Running

My first time running with a group since 9 months ago. It was as tough as I wanted to make it. Maybe I overdid it a bit. 🏃

Now my Garmin Forerunner 235 watch is reaching its end-of-life, I’m starting to explore its functionality more thoroughly. Unlike in 2016, running plans are now free (pretty good BTW), and you can now add your own runs to your calendar. I’m not sure when the change happened. 🏃

Seeing how much easier it feels to train consistently at 60 km/week (37 mpw) 🏃 compared to a few months ago, I feel confident enough to start training for a marathon on November 28. My main goals are ① not getting injured during prep, and ② finish within 5 hours, the cutoff.

On the Straight and Narrow 🏃 (and so 🐌 ssllloooowww). It certainly isn’t Strava-worthy (read: show-offish).

This time not a run-walk-run, but a genuine long slow distance run of almost half marathon length. The last few kms felt really hard. 🏃

A 🏃🚶🏃 of 17 km. I was quite stiff in my hip muscles afterwards, so I did some extra exercises to loosen those. Again, a wonderful run in a beautiful environment, although the latter is in the eye of the beholder and the former mostly in my experience.

This morning’s 🏃 in photos instead of stats.

🏃 19 km run-walk-run in 2¼ hours. That long straight cobblestone road was mind numbing, but I did it! Stretching afterwards felt better than usual, because that’s what cobblestone does to a runner.

Two months ago I needed two full days to recover from my 💉 Now barely a full day, though I felt more tired after my 🏃 than I usually do.

🏃 10 times 200 m, with 200 m recovery as intervals. Afterwards, I saw my ♡ drop to 45 bpm. Must be the anticipation of being 💉 later in the day. It also used to happen on days I ran an important race: less appetite, lower heart rate, and a deep calm.

I’ve run over a year with my current 🏃 shoes, obliterating the 1000 km limit I set for it, based on previous experiences. The support is completely wrecked, and I could as well run barefoot. Still—knock on wood—I haven’t been injured in all that time, which is astonishing.

I did my longest RWR 🏃 since a long time, and part of it on new (to me) terrain. Of course, I got lost, a bit, so the expected 16 km became 17 km, and I’m dealing with itches from brambles and nettles I encountered on a rarely used path. 🍀 it started to 🌧 after I was back 🏠

It’s probably smart to check with superior 📊 if one isn’t sure if one is really tired or just playing tired out of laziness 🥱 I find it hard to sense the diff. 🏃

If I exclude walk breaks, I ran on average 6:24 min/km. 10 kph now seems almost doable for a 15 km 🏃 at easy pace.

Time for my weekly interval 🏃 training. This time 10 times 200 m (200 m recovery), at an average pace of 5:06 min/km. I felt I could’ve done 5 more, easily. Baby steps, though. Who knows, perhaps in August?

Today’s 🏃 was relatively long, 15 km. As part of it, I did 9 times (900 m 🏃: 100 m🚶), which an average 🏃 pace of 6:36 min/km. Because of my orange t-shirt, someone felt the need to say the Dutch are out of the running, so wearing orange is no longer necessary 🤔

It seems my cautious approach to 🏃 is starting to 🐻 🍎 Not only could I run 9 km in 62 minutes, I also ran 1 km in 5:35 min, in an attempt to train my lactate threshold. Now my 💉 has been brought forward by 6 weeks (because of new variants?), I’ll be able to run in a group sooner.

I forgot to post about yesterday, when I 🏃 the full 15 km without walk breaks. This was a while ago. I even had one kilometer running 6:38 min/km, or 9 km/u, while still having an “easy pace” heart rate. On the photo is a deer, which you can barely see, but it was there.

I have given blood to Mother Earth (I fell) while running. When I started I already felt unsteady, not quite awake. After the fall I was very awake and somewhat bloodstained. The rest of the run went without incidents. My only worry was if I had enough bandaids at home. 🏃

Today’s 🏃🚶🏼🏃 (900 m : 100 m) went surprisingly easy. Also special was that at some point there was no traffic in sight, while around 4 pm it’s usually pretty busy with commuting cars. Didn’t last long, though.