Weekly report 20-26 October...searching the trail.

"I am now even more confident in my training plan and I am looking forward to waking up at 5 am every day until the next race! And then do it again". Well no, that's not mine. It's simply a quote from my mate @Luigi's Garmin Kingston Race's recap. I loved it and I decided to dedicate this week to this sense of passion, dedication and drive that makes a runner "something" pretty special. Well done dude, keep digging deep and chase it!

And now, a super short week recap. Well, it's my first attempt with this kind of blogging, so have patience and deal with it anyway.

That was in fact a special week, being in few words the first one of a kind of "plan" (man...I've always hated this word) looking far to SDW50 in April 2015. In my season pause, I've decided that Dr. Kasus ("make what you want when you want") wasn't this time enough, and I probably needed a bit of...yeah, strategy, to try to fix something that in the last season went not so good and to build a decent form for next Spring.

On Monday, I've already written about that. Super easy run on the hills around home, 1 hour circa, meeting my favourite running mates (cows, horses, etc) and enjoing the smell of wine a stuff (grape-gathering time). Nice evening run anyway.

On Tuesday...well, I've repeated. A bit less essentially (ca. 50 minutes) and flat (but yes, again on the ground). and again, try to hear it, I mean the connection between strides and breath, no mp3 or other devices. Just me, and I felt good.

On Wednesday, hilly course but this time with Garmin, just to track the distances and prepare some circuits for next season. Yeah, I felt good again but...I have to say, at the end of the run (1 hour circa) I began to fee my feets a bit...heavy. Don't know why, simply I've found my shoes (the extraordinary Brooks Pure Flow 3, that have this week destroyed the 1100 km total distance, and counting) like very little "stones" to my feet. Maybe was just that sensation of tired legs at the end of a 3-days streak, and I was still not habit after late-Sommer problems (fractured shoulder and calf's contracture). So, when I was just 400 mt far from home, I've decide to take shoes off and go home on my socks, essentially "barefoot" but protected anyway. I walked and I've even tried to run, veeeery light, a few meters, that walked again. I tell you what: it was one of the best feelings ever. I felt...I don't know, like "free", essentially I could feel again the ground under my feet, and the became very sensible to it. Nice experience. And I wanna to try it again.

So on Friday (Thursday was a simply off-run day) I drove to Decathlon Mullhouse to find a pair of those Devil's tools 0-drop or stuff like that. And I've found 'em. For 8 Euro (yep, eight euro), a pair of nice sisters, which aren't even running shoes, but have to admit, love the colours. I tried them, and I've felt them like a glove. In few words, I've decided to give natural running a possibility, also after a first read of Dr. Romanov's The Running Revolution, that gives a pair of good tips if somebody want to try to work with running technique and things like that. It's a very interesting book anyway, have a look if you can get it. But hey, I'm not saying that now I'll run only 0-drop or fore-foot, I know that it's a very long process, and I'm totally concentrated on my Downs target. But you know, curiosity is a desease to me, so...wait and see.

Here comes the revolution...Admit, they "scare" me a bit.

On Saturday (yep, today), I've finally taken my Pure Grit for a great trail running morning. Because, in Worthing will be a trail-thing, a very long trail thing, and I need absolutely to begin to try nutrition, gear, shoes and...legs and be prepared to it.

 

Talking about gear...a bit of mine...

 It was an amazing morning run. Bit more of 3 hrs., 30 km and a lot of fun. Schwarzwald is so awesome, especially with these unique Fall colours. Very hard to explain, you simply have to get the chance to visit it, to understand. It was such a long time that I didn't run consistenly, on the trails, on my own. Great experience, and here's a pair of pics about it.

First of all...plannig the route...yep, I'm a maps addicted!

Second....choosing right clothes...yep, two runners-cyclers and a lot of laundry...

 

Finally...on it!

 

"So..are ya telling me you're a runner...?"

 

"Ya know what...I don't give a sh@t...Mooouuuuuhhhh"

 

Must say, I love this place!

Better said...this place drives me crazy...or crazier as usual...

Have to say, originally weekend's program should be 20 km today and 10 km tomorrow, but at the end I've decided to get a single shot (an a bit more km's) because tomorrow I'll drive to Bayern for a Fall-holiday week (typical German, but very nice at this time of the year). Cakes (my birthday's coming), relax, walks and obiouvsly...run!

P.s: told about running books: this week I've finally got my copy of "Running on Empty" by ultrarunning legend Marshall Ulrich. Make something good: find and read it. One of the best running-life stories that I've ever read yet.

...no words...

See ya...on trail!

Manu

First time

Tonight, I just wanna talk about first time. Well, not properly. More correctly, I'd like to talk about my new "first time", something that I felt so strong on my day-run. 

In fact, today I began "officially" (could say?) my way to #SDW50, rejoining back the track after three weeks off-run (I told something about it, just in my last post). As said, these weeks weren't absolutely-no-sweat, and I tried to maintain a relatively good aerobic condition as well, through easy mountain biking and walking. But yes, that was a period, the longest one since 2010, with no running shoes. And It was awesome, and everyday I could feel pretty clear how much I needed that.

This afternoon, my pause came to the finish line, and I decided to feel again the smell of my laces. So, out of the door for an hour on a hilly course around home (not such a nice a weather..well, typical english weather, maybe...). No Garmin, no watch, no devices. Only shoes and shorts. First time, first run seeing a new finish line, a 50-mile long dream, at least in my mind. First time tryin' to "listen to" my feet, my strides and my breath, too. Chasing that thing, that connection between body and mind, that represents my real running-goal. 

Of course, that's a freakin' hard thing. Human mind is so powerful and you can feel many loud voices coming from it. I heared 'em this year in many occasions, and sometimes I could simply not chase them. Reflecting more specifically, I think that the power of our mind could be at the same time our worst enemy or our best strenght. We should only try to elaborate what mind is telling us, and use it properly to realize our dreams: and in my opinion, that's true for life and for running, too (but I think at the end, that it's always the same thing).

But tonight I could feel it, very clear. Reaching a finish line is an awesome pleasure, but still better is to try to understand the course, the trail to it, and to embrace every challenge on it.

Manu

Pause on trail

Well...I'm blogging a bit this morning, instead of being on the way to Bräulingen at the start line of Schwarzwald Marathon (ufficially, a DNR: Did Not Register. Usually, I prefer to decide to run a non-A race even the day that takes place, instead of joining too anticipated registration-lists). This should be the last race of the year, let's say better...just a long training run on my way to Winter training season. Yeah, should be...and it wasn't. Infact, I decided to take a pause. And here I tell you why.

Basically, all began a pair of weeks ago, during a short trail session on the hills around my home. I was feeling a bit nervous and not on the line in those days, my head was completely full of stuff (work, family, etc...) and I was already feeling that something between me and my body didn't work perfectly. But I decided that day to give a sh@t about that, and go run, as always. So I took my new pair of Brooks Pure Grit I and got out for a brief test-run. 

That wasn't a good decision. Just running a short steep downhill, I felt something to my left calf, and in a pair of minutes, just couldn't run well. I though It was only a cramp or something like that, but it was definitely something else, maybe a contracture. In the weekend I rode a bit with MTB, and on Monday and Tuesday tried again to run. 

And here's my second mistake: wanna to test a little tempo run (why the f@ck I did that!), again, feeling not completely connected to my body and mind, not feeling clearly the flood between them. Well, on Wednesday morning (ten days ago) simply couldn't normally walk. 

A bit frustrated in the following days, but then again, something happen: as already happened with my DNF in Ulm, I felt a little Eureka-lamp that turned on in my brain, suggesting a sort of strategy to try to find the best also from a "bad" moment (I know, bad moments are others, this is just bullsh@t). For the first time since I started to run in 2010, I decided to take a completely off-run period. No running shoes, no gels or stuff like that, no sweat (yeah, a bit...but only on the bike), definitely no workouts.

 A real running pause.

And I decided to take and enjoy that, essentially because I knew that I got to find again the connection between me and my run, and most of all a real balance between my run and my life in general. Not to find from zero to..., simply to find "again". Also I began to think about this closing season (I'll certainly write something about that at the end of the year) and to what could expect me in the upcoming running year. But essentially, I searched back my way to my present, rejoining it totally and being into it. I'm not sayin' that it's a freakin' easy process, at all. Gotta have patience, for sure and simply gotta "re-live" our life, taking all the best from it and appreciating every single moment of it, emotions and people around of it. 

I started again to spend just a bit more of quality time with my family, sharing talks and thoughs, and to get back in some of my hobbys, like cake-cooking (and eating, of course), easy mountain biking (my road bike is still not repaired after my sommer-rendez vous with asphalt (will talk about that, maybe) and books...ton of books..:) A pair of times I simply went out for a walk through the forest, just hearing to the Nature and her Autumn stuff. And it was awesome.

That's what I call well spent time

And I began to understand, that a pause was probably the best and the only thing I really need, and my body and my mind were saying me that. Hey, let's be clear, it wasn't a "I've met Jesus" moment or something like that, it was just a primarly need that I knew I had already, but that I couldn't really explain to myself. I was just letting stress and daily tension taking the control and no...that simply couldn't happen. 

And here I am, still enjoying my pause and recovering from my little calf-injury (it's getting better, for sure) and most of all, looking forward to my comeback in running and training (well, I think I'm goin' to wait still a week and then I'll try to get back on track). I know it will be a long course, but I'm definitely ok with that. A long training season is expecting me, on the way to SDW50 and not only, and I want to go through it in a connection to my head, muscles and heart (I know heart is tecnically a muscle, too, but...come on, it's really something more...). 

Finding it and going back in the flood of it (on the trail of it) will be my most important season goal.

My playground is waiting for me

P.s: this post is dedicated to my family, my crew #terzoristoro and my running and cycling friends, that continue to inspire me and give me strenght and drive to reach my goals, every single day.

And, must say, is also inspired by an' amazing blog post written by my friend @Sally Mcrae a few months ago.Check her blog out, too. 

Yes...I know...gotta buy a new English vocabulary...