Monday, September 13, 2010

Ready for my first half marathon?

In Calgary I started doing slow long runs in January and February with Sarah. We did 10, 11 and 13 km runs, each two or three weeks apart. I had never run more than 12 kilometers ever in my life, so it felt great to accomplish this. But I had to admit that the combination of the long runs with the last Calgary Road Runners XC runs of 8 km hilly, slippery or snowy terrain was a bit too much. My muscles started to ache too much.
However, Sander and I took up the long runs after the end of XC season. We managed to do a couple of 10-1 runs varying from 10 to 14 kilometers. Our last run in Calgary was on June 13th, a very hot day, it was about 13 km along the Bow river from city centre to the weir and back. In the Netherlands we started with a 10 km race, picked up interval training again and used some dunes and tiny tiny short hills for our "hill training". During these past three months I did runs of 13, 14, 16, 10, 18, 15, 12 and 21 km's, Sander joined me on most of them. One and a half week ago we ran 21 km in 10/1's, so I know I can handle the half marathon distance. My Polar footpod may be a little bit off, the distance took 2 h and 26 min, better than I expected. Of course some muscle aches afterwards, but no ankle or achilles pains like I would have had a year ago.
Overall, I think I am ready for the race, it's in 3 weeks time, October 3th. It is nice to know I have already run the distance once, but on the other hand I think I am starting to underestimate the distance a little bit now. I still have to decide on a race strategy, should I stick with 10/1's, try 15/1's, just start running and only walk where the water stations are? Before the test run I had imagined it would take me 2h and 45 min to do the half marathon distance in my slow training pace and just finishing a half marathon was my goal. With 2h26min clocked I suddenly start thinking about the time I want to do now, very very bold, I admit. So, here it is: my goal is 2h and 20 min, and with 2h 15 min I would be extatic!! Ayy, now I'll have to live up to it ....
Well, two more training runs this week and then I can start to taper. I love tapering!!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

House pics

We finally signed for our house yesterday, it has taken more than two weeks to finalize the contract. Last week we hired a guy to check the entire building from cellar to roof top (the "bouwtechnische keuring" for our Dutch friends). The only distressing finding was a (small) leak in the roof but the owners will have to repair that before we get the keys. Apart from that all other repairs the man advised were regular maintenance and can be done over time. Of course a house 80 years old always has some maintenance to be taken care off!
Why buy such an old house? Because we love the atmosphere in houses like that. Of course for Dutch standards this house is not very very old, lots of inner city houses are built around 1900. There is a lot of knowledge and craftmanship around to take care of them. Only find the right people! We can probably do some paint jobs ourselves, repair some wooden floors etc. Just enough to be able to move in our furniture. Next year we want to do some more maintenance, knock down a wall and built a new kitchen.
We hope to get the keys by the end of next week, worst case scenario October 1st.
First bookings for our guest room(s) are accepted from now on!!

Here are some pictures of our house, the furniture is from the current owners and is gone now, of course. Lovely eh!


And this is the link for Google, activate street view to take a peek: Google street view

 
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