Madrid minus 7 weeks.

[Riazor Blue]

This week is about building mileage and increasing my speed a little. I am aiming to run everything apart from the long runs at 5 minutes per kilometer or faster. Whether this is a good idea or not only time will tell. Revising the last 2 months of training I have done some good sessions, I'm pretty confidant to run in Vigo at around 1h 30 pace for the half marathon. The series I have been doing do seem to have made a difference as to what pace is comfortable.
I'm now frightened of blowing up in Madrid. Between now and April 26th I want to concentrate on my pace a bit more. I think that the series have been useful, and I intend to carry on with some of the longer distances for the rest of this month, but I think that I need more experience of running distances at an increased pace. Not that I'm talking about radical increases. On the non series days, something like 5 min per Km on 15Km runs, 4'45 on 10Km and 4'15 on 8km runs. Most of the runs now are going to be longer distances so I'm hoping to condition myself to these higher speeds.

Having said all that on Monday I done 13.5Km in 1h 3m which is about 4'42 pace. That pace feels very comfortable to me, well, at that distance anyway. I ran this one at night, starting at about 10.00 PM. It surprised me how many ladies were out running at this time. During the daytime I hardly see any women running, maybe one or two. At night, possibly 10 or so. I know it doesn't sound many to those in the UK, but running is 85% male here in Spain.

(With this 'imbalance', any half decent club lady in the UK could be up there in the prizes over here. There's prize money at stake in nearly all the races in Spain).

Yesterday I missed out on my run as I had to take the girlfriend to the masseur, and then it was Juventus-Deportivo. This means that today will be a double session.

I have been out this morning at 6.30 to see how the other half live. It's actually quite tough running at that time of day. I'm not sure that I'll get used to it (especially having to hold the bowels firm for the last kilometer). 10km this morning, just before it started to pour down with rain. I completed that in 48'34". Perhaps a 3000m series session tonight.

One task I must try and do this week is book a hotel in Madrid, if I leave things much longer I'll be sleeping in Antonio's bathroom !!!

[Antonio247]

Hello, Brian

I´m staying at Hotel NH Parque de las Avenidas. My brother is coming with me but if you don´t find a room you can stay with us. As my brother isn´t running the marathon, he can take a sleeping bag and sleep on the floor if we can´t get another bed in the same room.

I booked the room at a travel agent´s for only 50 euros the double room VAT included through TRANSHOTEL. Although the hotel is not near the start/finish line ( about 3 kms ), it is quite well communicated by underground or bus. There are other marathon runners staying there and one of them told me in another forum that they had told him at the hotel that there would be no problem to leave the room after 12 pm.

Good luck!

[Riazor Blue]

Hi Antonio, only joking. Seriously though, I looked at that voucher scheme thing for hotels about 3 weeks ago, but for that weekend there was only one hotel near the airport left for one voucher per night. That one has been taken now aswell. As yet I'm still unsure whether the girlfriend can come along or not, so I'm looking for a room for two. Last year I stayed in the Hotel Monaco, which was basic, but central and used to be a brothel frequented by royalty in days gone by. I'll probably end up there again this year, or in one of the hostals nearer Puerta del Sol. Thanks for the offer though.

[Riazor Blue]

My thoughts are with the people of Madrid today. Terrible, terrible news.

[Antonio247]

So are mine. It´s incredible that there are people who can do that. I think that nothing is worth killing or dying for. So many lives lost in such an absurd way for nothing.

"Let´s give peace a chance". John Lennon.

Antonio

[Nigel]

Somos todos madrileños, somos todos españoles, somos todos europeos, hoy.

The Spanish authorities seem ready to blame ETA.
Is it just coincidence, then, that yesterday was exactly 911 days after 9/11 ?

[Riazor Blue]

It's easier to blame ETA at the moment. Nothing will become clear until after the elections tomorrow. That's the cynical side of me talking. There are pointers to both ETA and Al-Quaeda. Who knows for sure at the moment?

I kind of think that one can always find some significance in some detail of an event after it has happened.

Whether last night was about protest, showing support to the families of the dead and injures, or showing respect, 200,000 were out on the streets of La Coruña. That's 2/3 of the city's population

[El Gordo]

We've been watching the TV pictures, RB. They say 8 million people were on the streets last night in the rain.

Just very sad news. The only consolation (if I dare use the word) is that if it was ETA, it might prove to be one outrage too far. Over here, the Omagh bomb which killed about 30 people in Northern Ireland, while being the worst single incident in the troubles, also pretty much marked the end of the paramilitary activity. It was just too shocking for things to continue in the same vein. If (big IF) it was ETA, I think they are finished.

[Riazor Blue]

Now with the good news, while London has been suffering rain and sleet, I went for my long run this morning in glorious sunshine. Light breeze and 14 degrees. I came home a little more tanned than when I left.

So, to the run. Conventional wisdom is that one needs to put in at least one long run of 20 miles when training for a marathon. OK, I have only run two, but in training I have never run more than 15 miles. My reasoning for questioning this wisdom is that I run almost entirely on asphalt and concrete. I have always been worried that I could do more harm than good with such distances.

Today I succumbed to conventional wisdom. Off I set at ten in the morning after breakfast of toast and marmite, coffee, isostar apple puree and lots of water. As I set off a little late, the route was to be the Paseo Maritimo (boring I know). Firstly up to the Pacolito then follow the Esplanade, along the harbour wall and around the harbour to the police station. Repeat twice more and we have 33Km or 20.5 miles.

Armed with a half litre bottle of gatorade I set a comfortable pace, around 5’15” per km. Never having done such a run I really didn’t know how to pace it. Not that it was too important. I was surprised to see so few people out at 10 this morning. It was interesting that after the demonstration last night the bars probably had their busiest night of the year. Perhaps there were a few hangovers this morning.

I completed the half marathon in about 1hour 52 minutes and turned round at the Riazor Stadium at 2hours 4 minutes, having completed 23 Km. I had been sipping my gatorade more or less constantly throughout my 2 hours, taking water aswell at some of the water fountains along the route. Having passed the Torre de Hercules for the last time, I was contemplating whether there was benefit in this type of run. I believe that the idea is to get the muscles used to using fat as the principle energy source near the end of a marathon. Idea is to pospone and minimise the impact of the wall. Well, I have to say, as I passed the showjumping club, that my muscles were no problem, all that this run was doing was hurting my feet and making my knees ache a bit.

Then it happened. As I passed the Harbour Master/ Coastguards Office on the harbour wall. At just about 29 Kilometers, all the energy in my legs disappeared. Interesting really, it happened in San Sebastian at the same distance. I checked my watch, 2 hours 35 minutes. 4 kilometers to the finish of my run, ok, it was harder than before, but not too tough, I slowed down a bit but kept going, finishing my 33 kms in 2h 57m.

I’m sure that on the day I will be able to push this encouner further along the course, 35kms with luck. I will be better prepared, carb loaded, rested, topped up with adrenaline and taking on sustenance en route on the day, so why not?

Was it worth doing this run? For me, I don’t know. I will see, if I can do my 10km tomorrow, then at least it will have done no harm. I think that for me, as everything is on the road, I am better off with my hills up in Zapateira.

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What else? Friday there was 10km in 51 minutes. It was actually going to be my long run but the afternoon clouded over and the last 2km were a race against the rain. I won, and managed to bring in all the washing from the terrace seconds before the downpour.

Thursday, there were more important things than running.

Wednesday evening I started off with 3000m series, but started out too fast. After the second one I didn’t fancy any more (how slack I hear you say). The evenenig ended up as being 13.5 km, (8km jog and 2 x 3km at 4’07” per km).

[Riazor Blue]

Lunch today consisted of a salad, roast potatoes and serrano pork ribs. I had never tried 'costilla de serrano' before. What a difference in flavour and texture to normal ribs. Perhaps they are a bit more fatty, but hey, I can live with a little fat. Especially after my 20 miler yesterday.

Today's run was a short recovery session. 6 kilometers in 31 minutes. The feet felt fine, as did the knees. My right calf was a little tight, but there was no real damage caused by Saturday's run. So that's good.

This week then I have run 86 km in total over 5 days.

So Spain has a new government. I cannot say I am sorry to see the old one go. I hope Spain can move on quickly from the events of this week and the Socialists can start to repair some of the damage caused by 8 years of Aznar.