Miles in Madrid by Hola

Hello!

Sorry for the huge gap in between posts. We have moved back to the UK and the move itself took up a lot of time and emotional energy. Since then we have move back into our old house and our two boys have started at their new schools. Two months of being back and it feels as if we were never away, let alone for four years! It was very sad to leave Madrid and all our friends there but equally it has been nice to get back and catch up with old ones again. 

However, my delay in getting back to realbuzz has also been because of laziness. I have been meaning to post for such a long time and now that I have actually started some running again I feel that I can get back on here. I´ve been doing a fair bit of running again and even went out with my old club on Sunday and did 8 miles in the mud and rain. (oh, it´s good to be back!). 

Just a short post today because I haven´t got too much to report and I just wanted to make myself write SOMETHING as a start!

Best of luck to Bo running the Chicago Marathon for the second time on Sunday - what an absolute wonder that man is! I´m just amazed by him.

Take care, looking forward to catching up with you all again.

p.s. I guess I need a new blog name too...sigh!...

Today we went to a different part of the Guadarrama mountain range to do a walk that I had found on the internet. We drove to a town called La Cabrera and planned to climb ‘El Pico de Miel’ (Honey Peak).

We decided to start with a coffee and cake at the lovely café in the town and being a sunny day we sat outside. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I looked up and saw the graffiti facing me. MTS obviously sprang straight to my mind and I had to snap a picture for my profile! 

We then did a fantastic walk scrambling up the rocks to the peak. It’s a really popular spot with climbers and there were many of them scattered across the rocky faces of the mountain. We met a climber at the top who told us about a quicker way down using permanent ropes but we thought we’d just return on our outward route! The weather was very warm and sunny and there were lots of vultures and eagles soaring about. Some would fly in low and we told our younger son that they always seek out the youngest and weakest members that become detached from the herd. It kept his pace up a bit.

It was a hard walk with lots of rock scrambling

but the views from the top were spectacular.

The week hasn’t been too bad for running. 7km on Monday and Wednesday at the track with a few ‘faster’ laps thrown in when I felt like it and on Thursday I got out for a beautiful 8km in the park. I also went to self defence/Taekwondo on Monday and Wednesday and then on Friday, because the schools broke up the day before, the instructors did a special session to include the kids which was lots of fun.

Other news is that I will be in London for the London marathon! (To spectate, not run…)  My brother in law and his wife are coming over from Australia for a long trip in Europe and the first thing on his agenda is to run the marathon so we are going over to meet up with them and to watch him run. Another brother in law (there are six of them!) is living in London at the moment and he is a marathon runner too so it will be a good get together. I hope I will be able to spot some of you in the crowds, that would be very exciting.

We are now in the Easter holidays and so I won’t get much running done but we are going to a town near Córdoba for a few days at the end of the week so I might get a chance down there. We haven’t been to Córdoba before and the Mezquita has been on my list of things to see in Spain since we first got here so I’m looking forward to it.

Best wishes and good luck to the marathon trainers as they approach 'taper stage'!  

OK, now I had better admit that it was only 700m cross country and there were only about 20 women in the event and it was our local park race but hey, it was a race and my first time ever on a runners' podium! The pride, the emotion, what can I say?

The race in photos:

Not getting a good start (not taking enough notice when the gun went off!)... I'm wearing the pink top back in about 6th place...

She works her way through the field  for a strong finish...(!) That's N1S beside me trying to get his mother to shift her a...

And the trophy - sub campeón! 

It was so much fun - I've said it before, it's one of the things they do so well here. It's a free race in the park across the road from us (where I've run so many miles) and there are races for 3 year olds up to adults. There are medals and trophies and t-shirts and drinks. It's a great party atmosphere too - the Spanish really know how to have a good time. The only annoying thing is that during the presentations, as soon as their own children have received their prizes, they all leave and so for the later presentations there's hardly anyone there! 

It's been a good week running-wise - I ran on Sunday at the race, Monday and Wednesday at the track, and Tuesday on my own in the park - in the sun and in shorts for the first time since about last November! I have missed all three Taekwondo classes this week because last weekend we had an attempted robbery on our 'trastero' which is like an underground storage room that we have in the building so I had to sort that out on Monday morning and then on Wednesday my younger son was off school sick and today (Friday) is a national holiday because it's Father's Day. It's the saint's day for San José (aka Joseph) so no class today either.

I hope you all have a very good week. I want to say special congratulations to Tina and Skye in the Kilomathon, to Matt in his phenomenal ultra and to Bo for still getting out to run despite undergoing chemo and for inspiring me to appreciate every day that 'Life is Good'! 

Having completely failed in my ability to motivate myself to train properly for the half marathon in March I’ve had to admit that it’s not going to happen. I don’t know what’s the matter with me. I was so motivated for the Madrid marathon last year and stuck to my schedule like a machine but since then I’ve kept a general level of fitness up but can’t push myself to up the level.

I have been running regularly, just not far enough. I’ve been doing 5 or 6km twice a week at the track whilst the boys do athletics and then I’ve been getting out another once or twice a week running 7 or 8km each time.

We have had such a wet winter here. Apparently the cold weather in the north of Europe has pushed the weather stream down across Spain and Portugal (and more tragically, Madeira). We’ve had a couple of dry, sunny days this week but today it’s raining again and scheduled to do so for another few days. The world seems very volatile at the moment with snow, earthquakes and floods.

I’ve also started doing a self defence class organised by the local Taekwondo club. There are only four of us in the group and two teachers so it is quite intense. The facilities and opportunities in Spain for clubs and activities are fantastic. These classes take place at a new, purpose built martial arts centre in our town (a town which is about the same size as my hometown of Godalming in England) and for 20 euros a month I can go to three 1½ hour classes a week.    The activities the boys go to are even less than that per month. We start with 30 minutes of strength and conditioning work before going on to self defence and taekwondo moves. It’s great to do something different and I like it because I used to be a gymnast so I’m pretty strong and flexible. I'm trying to liven up this post by putting in a photo. This is my son in one of his judo classes in the martial arts centre that I go to :

I’m extremely impressed by the amount of training going on by you all especially the ones training for London and the kilomathon and Matt in his ultras. We’re now in ‘Monster Month March’ so it’s going to be tough. Dig deep. Final push! Well done to you all. Send a bit of motivation my way! 

Best wishes to you all that those niggles and injuries go away too.