Warm Weather Running

I was in Budapest this week on business and the weather was fantastic - sunny and dry and in the high twenties.

The Hungarian parliament on the banks of the Danube

I took the opportunity of flat tarmac, warm weather and daylight at 6am to get a few runs in around the river. A loop of the Margaret Island running track, then back along the Buda side and across the Chain Bridge was a great way to start the day.

Margaret Island running track

Winter Again

After a week of beautiful weather where I was lounging around in shorts and flip flops, I awoke this morning to 20cm of snow and wintry winds.

Running the snow-shoe trail was quite appropriate

Eric crossing the river using the rocks as stepping stones

Just like February again

Long Run - Then Tapering

With just a few weeks to go until the Paris Marathon, I needed to do my 'long run', the traditional 20 miler that is the bedrock of all marathon training plans.

I considered running it in Milan, where I was on business and the terrain was flat, as I also had a few hours spare one morning before meetings. However I thought that after 20 miles I might not be in much of a state to work for the rest of the day, so I left it until the Sunday when I was back home.

Sticking to the roads - but still a stunning view

This meant that I was rewarded with a beautiful, crisp sunny day in the mountains in which to run. I stuck to the roads to minimise the hills, and ran round the local villages and hamlets, but several long climbs meant that my time was slow, and the going was tough. I kept the pace slow, but the effort was still high because of the gradient.

Hilly

I took the opportunity to try out a new pair of running shoes - Brooks Adrenaline GTS 13 - I've been road running in various models of these for the last few years so ordered them online without trying any on. They seem fine, and it was great to have that spring 'new shoe' feel which I hope will still be there by the time I get to do the marathon. Apart from a blister after 17km, which I hope is just a case of wearing them in, the were fine.


Now its time to taper down, drop the mileage but keep the pace.

Winter Running

Winter is always the time when runners are supposed to put in the long slow miles, in order to build up a base of cardiovascular endurance that can be built upon in the coming months to bring them to their peak for races in the Spring.

I'm running the Paris marathon in April, and my plan had always been to build up my weekly mileage, and our mild winter over the Christmas period meant that this wasn't doing too badly but now we're getting a lot of snow, and the miles are dropping off.

My dog loves the snow, but it makes it hard to rack up the miles

I went out this morning and barely managed 5km in thigh deep powder snow. Even the roads that had been ploughed in the early hours were snowed up.


I guess that this is all doing me good, and so long as I get a long run in once a week, the CV effort required is doing me good.