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