Sunday morning 26km, 2:45 and 420m of GPS climb (I'm sure it's more than that in reality but my app doesn't calculate it so well. Garmin does a better job).
Felt really good up till about 20k when I felt my energy stores crash. That was kind of what I was looking for, was running on an empty stomach. Got through the lull and was feeling pretty good again before the end. But not so good that I could turn around and do it two more times, which is basically what I have planned for May. So, gotta get more longer runs in.
There was one really long, steep climb, up to the medeival signal tower and then it was off through the forest to the castle. Here's the road sign at the top of the castle. Look closely:
This is the final leg of the long climb, a LOT steeper than it appears:
It flattens out and becomes kind of 'rolling hills' territory for a while:
see the doggie?
And after a few kilometers of wintry woods, we came out to this gorgeous view:
Leni the Superdog was great, as usual. At around that 20k zone, we were running along a long, wide, straight 'river' (actually a flood-protection area), with steep embankments from the path down to the water. She loves running there because the water is teeming with ducks. So, after 20k and just around the time when I was feeling poopy, she got revved up and started blasting up and down the embankment, chasing ducks.
Came home to sauerbraten and potato dumplings, a nice Hefe Weizen to round it off.
This is what Sundays were made for!