Finished reading: Rampjaar 1672 by Luc Panhuysen 📚

Currently reading: De klokkenluider van de Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo 📚

Currently reading: Rampjaar 1672 by Luc Panhuysen 📚

After having boiled water in a kettle on a gas stove for over 60 years, I finally was able to afford an electric kettle at half price. Instead of minutes it now takes seconds to boil water for a cuppa tea. Obviously better for the environment and my monthly budget, a win-win ♻️🏠

Yesterday I did my first training run of 18 km, on unfamiliar terrain. I expected to be super tired when I woke up this morning, but I felt great, and my resting heart rate was not elevated. Unlike previous times, my first week of marathon training went extremely well 🏃

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 🏃