October:Turning over a new leaf.

[Bierzo Baggie]

In August I got out for a run 3 times. In September 6 times. Enough farting about....my diary writing time has surpassed my running time and it’s time to get back to business. It might even mean starting a plan, horror of horrors.

Ran my Toral de Merayo-monte Pajariel route. Nobody about except for grape pickers. The vendimia is coming to an end and only the melancholy of Autumn lies ahead. And then Winter.
Met a couple of vehicles on the Pajariel trail. After the longest, driest Summer that I can remember the dirt track has been converted to something resembling sand and the dust churned up almost makes me choke.
Running time 45 minutes.

[El Gordo]

Well done BB - I think most of us are making similar resolutions.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Sunday morning run around the river. Passed a couple of gypsy basket weavers fiddling with reeds on the river bank. It looked like a husband and wife team.

Did a bit of research. Basket weaving is an ancient craft maintained by a handful of artisans in the area. Apparently the master basket weaver is a gypsy named Araceli from the nearby town of Cacabelos. She has followed a family tradition that goes back generations and has been weaving baskets since she was 8 years old. Every day she makes up to 6 wicker baskets of different sizes, each one taking around two and a half hours to make and with prices range from 5 to 25 euros. Suitable reeds (“mimbre”) are collected at the riverside, peeled, left to dry and then wetted again before being woven into basket shapes always working from bottom to top. No web page sales outlet, so if you want one you’ll have to go to Cacabelos and ask for Araceli. I’m told the smaller baskets are ideal for collecting eggs or mushrooms. So there you go….

Total running time: 37 minutes.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Had a mild cold last week. Not enough to stop me going out running but certainly enough to give me an excuse not to. Warped sports psychology for beginners.
Back to it on Saturday morning though. Donned trackie bottoms for the first time since spring. Parched land and autumn colours.
Route round the canal. Total running time 30 mins.

By now I include anything vaguely active as “training”. This includes walking. For me walking is…just another form of running.

Sunday morning. First decent attempt at a walk in the mountains for months. Myself, Oscar from Uruguay and Manolo set off early along the lonely “Morredero” road (Morredero…literally “a place to die”). Manolo is an occasional walking and mountain biking partner. Oscar bikes it to work every day and does 10 hour shifts making shuttering for concrete pillars somewhere above Toral de Merayo. We make a pretty lethal threesome of mountaineers. Ha ha!

Left the car at the highest point possible and followed a crest of mountain peaks, eventually taking in 3 of the 4 main summits of the Montes Aquilianos range.
These were “La Silla de la Yegua” (The mare’s saddle?) 2143m. “Pico Berdiaíanas” 2116m and Pico Tuerto (“the one eye”) 2051m. Our attempt to round it off with the fourth and final peak of La Guiana fell short when we all realized at the same time that we were just too knackered to go any further. This meant a prolonged sandwich stop on a rocky outcrop whilst enjoying a superb bird’s eye view of El Bierzo.
The worst part was turning round and having to climb all the peaks again.
Total walking distance: 15km. Total climbing distance: approx 1000m.

Didn’t see anybody else walking. Not a soul! The observed fauna consisted of a few partridges (released for hunting) a couple of small eagles hovering and a huge boar’s head hanging proudly from the wall of the bar where we stopped for a couple of shandies on the way down. It seemed to be grinning at us.

This was strictly a walk although we did find that running downhill was kinder for the knees at times. This enabled me to practice my fell running descent technique with shoulders and elbows slightly raised and occasional random jerky movements. I probably resembled Morrissey on a bad night.

[Bierzo Baggie]

The mother of all stomach aches. Haven't actually felt this bad since spending a month bumming around Morocco in my late teens and last week's running consisted of mainly short distance shuttle runs to you know where... The new leaf is still waiting patiently.

[El Gordo]

Commiserations, BB. In your shoes I would probably not try running at all till the problem is sorted. I managed a reasonable 4 miles or so along the canal on this fantastically warm and sunny autumn day.

I hope the 3 points against Arsenal will be some consolation.

[Bierzo Baggie]

First win against Arsenal since the early 70s I think!

As for the so-called "training" diary....
Ouch. It must have been all the talk about turning over a new leaf. I’ll spare the gory gastric details but running has been impossible for the last 3 weeks. Strange that. In over 10 years I’ve never had a running injury that has stopped me from getting out. In my case my achilles heel seems to be located somewhere in the lower intestine. Won’t be eating chorizo again from now on. All in all, a pretty poor showing over the last 3 months.

Missed a new local race “La Subida de Morredero” (“a place to die”).
http://www.elmorredero.com/1%20SUBIDA.htm
This was held for the first time last Sunday. It’s like a mini-version of the epic Veleta race, starting in Ponferrada and climbing 23km uphill to the Morredero ski station and involves 1250m of climbing. Great stuff if you like that sort of thing although there’s too much road for my liking. The mighty Basurko finished 3rd and there were many more local runners amongst the 50 or so starters. One for next year maybe.