Running to Think

Still in hot Puglia, Southern Italy. Long distance running in the heat seems to be not well indicated, especially when there is no water support, but a Salomon belt with only 400 ml of hot fluid and a fruity gel that gets hot just after 5 km.
This morning I had intervals, which usually give me more stress due to the fact that keeping a moderately high pace is the actual exercise. Not today.
Running a shorter mileage was such a relief, because of those 30 degrees (and more) around me.
There are several aspects of the country side that are worth mentioning.
Nice roads and no cars whatsoever are invaluable. Ok, some barking dogs sometimes. But if they're not in a gang they're actually harmless.
A million cicadas chirping so loud in the middle of nowhere, more than just breaking the silence, at the point that the beep of the Garmin at every km was barely audible.
The weak wind blowing at its best to dry the litres of sweat on the chest and the arms, dropping on the quads in a continuously interrupted flow.
Finally, the scarce shadows of the crowns of olive trees on the left side of the road, like they were inviting me to cool down for a fraction of a second before going back to the road, exposed to that sun, yellow and white, stubborn to deliver that amount of degrees every runner would fear to go into.

And he would be so right!

  

Attempt to finish a marathon in Italy (~km 18)

The amount of work and the unexpected happenings of every day life didn't give me much time to write some lines any time soon. Better late than never, of course.
Year 2014 already had the flavour of an intense year full of things to take care of and targets to achieve. And that feeling was not wrong at all.

My running activity is taking the scary pace of the competitive phase. The race of the year is getting closer and closer, being now only two months far. I have been increasing the mileage quite smoothly after the injury to the posterior tibial tendon, fixed in no time (a record in my career).
I started running a bit everywhere between the hills of Sart Tilman and the flat lands around Leuven.
What made week 6 though was an unexpected trip to my hometown in Puglia, south of Italy. Caroline and I found and booked a flight in the time I need to run 1 mile and prepared the luggage in much less than that. It was that fast!
The trip to Italy was amazing. Great food, great places to visit, great weather and, of course, a lot of miles to run.
On the day dedicated to the long distance training I felt so good that I was about to complete a full marathon. Blisters under three toes of the right foot put an end to my attempt at the 40th km.

Attempt to finish a marathon in Italy (~km 20)

I rested a bit only one day, to give some time to the blisters to get dry. Some good taping and special plasters fixed everything in a bit more than one night. Those are the benefits of having a girlfriend on my side who is into sports and nutrition as a profession.

After two days I was back on the road and did some interval training on 1000 meters. The pace was unexpectedly high, around 3'30" per km.
It seems that I can keep the intensity of the schedule after those two weeks in which I was forced to stay at home due to the injury. I can claim that it is true: giving the body some rest regenerates it and prepares it to the worse. Or the best.