WE DID IT ! ! !

Official times, more pictures and reports will follow. For now, we did it, are happy and will sign up for next year's half marathon.

Our final report.

It's raining. Laura's family must have arrived by now. I'm having a cold. We lost three of our team already, one to a chess competition, the other two to leg and back injuries. I'm getting nervous while my dad is giving me last instructions. May god be with us...

Die Spannung steigt.

Today our start numbers and the MyLaps ChampionChips have arrived. You can see my chip on the picture just underneath the 'M' in my name. Fancy stuff. The chip automatically registers our time at kilometers 5, 10 and 15. The little circle next to our numbers mean that we will start in the violet group. Everyone in this group must have estimated to run the whole thing in about 90 minutes. I wonder how much variance they allow in these groups and whether our group includes runners from 70-90 min or 90-110 min. The latter would be nicer, then we can take over and not the other way around :)

We will start from Fransestraat at 13:30. Given that we have the brown, red and pink groups starting in front of us, I don't think that we will cross the start line before 14:00. Though, that doesn't matter because of our fancy chips which will take the time only when we crossed this line.

So, the final practice runs will take place. If I keep my pace from today's morning run, I could make it in 93 minutes...promising :)

1 month to go

It's getting closer and closer and we're preparing, well, semi-optimal. Laura hurt her foot and I dislike running on my own after work when it's dark outside.
However, I managed my first 15k (wahoo!) and we are well prepared for the first 5k on the real track  by now. But running the whole thing will be a damn hard job. People may say that the Netherlands are as flat as it can be, but at least my legs notice every rise when running, whether it's slow and steady or short and sharp. And the Seven Hills Run will have both of it, several times:

Keep your fingers crossed for us. And let's hope that Laura's foot will recover soon!

I'm in pain!!

I'm in pain! However it was worth it. Because I did my first serious practice on the zevenheuvelen parcours and I managed to run 11.62 km in 1.08.26h!! That's an average speed of 10.2km per hour, which means I might actually be able to achieve our goal of running the zevenheuvelenloop in less than 90min. in November :)

Another very nice development is that more and more people are joining Manu and me for the Zevenheuvelenloop, which is very cool! :) Not only is my family from Hamburg joining us, but Manu's father and her boyfriend as well! So, who's next to sign up?!

94 days of training - 74 days to go

I saw that last year's Zevenheuvelenloop was won by none other than Haile Gebrselassie in a time that sounds insane: 42:44. And this is not even his best time on this track, in 2001 he made it in 41:38. That means, he ran 1k in 2.75! I don't think, I could keep up the pace even on the bike.

However, don't compare yourself to the best others can do, but to the best you can do.

So, what did we do meanwhile? 

Laura and me went for a run and noticed a huge difference in my performance compared to our first run together. Remember the first blog entry: "Manu managed to run 3.75k in 26 min and then slowly died on a bench while Laura ran another round with an end result of 7.5k in 46 min." This time we made 6.3k in 41min and no dying whatsoever! Twice as long in distance but in less than twice as long in time - yeah.

Also, Elliot and me went for a run again. While we made 5.4k in 41min last month, we made 6.4k in the same time now! We improved by an entire kilometre - wahoo.

Don't think that Laura didn't improve as well - she's probably just held back by me when we go together. When she went on her own yesterday, she ran 12.49k - the first kilometres of the actual Zevenheuvelenloop! And it took her 66.51, which is an amazing pace of 5.32! Ladies and Gentlemen, that means that Laura just needs to keep this pace to really reach the goal of 15k in less than 90min!

And as promised in the first blog post, a beautiful picture of beautiful blisters. Enjoy :)

Another personal record

After a Babysit-and-Party-Weekend, what would be the best thing to do on a Sunday evening? Exactly: Jogging. After Laura's threat of running 10k together on Monday, I begged my dad to play my personal trainer again. He did and joined me on his bike, giving advice on my running style, pointing out dangerous roots on the path and guiding me through the forest. The wonderful result: 9k in 59min ! This is the longest I have ever run in my life. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

But, ehm, Laura, maybe we go running together on Tuesday? I still haven't moved away from where I sat down after the run - which was 4 hours ago. My legs feel like stone.

Recovery after a crisis.

It was quiet here, Laura was on holidays, some thought already that this was it, but the training went on. Actually, it finally really started. And today was a special training event: running with daddy. We made 5.7k in 32min, which is a pace of less than 6min! This fact alone is worth being celebrated but additionally I didn't feel too bad, more like a young deer jumping over the lush green summer meadow.

So much for now. I'm happy. The next post will finally show some pictures. Laura and me thought that a before-after-comparison might increase our motivation even more. So, stay tuned. Good night. I'll collapse into bed now.

The jogging diet...

... looked really promising in the beginning. I had tasty roasted aubergines, tomatoes, paprika and zucchinis, steamed salmon, whole grain pasta and in the mornings fresh yoghurt with banana and honey. That didn't feel at all like a strict diet and I was optimistic that it might motivate me to practice a bit more and eventually catch up with Laura.

But then I went to the UK. And suddenly I saw myself eating 6oz beef burger, Haggis, Neeps and Tatties, baked beans and sausages, sandwiches with more mayonnaise than anything else in them, everything always accompanied by chips and ketchup; and also cupcakes, carrot cakes (none as good as the one my roomie makes), shortbread with toffee on top and covered in chocolate (!) and not to forget: beer, beer and beer. But the really bad thing always came after eating: I was completely stuffed, couldn't move anymore and still, I wanted more! Luckily, they sell salty, fatty crisps in the pubs.

Sooo, you're free to vote against me. However, Laura is also on holiday, so I have ten more days to catch up. Too bad that I've just found this long forgotten ice cream in my freezer...

The next step

Last weekend I tried a new jogging trail, this time in Bochum with Elliot. When we started to run, he began his support by asking whether I wanted to go for a walk or for a run. Well, well, in the end we saw that ... he was right.

Awful result, I was red like a tomato and it occurred to me that maybe, maybe I have been a little bit too optimistic. 15km!!! In less than 90 minutes??? Holy moly, I'm getting scared.

However, I decided to wipe away these thoughts and to concentrate on something different, but equally important: Food. After hours of reading about running, nutrition etc here is what I found:

Carbs: 60% of daily calories intake
Proteins: 20% of daily calories intake
Fat: less than 20% of daily calories intake
Vitamins: C, E and A
Calcium: 1000 mg per day
Iron: 18 mg per day
Sodium: just enough to avoid cravings for salty food

So far so good. But I don't know my daily calories intake and I certainly won't start counting every calorie that wanders into my mouth. And how the hell should we measure 1000 mg of calcium per day? And 18 mg of iron? I start to understand why proper athletes take supplements: it's just so much easier to follow the recommended nutrition guidelines.

So, I also wiped away those rules and read and googled even more to find the type of food that naturally fits to a jogging diet and now proudly present our menu for the coming weeks:

Breakfast
Low-fat yoghurt (proteins, carbs, calcium) with banana (carbs, potassium - important to prevent cramps)
or
Whole grain bread (fibres) with peanut butter, yes, peanut butter (protein, fibres)

Lunch/Dinner
Salmon (protein, omega3fats, vitamins A, B and D) with spinach
or
Poultry with carrots (vitamin A) and nuts, sweet potatoes (potassium, iron, vitamin A and C), eggs (vitamin K, protein, of course) etc...

Any suggestions welcome! And if that all gets to complicated, we will just do it like Rocky.

While Laura collects personal records...

...Manu collects jogging impressions in Germany: Last weekend in Osnabrueck with Robbie as personal trainer. He had to run circles around her to get at least a bit of a workout and try hard to communicate which basically meant him talking and Manu answering non-verbally (thumbs-up/-down/nodding...) until she wasn't even able to do that anymore.

However, the important and amazing thing is this: 6.77km in 44 minutes! The first thought was that the gps didn't work properly. But also manually tracking with gmaps gave the same results, nearly 7km.

P.S. to the two bastards who don't believe in me: Thank you! Now, I know I will make it.
Second P.S. to you: I will find you!

So this week we worked hard on our blog and also did plenty of excercise in the form of dancing on the nice music @ Habana, vierdaagsefeesten! But then again I felt that maybe it was time to also do some actual running... So I did, and I managed to run 7,5 km in 43.40 minutes! A personal record :) 

But now I'm just going to drink lots of water and enjoy the last day of the vierdaagsefeesten!

Fifteen kilometres in less than ninety minutes...

...that might sound like a nice walk on a Sunday afternoon for some of you. For us, it is a real challenge.

Therefore, we decided to sign up for the Zevenheuvelenloop in Nijmegen, which will take place on Nov 18, 2012. That gives us 3 months and 30 days to shape our bodies, get rid of Manu's smoking habits, improve the dutch cuisine and eventually master the hills around Nijmegen.

The first official practice run ended with the following results:

Manu managed to run 3.75k in 26 min and then slowly died on a bench while Laura ran another round with an end result of 7.5k in 46 min.

Be assured that we will post more embarrassing results, reports of tears and anger, detailed pictures of our blisters and hopefully also our progress to reach the goal:

Fifteen kilometres in less than ninety minutes.