A Most Romantic Setting

I can’t imagine why, but this is where Niamh’s sister is going to get married on Saturday. Her fiancé is three-quarters Italian and one quarter Slovenian, and with some of his family still living near Lake Bled, they decided to get married there. The ceremony will take place in the church on the island, and the reception is going to be held in the castle in the background. Isn’t it fabulous? Let’s just hope the weather will be nice. Apparently it’s raining there at the moment, but according to some of the weather forecasts, it should stop come Saturday.

As an aside, the loop around the lake is 3.7 miles long. I checked on Google Maps. Depending on how many laps I’m doing, it should give me a decent enough estimation on the length of the workouts. I’m not planning on running through a monster hangover, though.

I will see if I can find an Internet café, but if not then this will be my last entry for a while. If you don’t hear back from me within the next 14 days, I’m just enjoying my holidays too much to write about them.

The last 2 runs went pretty well. I’ve finally managed to shake off the cold, and not only has the spring in my step returned, my heart rate has dropped noticeably again. It’s amazing the difference feeling well can make.

I managed 13 miles on Monday, but was dead slow initially; the first mile was close to 9:00 pace, and the second one around 8:00 pace. I tried to resist temptation to speed up, and just ran my normal pace, whatever that came to. Still, I was pleased to come home at sub-8 average pace, and the run felt just great. The sun is shining at the moment and there is not a cloud in the sky, but it’s biting cold at 6:30 am, and I regretted not bringing my gloves. But it was a very enjoyable run nonetheless.

After spending an hour in the gym on Monday evening, I knew that Tuesday’s run would feel a bit strenuous, and wasn’t disappointed in that respect. The legs creaked and moaned as if I was breaking a speed record, but the HRM told a different story. After 2 or 3 miles I got into my stride and things went better after that. I was surprised to come home in just over an hour, I expected it to be slightly longer.

I’m planning on doing a long run tomorrow morning, before we leave, but will have to check with Niamh about departure time. Usually she says something like 9, which turns into 12 in the real world, but it’s better not to give her a reason to blame me for the late departure. Believe me.

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I won't be here to celebrate it, but on Thursday this blog will be 2 years old. On one hand I can't believe how quickly time has passed, on the other hand I can't believe that it was only two years ago that I was dreading the 55-mile weeks that were to come as part of the Pfitzinger/Douglas plan.

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28 May: 13 miles, 1:41:59, 7:50 pace, avg. HR 144
29 May: 8 miles, 1:00:55, 7:36 pace, avg. HR 150