International Traveller

So, I haven’t been very good about posting my “race day” blog, mainly because I know it’s going to take over an hour to write. Maybe shorter, maybe longer… but nonetheless, more time than I’ve had lately.

This Tuesday I flew out to Amsterdam for a European strategy session (cool!) & will be here until Tuesday. Then I take a train over to Berlin, where I’ll attend a lifestyle trade show for a few days. Nate is coming out on Saturday, and he’ll come with me to Berlin & we’ll extend the trip for a few extra days. Should be fun!

So far, the highlight has been (next to the working sessions, of course 🙂 finding a track club at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam & joining them for a workout. Pretty sure at first they thought I was a joke: I’m hardly 5’1, don’t look like much of a runner, and after an “on your own run/warm-up”, they do a bunch of weird plyometrics and hopping drills. I honestly couldn’t do about half of them. I could see what they were doing, but couldn’t mimic it at all. The coach of the club tried to help me, but basically ended up telling me that I need to start more of this stuff :). Ok, I admit, I probably should…

I hopefully looked less ridiculous on the track. 1st workout back after the marathon, so I wanted to make sure I eased into it a little bit (and I wouldn’t have chosen a track workout for the day, but it was too fun to turn down). I started with the mid-distance group (mistake, but I had no idea which group was which since they all speak Dutch). I ran just behind the first woman, not really winded. She looks at her watch and says something about the time. She asks me what my 1500m times are. I told her I had no idea — I haven’t raced that since college, and pretty sure it was very slow. I told her my recent marathon time, and she exclaimed an expletive (F*) very loudly. Found out later that that seems to be one of their favorite words. Mildly amusing.

But anyway, turns out the Netherlands isn’t much of a marathoning country, and they thought I’d be one of the top 2 (if not the top) marathoner. They talked to the coach, and I was moved into a group of fast-looking 10k guys.

The reward for running fast is having to run faster, right? 🙂

Anyway, the workout went great. 11 600s (I missed one when switching groups) with 1 minute rest, 5 minutes after every 3rd one. I went through in about 2:05-2:07 each time. Felt relaxed and easy, and could tell it was an excellent threshold workout by the last 2-3.

As I left, the coach and some of the runners invited me back for Monday. I might make an effort to get over there. Nothing like having a group to run with, even if the only words I can really understand is their expletives :).