squeezed in 41' along the water.....started in daylight (barely), finished after dark......tossed in a bunch of utility pole pickups during the third mile.....felt good to go a little faster for a change.....had to drive 70 miles shortly after the run, so the knee stiffened up a bit.....no problems this a.m. ......
Today
Lunchtime
Long warmup in villa pamphili, hooked up with FrancoP for 5x1000m at the campone then a who bunch of guys showed up and it was just great! Shared the lead, a bit muddy, long recovery 2m15 (race coming up for them weekend) but cruised relaxed and progressively from 3m48s to 3m44s. jog back home. no exercises. arbitrary. sunny, windy, chillish by mediterranean standards.
Yesterday, 1hr on the mountain bike starting from the lake, rolling dirt roads and a few trails. The I put the boat in and paddled for 1/2 an hour. Plenty of water birds to see. Crested grebes, spoonbills, herons, wood ducks, black ducks, darters, cormorants, one solo pelican, a pair of whistling eagles. On the way back in the car a young roo took off a cross an adjacent paddock. I paced him for nearly a km at a speed of 50-55km per hour.
Tpcb, tuesday's 3km was good as two of us took turns until the other fella snuck away 2 laps to go. My leg speed has really suffered lately with that groin strain.
Our locale received it's first significant snowfall of the winter as 11'(.3M) accumulated locally. Temps. dropped to 3F(-16C) overnight so the morning run was a dress up occassion. 45 minutes on cleared backroads. Only a few crows in the distance braved the skies.
yesterday: ended up taking a rest day, feeling sleepish
today: AM bike commute to school, we were running late, flying out, so my daughter says "put Ed on the bike, i'll run"...a good start to the day
A calm frosty morning under clear skies set the tone for a relaxed 10k@59 minutes. 7 pounds of clothing warded off the -7F(-23C) chill, and provided some resistance training load.
PM: more bike commute, all uphill on the way back, to pick up daughter at school, the some striders in Villa Pamphili and exercises
Today: kids athletics, running late, which seems to be a leit motif lately, but actually no, beacause i was on time, but it felt like being late because i like arrive at the track plenty early to sent things up....anyway my colleagues had set out the obstacle courses already, so when i arrived all i had to do was to get the most rebellious group for whom i had thought up this game: Running AllSports - On the grass, we all stayed in a group, sprinted to a corner of the field and there we mimicked a sport we all liked and i tried to emphasize the exercise aspect of it, e.g. when wes skied we stayed in a tuck and jumped over imaginary moguls; basketball we did layups, judo we sort of wrestled (alone and with a partner) dance meant a lot of walking on toes, soccer was big kicks, and so on and on, we even went fishing which was definitely recovery mode; tennis was big arm swings, and always in between some sprint to another corner of the field. Actually very knackering but the loved it and we got to do a lot of the sports the kids called (inclusing formula 1 and chess!! We made both very physical.) After the session, snack and clean up i went for a quick quadrupedia pyramid: 200Q, 200run, 100Q, 300run, 50Q, 50run, 400 recovery. Cant describe it but it was actually hard.
-448 days to The MOARG The Mother Of All Running Gatherings in GimmelWald, Switzerland, in 2011
The last 3 days have been condensed but effective training.
Friday, before work, 12+km loop around the outskirts of town on the mtn bike. 30.02 which is pretty solid pace for the course. Stopped on the way into work and ran one of our race loops, a tough little 5k in the Mandurang forest. 22.53. Very solid pace, I can't normally break 20 on this one in a race.
Yesterday I stopped at Mandurang on the way home and ran it again this time 22.51. The planned ride had to be scuttled due to social obligations.
Today I stopped at Wildflower on my way home. This is another hilly race loop we do, 6.5kms. Ran a good solid pace throughout for 29.15. Headed out on the bike when I got home and did the 12+km loop in reverse this time in 29.30.
From a wildlife point of view, not as much to report. Spotted a nice big fat echidna on the Mandurang trails and of course a run in the forest isn't complete without seeing a few kangaroos.
Went exploring on a X-C trail network new to the Bride and me. The Willow River has worn a tight notch though the underlying sandstone to produce a watercourse of unique natural beauty. No kangaroos, but some very tame Whitetail Deer scarcely moved aside for us to pass. The open water below an ice bedecked falls was home to hundreds of Canada Geese. Terrain was hilly enough to force a high pulse rate despite only moderate overall effort.
90 minutes at 10 F temps. The knee is improving, albeit slowly.
A morning paddle of 32mins, an afternoon mtn bike of 29mins followed by a 29min run around the golf course.
The trail sounds beautiful Driske. Not so sure about the temps though!!
Not much life on the lake. I put in at Kimbolton which is the main recreational area, I then paddled up toward the spillway. This area seems to have less bird activity.
A big bird of the helcopter type came to visit while I was loading the boat back on the car. He hovered just above the water for 15minutes. It had me baffled until after a few minutes I noticed the waves become green. I'm guessing they were breaking up a blue green algae bloom out in the middle of the lake.
49' along the water on Sunday.....more utility pole pickups from 2.5M to 3.5M.....finished with a cramp in the left calf.....walked in the last 0.25M.......hoping for the best....
driske, specialO2, bests for your recoveries. It's colder out there and it's harder to recover, again best wishes.
Sunday: one-day family getaway to Cortona. Wanted to run but there was way too much chopped wood to be gathered and and ordered. A lot of wheelbarrowing loading and unloading, which ended up being knackering because the area is on a slight slope and the uphill was with the wheelbarrow filled.
Always a light drizzle ongoing, it snowed higher up in St. Egidio woods so before coming back today went for a snowball fight. I am always awed by just how much kids love snow.
Fauna visuals, mostly roadkill, a dead fox (on the provincial road going to Cortona from the highway), a dead rat right in Cortona.
Missed running, but enjoyed the labor. Working the land always feels so darned satisfying.
AM: bike to school and back, daughter ran, the mishaps of running late
32mins paddle on the lake. Went down towards the shallows and spotted a family of black swans, a family of pelicans, some terns, cormorants, spoonbills and a number of different types of ducks. 31min ride on the mtb, solid pace throughout then straight out for 5.6km run out and back along Forest Drive. 25mins on the gently undulating rough dirt road, 2d 1/2 in 11.58, felt strong.
lunchtime: 50 mins cruising at Alfredo Berra track with Jacopo adn Antonio, doing outside loop, strides at the end starting from a whole bunch of sitting or lying down positions.
Bike commute to track, bike to work, will bike home.
-445 days to The MOARG The Mother Of All Running Gatherings in GimmelWald, Switzerland, in 2011
AM: walk to school and back, long way, 50mins
sidelined indefinitely.....this could take awhile....sigh....
Is it the knee O2? Here's hoping it's not as bad as you think and the recovery is quick.
A hot one today, about 40deg. C with a solid dry northerly coming in off the Mallee.
Took the bike up into the Argyle forest for a testing little 12kms -took 40 mins, fairly hilly and technical. Finished off with a 30 min run at a fairly comfortable pace.
lunchtime:
hills in villa pamphili 5x approx 400m, with FrancoP, SandroF, PaoloG, Marco, PaoloP. nice effort.
will bike commute, will bike home