chinese speed...

EN: It is quite remarkable how the pace of China's development exceed our usual expectations:

here is a map of my yesterday's ride, a gorgeous 45km loop all around my town.

It was already hot at 5.30am (maybe 26C/80F), but roads were empty.

Anyway... most of the route does "not exist" yet on Google Earth's maps. The roads were built very recently and more to come in near future

NOTE: the crisis is biting hard also here. Many construction works had to be stopped for lack of funds. Many factories had to close and populaton has dropped by 30% because most of the workers went back to their hometown. Skies are clean as I had never seen before: the drop in power consumption has removed the need to use diesel power generators to support the power grid. For Dongguan, whose economy is totally export dependant, we are at direct drive with the state of US, Europe and Japan consumption. Hope better time to come.

I do not know if any reader is interested... but I could dwell for hours on my personal view of the state of affairs in China..

Lastly, the tendons are improving

IT: ecco il tracciato di una fantastica pedalata di ieri mattina, 45km. Faceva gia' un caldo boia (26C), ma le strade erano deserte.

In ogni caso, la strada "non esiste" ancora in Google Earth... e' stata costruita di recente e altre si aggiungeranno presto.

NOTA: la crisi sta colpendo duro anche da queste parti: molte fabbriche sono state chiuse e la popolazione della citta' e' calata del 30% perche' gli  operati sono tornati alle zone di provenienza. L'aria e' incredibilmente pulita come non ho mai visto, grazie alla riduzione dei consumi elettrici sostentati da generatori diesel ed al calo del numero di camion.

Per Dongguan, la cui economia dipende totalmente dalle esportazioni, il sistema lavora a presa diretta con il livello dei consumi in USA, Europa e Giappone. Speriamo bene...

Tendini in miglioramento.

5 months - 5 mesi

EN: today marks 5 months from my last run. Tendons still painful.

I am becoming a "theoretical runner"... just brownsing running blogs and forums and formulating hypotetical training plans for future marathons...

Cycling almost every day. I wish to take part in a road race to see what I would be capable to do, but at the same time I think that I would be now scared to take all the risks involved in a bike race... (road cycling is dangerous... all the scars on my body agree)

IT: oggi fanno 5 mesi senza correre, sembra un eternita'. Tendini ancora doloranti.

Ormai sono diventato solo un teorico della corsa, a leggere forums a blog senza muovere poi in piede.

Quasi tutti i giorni mi faccio 30/40km di bici e mi piacerebbe parteciapre ad una gare per vedere di cosa sarei capace a quasi 20 anni dalla mia ultima gara. Ma francamente ho la sensazione che sarei spaventato nel correre in un gruppo con tutti i rischi relativi (la bici e' uno sport indubbiamente pericolo e le cicatrici sul mio corpo sono li' a ricordarmelo)

17.4.2009

ENGLISH:

• myself: slow progress on the tendons. Biking daily. Today I went for a Time Trial to use as yardstick (well, obviously on the bike...). 15km at "medium effort" (I would say like marathon effort) in 25' (it is around 35kmh). Let's see how I will develop from here.
  

• running world: next sunday is very juicy... several friends and several "blogger runners" of my interest will run in a bunch of marathons around the world... my best wishes to all of them !! (list is below)
  

ITALIANO

• io: progresso lento. Bicicletta tutti i giorni. Oggi ho fatto un test a sforzo medio sui 15km, in 25' (sopra i 35kmh). Vediamo cosa riusciro' a fare in futuro (una ventina di anni fa potevo tenere forse attorno ai 42kmh...)
• altri corridori: domenica e' veramente affollata di corse attorno al mondo e dovro' seguire (spiritualmente) tutti i miei amici e corridori bloggers impegnati in maratona attorno al mondo. Ecco la lista

- Boston: my protege' Suet-fei (she goes for a big PB...) , Pauline + others from HK, Thomas (I hope a sub-3 for him), Michael (from Canada), Ryan (a very fast guy)

- Vienna: the fastest sumo-runner in the world, Simone

- Nagano:  fellow HK runner KaHo and HoKi...

hope I did not forgot anyone. In bocca al lupo... good luck...

Update / aggiornamento

ENGLISH:
From now on, I will try to add also a Italian version of the posts because more and more running friends from Italy are keen to read this blog in native language.
Then in short:
- tendons: not any remarkable improvement. Out of bed, I walk crippled around like a old grandpa. Also a small walk lets me painful. I do make eccentric stretching daily.
- biking: 6 times/week... Around 30km each time. Shall I think about racing again ?....
- morale: stationary and resigned to the fate....
- weight: slight increase. The trip to Italy did not help... But I have some great restaurant to recommend around Treviso.
I also come home with 30lbs of italian delicacies stored in the suitcase (Parma Ham, Parmesan, etc), so now I must eat..

ITALIANO
Per accontentare I lettori italiani che mi hanno chiesto di bloggare in Italiano, d'ora in poi cerchero' anche di "postare" in Italiano (Oddio, dopo 10 anni all'estero Il mio lessico sta precipitando..)
- tendini: nessun miglioramento significativo. La mattina appena alzato sembro un nonnetto zoppicante. Anche dopo una camminata, I'll dolore si fa persistente. Faccio esercizi di streching eccentrico.
- bici: 6 volte alla settimana, 30km alla volta.
- morale: cosa posso dire... Ormai I'll termine piu' adatto e' rassegnato..

Polar oriented training log

I copy/paste a message from a reader. Message which may be useful for other runner who use Polar HRM.
The web-based training log looks interesting.

..........................................
You may be interested to test training calendar I've developed for Polar HRM :
http://polartrainer.free.fr
(my own training: jp75018).
You can create your account or download (open source) from
http://www.php-endurance.org
Note: works only in Metric Units
.........................................

News?

Well, not much. Same routine cycling, stretching, treatment and no running.
Maybe is going better, but was enough to go for a walk with my daughter to have more pain for few days later...
I am now boarding the plane HK-Helsinki-Milan for a business trip and I am somehow emotional to land in Italy after more than a year.
(The drawback is a week with no cycling and no treatment, but it should not make huge difference at this poiny)

Travel tips: if you need spare parts/accessories for your Suunto o Polar, the duty-free of Helsinki's airport carries a huge selection... Probably the most well supplied shop of Polar stuff I have ever seen (I guess that downtown Helsinki might offer maybe even more..)

always on wheels

a short update...

the tendons are recovering slowly, but in the right direction. I found a very good physioterapist and maybe once it is all over I would make a more detailed report on the therapies that I am following.

I now cycle almost every day, around 25/30k. For a former full time cyclist is a bit "painful" to feel the pedals so "heavy" but I enjoy my rides (both in Dongguan and Hong Kong).

Unfortunately I am stuck to the usual short loops, but the area does not offer better.

Sunday I found myself in the new role as "ice breaker",  escorting by bike the leaders at the local Shatin 10K race. More than 1500 runners lined up for this classic race which usually mark the last chance for a fast time... the incoming spring will put everybody in slow gear.

In 2008 I end up in 2nd place, but I must honestly say that this year level was amazingly higher: at the start the usual Kenyan T.K. + a fast Ethiopian (no idea on who he is, but reported as 28' 10k runner !!) + all the fastest local runners...

Since the race is hold in a cycle path open to the public, my role was basically to open the way for the runners, shouting to all walkers, dog strollers, cyclist to get out of the way.

Police in HK does not care a shit about sport events, so the organizer is on his own to ensure the safety of the partecipants...

We (me and the top runners) risked several collisions and the most scaring part was when (in the out-and-back course) we begun to share the narrow path with the stream of runners still going in the other direction... I was barely able to open the way, shouting in multi-language to get out of the way and keep the left side... 

All said, it was pretty exciting to see from that close T. the Kenyan and Stefano battle all the way to the 7k mark, where T. pulled away to close with a 20" lead. Big applause to Stefano, for crushing his PB by 20"/25" !! His level now (31'20" on a slow course) is amazing for an amateur runner !!.

The Ethiopian DNF for some injury and many other friends scored impressive times.

Here below a pic of the start. Please note the trees and pillars right in the middle of the path... that's a HK style fast course...