The Long Run

Brisk morning but nice medium long easy run in Belgium.  Started out with Jenny and Amy and headed on a road going out of town.  Stuck together a bit over 3 miles and went out ahead.  It was nice rolling terrain, cool and sunny.  I felt like running forever but we had other things to do today so I kept it at 11 miles, a good start for the week.

Average pace: 8:56

After missing two days of running (I'll have to go back and fill in my excuses for those two days!), it was great to be able to get out and run this morning.  When I woke up I got ready but saw that it was raining.  I thought about running later when the rain might stop but then decided to just go ahead and run.  I decided to run through town and out onto Brusselstraat which, if I had more time to run could have taken me all the way to Brussels.  It was cloudy and cool but the rain had stopped by the time I started to run.  The road was kind of busy to run on but had a decent bike lane and sometimes a sidewalk.  On the other side of town it had some nice hills to run on:

I went out about 5.5 miles and then turned around, until finally I was back at the Leuven train station, just a half mile from where I was staying :

Inside, there is a stand that sells warm waffles, which were tempting me.  This has been on my list for quite some time to go for a run and stop in the train station on the way back for a warm Belgian waffle:

I thought about not getting one but I had some money on me and realized maybe I would not get another chance, because life has a habit of getting in the way of your plans some time, so carpe diem!

Average pace: 8:32

This morning we all headed over to the "Finnish Track" or Finse Piste in Dutch.  It is a 1km loop through a park.  Set into the ground is about a 1 foot thick rubbery material, then covered with wood chips up to ground level.  I think the idea originally started to help train skiers in Finland, then runners started using it.  It is both hard (more work) to run on and easier (on the joints).  We ran to the track, a little over a mile away, then did 7 loops on the track, easy, fast, easy, fast, easy, fast, easy then ran back home.    The first "easy" lap felt hard and we had second thoughts about trying faster speeds.  The faster speeds were about 7:45 pace which felt pretty challenging.

Here is Jenny getting ready for the next loop:

The next picture was supposed to be me but is actually just Jenny's foot:

After the laps we headed back and then I did another out and back to get in over 8 miles for the day.

Average pace: 8:46