Sean's Running Blog

21 degrees and light snow this morning in Hamburg. Woke up at 1am local time and never really fell back asleep so by 5am I decided to venture out and go for my run. I was amazed and happy that there was such little traffic from 5-6:30 am in Germany's seconds largest metro area. The sidewalks are completely iced over so I had to run in the roads which made the light traffic very nice indeed. For the most part I didn't get lost but if you looked at my route map you might think otherwise. Basically, I never knew exactly where I was but I knew the general area. I was surprised how well I adjusted to the cold weather. Our winter has been so mild in Seattle this year that I didn't know how well by body would respond.

Interesting morning run. Woke up to fresh snow with temps in the low 20s. Some streets were very icy and some we perfectly fine. Unfortunately, the ones that were fine turned out to be in the Reeperbahn section of town. I've never focused my eyes on the pavement in front of me with such intensity. I was planning on doing a fartlek workout (3x 10 minutes at threshold pace) but the roads made it difficult plus I got an hour later start this morning which meant mor cars were on the roads. That said, I tried anyway. Did the first one and got started on the second before being pulled over by the Polezei halfway through. It was pretty funny. They informed me that it's not OK to run in the streets of Hamburg. I pointed to the sidewalks which all have 3 inches of ice on them and their response was "Yes...this is a problem." But nevertheless, they would allow me to run in the streets and resisting the urge to get arrested, I decided to abandon the workout, and finish up on the hotel treadmill. Ugh...forutnatelt, i has only four more miles to do. My plan is to try the workout again tomorrow but wake up an hour earlier and hope the roads are better and that there are fewer cars to compete with.

So the plan for this morning was to do the workout I was in the middle of yesterday when stopped by my favorite Polezie. That was before I woke up to a few inches of new snow and heavy snow falling. No worries. I would just do six or so outside and head back to the hotel to do the fartlek on the treadmill. That was great except the workout room doesn't open until 6:15. It was 5:30. Ugh.

So I just went back out and ran and ran and ran. It was fun to run in the snow. First time this year. I guess I will plan my workout for tomorrow.

A downright balmy morning at 29 degrees. Light snow, strong wind and sloppy slushy streets made for the most unpleasant run of my stay here.

The best part was actually my fartlek run on the treadmill. The plan was 3x10 minutes at 5:15 with 3 mins rest between each. It was my first ever workout on a treadmill and it wasn't nearly as bad as I suspected. The biggest problem was the hot and humid nature of the room. I did the first two reps in 5:08-5:10 pace. I was sweating profusely but wasn't cooling at all which had me concerned. So five minutes in to the final 10 minute rep I called it quits. I was starting to get lightheaded and dizzy so I was actually fearing some overheating problems. So I just bailed on the final 5 minutes and finished up with four miles outside in the sloppy mess.

Planning on a long run tomorrow morning early before heading off to Berlin for a couple of days. There is a track within 1k of my hotel there so i am hoping it is open so I can do some 1200m repeats on Saturday.

Got up early (4:30am) to get my run in before heading to Berlin. Balmy morning with light winds, 30 degrees and no snow. Best part was the roads were mostly clear of previous snowfalls so running was pretty safe. Off to Berlin where I hope to get an interval workout in.

Well, I had every intention of running on the beautiful track about 1000m from my hotel...until I discovered it was buried in more than a foot of snow. So...I got to do my interval workout on the treadmill again. Yippee. 5x1200m in 3:38 with 90 seconds rest. Only problem is the treadmill, as nice as it was, only went to 4:58/mile pace which had me doing 1200s in 3:43 or so. So I upped the incline a bit and shortened the rest to help make up for it. Again, the room was warm so i had to bury my head under cold running water in the middle of the workout just to cool off.

Ran for another six miles afterward through the embassy section of Berlin. A beautiful morning. First time I have run in daylight in several days.