February frolics

[Bierzo Baggie]

This diary will probably resemble my "training"...erratic,meandering and sometimes non-existent. In any case, it's an honour to be able to write on the only Anglo-Hispanic running forum on the net. How's that for a first post?

[Sweder]

Welcome BB. Not too bad. Sounds like you'll fit right in with our merry band.

[El Gordo]

Run, and the muse will find you....

[Antonio247]

Welcome, B.B. It´s wonderful to have someone else sharing their training.

Hasta pronto

Antonio

[Bierzo Baggie]

“Going ot for a run” has formed part of my weekly routine for as long as I can remember. First there was cross-country at school and then the marathon boom came in the 80s when my dad and several other members of the family would take part in marathons and half marathons in the West Midlands (Wolverhampton, Sandwell...) I was more into football at the time although sometimes I’d join my dad for a few miles.

Have spent most of the 90s and up to the present day in the “Bierzo” region of northern Spain (a lot colder than where Antonio lives) and the words “just going out for a run...” now ring out 2 or 3 times a week (if there’s a race near, maybe 4 or 5 times). I’ve never really thought of what I do as “training”. I’ve never followed a plan or joined a club. I don't even know the exact distance I run (I try to avoid roads) although I do note down the times, along with the occasional comment of anything that has caught my attention.

For example, looking at my notebook I see that on June 23rd last year I ran for 40 minutes on a circuit around the local river, it was warm, for some reason my calf muscles ached and I stopped to talk to an old fellow weaving a basket! All pretty banal stuff and not really a diary...but almost.

Err...no running today.

[El Gordo]

Dont worry BB, the most interesting diaries are often those that seem 'banal' on one level.

[Sweder]

Yeah, just take a look at mine . . .

It's the basket weaver interviews we're after BB.
I take it the second part of your moniker refers to The Baggies.
You'll be distraught to learn that I occasionally run with a Wolves fan . . .
. . . sorry about that. He's a decent bloke, too.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

I've never seen a basket being woven - I thought they were all made in China. Please tell us more.

Your runs sound fascinating, but be careful, as this forum has been known to convert people to GPS thingies and heart rate wochermucallits. And there's no known cure (other than an upgrade to a better model).

Actually the reason I time my runs is that otherwise I stop after 5 minutes thinking I've run a fair way... rather embarrassing really :o

[Fiona]

I don't use a heart rate monitor or GPS either and must admit that I do feel a little inferior. But perhaps us non-technical runners can start a resistance.

[Sweder]

I'm in. What's the password? Ooh, I know . . . philistine

I'm joking F, I really am on your side. I am having trouble with my sun-dial on the evening runs though. I got serious leather from MLCMan when I confessed to an un-timed run last week. It was so wrong and yet it felt so right . . .

No Garmin, no heart-rate monitor . . . definately a resistance man.
Of course I could be shot for inviting Seafront Plodder over with his hot link to the Hubble telescope last week. It won't happen again. Honest.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Nowt, and nowt again

Kms accumulated 0

Psyching myself up for a run tomorrow though (striking a maori-like pose whilst jumping up on the table). If not it’ll be basket weaving for me from now on......

Saludos!

[Bierzo Baggie]

Went for a run.
Did a section of the famous St James’ Way, the pilgrimage route that goes across the north of Spain from Roncesvalles to Santiago de Compostela. I run along a bit of it maybe a couple of times a month and usually I see a few modern-day pilgrims with their rucksacks and walking boots. Looking at the most noteworthy comments from last year’s notebook....

June 26th- Hot; ran past 14 pilgrims including 7 German tree-huggers who were gathered around a tree chanting.
October 13th-Ran past a Chinese pilgrim dressed in robes and wearing a conical hat. Said hello and he nodded. He looked pretty authentic....
Also on one of my pre-note taking runs I ran past Shirley MacLaine.

Today, and it was a cold but sunny February morning......no pilgrims so I amused myself by counting storks. “Por San Blas, las cigueñas verás” ...an old Spanish saying that means “by Saint Blas’ Day (Feb 2nd) you’ll see the storks (migrating from their winter stop-over in Africa). In fact a lot of them don’t bother and now spend the whole year here, scavenging for what they need in local rubbish dumps.
This morning I spotted 4 of the beady-eyed beasties, two of them in a nest on the top of a church and two more perched on a couple of other old buildings.

So, Thursday, cold but sunny. Circuit Ponferrada-Columbrianos-Fuentasnuevas (50% road 50% dirt-track) 66 minutes running time.
Storks 4 Pilgrims 0

[Bierzo Baggie]

Nothing today but maybe tomorrow.....
Unless anything strange happens tomorrow morning I’ll go for what I call an SSR. This is a structured sort of run (or in other words, I know exactly where I’m going when I set off).
Through the kitchen window at home I can see an enormous hill with a radio mast at the top. It’s called Monte Pajariel and most of my running takes place below, on top or around it. Tomorrow’s plan is to jog up its eastern flank and then drop steeply down to come back via a hidden valley on the other side.

My notes from last year for this route were...
Feb 24th Snow on mountains, breezy, sluggish.
Apr 24th Poppies and swallows.
Sept 10th Damp, felt weak, tired legs.
Sept 26th Warm, people grape-picking, two hunters with dogs.

Now I’m writing a proper training diary, I’ll attempt to be more revealing this time....

[Sweder]

I don't know, BB. There's a real charm about these past diary extracts, a sort of 'less is more' feel. In four short sentences you've conjoured marvellous images of the seasons in your region. Good stuff mate.

[El Gordo]

Economical.

Effective.

Agreed.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Beaut.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Hey, gratifying to know that somebody’s actually reading this stuff. I’ve been reading your diaries for a while, ever since Brian Riazor Bleu pointed me in the direction of this site. 95% of my running is by myself and the few people who are into running around here are all highly competitive and they train when I’m still working…so running-wise I’m living on a bit of an island most of the time.
Having said that, on Saturday morning I saw a couple of other people running below Monte Pajariel, which is unusual at this time of year as local runners tend to be of the fair weather variety. On most of my Monte Pajariel routes I might not see anybody at all once I leave Ponferrada and hit the forest trails.
Anyway, this morning’s run was; Ponferrada-Otero-Monte Pajariel-Toral de Merayo.
It was coldish (although I soon shed my gloves) with icy puddles in the valley on the other side of Monte Pajariel.
Surprised to see a sleek, black bird flying low across the surface of the river. It looked like some sort of cormorant. I see a solitary heron near here from time to time but I’ve never seen a cormorant before (we’re more than 200kms from the coast!).
Total running time 70 minutes.

[Bierzo Baggie]

I’ve a confession to make. I’m into fell running, or as they call it over here “mountain running”. Well, it’s not really your Lake District- “tearing down slippy scree slopes in the mist”-fell running….but almost. The races tend to be in summer and the climatic conditions I suspect are better (although don’t bank on it, a few years back I tried to reach a fell-run near here but couldn’t get my Peugout 205 through the snow….and it was in May!) but the basic premise of getting to the top of a peak (or various) and back down again as quickly as possible is there whatever you call it.
Anyway, this means that to bump up my weekly mileage I’ve decided to include occasional mountain walks as part of my “training”. As I see it, with the exception of a few superhuman members of the species, fell running (or Spanish mountain running) involves walking up hills and running down them, so I don’t see it as cheating.

Sunday morning. Three of us meet up to climb a couple of peaks which last summer didn’t pose any difficulty at all. It was sunny when we left Ponferrada, but by the time we’d parked the car on a windy mountain pass about an hour later the temperature was noticeably sub-zero. A couple of walkers on their way back to the only other vehicle in the vicinity stopped to talk to us. They looked equipped to climb Everest and K2 before breakfast and they warned us that we wouldn’t get up to the first peak without crampons and ice-picks. Foolishly we assumed they were exaggerating and set off.
At first the snow was soft and occasionally we’d sink into it. This was a problem for one of my fellow walkers who wasn’t wearing boots. Then as the going got steeper, the snow became harder and icy. The wind was biting and the mist obscured the spectacular views I’d enjoyed last summer. I began to understand the meaning of the expression “snow-blindness”. Any vegetation was frozen into eerie forms which pointed in the direction of the wind. I’d like to say that like Shackleton we defeated adversity and trudged on regardless to eat our sandwiches triumphantly on the mountain top. The truth is we turned back after half an hour and ate our sandwiches in the nearest bar.

Intended walk: Ancares pass (1648m) to Cuiña peak (1987m) and then Dos Hermanitos (1906m)
Actual walk: 50 minutes stumbling around in the snow followed by extended stay in nearest bar.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Well, Week One of my brand-new training diary.

Feb 7th to Feb 13th
Runs 2 (approx 25km)
Walk 1 (approx 3 km) plus a game of 5-a-side footie against the lads from the power station (now I’m really scraping the barrel).

[Sweder]

I like the sound of your remedy, especially the 'extended' part.