Asturies

I've just come back from a relaxing week in Asturias with the kids (my wife was in Haiti). We had a couple of glorious days, one of which I took advantage of to canoe down the Sella river which, in a couple of week's time, becomes the venue for the frantic Descenso del Sella, now in it's 75th year, with thousands of competitors.

The rest of the time, it was neither cold nor hot, neither raining nor dry, ni fu ni fa. I was glad for a respite from the roasting temperatures in Madrid and this was definitely reflected in my running speed. I did my aerobic runs at almost 14km/h (on the flat), my tempo runs at 15km/h and the series (carrying an extra 3kg) at 16km/h. If I'm honest, I didn't really manage to do the series quite by the book (sometimes I didn't hit the required heart rate, other times I allowed myself too much rest). It is very difficult to find the discipline to do them properly when I am running on my own, on the road (without a running belt to force me to keep the speed up) and when I am on holiday. Never mind, I have some months to execute them to perfection between now and the Marathon in November.

I weighed myself today and was not surprised to see that I have broken the 90kg barrier (that is to say, from below). That isn't too far from what I used to weigh before I started running (again) just under 4 years ago but, according to the same scales, I am only 8% fat. Still, I'd like to get down to around 85kg or so in time for November so, as of today, it's back to counting calories and no alcohol for a few months!