After a stressful commute home, and a stressful day in general, I only managed to start my run late in the day. I started off with the same 1.7km on paved roads that I’d done the day before, but then opted to go up “Rue de Volmerange”. This proved to be a very exhausting decision, because almost straight away I had to climb up steeply. Over the next 400m or so I climbed around 50m, and my heart rate jumped up to a maximum of 181.

By the time I reached the trail into the forest, the sun was starting to set. Consequently, I did a more straightforward run initially, not entering side trails. By the time I crossed the next paved road, the sun had already set. I still did a loop around Mont St Jean, figuring the trail was nice enough that I wouldn’t fall or twist an ankle. When that worked, I figured I’d save my knees some trouble by not running down the paved road but instead taking the slightly longer way over a forest trail. This was slightly more challenging, with a few fallen tree stumps to jump over and a fairly steep descent at the end, all with less and less daylight.

I arrived back home after 10.08km and 1:02:05, doing a 6:10 min/km pace. The elevation gain had been 211m. At home, I double-checked my watch and realized why the calorie counter (743cal) was giving me lower than expected results: the watch was set to a 68kg male with unspecified base heart rate. This might explain the low calorie reading for the previous day as well.

Kayl to Lannebierg/Kalebierg/Mont St Jean and back

Day 2 of the month saw a slight mileage increase over the previous day with slightly faster pace and more elevation gain. Oddly enough, my Garmin watch seems to think I burned fewer calories.

I started my run on the sidewalk along the main road to Tétange. After 1.3km, I turned left into „Langertengass“, a dead-end street that joins the forest after 1km. Once I was in the forest, I followed whatever trail struck my fancy, with my only objective being not to loose too much elevation. Watching my GPS tracks later on, I realize I did quite a bit of zigzagging, but of course that doesn’t matter much.

After around 6km, I was back on a trail that I recognized clearly from my previous runs last week. By this time I’d been plagued by side stitches for a few kilometers. Fortunately, they eventually disappeared. Two kilometers later, I did some more zigzagging, and then descended towards Dudelange before crossing the road and running towards Mont St. Jean. Here, I did two 1km loops and then opted to run back home through the forest and not do a longer loop that would take me over more pavement.

I ended up doing 13.87km at an average pace of 6:11 min/km. I had to deal with 270m of elevation gain and my watch thinks I only burned 1039 calories. Temperatures were around 15 degrees, which seemed quite hot whenever I ran in the sun and quite cold when I ran in the shadows with a cross wind. I was wearing my Asics.

 

Kayl to Lannebierg/Kalebierg/Mont St Jean and back

I ran 13.40km today. I started off at home and headed west, intending to join the forested hill I’d ran on quite a few times the past two years that I lived in Esch. Of course I didn’t quite know how to get there, so I mostly trusted my instincts in getting out of town. Turns out said instincts need some fine-tuning, as I briefly followed a dead-end and also ended up circling around the local cemetery.

I finally found the right road to follow out of town and after around 1.5km I slowly started gaining elevation. The increase was gradual, except for the last 200m. Around the 3km mark I had made it most of the way up towards the wooded area known as “Gaalgebierg”. From here, I soon joined a loop trail going over “Brucherbierg”. Following my usual set of trails, I know this loop takes around 3.5km. The loop was eventless – I encountered a few other runners and hikers, but mostly was alone.

With around 7km done and over 3km to get home, I knew it’d be wise to not force too much mileage on my out of shape self. And then I still turned right for another 3.5km loop. I had some knee pain, but other than that I was feeling fine. By the time I’d made it back down near town I was ready to call it a day.

I ended up running 13.4km in 1:27:10. This translated to an average pace of 6:31 min/km. The elevation gain was 192m, and my watch thinks I burned 1189 calories. Temperatures were between 11°C and 15°C, and I was wearing my second pair of Brooks Glycerin 9.

Strava activity: Kayl to Brucherbierg/Gaalgebierg and back