Tag: runlog

Beach Running In The Sun

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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 :-))

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Back On Track?

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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?

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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?

2014 2015 Transition

Transition Week Recap

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I don’t and won’t do a lot of week recaps as I feel no one is really interested in those, but seeing it was a special week…
Oh and I promise this is the last New Year related post 🙂

This week I ran twice, once in 2014 and once in 2015.
I summed up a total of 36.85km (~22.9 miles) in those 2 runs, which isn’t all that bad.

First run was Tuesday, nothing exciting happened, but I did get a very nice pace (5:05min/km in Z1)
Strava & Endomondo for the number fans.

Second run was Sunday (yesterday). I hoped to get a long run in this weekend, but with another New Year dinner and The Girlfriend working shifts there wasn’t a lot of time to spare. Sunday morning I had the chance to bring my daughter to my father-in-law and I made do with the time I had.
Sadly no 2+ hours, but only 90 minutes.

So instead of a long slow run, I went for a mixed tempo run: 15′ Z2 – 20′ Z3 – 20′ Z2 – 20′ Z3 – 15′ Z2 (See my Heart Rate Zones here)
I went out on an empty stomach, as I always do in the weekends and brought some dates and carb-rich cookies, but in retrospect I should have eaten.
Weather was nice, wind was doable, yet I did not get to my desired pace at any point. My Heart Rate constantly went way too high.
I was glad to be home again.
Strava & Endomondo for the number fans.

So what did I learn?

  • Don’t do tempo runs of +1h on an empty stomach
  • You need more water when you run faster
  • Enjoying the sun is easier during a slow run

But hey, first run of 2015 is a fact and with 19km(~12mi) it could be worse.
Tonight a shorter recovery run and back into the weekly rhythm after two difficult weeks.

On a sidenote, seeing I want to run +200km(~124miles) per month, I joined the Greater Fitness 100 January Miles.

Have fun with all your runs!

I Ran Again! (120′ LSD)

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YouTube movie: The song that got inexplicably stuck in my head for 70% of my run…

I finally ran again!

So the last 2 weeks I have lacked motivation and was feeling not 100%
Aside from some speed work Tuesday it has been slow…

This morning I was determined to go running.
Depending on my daughter’s hungry hour I would take off for something between 15 and 25km (9-15 miles).

When she woke I first checked “The Flags”.
A downside of living at the coast is the wind. I can see a row of flags from my house and they help me estimate how windy it is and when I will have the wind in my back.
TheFlags

It didn’t look all that good… 9m/s apparently, but hey, I was determined, so after feeding my daughter I layered up and headed off.

I ended up with 21km (hooray HM) but my heart rate was constantly too high so all in all it’s one to forget soon. Most positive is that hopefully it gets me started back into a routine…

To end: random picture from during my run!

Coast running
Coast running

Tonight off to a wedding to add all my lost calories 😉

  • Ride Name:
  • Distance: 0 km
  • Elevation Gain: 0 m
  • Moving Time: 00:00:00
  • Location:

Strava – Endomondo

IthoughtItWasrum

Road To Marathon Brabant 2013 – The Decision

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Marathon.
42.195 kilometers.
26 miles and 385 yards.

As you can read in short in my About page I have gone from zero to marathon in less than a year. Which means the journey towards it has been full of anticipation.

At first I just liked being active and getting in shape, but soon I found out I actually liked running.
Running gave me a certain calm and gave me time after a busy day to clear my head.

So after training for a couple of months I found out running goes well for me. I see improvement, but start to stagnate.
Time to find some theory that can support me.

I started reading up on Long Slow Distance, watching your heart rate, make sure you don’t produce lactic acid in slow runs, minding your posture, stride, foot landing, … and started putting it in practice.
This wasn’t always easy (I’m sure some post will once go about my cursing on midfoot landings), but I did see I was getting better all the time. Sometimes barely noticeable, some weeks I amazed myself.

After my 5k race that started all my trainings (read the recap here) I wanted a new challenge and decided I wanted to go for the big leagues: marathon!

After some talk with the Mrs. I decided to undergo a medical screening, lactate test, vo2Max test etc. so I could decide if I was built for it, wouldn’t crash during race day and if our joined schedule could find the time for all the trainings.

The calendar got filled out, the appointment at Mensana set for the medical part and just like that the decision got made for sure.
I was going to run a marathon.

How my training went? I’ll write about it in a not so distant future.

 

Have you ever run a marathon? How did you decide about it?
Have you taken a medical exam as well? Why (not)?
If you haven’t run one, do you want to?