Instead at 1:15pm I was busy parking the car, and changing clothes. The parking lot wasn’t near the start, and I had only a vague idea where the start was. So I started running towards the Zandvoort Racing Circuit, where I knew the start would be, after climbing to steep dunes I found the parking lot, but still no starting line in sight. A guy who was running behind me, asked if I knew where I was going, after saying I had no clue, he said he thought I did know, that was why he was running behind me.

We kept on running together, and after tackling a couple of fences, and crossing the stream of runners who had already started, I finally saw the start line in the distance, it was at the end of the pitt lane.

Because of all the rushing I hadn’t found the time to empty my bladder, there were some portable toilets near the entrance to the pittlane. So while I was emptying my bladder and tying my shoe laces at the same time. I heard the speaker anounce that finally the last runner had crossed the starting line, and they were about to clear the area.
So I ran out of the toilet and onto the pitt lane, and a flabbergasted speaker encouraged me to cross the start, and wished me good luck with my run. As you can see in my heartrate file, (I pushed start on my Garmin, the moment I crossed the line) I start the race with a rather high heartrate of 180!

The first 2k I was busy finding a good run pace, trying to control my heartrate and breathing, and adjusting my pants, which I hadn’t tighten properly after leaving the toilet.

After I found my composure, I could enjoy the race. The first 4k were on the race circuit, which was a lot of fun, I kept looking around, because I knew this is where I will do the bike part of my first olympic distance triathlon.

As we left the circuit, we came across a aid station, with water and AA drink. I never drink while running, but because my whole nutrition plan went out the window, with me sprinting to the starting line, I thought it was better to take some quick carbs.
I also had another reason to do so, on Thursday before the race I had started the Paleo diet, which means, hardly any carbs in my diet anymore. And I was afraid that my body couldn’t take a 12k run without any extra carbs.
The drink did bother my stomach, so I decided to skip all the other aid stations.

After the circuit, we crossed the boulevard, and went on to the beach. Another 4k of running through the sand. The first part was very heavy, because of all the loose sand. But as soon as we reached the harder parts of the beach, I could continue to take over people. Being the last person to start, is actually a lot of fun, I kept overtaking everybody in front of me.

We left the beach at the 7.5k mark, with a long run through the loose heavy sand, and a very steep climb to the boulevard. I walked that climb, as did everybody else.

We went a bit further, and at about the 8k mark, we turned around, and ran through Zandvoort back to the circuit. There was a lot of music, and people cheering. I was wearing a t-shirt with my name on it, so I got a lot of personal encouragement

Finally we reached the last part, we entered the circuit again, and run towards the finish in 1hour 19 minutes.

With the lack of running lately, start of the paleo diet, and the not so optimal start, I was rather pleased with my time. Beforehand I had set my goal time to be somewhere between 1:20 and 1:15, with 1:15 being rather unrealistic.

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/76355133

The only “restiction” was that you had to wear red an black during your run, the colors of Christchurch.
Looking red while running, isn’t such a big problem for me, and I also had some black running trousers, so I was good to go.

After a copious meal on Saturday, the alarm went of way to early on Sunday morning. I bit groggy I got dressed, got in the car, and to the site where the run was held.
First of there were some children races. And 10 minutes before the 5k start, the 10k race started.
I think a lot of people misunderstood the Run for Christchurch, because I saw a lot of people wearing red and black, but participating in the 10k!
Well lucky for them, I’m here to set things straight.

Here we have another run4chch participant:

The 5k was about to start, I still looked a bit groggy, from the night before, but I was ready for action!

My goal for the 5k was to run sub 29 minutes, with a negative split. Running the second half faster than the first.

We ran next to a small river, and we had some support along the way. At about the 3k mark, the first group of the 10k were running past us! They were blazing fast!

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/72781192I accelerated somewhere around 3.5k, and took over some people, which gave the boost necessary for a strong finish. I forgot to press stop on my Garmin, so the time you see above isn’t correct.
My official time is 28:03, and out of the 38 women who ran the 5k, I became 11th!

And as I wrote at the beginning of this post, I always look red when I’m running:

This is what I did:

8 minute warm up
consisting of 4 repetitions of:
1 minute jump rope 
1 minute rest/doing slow reps of bodyweight exercises.

bodyweight exercises tabata
20 sec 16 squats
10 sec rest
20 sec plank
10 sec rest
20 sec 16 push-ups
10 sec rest
20 sec 4 burpees
10 sec rest
20 sec 16 squats
10 sec rest
20 sec plank
10 sec rest
20 sec 16 push-ups
10 sec rest
20 sec 4 burpees
10 sec rest

transition to the bike

45 minute bike ride, middle gear, level -4, cadance around 90rpm

cooldown – stretching

I can do this!

I will do the following:

Warm-up

1 minute jump rope
practice a couple of squats
1 minute jump rope
practice a couple of planks
1 minute jump rope
practice a couple of push-ups
1 minute jump rope
practice a couple of burpees.

Main part 1- A bodyweight exercise tabata
20 sec Squats
10 sec rest 
20 sec Plank
10 sec rest 
20 sec Push Ups
10 sec rest 
20 sec Burpees
10 sec rest 
20 sec Squats
10 sec rest 
20 sec Plank
10 sec rest 
20 sec Push Ups
10 sec rest 
20 sec Burpees

Main part 2
45 minutes on the bike trainer

Cool down
Some stretching

I will change into my clothes now, and you can ask me in an hour and a half if I’m done yet.

So without further ado, here is my 2011 race schedule:

March 6th a 7.5k run (registered) – Mokumse Vrouwenloop

This run is in my back yard, the run is around the small lake behind my house, my standard running route. On Sunday I always run around the lake. So for 2euro, it’s fun to do the run as a race once Especially when the run is for a good cause like Mama Cash.

March 13th a 5k run (registered) – Louis Vinkloop

This is the most close by 5k race I could find. I hadn’t planned on running this, but because of Mike Scott and his idea to organize a world wide virtual 5k to raise money for the victims of the earthquake in Christchurch.
The idea is that you run a 5k dressed in black and red (the colors of Christchurch), and donate 5 dollars to the New Zealand Red Cross. So that’s what I’ll be doing on Sunday March 13th!

March 27th a 12k run (registered) – Runner’s World Zandvoort Circuit Run

This run is a preparation run for the Zandvoort Triathlon I’ll be doing in June. The run is partially on the same circuit as the triathlon will be, so I can scope out the surroundings, and be a bit better prepared for the triathlon. 

May 21st a 1/8 triathlon (registered) – Ballast-Nedam Triathlon Krimpenerwaard

The first triathlon of the season, a sprint distance. This was the only triathlon with an open water swim this early in the season. All the other triathlons have the swim part in the pool. Half the fun of a triathlon, for me is to do an open water swim.

June 12th a 1/8 triathlon (registered) – NK Triathlon OD & 1/8 triathlon

Another race in my back yard Last year I was cheering on the athletes, this year I will be a competitor myself. Original plan was to do the Olympic distance, but because they turned that into the Dutch National Championships, with a time limit, I won’t be able to compete. So another sprint distance.

June 19th a 1/4 triathlon (registered) – K-Swiss Zandvoort Circuit Triathlon

Only one week after the Amsterdam triathlon I’ll be doing the Zandvoort 1/4 triathlon. That will be my first 1/4 triathlon ever! I’m very curious how it will go! The swim part will be in the sea, I’m looking forward to that!
But there is a small twist to this race… In the week between the Amsterdam and the Zandvoort triathlon, I’ll be away on a sailing trip. We will set sail from Schevening to Kiel, and probarbly don’t set foot on land. If all goes as planned we will arrive in Kiel on Friday evening, and on Saturday morning we will take the train from Kiel back to Amsterdam. Sunday morning, my first 1/4 triathlon will start…
I don’t think that’s the best preparation for a race I can get. My main goal for the triathlon will be to get some experience in the Olympic distance, and do a proper preparation for an OD later in the season.

http://maps.google.nl/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=nl&msa=0&msid=211096233066450603379.00049daab76c1f13438ed&ll=53.094024,7.163086&spn=4.619095,9.338379&z=6&output=embed
Scheveningen – Kiel weergeven op een grotere kaart

July 23th a 1/8 or 1/4 triathlon (not yet registered) – Triathlon Texel

I haven’t registred for this one yet, it depends on how my first 1/4 triathlon went, if I’ll do anther 1/4 or choose for the shorter 1/8 version. This one also has an open water swim in the sea

August 20th a 1/8 or 1/4 triathlon (not yet registered) – Triathlon Binnenmaas

This is the same triathlon as I did last year, my first, I think I’ll do the same distance as last year, so a 1/8 triathlon. Let’s see if I can  break my own record

September 10th a 1/4 triathlon (not yet registered) – Politie Triathlon Spijkenisse

This will be the last triathlon of the season, this is the real Olympic distance, with a 1500meter swim! Let’s finish the triathlon season with a bang!

September 18th a 16k run (not yet registered) – Dam tot Damloop

This is a very big run here in The Netherlands, its a 10 miler. I wanted to do this run last year, but because of some back troubles, and sickness, I decided to skip it. This year hopefully I’ll be better prepared, and run a sub 1:30 time (fingers crossed!)

My weight has gone down from 84,7kg to 81,6kg. All my measurements has gone down, most noticably my chest (the green line).

According to these graphs I’ve done good, now let’s review the pics. At the first day I’ve taken some head and body shots, and today I’ve also taken some pictures. It was a bit hard to take good body shots, so the comparison will be of the head shots alone.

Besides from looking like a criminal, and a mysteriously acquired tan in February (?!), this were the best pics I could take

I think I can see a difference, or is it all in my head?

This 30 day resolution really reignited my weightloss ambition. I would really like to get below 80kg, ultimate goal is still 75kg. I’ve never weighed that little, and would really like to know what I look and feel like at that weight. 
Hopefully the lower weight will increase my running speed, running is my weakest link of the three triathlon sports.

Longterm goal, for the end of September, is to be at 75kg and be able to run a sub 55minutes 10k!

On January 28th I wrote this:

My resolution:

The next 30 days I will eat properly, I will (again) take pictures of everything I eat and post them on my blog. Feedback on the food is much appreciated! I will write a small daily blog along with those pictures to give a short summary of my day, food and exercise wise. And finally I will follow my training schedule, and get some decent base-training done.

After 30 days I will evaluate, if I’ve lost weight, and feel good, I will get myself a sports related gadget. I’ve got my eye on the Finis Swimsense Watch, so that will probably be it.

What do you think, did I deserve the Swimsense watch?

This was the final day of my 30 day resolution, tomorrow I will write the conclusion, and what I’m going to do for the next 30 days/year.

But first let’s see what I’ve eaten today.

I started the day with an Isostar energy bar, to get some energy for my upcoming brick training.

I did a new sort of brick today, instead of a bike-run brick, I did a strength training – bike brick. Inspired by this blog post on trainingpeaks.

First a did a 15 minute strength training circuit, consisting of three repeats of:
- 20 squats
- 5 push-ups
- 15 gymball hamstring curls
- 3 negative pull-ups
- 20 crunches

Then I jumped straight onto my bike, and did a 45 minute aerobic bike workout.

After the workout I had a protein-carb shake, it has a real chemical strawberry flavor, not really my favourite. It was an idea of my nutristionist, to have a high carb, high protein shake right after a morning workout, to curb my hunger, and don’t feel hungry the rest of the day.

At 2pm we went to a birthday party, of a 6 year old nephew of D. Before we went I had a “eat natural” bar, so I wouldn’t be hungry, and cave in to the cake.

That worked pretty good, I only had some healthy snacks, that were put on the table after the cake was eaten. Had some olives, liverwurst, cheese, carrots, bell peper, and a piece of bread.

For dinner I made pizza! I had made the dough in the morning, so it could rise all day. I had two halves of a pizza, the first was with onion, tomato, prosquito, mozzarella and rocket.

The second half was a, onion, tomato, salmon, shrimp, parmezan cheese and rocket pizza.

For dessert some full fat quark with, walnuts, honey and “tropical dried fruit mix”.

Tomorrow a final update on my weight, measurements and pictures.

I’ve lost over 1 kilo in one day, what did I do with all that water?!

Couldn’t decide what I should have for breakfast, finally decided on an experiment. A grilled sandwich with pear, raspberries and some honey. It tasted great! I can recommend this to everyone!

Then I went into town, first stop my nutristionist. To get my monthly peptalk, she complimented me on my progress this last month, but also warned me that I will always be prone to easy weight gain. If you’ve once been fat, it’s very easy to gain it all back. My brain is convinced that the fat version of me, is the “normal” version, so it will try it best, to let me gain weight.
After that “peptalk” I went into town to buy a present for a 6 year old boy, and kill some time, before I had to go to the dentist at 12:45. When I finally arrived at the dentist office, it appeared that the appointment was at 11:45… Felt pretty stupid.

So onto “Sugerless” a new lunchroom, with biological food. First I had a cranberry, apple, raspberry juice:

And for lunch a pasta salad:

After finishing all the Friday afternoon errants, I decided to make some classic mac and cheese. I never made something like it, so an all new recipe. I used 500grams of fresh tomato’s, fresh basil, garlic, lot’s of different cheeses and some spam from a can. The final result was pretty good! Real comfort food, to bad I didn’t need any comforting It’s really easy to over-eat on the stuff though!

For dessert I had some full fat quark, with honey and a dried fruit and nut mix.

Tomorrow, it the final day of my 30 day resolution.  Let’s see how that will go, the main hurdle tomorrow will be the childrens birthday party…

I had a rumbling stomach when I got out of bed at 6am this morning. So I decided to have a slice of “ontbijtkoek” before I went to the pool.

I did a speed training:
300m warmup

5x200m sets with 45 sec rest in between.
first set steady
second set hard
third set race pace
fourth set hard
fifth set steady

cool down of 300m drills.

Back home it was time for some breakfast, oatmeal with a banana and some raspberries.

My stomach was rumbling at 10am, but had to wait till 12.30pm before I could have some lunch. I had the regular two slices of bread with a small salad.

Around 3pm I had a hard boiled egg as a snack.

Dinner consisted of leftovers, first two “flensjes” (very thin pancakes), the a piece of spinach pie, and finally a bit of peasoup.

As an late night snack I had some cucumber with salty seasoning.

Tomorrow I will see my dietitian again, after 4 weeks, I’m curious to what she will say about my progress.

Had planned to go to the pool this morning, but I went to bed really late last night, so I couldn’t get my ass out of bed…
Breakfast was the usual:

Had again a couple of cookies at work in the morning

Lunch was two slices of bread, and a small salad.

Snack a banana:

We went out to dinner tonight, had two courses. We split the first course, some nice antipasti:

As main course, I had a small pasta with half a salad and grilled veggies:

I had some dessert at home:

My goal for tomorrow: get my ass out of bed, and into the pool!