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24-02-2004, 03:46 PM,
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Riazor Blue
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Posts: 248
Threads: 41
Joined: Jan 2004
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Madrid minus 9 weeks.
OK Guys, let's talk about the important things first, food and footie. This running malarky can come later.
Food:
Fabada, yum. Do you know, it's so simple to make. I do a fabada 3 or 4 times a year, the girlfriend isn't as keen as me. I buy a chorizo, a black pudding and a bit of boiled bacon, pre-soak some beans, then cook them all slowly for a couple of hours. The trick is to get it to the point where the beans are starting to break down, thus thickening the gravy. Too much and it's like babyfood, too little and it's watery. But that 'smokey' flavour, I love it. Lentils, aswell, I could eat them every day, although all that chorizo & bacon, not too good for the old cholesterol levels. The winter food up north is wonderful, I have to admit.
On top of these delicacies, we have empanadas. Big pies, I'm a great fan of the tuna or the baby scallop varieties. There's something about pastry made with olive oil, tastes completely different to pastry made with butter. Then there's octopus... known as Pulpo a la Gallega in all of Spain except in Galicia of course, where it's Pulpo a la Feria. Boiled octopus, served on a wooden platter on top of a few slices of boiled potato, sprinkled with sea salt, pimienton (ground dried red peppers) and olive oil. Then there's the seafood here... I could go on and on.
I remember my first 1/2 marathon here, it was in a place called A Pobra de Brollón in the province of Lugo. The race was actually in a very small aldea called Ferrerúa which isn't on any maps here. It's in the middle of farming country in the mountain foothills. The temperature was around 34 degrees celsius that day. Being my first half, I had no idea how to pace myself and of course finished three-quarters dead (in 1hour 47m). Anyway, I remember after the showers, there was food and drink laid on in the open air for the participants; pulpo, empanada, barbequed pork ribs, washed down with ice cold Estrella Galicia beer or Barrantes red wine.
Footie:
Until Palace start beating Arsenal on a regular basis, I will always hold a grudge. Same goes for Man United. I held a grudge against Liverpool until I'd seen Palace beat them home and away.
Running:
Monday... 13.5Km from Deportivo's stadium to the harbour wall and back in 1hour 15 minutes.
Tuesday... 800m series on the harbour wall. Jogged 2 km to the wall, then 10 x 800m with 1 minute recovery between reps. 2Km jog home again. On average, each 800 took 3'20" againt the wind and 3'10" with the wind on my back.
One thing I've noticed with these series sessions, I seem to be planting my feet differently these days. I have always landed more o less on the rear part on the forefoot, but always on the outside edge. Since starting these sessions I seem to be landing more in the centre of the foot. Not a problem really, except when running something like a recover run, something slow. In this case I sometimes get a cramp in my right foot, which will go away if I consciously land on the outside of my foot or if I speed things up.
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26-02-2004, 03:52 PM,
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Riazor Blue
Member
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Posts: 248
Threads: 41
Joined: Jan 2004
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Madrid minus 9 weeks.
First things first. Andy, you owe me 60.
Yesterday was a rest day. Livened up with Deportivo's fine win over Juventus. Shame it was only 1-0.
Today I improvised a bit more than usual on the series front. In my Spanish Runner's World there aren't any 5000m series, but I thought that for a marathon, they would be of use. So I had a 3.5 km warm up jog taking me to La Torre De Hercules. The route from here to the Millenium Obelisk (El Pacolito) is 5km if you do three-quarters os a lap of the car park first. The aim was to run the 5Km at half marathon pace. As my last two halves have been mountainous affairs, I wasn't too sure what that pace should be, but settled in the end on around 4'30" per km. I reached the Pacolito in 22'36" so my pacing wasn't bad. I took 2 minutes recovery and headed back to La Torre. The pace was a little out on the way back, finishing in 23'10". Ah well, it was easy enough.
It's hard to judge though, without a measued track to take timings from. I just went on trying to remember how my breathing was in those halves (well, on the flat bits). I have a very basic HRM at home, and that's where it seems to stay. I'm sure that it's technically better to use one, but without those beeps for upper and lower limits, it's not worth using. Even then, I think I'd prefer running 'au naturál' so to speak.
Anyway, after my two 5km's it was a run from La Torre to the Police station, completing about 18Km all told.
I had a bit of bad news yesterday, in the fact that the 9.4km race in Ordenes has been posponed until October. I would like to find somewhere to race between now and the end of March, but there doesn't seem to be much in Galicia during that time. I did see a half marathon near Gijon in Asturias this Sunday, but we are talking about 250km drive to get there, so perhaps not. Next week is an easy week so perhaps I'll just run my own 15Km race next Sunday.
When I run up by La Torre, on the other side of the Ria De La Coruña there is another lighthouse. It's in a place called Meras. It is stuck on a little headland thingy the same as La Torre and I've always thought that it would make a great race. La carrera de los dos faros. I'll have to go and measure up in the car to see how far it is. I'm sure that it could be done as a 10km if one crosses the Ria (a bit like a fjord) at Santa Cristina, or a half marathon if one continues to El Burgo. Hmmmm...
Oh, and Andy, about the 60..... Yesterday afternoon I was reading your 2002 London Marathon diary and completely forgot the time. I remembered at about 7PM that the car was outside on a meter with a ticket valid up to 5.15 Hence I'm now the proud owner of a 60 parking fine. If you hadn't made your diary so damned interesting....
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