Running with Jack

Yesterday morning I got up a little later than normal, 6:30 a.m., for my run. It was a busy week so the extra sleep was welcome. In any case, my wife was still sleeping, so I crept quietly out the door about 7:00 a.m. It was just starting to get light out, it was right around freezing (0C/32F), we had rain the night before and the roads had a thin sheet of ice. On the schedule was 24K/15M, I decided to run my asphalt long run route and see what happens.

The streets through town was treacherous, the town is always slow about salting the side streets. Once I got into the forest after the first 2K, it gradually got better – I guess it was slightly warmer in the woods and it didn’t freeze so bad. There were still a lot of ice patches so I kept my pace down and paid particular attention to what I was doing – no mind drifting during that run.

The run was pretty uneventful, on the way back I debated whether to run farther or head home. I hit a bad patch of ice about a half hour from home and I decided not to push my luck, I headed home. I ran 2:28:05, about 25K/15.5M – at marathon pace.

Today (Sunday) I decided to go to the swimming pool and do some laps. I went to the larger pool (50 meter) in Karlsruhe, the smaller pool in the neighboring village of Blankenloch is too full on Sunday’s. In any case I swam 1100 meters breast stroke and practiced my freestyle for a few minutes. It was getting towards lunch time so I called it a day and went home.

So one more big week of running including a 32K/20M-plus long run (I have 36K on my schedule). Then it’s taper time!