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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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