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
Sunday, July 29, 2012
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:
Greetinx
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
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
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 ....................................
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
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!
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)