OK - it's done. A week in Spain. Managed a couple of runs alongside a canal through a golf course (I think it's part of the irrigation system) which was a hell of lot more picturesque than my gym! Learned a couple of things though:
1) Running on roads is actually a lot easier than on the treadmill. I've always presumed, and been told, the opposite (and hinted as much in earlier blogs) and I'm sure the fact that I was running on dead flat concrete helped but it was so much easier. There was none of the time dilation I've previously bored you with and the pace I did (measured by GPS on one of the many running tracker apps available) was actually faster than that I do on the treadmill whilst feeling easier
2) Running through Spain on a bright hot day listening to Ennio Morricone is quite cool
As I feared I've regained a little bit of porkiness but I did have a damned fine holiday. Good sustained periods of sunshine, daytime temperatures of around 25C and wandering out of a night in shorts and T-shirt for beer and food. If you're in the area around La Manga del Mar Menor in spain (between Cartagena and Alicante) I can recommend a place called La Catedral in Cartagena behind the roman ruins, Escuela de Pieter at the end of La Manga (a little sandbar protruding about 22km into the Med) which is on the beach and a really rather nice place to spend the day and Meson del Prado in San Miguel de las Salinas which does a Menu del Dia including wine for 9€ a head. Restaurante Rebate is also pretty good. As I write this the reason for my slight weight blip is rapidly becoming clear!
Done another session on the treadmill today and it felt hard. Really hard. For the first time I started to get significantly out of breath and on a couple of occasions almost had to give up. However I completed the session as planned (a 4.5km run/walk) and probably lost about a pound of sweat. It was only when I finished and switched the treadmill off did I notice the servos spin up as the deck settled down to level - I'd done the whole thing at a 1 degree incline without noticing. Now that 1 degree may not sound like much but, as I now speak from experience, it bloody well is!
So - at the end of phase two, week two:
Two runs whilst on holiday in Spain
Pretended to be Clint Eastwood (a bit)
Weight: Not telling!
Culinary highlight : Prawn and seaweed salad at La Catedral and ice cold draft Cruzcampo; rather a lot of
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