Madrid minus 12 weeks.

[Riazor Blue]

Yesterday was a bit of a disaster.

After a light breakfast I slipped on the running shoes, prepared a large bottle of isostar, stuck on the sunglasses and set off to get the car. Saturday is now my day for the long run as Sunday lunch with the in-laws is too good to miss (apart from race days of course). I wanted to try out a new route yesterday, it’s an area on the outskirts of La Coruña, near the university. A friend is a cyclist and he has told me that the roads are very quiet, the scenery is interesting (rural) and there are some dirt tracks to get lost on aswell (eack one guarded by a hungry rottweiler, no doubt). Ok, it’s a bloody great mountain, but who cares?

Anyway, that was the idea. After driving out of the garage, the car went for about 500 metres then stopped. After various attempts to start it I had to call the breakdown recovery people. The car ended up in the Seat dealership workshop. I ended up walking home. The worst part being that before leaving home I drank about 1.5 litres of warer, which is usual for me before a long run. Of course, having to wait for the pick-up truck, time in the repair shop, what’s one supposed to do with all that water? I was in and out of the loo there 3 times in about 20 minutes.

The day was moving on, I still had to do my run, and the option of somewhere new had gone. The only option was the esplanade (again). My 20 kilometers yesterday was an out and back from the football stadium along the seafront, passing the beaches of Riazor, Orzan and Matadero, then passing Domus, the museum of the human body and the new aquarium. Four km into the circuit one passes the symbol of La Coruña, La Torre de Hercules, which is a lighthouse originally built by the romans. Of course it has been rebuilt many times but the current lighthouse is about 350 years old and is the oldest working lighthouse in the world. La Torre is situated on a headland which is now a park. It’s used by many runners as it’s one of the only large open spaces where one can run on dirt tracks. The longest circuit in the park is about 3 km. Passing La Torre, one starts to descend a little until the esplanade levels out again just past the beach at Adormideras. It’s now a 2 km run until the road meets up with the harbour wall again. My run continues along the wall, where I see one poor chap doing 400m series, then I follow the route described earlier to the Police Station. This 10 km takes me 54 minutes. The return leg took 55 minutes, and all in all, 1hour 49 minutes.

Lunch today was lentejas a La Rioja, lentils with chorizo and bacon, followed by a viena schnitzel with fresh mediterranean salad with crème caramel for puds. I took the opportunity to weigh myself whilst there, before lunch, I might add – 82.1 kilos. The in-laws are away next weekend, so I’ll take the opportunity to either find a race or train in the atlantic oak forests in Pontedeume.

The other half will be doing her cousin’s hair in a hour or so. Given that lunch has now been digested, I will take the opportunity to escape for a nice, easy 8 km.