Friday float with Jack

Yesterday ended up being a double as ran a 30 min track session around the corner.  There are running tracks everywhere here in Berlin.  Copied the HuRTs session which was the Pyramid: 400, 800, 1200, 1600, 1200, 800, 400.  I was tired but got it done in the cold and averaged 3.21s (21.55 for 6.5ks).

Today Jack and I cruised togther for some 1 on 1 time.  Took the UBahn into town and had a mosey around the shops near the Kurfuerstendam stopping in Ka De We (Berlin's most famous shop) and the Hertha Berlin shop finishing with lunch on Kantstrasse at Saigon Green. The place was heaving for a Friday afternoon but managed to get a table after a short wait.

Back at the hotel we had time to kill before Jack's last traning before the tournament starts tomorrow.  With limited running time availiable over the weekend I opted for my long run which ended up being 1h45mins (4.31s / 23k). I meandered into town on a slightly different route going past the HBH, the Reichstag, Alexander Platz, Untern den Linden, Brandenbruger Tor and then the fast way home.  The last 6ks I picked up the pace -  roughly 3.50s with some 3.45s.

Jack trained well before dinner in the hotel and it was buzzing as some of the teams had arrived in force:

Hamburg SV
AIK Stockholm
Southampton FC
RB Leipzig
National Northern Ireland team
AGF Aarhus (Denmark)
FC Augsburg (Bundesliga 1st division)
Urawa Red Diamonds (Japan)
Sparta Prag

Rain and rest

Rest day for boys after 3 days of heavy stuff.

I opted to run on treadmill as it's bloody cold and raining. 15k split into 3 sets. The first just over 4s. The second 3.30s and the last 4.30s.

Topography des Terrors

Lazy day post breakfast I ran over to the Olympic stadium but got confused around all the canals and then headed back.  A very slow 10k.

For the rest of the day we ended up at the Jewish memorial (1st set of pictures below - purposely built and some of the pictures give off an eerie feel), Potsdamer Platz (Mall of Berlin) and then walked to 'Topography des Terrors' which is basically a visual account of the history of Berlin /
Germany between 1930 - 1990 on the last standing section of the Berlin wall. Disturbing but good and the boys got a little culture. 

I like the 4th picture below which has the extreme juxtaposition of the symbolic grey of the rectangular mass graves vs the green of the Berlin trees behind.  Berlin is incredibly green right now.

Afternoon they trained back with the U13s with Andreas ('Digger') barking out his usual repertoire of orders.