A few years ago I was made redundant and decided to sail around the world. I didn't make it very far but I had a hell of a good time :)
And now I'm running. A man needs something to do.
I started to run back in October of 2012 but pretty quickly picked up an injury (totally my own fault) so I stopped for a few months. I picked up my running shoes, seriously, in June of 2013 but first...
So October -
When I started to run I couldn't run 5km without having to stop and walk some. My average pace was between 7 and 8 minutes per KM (in English that's about 11 to 13 minutes per mile). But I kept going and, after about half a dozen runs I was able to run, without stopping, for the entire 5km distance :) A breakthrough!
I ran, and I ran and I ran - never far, never quick but I kept it up, running about 4 times a week with each run between 5km and 10km. Most of the time things hurt, or ached. And then I popped both knees - no real idea how. I went out one day and "bang". Pain! I had problems sleeping, let along walking so I kinda took it easy for a few months. Anyhoo, time passes, quite a bit - it was winter after all and gets pretty chilly here in winter, and I wanted to go skiing with some friends so the excuses built up and up :)
Wind the clock forward to June of this year - I'd say that's when I started to run again. I ran 17 times, with distances varying between 7 and 11km. My speed, on the 7km runs was pretty close to 6 min per KM with the 11km runs being run at about 7 minutes per. Not bad. Made me pretty happy at least.
July of 2013 saw me run 14 times and I'd found a rhythm that worked for me. 3 normal runs with a rest day between each and then an LSR (Long Slow Run) followed by 2 days of rest.
And now here we are - all caught up.
I'm running 11km and trying to do it in under an hour. So far my best is 1 hour 4 minutes. Once I've cracked the hour I'll find a new route but, for now, I'm running the canal twice a week and, as mentioned I'm currently chasing the hour on it. My PB (Personal Best) is 1 hour 4 minutes.
here's the route
Once a week I run what I call a hill run - that's about 15km long with about 4km of that being a steady climb from the centre of Vienna to an outlying district called Grinzing.
Here's that route..
My PB for this course is currently 1 hour 40, I'd like to get that down to about 1 hour 30 before I lengthen it.
And then I have my LSR...which is about 30km.
I do a loop around the centre of Vienna before trotting down the canal to the river. From there I run up to the north west end, turn around, run down to the Reichsbrucke before heading back to home via the Praterstern. It's a nice run but the last 5km is a killer. My PB on this run is 4 hours and 1 minute and I've yet to be able to run the whole thing. The time is slowly coming down though. When I started it took me just over 4 and a half hours so I've knocked off 30 minutes. Oh, and I've run this 3 times so far. Right now I'm not sure what my target time is for this distance so I'll keep running it for now. Maybe when I can run the whole distance (ie no walking) I might add 5km..we'll see.
What else?
Equipment? I run in Aesics Gel Evolution 6 and I carry a Kriega Hydro 3 with me.
Food? Heh, a steady diet of homemade chicken curry (as in daily) keeps me going. I fill in the gaps with muesli and salad. I eat too much, especially in the evenings.
And me? I moved here in 2001. I'm 45, English and, as much as I love England, I love being a part of different cultures so I've no intent to move back to the UK until I retire.
My aims - well, I'm no sprinter so it's long distance stuff for me. I love the thought of doing some ultras, and I've also got this idea in the back of my head about running from here to Budapest but, for now, I'm just running.
If I can, you can.
And that's it. Pleased to meet you.
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