While joints and muscles seem to have recovered well from yesterday's trail run, my shoes never will I'm afraid. Oh well, a good excuse to spoil myself with a pair of new ones (as if I need an excuses for that).
It was a trail filled with surprises, both positive and negative. The weather surely had its hand in that - it had been raining pretty much non-stop during the entire week - but the organisation doesn't walk away with clean hands either. But anyway, enough rambling, to the order of the day: my report!
After taking a welcome 2 days off after Crêtes de Spa, I put on my running shoes on Wednesday for an 18k run with my new training buddy Gwendolyn, followed by an attempt to follow her for 55 minutes at "race speed" on Thursday. We started off at 15.8kph average, and I managed to tag along for about 20 minutes. My legs had run full after 10 minutes and then I managed to ignore them for another 10, but then it was just too much I joined her for some another 5 minutes and the last 10 minutes, but it wasn't working out too well. It dawned on me that this had been the first time I'd really suffered while running in what must have been a year or so. Sure, there have been those days the legs were feeling tired, or the steep climbs in the Austrian mountains. But I'd always managed by dropping to a comfortable speed and this time, this hadn't been an option. This had then been a week of extremes. The triumph in Spa, doing things lots of people think of as " inhuman", the failure on the track just 4 days later.
I'm back! And with tales of running this time.
After months of anticipation, last Saturday it was finally time for the "Crêtes de Spa" 53k trail run. Although preparations had been optimal (running 90k a week and 2 weeks before I had a team event in Saalbach where I managed to do 4 runs with some badass climbing involved), the last twee weeks had been far from that:
First of all, my achilles started giving me some pain about 10 days before D-day (which was, of course totally by coincidence, 3 days after my 4 mountain runs. Overstressed? Naaaaah...). I decided not to run until the day before the trail. The achilles was getting better, but around 5 days before the trail my back started hurting badly and basically got stuck in one position for the next 2 days. Luckily, both were gone by Thursday. So on Friday, I decided to do a half an hour run in order to test the legs and see if I was ready. By this time, I'd gotten a cold, so it went far from perfect. Things could have been better. A lot actually.
Hi all,
I just decided to no longer apologize for the long waits in between my posts since I never made any promises to begin with. There! And with that out of the way, let's move on towards more pressing matters. Towards new goals, new missions, new fronteers.
I'll admit, I talk about running a lot. Too much maybe. I try to limit it to a minimum, but then again, over the past few years (and actually pretty much since the age of 9) it's become such a big part of my life that there's little else to talk about.
Reactions to these tales are rather mixed. Sometimes, of course, a total disinterest in what I'm telling because, after all, running is pretty boring. Sometimes I get admiration, even though there's plenty of people running faster, longer and in more extreme conditions than I am. Most of the time, however, I get puzzled expressions or, even better, a hesitant nod, hiding a total lack of understanding.
And then come the questions. Mainly the one big question: Why? Why would you go running for 2 hours in a row for no apparent reason. And when they ask me if I'm, by any chance, training to win some race or beat my personal best and the answer to both of these questions is negative, it doesn't get any better.
For the curious and alert ones amongst you: you're right: Olne-Spa-Olne was last Sunday! And since you're reading this I guess you might even want to know how things went? Well, let's not spoil a perfectly good story by skipping right to the end and start where one's supposed to start: the very beginning.
Of course, I let go of my +2k plan about 2 weeks before OSO. The weekend in the Ardennes with my parents 2 weeks ago seemed like the perfect occasion to do some hill training - which I did - but running for 5 hours during a weekend with your family isn't the most social thing to do. All in, I did do my 40k, but in 2 sessions. Not the best hiking paths there either. Preventing an injury gained priority over sticking to my +2k plan.
Hey all!
I know it's been a reaaaally long time since I last wrote something here, but hey, I'm back! I've never been too great at keeping a personal blog alive, and turns out that this isn't going to bring any change to that. Truth is I've been really busy, went on holiday, some things changed at work and in life in general, but one thing hasn't changed a bit, and it's exactly the one thing that justifies this post today: I'm still running.
21:30 last night: I have to bring my car to the garage but I'm in the middle of a good conversation so I don't feel like it. I decide to do it really early the next day and run back home.
06:20. The combined sounds of an alarm clock, thunder and rain wake me from my sleep. Already regretting my choice, I put on my clothes and running shoes and drive to the garage
06:50. Get out of the car. I Check my shoelaces. I look up at the dark clouds split apart by lightning, raindrops plunging on my face. Finally, I look right in front of me, staring at nothing in particular and start running.
07:10. I'm soaked. It's quite obvious that clothes that are supposed to let sweat out also let rain in. At least I think that's rain running down my back.
07:30. The clouds are slowly opening up. There's a tempting road to my left that leads straight to my house. I ignore it.
07:40. It's getting harder. Not only because my legs are running out of fuel but also because my stomach is slowly collapsing and with it my entire posture. I forbid myself to run like an 80-year old and speed up.
07:49. Home. 12.19km in just under an hour, soaking wet and hungry as hell. There are worse ways to start a day. Lots of them actually.
