Sunday, August 26, 2012

Post holiday blog

My (our) holiday has finished. 2 weeks in Italy, 1 week in Tuscany and 1 week in near the Lago Maggiore. Sun, relaxing and running. Running? During you holiday? Yes, because I have a very challenging target. I just couldn't stop training for 2 weeks. So I did 3 runs in Italy. Early in the morning, I got up, put on my running gear and ran. Before we left, I investigated some routes.

The first run, I planned a 45 minute run but the course I choose was a bit shorter (or I ran a bit faster) than anticipated. After 38 minutes, I finished my lap of 6.11km.

Next, 2 days later was a speed run. My target was 30 minutes. But I started going up a hill. My calves exploded after about 10 minutes :( the run was cut short after 20 minutes, after only 3.63km. Quite disappointing.

The third run didn't quite go as I planned either but this time, it was because of the route I planned. More precise, it was because I got lost halfway through my run so I had to double back along the route I already ran. I planned to run around the Lago Mergozza but at the opposite site of the lake from where I started, I couldn't find the road I planned to follow... In the end I didn't quite make the 10km I planned but still it was a nice run along a small lake.

Friday, we took the 13 hour trip back home. The holiday was finished. Saturday morning I planned another endurance run. Not really knowing what I would be able to do, I just started and would decide my route along the way depending on what my body would tell me. So I ran and ran and ran. And after 95 minutes I decided to stop. I reached on of my goals 2 weeks ahead of target! And even the distance was more than I anticipated. My Runkeeper app told me 15.3km but there were some GPS hickups and it turned out I "only" ran 14.9km. 14.9km!!! That's only 1.3km less than the Dam-tot-Dam distance!!! WOW!!! I'm almost there!

In the next 3 weeks, I hope I'll be able to run the 16.2km in 95 minutes but making those 10 miles is my prime target. Keep an eye on this blog to see my progress.

Till the next blog

Greetinx
Johan

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Sayings

In China they have a saying: Even a journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step. Start small and build up to your goal. I thought I had taken quite a number of steps already but today my training showed me I still have a long way to go.

The goal is not the finish line but the journey towards it (or something like that) but today, that journey wasn't all that good. My legs were made of jelley and my body told me it was time to call it a day.

My wife likes to say: The bow can't be always under tension (I really don't know the English equivalent of the Dutch saying: "De boog kan niet altijd gespannen zijn") I really hate it when she says that but there is some truth to it. You can't always perform at your maximum.

Today is a short blog. As my run was a short one (WAY TOO short). My target was somewhere around 85-95 minutes but the engine ran out after only 26:35

Soooo, better luck next time.

Till next blog.

Greetinx
Johan 

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Longer, Further, Faster

The Olympic Games have started. Citius, Altius, Fortius. The official olympic motto. Latin for Faster, Higher, Stronger. I am by no means anywhere near olympic material (It's more probable, I'm not even allowed to say "I" and "olympic material" in the same sentence). That doesn't mean I have no goals. My goals do adhere to another olympic motto "The most important thing is not to win but to take part!" In another blog, I already mentioned my goal. To finish the Dam-tot-Damloop 2012.

One of my passions is being a volunteer for the Dutch organisation "Vereniging voor Gehandicapte Wintersporters" (Organisation for Disabled Winter sports). After last winter season, a new club house was build. Yesterday, all was ready to move all the material from the old location. And of course I worked hard. Maybe a bit too hard. In the evening, my shoulder was hurting like crazy. Don't know what I did but I did something wrong. Aside from hurting my shoulder, I bounced my shins on the edge of the loading floor of the moving truck. My first thought was: "There goes my endurance trainging which I moved to Sunday". Come Sunday morning I was stiff, a bit tired but I had to try. A good thing I did! My legs felt great. My shoulder still hurts but didn't bother me at all during my run and in general it felt GREAT :-D

My primary target for today was 75 minutes. If possible quicker than my last endurance run (7:17min/km). A third goal I had was pretty much out of my hands: Not receiving a stand-by call.... In my head I had my course laid out. It was based on the main "Het Lint" track with a little side track added around the Haarrijnse plas.

There is a tree on the 1.4km loop of the northen most subtrack of "Het Lint". The loop is right in front of my house so I use it in my runs quite a lot. That tree is usually a target for the end of my various training types.

After 75 minutes of running I knew the tree was only about 5 minutes away. Sooooo, I decided to go for those additional 5 minutes. IT FELT GREAT! It looks like I am going quite a bit faster than my schedule has planned for. In addition, my average pace was quicker than last week. The phone didn't ring during my run so I reached all 3 of my goals.

As I am ahead of my schedule, I can start working on my secondary target: averaging at least 5:50min/km during the Dam-tot-Damloop.

Next week, I hope to reach my endurance target of 95 minutes. Would be nice.

Stay tuned, till next blog.

Greetinx
Johan

Monday, July 23, 2012

Progression

I am truly amazed. With my progress that is. The original plan was to run 45 minutes a week ago and 55 minutes last week. At a heart rate of 70-75% of my max heart rate. Using the Karvonen calculation method that comes down for me to 141-148BPM.

A week ago, when I did my first endurance training, I was able to run 60 minutes at an average of 140BPM averaging 8:05min/km for a total distance of 7,45km. After I posted my blog for that run, I got in touch with Jim again because back then I calculated my heart rate range between 125-134BPM. We reworked the training schedule and for last Saturday I was to run 70 minutes. I also looked for a better heart rate calculation and came across the Karvonen calculation which comes much closer to the heart rates I actually have during my run.

In Vleuten-De Meern, there is a beautiful running area through the new Leidscherijn areas. The main course is 8km so I decided to go for that one during my run of last Saturday. It turned out, the course I choose was too short :-D I ran for 71 minutes with an average heart rate of 145BPM, an average pace of 7:17min/km!!! A quick calculation (or a look at my Runkeeper activity) shows a WHOPPING 9,76km!!!

The bottom line:

  • An increase in time of 11 minutes
  • An increase in distance of 2,31km
  • A decrease in pace of 48sec/km
  • An increase of HR of only 5BPM
But, I am also a realist. I know I can't keep these progress curves going like this and I expect I'll have to flatten them down a bit. There is room to flatten these curves but the end goal is still to finish the 16.2km by September 23rd at the Dam-tot-Damloop. And if possible with a pace of around 5:50min/km (~95 minutes)

Tomorrow, I'll run my next (3rd) Tempo run but when I get home it'll be around 27C so that will probably be later in the evening. We'll see how that goes.

Till the next blog.

Greetinx
Johan

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Endurance

For today, I planned my first endurance run. As you can see above, I added a graph with my endurance schedule. The plan is to increase the time I can run at 70-75% of my maximum heart rate. According to the 220 calculation, my 70-75% heart rate is 124-133BPM. But I have NO clue on how to get my heart rate below the required limit. 

This first run I had to run for 45 minutes. After 2:27, my heart rate came above the upper limit for the first time. During the rest of my run I came down to my upper limit only 5 times... I recorded an average heart rate for the entire run of 140BMP. Oh, and in stead of 45 minutes, I ran for 60 minutes....

Not sure what I should think of all this so next week I'll get in contact with Jim again to hear his idea on what I'm doing.

Another thing, during my run, my RunKeeper app lost the connection to my Bluetooth HRM 2 times. To get the HRM working again and to hear my heart rate every minute, I had to restart the RunKeeper app twice. Resulting in 3 activities :-( So I manned the Googles and thanx to the Google cache (RunKeeper seems to have removed the discussion pages) I found this site: http://zip-zero.com/runkeeper/index.php It helped me to merge the 3 activities into 1 :-D So I found out that during my 1 hour "dribble", I ran 7.45km averaging 8:05min/km. I know, I know, my prime goal is finishing 16.2km but 2 hours is a bit longer than I had first envisioned. Ah well, I have 10 more weeks to go, so we'll see how it goes.

Every week I will update the graph so I can keep an eye on my progress.

Till my next blog.

Greetinx
Johan

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

A real training schedule

Until today, I was just winging it. Running an interval, then a "long" run. But yesterday, I had a chat with an old colleague who knows a bit or two about running. When I told him I want to run 16.2km (10mi) by September 23 and my longest run so far was between 6.5km and 7km, his eyes flew open. He though that, since there are only 11 weeks to go, it is a very challenging aspiration. Especially since I can only run twice a week (2 evenings of Aikido stand in the way of a third run). So he proposed a very aggressive ambitious training schedule. Which works towards my prime goal for this run: Finishing the Dam tot Damloop.

Looking at the times and paces I have been running recently, my boss Marijke, who is also going to run the Dam tot Damloop, is "afraid" I will outrun her. To be honest, for this run, my goal is just to finish the run without having to walk slowly. A time of 1:35 would be nice (still slower than her time last year) but not the end goal. (More like an added bonus :D)

My schedule has 2 runs per week, an endurance run, which increases over time until I can run 95 minutes non stop at about 70%-75% heart rate, and a speed  run of 20-30 minutes at 80-85% heart rate.

Today I ran a speed run. So 20-30 minutes at 142-151BPM. After 2 minutes and 3 seconds, I hit 152BPM. After 3:57 I hit 160BPM (=90%!). For the remaining 14:04 my heart rate hovered between 159 and 162. I could NOT get it down (Unless you count the sudden, single 155BPM at 11:48). It will be a tremendous challenge for me to remain around 124-133BPM when I do my first endurance run this coming Saturday...

I will keep you posted on the progress.

Till the next blog.

Greetinx
Johan

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Crossed the 6K mark

WOW, this is what I needed! After an horrible running week, I finally got my rhythm back :-D I ran 6.22K in just over 37 minutes, which comes down to 6min/km!!! And the funny part: I had 4 1 minute slow sections.

I started off with a 5k 2 8k interval training but after about 4k (4 sections of 7 minutes 145BPM and 1 minute 137BPM from the Podrunner interval website, the Gateway 2 8K section, week 1), my Bluetooth® headset started to act weird. The problem is, I have a Bluetooth® headset with the Bluetooth® receiver at the back, and a Bluetooth® HRM, with the receiver on the front and my phone strapped to my left biceps. The challenge with this is that Bluetooth® signals don't travel through the body... When I have my phone on the outside of my upper arm, everything is fine, until I look at my left. Then the connection with my headset breaks and the audio pauses. So as soon as I swivel my head back in a position where the connection is re-established, I simply push the middle button on the right side of my headset and music continues playing again. (As you can imagine, that middle button is the play/pause button) Can you guess what the left and right button do on that side for the headset? You have probably guessed it, they skip backward and forward. And as you most likely guessed as well, I pressed either of these outer buttons in stead of the middle button. Gone was my training podcast :( But this is a running blog and not a moan-about-crappy-techie-stuff-blog. I pulled off my headset and continued the last 2k without the guidance of a stead beat and the signalling of the end of an interval section and continued running. My Runkeeper app continued to talk to me every 5 minutes and/or every km so I got a fairly decent idea of what I was doing. This brought me to bring my average pace down in the last 400m from about 6.03 min/km to an even 6.00 min/km. And boy oh boy was I a happy man when I made it! Over the next few weeks I will be trying to add to the distance I can run. For me, distance is more important than pace at this moment. Don't forget, I need to get to 10mi (~16k) by September 23. That doesn't mean I don't want to run it in a decent time but running it is my first priority. Doing so in unde 1:30:00 is my second ;-)

Till the next blog

Greetinx
Johan

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

The search for excuses

Oh boy, I thought it would become easier over time, but my 5K today was a 34:44. My wife would now use a saying which literally translates to: The bow can't be tensed all the time. Which basically means you can't always perform at your peak. Okay, I get that but I want to increase my distance and not the time I need for a 5K. In fact, I want to triple the distance in the next 3 months. So what's the cause of the increased time? Is it the night I was called for stand-by 5 times last Wednesday followed by a night of bad sleep on Thursday? Was it the mental drawback of the Dutch National team performing their worst group phase in a European or World Championship only being outperformed in badness by the Irish team who scored one less goal than "us"? (Hmm, I think I can safely scrape that one off the list) Or was it the tough Aikido training we had yesterday in preparation for our 5th Kyu exam next week? It could also have been the sore throat I'm sporting (although sore might be overstating it quite a bit but hey, I'm on the prowl for excuses here). Oh, no, I know what it must have been! I forgot to charge my bluetooth headset, so every time I turned my head the wrong way, my phone which was playing the 138BPM mix by DJ Steve Boyett faulted and I missed a step... (yeah right, that must be it)

Or could my wife be right and I just have to carry on and all will be well? Nah that could never be it, that would mean that I can't blame anyone for my lesser performance. But do I have to?

NO OF COURSE NOT. It was just a lesser run. It wasn't all bad. Well not the first 20 minutes anyway. After that I got a little tired. But I still finised the 5K (and a bit) in 34:44, including 2 walks.

In the end, I just have to keep up my training, run my rounds and be ready to run a 10Mile on September 23, 2012

Oh, I almost forgot, I bought myself another nice little gadget. The Polar WearLink®+ transmitter with Bluetooth®. It works great with the RunKeeper app for Android (No, it doesn't work with the iPhone) on my Samsung Galaxy S3. Talking of which, I got that almost 2 weeks ago and guess what, it was a little bigger than the S2. Which meant that I had to get myself a new armband for it :-( I had this Belking Dualfit Armband for the S2. It was okay. But now, I have this Muvit (Hmm, why is their catalog page so bad???) armband and it is much more comfortable.

It looks like I'm set for the next stage in my running career. I have all the tools, gadgets and goodies.
All I need now is ....................................

PRACTICE

'Till next time

Greetinx
Johan.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Run for KiKa 2012

Afgelopen zondag, 10 juni 2012, was het eindelijk zo ver. Mijn eerste georganiseerde 5k. Run for KiKa 2012 Spaarnwoude.

De weersverwachtingen waren niet super. 60% kans op regen. Eenmaal aangekomen op het terrein blijkt maar weer eens dat het voorspellen van het weer niets te maken heeft met iets dat ook maar enigzins in de buurt komt van zekerheden. Het was 21C en prachtig weer!

Patryck, Kevin en ik gingen voor de 5k, Marijke, Manja, Coen en Hans deden de 10k.

Leermomentje bij de start: Ga in het startvak niet helemaal achteraan staan! Het startvak is namelijk een stuk breder dan de weg waarop gelopen wordt... De trechter waar we in terecht kwamen heeft ongeveer 1.5 minuut gekost waardoor ik niet onder de 30 minuten ben gebleven :( Daarnaast kostte de drukte waarin we liepen ook nog eens veel tijd. Na een meter of 500 ben ik bij Patryck en Kevin weggelopen en heb mijn eigen ritme gezocht.

Dat ritme was ook nog een klein obstakel waar ik overheen moest. Vlak voor de start kwam ik er achter dat mijn headset het niet goed deed. Dus heb ik toen maar besloten om, voor het eerst in mijn nog jonge hardloop carriere, zonder muziek te gaan lopen. Dus geen steady-BPM ritme van de Podrunner website. Gelukkig kon ik de audio cues van mijn Runkeeper app op mijn telefoon wel goed horen dus wist ik wel ongeveer hoe hard ik ging.

Ook nieuw was die heuvel van 13m hoog. Het grootste hoogteverschil waar ik tot nog toe mee te maken heb gehad was ongeveer 2m dus toen ik die "enorme berg" in het parkours zag opdoemen moest ik wel even slikken. Maar uiteindelijk viel die 300 meter best mee :-D

Na een lang recht stuk nog een bocht naar rechts, een korte eindsprint en toen was daar de finish!

I DID IT!!! Met een tijd van 31:45

Net geen 30 minuten maar al met al was ik toch zeer tevreden.

Patryck en Kevin hadden een mooie tijd van net over de 34 minuten en de 10k renners waren ook tevreden over hun resultaat.

De opbrengst voor KiKa vanuit ons team "ITSA Runners" was € 1080 en de totale opbrengst voor het evenement van Spaarnwoude heeft de 100.000 ruim gepasseerd.

Namens de "ITSA Runners" en KiKa wil ik al onze sponsors heel hartelijk bedanken voor hun bijdrage!

Nu ga ik werken naar het volgende evenement: de 10 engelse mijl van de Dam tot Dam loop op 23 september 2012 (ook weer met collegae).

Greetinx
Johan

Friday, June 1, 2012

My first 5K under 30

WOW, what a thrill!!! After the first K I didn't think I was going to make it. I went too fast and I was get out of breath rapidly. Sooo I slowed it down a bit. Same rhythm shorter strides and once my heart rate slowed down to around 155, I kept the pace as steady as possible and once my Runkeeper app told me I ran 2.7K in 15 minutes (this time I decided to start the monitoring after my warming-up), I felt the fatigue slide away and the energy boost was amazing. The next 2.3K were mostly a breeze. Once I hit 5K I could have gone further but I decided not to overdo things and went into cooling down mode.

So, just a little over 1 week to go before the Run for KiKa 2012 for which we can still use all the sponsors we can get, so PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE show your support for KiKa at http://goo.gl/7ZZd3 Your help will be highly appreciated.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

11 days and counting

11 days from now, I will be running the 5k at the Run for KiKa in Spaarnwoude (did I mention you can sponsor my team at http://goo.gl/7ZZd3). After a month of injury I am slowly getting back up to speed. Slowly is the operative word here. It is taking me a much harder effort to get back to where I was at the time of my knee problems than what it took to get there in the first place. But I am not giving up, I will get there and I will run the 5K in under 30 minutes.

It's a short blog (and a bit overdue) but I'll do my best to post on a more regular basis.

Greetinx
Johan

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Gadgets and bouncing back

Finally, after 2 months waiting, I finally received my BT runners headset. I ordered some noname thingy from Groupon.nl and had to wait more than 8 weeks for the delivery. But it's here now and today I used it for a run for the first time. WOW, no more loose headset cord flapping around me. I had no idea it was so much in my way until it wasn't there anymore. It's not an top quality headset but it works fine and does the job it's supposed to: Keep a rhythm pumping in my ear while I am sweating my socks of on the street.

Talking of which, I did another steady run today. Actually it's my second since I started running and my first after my knee problems. That's why I decided to not go for broke and to slowly build things up. So I did a half distance run. The total distance was 3.32km and it took me 21:46, including warm-up and cooling-down. Looking at the pure running part of this training, then it boils down to 2.4km in 14:10 (5:54min/km or 10.2km/hr). Not bad, under 6min/km, which will be my goal for the 5k at the Run for Kika. In the next 2 weeks I need to reach that goal in order for me to be ready by June 10th. With the help of my gadgets, dj Steve Boyett and his running mixes and of course the support of my family, friends and colleagues I am 100% sure I will be able to make it so long as my various body parts keep supporting me too. My target for next week will be to actually run 5k it will be nice if it's going to be under 30 minutes but making 5k is my primary goal.

As the buckets of sweat no longer stream down my back, I think it's time to go and take a shower.

Blog to you next time.

Greetinx
Johan

Saturday, May 5, 2012

After 2 weeks of non running

2 and a half weeks ago, I ran my last training before a pending knee injury forced me to take a break. During that break I got myself fitted with some special soles so my running posture would be better and my knee(s) would be pointing, bending, pivoting or whatever movement these joints make, in the right direction while running. Today the soles were ready and I went to pick them up at Schrijver Orthopedische Schoentechniek.

At home, I changed into my running clothes, put on my running shoes with the new soles, decided how far back I was going to pick up my schedule and dashed of for a couple of rounds on the 1.4k small southern most ring of "Het Lint". While I did my 3 laps (and a bit) to the rhythm of DJ Steve Boyetts Podrunner interval for 1st day to 5K week 4 mix I felt as if it had been far too long. Yes, I did some cycling over the last couple of weeks, hoping my stamina would remain at a relative equal level, but still it wasn't running. And to be honest, I missed it. Now it's just a matter of waiting to see how my knee(s) will hold up with the new soles.

On a side note, I have decided that running the 10K is not going to be a realistic goal for June 10, 2012. So I have changed my entry to the "Run-for-Kika" to 5K... That doesn't mean we don't need any more sponsors :D You can still show your support for the fight against child cancer by sponsoring the team I am running with at http://goo.gl/7ZZd3

Well, that's it for this episode of my blog. Not many reactions to the previous articles but so far they are viewed a grand total of 160 times. Which means some people do read them. I would love your feedback so please post a nice reaction :D I'm looking forward to them.

Till the next post.

Greetinx
Johan

Saturday, April 21, 2012

A body with different ideas

This is where I should be elated about a new personal record I broke in an interval training, talk about how wonderful I think the mixes from the website DJ Steve Boyett helped me reach that new level in my running "career" or let you know about the feeling of getting soaked and chilled to the bone while I did my training.

But alas, my body decided different. To be more precise, my knees decided different. A combination of Aikido (sitting a lot in Seiza) and inexperienced running caused my knees, especially my right knee, to protest against another battering on the streets of De Meern. In fact, I'll be out of running action for at least a week, maybe even more, depending on the mood of my uncooperative joints.

So in stead of sweeting it out, I went to Schrijver Orthopedische Schoentechniek to have me fitted with a pair of soles. My Tukang Pitjit (Frans Flissinger of Massage Praktijk Flissinger) put me through the wringer and in 2 weeks, my soles will be ready. Hopefully, that will be enough time for my knees and me to get to grips.

I still have a goal to reach, running at the Run for KiKa 2012, but maybe, just maybe, in stead of running 10K I'll have to settle for 5K. :'(

Sponsoring our team is still possible at http://goo.gl/7ZZd3. You'll be helping the fight against child cancer!

So, as I meant this blog to be about my running antics, it may become a little quiet over the next week or 2 but I hope you will be joining me for my next blog, whenever that will be.

As always, I am looking forward to your responses.

Greetinx
Johan

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

I keep on breaking stuff

Stuff like another PR. I'm working hard on reaching a goal that I set for myself. A rather challenging goal.I started running on March 17, and I want to be able to run 10K in an hour by June 10, 2012 at the "Run for KiKa" in Spaarnwoude (Did I mention you can sponsor the team I'm running with at http://goo.gl/7ZZd3).

In the run I did today, I ran 5K in 30:30 (that's a pace of 6.01min/km). I can't really describe the feeling I had when I knew I was going to make the 5K running (I subtracted the warm-up walk from the total distance). The only thing I was not sure of was if it was going to be under half an hour. Unfortunately I just didn't make it. BUT I did make it to 5K without walking. And THAT boosted my morale to new heights. Next step will be to break the 6min/km mark. But first my next run. That will be another interval run, on Saturday since I have Aikido training on Thursday.

It's a busy schedule. Monday & Thursday Aikido training (practicing for my 5th kyu exam at the end of June) Tuesday & Saturday Running (training for the "Run for KiKa" in June and the "Dam-tot-Dam-loop" in September) but I am confident I can make it all work.

'till the next blog

Greetinx
Johan

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Breaking another barrier

YIHAAAA

Crossed the illustrious 5K barrier! The blizz I felt when I reached the point in my route at which my run would normally have finished, but now, I wasn't even in my cooling down section! I knew I was gonna cross the 5K line this time. And I didn't even feel like I was pushing my limit! I could have gone on for a couple of minutes (I think) but I decided not to overdo it and to follow the Podrunner interval week 6 mix 1 session.

It felt really good. The running sections seemed a little short and the rest sections felt as if they could have been shorter. It was a great feeling. Now I have to push even harder to get to my 10K goal by the end of may.

While I am writing this blog, my wife put on a video made by the football team of my nephew where they said their goodbyes to him. Very emotional and it enforces my drive to get to 10K in the next 1 and a half month to "Run for KiKa". If you can, please help the fight against child cancer by sponsoring the team I'm running in: "ITSA Runners"

Until my next run

Greetinx
Johan

Thursday, April 12, 2012

A milestone reached

A new milestone in my "running career". I actually reached 2 milestones. I just ran my 10th run! YEAH ME! Secondly, I did a steady-run. 20 minutes of non-stop running. I choose a 138BPM mix from the Podrunner work-out mixes. It was a nice run and an interesting experience. Every now and then I had the feeling that my legs were about to let me continue on my own but amazingly, after a few more steps my legs would forget all about their protests and  just carry-on. And thus taking me for 20 minutes straight trice around a 1.4km lap. I was hoping to breach that 5K barrier today but I have a feeling that it won't take long for me to finally cross that illustrious marker. And after that, on to 10K.

About that 10K. As I mentioned before, I am part of a team (ITSA Runners) that is going to participate in the "Run for KiKa". Yesterday, the first donations came in for our team and today, they kept coming!

If you would like to join in the fight against child cancer, you could be a sponsor of our team! Just click HERE to go directly to the sponsor page of team "ITSA Runners".

Okay, that's it for me for today.

Till my next run.

Greetinx
Johan

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

My first wet training

It was wet, it was cold and boy those 2 sections of 8 minutes were long. Today I ran week 5 mix 2 of the Podrunner intervals It starts with 5 minutes warm up at 130BPM (which for me comes down to a pace of about 7:45min/km, then an 8 minutes section at 140BPM (about 5:00 - 5:30 min/km) another 5 minutes at 130BPM (by now this has gone up to 8:45 - 9:15 min/km), 8 minutes at (amazingly still around 5:00 - 5:45 min/km) and finally a cooling down section of 1:45 minutes at again 130BPM

Just a tiny little bit disappointed with the distance, but hey, it's only my ninth timed run and I have roughly 1.5 month to get to that 10k mark! Must be possible!

Not much else to say, maybe next time I should write my blog after I take a shower and when I'm a little more rested. Not straight away after I stumble into the house and do my cooling down stretching...

Till next time

Greetinx
Johan.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Run for KiKa 2012 (NL)

Run for KiKa 2012.

For this blog in English, click here


11 juli 2008:
  • bij mijn neefje Tom wordt kanker (neuroblastoom) geconstateerd
14 maart 2012:
  • Tom verliest, na lang en dapper vechten, de strijd tegen kanker

Kinderen zouden niet zo mogen lijden.

"Stichting KiKa (Kinderen Kankervrij)" werft fondsen die gebruikt worden voor onderzoek naar kinder kanker.


Op 10 juni 2012 zal een team van ITSA medewerkers (ITSA is een afdeling binnen ING) meedoen aan de "Run for KiKa 2012" in Spaarnwoude als "ITSA Runners". Deze run is bedoeld om geld op te halen voor Stichting KiKa.

Aangezien het een sponsorloop is wil ik iedereen die iets kan en wil missen voor Stichting KiKa vragen om sponsor te worden van ons team. Dit kan via deze link:

Names team "ITSA Runners" alvast heel erg bedankt voor de bijdrage.

Run for KiKa 2012 (EN)

Run for KiKa 2012

Voor de Nederlandse versie van dit blog, click hier


July 11, 2008:
  • my nephew Tom is diagnosed with cancer (neuroblastoma)
March 14, 2012:
  • Tom loses, after a long and brave fight, his battle against cancer

Children should not have to suffer like that.

"Stichting KiKa (Kinderen Kankervrij)" (Foundation “Children cancerfree”) recruits funds that can be used for child cancer research.


June 10, 2012, a team of ITSA collegues (ITSA is a security department at ING) will participate in the “Run for KiKa” in Spaarnwoude (Netherlands) as “ITSA Runners”. This run is meant to collect money for Stichting KiKa.

Since it's a sponsorrun, I would like to ask everyone who can and want to spent a little to sponsor our team.


If you don't live in the Netherlands or can't use iDeal but you do want to sponser, please send me a reply and I will create a payment request for you on PayPal (you don't need to have a paypal account for that)

On behalve of team "ITSA Runners" thank you very much for your contribution.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

First blog of a new runner

At 42 I never ran seriously at all, I have done quite a lot of sports in my time and I ran the odd kilometer but I never thought about being a serious runner. Until last year. 4 colleagues ran the Dam-tot-Dam race in Amsterdam. One of them being my boss. She threw a challenge into our team for us to start running and maybe join in a 10k run.


It took me about 4 months to pick up on the challenge. I just turned 42 and decided it was time to start running. (No way it's a Mid Life Crisis, at least I don't think it is) The real trigger was my new watch I got from my wife for my b-day. A fancy runners watch with HRM. So my next step was to buy me some shoes. The guy at Runners World in Utrecht was very helpful and knowledgeable. It took about 2 hours to fit me with the right shoes.


Okay, I got the watch, I got the shoes. Now how to proceed? I had no idea. I knew that if I just started running, I would blow myself up in about 500m. So I started searching the interwebs. With tips from some of my colleagues, I started looking for couch-2-5k schedules. And I ran into the Podrunner interval mixes. FANTASTIC, just what I needed. Interval training on BPM. So training schedule: CHECK.


But HEY, I'm sort of a nerd, so before I could start running I needed more gadgetty stuff. Not too much because the main focus should be on the running, right? And I found (again after tips from my more experienced running colleagues) RunKeeper.


So watch, shoes, music, gadget: check, check, check, check. All there is left to do is...... Run.


On March 17, 2012, 1 week after my 42nd b-day, I ran my first training. 4.03Km in 30 minutes. Boy was I tired but proud of my first steps!


Right after that, I found a run I HAD to participate in, on March 14, 2012, my 11 year old (young) nephew died of cancer, so when I saw there was a "Run for KiKa" my goal was set. 10Km on June 10 in Spaarnwoude.


From that moment on I started running twice a week, because with 2 Aikido training sessions a week,  3 runs a week is a bit much. From now on I will try to write a blog after each run to let you know how it goes and how my progress towards my goal(s) is going.


I'm looking forward to your feedback.


Greetinx
Johan