Yes...I officially can use the F-word...my mum said so!

She wrote me an email in reply to my last blog on 26/09 that after running 13k the F-word is allowed...haha. Feel a lot better now.

And today I actually finished Rocky Style...you know the Rocky movie right...victorious feeling, after an hour and half (!!!!) of running I sprinted the last bit up the hill, high fived with my host for completing the toughest run yet.

Mean while back in the real world....

No, I am kidding, the above is actually true. We started at 9.45 ish and initially we planned a 1 hr and 20 minute run, which I in my head was divided into 2 x 40 minute runs...and then I said, really I did!, why don´t we make it 1hr and 30 minutes...nice one, very smart too, since when am I supposed to set the targets, ain´t I competitive enough just by myself :).

It was tough though and my calves, thighs, knees, actually my whole body including brain did have serious conversations with myself during this run and it is with a little pride I can finally say that I now know what it means to "think of nothing", as that is exactly what my brain was doing after 50 minutes of running, knowing I still had to go for 40 more!

We had a nice pace too, "Army Pace" he called it! Which sounds better that what it actually is. Basically in the army they run with roughly 20kg on their back and have to be able to enter battle after the run, so they run nice, steady, and slow...hmmmm I didn´t have the 20kg nor did I enter into a battle straight after in case you are wondering.

Two more days in the sunshine and then I am back in the UK...
I´ll keep you posted, for now I am going to think a little longer of nothing ;-)
AZ

Wo ist das Snitzchel Restaurant...?

Today I was informed my language still didn´t justify a movie like finish, you know with masses of people awaiting me (the star) , and lets just say it was not my fluency in Spanish that was causing the problem.

I was (again) pushed to the limit and today we managed again further. Probably roughly 13k in 1 hour and 6 minutes, no stopping, just zoning in full speed (read: my pace!) ahead. Again the car was parked up the hill and hence my "language" problem. I felt it so badly, my legs, after 3 days of super training (in total having run now over 35k in less than a week), and going that last bit of the hill, that when I finally reached the car a lot of F words came rolling out, out of no where...(hmmmmm interesting).

Also, on a different note, why am I so stubborn and competitive, can you blame parents for that? Because why do I have this inner need to challenge people to run a 10k with me? Both VRB´s (yeah they earned their right back into the inner circle again) agreed to do a 10k race. That shall be fun :-) One suddenly sounds superfit and by the sounds of it has done millions of 10k races and is throwing in some "high altitude" running in Chicago this week, and the other wants it to be at the end of october, not because he thinks he can beat me then, but because he reckons he can finish by then. He got injured working in his garden..I mean, what is the world coming too hahaha.

Two more runs to go...Thu and Sat before I am flying back home...
Speak soon and take care
AZ

PS the title is not to indicate my impression of the German Tourist in Spain, but more a reflexion of the state of my brain after half a week of training levels way above my comfort zone

Running in the Zone...

Today I ran in the ZONE....we left the house to drive to the beach at 10am. The car was parked in the shade up from the boulevard which to me seemed weird as there was plenty of shade at the parking down on the boulevard, the real reason for this became clear at the end.

I also learnt to really run in one pace and I did fantastic (although I say so myself), not only did I again run for just under an hour without any breaks (58 minutes to be exact) but this time we covered more distance...almost 11k (25% of the Marathon!) For the first time ever I felt the Marathon in April was going to be doable in under 4 hours, which is my goal. Today, I actually still had energy left at the end and soon realised why the car was parked up on the road, it required me to do a 10% hill at the end as a end-sprint, or "achieve proper conditioning" as it was explained to me with a laugh, sooner or later I will know all his tricks.

The "ugly" person roared as well, but only after about 35 minutes of running, and this time the dialogue was kept internal (I hope) and me being in the zone really helped keeping it at bay.

The rest of time, outside re-setting my running boundaries is nice and quiet like a much deserved holiday (haven´t been for too long), pool side relaxing (well can´t walk much further anyway), movie last night (very funny we saw "Break Up") long chats on the patio, and loads of sleeping....(nice..)

Next run (or Boundary!) Tuesday AM, we are meeting another running person as well so it will again be three of us, looking forward to it.

Take care and keep in touch (Thanks for all the comments!)
AZ

PS. I have decided to rename both my VRB´s (Virtual Running Buddies) to OJO´s (Ooh Jealous Ones) til further notice. One replied saying: "Don't remember beer being part of a training plan????" although admittingly he ended writing that he would do as much sport the next days as possible as a token of solidarity, which is very supportive and I may consider putting him back in full fledged VRB status soon... the other simply went into a long email rant, going on about us not starting to run until noon on Friday which probably meant we got too pissed the night before and ended writing "Sounds like a holiday to me!" but what did you do eh? Not one word on your running progress except for not going on Thursday because I was flying...

Righto! So now that you read about my super performance today above I dare you to enter a 10k race with me in October... I leave you in the dust with all this "big air" training... not that I am competitive, but any takers??? And yes, OJO´s this is directed at you... ;-)

Am I in Heaven....?

I am OK, or actually I should say I am A OK! Picture this right, open car (nice one), tropical breeze, very sunny, nice 30 degree temperature, 2 tall blokes up front in the car (him and another houseguest) , me at the back...loud music blasting from the stereo on our way to the beach.

Only problem in this picture is we are all wearing our running gear and I am slightly nervous after all the "banter" about proper conditioning and we are on our way for our first proper run.

It started yesterday upon my arrival, after being shown around, and they do really have a nice house! My host proposed a training time of noon today. I acted surprised, well acted, I was horrified truth be said. Noon!? It will be raving hot at that time of day I tried to object. "Exactly" was the answer, "that will be good, Big Air, thats really good for your initial conditioning..."

Once we got to the beach, I was told to start running at my pace and to just go until I felt like dropping - hmmm, very reassuring...he continued "As soon as I could not go any further, we would stop!" He is a VERY good liar, I found later.

I started running a nice pace, and remember thinking I did really well, I looked at my watch and noticed we were running already for 10 minutes, I was impressed, especially because it was roughly about 30 degrees...

My peaceful thoughts of this being not too bad were interupted by my host saying "give me your watch"... I tried to object to no avail and ended up giving him my watch. Roughly another 15 minutes later - I am guessing here as I was watchless - I found out I can turn into quite an "ugly" person language wise when pushed to the limits. I started sharing all my pains and aches with my host and everything was of course the ultimate reason to have to stop running right there. He was really good though, from talking me right up to a level I felt I could go on for ever, to pissing me off and making me want to run even further, faster and better.

The "ugly" side of me started to suffer from pain in my sides, feet, headache, for at least 10 minutes I had to share with the world every possible reason for me to stop running, but he would have none of it. And replied saying that if I was still able to talk I certainly could run further, that shut me right up. He then continued saying, You only ran for 28 minutes so far, I bet you can´t finish and he sprinted into the distance...he is certainly a master of the mind...and I kept going, and going, and going....When I finally got back to the car where they were waiting for me, they started laughing. I thought it was because of the color of my head, which was bright purple by then, but in fact he gave me my watch back and I ran for 48 minutes - while I was still thinking we barely ran for 30 minutes), without any walking breaks in 30 degrees hot sunny weather!!!!!!! he reckoned we covered propably 8k. I felt so good.

Until he said.."OK now we have set the benchmark....!"I was too tired to comment.

Next running day Sunday 10am, Oh and I spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool and now typing away in a little Belgian Cafe 100 metres down the road do this...life is good!

Thanks for all your support messages - keep ´m coming, I need them.
Speak soon and take care
AZ

Superwoman in 10 days....?

It has been a while but lots has happened...

First and for all, the number of VRB's (Virtual Running Buddies) is growing. Due to the fantastic results (hmmmm....yeah I am sceptical still) I have received requests to be added to this unique "inner circle" club, so the group is growing ;-)

I ran 8k - for the first time ever in just about an hour's time last Sunday! I have to admit it was under the due care of my brother who ran with me, while I was visiting the Netherlands to celebrate my gran's birthday. That probably did the trick as I was way too stubborn to give in after half an hour and just kept running..." I can do this!" I kept telling myself. My brother has been running for years and his breathing didn't even change, I mean! He normally runs this in just over 30 minutes (hahaha, yeah! for real!) but I kept him on the road a little longer on Sunday with my "average" pace.

"Superwoman" in 10 days has to do with my trip to Spain - I am heading off tomorrow to two good friends. They live in Marbella and have offered me to stay at theirs to "spruce" up my running. Although, I have to admit the language he uses in emails has started to scare me a little bit. He is talking about, just some fragments: "Real Conditioning, AM and PM running, I train really gentle, you just tell me when you feel like throwing up". And especially this freaked me out: "Of course we have wireless internet, but I don't think you will have the energy for that". I just got the last email and in there the sentence "There have been made many plans for and with you when you get here ...oh oh oh!" doesn't sound like I will be doing a lot of chillin' ;-).

I expect to return to the UK with and in a very fit body!

I will have internet access so I will use this blog to update you on my progress of becoming "Superwoman" in 10 days! Please think of me while I am away, I probably need all support I can get ;) while soaking up the sun in lovely Marbella.

Take care
AZ

Early because of discipline...?

I was up early this morning, at 6am well dressed up to go out running. My VRB (virtual running buddy) even commented about it, saying "You were up nice and early again, well done", in reply to my running stats which I had texted over at 7am ish.

I don't call it up "nice and early" though, I call it "Having to live with Annoying-I-am-always-hungry-Cat". At about 5.45am, she politely enquired about the status of her breakfast, well actually she jumped/or fell on me ( the jury is still out on that one) from the window sill, and when she recovered from the height she just experienced after the soft landing on my now painful stomach, she inquistivily snuggled up saying "Oh You awake now, how perfectly timed! I'd like my breakfast please...now"

I think the look in my eyes was explanatory enough when she gracefully and clearly annoyed jumped off the bed ...to go sleep somewhere..

Anyhow, since I was awake now, I did go running and nearly killed myself, as I attended a wedding over the weekend I missed a session and boy did I feel that. I really struggled, but managed 30 minutes again, this time spread over 15, 6, 4 minutes running and the rest walking. Which to some might not seem a lot and if you look what I have to achieve in April 2007, it is not a lot, but if you look at where I came from in August, being able to run barely 3 minutes! I still think I am doing quite alright here ;-)

Anyways speak soon
AZ

175 miles vs 2.5 miles

I am soo excited with how quickly I am still progressing with my running this morning. Roughly 3 weeks ago I could run for 3 minutes and this morning I did 30 minutes flat with one minute walking in between.

Starting earlier too, was out and about at 6.15am this morning! I am slowly turning into a running freak here, talking about running freaks. One of my best mates, Rob Sweetman, is doing currently the Marathon of Britain! A mere 175 miles in 6 days! He is now on his fifth day and he already successfully covered 109 miles by now. Today is the biggest day with 56 miles to go!

Check it out on http://www.marathonofbritain.com/live/stagefive.htm
if you want you can leave a message for him at http://www.marathonofbritain.com/live/writetorunners/writeto.php and click on the Click Here to Write - His name is Rob Sweetman! and today will be the toughest mental challenge! He does get these messages read out to him at check points so any encouragement even from strangers is "feel good" material and will help him get focussed for those last miles! Please help me support him...

Many many thanks
Anneloes

Ode to my Virtual Running Buddy....

Admittingly my Virtual Running Buddy (VRB) and I did not get off to a good start last week. The first day of our "buddingship" I got the following text messages from him in reply to my running stats:

Sunday: no reply...nothing...zilch...nada!

The day after: I got a text "Does walking the dog count? I did run, well jog really, well, walk briskly crossing a road at one point. Times 10 mins. walking, 5 seconds brisk walk, 20 minutes walking".

He made up Tuesday my texting before I did actually! Very impressive and today I owe him!

It was a typical Sunday morning, I was snoozing my way into alertness and knew I should run, but was doing the famous "I will run later" promise to myself which we all know actually means "...will anyone notice I won’t run at all today... after all its raining as well, go on, sleep a little longer…, you deserve it!"

So here I was lying, in blissful denial of my own ignorance, sleeping away. And suddenly I got a text "Nearly did not go this morning but thought of letting down my running buddy (ed: again), so got out there! 25 minutes straight running - no walking, just went 4 it. Go Me! You had/have a good one too".

Not that I am really competitive (yeah right!), it worked! I had my running gear on in less than 25 seconds, looking for a plastic rain jacket to cover me as it was really pissing down. Went out and did my usual up the hill warm up of 5 min running. By the way, I think that hill doesn’t like me it seems to whisper “I am only here to wind you up, Anneloes!” every time I tackle it, followed by 20 minutes running! No walking, well a bit in the middle, less than one minute, when crossing the road. So thank you Running Buddy! I owe you…

Have a good one and talk laters!
AZ

PS For those of you who wonder what happens when I don’t update the blog: Yes, I am still running – there is simply no report on it ;-) I will aim to update the blog at least once a week and sometimes a little more often.