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We are apparently "M-48 days": seven weeks to the start of the marathon. Have you donated yet? Don't wait! Do it now! I'll wait here for you to return And a big thank you to those who already chipped in!
Ok. Donated? Thanks! Back to business now! How's the training going??
I am in the weird mid-training-block place where I feel totally confident right after I finish a run and the endorphines are high, and then the rest of the time wonder what I've been getting myself into and how I'll ever run a distance that the car was invented for.
So how are things shaping up, 11 weeks into formal marathon training? I had a tune-up 10K on Sept. 20, and that was encouraging even if not perfect.
For starters the 10K was 300meter short, so it doesn't count as an official race time. But it achieved its main goal for me: assess where I am after 10 weeks of training. I am slow - I'm sure painfully so for most serious runners - but I am faster than I was at the start of the block. In July I calculated my interval pace. That should be a bit faster than my 10K pace, and I came up with 12.05 minutes per mile (I could run faster for short distances). My 10K (or 9.7K) pace is now 11.20MM, a real improvement. This is backed up by what I see in my other training runs, and commensurate with the changes in my "slightly slower-than-10K pace" the tempo runs require. These runs are also faster than they used to, for the same effort. One small caveat: the race was in the evening, when I run faster. If you ever run with me before my coffee or breakfast, you'll notice the difference.
So far for speed. I'm still looking at a 6hr marathon (I know... ). What about endurance for the distance? I am not afraid of mixing running and walking when it helps me go the distance: it lowers my HR, and mixes up the muscles I use. The race and my training runs take place in the pancake-flat parts of Flanders, so there is not much beyond variety of the terrain underfoot to entertain me.
I've done 3 half-marathon runs since June, and 6 runs beyond: 14, 15 or 16 miles, and today 18. Ideally I'd get 1 or 2 20-milers in for confidence. With 7 weeks left (including taper), I don't have many shots left for that distance, so this enters into the confidence debate I mentioned at the start. Will I be alright without a 20-miler? Heck, I ran my first marathon with two 16-milers as my longest runs and lived to tell the tale. And I've done more quality training the past months than I did in years. Should be alright, shouldn't it?
Today's plan was to run a mile, walk until heart rate was back to "comfortable and easy run", then resume running for the rest of the mile. I had a few longer breaks to nibble on snacks, but it was only after mile 16 that I really needed a different pattern. At no point did I feel like 18 miles was impossible, and any niggles that tried to show up disappeared within the mile. I even managed a little sprint for the final 200m!
That concluded a training week of 33 miles, my longest since late December 2023, and definitely of much better quality! Overall, I am feeling happy with my progress so far.
So all in all I know this won't be easy, and it certainly won't be fast. But as long as I stay injury free, it will likely get done. Check back next week for more, or check my Fetcheveryone log for the detailed stats until then!
NL: 48 dagen te gaan!We zijn blijkbaar “M-48 dagen”: zeven weken tot de start van de marathon. Heb je al een gift gedaan? Wacht niet! Doe het nu! Ik wacht hier op je terugkomst En heel veel dank aan iedereen die al een steentje bijdroeg!
Ok. Gedoneerd? Bedankt! Terug naar de training tussenstand! Hoe loopt alles nu?
Het midden van een trainingsblok vind ik altijd wat raar: soms voel ik me 200% zeker dat het zal lukken, vooral als de endorphines na een goeie sessie lekker vloeien. De rest van de tijd vraag ik me waar ik nu weer in hemelsnaam aan begonnen ben, en hoe ik ooit een afstand ga lopen waar ze de auto voor uitgevonden hebben.
Dus waar staan we, 11 weken na de officiële start van mijn training? Om dat na te gaan liep ik op 20 september een 10km wedstrijd. Aanmoedigend resultaat, ook al zijn er nog werkpuntjes.
Om te beginnen was de 10km eigenlijk 300 meter te kort, dus het is geen officiële wedstrijdtijd. Maar mijn doel was beoordelen waar ik stond na 10 weken training, en dat zit snor. Ik ben langzaam –schildpadlangzaam voor serieuze lopers– maar ik ben sneller dan 11 weken geleden. In juli berekende ik mijn tempo voor intervaltraining (da's iets sneller dan mijn 10km tempo), en ik kwam uit op 7:30 minuten per km (ik kon wel sneller lopen voor kortere afstanden). Mijn wedstrijd 10km (of 9,7K) tempo is nu 7:03MM, da's een reële verbetering. De data van mijn andere sessies bevestigen dit, vb in mijn "iets langzamer dan 10km" voor tempo sessies. Die gaan sneller dan vroeger met dezelfde inspanning. Let wel: de wedstrijd was 's avonds, wanneer ik sowieso sneller loop. Als je me ziet joggen voor ik koffie of ontbijt had, merk je het verschil.
Tot zover snelheid. Dit wordt nog steeds een marathon van 6 uur (ik weet het… ). Hoe zit het met uithoudingsvermogen voor de afstand? Ik gooi er gerust een stukje stappen tussen als het me helpt de afstand te halen: het verlaagt mijn HR en gebruikt iets andere spieren. Ik loop de marathon en mijn training in de vlakste landsdelen, dus de afwisseling tussen asfalt en onverharde baantjes is dan de enige die ik vind.
Voor lange duur heb ik sinds juni 3 keer een halve marathon afstand gedaan, en 6 keer verder gelopen: 22,5km, 24km, 25,7km en vandaag 29km. Idealiter zou ik 1 of 2 keer ook 32km lopen om mijn zelfvertrouwen een boost te geven. Met nog 7 weken te gaan (inclusief afbouw/rust), heb ik niet veel ruimte meer voor die afstand, dus je snapt waar de twijfels waar ik het eerder over had vandaan komen. Red ik het zonder de klassieke 32km sessie(s)? Mijn eerste marathon liep ik met twee keer 25,7km als langste afstand, en ik overleefde het. Daarbij heb ik de afgelopen maanden met meer focus en kwaliteit gelopen dan ik in jaren deed. Dat moet toch goed komen?
Vandaag was het patroon een mijl (1.6km) lopen, dan stappen tot mijn hartslag weer zakte naar 'aangename inspanning', en dan de rest van de mijl weer lopen; en een paar langere stukjes stappen om mijn snacks te eten. Pas na 25km voelde ik de nood voor een ander patroon, maar op geen enkel moment had ik het gevoel dat 18 mijl onmogelijk was. Als iets begon tegen te wringen, verdween dat voor de mijl uit was. Ik kon zelfs nog een sprintje trekken voor de laatste 200 meter!
Daarmee heb ik deze week 53km bij elkaar gelopen, mijn langste week-afstand sinds eind december.
De marathon wordt dus niet een makkie, en snel al helemaal niet. Maar zolang ik vrij van blessures blijf, ziet het er haalbaar uit. Kom volgende week kijken hoe het verder gaat, of bezoek mijn Fetcheveryone log voor alle gedetailleerde info over mijn training!
Hop down to the English version
Omdat zomaar 42km lopen tot de finishlijn niet genoeg is voor me…
Omdat papa 9 jaar geleden aan kanker overleed…
Omdat die rotziekte nog steeds te veel mensen rond me raakt…
Omdat er na jaren toegewijd onderzoek nog steeds geen wereld zonder kanker is –maar we komen telkens een stapje dichter…
Omdat jij niet hoeft te lopen ter nagedachtenis van een dierbare, maar me wel een duwtje in de rug kan geven met een gift!
Op zondag 17 november loop ik de Wase Marathon - de volle 42.2km! En jij kan intussen helpen om ons allemaal wat dichter bij een toekomst zonder kanker te brengen:
Makkelijkste manier om te helpen: Doneer rechtsreeks bij Kom op tegen kanker via mijn actiepagina! Alle beetjes helpen, want vele kleintjes maken één groot! Doe dit voor 17 November!
Dit kan ook:Stort je liever een anonieme bijdrage? Dat doe je op rekeningnummer BE03 4886 6666 6684 met de vrije mededeling 110399720 GIFT. Ik weet dan niet wie je bent, maar je bijdrage gaat wel naar mijn actie
En heb je cash gevonden tussen de kussens van de sofa? Ook welkom in een envelopje! Ik zorg dat het netjes bij Kom op tegen kanker beland
Elke gift telt voor 100%Inschrijving en de kosten voor vervoer en bevoorrading neem ik op mij! Elke gift van jou, groot of klein, helpt rechtstreeks en 100% om onderzoek te financieren, patienten en hun families te ondersteunen, en red dus levens
Samen kunnen we opkomen we tegen kanker! Ik loop, jij doneert. Deal?
Ik hou je op mijn blog wekelijks op de hoogte van mijn training, of je kan de tussenstand bekijken op Fetcheveryone, mijn online logboek
Wase Marathon - Joining the Fight against cancer!Because just running 26.2 miles to the finish isn't enough for me…
Because dad died of cancer 9 years ago…
Because that horrible disease still affects way too many people around me…
Because after years of dedicated research, we still don't live in a cancer-free world –but we get closer, step by step…
Because you don't have to run in memory of a loved one, but you can support me with a donation!
On Sunday 17 November I will run the Wase Marathon. Yes, all 26.2 miles of it! And you can help to bring us all a bit closer to a future without cancer:
All the different ways to donate:If you're with a Belgian bank Donate directly to Kom op tegen kanker via my dedicated fundraiser page! Every little helps, from pennies to pounds, cents to dollars/euros! Donate by 17 November.
You prefer an anonymous donation? Use this account number: BE03 4886 6666 6684 and add the following message: 110399720 GIFT. I won't know who donated but with that message you'll contribute to my specific fundraiser.
If you're abroad and can't use the Belgian bank account Send your donation to my Paypal (email address tinekedhaeseleer @ me.com), and mention MARATHON. I will send everything to the Belgian cancer-fighting charity Kom op tegen kanker!
I also accept cash, so save up those coins you find under the sofa and send them to me before 17 November
Your gift: 100% impact!I take care of all costs for participating in the marathon, such as entry fee, transport and supplies. This means that every single donation from you, small or large, directly helps to finance research, and supports patients and their families, and thus will help to save lives.
Together we can fight cancer! I run, you donate. What a deal!
I'll keep you up to date every week on my training progress on the blog, or if you can't wait, have a peek at my most recent training via Fetcheveryone, my online running log
In 2023 I finished another year of running 1000 miles... Because the relocation across the Pond and the concomitant travel shook up my schedule, and because of "stuff" that I can't remember now, my planning wasn't great and by the time October rolled around, I needed 27+ miles per week to stand a chance. So... apparently I did that. All I now remember is that it was a lot of miles run-walk, a lot of early mornings once I got my shiny chest light in particular, through wind and rain, catching little bugs in my Fetchpoint game Somehow I escaped injuries by sticking to snail-speed, but I did notice after consecutive days with 5 mile runs, it was getting a bit much.
But darn it, I did it. And I achieved my goal of running on average those 1000 miles faster than I did in 2022 (by 27' per mile, to be exact).
I love all the detail you get from Fetch!Obviously I decided to do it all again this year: another 1000 miles, if you please, my little legs? I'm adding in a bit more variation now I have a decent base: some intervals, tempo runs, and long slow runs without walk breaks. Or to be more accurate: replace "run" with "jog" because I'm still barely faster than a snail.
As of the start of May, I'm only a little bit behind on my target: instead of the weekly 19.2 miles, I need 19.9. Seems manageable for somebody who can churn out a few weeks at 27 miles, doesn't it? But that's not counting on a massive new change: I just started a full time job, and I've got a commute that requires bike+train three days a week. Planning is very tight if I want to reach 1000 miles with multiple shorter runs through the week. I still have 4 days without commute, to run on average about 5 miles each time. If you're speedier than me, you can fit that in before working from home, but for me it's a 3-miler on those days, and the rest I grab during the weekend. Or on one of the many bank holidays that grace my first month of work!
So we'll see if I can stay on target this year. At the moment I see very little opportunity to slack off, let alone fall ill or get injured. This will be another interesting year of "will she, or won't she?", but it won't be for lack of trying!
Early morning runs have their charm -meadows and trees in the mist in Mespelare.
Well, not really... But I have a job ahead of me taming this camera/lens OR I need to get a new one that's up to what I want to do with it. Out of 70 pics, this is the only one I kept because it's not a blurry mess.
Lightly edited Jay and his peanut. I absolutely love the blue stripes on their wings.I know bird photography is hard, but even then the sensor isn't up to it with the shutter speed and aperture on this thing. Cameras have evolved since checks 2007/8 when this camera came out, and the buyer at the time did not have bird photography in mind in the first place.
Things I can try before chucking it all out and saving up for a new one:
- use a tripod (need to find the right screw to attach camera to tripod)
- clean the windows (they're not that dirty, honestly)
- not take pics through the kitchen window (the birds won't dare to come close enough for the 150mm zoom I have)
- trying out different settings
That last one would require me to go through the manual, and we all know how we feel about that, don't we?
Have you succeeded in taking pics of the birds visiting your garden, and can you share them? Drop a link in the comments! I'd love to check out your pictures!
But Collegium “Vanachter in den Hof” receives a boost with additional human caretaker!The wildflower strip at Backyard Wildlife College; our bees and other creepy crawlies enjoyed this a lot.On June 30 Backyard Wildlife College in Allentown, PA, closed its doors forever — we’re unsure if any new tenants at the human dwelling have moved in and kept up with the wildlife improvements, or if the wildflower strip (aka the salad and protein bar) disappeared when management prepared the property for a new caretaker human. In any case, some of the infrastructure went to neighbouring backyards. You can now find Café Colibri at the human dwelling to the left, and the heated birdbath, squirrel picnic table, and feeding tube right next door to the original location. You don’t have to travel far, and we carefully checked that the humans are wildlife-friendly.
The human caretaker has permanently relocated to Belgium, and has taken up the position of assistant caretaker at Collegium Vanachter in den hof (VIDH) in Flanders, with a side-gig as Orchid Whisperer (more about this in a separate post).
Some portraits from the star performers in summer 2023 at Collegium Vanachter in den hof.We look forward to learning how European wildlife delights the humans near their dwellings in the Old World. We already received reports of sightings of Erik Brown (Squirrel), and of Freddy Fox barking deep into the night. Owl hoot-offs are a nightly occurrence. Over the summer the mosquito aerial combat team prevented most outdoor human activity and we are curious to hear how both parties will negotiate a truce next summer.
At the moment, the caretakers are spoiling the Feathered Division rotten with this fab new addition to the infrastructure, and bespoke mixes of fat, insects, and nuts and seeds. They are setting themselves up for a real challenging Big Garden Birdwatch (Flemish edition) to count all the feathered visitors in late January.
New infrastructure at Collegium VIDH is a hit with the Feathered faculty, staff and students!PSA: For continuity we will continue using the category BackyardWildlifeCollege for all garden-related wildlife adventures even after this relocation.
So: here's the recipe, scroll further down for the blabla story that other blogs put before the repice. I personally prefer the reverse: tell me how to do it, then tell me why this dish matters to you. 己所不欲勿施於人 as Confucius said. (Do not do to others as you wouldn't have done to yourself.1 )
Grab a 25 cm/10inch sandwich tin (I use one with a removable bottom), and a few mixing bowls, then gather the following ingredients, and follow the instructions below:
Ingredients:
- 175g (6oz) unsalted butter
- 250g (9oz) good quality milk chocolate. For my US-based friends: Trader Joe's Imported Belgian Chocolate is excellent, I personally vouch for it.
- 3 whole eggs
- 3 egg yolks
- 125g (4oz) light brown sugar
- 175g (6oz) ground almonds
- 100g (3 1/2oz) whole almonds crushed
- 150g (5oz) medjool dates (or poach ordinary dates in water and sugar for ± 3 mins), cut in small pieces
Instructions:
- Grease the sandwich tin, and line the base with a circle of grease-proof paper
- Preheat the oven to 170C (325F, gas mark 3)
- Melt butter and chocolate together au bain-marie or in microwave
- Beat the whole three eggs with egg yolks and sugar until the mixture is pale and thick.
- Add the ground almonds, the crushed almonds and the dates to that mixture, combine well
- Incorporate the butter and chocolate mixture
- Pour everything into the sandwich tin and bake for about 50 mins. (I needed to add another 15mins, but our oven is geriatric and temperamental)
- Leave to cool before turning out
- Decorate with an icing sugar pattern right before serving, if you fancy
Tadaaaa!
Icing decoration optional, but tasty!On Christmas day we had not prepared the quiche that was murmured about – that one had fallen by the wayside. Just as well, so there was a small pie-shaped hole still available for our guests to try out this gateau. (I know I called it a torte in that previous post but to err is human.) Everyone enjoyed it, after all the other delights we served – including a gorgeous Yule log. Just look at that picture!
Our reindeer decoration approves of the Yule Log.Anyways: it's still as good as I remember, and it reminded me of a very thick brownie with added pizzazz: ever so slightly crunchy on top, moist and substantially chocolatey on the inside, and almond flavour everywhere. My cousin compared it to frangipane but with chocolate, and that's the almonds talking.
This thing was so delish we even saved the crumbs from my clumsy cutting effort for the next day. (Tip: use a sharp knife and a decisive cut.) The Belgian Army didn't show up, neither did the Navy, to help us out, so we hid the rest of the cake in the freezer, because there was serious temptation to eat all the leftovers in one go and that might not have ended well. We're now slowly munching our way through it one piece at a time. We're tempted by cake, not by new year's resolutions here!
This yummy piece of cake survived the freezer effortlessly.
- Analects 12:2↩
I'm sure you know the situation: family members (3 people) have been invited for a holiday dinner, with the promise of "something simple, not like you folks do." Then you let it all go for a couple of days and next thing you know, you pick up murmurings of a quiche for opening nibble, and a brunoise has miraculously appeared in the kitchen ("That's the soup. I'm not sure yet there will be a starter but I might do something yet."), and there is some coordination to pick up the guinea fowl and then somebody (not me) is hunting through recipe books to find the right sauce to go with the veggies. At least, I comfort myself, we have the cakes covered: picking up a Yule log from the local baker's is a safe bet. He makes great cakes, we like 'em. Ganache-covered option for us, of course, we're Belgian.
That was until I bumped about four days ago into a dead link on the newspaper website, for an Almond Chocolate Cake and I said "Oh well, I do have a good recipe for that anyway."
"Oh? You do?" piped up my housemate. Yeah, I do. Somewhere...
Next thing I know, I'm digging in the garage amid the piles of boxes with my stuff from the US, for my handwritten recipe notebook; we're strategising about the egg yolks that are left over from the brunoise; and somehow milk chocolate and dates have appeared in the pantry so resistance is futile: all ingredients are in the house. The almond-chocolate ~~cake~~ torte (as the recipe calls it) shall exist.
Just one small thing I had forgotten in the 13 or so years since I last made this thing: it's rather dense and even with its innocent measure of a 25cm sandwich tin it will feed the entire Belgian army (if we cut small slices, part of the navy too). How on earth five of us will manage to tackle this thing after an extended dinner and a Yule log is beyond me, but: I was requested to contribute this torte, and I have complied.
On Monday we'll get to try it out, and if it passes muster, I'll share the recipe. Hold on tight!
Nope, it's not that fluffy...
Yeah, summer’s long gone but I haven’t finished my reviews yet! More coming, I guess, as I did manage to read a few more!
Some books start off as one thing and then become something else and it’s ok — as I wrote about in my previous update, that happened in Dan Holloway’s Our Dreams Make Different Shapes, which morphed from coaching you in memory techniques to boost creativity into a manifesto for diversity in society and the workplace, but it all made sense.
For other books, that transformation from one thing to another doesn’t quite work. Justin Jacobs’ Indiana Jones in History should really just have dropped that last section about the space race. That’s pretty much my only quibble with the book, and once you know that’s coming, you can maybe decide to skip that section and move ahead to the final chapter which is just
I taught a course on material culture of China, and we touched on the ethics of archaeology. I tried to ensure that one thing students would get comfortable with by the end of the course was to ask the question “How did this thing end up in this museum?” It's common sense enough and yet few people seem to ask! This book and the excellent accompanying little YouTube videos go a long way to answering those questions. Fair warning: you may want to watch the Spielberg Indie movies before diving into all of this, because the adventurer's story won’t be the same again.
Jacobs' writing is geared towards the curious non-specialist, and not weighted down with notes but still based on thorough research, I can confirm for the China chapters. Definitely worth reading!
British Museum, Brutish Museums… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯Connect with me on Bookwyrm, where I am adding details about my book reading adventures.
LBJs are in the (UK) birders' world those little brown birds that all look unremarkable, brown, and yet can be the most amazing species you'll see only once in a lifetime. Or if it's a passer domesticus, you may yet be enchanted by its exotic patterning, as Inspector Morse was.
https://youtu.be/UvoVme4rfRs?feature=shared&t=897You only need a minute to watch his powers of observationLBJs are not flashy with WILD!! COLOURFUL!!! MARKINGS! but I still like them.
Turns out you have those LBJs (or LGJs, Little Grey Jobs) in socks too... And with a little bit of effort, you can turn them into something worth observing, IMHO.
I ended up knitting these socks for mum in something of the following way:
Mum: Hm, I have this beige sock yarn I don't know what to do with. It's too meh for me.Me: Oh. Can I knit with it? I don’t have any yarn with me.Mum: Sure, you can use it.*I start knitting a cable into the leg*Mum: Ooooh that's nice! I like that. That looks a lot more fun now.Me: Do you want me to knit them for you? It's your yarn after all.Mum: Erm...
(Fortunately they fit her!)
This is the world's easiest cabled sock to knit: take your basic 72 stitch top down sock pattern. For the leg, once you're past the cuff, knit 4, purl 3, cable over 8 stitches (cable every 8 rows), purl 3, and knit all the rest. Keep the rest of your basic pattern as is. I kept the cable going for the foot.
For the other leg I counted out the pattern so it was knit 18, purl 3, cable over 8 stitches (cable every 8 rows again, and if you're really fancy: turn them the other way), purl 3, knit all the other stitches.
If you want a pattern, check out Socks on a Plane (Ravelry), it's a toe-up version.
I’m currently through the first four books of my Ten Books of Summer challenge (my personal list is in the previous post), but it’s slow moving, because I seem to have picked some titles for my list that just can’t be hurried. That’s because the content requires attention, not because they’re boring! And because these […]
A friendly Mastonaut tagged me for a reading challenge “20 books of summer”, from the 746books blog.
It’s a friendly challenge, with no strict rules, other than just reading books during the summer: “Set a list in advance. Make it twenty. Or ten if that feels better. Swap out books if that feels good.” I mean… the more I look at that list, the more I see a host for this challenge who is indeed “bend[ing] the rules to help anyone reach their goal.”
That suits me, because my tangible books will be on the move and physically unavailable to me from late June until they show up sometime in August I guess. But I do have plenty of books on my iPad and some stashed away in Libby, the library app, on my tsundoku pile.
Also, I LOVE that this is a blog where the comments are how you participate in the challenge. I feel like I’m back in 2009. Blogosphere was good. We still have blogs and RSS – that’s a rant for another day. Here is my list for the summer of 2023 reading:
- Indiana Jones in History: From Pompei to the Moon – Justin Jacobs
- Our Dreams Make Different Shapes: How Your Creativity Could Make the World a Better Place and Why the World Will Try to Stop You – Dan Holloway
- The Confession of Brother Haluin (Cadfael series) – Ellis Peters
- Dead Famous – Greg Jenner
- The Memory of Love– Aminatta Forna
- Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman
- The Song of Achilles – Madeline Miller
- The Sinister Way: The Divine and the Demonic in Chinese Religious Culture – Richard von Glahn
- This Is Marketing – Seth Godin
- Ilias: Wrok in Troje – vertaling Patrick Lateur
That’s a couple of books I already started, a few I heard the name of but don’t really know what to expect at all, a few that have been on my “really should read this” list, one that slipped through the Africana Book Club so I’m reading it now myself. Some fiction, some non-fiction, some translation, some China, some history, some world literature. A nice variety. Now… I need to pin this list up so I don’t lose sight of my goal!
“Goal Setting” by angietorres is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
…are for reading with your seal friend by your side. Or on your lap, as chance may have it. Of course with coffee in striking distance.
Arale-chan makes for a great book seat. Currently reading Paul Theroux’ Figures in a Landscape.
I haven’t really had a problem going out for a run the entire past year (viz. my previous post). I still wanted to try something a bit different this year and dug around in all the different games available on Fetcheveryone – that wonderful site that keeps a nice log if you link it to your GPS watch, and where for many a year before I had such a thing, I added my runs manually without any trouble. Data: beloved by runners.
It seems runners also like games! You can opt into a couple of games that use GPS coordinates (you can manually plot your route and take part if you’re not there with the tech), encouraging you to explore the wider world. Conquercise is all about grabbing and keeping squares from your opponents but as the only Fetchie around these parts, I’m quite happily owning my “lawn” and retain the right to rename my little squares I visited as I see fit. So I am not yet entirely sure how it works but that’s ok.
Flanders is rather flat, in case you didn’t know.The game I am enjoying most is Fetchpoint. I think it’s a bit similar to Pokémon, but without the need to stop and battle things. You just run past and as you import your run later, behind the scenes things get figured out and you get your points awarded or deducted. The set-up is simple: you set a home circle with a 1 mile radius, and stuff to collect or get rid off appears. You can compete over ownership of some items with other Fetchies. Again… Unless my cousin in the next village starts to take part, not much of that will happen.
In my two runs since I joined I have already made a detour to squish a bug (run past, and then carry it out of your circle), and tried a completely different route from my regular two or three to get rid of some bugs, because they cost you daily points until you get them squished. I planted a few flowers by running outside my home circle. And this afternoon on a walk with mom I also collected some additional gems and a nuclear point. Fortunately this one was worth eight points – it may do something devastating but you just don’t know until you have collected it and it’s too late.
Above all, I want to keep my circle squeaky clean, without bugs. It’s ok if it sparkles with gems for me to pick up as I move around but I enjoy not having anything dragging my score down!
So if you’re looking for a fun game that gets you moving – and all movement counts: cycling, swimming, walking, hopscotching all are fine – this might be just the ticket. It’s definitely doing it for me. What’s got you moving in 2023?
I’ve completed the challenge I set for myself about a year ago: run, however slow, and by whatever means possible, 1000 miles during the 2022 calendar year.
Target Completed! Yay!A lot of this was run-walk-run, because if I spend a lot of my time on my feet in too high a heart rate zone I invite migraines in, and they’re no fun. (I have meds that work, so I’m lucky, but my doctor and I still prefer prevention.) Run-walk-run counted with regular runs and intervals as running. On average, it took me 14:03 minutes to complete a mile this year, and that is faster than I walk a mile. I’ll take it.
What have I learned from this experiment?
- It looks daunting but it comes down to 2.75M per day, or 19.2M per week and some people run that weekly mileage for fun on a Saturday morning. (Looking at you, ultrarunners.)
- It breaks down to a tiny bit every day, but it’s easy to get behind if you let it slip for a week or two, as I did with lower mileage in February-March (reentry into the US from Belgium) and no mileage in June (conference+holiday in Ireland, I could have run but chose not to)
- You can claw back from a deficit but it takes dedication and planning, including getting up early in the hot months to beat the heat, sneaking in 2 miles when you don’t have time for 3 but can’t do 5 the next day, or going late at night after work and meetings because otherwise you don’t meet the (new, higher) target for the week and you can already see in July or September how you won’t make it to 1000M by December.
- There are days when you don’t want to run but you do it anyway because the spreadsheet tells you. The run is actually perfectly fine.
- There are days you want to run but your legs and body scream no and you need a rest day or two.
- You get to know your neighbourhood and local trails really really well. As in: where specific patches in the pavement are, what weeds grow where, who is the great and the lousy gardener on the block, and where you’re likely to encounter a fox or a deer at what time of day.
- Stretch and foam roll your way to an injury-free year. I also kept up my regular visits to the chiropractor as part of my regular maintenance.
- New orthotics help: my previous ones were seven years old and my feet had changed a bit. If you’ve got old ones and niggles start to appear, maybe it’s time for a visit to the orthopedic clinic.
- There is no shame in going slow or run-walk-run if that is what your body tells you. I still got faster as the temperatures dropped, and as I built up a bit of endurance: my 4M runs going “slow and running through molasses” are now faster than harder efforts over the same distance at the start of the year. I guess I have improved!
- It helps to have buddies who believe in you, even if they don’t have the same goal. Just sharing my updates and getting a thumbs-up from them, and thinking how I did not want to share “I abandoned my target” when they knew I could do it if just got off the couch, that helped me to get out on those days I didn’t want to.
- I definitely couldn’t have done it without the motivation of the numbers adding up, and The Line on Fetcheveryone. Thank you, Ian, for building a website that works for runners, plain and simple. You have my eternal gratitude. (And my annual contribution. Reader, please note the site is free to use, but I love it so much I chip in to help.)
Wobbly completion but I got there!What’s next?
I guess… Another year with 1000 miles? But going a bit faster would be nice. Not much, just a bit. It still has to be fun, after all.
Tomorrow (31 Dec) is a rest day, I think I’ve earned it. On 1 Jan I’ll go for an easy 3 miler with my little loop along the river, because I try every year to set off the new year like I mean to go on. And I’ll be 0.25 of a mile up on my target, of course.
One of my favourite routes in Belgium (photo from ‘21 but still hoping the catch a rainbow whenever I run there!)
I know it’s been awfully quiet on the blog but could Backyard Wildlife College PLEASE STOP SENDING literal crickets into my flat on a near-daily basis? Thank you! Also, if you could not send singing crickets that chirp in the middle of the night, that would be grand. I’d like to use the Westmalle beer […]
If you find today a bit heavy, courtesy of the one year anniversary of a certain event, you can instead join me in celebrating my sixth flutiversary! I wrote about my lustrum last year during my lunch break, and published it right as history was unfolding, and I can’t blame my readers for paying more […]
I know there are a ton of new year’s resolutions being made, and about to be broken. I have a few aspirations and goals myself, but above all, I am just happy to be done with 2021. It wasn’t a great year in many ways, although I did manage to achieve some things. But rather […]
This image does not look anything like Pennsylvania, and that’s because it’s taken along the Dender near where my mom lives. Just under four weeks ago I finally managed to make my escape from the US, and touch Belgian soil – first time back since 7 Jan. 2020. Miracles still exist, because the very next […]
Backyard Wildlife College catering and housing services is pleased to announce we have the green light from the state Game Commission to reopen our all our dining and bathing facilities for feathered creatures! On Friday, August 13, restrictions on bird feeders and bird baths were lifted in Pennsylvania, where our small but cute campus is […]
I’m back from my little trip! Did you miss me? Of course you did! It was a three night camping trip at Gifford Woods State Park in Vermont, followed by a visit to a friend in Brattleboro, where I was kindly allowed to stay the night, and then another visit to a friend in Hartford, […]
Polifinario is on a two-week summer break and will return on Saturday, 7 August 2021. Until then, you can browse the archives, or even better: go outdoors and inspect your own, personal Backyard Wildlife College associated campus and check what you can do to support your local wildlife!
For those of you worrying about my family when you saw the news of the floods in Belgium and Germany, they’re in a different part of the country. It’s been wet everywhere, but no flooding for them, thankfully. The images I’ve seen from the affected areas have left me speechless. It’s been one of those […]
- LARP: “Live-action role play” Training! Just killed a 7M run-walk-run, the first in the new training plan towards a half-marathon. Adjust your training to what works – I have zero interest in exercise-induced migraines or over-use injuries, but Jeff Galloway’s training regime works for me for summer time heat. It wasn’t fast, but that’s […]
(Backyard Wildlife College, Allentown PA, est. 2017) “More than just fluffy bunnies” A mysterious and fatal bird disease is spreading among song birds in the eastern US, and the Pennsylvania Game Commission has recommended all feathered creatures observe social distancing and extra hygiene measures. Backyard Wildlife College in response ceased dining operations for our feathered faculty, staff […]
Back off the sofa, and onto the road (into the back of the pack), that is. Surgery on 19 Jan. –> Cleared to try out if you can run 3 months later, on 19 April. I did a 5 min test jog on 18 April, and since my arm didn’t fall off, I decided to […]