Humpty Who?

-= Thanks! =-
First of all, a big thanks for the kind words about my plans to quit this blog and to (temporarily) take my leave from the running/blogging community. There will always be plans to either pick up Paranoid and Running again, or to start something afresh. In the mean time, this will be my last post. This blog will be closed in a couple of weeks. I will miss the community. Lurkmode simply isn't going to do it for me in the long run, so I am confident in pulling a Vera Lynn and say: We'll meet again...

-= Humpty Who? =-
A week ago, the size of the family instantly increased by 50%. The amount of work increased 1000% and sleep and running came to a screeching halt.

Last week, The Missus and I welcomed the newest addition to the running world into our home. Our son, Finn, has got runner's legs and will soon be given his first pair of Mizuno's for a birthday or Christmas gift. His feet are made for doing long distances, I am sure!



There is no way to describe or explain the feeling of becoming a parent. Therefore, suffice it to say that the Missus and I are over the moon. No matter how silly it once felt, I will be thoroughly enjoying my next bit of literature: a crash course in nursery rhymes.

Taking my leave

-= Blog =-

I have loved writing the 171 blogposts I published over the previous fourteen months. The community of running bloggers/blogging runners is great. The information that is shared within the community is extremely valuable and has been a great help in staying motivated to do my runs. That is why I am sorry to say that this is my last blogpost but one. The last post I do will be after the arrival of the new Edmond Jr. or Mercedes Jr.. This decision is not taken lightly and is made necessary by a number of factors - none of which are very interesting. It goes without saying that I will continue to read your blogs and (silently) cheer you on for your races. Good health to all.

-= Run =-

In order to see what my lower leg would do during a shorter run, I went for a very modest 6k run. The schedule told me that I would have had to do a 10K test run. Not daring to do a test run (no sense in getting injured more than I am at the moment) and not feeling like one because of the wind (ridiculous! The trees were almost horizontal the whole day), I have decided to put the HM schedule on ice for a couple of days.

Starting out with a very modest 6 min/k pace, things went well. Unconsciously, I sped up to approx. 5:27 min/k and it felt like a good and relaxed pace. Now after a shower, some diner and a bit of ice on the knee, I discover that there is some pain in my knee when I lean on it in a particular way. I fear that the tightness in my lower leg has changed the way I run and has consequently changed the way I move my knee. The run I had planned for tomorrow will not happen.

-= HRM =-

Not for the first time, my HRM bailed on me during the run. It isn't the battery in the chest-strap - this was replaced approx. four months ago with a battery of the same type as the one that came out. The battery in the watch was replaced six months ago. Still, checking my heart-rate during this run, I noticed that it had not worked for at least half of the run (calculating approx. 100 kcals per K I run). At the moment, I only use my HRM to log my avg. HR and the burnt Kcals. I am beginning to wonder if the limited amount of information - and the fact that I do nothing with it - is worth the discomfort of the chest-band and the extra watch I wear during my runs. I will probably kick out my HRM from now on.

Paranoia is not always a bad thing

-= Runs =-

It was time to do training 2 of week 8 of my HM schedule. The weather being pretty good - though a bit hot - I did the training straight after coming home from work. There is nothing particularly out of the ordinary about this run, apart from the fact that I still need to ice the right lower leg a bit more.
The stats:

Date: Wed. 26 Aug.
Total distance: 9 k
Total duration: 49:31
Avg. pace: 5:29

-= Network security =-

Domesday prophets are usually not the most credible characters around, so you might just choose to ignore the coming words. When hearing about all sorts of badness that goes around on the internet, people tend to zone out as fast as they do when they hear about all sorts of dead poets. Still, a number of developments over the previous couple of days have shown that there *is* a lot more digital evilness going on on the Internet, than people know. Security g33ks worldwide tend to agree that Metasploit - as a colleague colorfully described - "P0wns so hard it hurts". With all its potential for helping good guys to battle evil, Metasploit makes it very easy for the casual, evil clueless person, to point-and-click his way into your home-PC. Scary as this tool might be, this type of work and research is very necessary. If it was not for research, we would still feel safe, when using WPA/TKIP encryption for our wireless networks. Check this story to wake up and smell the expiry date on this form of WLAN encryption.

The slow life

-= Recovery =-

Today's 6k run, being totally devoid of any toughness or coolness, brought the year-to-date total to 1005.69 K. It is about 60 Ks short of the total number of Ks I did last year.

Having recently reviewed my definitions for several concepts, including cool and tough, I loved the recovery run. Unlike yesterday's run, where I unconsciously sped up in several places - and thus going faster than the self-imposed pace zone - today's run was without pace goals or Garmin pace alerts. I did two loops in the lowest gear I could possibly get my body into. Life is good when you are not in a hurry - or you cannot be arsed.

Date: Sun. 23 Aug.
Total distance: 6.14 k
Total duration: No idea (well, I do, but it's irrelevant)
Avg. pace: Same as the above

Like Heinz 57

-= Runs =-

Weather and appointments prevented me from doing my two planned runs during the week. Having done a 10:71 K run on Tuesday, I wanted to go out again on Thursday - which didn't happen due to all sorts of (incorrect and rather sadly incompetent) "weather-alerts". Though the weather was fine in itself, I did not feel like being out on a run and find myself in the midst of the predicted thunderstorm. On Friday, I wanted to go out for a run, but previous engagements prevented me to do the training I had wanted to do. I was not too sad about this extra day of rest, as there was some slight discomfort in my right lower leg. Taking an extra day gave it the time to loose the feeling.

Not feeling like doing the speed session I needed to do (with the lame excuses of taking it easy on my recently recovered lower leg), I went out for a Saturday morning long run. I did 22 K, and felt pretty good afterward. I notice that the main challenge of doing these distances is the time away from home. The 22 K took me 2:11:31, starting at 10:39 and finishing 12:51. These are beginning to feel like expeditions, rather than runs. It is difficult to not cut the run short by skipping a couple of loops and taking the 1:30 min. walk home to have a good, healthy lunch together with the Missus.

Doing a 3 K loop can get boring (as I have bitched about before), so today, I decided to test the great number of side tracks and unpaved paths that run on the outside of the loop. I was amazed at the great number of possibilities. Man, it felt like a commercial for Heinz 57! There are too many varieties.

Despite the big words I once uttered, I am no longer convinced that I want to do a whole marathon any time soon. Though the 21 K runs are absolutely great, and I can definitely imagine doing greater distances, the idea of doing four to five runs per week does not appeal to me at the moment. Somehow, in our current situation in life (Yeach, did I just pull a Mr. Collins?), doing 60+ Ks per week (taking what, 6 hours?) simply doesn't appeal to me. I will focus on the 21 for the coming couple of years.

Anyway, the plan is to keep the weekly number of Ks more or less equal to the previous week. In order to do so, I went out for the run I did today, and am planning to do a 6 K recovery run tomorrow. Glenn Jones described recovery runs as follows, and that is exactly what I will be doing on Sunday.

Did you figure out recovery run? Go 3 to 4 miles (5 to 6 kms). Slow. Start out at a slow pace and slow down from there. If you have a heart rate monitor, 75% of ax heart rate MAX!

The stats:

Date: Tue. 18 Aug.
Total distance: 10.71 k
Total duration: 1:00:00
Avg. pace: 5:36 min/k

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Date: Sat. 22 Aug.
Total distance: 22 k
Total duration: 2:11:31
Avg. pace: 5:58 min/k

-= Books =-

Should you be tempted to pick up the novel Critique of Criminal Reason, Please reconsider. Though the story is no more than OK, the descriptions of the characters (particularly the main character) is in no way realistic. What is more, they distract the reader from the story and are in no way responsible for my finishing the book.

The old geezer was doing fine

Running today was great! Each time I go out for a run on a Sunday morning, I forget that a bunch of locals organize a weekly run around the lake. So, when I started my run this morning, all geared up with my fuel-belt loaded with my home-made Isostar drink and something to eat for the trip, I was pleasantly surprised to see a group of at least 40 runners doing my 3 k loop - in varying degrees of fitness. Most of these runners were new runners (judging by the way they looked, ran and held themselves). Among them, there were two or three experienced runners that joined a new runner. Part of the group was a great number of young kids (ages from 10 and up), running along with their (usually overweight) fathers on bicycles beside them. The kids looked like they had a great time.

Apart from the group of runners, there were some runners that were there doing their workouts alone - me being one of them. Just after completing my third round (I was going to do seven), I saw a great sight. An old man - at least 70 by the look of him - running in his old-folks pace and having the best time. The grin on his face was priceless. He thoroughly enjoyed the activity and he enthusiastically greeted each runner that he met. I passed him four times - apparently he did two loops. Seeing this man run, I could only hope that I would still do his pace and distance (and look as fit), when I am his age.

It was great to be outside today and running, while seeing young, old and everything in between doing the same.

The stats:

Date: 16 August 2009
Total distance: 21.1 k
Total duration: 2:08:43
Avg. pace: 6:05 min/k

Tagged

-= The Run =-

As it was time to do training 3 of week 6, I realized that I have crossed the halfway point towards the training for the Amsterdam HM. Being a mere 64 days away, I am amazed that I only vaguely realize that the race is coming up. There is a great number of things to look forward to, before the race. Still, preparations are going well and today's speed session was an absolute pleasure to do.

Doing a free interpretation of the local RunnersWorld HM schedule, i.e. my own variant, today's session consisted of 5 repetitions of 5 minutes slow pace and 5 minutes fast pace. The stats:

Date: 14 August 2009
Total distance: 9,16 k
Total duration: 50:00 min.
Avg. pace: 5:27 min/k

-= Garmin Update =-

After having bitched my way through writing my previous blogpost, I gave it one more try to get my Garmin data exported. It appeared to be the entries for the courses that I had saved. Having removed the courses data from the Garmin data file, I was able to successfully import all my runs (including GPS data) into the Windows variant of Training Center. Training Center and EasyGPS are the only applications I use a Windows machine for. As I prefer to work on a different OS, I now have a laptop dedicated to GPS data and blogging.

-= Tagged =-

In her previous post, Beth (go and visit her blog) tagged me. I am not sure whether I can fill in all the categories

The tag reads: "with as much creativity as you can muster, show your heart in: a picture, poem, a song (or piece of music), a phrase (or quote), an item of clothing, a place, and (just for fun) a Disney princess.

.

As I have some privacy issues, I am not too keen on sharing. Still, as I like the tag, I will see how much I can share without going out of my comfort zone. So, here goes:

* A picture

This pic. shows a view of St James park in London (little tell-tale sign would be the tower of the houses of parliament, housing the Big Ben). It should not be a surprise to regular readers that I love London - oh, I haven't bored you enough with my London stories? Great!. The spot in this pic. is where the Missus and I left a piece of our hearts, obliging us to return to this park - or the city housing the park anyway - at least once a year. It's not just the sights, the books, the pubs, the food, the history, the museums and the walks. It's the feel of the city walking around from shop to coffee-place and sitting down to have a read on the steps of an ancient building.

A Poem

There are so many great poems, that is difficult to choose just one. There are many poems that cut very deep into the soul of humanity. Other great poems deal with more trivial things. The poem I have been living by (and have previously blogged on) the past years, is a part of a narrative poem by Alexander Pope (Essay on Criticism):

A little learning is a dangerous thing
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Tired at first sight with what the muse imparts,
In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts
While from the bounded level of our mind
Short views we take nor see the lengths behind
But more advanced behold with strange surprise,
New distant scenes of endless science rise!
So pleased at first the towering Alps we try,
Mount o'er the vales and seem to tread the sky,
The eternal snows appear already passed
And the first clouds and mountains seem the last.
But those attained we tremble to survey
The growing labors of the lengthened way
The increasing prospect tires our wandering eyes,
Hills peep o'er hills and Alps on Alps arise!

Read it. You'll want to read the rest of the poem too.

* A Song

I started to run with the podcast series of the Belgian equivalent of the Couch 2 5 K program. This show, hosted by a Belgian radio presenter, regularly played the Black Eyed Peas classic: Pump It. The pace is great for running and when I was still running with my iPod Nike+, this used to be my power-song. Great song, high energy. (this is about the hippest song I like. My musical preference is limited to the CD Box Bruce Springsteen Live 1975-1985).

* A Phrase

From the eternal classic: Hoodwinked:

Twitchy: [Wolf gives Twitchy a cup of coffee] Caffeine! Yeah baby!
[bounces everywhere]

Followed by Wolf:

What have I done...

* An item of clothing

Clothing, I don't care about too much. As long as it's decent, clean, whole and new-looking, I'm fine. As such, I do not have one particular item of clothing - save for my wedding suit obviously - that is of any particular importance to me.

Sadly, as the Missus will definitely confirm, the same cannot be said for shoes. I have a large-ish collection of shoes. Only two pairs of these are running shoes, the rest is for everyday wear. There is no one particular pair of shoes I favor, but if the Tag requires me to mention one particular pair, it will have to be the shoes I bought last week.

* A Place

There are so many beautiful places in the world, it's almost sad to think that one will only ever get to see a very limited amount of them. Not too far from St Peter's Basilica, there is a castle that was originally built by Hadrian - you know, the character that first had the wall built in the north of England, to keep the wild Scotsmen out. This castle was built upon by many emperors and rulers over the years and has grown out to be the Castel Sant'Angelo that we know today. On one of the top layers, there is a restaurant with seats around the outside edge of the castle. Contrary to expectation, this restaurant serves excellent ice-cream and, as an added bonus, has a magnificent view over the city. This place is one that the Missus and I often think of when in the dreary home-town weather.

* A Princess
These would definitely be my two nieces. They are in no way princesses in the Disney sense of the word. But they are definitely princesses.

On this note, I tag all that want to be tagged. I cannot wait to read your posts!