Half marathon training – Weeks 11 & 12 – Running abroad
The last two weeks have been low in terms of miles run but high in terms of living. Yesterday I got back from 10 days in Europe (Copenhagen and Paris) with my mother. I’ll post more about the trip later but for now I’ll just give the running summary.
Week 11
| 10/09 | 3.2 miles | Easy run: avg 10:00 min/mile |
| 11/09 | 12.0 miles | Long run: avg 9:38 min/mile |
| 12/09 | - | Rest day |
| 13/09 | - | Travel day (SEA-YYZ-LHR-CPH) |
| 14/09 | - | In Copenhagen |
| 15/09 | - | In Copenhagen |
| 16/09 | 3.9 miles | Easy run: 9:49 min/mile |
| Total | 19.1 miles | YTD: 804.0 miles |
I managed to squeeze a weekday 12 mile long run in before flying off to Denmark. Before leaving I studied a map of Copenhagen to try and find a possible running route. As it turned out our hotel was only few blocks away from what looked like a great 4 mile loop. Sure enough, when Mom and I walked over to check it out there were lots of runners on the path I’d found. So later that day I did 3.9 miles on a dirt path around “Copenhagen’s Lakes”. The Google Earth screenshot of my route is below. It was like a cross of running along Ottawa’s Rideau Canal and around Seattle’s Green Lake. There were lots of people out for a late Sunday afternoon stroll and plenty of Carlsburg being drunk on park benches. Public beer consumption is totally legal and civilized in Denmark. It was a great run and I even managed to do the last mile at tempo pace just for fun.
Week 12
| 17/09 | - | Travel day (CPH-CDG) |
| 18/09 | - | In Paris |
| 19/09 | 3.0 miles | Easy run: 10:07 min/mile |
| 20/09 | - | In Paris |
| 21/09 | 4.7 miles | Easy run: 10:38 min/mile |
| 22/09 | - | In Paris |
| 23/09 | - | Travel day (CDG-YYZ-SEA) |
| Total | 7.7 miles | YTD: 811.7 miles |
Mom and I took sightseeing in Paris pretty seriously. That is, we covered some serious ground and probably averaged just under 20,000 walking steps per day. Even so I did manage to do two runs based from our Rue Clar neighbourhood hotel. This first (blue line) was a 3.0 miler along Seine. The second (red line) was a 4.7 miler in the park below the Eiffel Tower. This was a slow run but it was an absolutely great experience. Mom and I really enjoyed staying so close to the Eiffel Tower. We had a picnic dinner there one night which included my first public drinking experience.
There are two weeks to go before the Victoria half marathon. It remains to be seen how much cardiovascular fitness I lost over the past 10 days. My plan is to get a few easy runs, one tempo run and one 10-12 mile long run in this week before I start the taper next week.