Getaway for a rest day

Today is Monday. First day of the week. Always taken as rest day (seriously, I cannot remember when running on a Monday happened lately…if not by mistake!).

All was planned for a full day of rest. Worked all morning, biked to the Blood Donation place – happy as a bee, but got denied as my iron level were too low… actually a all-time-low if remembering correctly. Not understanding really as I eat extra iron, get iron-rich food on regular basis, have c-vitamin when eating this, even got up in weight lately… but nope, still dropping 6points on my Hb-value… So no blood-giving this time neither and three months “quarantine” before even giving again… Won’t work as this corresponds to Berlin Marathon month… Anyway, disappointed for sure, but lots to do. Bike to the office for a meeting and then back home to complete my working day with more meetings. When all finished, took an hour of the last sun rays on the balcony. Then it was time for… actually had nothing planned and was a bit restless, so jumped into my gear and my BGS blue/green. Skipped the t-shirt this time. No chance I am taking it for taking it off after hardly a km!

Started with a new mix in the ears, niiiiice! Stopped after first km for stretching. Then my plan (always have a plan!) was to do 2*6km and then easy cool down. And all this (i.e. at least the 12km) within an hour. And if more in the hour… the merrier! 😉 Started on a nice pace, the first 6km passed without noticing really (apart from the last 1,5km which is uphill and a bit tough. Took it with running on the top of my feet – feels so cool to do that. Like a dancer! It was as well the slowest km of all (except warmup) @4:28… Stopped for short stretch then until HR got back to “rest HR”. Then time to continue. Of course the second half is hilly like *”#&%? (OK, not THAT much, but still! up&down&up&down&up(again)&down(again!). All hills were taken like a dancer (and probably all looking at me at those time must think I look either crazy or ridiculous, but I think I look good and have lots of fun EVERY SINGLE TIME I DO IT!). First km was a bit tough after the short stretch as got a bit cold in the muscle, but nothing that some cheering from cars passing by cannot solve 🙂 If the first part went fast (can recall a few parts, passing by cheering old men on a bench @km2.7, the swans as usual around km5, the couple with the dogs just before km6 as well as the kind car letting me passing by right before km7), the second half went super fast. Cheering at km7+, then hill and smile a km later, superfast downhill km8.5-9, then dying mp3 @km10, and then it was km12 already (?!?!?!) so fast continue to run in the streets, and then it was km14, final cheering from friends having a nice time under the sun at a bar and it was done! One of the cool parts was also to meet the same police car three times on my route 🙂 14.3 in 1:00:20. I am happy 🙂

OK, then arriving home, and checking the weight. not that I do it normally (had checked before/after long runs when it was warm last year or for really long runs (>30km)) The reason being to check if I have had enough water & energy during the run. But this time, as I felt like “running on my bum” for the past runs (i.e. feeling quite heavy while running or maybe it is just the posture when I run doing this…) and today felt like I have eaten constantly since breakfast (well, a bit more than normal for a rest day I would say). It turned out to be 2,8% of weight loss after this “short run”. So not to happy. Have loaded with water and a bit of salty stuff to ensure it will stay!

The other thing which IS good, was that the left hamstring (you see I can learn using the correct word for calling stuff which hurt on the body!) has been pretty silent all day. And when I say silent, I meant NOTHING. Have been sitting pretty much as usual and did not feel it as all (generally it starts radiate after 5/10sec…). Now it started to make itself remembered during the run from halfway, but just little. Now after the run, it feels a bit, but on the other side, I am sitting in front of my computer on a not fully-comfortable chair…

OKI, the LAST thing to be noted today was that my 10km (not counting the first km warmup) went in… 38:04… Pretty nice, but can be luck. So fully happy and enjoying, I still would like to see this happening again either this week or next week… But still… 😉

 

Now it is way enough for today, being a rest day! Just my mint tea to zip before bed.