The Boggers Log

Today: travelled from Trim to La ciudad de los reyes, via stopovers at Heathrow and Bogata.

I haven't been here before and it's a pity that I'll be leaving again tomorrow night, the countryside looked spectacular as the plane descended through the clouds. I would have liked to get a day or two exploring done, maybe next time. After a long journey I was stinking so bad that I could smell myself and when the taxi driver started wrinkling up his nose and opening all his windows I knew I was long overdue a shower!

Staying in a nice hotel in Miraflores, grabbed a quick shower and breakfast and spent the rest of the day in meetings, with my Spanish colleague.

He runs a little so after work we headed off for some nice easy miles. The temperature is in the mid 20's and it was a beautiful balmy evening. We headed down towards the seafront to the Larcomar neighbourhood. Once we got onto the seafront the vista was incredible. The neighbourhood is built on the plateau of the cliff with a sheer drop of probably a couple of hundred meters to the Pacific Ocean below. There were little parks, skateboard parks, clay tennis courts and swimming pools, a lighthouse together with palm tree lined paths that ran through parks and along the cliff top. The place was a hive of activity with walkers, joggers, people using the open air exercise machines and even a group of lads doing some acrobatics on a tightrope strung between two trees. Down below in the ocean we could see dots that were surfers trying to catch waves. Some points, just off the path route, led to sheer drops and there were no fences or warning signs of any kind. Only managed 5 miles at recovery pace but it looked like we could have continued for another few miles. Was a truly spectacular run and the only downside is that I still haven't shifted the groin and glute niggles.

TbL

I'm only in Lima just over 24 hours but already I think it's one of the coolest capital cities I've been to. The weather is great, the people seem nice and friendly, the scenery is beautiful, they love sports, there seems to be plenty of public sporting facilities and the food is incredible. I had a stupendous meal out last night and today at lunch I ate al fresco in another lovely restaurant overlooking the Pacific. Great food, glorious sunshine and a fantastic view. Savage!

I'd a two hour free window this afternoon that I probably should have used to catch up on some kip but I decided to head off for some more easy miles. The first few miles took me along the same route as yesterday evening, not as busy as last night and it seemed to be a lot hotter. After a couple of miles I was still running parallel to the sea but I was in a "grittier" part of town, the sound of the ocean waves breaking gave way to a cacophony of traffic sound as packed old busses, clapped out cars and ancient taxis honked, spluttered and revved their way along the very busy road. Really enjoyed this part of the run as you never know what you'd come across next, small parks, astro soccer pitches, makeshift dwellings between high rise buildings under construction and I even came across a running track.

Got a really enjoyable 10.5 miles done easy.

Disappointed that I'm leaving later tonight but I'll definitely be back

TbL

I was on a 6 hour flight overnight Tuesday night and as my glute was fairly tight I decided to get a massage in the hotel before I flew out. I headed up to the top floor at the prescribed time and there was no one else around except a young wan in white behind a desk. I approached and told her I was there for my massage. She started talking very quickly to me in Spanish.

"Sorry I don't Spanish", "no abla Espana".

She rabbited on in Spanish, I thought she was asking me for my room number, so calling on my many hours of watching Dora the Explorer, I said,
"Sinko Una Sinko", this was met by a blank stare. I then started writing 5,1,5 in the air with my finger, this was met with a contemptuous stare! "Have you a pen, a biro, a stylo" I asked thinking I'd write it down. This was met with, I'm dealing with a simpleton stare and she went on a bit of a verbal rant. Ah here fcuk this, I took out my mobile and made an international call to my Spanish colleague who was in his room a few floors below and thrust the phone at her!

She wanted to know how long I wanted and what sort of pressure! Didn't matter anyway coz it was a ****e massage and she spent around 20 mins of it scratching my hair and head, ffs!

I tried saying "harder" a few times but it didn't make a blind bit of difference. I really need to learn some basic Spanish!

Arrived in Mexico City early in the morning, it's been about a year since I was here last. The traffic in Mexico has to be experienced to be believed, it's total bedlam, I wouldn't drive here for all the tea in China. Most parts of the city are, putting it delicately, ****holes, but I'm staying in a lovely area, Polanco, near Chapultepec Park and Castle.

The park is the largest city park in the Western Hemisphere at almost 1,700 acres, and it's steeped in history. The Aztecs considered the area sacred and it was also the site for one of the last battles between the Spanish invaders and the Aztec. The castle in the park is on top of Chapultepec hill which is at an altitude of over 2,500 metres. The castle is also very famous and in the 1800's it became the official residence of the Head of the recently independent state, Maximilian 1. It's now home to a history museum.

Weather here is fairly cool and overcast and by the time I'd finished work I was short for time so I only managed to get 3 recovery miles done in the park. Glute is still very stiff and I'm lashing into stretches to try and loosen it out, I suppose all those hours on a plane aren't helping it.

TbL

Didn't travel.

Niggles turned nasty and I spent the week trying absolutely everything to get in shape to travel but a test run in Amsterdam yesterday morning convinced me pull the plug.

Even some Amsterdam coffee and carrot cake (as suggested by AULDBOT100) couldn't shake my disappointment!

DNS's are worryingly starting to mount. I had a plan that I really liked but a lot of my issues on this cycle were self inflicted.

Back to square one and I'll touch base with Ecoli next week.

TbL

Gavlor wrote: »

This is going to sound obvious but how about you stop inflicting the issues on yourself and give your body a chance to make the start line in good condition

You've a great base built up, would you consider Limerick in May??

Hi V,

Yes, I was only looking at Limerick last night, so I'll speak to Ecoli about that.

The difficulty I'm finding is that I struggle to string a block of consistent weeks together. I'm away long haul with work the week after next and then I'm away for 3 weeks again in March so it makes it hard. As someone else said though, hard but not impossible, so I need to stop using it as an excuse.

TbL

Firedance wrote: »

I considered saying 'why not forget about the marathon for a while' but then I remembered where I was really sorry you didn't make it to the start C, hopefully you can sort out both the niggles and how best to train on your schedule.

Hi FD,

That suggestion has been made to me a few times, and by people whose opinion I respect, however, I'm a really really stubborn auld bollix and my whole focus has been on a decent marathon time. I know I can do it, I just gotta do it!

TbL