Up for the challenge by FatFrank

Another week, another step in the right direction with mileage slowly building up and motivation at a yearly high with the warm weather setting in. Now that almost everyone is back to running, I finally have a decent group to run with. I mostly run with Dodu since his coach is on his back all the time about having him run more mileage just to get his weight down at least under 155lbs. That pleases me because I now have someone to run the longer stuff with.

We had one really cool workout last Wednesday that I’d like to share. There was Dodu, James, Simon and myself running for 40min. Total had to be about 2/3 fast and 1/3 slow. We would each take one turn to launch an attack in which we would run between 3:00/k to 3:15 for 1min to 4min. The thing is that you don’t know when the guy will make his move and it’s quite a mental challenge since you don’t know when he’s gonna stop. Then, the next guy can take from 45sec to 3min light jog before striking. It really makes you work your racing skills and the heart rate variations are typical from tactical races.

Elsewhere, good news is that we finally found a nice house to rent for next July. It’s right next to a bike path and has direct access to the river. I’ll be moving in with Dodu (a miler), Jo (a sprinter) and Marie (hurdler/sprinter). It’s very convenient as it’s a hell lot closer to my GF’s place making it to a shorter daily trip. It will also be a nice change from where I’m living now which is somewhat of a student’s apartment, although quite central. Right now I’m living with 3 distance runners, but two of them (James and Sarah) just bought a house next to where I’m moving and they’re thinking of staying there for at least 5 years. It’s a really nice house with lots of yard, which is good for parties… let’s just hope they’ll have a few BBQ this summer...haha!

First though, we'll need to see a bit more sun and a bit less rain and that should get us in the mood to fire up the grill.

Cheers!