First week of Santiago Training.... Great

Despite the unnatural temperatures down here, I managed to survive the first week of training for Santiago, and it more or less went according to plan. I went dry from last Monday, and I was to be tested at the weekend, as a group of us from here were off to San Pedro, a county town on the River Parana, about 160 Kms from BsAs, where one of our group has a house. It was an extremely hot weekend, with temperatures reaching 38 degrees on Friday, not exactly conducive to running, and with the party atmosphere around, it was likely to be hard to sustain the alcohol free time, and get some runs in. But I managed both.... easily to be honest.

Saturday and Sunday mornings, Marlo, an Australian running friend who was with the gang, and myself were up at 7 and out with a run down to the river in the early morning heat (still around 25!), but before the day really heated up. Both runs were between 6 and 7 kms, with Sunday being slightly longer. One great thing about this run, was the long gradual hill back from the river, and while I am still in the early days of re-training, given there are no hills in BsAs to run, it was great to actually get a hill run in.

So the first week has been completed with 6 runs, and 35Km completed. Nothing fast, but the aim for January is simply to run 6 days a week and build the distance gradually, trying to ensure no injuries. Doing a body check today, I have a few aches, understandably, and quite tight hamstrings, but nothing too severe, so I can chalk week one down to a success. Now for week two, and with today my official rest day, thankfully, as it hit 40 degrees this afternoon, I look forward to tomorrow mornings 10Km run, along with the forecast for the week with temps dropping back to the high 20s, relatively cool.