Down by the river (Part 1)

Stats are a bit difficult this week. My training schedule had an error on Thursday: speed, time and distance did not fit together. I have asked my trainer to correct it, but haven't heard anything yet. Therefore I can only guess, what was scheduled for this week.

Total running time this week: 3 hours 32 minutes (scheduled: 7 hours 42 minutes) + 2 hours 15 minutes walked briskly

Total distance run: 26.5 km (scheduled 52.9 km) + 11 km walked

I skipped the three hour run scheduled for today and I had already given the training unit on Wednesday a pass. The messages various parts of my body were sending me got worse. Now it's my right knee and my left calf that are hurting. My neck and shoulders are tense, not from running but work. And yesterday morning I woke up with a running nose.

So, instead of running through the forest I went to record fair in Cologne with two of my friends. This is one of the piles that F. bought:

He spent over 100 Euro today. Three quaters of his flat are occupied by records and record players. The only thing I found was The Lilac Time by The Lilac Time for ... 1 Euro! Ok, it's only the Fontana version, but 1 Euro is ridiculous. After this bargain I was willing to spend too much on a picture disc by The Cure.

My body couldn't make its mind up today. On the one hand it complained about too much running, on the other hand it was restless and clearly wanted to do something. So after the record fair I took it for a two hour walk by the river Rhine (as far as I am concerned the best thing about Cologne).

Because it was a sunny day, only a few other people had the same idea...

I started off from the fair just opposite the cathedral

and walked down south past the fire brigade's harbour...

and along the river...

Every couple of hundred meters there are these rings on the ground to moor boats...

which of course only works if the water level of the river is normal.

The meadows on this side of the river are very popular. People take their dogs for a walk or fly kites...

This one was a particularly large kite. The guy needed four ropes to navigate it.