Waffle

Since my last physical peak in October, I've kept up with running but let other forms of exercise fall by the wayside a bit. I've not been to the gym since back then. As a result, I've lost a bit of muscle strength and gained a bit of belly fat. This is not the end of the world, except that I'm too cheap to buy a set of wider pants.

What has been bothering me, though, is that over the past two weeks, I've had to deal with joint pains that flare up a day or two after training with my running club, which are bad enough to make it hard for me to walk for a day to a day and a half. I don't think these are directly caused by running; rather, they're a seasonal, temperature-related inflammation. I've had to deal with these before though I've previously only had them in my hands. The pains, in different locations each time so far, do flare up after running and sometimes last long enough to make it impossible to go to the next training.

So instead of running last Wednesday, I went to the gym today for a light workout - cycling, elliptical trainer, some easy weight training, nothing that strains the joints. I've also made an appointment for next Tuesday at six o'clock to discuss how to train during a flare-up. I expect I know what the answer is going to be: short, easy and frequent workouts with low impact, maybe 45 minutes every day at a level that doesn't require recovery. But we'll see. To be continued...

Despite having grown 13 years older since last year's 4 Mijl van Groningen, according to my classification (fill in the number 6104), I have shaved a minute and a half off my previous record by net time, finishing in 28:52.4 this year. Or have I? This time around, the explanation of what gross vs. net finishing times mean is incomprehensible and self-contradictory, but considering that I passed the starting line something like half a minute after the signal, I think I should use the net. If not, I still ran 29:37.7, which is almost a minute off last year's result. And I beat my boss this year, even though he improved his personal record too.

As usual at the 4 Mijl van Groningen, I had all sorts of agues and pains at the start, needed to go to the bathroom when the signal was given, didn't feel my right shoe was tight enough after the first 500 meters, had to duck and weave past other runners, bumping into at least one (sorry!) and got another runner's hand in my face at about 5 km. But I still felt great once I was done with it. The weather was once again great and seeing all those other people run was very motivational. There's nothing like passing runners with a much lower start number than you, who started several minutes before you.

I did catch a glimpse of winner Eliud Kipchoge (start number 1), who was apparently born in 1900 according to the event's database, shoeing up with two other very skinny African guys. Kipchoge, who also won last year, is impressive to watch, making me look obese in comparison. He finished in 17:30, not improving his personal record - I don't think I'll ever bridge that gap though.