Hammering away on the hills

Dresdner

Alright then, I've got to get started somewhere. The following is a mixture of what I've done over the last few weeks or so. I am not a time fan anymore, so the only occasions I'll be mentioning it will be races and the odd new run.

I was getting too bored cycling out to work, so I decided to lock the bike in Bühlau outside of Dresden and run the 5 km from there (aye I know that would make it a duathlon but I'm trying to keep my focus on running). It was a nice uphill stretch with a few birds of prey and deer out and about. I legged it along in a pair of NB Road Minimus to see how I fair. I covered the distance in about 25 minutes.

Ran back home in the evening and noticed it on the legs the next day. Cycling seems to take the edge off of it, so it looks as if I'll be on the bike for the unforseeable future.

Decided to have a crack at running the 10 km to the river after work. I brought a pair of Inov8 x-talon 190s to keep the damage down. There was a savage downhill sectioning where I was braking more than running. I missed my bus and so on on the other side of the Elbe, so I had to clock up a total of 17 km. That is the first time in years where I've ran more than 10 miles. On the otherhand it beats the bus any day. In the end I needed about an hour and a half or so.

Ran to work there and had the pleasure of crossing the Elbe with the ferry. When you grow up by the sea and then become land-locked, there isn't anything more refreshing than a bit of water.

My fitness fanaticism raised a few heads at work, so I signed up for a 5 km relay run in Dresden. The starting square was chock-a-block but my mentor and I managed to nudge our way near the front. We set off about 5 minutes after the VIP-racers (5, 10 km < 19, 38 minutes). It was cool because they built the start like a funnel, so only two runners could start at once. That gave us a clean enough patch to run along.

Now to give things a bit of perspective, I raced in my youth but haven't done something like this for 10 years or so. So I was a little bit nervous and comprehensive about how I would do and whether I'd like it at all.

So off we raced past the Semper Opera House and along the Brühl's Terrrace. I saw an Irish lad in a yellow GAA jersey and gave him the typical ex-pat greeting and runner's encouragement before continuing on my way. By this stage I had lost my mentor. I clocked up the 2nd, 3rd and 4th kilometre with a mixture of "I'm never going to do this again" and "ah sure why not" because of all the people out clanging on their pots and pans. The 5th kilometre led into the Dresden football stadium, which was nice to see from a different point of view. Tops the finishers medal that we got any day! Sipped away on the post-race beer whilst my colleagues ran in.

The next day at work, my mentor came in and threw on the homepage with a little bulletin about the run and a nice snippet about me and my 17:46 institute record. I new I was moving but that surprised me to say the least as I don't have nor plan on carrying out a training plan per se. I put that one in the table once I've written my 50 newbie posts.