I think where I went wrong every time in my marathon preparation is by training too hard. One shouldn’t be exhausted after a few weeks. Every session should be doable, tough at times, never too tough. Around races longer than 15 km should be ten days of easy going, and so on 🏃

When I picked the first names—both adjectives—of my cats I didn’t put much effort in it, yet in hindsight their meanings turned out fine. Aziz means mighty, and Maahir competent. Bengal cats are closer to nature than most breeds, and are prone to 😱 mischief and destruction🐱

Living in freedom is awesome. You can go out on your bike, without a helmet for fear of car traffic, nor the need for permits to pass military checkpoints, just to buy some flowers to plant in your garden.

Yesterday evening I did my first marathon training session, a 16 km aerobic pace run. Since I ran alone, I could pick my own route, so I made it a pretty route. I wasn’t fully recovered from the 12 km race 3 days earlier, so it felt harder than it should’ve 🏃

I ran a partial (4 of 12 km) trail (see Strava) in 23℃ (73 F) in 1 hour and 3½ minutes. It felt good and could mean a 4:09 hours marathon result in optimal conditions. I have still 5 months and a lot of training to go to possibly beat my marathon PR from 2004 (3:45 hours) 🏃

Why isn’t Keti Koti an official holiday yet in the Netherlands? It’s the celebration of the end of slavery, 159 years ago. The Dutch were notorious and brutal slave traders in their days. So Keti Koti should be celebrated, since it recognizes a basic human right, freedom for all.

I installed the commenting plugin for micro∙blog, but don’t expect much conversation from people who follow me, since they’re mostly still in bed with Facebook. Also, micro∙blog’s email link activation is still too clumsy to convince non-believers in the free and open web 🕸📔

I suppose when my latest fortnightly post is my longest, it’s time to post more often. With an average length of 642 words per post, 2655 words in one post can’t be called “micro” anymore, can it? OTOH, it’s just a name, micro∙blog, not an unbreakable rule or format 🕸📔

Sooo, I ran 21.1 km in 2:35 hours on saturday, and 21.1 km in 2:07 hours on sunday. I guess that’s 42.2 km in 4:42 hours. Fun fact, the 2nd half marathon was a race, and I ran the last 5.1 km 15 s/km faster than 2 hours half marathon pace😅 End-of-the-year marathon, here I come! 🏃

Yesterday I jogged a half marathon in 2 hours 35 minutes, and today I’ll be leasurely racing the same distance in around 2 hours 14 minutes. Together that would be a marathon in slightly more than 4¾ hours. Within 6 months that should become a marathon in less than 4 hours 🏃‍♂️

After a total break following my previous marathon (spent a week in bed due to over-exhaustion), I’m giving it another go, end of the year (November 27). This time around my training schedule will be the upper limit, not the bare minimum. I clearly need a PT to restrain me 🏃‍♂️

Passkey seems an improvement, but has a flaw, humans with secrets. Private keys can be stolen, as well as passwords. What we need is security without secrets, though I have no idea how to do that. Maybe secrets that can’t be copied?

It’s the first warm day of the year, 30℃ (86 F). Warm for running that is, because one can easily add 10℃ (12 F) for heating of the body while running. So I left early, when it was still cool. The photo clearly examplifies that burning globe in the sky.

I made a rough training schedule, mostly to get me safely to a next level of fitness. The two long runs in the weekends are very gentle (almost walking), but I realize I’ll need to balance it with more distance during the week. That will be a training objective in August 🏃‍♂️

Clawing my way back to marathon fitness with base training. I understand that low intensity running is how it should be done, including walking. Hopefully next time my fitness won’t take a nose dive after a marathon race 🏃

I’ve looked into the Maffetone method for base training (running), since my slow 20 km run two weeks ago felt so hard. It takes a really long time (like many months) to adjust your body, and slow running (8 min/km or 13 mpm in my case) means either low mileage or many hours 🏃

Look into canceling your micro∙blog subscription; you might get a discount.

Checked my podcast subscriptions in Overcast to check if any of them did tracking. One did, while it didn’t use to if I remember correctly; I removed it. Point being, keep checking for tracking, because you can’t opt out (nor opt in). It’s a data privacy protection nightmare.

Another reason for me to avoid challenges, or, at least, put a strict limit on the number of challenges. I can really break down mentally. Ah well, we do what we can, don’t we? I’m happy I caught it and acted appropriately. No more challenges for a couple of months for me.
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Micro∙blog May challenge day 11, “maroon.” Marooned with a tricylce on a maroon colored brick wall.
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