISIT HIS BLOG AND…RUN HAPPY! 

 

24th Lauf im Britzer Garten: a good pre-season test.

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With the 24th Lauf im Britzer Garten (official website) the “summer” season has started. In the frame of the beautiful Britzer park in Berlin, 500 runners were at the start of the 10 km main competition.
With a time of 0:34:45 I classified 10th, running my 10 km PB (and my 5000 m PB too, as a split!). This is a very good news for the following races, all the training I’m doing with my wonderful group is definitely paying off!
Below a couple of pictures and the final classification. Here the GPS-track.

A quite crowded start!

For the first 3 km this was my group.

Feeling strong around 4th km.

A beautiful view of one of the bridges.

Final meters!

This is sport.

So happy!
1
Engler, Jonas
1985
DE
LG Süd Berlin
0:31:39
2
Bubel, Niels
1987
DE
Die Laufpartner
0:31:40
3
Krannich, Christian
1984
DE
LAC Berlin
0:32:23
4
Wienecke, Jonas
1992
DE
Tus Neukölln Tri.
0:32:30
5
Matysik, Nico
1995
DE
LAC Berlin
0:32:51
6
Landmann, Marc
1994
DE
LAC Berlin
0:33:24
7
Rodewohl, Christoph
1988
DE
LAC Berlin
0:33:48
8
Schwark, Ludwig
1986
DE
LAC Berlin
0:33:55
9
Dumann, Axel
1972
DE
OSC Berlin
0:33:55
10
Santuz, Alessandro
1983
ITA
LG Nord Berlin
0:34:45

The official results of the 24th Lauf im Britzer Garten.


Tough Guy: the safest most dangerous event in the world

/ Ale Santuz / 6 Comments

Some of you surely remember my post about the Red Bull 400 or the Sant’Antoni’s Night Trail, that both show my inclination to strange races. But what you are going to see in this video posted by Brooks Running Germany YouTube channel, is somewhat over the normal conception of “tough race”. The “Tough Guy” is claimed by its organisers to be “the safest most dangerous event in the world”. You won’t find it hard to believe after the first seconds of the following clip.

The course map says it all, with a section named “Killing Fields” and another called “Bracken Maze Tortures”! My favourite part would certainly be the “Brasher-Disley Steeplechase” (you can have an overview at the minute 1:52), even if I’m not so sure that all that mud is going to help the fun…

Many congratulations to Knut Höhler (Brooks Running Team) for the Hattrick!

2012 Track & Field season

/ Ale Santuz / 4 Comments
Chronicle of a Steeplechase year

2012 was my first season 10 years after quitting races. Step by step I increased mileage, training sessions, commitment. In complete harmony my family, my girlfriend, my friends and my training mates started and kept on supporting me. It was a special season, that can hardly be synthesized by a short clip. I anyhow tried to and the following images are my biggest thank you to those people who continuously follow my running journey.
“Every ceiling, when reached, becomes a floor […]” (Aldous Huxley)
Thanks to mum, dad and Katrina (always the main sponsors and fundamental moral supporters), Mattia (it’s a pleasure to search for the scientific explanations of facts), Pie (2013 will be definitely great, you’re destroying the right obstacles), Gbo (where should I go without your accurate technical hints?), the whole Cone-Project (more than an idea…a way of life!), Batman (talking with you is always a motivation injection!), Mark (more than a simple technical partner), and every single person that helped me or I helped during hundreds of training sessions.
Enjoy and…keep on training! (LINK for German viewers).

A good way to end the year

/ Ale Santuz / 6 Comments
The 2012 has come to a (good) end! Today’s race, the 37th Berliner Silvesterlauf, aka “Der Pfannkuchenlauf”, gave me a beautiful 10th place over 935 finishers along a wonderful 10 km course in the famous Grunewald (see the website www.berliner-silvesterlauf.de for more details). Congratulations to my training partner Johannes that won the race with a perfect run, leading from the start to the finish.

After 18 races, 2800 km and 200 hours of training, 180000 kCal burned and an average pace of 4’20″/km, I can easily say that I laid the right foundations for a rewarding 2013, under every point of view.

Happy new year, my dear readers! And…keep on training!

The last corner before the finish line at the 37th Berliner Silvesterlauf.
1
Riewe, Johannes
1986
DE
LG Nord Berlin
0:34:00
2
Kopf, Michael
1976
DE
SCC Berlin
0:34:58
3
Töpfer, Arne
1988
DE
LTC Berlin
0:35:22
4
Müller, Philipp
1981
DE
Jevenstedt
0:35:40
5
Leidig, Holger
1969
DE
Leidig24 Triath.
0:36:08
6
Rodenbeck, Jürgen
1969
DE
RSC Wunstorf
0:36:19
7
Meinike, Patric
1992
DE
Oberhausen
0:36:20
8
Frommhold, Jens
1988
DE
SCC Berlin
0:37:05
9
Kröhnert, Kevin
1988
DE
SCC Berlin
0:37:11
10
Santuz, Alessandro
1983
ITA
LG Nord Berlin
0:37:12

The official results of the 37th Berliner Silvesterlauf.