Two cities, two scenic runs

Yesterday wound up being a bit hectic as I sought to make the earlier train rather than the later train (okay, actually there are trains that leave every hour from Hamburg to Cologne, but I still wanted to make the one that left earlier than the next one....if that makes sense).  So today is another 2-4-1, as well as some looking ahead at the next week.

Hamburg: Alster Lake

Actually not the part of the lake that I ran around, but still part of the same lake.

Hamburg has a huge, artificial (created by a dam) lake in the middle of it called the Alster.  As you can probably imagine, this is a favorite place to run, particularly in the other part of the Alster that is not shown in this photograph (fewer buildings).  I think that I saw more runners there than I have, total, over the past month.  It was a three-mile run, and while it could have been a bit nicer because it was spitting rain, overall I cannot complain.  Okay, one mild complaint: to get to the Alster, you need to run down a hill.  This is not the complaint.  It's on the way back when you have to run up the hill that is not so nice.  But I did survive.

People also row in the Alster, which was nice to see while I was running, but served as a helpful reminder of how slow you run versus how fast you can row:

The better mode of transportation.

Also, I had to wait at red lights for annoying amounts of time.  My favorite was the light at 2.99 miles of my 3-mile run.  *sigh*  I waited, then ran across the intersection, just to feel like I had completed my goal for the day.

Cologne: The Rhine

Before I describe today's run, you need some background information.  Cologne's major monument is the Dom, a cathedral in the middle of the city:

I know that you have no sense of how tall this is from this photo, but let me assure you, it is tall.

For some reason, while visiting the Dom (Cathedral) this morning, I had the urge to climb up the tower to get a good view of the Rhine.  There are 509 steps:

Do not do this if you get vertigo easily.

I can assure you that 509 stone steps are pretty much worse than any hill I have encountered, except possibly some in Pittsburgh.  I could feel my legs and they were somewhat spastic after the climb.  This was a bit disconcerting because instead of going running this morning, I chose to go to the hotel-provided breakfast (incidentally, it was a feast and definitely worth attending.  Then I burned it off climbing up the cathedral steps).  I was worried that my stair-climbing would affect my run, and I think that it did a bit because I was stiff for the first mile or so.  But then things straightened out and since it was a 5-mile run, I had plenty of time to recover.

I decided to run along the Rhine because hey, there is a huge, major river, and why wouldn't you run next to it?

The Rhine.  Photo taken by me, this morning, after climbing the 509 stairs.

Although it was somewhat congested to start, eventually the people thinned out and it was an extremely pleasant run.  I made it pretty far, to the point where I could see a green bridge in the distance with hills in the background.  Super scenic.  All in all, two great runs in two wonderful cities!

Running plan for the next week

I made two executive decisions today:

1) I'm going to run a 3-mile tomorrow.  It is scheduled for Tuesday, but that is a travel day and I don't want things to get too hectic.  At around 4 miles of today's 5-mile run, I asked myself how I was feeling and I feel well enough to do three miles tomorrow.  For some variety, I will go the other way along the Rhine, in a northishly direction.

2) Next Sunday will be five miles in Florida.  Boo!  I've decided to chop that up into two runs: one 3-miler in the morning and one 2-miler later.  This way I might not die.  We will see.