The War Declaration

The War Declaration. Considering the perfect organization, the beautiful landscapes in the country and the plenty of loots (see my last post), the Black Knight Army Council decided to plan the conquest of Tuscany. We took this decision because some cities inside the Province of Grosseto signed an agreement to organize the trophy "Corri nella Maremma" (Run through the Maremma) considering all the results of the single races of the year. The Maremma is, more or less, one hour driving far from here.

Workouts. The last week I made only 2 workouts: tuesday 12 km and sunday 15 km. Unfortunately I had 4 days off because on tuesday afternoon I went to the hospital to remove 4 little seborrheic adenomas by my face.

Sailing. Sailing across internet I found this picture (click to enlarge) of the last race. The Black Knight is on the left with the n° 36 on his black shining armour.

Grosseto 12 km and thank you Lady Julie

Thank you lady Julie. Thank you very much Lady Julie for the much appreciated gift: a wonderful Minnesota Twins t-shirt that has the n° 7 on the back. As she kindly explained, it is the Joe Maver’s number. This player, originally from St. Paul, is the catcher for the Minnesota Twins. Thank you again Julie and sorry if in the picture I look so serious!!!Prologue.Unfortunately more than a race report this is the report of a calvary. I was well trained to finish the 12 km (7,45 ml) under 60 minutes but on friday I began to feel pain for an inflammation of the bladder and this was not the only trouble, in fact I also spent all the night between saturday and sunday with a strong migraine. I decided not to take any medicine because I didn’t want to become weaker (the antibiotics for the inflammation) and to drop the blood pressure (anti-migraine pill). For this reason I was present at the start weak and with a terrible headache despite the advices of Sir Giorgio and his squire Massimo who told that I didn’t have to run. Moreover we could not take any picture and make a short warm up because we arrived late and had only 10 minutes to receive the bibs and wear the running clothes.

The Report. 12 km. (7,45 ml.) in 61’14” (5’06”/km – 8’12”/ml), with an embarrassing 162 of 195, on an easy and flat route. The split: 4’53”-4’54”-4’55”-5’00”-5’09”-05’03”-5’14”-5’26”-5’18”-5’18”-5’05”-5’00”. The crisis is evident, km. after km. I was always slower and once I thought to retire because the migraine was too painful (see that 05’26”); after few moments of stop I decided to keep on running and I arrived slowly at the end of the race. At last I spent all the afternoon and the evening in the bed after having taken a pill for the headache.
The Loot. But the people of Tuscany could not get off scot-free because they know that the Black Knight Army doesn’t take prisoners. To get mercy they gave to the invincible warriors the few poor things that you can see in the picture. We had mercy and left Grosseto between a crowd of applauding people.

The Question. The Sir Giorgio's squire, former page, is hoping to become a knight. Even if he was brave in these latest battles he doesn’t deserve this title. Which could his role be? Please remember that he is not a blogger and this is a big problem for his promotion.

Early Bird or Night Owl?

Early Bird or Night Owl? When I began to run in the far 1985 I made all my workouts in late afternoon because it was very difficult for me to make quality works in early morning. Moreover my work-day began at 05.00 a.m. when the first ferry arrived into the port (I was in the Coast Guard) so it was impossibile to run at 03.00 a.m. When I got the present job, I didn’t change my habits and I kept on training at 06.00 p.m. and this also to run with other friends. However I noticed that the best performances happened at 10.00/11.00 a.m. (the workouts of the week-end); of course the races are not included in this statistic because we face them with a different competitive spirit. After the bad incident in 2007 I began to run in early morning at 07.00 before going to work and now this is my usual running-time. This is perfect because I have all the time to recover while I am in office and all the evening for my family or other important things. So a night owl became an early bird. And are you morning or night persons?
The Black Knight Army is everywhere. Talking about birds I must introduce you Pippo who defends the Black Knight Kingdom by the attacks from the sky and Silvietto who defends the Kingdom by the land attacks. Here you can see Silvietto (the black cat of course) while fights against a grey enemy.

Training. I cannot go to the pools again because closed during the week-end and open only while I am at work, so I have to wait for the next month. In the meanwhile I keep on running every other day increasing speed and mileage with the hope to run again a half marathon on oct. 31. Anyway on Sunday I will enter the Grosseto 12 km with sir Giorgio and his squire Massimo. My goal is to finish in less than a hour.
Cheers.

The Opinion Poll

Opinion poll. After 5 years of posts I have a doubt: is it better to carry on the Black Knight's tradition with bloody battles and epic tales or this blog has to become a serious report of running/swimming topics? Please give me an answer, I would like to know your opinion.

Black Knight legend. In the meantime when I went to La Valletta I found many Black Knight's items and I bought one of them:Running-Swimming. Both the pools are closed again for maintenance so I only run. Because the weakness of my left leg I can run every other day but, thanks to the better temperature, I have increased the mileage (11-12 km. per workout). On Saturday I ran 15,5 km but I met 5 sheepdogs as you can read below.
The 5 sheepdogs. Last Saturday I planned a 15,5 km. run along the Giro d’Emilio route; after 5 km. I turned to pass through the country where I met 5 big white sheepdogs. I stopped my run to control the situation and a little bit later, after patting the dogs, they began to wag their tails. When the shepherd arrived said: “don’t worry they are very good animals”. All things considered, the Black Knight exchanged the business cards with those gentlemen of the sheepdogs and gave them a pass to walk freely through the Black Knight kingdom.The greatest Black Knight. This is Leonardo my grandson and the hat is a present from a friend of mine, thank you lady Donatella.