Cursa el Corte Inglés - 10k

 After a week of rest and massage to try and fix a muscle in the groin area I wasn't very sure about running a 10k today, but on the other hand I thought that doing one might also give me an idea of what I could expect for the longer mountain race next week. So after a very cold and rainy Saturday, both Jordi and I jogged down to the starting area in front of "el Corte Inglés" en Diagonal. The weather this Sunday was much better, somewhat windy and certainly not warm, but at least no rain. Due to Covid they decided to change the route so the start would have more space for all runners. The new route looked to be very fast even though I was going to go at easy pace. Jordi did want to go for sub 45 minutes. After an easy warmup we split up when entering our starting boxes, since Jordi did not have an official time below 50 minutes yet and they wouldn't allow me in his box for some reason. 

At 9 am we started to run and very soon Jordi passed me. Not easy to start slow for me, but I definitely wanted to finish without stressing the pectineus muscle that somehow got irritated and somewhat inflamed a bit over a week ago. The first 2k I was just above 45m pace in 9m10 and after I slowly gained on that schedule without much effort passing 5k around 21m45. From there on I was holding back and just maintain a decent pace until the finish line. I was more than happy to finish under 45 minutes without any issues. So now it was just a matter of some easy runs and stretching and foam rolling muscles preparing for the next race.

Jordi was also very happy breaking 42 minutes. With more specific training sub 40m is possible for him, but that will probably be in autumn.

2022 Training

 I never really completed the post on the half marathon of Collserola. I started that race with inflammation in the insertion of the hamstrings and though I was able to finish, after the race it got worse and I took some weeks of to heal. During Christmas other things had priority and it was not until the end of January I started running and doing weight training again in a serious way.

The insertion issue was still not fully healed but with specific training for that I managed to both run and have it heal back to normal slowly. Something similar happened with the Pes Anserine, where 3 muscles attach just below the knee. And my right heel, where I had the acute bursitis last year is still not 100%, but I can run and I can accept the extra care it all needs to get ready for the next training each time. I had tried fully stopping, but there was no better healing at that time so I prefer to get out and get in shape and enjoy nature.

My staple run is going up and down the highest hill near home, the Tibidabo of just over 500m. It has a pretty steep single track trail up that mimics training in higher mountains quite well.

Weather has not been always perfect and actually a bit crazy this year.

For work I travel to Bilbao often and my staple run there is climbing the Pagasarri. Above picture is during the days sahara sand dust was blown even up to here in the north of Spain, creating a strange light by the dimming effect and shielding the sunlight.

First week of April temperatures went severely down and in many places snow fell. Though it is a longer run when seeing snow from the Pagasarri, I decided to continue to the Ganekogorta summit. At the top it was rather cold and the snow was still hard, most of all the downhill was a very slippery, wet and muddy experience, but all in all that went quite ok.

Only days after that in Barcelona the temperature was completely the opposite and we are expecting more ups and downs like this during april. The last weekend of april, if all goes well I will run the Vall de Ribes Trail Marathon. After the Ultrapirineu, I decided I first wanted to get ready for just the marathon distance and not do the next ultra untill I can finish one in a decent way. This marathon has a lot of climbing (3400mD+) so just finishing in the given 8h30 would be great