Landed back in Kassel after two weeks on the coast. Lots of running, lots of writing, some great walks on the beach and the cliffs, good cooking, plenty of practice on my German language skills, etc. Though we were a group of about twenty runners from all over Germany, my main training/cooking crew were the Kassel kids:
Julia, Ellen, Timm and Manuel.
The weeks went like this: every day I would wake up about 7:30 and make coffee in my gully little kitchenette...
holding a filter in my fingers over a cup.
Then I would walk down to the beach and write for bit.
Just before 10:00 (and again at 4:00), the runners would gather (we were staying in several different hotels, but we met at the old camp, where I was staying)...
Back in the 70s and 80s, all the great Portuguese distance runners used to stay here...
like 1984 Oly marathon champ Calos Lopes (shown here on the cross course)...
So even though there was a nice shiny new hotel across the street, I thought the best option for my first camp was to go old school.
Each of us would get our training assignment from our coach, divide into smaller groups, and get running.
Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays were workout days - the days you most look forward to, and most dread.
Tuesday was 1k or 1-mile repeats on the cross-country course...
That's 8x1k with three minutes rest, or 5x1mile with three minutes rest on a hilly, windy, sandy xc course. After awhile you start to see colors and get dizzy.
Thursdays were 400m repeats on the track...
That's 12x400m with a minute's rest between loops. The object is to hit all the repeats as close to the same speed as possible (and as fast as possible). The last couple feel like someone backed up the cement mixer and poured it into your legs. LACTATE!!!!!
Saturdays were long tempo runs - 12k one week and 15k the next. we used a pretty flat 4k mixed paved/dirt road that ran out to the neighboring town, so the 12k tempo run is back/out/back. The tough part of this run is the wind, which comes at you on the "out" leg - at about 30-35 mph. Try holding pace in that (or not over-running the "back" leg with the wind). The first week the wind got to me and I bonked. The second week my training partner bonked. Shit was brutal...
You know you're hurting when you think the seagulls are vultures circling above your draggin' ass...
Mid-day was spent soaking feet in the pool, drinking coffee, squeezing some recovery drinks...
and dipping in the ocean...
Evenings were spent cooking and watching soccer and German soap operas in the comfort of the new hotel...
Lively bunch, no?
So that's Take 1. Manuel was injured, and was very diligent about recording the trip in photo and video. Take 2 will have plenty of running video and more good pictures of sheep and goats than you can shake a stick at.
No comments:
Post a Comment