The Brighter Borough of Wandsworth.

That's where I live in London. It's amazing, isn't it?

Finding this place was a gift. And I must reward such gift, by talking properly about this borough of London (which is brighter than the others, if it wasn't clear enough).

Westminster and Chelsea share Hyde Park. We have Battersea Park all for us.

Cherry blossoms.

Nice area for running, isn't it?

What about this?

Where's your Pagoda, Westminster?

Where's your golden Buddha, stinky Chelsea?

 The view of the Buddha isn't the best, actually.

(in the picture: the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. So damned posh)

We have also squirrels.

You can see my building on the left of the fighting squirrels.

Everything at hand.

Other boroughs have plumbers. We are brighter than them.

We have Ice Sculpures Specialists!!

We are not just brighter people.

We are also more weloming.

Welome to Wandsworth!!!

A Bittersweet Run.

A little bitter. A little sweet. A lot of run.

Yesterday (Tuesday), I had a pleasant run from home to work. 9 km at an average of 4'35'' per km. 4 km of whom where run in Hyde Park. A pleasant journey in a sunny morning.

This evening (Thursday) it was so deep dark in Battersea. Lovely.

I was supposed to run in the morning. But I went to bed late last evening. Too excited to sleep after I saw an article I wrote for a magazine. It's an Italian magazine about runners, of course. I don't know if you've ever heard about it. It's called Runner's World.

The article is about a) how it happened that I decided to run the London Marathon; b) how I found the charity to support (which gave me the bid for London), and c) how I planned to fundraise 1,000 pounds.

It's quite simple actually:  a) I wanted to impress an English man, so I told him that I was going to run the London Marathon; b) I found a team that accepted and trusted me (it wasn't easy); c) I opened this blog.

If you're looking for the long version you need to speak Italian and buy a copy of Runner's World (Italy). Or I can borrow you mine as soon as it gets to London. Or when I'm in Italy, if you're not planning to come to London.

But it wasn't the article that made me so excited. I mean, I had written it. And I knew it was going to be published this month.

It was the drawing they made. It shows a professional who runs from Milan to London.

I haven't had so much hair since highschool.

Bittersweet Interval Training.

I went running this evening. Interval training. Perhaps the hardest I had in four months (jeez, how long have I been training?!).

2 km of warm up and two fast runs of 5 km each. 1 km of recovery.

The fast runs needed to be fast. Very fast, under 4' per km. Despite the fact that I had just run 53 km in the previous three days.

The first 5 km were run at a pace of 3'59'' per km. So wet at the end. So tired.

The recovery wasn't that fast. I had to run at least at 4'20'' per km. I couldn't. My legs were so heavy and the breath so... breathless.

When the recovery ended (at 4'30'') I just wanted to stop there.

Then I thought about the Bribery Act 2010.  The British government published the Guidance to the Bribery Act 2010 today. And the associates of the department I'm working in went to celebrate this event in a pub. I couldn't go with them, cause I had this interval training.

I cannot miss such an event pointlessly. At least I must do what I have to.

First km: 3'55''.

Second km: 4'02''.

Third km: 4'01''.

I give up. I'm running over what it's planned. I must give up. I haven't slept tonight. I ate two cupcakes at lunch (it was for a good reason). I'm hungry. I'm cold. It's dark. Plenty of good excuses to stop there.

Than I thought about Ben. It's his birthday today. And the associates of the departmet I'm working in, Ben included, went to celebrate the publishment of the Guidance to the Bribery Act 2010 in a pub. And Ben's birthday, of course.

Fourth km: 4'00''.

Fifth km: 3'57''.

Second fast run at 3'59'' per km. 66 km in four days.

Cheers to the Guidance to the Bribery Act 2010!!

Il Pungolo.

Da domani in edicola.

Hall of Fame aggiornata. Grazie.

Bilanci e tabelle. Quindicesima settimana.

This is the fifteenth chart I'm posting. The first in English.

For those who don't know it yet, every sunday or monday I post a chart with the training sessions of the upcoming week.

So everyone knows and participates to the training. And I must comply with the chart.

I usually start by summarizing what happened during the previous week. Let's start.

Balances
The week run very quickly. Five sessions, 73 km. The last distance run was as fast as planned, which is great. I also experienced the crowd there will be at the marathon. Which is not that great.

Two weeks before Milan, three before London.

The only false note were food and drink. Too much, too bad, too alcohol.

I shall behave more properly, this week.

The fundraising is working fine. The Hall of Fame of donors was updated a couple of times this week. I hope it will be more often updated until the end.
(if you want to donate, please visit http://www.justgiving.com/Rexel-UK-Green-Team)

Chart

click to watch it clear

Next week is the last one with five training sessions.
The Sunday run is only 21 km. I'm lowering the km down before the big event.
Wednesday is going to be pretty hard, though.
We'll see.

Monday Run

Every monday comes with a run. Today it was 12 km long.

Like last week I brought all my stuff to work and changed there in the evening. Which means that tomorrow I'm going to work by feet...

The pace was quite fast. First 10 km were at 4'23'' per km, last 2 km at 4'04'' per km.

It was more pleasant than last Monday. Thanks to DST there was still daylight, although I left the office at 7.45 P.M..

Since there was no traffic (not as much as usual, at least), I went through the Inns of Court, which are close to the office. Amazing.

For a civil lawyer the Inns of Court are legendary. Running through them gave me the same feeling that I had when I was staring the relief of Napoleon in Paris, inside the Pantheon. His image was holding a Code Civil, as one of his most important legacies.

Living the history of law. This time at 4'23'' per km. Legen...dary!!

How to break an oath. Day by day.

Where were we?

Right: "I made a promise to myself when I arrived home: no more junk food. No more beer."

I made that oath a week ago, while I was writing "Running with Sarah. Part II." It was Monday evening.

I behaved accordingly. Until Wednesday evening.

Wednesday

I had planned to run an interval training on Wednesday. But that was the only day that Stefano and I could go out for dinner. I couldn't train in the morning, I hadn't recovered by the Violenza of the previous days yet.

Stefano is the captain of our fundraising team. He is a monster as a marathon man and as a fundraiser. You think I'm brave by training at 5.30 A.M.? (maybe, not you. Someone else does). Stefano trains at 4 A.M.. You think I can raise 1k pounds for a charity? (thanks for helping). Stefano raised 3k pounds.

We had a pizza (Italians...). I asked for water. Water with pizza. This is blasphemy.

Then Stefano, his girlfriend and I went to this nice Cuban bar. I asked for a mojito. Technically, mojito isn't beer.

Thursday

The interval training went well.

Wake up at 6 A.M.. Out at 6.20. 1k of warm up, than three repetitions of 2 km with 1 km recovery. The first repetition was completed in 7'57''. The second one in 7'50''. The third one in 7'48''. The recovery was always completed under 4'20''.

Progressive fartlek. Despite the mojito. I told you that mojito isn't beer.


A party with colleagues landed over my oath in the evening.


You cannot drink water at a party. Who does that? I started with wine. Wine is not beer.


Last thing that I remember of that evening is an empty bottle of Becks on the bar. It was my second one. After three Corona.

Friday

Someone could say that Corona is not a beer. But Becks? It's German, it's a beer.

Best case scenario, I had broken my oath twice. But you need to be a lawyer to get this result. And I'm not qualified (hopefully, yet).


In any case, the oath is broken, I'm damned.


Let's think about this later.


Friday morning I had the fourth training of the week. 12 km with a progression. I went early at the office, changed there, and got out quickly. Direction: Hyde Park. Never been there before.


3 km to get there. 6 km run in the Park. 3 km to get back.


Timing: first 4 km at an average of 4'23'' per km, second 4 km at an average of 4'18'' per km, third 4 km at an average of 4'08 per km.


Screw the oath. Who's damned now?


I got an extra beer with the colleagues in the evening. Peroni. That's not really a beer. But who cares, even if it were.

Saturday

No training. Yes junk food. Yes beer.


Fish and chips for lunch.

(in the picture: the alleged best fish and chips of Wandsworth)

The evening was quieter. I went to the ballet with some friends, to see the Swan Lake.

We needed something tough after all that girly stuff (seriously, it was gorgeous).


Hamburger and beer. Like real men.


While I was ordering, I recall a tiny voice saying "do not take beer, do not take meat".


Vegetarian burger. And a pint of beer.

Sunday

Here we come. Sunday. The last long distance run before the marathon. 32 km.


It must be fast.


I woke up at 11, thanks to the Daylight Saving Time. Helped by the vegburger and the beer of the night before, perhaps.


I usually have something for breakfast, before long runs. That means I cannot leave before a certain time. In this case, 12.30.

My body didn't feel very well, thanks to the Swan Lake. The vegburger and the beer got nothing to do with it.

Despite such tiny bother, the first 8 km ended fast, at an average 4'23'' per km. Next 22 km had to be under 4'20'' per km.

They started well. Then people came. I left at 12.30 leaving. I was in Westminster at 1 P.M.. Too many tourists in London, at that time. They should do something for late runners.

Arrived at Tower Bridge I was really annoyed by Italians with their cameras, their slow pace and their change of directions. Are there other tourists in London?

I decided to come back through the south bank. Forgetting about the existence of Tate Gallery and Millenium Eye. Went back on the north bank at Waterloo Bridge and kept going at the planned pace.

I was confident to finish on time, despite the 2 km slowered by the crowd. So confident that I decided to explore London a little bit. I hadn't seen Buckingham Palace yet. Now I will remember it forever. When I got there that tiny bother blow off. It happens when you run. It shouldn't when you're before a monument. My apologies.

Anyway, it was the 20th km at that time. I had 12 km to run. Let's see again Hyde Park.

I got lost.

After a while I had to come back home. But I didn't know the way. I asked a few cops. But they were still scared for the march of the day before. At least this is an explanation.

I lost 15 minutes looking for the right direction. Also because when I thought I got it, I didn't.

At that point everything was enlightened. Nostos and Hybris. As Odysseus I was coming home. But I was damned by the gods for my biggest sin: hybris, arrogance.

You can drink beer. You can eat junk food. Just don't go too far. Don't make fun of your oath. Especially when you have a marathon in three weeks. Homer said.

Finally, I got back to Battersea Park. Next to home.

The second distance, 22 km, had been run at an average of 4'19'' per km (stops with cops excluded).

Last 2 km were run in the park, at 4'04'' per km. Home was there. At the end.

I can have a real Sunday English Breakfast.

(in the picture: the best English Breakfast of Wandsworth.

The porridge couldn't enter into the picture)

Two eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes and bacon. Buttered bread. Jam.

This isn't junk food. The eggs are poached, not fried.

Am I right?