Coach

I will become a coach. The date we have to focus on is Saturday the 19th. The event is the Kids Race 2022, in Maspalomas. Alex and Alan will have to perform then. Alan will run 300 meters, and Alex needs to cover 1000 meters. The kids have developed some nasty habits for the weekends where they quickly get bored, and often the situation deteriorates rapidly into fighting. I hope to change this behaviour by focussing on something physical in the mornings. We will do a couple of training sessions, just like the real deal.

Usually we go to these running events without any preparation. The distances are so small that the kids can easily run them, and just participating is much more important than actually winning. This time I want to try and get a good result. Finish in the top 10. We need to approach this professionally. Evaluate the distance. Find out a good speed. See how much sprinting they can do. We have two weekends to prepare and train. If we go on Saterday and Sunday we have 4 sessions available. If they both try their distance twice it should be more than enough preparation. If they train in the morning they don’t even need to change their weekend routines (hopefully with less fighting).

The plan

  • Warming up. Walk to Romano (the track), do some jumping, some stretching, maybe a few push ups.
  • Review the track. Walk the entire distance, and discuss the optimal approach to running the distance in a good/easy/fast way.
  • Alan: 300 meters. First a small candy for some extra energy. Start running normally the first 220 meters, and finish with 80 meters superfast. Drink water and relax/rest. Do this twice! I will measure the time.
  • Alex: 1000 meters. First a small candy for some extra energy. Start running normally the first 300 meters, then slow down a bit for 300 meters to regain strength, then another 300 meters normally and finish with 100 meters superfast. Drink water and relax/rest. Do this twice! I will measure the time.
  • Cooling down, a few jumps, stretch, discuss results, walk back home.
  • Objective

    The results really are not so important. If the kids have a good time that is the only important thing. The preparation is more meant to stimulate the kids and to prepare them a bit. If they reach their goal of finishing with the first 10, well, thats great! It will boost their self-esteem, which is great. If they just finish that is also great. They will have prepared for something, and gave if their best try. This is also something to feel good about.

    10K nightrun

    Once again I ran a 10K and this time with a pretty good result. I finished in just over 50 minutes. Up until two months ago I was following the perfect training schedule. I was running three times a week between 6 or 7K. A very good preparation for a 10K. Then my family came home from spending the summer at the beach, and my running activities decreased from 3 times a week to 0 times a week.

    Still my foundation must be good, because even without running for two months I still ran the 10K in a very good time, 50 minutes and 10 seconds. I ran together with the father of one of Alex’friends, so that maybe added some motivation.
    2018 - 10k nightrun!

    Nightrun result

    I was very happy with my running result. After month without running at all I was a bit worries about running 10K, but in the end it went very well, and I finished under the hour. My time was 54 minutes and 30 seconds. Not bad at all considering that it was raining during the first part of the race.Nightrun Las Palmas 2016!

    Corriendo por Vegueta

    Alex - corriendo por vegueta 2016!I started running again and ran a nice lap in the center of Las Palmas called Corriendo por Vegueta. 10 Kilometers which resulted in a very nice 52:45. Not bad at all.

    Maybe I was expecting a little bit of attention for the running effort, but I did not get any. All the attention went to Alex who ran his first match of about 100 meters. He was followed by a cameraman that grabbed his entire run.

    Buckler beerrun

    Buckler!In Holland the brand name Buckler was destroyed by a comedian but in Spain the brand Buckler beer still exists. At the end of this week Buckler is sponsoring a beer run.

    The beer run is a running match of about 6 kilometers across the beach. Sadly, the match is just the day before I’m leaving for Madrid, so I don’t think I’ll be attending.

    The strange thing about this running event is the publicity. In some places you see posters announcing the race, and these posters look pretty professional. Of course there is also a website and this is the weird part. I have never seen such a horrible website. The website offers a bank account number for you to deposit your money and that statement that the run will commence somewhere after 7 o clock. There are also a number of empty pages and that’s it.

    There is also a statement that the run should be completed barefoot and in a swimsuit so there will probably not be and time measurements. And where will you store all your stuff? It just smells like a scam but still I am curious. Maybe this Friday I’ll walk towards the beach and have a look.

    48:42

    Mijn marathon tijd was 48:42 voor de 10km. Op zich geen slechte tijd, maar bij nader inzien toch geen persoonlijk record. Volgend jaar iets sneller proberen te zijn. Volgens mij is een tijd onder de 45 minuten een goed doel om na te streven.

    Update:
    Nu ook met bewijs:
    De start
    De finish

    Las Palmas Marathon (10km)

    Ik heb me wederom ingeschreven om een gezonde 10 hard te lopen tijdens de Las Palmas Marathon. Dit keer hoop ik alle stappen goed te doorlopen. Twee jaar geleden was ik te laat met de inschrijving, en deed ik voor spek en bonen mee. Vorig jaar had ik wel betaald, maar was in niet goed op de hoogte van de vreemde constructie voor het ophalen van het nummer dus liep ik weer voor spek en bonen mee.

    Dit jaar heb ik betaald, en heb ik in mijn agenda genoteerd dat ik een dag voor de race mijn nummer persoonlijk moet ophalen. Nu kijken of ik na drie jaar een beetje goede tijd kan neerzetten, theoretisch zou ik de 10km in een tijd rond de 50 minuten moeten kunnen lopen. Onder het uur moet me absoluut lukken.