Things to consider – No 1

I went for the 8.5km lap of the lakes today, having rowed on Monday and Tuesday. Slightly concerned as the twinge twinged early on, before I had even got to the underpass. I slowed down and shortened the strides; things were soon OK again.

There are a number of things to consider when running the lakes in Copenhagen. They are a prime spot for runners and walkers, and there are a string of cafes at the north-western corner, another one on the second lake, and another at the north western end of the middle lake. There’s a decent restaurant attached to the planetarium at the southern end too. On a nice day the cafes are completely full (in summer, the one on the middle lake builds an extension out over the lake itself). Likewise the benches are occupied, and the path around the waterfront is busy. Fortunately on the eastern edge, there is an upper path, set back from the lakes and next to the cycle path and road, which is usually empty-ish.

Today was cloudy with a southerly wind, so the lakes were less crowded than usual.

Anyway I digress. The thing to consider is that there are usually a large number of people, so it is essential to look good while running. Most runners don’t look good running, and I am the first to admit that my style is somewhat odd – when injury free it is very long strides, but I think it’s a fairly relaxed one that I can generally keep up for a long time.

Often when running, walking or sitting outside, I see people running past looking as though they are really not enjoying themselves very much, and are possibly close to death. People who run with their eyes locked to the ground 2 feet in front of them – if coming the other way, it is necessary to spot them in advance and get out of their way. What if 2 of them meet head on? Others who look knackered as they swerve from side to side, grimacing with pain. Granted, you have to start somewhere, and if that’s how things are after 500 m, then so be it. But surely they could start a fitness campaign by walking around the lakes, and going for longer and faster walks, then short runs around one lake, and build up from there. I’m pretty sure it cannot be doing them much good.

Running past the cafes – which for me is the final stretch – is the Copenhagen runner’s equivalent of rowing through the enclosures at Henley Royal Regatta. Plenty of people, often people you know among them, and in summer lots of pretty girls. I have no reason to believe any of them are going to get up and run after me on my ‘flypast,’ but you have to look the part. Lengthen your stride, smile, and make it look easy - even if coming to the end of a 30km training run. Here the prevailing southerly breeze helps.

Anyway I finished my run today in about 38 minutes – so a bit of an improvement, still feeling the effects of the injury from time to time. But at least I looked OK coming past the cafes.

Weekly Results 25th June

Only two runs this week, totalling 16.9 km, but still taking it easy... particularly as the leg still feels stiff during and after running. This week I may even just stick to rowing.

Distance run this week: 16.9km

Distance run to date: 49.4km

Distance cycled this week: 0km

Distance cycled to date: 74km

Distance rowed this week: 0km

Distance rowed to date: 23.3km

I was away in North Africa Monday - Wednesday, and did one short run on Wednesday evening - the 6.1km lap of the first three lakes.

Sunday I ran the run I was trying to do when I got injured in the first place - down to Kastellet, a lap and a half of the ramparts, half a lap of the moat, around the park by Østerport station, and a final lap around the first lake. I will describe the course in more detail in a future post, but it is a scenic run of 10.8km. Kastellet and the small park are part of the old Copenhagen fortifications - a zig-zigging moat, now overhung with trees and filled with lillies and the usual lake fauna.

To give you an idea, here is a picture of the (frozen) Kastellet moat in winter, taken from the ramparts.

Weekly Results 18th June

Finally some good news on the running front!

Distance run this week: 32.5km

Distance run to date: 32.5km

Distance cycled this week: 0km

Distance cycled to date: 74km

Distance rowed this week: 15.5km

Distance rowed to date: 23.3km

Excluding my daily commute by bike to work (5km / day), other cycling around town, and rowing done as part of a warm up.

The Bridge Run

--Links to the Bridge Run are in the ‘Links’ section--

Saturday morning – the leg was a little stiff, but I went for a walk around Kastellet, another good running spot with its own lake, and it felt fine again. I drew up a mental list of pros and cons:

Against running:

- The injury might come back and, if it did, I would be off running for another month at least

For running:

- I am this week’s dutyman, so this would give me an excuse to divert the duty calls to a colleague

- I will have the best part of next week off running anyway, as I have a business trip

- It is the last time the bridge run is happening

- What else is there to do on a Saturday afternoon?

- If I get injured, I will probably be back up and running by the end of July – not the end of the world

- If I get to the finish, a nice Swedish girl would give me a medal

The last point was good enough for me. I arranged to meet two friends from work, Claus and Niels, at Niels’ house near the pick up point for the buses to the start, and slowly cycled the 8km to be there.

In hindsight it was a pretty optimistic move – to run a half marathon on 11km training in the last 5 weeks, 8.5 of them the previous day. The day was warm – hot by the time we started – with a light westerly wind. This meant the apparent wind on the bridge was zero, as we were running east, and it soon felt very hot. I realised this was not a day to break any records, and decided to carry my camera and a water bottle and just cruise along best possible.

The start of the bridge run is on an island – the bridge itself does not quite go all the way across the sound. Instead at the Danish end, it reaches an island and the link becomes a tunnel for a few km, surfacing again by Copenhagen airport. As you cannot get to the island under your own steam, a fleet of buses was laid on to get people there.

I tried a short warm up run along the gravel track. Things did not feel so good, though it seemed that keeping a slow speed helped. I stretched again and then went to find my start position – having got under 1 hour 30 in the last year, I was entitled to a ‘seeded’ position. This is important as all the seeded runners start first; there is then a gap of 3 minutes to the next bunch, then further starts at 2 minutes intervals, as the start area itself is quite narrow. So I left Claus and Niels and spent the remaining 10 minutes before the start stretching on the roadside barrier.

(Right - Claus, Niels, me)

Off we went at 3 o’clock. The northern carriageway had been shut to traffic, and on such a clear day there was great visibility in both directions. We were in sunshine, and the few showers to the north did not head our way. The first 2 or 3 km I took very slowly, and was in or near the back marker group of the seeded runners.

(Right - Passports please - the Swedish border at about KM4)

I was not looking at my watch on purpose, but was probably doing well over 5 minutes per km at that point – giving a finish time of over 1 hour 45. However as I got going, the leg felt better and better – until at the ‘peak’ of the bridge, at 5 km, it was pretty good. I was not quite up to my normal speed, but was not going badly either. I started to overtake people – clearly there were either a lot of the seeded runners who had lied about their best times, or were recovering from injury too…surely not all of them?

(Above - all downhill from here - the crest of the bridge at KM5)

(Below - traffic passing below)

(Above right - self portrait while running - looking reasonably happy!)

There is about 5 km of downhill running on the Swedish side of the bridge, up to the toll gates, (which lane for runners?) where you take a left and head through a park and into the suburbs of Malmo.

Passing the 11km mark, I realised I had now run beyong the sum total of my training since mid May!

The suburbs are not very inspiring but are pleasant enough. Unlike on the bridge itself, where spectators are not allowed, there were plenty of people out to watch. A few had set up their garden sprinklers, which was a welcome move in the heat.

By the 15km mark I was feeling my lack of training in my legs, but as I was not moving so fast I was not actually feeling tired. The 18km mark came up, with the glimpse of the stadium I remembered from last year – it is actually the finish line, to which you are brought almost within sight of, before diverting round a pleasant park for a final 3 km loop. Last year, running fast and having been out the night before, this was highly irritating, however this year I had plenty in reserve and coasted round the park. The twinge did not quite put in an appearance, though particularly over the last couple of km, the leg did feel a little stiff.

On into the stadium, about a quarter lap, and there was the finish.

I managed a highly respectable 1 hour 35 and 7 seconds, stood in the water mist for a while and carried on to the water ‘trough,’ was given a medal by a sweet Swedish girl, picked up some bananas and chocolate and went and sat in the sun by the finish for Niels and Claus to come through. The Swedish commentator was announcing in a thick accent that we should stock up with ‘water, bananas and other tasteful things,’ and that we should ‘remember to leave our “ships” (chips?) before exiting the stadium,’ so most runners were doing just that – sitting on the grass waiting for their friends to arrive. Very pleasant.

Niels ended up at 1 hour 52, and Claus at 2 hours exactly.

We left our ships, having worked out that he was referring to the timing chips on our shoes, got back on the bus to Denmark, and went for a beer at Niels' house. The gamble appears to have paid off, and while I am not up to full speed, I am getting over the injury.

(Right - the easy way home - on the bus)

For comparison:

2005 - 1 hour 26, 5 seconds. 44^th out of 162 seeded runners, 65 out of 3825 overall

2006 – 1 hour 35, 7 seconds. 188 out of 344 seeded runners, 344 out of 4904 overall

The first lap

The bridge run is tomorrow, so I adopted a 'kill or cure' strategy. Reasoning that if I couldn't manage the 8.5 km lap of the lakes today, I would hardly be able to complete a half marathon tomorrow, I did a long warm up, took the usual exit precautions, and commenced a slow circuit.

At this point I should introduce the lakes properly:

The right hand end is roughly speaking the northern end; I live a couple of blocks inland from that end, so that if there was a sixth lake inline with the others, my flat would be in it. According to www.map24.dk , I have about 350metres each way to the north-western corner.

Instead of doing a straightforward lap, I run all around all of the lakes. There is a difference – as there are underpasses under the bridges only at their western ends – and for the 2 southernmost bridges, there are not even underpasses, only reasonably easy road crossings. So from the north western corner of the first lake, I run clockwise around it and complete 3 of the 4 sides, then go under the road to the second lake, do three sides of that, and so on to the end. I then come straight back along the western side. This gives a total distance of about 8.5km, with only one road crossing where it is usually necessary to stop – the 2^nd bridge from the southern end.

It was a perfect evening for a run, not so hot as it has been recently, but sunny and with very little wind. Being a Friday evening, there were fewer people than during the week, which suited my test run nicely. I usually rise to the challenge and try to overtake any runner I see in front; it was good not to have that temptation today. All started well. I did not feel a thing until the second lake, and from there on, off and on, I was only aware of a slight stiffness in my left leg. This was far from the ‘gunshot wound’ which signalled the injury in the first place. Taking it gently and with shorter strides than my usual loping style, it was my first complete lap of the lakes since 2^nd May, and my first run of any length at all since 16^th May.

Life is good. I stretched out a little along the final straight and got home in about 40 minutes. I usually do somewhere between 30 and 35, but as the point of this run was merely to see if it was possible, I was pleased.

Sitting here a couple of hours later, my leg is slightly stiff but not seriously so. I’ll sleep on it and see how things are in the morning. Hopefully I will run to Sweden in the afternoon!

The death of the twinge?

After another good half hour row yesterday, all seemed fine to go for a test run today. I adopted a similar procedure to that of last week’s trial. A bit of jumping around indoors, a short row, and took the side-door so that a lap around the block would not be out of the question.

Out at the lakes it was a hot evening – rumour has it that it reached 30 degrees in Copenhagen today. I took a gentle lap of the first lake, deciding at its southern end not to push things and head back. It was just as well as the twinge put in brief appearance on the return trip, though it quickly passed. So I completed a massive 2.5km – possibly my shortest run ever – bathed in sweat anyway due to the sun.

I will have another go on Thursday, and decide then if I should do the Bridge Run on Saturday. From a fitness perspective this should not be a problem – the rowing and biking has kept me ticking over – though it may not be a record time.

Weekly Results 11th June

Not a good week on the running front, however to encourage me to incorporate other sports apart from running, as it may reduce the risk of injury, here are the full results…I am excluding my daily gentle commute by bike to work, and rowing done as part of a warm up:

Distance run this week: 0km

Distance run to date: 0km

Distance cycled this week: 42km

Distance cycled to date: 74km

Distance rowed this week: 7.8km

Distance rowed to date: 7.8km

Let’s see about the leg this week – the Bridge run is on Saturday.

Back up and running?

After another bike ride in lieu of a run over the holiday weekend we have just had, it was high time to get back out there. Returning from work this evening, the leg felt good.

I jumped up and down a couple of times. No pain or stiffness.

I ran down the stairs – I live on the second floor – and back up to the flat. Still nothing, and the stairs are where I usually feel it.

I stretched and rowed a gentle kilometre on the ergo, my usual pre-run warm-up. All well. Stretched again.

Downstairs, I took the side entrance, as then if things didn’t work out, I could just go a couple of hundred metres round the block, back to the front door, and nobody would be any the wiser. I took it slowly and completed ¾ of the lap of the block. It boded well to continue straight on. I even overtook an even slower moving runner before diving through the subway, then turned left along the northern end of the lakes.

It was a sunny evening, with a warm light breeze – the type you forget exists in winter. Couples sat on the benches and the grass, icecreams in hand. Ducks marshalled their ever-increasing numbers of ducklings around. Kids threw them crumbs, more often than not stolen by the more manouverable black-headed gulls. And the Lake Runner was back in his natural habitat. Everything was as it should be.

Except it wasn’t. By the first corner of the lake, about where the photograph of the 3.15 pacesetters on my post of the 21^st May was taken, I felt a slight twinge in my left calf. Perhaps it was just as I hadn’t run for a while. I took the upper path along the eastern edge of the Sørtedams lake; it is less crowded there. The problem with the lakes is that there are so many people out on a nice evening that you cannot stop in front of them all. People who are not good at running stop to catch their breath, or to try to get rid of a stitch. I don’t!

Within a few hundred metres, it became apparent that the slight twinge was indeed the old injury. What to do? There was no traffic, so I crossed the road, turned round to face the way I had come, and started walking back along the opposite pavement. At least, I consoled myself, I had had the sense this time to stop before I did any serious damage. It was not the end of the world, it was not far to walk home, and it wasn’t snowing like it had been the last time. I crossed the road at the lights back at the northern end and,

with a mixture of

‘Oh it is nice to see her,’

and

‘Oh no what if she spots me like this?’,

I noticed a friend on her bike waiting for the lights in the other direction.

I felt she needed an explanation as to what I was doing strolling around in somewhat unconventional clothing and, after hearing what she was up to, gave her the story ending with something along the lines of ‘…and of course there is nothing worse than walking home along the road in your running kit.’

‘Yes,’ she replied, ‘except of course when someone you know sees you….’

Well quite.

Summer is here

Week ending 4^th June

KM Run this week: 0

KM Run since starting again: 0

Summer has come to the lakes. Throughout winter and even up until early May, it is easy enough to get them more or less to yourself, with the occasional fellow runner or walker. There is something to be said for a good run on winter’s evening, when the sun has set well before 4pm and there are a few inches of snow on the ground, and the ducks and swans sit out in the darkness on the ice.

However in the summer the lakes, like the rest of Copenhagen, wake up. Swallows and swifts are now darting about – they returned sometime last week. The first of the season’s ducklings are finding their webbed feet, though the goslings were first. No signs of any cygnets yet; a few swans sit on haphazard reed nests, on floating pontoons offshore, snapping at passing moorhens who have the cheek to try to climb on board.

But no running for the Lake Runner – as ever-increasing hordes of joggers, having emerged from their own winter hideouts, take to the paths, this one who has been running the whole way through is only admiring the spring from the benches.

On the bike

Leg is still a bit shoddy. Apparently it is an achilles something or other...slightly skeptical as the pain was higher up in the calf - but the only cure is not to run for a while. I am slowly going mad as a result...reckon if I went out now I would run all day. I have walked around half of Copenhagen in a vain attempt to get an adrenalin fix - and last week of course was a forced week off in Nouakchott, not much running there.

Yesterday evening, arriving home in a foul mood, I dusted off my racing bike for the first time this year and went for a 20 mile ride up the coast – a stiff northerly wind meaning the return 10 miles was 5 minutes faster than the outbound trip, despite taking it reasonably gently.

Will give running a go at the end of this week and see what happens.