Diary of what followed after I finally succeeded in completing a marathon just in time, before my 50th birthday.

Tuesday 27 September 2011

Done

35 Minutes over lunch. No music as I forgot to bring my iPod. Still fighting off the remainder of the bug that floored me yesterday. 20+ Degrees, so quite warm.

Observation: When my breathing rhythm accelerates from 3 in 3 out, it goes to 2 in 3 out. I need to correct that to 3 in 2 out.

Monday 26 September 2011

Week 1: 92

I'm going to score my weekly progress. 50 points for reaching my end-of-week target, 10 for losing weight, 4 for each bout of exercise (running or football) with a weekly maximum of 20, another 20 max for how easy it felt. Over the past week, I made the target, lost 1k, did five trainings (including a football match), and awarded myself 12 out of 20 for ease of running (that needs to improve).

All in all a good week.

Coming up: 35 minutes at lunchtime tomorrow, football practice on Wednesday night, 35 minutes at lunch on Friday, football match on Saturday, 40 minutes on Sunday. I'm not traveling, so it may be doable.

Friday 23 September 2011

Four steps forward, one step back

Between now and late February, I will measure my progress by how long I can run comfortably by the end of each week (mostly on Sundays). Each week I increase my target with ten minutes, starting with thirty minutes this week (done that twice already), but after each four weeks of cumulation I go ten minutes back instead of forward. With that rhythm, I will be doing 150 minutes (25 kilometers) two weeks before the Barcelona race, giving me the little bit of extra capacity I will need for finishing comfortably (and preferably in under two hours).

The ideal training week includes three runs, of which one increasingly long, one foorball practice session and one football match. In reality, I will drop bits almost every week to accomodate family life and work commitments.

But at least the spirit is back, thanks to my wonderful nephew Sebastiaan.

Wednesday 21 September 2011

New inspiration

On Sunday, I met nephew Sebas at my mother's place. Of course we spoke about running; he's been pretty active in training over recent weeks. Half jokingly I challenged him to sign up for a half marathon early in the year. Barcelona came to mind, and a little browsing on the iPhone told me the race is scheduled for 26 February. One day later, Sebas texted me to say he registered!

I have signed up too. And to kick off he new training regime I need, I ran half an hour along Lake Geneva on Monday night. There was a light drizzle and a bit of sunshine, resulting in the most gorgeous double rainbow I have ever seen. Running suddenly became a lot easier.