Category: RunLog

Week Recap 222015

2 Comments

I’ve rested last week.
I “only” did 59k (~36 miles) and took some time catching up on sleeping mostly.

My shin pains (mild) and adductor muscle stiffness seem to be gone so I’m ready for an intensive week.
The goal is to insert more stretching in my daily routine and hope this helps for various little aches.

This week I’m aiming at a 100k week again.

Monday: 18k
Tuesday: 2x12k (to and from work with a detour)
Wednesday: 18k
Saturday: 44k

I’m already excited for this last one. Running more than a marathon for training is always a serious task.

Have fun running this week everybody!

Taking What I Can…

No Comments

There has been an awful lot of wind the last weeks around here.
I don’t mind pounding against nature now and then, but after a while I’ve had it none the less.

Last weeks I’m running to commute (detailed post later :-)) and one of the advantages is now that I can always take a detour home without really touching the family time.

Wednesday I had 90 minutes in Zone 2 planned, but with a wind of 12ms/s (with bursts up to 14) and feeling tired I just stayed in and called it an early night (21:15 lights out :o)

Yesterday evening the wind was a lot less and after consulting The Girlfriend I agreed to do my 90 minutes then.

It was a while since I did a Zone 2 training on asphalt, the last weeks I always went running on the beach, so I didn’t know what my pace would be.
Turns out I managed to do a 4:45min (per km mind you) pace even with my backpack.

So with the lovely weather I decided to add an extra 10 minutes and got a semi-speedy half marathon for my training.
As you can see … I’m taking what I can 🙂

 

powered by EndomondoWPlogo
2015RunUntilApril

Bye April…

No Comments

Goodbye April, helly May.

April has been kind to me. The weather didn’t really cooperate, but the mileage did go up!
Spring has arrived here for over a month, sadly it doesn’t show, nor by temperature, nor by hours of sunshine and especially not by a nice spring breeze.

April had one good week – weatherwise – which I took with both hands to start commuting by run.
This is the main reason I was able to build up my mileage a lot!

StravaOverviewApril
Strava overview April

I managed to get a whopping 306km!
This is more than January+February or February+March (February was not good to me…)

It’s also my 2nd best month ever since I started running March 2013. Only September 2013 does better with 324km.

My goal for 2015 of running 2500km is suddenly a lot more into reach than it was one month ago.

So how was your april month?
Managed to get the desired distance? Did any nice races?

100kSmall

100k In One Week!

6 Comments

The commuting on foot has started last week and because of all the good weather and the “hey-it’s-new” spirit I added some extra mileage and everyday and just like that something happened that I have been dreaming of for a while now: the 100km in one week came in sight.

After Friday I was already at ~65k and I knew that Saturday I was running at least 25k at the HMS Vindictive Memorial Run. This meant coming short 10k in total.

Option 1 was adding an extra 10k to the Memorial Run.
Option 2 was running on Sunday.

As I started feeling that my body needed some rest, option 2 was soon out of the window, which meant I laced up an hour early for my race and headed out. The start was in my hometown, so I could run to the start point to get my bib.
Unfortunately, there was a queue at the bib-stand, which meant I still needed 2k after the 25k from the race.
Luckily there was an opportunity at the end to add an extra loop to my run, which I did and just like that I got to 100k in one week!

100kWeekStrava
Strava proof of my 100k week 🙂

So Happy 🙂

I felt more tired this week, so it’s clear my body needs adapting to higher mileage weeks, but I really would like to run some more weeks like this before I tackle another ultra…

How much do you run a week?
Do you have a “dream” distance you’d like to get to?

Beach Running In The Sun

3 Comments

So a while back I wrote a post about beach running in the dark.

I stand with my pro’s and cons from then, but what I wanted to share is the difference between then and now.

Beachrunning
Feet in the sea

Back in November it was dark, cold and lonesome on the beach.

Yesterday was a very different story.
It was sunny, it was warm and it’s easter break in Belgium, so the beach was full of families playing, some even in the sea.

First time going out in shorts, t-shirt only and no cap on the head.

Awesome birthday run (yes, yesterday was my birthday :-))

powered by EndomondoWPlogo
SpeedyRunnerSmall

Golden legs?

No Comments

Not even a week after writing down I keep track of my Training PB’s, I get to adjust one.

My previous record in 2015 of 90 minutes in Zone 1 dates to only 2 weeks back, which made it my all time training PB as well.
It was the same pace as the previous one, but my heart rate was a tad lower.

See it at Endomondo or Strava.

Now, my avg heart rate was the same, my percentage in zone 2 is higher (8vs13%), but I crushed my PB with 12s/km.
That’s amazing if I may say so myself. (Endomondo / Strava)

I started running and couldn’t believe my Garmin.
First 3km were fast (<5min/km), but usually my pace drops a bit after that distance. But now I managed to keep up with it all the way through.

The weather was perfect though: sunny, but not too hot. Wind to cool down, but not interfering with my speed. And since it’s a vacation period in Belgium, there were a lot of tourists at the dike near the sea (my usual running spot), which caused enough diversion to keep me mentally occupied.

All in all, a very good run was had 😀

powered by EndomondoWPlogo

Back On Track?

1 Comment

Whew … What a crazy last month.
Between being abroad, being busy at work, going away for a ski trip I got sick. Throat hurted too much to control my breathing.
This all resulted in skipping more runs than I wanted to, but everything for the health right.

Past week I got a decent week in with 3 runs and a week total of ~64km(~40mi).
Seeing that Sunday the pacing half marathon is planned and in the past weeks I wasn’t able to hold a 4:30 pace for more than 4km, I’ll try to take it somehow easy.
I’ll do my distance, but at a low intensity.

Happy I’ve got something to blog about again!

BloodDonation

Blood Donation: Giving Away My Best?

4 Comments

Tuesday evening I donated blood. I do this every 3 months when the Red Cross passes through town.
Nothing shocking here, the aftermath however…

Usually I notice nothing after a donation, this time it was horrible.
Wednesday evening I went running and boy was it horrible…
I averaged at about 20s slower per km, felt faint and developed a headache.

Yesterday I had a recovery run planned, but my legs felt so rubbery I stayed home.

The combination of donating blood and limiting my calorie intake after my ski trip made my sugar level drop I think.
Every time I stood up too fast or picked something (or someone :-)) up it went black before my eyes.

So yesterday I ate … a lot and consistently throughout the day. Happy to say I felt a lot better this morning and hopefully this means that I can go through with my run of tomorrow.

The distance isn’t adding as fast as I’d like, but hey, listening to the body stays rule #1!

Do you donate blood? Ever felt faint after?

Week Recap 062015

2 Comments

I’m back from my ski trip.

Very happy I managed to get one run in, so there is not a complete blank week passed

The ski trip itself was very nice, lots of fresh snow and managed to get my quads burning quite a few times.

I totally missed the craziness over this article: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-31095384 so it’s a bit late, but I really like to share some opinions about it:

  • 5mph ideal pace – What??
    Absolutely no offence to the people who see this as their regular pace, but that is slow for many runners with some training.
  • 2.5h in total
    This seems like a nice number for a lot of joggers, but what comes to mind is other exercise. Say you bike to work or walk your children to school, do you need to subtract it from that total time?
  • only 36 were classified as “strenuous” joggers and just two of this group died
    So basically: much ado about nothing? A group of 36 is nothing for a proper study…

I’m pretty sure things like this will be said over and over again already this week, but as stated above: I’ve been away and really felt like I should rant about this as well 🙂

Tonight I’m starting my new run week with only 1 hour. In the middle of renovating my attic, so I need to divide my attention.
Not good for my 2500km in 2015 goal, but still a lot of time to make up for it 😉

Any thoughts about the article?