woensdag 30 april 2014

5 x mile repeats, 2 x 600m

16.02k
Start 16.40

maandag 28 april 2014

2 x 1600, 2 x 600

10.47k
Start 18.00
45k of lots of mile repeats on the agenda for this taper week - half the distance of my longest week - less distance, more quality is the general idea.

zaterdag 26 april 2014

Orange Run

7.37k
Start 15.13
Short run to make up my first week's taper total of 75% of my longest week (67.5k)
2 mile repeats of 9:11 and 9:36 (guess which one had the tiny elevation and the headwind).

donderdag 24 april 2014

Fastest mile

9.60k
Start 17.55
New shoes.
 

First mile repeat was in 8.45 which is my fastest in years.  Then some hill  dijk repeats then later another mile at 9.30.

woensdag 23 april 2014

Limping Lamb

14.68k
Start 6.18
 

 


Nah, not me, a real lamb.  I caught him and had a look at his foot but there was no obvious thorn or anything as a cause of his limping so I couldn't help him. I wasn't exactly a limping lamb but was hardly a lolloping hare either.  Glad I got out though.

zondag 20 april 2014

Schoonhoven and back

36k
Start 11.30
(Too) long(est) run.  Possibly more later

vrijdag 18 april 2014

Rubbish Yasso 800s

16.65k
Start 18.40
Fairly rubbish Yasso 800s.  Too much wind in some bits.  Ah well, got them done anyway.  May be on the verge of overtraining maybe so good that my taper starts after the longest run on Sunday.  

donderdag 17 april 2014

Dead weasel, live bee

22.11k
Start 5.11
 

7 x mile repeats with 53 seconds difference between fastest and slowest, and even the fastest one was a good half minute slower than the slowest one on Tuesday evening. Ach, evening runs are always 'easier' somehow - probably something to do with having had the whole day beforehand to 'warm up'.

Saw this bee lying in the road so picked him up and brought him to some flowers in the sun.  He woke up a wee bit in my hand - probably still too cold in the morning for him to be out and about really.  

dinsdag 15 april 2014

Nieuwerkerk

18.50k
Start 18.45
 


4 x mile repeats in the polder after running back from Nieuwerkerk and still with some time before dark.

maandag 14 april 2014

Kadijk

33.11k
Start 5.12
 



Ran out towards Schoonhoven for my long run.  After an hour or so I remembered that I should change the settings on my Garmin if I was going to be out for more than 3 and a half hours so stopped to work out how to do that, splitting my run into two separate recorded segments.  Run included lambs, rainbows and a huge Great Dane. (Photos later.)

zaterdag 12 april 2014

Vlinderloop Houten

20.94k
Start 11.30
As usual my Garmin gives a bit under the 'official' distance of this morning's half marathon.

Official time was 2:08:17

vrijdag 11 april 2014

Yasso 800s

17.32k
Start 5.27
 My Garmin is not uploading at the moment (there seem to be days when it all goes perfectly and others when it - doesn't) so I'm momentarily deprived of my geek session with this morning's Yasso 800s. I think my run today won the prize for the Least Scenic Run Evah! I did all my 800m intervals (+ the 400m cooldowns in between) back and forth up the back of the meat-packing factory... This is usually a stretch of the river I pass either on the out or home strait if I take that route out to the polder but when I started this morning it was still too dark to leave town properly so after the first interval I just turned round and after I'd done this back and forth a few times and it was a bit lighter it was hardly worth disturbing my rythm to get across the main road and do the last few in a more open space. Hmm, I do currently seem to be well out of the 'Hello Sky Hello Trees' mode of running which used to be my default. 

Later: predicted marathon time 4:34:49
To make up for the lack of scenery on route I took this photo through the window of the art gallery on the way out of town, where there's an Ada Breedveld exhibition on.  

woensdag 9 april 2014

2 x mile repeats

6.83k
Start 19.07

dinsdag 8 april 2014

Stolwijk

25.11k
Start 5.23


Along the Vlist and then a right turn to take the cycle path to Stolwijk and back to Gouda.  Stork was on her nest again but too dark to take a good photo.  Good run, if a bit windy on the way back and a hail shower on the home strait.

zondag 6 april 2014

Rokjesdag

9.88k
Start 15.15
According to my Garmin the 10k wasn't quite.  But better it under- rather than over-estimates the distance I suppose.
 

 Rokjesdag is a word invented by a much-missed Dutch journalist to denote the day when all the women in the city spontaneously decide that the time has come when you can wear a skirt with bare legs. His column on this phenomenon is legendary. A sort of ode to Woman Power. Since his death a few years ago the Rokjesdag Run has come into being and every year attracts more and more entrants. This year 1200 women took part (split between the 5 and 10k events). Most of them wearing weird and wonderful skirts/tutus. (I had a particularly daft pink&black&frilly example I bought on the market for 1€ during Carnaval.) 

Weather was perfect for the runners, though possibly less so for the cafĆ©s who were hoping to have hordes of folk outside swigging prosseco in the sunshine. 14 degrees and cloudy but not quite getting as far as drizzle. 
 

It was 2 circuits of 5k, I deliberately didn't look at my Garmin, just kept going as fast as I could and pressed the lap button after passing the start the first time. Netto time was 56:45, and since I'd put in an estimated finish of 57 min I was well chuffed with this. My average speed was 6 seconds per k faster in the first lap than on the second lap. So no negative split but not as big a difference between first and second half as in the 15k last month. (Anyone fallen asleep yet?) 

Funnily enough I felt as if the first half was harder than the second half. (Garmin says no...) At one point I remember trying to channel my inner Catwummin (she's the fastest runner in my online running group) - singing (silently) along to Skunk Anansie - 'I can dream, I can dream, I can dream that I'm Cat-wo-man' (instead of 'someone else'). 

Anyway, good day. I always feel... cleaner inside after a race than after a normal run. Like a diesel car that's had its filter blown clean by a good fast motorway run instead of the normal plootering about town and traffic jams. 

Hopefully this link should show my finish - I'm behind the woman with the orange t-shirt - pause at about 9 seconds gives the best view of my seriously arse-expanding pink frills ;-) 
edit: hmm, link only takes you to the site - you then have to type in 900 at 'startnummer' and then click on 'zoek' (search) and then click on my name to start the video. Sorry about that. 

vrijdag 4 april 2014

Why do you run on your toes?

12.06k
Start 19.41
 

Wee boy sitting on a wall asked my why I ran on my toes.  So I stopped and gave him a brief explanation of the theory of fore-foot running and how we all ran like this before Nike started selling us huge ugly cushioned shoes.  He was wearing old-fashioned flat gym shoes himself and I got him to run up and down the path to let him see that he did the same.  Him and his pal were left looking thoughtful...

Forgot to take any photos so made some when I got home of the plants I bought today .

woensdag 2 april 2014

Misty Miles

15.47k
Start 6.00