Weekly Results 16th July – Going OK

A pretty good week on all accounts. Aside from the 10k Ørestadsløbet on Wednesday, I made 2 complete circuits of the lakes – on on Thursday and then a very comfortable one on Saturday after a 35km bike ride.

Finally on Sunday a 12.5km route – the original ‘Injury Route’ around Kastellet, Østerport Park and the first lake, though with an extra lake tacked on at the end in about 52 minutes. I felt fine throughout, but on Sunday evening the leg stiffened up.

I’ll take it easy this week – I am going on holiday from Saturday morning for a week anyway so will have all of next week off – and have now (just) run further this year than I had at the end of July 2005 – 662 km as against 660km.

One point I learnt this week is that my office will move towards the end of the year – so instead of the leisurely 2.5km ride around Kastellet, or the even shorter walk via the other side of Kastellet, I will have an 11km ride on the direct route or a 16km ride on the nicer road north along the coast and inland through the deer park. The sole upside, as far as I see it, will be the ability to ride or run there and get a decent bit of exercise during my commute…

My bike rides this week were both up to the north of Copenhagen, partly to figure out the best route for the new commute.

Results for the week, excluding ‘around town’ cycling and rowing done as part of a warm up (I have rounded the Christianshavnermilen figures as the distances are all only approximate anyway):

Distance run this week: 39.5km

Distance run to date: 136.5km

Distance cycled this week: 65km

Distance cycled to date: 139km

Distance rowed this week: 5km

Distance rowed to date: 47.3km

Ørestadsløbet - a race to a race

Ørestadsløbet – another one of those Danish words seemingly invented to ensure that foreigners will never be able to speak the language properly - was highly amusing. I had had to travel to London on Tuesday night, to attend a meeting on Wednesday, and my return flight was scheduled to arrive at 18:40. The start, 5km down the road at Ørestad, was scheduled for 19:15 and, thinking the fastest way to get there would be by bike, I had taken my bike to the airport on the back of the taxi on Tuesday and parked it in a prime getaway position near the exit from Customs.

At Heathrow I changed into my running gear, with my number 232 already pinned on – though wore a pair of shorts and a T-shirt over the top to avoid looking too ridiculous. Delays on the ground at Heathrow meant we were almost half an hour late taking off. I urged the plane forward, anxiously looking out for the Dutch coast, northern Germany and finally the various disjointed bits of Denmark until we landed and were on the stand at 19:00.

The race therefore started as a sprint through the airport – or a fast walk to avoid being mistaken for someone trying to blow it up. I was outside at my bike at 19:05 facing one last challenge…5km on a mountain bike in 10 minutes, and having never cycled in this area before, unsure of where the bike route was. I just headed for the 20 story block on the western horizon which I knew stood next to the start, and after a little bit of wiggling about arrived at the scene a little late. Officials were just taking down the start banner, and there was no sign of Brunch Girl (see ‘British Rail’) who had run the earlier 5km race and with whom I had arranged to go for a BBQ afterwards. I locked up my bike and asked which direction to start in...and set off in pursuit about 8 minutes late.

The course was roughly triangular – straight out for 4.5km, right for 1km, then back in 4.5km, with the ‘in’ trail converging on the ‘out’ trail about 1 km out from the start / finish. The girl standing at the junction directed me along the ‘out’ trail and told me to catch people up.

Just after the 3km marker – which had just been picked up by a boy on a bike who was following the last runner – I caught up with the back marker. I thought about telling her she was now last but it wouldn’t have been very encouraging. From that point on I was weaving through the crowd – not so difficult as there was plenty of room – and counting off the numbers as I went past. I decided to aim to overtake 100 people, and had achieved this somewhere between 7 and 8 km. A new goal of 150 was set. The directing girl at the junction at the 9km mark looked surprised to see me now in the middle of the pack, and shouted something in Danish which may have been encouragement.

The final km was a slight rise up to the station – I ended up with an official time of 47 minutes and something, having overtaken 155 runners - and timed myself at around 40 minutes – I don’t have a digital watch so I can never time runs to the second. Brunch Girl had actually not given up on me either and was waiting there with a slice of water melon and a drink, having run her best 5k, so I had those and we then headed down to the beach for a BBQ.

A very amusing run!

Weekly Results 9th July – British Rail…

…or as their old slogan went, ‘We’re getting there’ – though in my case, and arguably theirs too, not particularly quickly.

Following the Christianshavnermilen on Monday, I ran an 8.85km route on Thursday, more or less the ‘injury route’ but avoiding the park opposite Østerport. No great shakes there; I would have liked to have thrown in a couple more lakes to get it above 10km, but the effects of a beer beforehand and the heat (getting on for 30 degrees) meant that was not really a viable option.

I spent today largely at the lakes – having met a friend for brunch at midday at the café on the third lake, we then went for a walk around the first three and returned to it for a drink. After a less than promising start, the day had heated up. Later in the afternoon we shifted to a bench by the cafes on the first lake, watching runners coming past in various styles, most of which we were not very complementary about (see ‘Things to Consider No. 1'), until the recent heatwave got too much for Copenhagen and it clouded over. The various types of ducks were more interesting anyway, one particularly distinctive (and slightly harassed-looking) one has produced 13 ducklings. She is dark with a white splodge on her throat, no idea what type she is.

Anyway the cloud meant Brunch Girl went home and I went for a run, 10.9km, which is around all the lakes and twice around the last two. The clouds produced the first rain for weeks as I went, a gentle cooling type, and after looking good past the cafes (which was not a Thing to Consider today, given that the World Cup final started in 5 minutes and it was raining, so they were empty), I finished up in about 45 minutes.

We’re getting there.

Results for the week:

Distance run this week: 27.273km

Distance run to date: 97.373km

Distance cycled this week: 0km

Distance cycled to date: 74km

Distance rowed this week: 8km

Distance rowed to date: 42.3km

I have entered a 10km race on Wednesday evening of next week, which the start time 35 minutes after the scheduled arrival of my flight from London. Just as well it is near the airport...I may end up running to it!

Christianshavnermilen - July

--Links in the Links section. All in Danish!--

Contrary to yesterday's post, this is actually 7.532km in total - an old Danish (read 'Viking') mile. I went with assorted people from work - a friend for whom this would be her furthest run yet, a friend of hers, and also one from my department who turned up at the start line just in time having run to get there. My leg had been feeling stiff all day so I was wondering whether it was such a good idea to be there at all, standing in the heat waiting to go, but such it was. There's not alot you can do in the way of prevarication if a pretty Danish girl suggests you run with her.

We ended up not running together anyway as the men start 3 minutes ahead of the ladies. I hadn't pushed for a front row starting position, so to start with it was slow going- just as well as there hadn't been a warm up to speak of. However after a kilometer or so, I was running along quite nicely with only a little pain in the leg, and by 3 km was overhauling plenty of people - I don't think Danes are adapted to running in heat.

It was a nice course around Christianshavn and the moat - the fortifications on the other side of town from the ones I run around usually. We ran past the 'free city' of Christiania, famous for being the place where soft drugs are (or were) tolerated. Or maybe not - a group of untidy looking teenagers was being searched by the Police along one road. The last 2 km took us along the lakeside, where I managed a pretty good build up to the line, and finished in about 30 minutes 57 seconds. Not bad.

My friends followed me in, and later, as I sat on a park bench with an ice cream and the one who had told me to run this time, I joked that next time should be the marathon. 'Maybe next year,' she replied - and I'm not sure if she actually might go through with it.

Weekly Results 2nd July – Cometh the Lope, Cometh the Twinge

3 runs this week but of no great distance – one complete lap of the lakes, and 2 laps of the first 3 only (6.1km each).

This evening doing my final run of the week, things started very well. It was hot, as it has been for the last few days. I had warmed up carefully with a 2km row and plenty of stretching. I was running reasonably quickly in spomething approaching my usual loping style southwards along the lakes, when half way along the third one, the twinge put in its biggest appearance for some weeks. I stopped and stretched, and carried on. It was not painful after that, merely stiff as it has been in other runs. Hopefully it is only a passing thing, but this evening it is still there.

Along the final straight I overtook a runner who had previously passed me while I stopped to stretch on the 2^nd lake. This meant I had to keep going long and fast past the cafes, lest he mount a counter-attack. Despite looking good past the cafes being the first Thing to Consider (ref the last post) when running round the lakes, I have to learn that when recovering from injury, a runner on the path in front should not be seen as a challenge!

Tomorrow is the monthly ‘Christianshavnermilen’ – 7.341km, or an old Danish mile – around Christianshavn on the other side of Copenhagen. I will go and do it – not least as I will be doing it with a friend – but probably nice and slowly.

Results for the week:

Distance run this week: 20.7km

Distance run to date: 70.1km

Distance cycled this week: 0km

Distance cycled to date: 74km

Distance rowed this week: 10km

Distance rowed to date: 33.3km

My total for June, at 57.9km, was actually better than June 2005’s 51km – last June I was not injured, but aside from the Bridge Run, did very little running after the marathon. I ran 123km in July 2005, which I am not aiming to beat this month, having only 3 weeks available for running (the last week I will be on holiday).