Full day. Running with Sara, picking up a cross-trainer (elliptical) at my parents, eating mussels, cooked by mamma, and spotting deer in Zeeland. Yet, it all starts with an easy morning in bed, with a cup of tea, working my way through a couple of pages of Above the Clouds. I’ve almost finished it.
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Lactate Threshold test
Half an hour later, I’m up and out. It’s pretty warm, being the half of October, with a little drizzle that makes running sometimes so beautiful. This morning is a Lactate Threshold test morning. I wanted to do it earlier this week, but postponed it, because of the nagging feeling in my ankle, but today is the day.
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It’s a simple test on my Garmin Fenix watch. Warm-up for 10 minutes, run 4 minutes intervals, at increasing heart rate zones. The last intervals being only 3 minutes. Next, cool down.
This morning the test feels easy. Right up to the last interval. My score 166; beats per minute at a pace of 4.56 minutes per kilometers.
As far as I understand it, it means as long as I run with a heart rate lower than 166 beats per minute my body is able to get rid of all the lactic acid I’m building up in my muscles. In other words, as long as my heart rate is lower than 166 I can keep on running without my legs getting tired quickly.
On the way back home, I pick up Sara. For her, it’s day 9 of her running journey. Her run, is my cool down.
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Spotting deer
After the run, we jump in the car and drive to Zeeland to visit my parents, and eat mussels, prepared in beer by my mum. To digest the yummy meal, we drive to Westenschouwen, a little hamlet on the coast, for a walk through the Domaniale Bossen.
My parents walk here a couple times a week, and know precisely where to find the deer. And if they miss it, their dog, Bruni, will tell them. As soon as she spots one, she will stand still and look at it, silently.
We spot many. Small ones, light brown ones, dark brown ones, young males with antlers almost too big for their head and big deer, very big deer making loud, grunting noises.
Not just the deer are impressive, also the forest itself. Little lakes, sand dunes, colorful trees. It’s a forest to run in and a forest to take pictures in. Pictures, for La Scimmia Yoga and for the Running Dutchman.
