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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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