Happy (Run) Camper Enjoys A Double Push

Training Diary Weeks 25–27 of the Rebuild

Just as the year comes to an end, I’ve found a short stretch of trails I’ve never run before. Essen, Germany, December 30, 2020.

The bottom line for the last few weeks of running is mostly positive: with just one tiny inconvenience that I’ll come back to in a minute.

For the year finale, my goal had been to push in two areas. All in the name of aiding the goal of running the volume and paces from about a year ago.

Time to push.

The first push was about squeezing in a fifth weekly run. A minor mishap in the first week delayed that objective.

But said mishap also nudged me toward a controlled but determined approach in the two weeks that followed. I decided to add a second long-run per week and go after pace progress with a bit more determination.

There was one painful reminder of two 2019 mishaps, warm rain, cold darkness, icy roads, some discoveries, and a good amount of peaceful fun along the way.

Left The darkness at the canal is “disturbed” by cars on the adjacent autobahn. Oberhausen, Germany, December 16, 2020. Right Deep blue skies (and some blurry Christmas decorations) this morning as day slowly dawns toward the end of the first run of the week.. Oberhausen, Germany, December 16, 2020.

Crossing the train tracks on the homestretch. Oberhausen, Germany, December 16, 2020.

Left First proper intervals at a quiet industrial park with long, flat straights. Oberhausen, Germany, December 17, 2020. Right The wet and colorful city on the way home. Oberhausen, Germany, December 17, 2020.

All was going well in mid-December.

An easy 90-minute effort, paired with happy legs, signaled me I was ready for the first proper interval session. The shorter interval sessions, including the first taste of hill reps, had been a good gateway back to a workout I used to really enjoy: 800 m intervals.

It’s three-minute intervals now because I switched to duration as the planning factor of choice.

In Prague, I have a lovely park at my disposal that allows those bursts of sprints to be done on softer grounds with nature all-around.

Over here, I opted for a quiet industrial park. Long straights, not much happening early in the mornings, dark but sufficient lights around to avoid total darkness. It’ll do.

A 20-minute tempo run was the next item on the calendar. It happened. It equaled good progress. But it took some determination to get it done.

Not five minutes into the run, I received a painful reminder of two unfortunate incidents from the summer of 2019.

Left More Christmas decorations on the homestretch. Oberhausen, Germany, December 17, 2020. Center and right A tricky run with some interesting visuals. Oberhausen, Germany, December 19, 2020.

Temperatures clocking in way above the winter norm brings back the non-winter clothes (despite the heavy rain). Oberhausen, Germany, December 17, 2020.

Back then it was a dark underpass in Prague that I had chosen to cross the street that leads to Troja bridge. What I hadn’t noticed was a small step between street and tram tracks. Ouch! All was fine except for my palms.

The wounds had just healed when one bad choice led to trip number 2. I reversed direction for the loop around Troja castle. The left turn from the road behind the castle back down to the river is a tight one. A walker coming around the corner just a few seconds before I approached threw me off balance. Not by much. Just enough to land a few millimeters too far over the edge of the curb. Ouch. I broke my phone’s screen protector and had a few days of fun with my palms; again. Those are the joys of running.

Well, I decided I’d never run that loop around the castle counterclockwise again.

This time, the dark parking lot of a small supermarket was the crime scene. A car coming my way occupied me just enough to miss an old railroad tie that marks the edge of the parking lot.

My hands were fine this time. But I can’t say the same for my winter tights or my right knee.

The wounds were only exterior damage and healed nicely, and there was no pain (other than the wounds rubbing against clothing). I still decided quickly to forget about the Sunday long-run. Better to give the knee some time to heal.

Left Instead of getting the postponed long-run done, a quick look at the dark Gleispark before heading home. Oberhausen, Germany, December 22, 2020. Center Shorter runs to accomodate the healing knee bring more Christmas decorations in the neighborhood. Oberhausen, Germany, December 24, 2020. Right and below A wet Christmas Eve close to home. Mülheim, Germany, December 24, 2020.

And healing it did. Much faster than I had hoped for. Much faster than I recall my hands healing. Phew.

I do have pictures for all three incidents, but I’d say I spare you the bloody mess.

I obviously can’t make up for the three hours I “lost” that Sunday. But I can keep the benefit of +2 hours on the feet by rearranging the plan for the next week to include a second long-run.

In the end, I enjoyed that so much I kept it for the following week too.

Left Starting Christmas Day with a nice long-run that included a mail drop off. Oberhausen, Germany, December 25, 2020. Center Also on the list, a slippery bridge after leaving the Ruhr wetlands. Duisburg, Germany, December 25, 2020. Right And more Christmas darkness during the up-tempo push back home. Duisburg, Germany, December 25, 2020.

Up we go back to some softer grounds. Mülheim, Germany, December 25, 2020.

Left Second long-run brings us to Duisburg’s inner harbor. Duisburg, Germany, December 27, 2020. Center The plan was to run down one side of the harbor, cross via a small bridge, and run back the other side. A closed bridge made that impossible. Duisburg, Germany, December 27, 2020. Right E scooter parked in the middle of a sidewalk near the main train station. Duisburg, Germany, December 27, 2020.

Not quite home but still the last visual from a peaceful 3 h long-run, crossing the autobahn near the zoo. Duisburg, Germany, December 27, 2020.

The knee, however, wasn’t ready for a long-run on Tuesday. So I abandoned the idea of a long-run as a week-opener early in the run.

Two easy one hour runs gave the knee time, and it kept steadily improving.

Then came a weekend of long-run fun. A 2-hour run, slightly faster progression, on Friday. And a 3-hour easy progression-run on Sunday. The latter was impacted by heavy winds but not as much as I had feared.

Left Icy roads made the 20 minute tempo run a bit challenging. At least the sidewalks were mostly safe territory and included seasonal reminders. Oberhausen, Germany, December 29, 2020. Right A wonderfully invigorating 2 h run starts with a colorful blurry mess in the city. Oberhausen, Germany, December 30, 2020.

Left Last run of the year pushes on along the canal. Here, the entrance to the Kaisergarten. Oberhausen, Germany, December 30, 2020. Center And back to the canal after a loop through the park that had gotten only slightly wrong. Oberhausen, Germany, December 30, 2020. Right Day is dawning shortly before the canal segment comes to an end. Oberhausen, Germany, December 30, 2020.

Left A new discovery on the homestretch brought the run to a short halt. Essen, Germany, December 30, 2020. Right But that’s not a problem with such lovely trails under my feet for a change. Essen, Germany, December 30, 2020.

Left Crossing the Gleispark on the way home, a pair of dogwalkers makes their round. Essen, Germany, December 30, 2020. Right As winter has returned, it’s decided to show itself in all its muddy glory. Essen, Germany, December 30, 2020.

With the final week of the year coming up, the knee back to its happy state, and everything else in good shape as well, it was time to add the fifth run and go after some pace progress. Determined but controlled.

It was a splendid week. Icy roads made the tempo run on Tuesday a bit challenging. But with a careful tread and observant eyes, I managed.

The final run of 2020 was an invigorating two-hour long-run, dedicated to working those up-tempo paces; an enjoyable way of ending a weird, weird year.

Left Starting a new year of running by continuing the plan for the week; even if it’s New Year’s Day. Decided on a lunch run for the first two of the year, providing more light and even some sunshine. Essen, Germany, January 1, 2021. Center Following the newly discovered trails, I wanted to explore some more nature near the canal. A blurry downhill makes the beginning. Oberhausen, Germany, January 1, 2021. Right Downhill navigated safely with the sun in the background. Oberhausen, Germany, January 1, 2021.

Left Made it to the canal, but only after an extra loop thanks to construction. Oberhausen, Germany, January 1, 2021. Center and right Pushing the easy paces on the muddy canal trails. Essen, Germany, January 1, 2021.

Left Back to drier patches of canal trails for the remainder of the 15 k loop. Oberhausen, Germany, January 1, 2021. Right A walker in front while heading back to the city. Oberhausen, Germany, January 1, 2021.

Left Final daylight run on a less sunny second day of the year. Mülheim, Germany, January 2, 2021. Right Old water tower/water museum ahead. Mülheim, Germany, January 2, 2021.

Left Back to the dark for the second long-run of the week. A very quiet city. Oberhausen, Germany, January 3, 2021. Center Exploring the canal as far east as possible includes a rather questionable loop to the closest street and back to the canal via this almost undetectable, narrow path. Bottrop, Germany, January 3, 2021. Right After a few meters, a pair of old, steep staircases lead back to the canal. Time to walk it back down to more stable ground. Bottrop, Germany, January 3, 2021.

A very enjoyable and productive canal segment later, the Gasometer looms in the shadow of the bridge ahead. Oberhausen, Germany, January 3, 2021.

The new year began with two daylight runs for a change. Even though they were easy runs, they turned out a bit more challenging than hoped. But the sunshine that greeted me on New Year’s Day made up for that. So has the discovery of a new stretch of trails between the canal and the city.

I decided to return to my preferred dawn time-frame for the 2.5 h long-run on Sunday, which means a lot of darkness this time of year.

No special experiences to report. Very uplifting pace progress both on the super easy and the faster easy spectrum, calm but cold winter atmosphere, and the discovery of the eastern end of the canal trails I don’t necessarily need to see again.

Left to right Weeks 25–27 and their run totals in km, duration, number of runs, and average pace for the week. Below A visual representation of the 12 runs between December 14, 2020 and January 3, 2021.

Left and right A year in running (km, duration, number of runs, and average pace) Center A visual representation of all the runs in 2020, grouped by weekly duration (ignore the few gray bars around July-August, the blue-ish bits count).

Those last three weeks ended the year 2020 on a high note, despite the railroad tie that had slipped my attention. I’ve steadily worked on building the weekly volume back up to what I used to do before the break in the spring. And the paces begin to come back too. Not long now. I’m ready for 2021.

The stats above show that I’ve run a good 200 km less than in 2019, that I’ve slowed down, managed 17 fewer runs, but almost equaled the total time on my feet.

In 2019, I started my new running journey. I missed 2.5 months because I only picked up my shoes in mid-March. And there were a few niggles to iron out in the early phase that caused a few outages.

In 2020, the months April to June were notably absent. And a slight niggle in the September-October window hampered progress a little.

But in the end, and for what 2020 was, I’m happy with the progress I’ve made. I’m back at the volume I once enjoyed. Old paces are within sight. I’m looking after my body better. And there’s a more strict mobility and strengthening routine throughout each week that helps the body handle the stress of running regularly and consistently.

The rebuild, as I’ve labeled the second part of 2020, is practically complete. Still, a bit of progress to be made over the next few weeks, but that’ll come automatically. Then it’s time to go after new goals. I look forward to a hopefully smoother 2021.

That’s it for this running training update. I’m not yet sure what’s coming for the running part of this blog. The running will continue, of course. How I want to keep writing about it, however, I haven’t decided yet.

Next week, I’ll start by bringing you fresh reading insights and maybe another look at nutrition. Until then, here’s to a healthy and happy 2021 that’ll hopefully allow all of us to realize our goals.