Back from Hamburg ...
So the planned 21K didn't happen on Thursday - not least since there wasn't time to prep/pack/get stuff done before we had to head off at 2:30pm to grab the Gatwick flight to Hamburg. But I had done some short outings in London on Tues (around Coram Fields) and Weds (Russell Square) so at least had turned my legs over.
[post-edit] And I now realise on reviewing this post, that I did in fact do a run on Thursday: I dutifully did a Twitten Run to make up for the one I would be missing on the Sunday. But NB since CC5 really cares about this, this does not go into the official Twitten Run stats. As per normal, I ran up and jogged down, but with no walk or wait at top, I recorded my best ever TR time - under 30 mins, indeed 26:40 from what I can see, which is a Twittens PB that I won't be trying to break any time soon!
Hamburg turns out to be a fabulous city - sort of a vision of how Liverpool could have developed if it had managed to retain a thriving port and then built a strong regional commercial centre. Temperatures hovered around freezing plus a touch of snow - but clear and bright.
Hamburg Park Run is entirely flat and in beautiful park location by the Ausser Alster - a large lake on the edge of the centre of the city. Ironically, it's already very popular with runners and there might have been more people jogging through the park than on the run itself! There were a handful of English folks helping out with marshalling and on the run. So it was interesting combo of entirely new parkrun folks and very experienced ones. I was sporting my 50 shirt and another chap from the Midlands his 100.
We had decided to take it slow for Paula's knee, but in our enthusiasm got round in 25:12. Thankfully that held up fine, so fingers crossed all OK for Almeria.
While we didn't do any more runs, we walked quite a lot each day - and from what I have read in recent running blogs turns out long walks can be quite effective "rest day" recovery activity, which positively helps for running.
We flew back Monday - and took the opportunity of the remaining light to do a 17K run when we reached Lewes - combining the 8k loop up and around Malling Down behind the golf course (in the final strands of light), with the 9K loop around the town itself (in the early evening dark).
My plan for parkrun this weekend is to see if I can set a new Peacehaven PB for myself by getting round in under 24. Having paced it at 28 for so many times, not sure how I'll find just doing the run for myself!
So all looking on track for Almeria ...
Getting the Asics Right
