New week

I've finished the last week with a trip through Wielkopolski Park Narodowy. On Friday night I was falling asleep with one dream only: find a position in which my hip won't hurt. but On Saturday I woke up feeling quite OK. However I decided that running to Jaroslawieckie Lake and back (18 km) could be too much so I decided that I'll take a train to Szreniawa and from there I'll rung along the green trail to Lake Jaroslawieckie and from there along the well known route home.

Entrance to the Museum of Agriculture in Szreniawa

Boulder in front of the Museum of Agriculture

The weather was rather cold (-10C) and from the beginning the trip proved to be more difficult than I expected. I had to run some 2 km in order to find the beginning of the green trail and once I found it I kept loosing it quite often. After some 20 minutes I passed the first landmark on my way - Mausoleum of the first owners of Szreniawa - Bierbaums circa 1860.

It turned out that on that day I did one smart thing (besides a few stupid ones) I took with my mobile a picture of a detailed map of that area and on my way I was able to zoom it in and check the trail. This help proved priceless as there were very few marks on the trail and worst of all - very seldom the turns were marked as such so I frequently had to trot back when I realized that I took the wrong turn.

By the time I reached Lake Jaroslawieckie I had already covered almost 10 km and was quite scared how am I going to reach home.

Most beautiful view of the day - Lake Jaroslawieckie behind the trees - at least I knew where I was!

Once I reached Lake Jaroslawieckie I knew more or less what to expect and I begun slow jogging home. The first few kilometres were quite good but during the last 4 or 5 I had only one ambition - to maintain a hart rate of at least 120 bpm.

By the time I reached home my Forerunner was showing over 19 km. As I checked later I burned over 2000 calories - not bad :)

Altogether I run last week over 52 kilometres - I hope that I'll match it this week.

Amazing training

It's a great thing when you realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself.

 American Beauty

The weather is so good today that I decided that I am going to make the best of my stay in Poland and decided to drive for a training to Wielkopolski Park Narodowy and enjoy the sun and fresh air.

Quite spontaneously I've chosen quite and ambitious route along lakes - I expected that it will have about 8km. Everything went quite smoothly I even managed quite well to practice running with my back straight - I am not sure if it is not just my impression but I felt much better running like that.

Problems usually occur when one least expects them - suddenly I realized that for quite a while I did not see any trail marks. I ran for another 5 minutes or so but when I reached 30 min. from the starting point I decided that it's time to go back. Running back on the same route would mean that I'll run altogether 1h and I expected that if I try really hard I should make it.

However after a while I've noticed the point where I lost the right trail and suddenly I decided that I'll give it a try, I will run the entire route anyway. After all I am not professional runner - I do it for fun and it would be rather boring if everything was predictable.

In result I had amazing 83 minutes of jogging in beautiful scenery of forests and lakes. I did not run for so long since my younger son was born in August 2008 so I was rather surprised that I managed to get back to my car - but what a nice surprise it was! :)