The diet prior to the marathon really makes you appreciate all the good things in life (to eat). The week after the marathon is a recovery in many ways. 3 kilos back in no time 
Tags: fast food, yellow food
Having thought about it - what went wrong, if you can say so - for almost a week now, it seems that the main reason why the result of the Rotterdam Marathon was no 2:39h but a 2:49h is that 8 months of training, albeit quite intensive training, just is not enough to build up sufficient endurance at the required pace (~3:47min/km). Well, after all a 2:49h isn’t bad, it earned us rank 123 out of almost 6500 runners. But it just didn’t fulfill the project internal goal of 2:40h, or ideally 2:39h. The progress curve got quite a hit now. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: race analysis, rotterdam marathon
And the winner of the GnL raffle is…
Bob Radenbaugh
The winning lot was drawn yesterday evening April 9th using a highly scientific method. All 60 correct answers got assigned a number according to the chronological order of replies coming in. All numbers were put in a blue salad bowl. And the lil’ princess drew the winning lot. With all the mango puree being delivered at a constant interval the same time, she was a bit in a hurry and her focus slightly distracted from this honorary appointment. She accidentially picked three. But since the salad bowl indicated food, we counted only the one that arrived in her mouth.
Interesting to note was that the raffle page was viewed about 650 times but only 12% of viewers decided to take part in it. Perhaps some didn’t like the shoe, although the majority of answers on the “current question” in the sidebar indicate that the cushioning of a running shoe to protect ankles and knees is one of the if not THE major criteria for a running shoe. And that’s where the GnL shoe is really best at. In case you know retailers who are interested in re-selling this shoe, let us know here on 400days. The online shop is found here.
Tags: GNL Running System, raffle
Rotterdam Coolsingel, the main street in the city center, 9:45am, there are already hundreds of people walking around here and there in the starting area of the marathon. Our group, a party of four, Stefano, my “younger brother in arms” and me plus our best supporters just arrived. Everything looked well organized, although finding the changing facilities, which were a bit too far away and not well signed, turned out to be a little challenge. Anyway, changing, getting rid of the bag with clothes, a last visit to the toilet, warming up a bit and be back in the starting section in good time to get good starting spots in the foremost parts, before the rest of the approximately 6.500 participants in the marathon show up. Of course, the urge to pee, mostly out of nervousness, just 15 minutes to start and a long queue in front of the Dixies, the two temporary loos in the starting section. Fortunately there was enough space behind the Dixies… Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: rotterdam marathon
When travelling to a marathon abroad with the primary supporter wifey (aka the queen), at arrival at the race location priorities may slightly diverge.
Arrival at Amsterdam Schiphol airport, the queen goes “oh look at all those variations of stroopwaffles in the shops here, shouldn’t we buy some?” The runner goes “the food on the flight wasn’t supporting a 70% carbs diet, how to get this corrected now during the rest of the day?”
On the train towards Rotterdam, btw. many European countries (foremost the Deutsche Bahn) could learn from the Dutch railway system. Trains between major cities in a 15 to 20 minute interval at unbeatable low prices - Amsterdam airport to Rotterdam, about 45 minute connection is EUR 10,20. That’s what railtraffic is about, no fuss connections from A to B for the masses. Not some imaginary high profile competition to short haul air-travel with overpriced tickets and high tech trains with constant problems and delays.
The queen on the train, “oh look at all those tulips and crocus fields”. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: rotterdam marathon
More than two and half thousand kilometers behind in preparation, reduced the weight by 8-9 kg, went through the worst part of a Saltin carbo loading diet, bought new race shoes and tested those, coincidence on the race day is not quite what we’re after here. Flight to Rotterdam is tomorrow, arrival there on Friday, Saturday for acclimatization (literally, it’s 10-12 degrees Celsius warmer there, the winter tuned body will perhaps suffer from heat attacks…), Sunday = race day. So packing is now.
One wouldn’t believe it. Running a marathon should be material wise simple and straight forward, the less stuff is with you, the better. But the homo sapiens living in the 21 century is detached from these simple truths. Read the rest of this entry »
the Saltin Diet is quite a torture, well can you call it torture if you do it voluntarily to yourself? Anyway, 3 days of no carbs means at breakfast yoghurt with vegetables and milk, at lunch meat or fish with salad, after lunch still feeling cold in the hands since blood pressure is down and the body still didn’t get any sugars to burn. And in the evenings a salad with cheese and ham (without bread), plus some curd as desert. Quite a horror trip for someone who used to eliminate a bag of candy in the evenings.
But now the sun’s out again, the dark days of no carbs are over. Today is switching day, a little from everything, cheese and ham WITH bread, from tomorrow on until Saturday it’s bread without ham and cheese… Not so great either. And moreover, carb loading means to have a diet with 70 - 75% carbohydrates, with of course sugars being a very small fraction of it. How to do that when the best bread contains around 48%, crisp bread is 50 - 65%, only my good old fruit granola reaches 73% carbs with the fruit bits in it contributing thereof 22% from sugars (mainly fructose of course). Just checked the Power Bar products, also there 68% carbs. Only some pastas, go beyond 70%. Baked potatoes are apparently up three as well. It used to be more the women standing around the nutrition fact info sheets of our comapany restaurant. It’s gonna be fun tomorrow to join them
I’m definitely gonna enjoy a good hamburger after the race!
no training today
Tags: carb loading, Saltin diet
here’s part I of this shoe review.
well of course, it’s a running shoe, so you definitely can run with it. It’s however not recommended to to do other sports than running or walking with it. The glide’n lock system is not made for playing football or other ball games. I guess, the sideway forces could tear the shoe apart, or provide not sufficient stability. But that’s pretty much the same for conventional running shoes, too.
We had the GnL shoe out now a couple of times, altogether almost 50km on various undergrounds, snow, slush, wet tarmac, soft park pathways, gravel roads and on an indoor track. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: GNL Running System, new shoes
6 days to go. 9 kilos down since August last year. After today’s training session the scales only showed 72.1kg anymore. The Saltin diet shows it’s effect. Lost about 1.5 kilos in 3 days. I expect to go down another 0.5 to 1kg, but that’ll be it for Rotterdam. For Berlin in the fall, we might even hit the 70kg mark.
Training was quite hard today, the last tough session before the race, two runs at marathon speed, the first 4km, the second 3 km. Finished with a 3:39min/km which is 6 seconds below race pace. The carb storages should be really empty by now. Tomorrow is one more day of this hell (= no carb diet), then it’s done. From Wednesday onwards we switch to a high carb diet, bread and pasta here we come!!!
today’s training: warm up, two tempo runs 4km in 3:44min/km and 3km in 3:42min/km, cool down, 16.8km in total
Tags: optimal weight, rotterdam marathon
7 days to go. It’s Saltin diet time. The Saltin diet is an extrem form of carboloading and got it’s name from the Swedish professor in physiology Bengt Saltin, MD, who developed this method in the late 60’s and 70’s. He’s nowadays the director of the Copenhagen Muscle Research Centre. Asking five people, you get six opinions on the Saltin Diet. Many say it’s outdated and out right dangerous.
The diet works in three phases. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: rotterdam marathon, Saltin diet
