Today was the kind of long run I’ll remember for a while. The weather was 39F, cold, and rainy. I took out the orthotics (again), because I wanted to make this run effortless and enjoyable.
I wound up doing the full route as planned; going along the Rhein River crossing over four bridges, a couple of them twice for a total of six crossings. The bridges were the only parts where there was any incline on the route. The rest of it is basically flat as a pancake.
Flat course, no orthotics, skipping the run the day before, and the brisk weather with a cold rain was the perfect recipe for a fast hard run. For the majority of the run, I held a 7:20 pace. A few times along the course, I began to consider racing Boston this April, but I still don’t want to commit. I’m just glad my last long run for the year was a such a good one.
Would you run the last 2 miles of 20 through this?
Germans are a bit anal retentive when it comes to rules. When you break the rules it gives them an opportunity to express their disapproval; an opportunity they don’t often pass up. Running through the red lights (even when there are no cars) always gets me some evil looks.
The red bicycle lane
However, stepping into that bicycle lane is more dangerous than stepping into the street. When a German thinks he’s in his right, he’ll run you right over and yell that you should be more careful. But, I’m grateful for those lanes since it’s the only place I can run when trying to get through the city. Luckily, I havent had an incident with a bicyclist yet.
For December I’ve done 195 miles after this run. I’ll do somewhere between 4 to 6 easy miles tomorrow, and on the last day of 2009, I’ll play it by ear.
