1/16 6 miler, and Madrid Day 1

Last week was a ten mile week...funny considering I've done 7x10 mile days. Today was a surprisingly easy 6 miles.

First some stuff (rambling) about Madrid Day 1:

Left Boston at around 7pm, flat-folding seats on the plane were oh so legit. Read the Jan/Feb issue of Running Times, and scanned the February Issue of Runners World. I read Running Times cover to cover, and didn't see a single article in RW that interested me. RT is absolute gold... There was even an add for a book about psychosomatic injuries. I'm loving our current running boom (or at least the running boom that's apparent in my life...maybe I just immerse myself in it). In a pretty standard article by Dave Griffin, I came across some solid quotes:

"Great opportunity doesn't present itself often. Sometimes, when it does, it will pass by untouched or even unrecognized. It is only with preparation that we can grasp a fleeting chance, and turn it into something great."

"Some say that life has defining moments, but I thing that's a misnomer. We are defined by the decisions we make, the work ethic we employ, and the discipline we display in the years before the moment happens."

We landed in Madrid this morning at around 7 am. Slept on the plane a bit, but the JetLag is decently heavy. I'm writing this to stay awake before we go out to dinner. This morning we took a taxi to the hotel, dropped stuff at rooms, and then went to the Prado, which is across the street. Renoir is temporarily there, but we didn't want to wait for two hours to take that tour, so we just checked out everything else. I could spend a lot longer in there, but Matt, Mother and I were decently fatigued, so we peaced out. I took a power nap in the hotel, and then went for my run.

Started at the hotel, ran up el Paseo del Prado, took a left on more or less Gran Via, continued onto Calle de la Princesa, took a left on Av de Seneca, checked out some of Complutense and Parque del Oueste, and then ran back. 6.1 in total at 7:22 mpm felt really good. Newtons were great on hard surfaces. I also had to dodge people on the sidewalks the whole way...that was interesting. Lots of stares. Pretty soon I'll run to the Casa del Campo (large park-esq area), and upload some pictures. I'm pretty pumped for the new landscapes.

After the run, went to the Hotel gym and did some core, lunges, and leg press...the biggest freeweights they had were 22kg (48 lbs), which aren't useless, but aren't ideal...I ended up doing lots of walking lunges. I could do burpees with weight, but I don't know how good that is for my knee.

My Spanish is pretty good so far. Hardest part is remember on the fly which words are masculine and feminine. It's easy when I'm writing, but when I'm asking for directions, and say "este calle," I feel decently stupid afterward. I'm going to try to finagle my way into the pool at Complutense tomorrow. I've heard it's 3-5 euros per use, so if I use it 6/7 days for sixteen weeks, that ~400-700 U.S. Dollars. I'm hoping they have a semester pass or something like that. The long course pool is closed for the winer, even though it was 55 degrees today. I guess that's cold for some people.