A big challenge Completed!

Yesterday was a busy and tiring day for me. In the Morning I got woken up by hundreds of cyclist going trough the streets. I sleept by my sister in ‘ Bolsward, because it was the day of the ‘Elfstedentocht’. This is one of the biggest cycling events of The Netherlands and definitely the biggest event of the north of The Netherlands.

My starting call was at 7.08AM. There were lots of other cyclist so it did not ran on time anymore. Eventually I started at 7.20 so that was not too bad.

After 145k I was back in Bolsward, but not for very long because this was just the end of the first loop and the start point of the second lap. So after a quick lunch by my sister back on the bike for the rest of the route.

It was lovely to see al the people cheering on the side of the roads. Every village we cross were giving out sweets or playing music. It was really motivating.

At around 6:30PM I was back in Bolward. This time it was the finish. Time to go and get the last stamp and the medallion of course.

That evening after more than 230k of cycling it didn’t take my long to fall a sleep. I was exhausted.

11Merentocht!!

It’s already a few days ago, but I completed the 150k event. Saturday morning I got up early and after a good breakfast, I went to Sneek. The start was at 8 o’clock and it was very busy.

I was lucky enough to have a group of cyclist who took my into their group. I had never cycled in a group before, so I was very happy with their help and tips.

I rode with them for about 100k and then I had to fall back a little bit and found a group of cyclist a little bit more my pace.

At 3:30PM I was back in Sneek and was done with the 150k. It was quite an experience and I learned a lot from the other cyclist in the tour.

After that it was time for pancakes at home! That evening I went to bed quite early to dream about the new medal I got.

Last long training before event!

This morning the weather was amazing. So I picked up my bike and after a bit of convincing I got my boyfriend to go with me. We rode by a lot of city, trough a forrest and even by the water.

Every 25k we took a little break to shake out the legs. My boyfriend had never biked so far. So this was quite an achievement. Hopefully he can still walk tomorrow.

I felt really good after the bike ride, so that is a good sign for the event next weekend. A 150k bike ride around a few beautiful lakes in the north of The Netherlands. One of those we already got to see today.

First 100k!

Today it was the the day of the ‘tour of sud west Friesland’. A 100k long route through the small towns of Friesland. I took al the precautions I could take and the night before I laid out all my stuff.

In the morning I had to be out of bed at 7 AM and in Sneek at 8:30 AM. After signing in you were aloud to start immediately and so I did. After a little less than five hours of cycling I got back in Sneek with a lot less energy and a lot less power in the legs.

After some delicious pancakes made by my dad it’s now time to relax on the cough with the ‘tour of Flanders’ on the tv.

We did it!

Yesterday was the cross duathlon and it was quite a tiring race. The first 5k run was already quite hard. It was not running over the streets as I had thought, but it was running over grass and even trough water. After the run it was time for 4 rounds of cycling.

The cycling was over grass, with some high drops and a hole lot trough the sand. In the dunes the sand was very loose and I still have some of it between my teeth. At my third round of cycling, I got pulled aside and was told to skip the last round and to go for the last 2,5k run.

Half puking and half dying I came over the finish with a time of 1:57:11. Not bad for a first time. Now time to rest and recover.

Two sports at ones

Even though it was quite beautiful outside, I decided to ride indoors. This because today was the start of the formula 1 season and what better way to watch it than riding on your bike.

Riding inside can get a bit boring sometimes, but during this race it definitely wasn’t the case. Al lot of trouble for Leclerc and Norris and an excellent drive from Max. I was surprised to see Alonso on the podium, but are very happy for him.

I am most certainly going the watch the next race on the bike as well.

Good weather to ride outside

After a winter full of inside training it feels very good to get on the bike and ride outside again. I did not feel like going alone, so my mom got her electric bike out and rode with me.

We rode around 35k and had a few short stops. My mom and me have the same hobby: Photography. This time we had to stop for a swan. Have you ever seen a swan with a necklace.

When I got back home it was time to cuddle with the chickens. They were happy for me to get back home.

First every hour long run

Now that I know I have to run the 5k and 2,5k myself I knew I had to train. I have never ran for more that 30 or 40 minutes, so I thought is was a good idea to go on a hour long run. Just to see where I stood.

After a hour of running I can back home and looked at my watch. I could not believe what I saw. I ran 7,5k in an hour. Who would have thought. Certainly not me. I would have been very pleased if I was able to get to 5k in an hour.

Having accomplished the 7,5k my next goal is going to be to be able to run for at least a kilometer at ones. While I run I try to keep my heart rate under 170 beats a minute. Because of this I still have to walk a lot in between. At this moment in time I am able to run around 30 secondes before my heart rate spikes and I have to walk for around 10-15 second for it to be able to get back down again.

If someone has any tips on how to improve this, I would be very happy to hear and try it. I will need al the help I can get.

A new challenge

This week a colleague of mine thought it was a good idea to do a duathlon with the team. Of course I could not say no and was planning to do it together with an other colleague. He would do the running and I would do the biking part.

Sadly enough my colleague isn’t able to run on the date of the duathlon and I am not someone to pull out of something I already am committed to. It’s a 5k run followed by 16k bike ride and at last a 2,5k run. There is just one problem. I don’t run.

Wednessday I decided to go on my first run in a very long time to see how much training I am going to need. And ran 3,5k in about 30 minutes. Not that bad and definitively something I can work with. Oh and there may be another problem: I have less that two months to prepare.

I still have my other sports, cycling an horse riding, so I will have to work around that. For now the planning is to run on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, horse riding on Monday and Saturday and cycling on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.

It’s going to be a busy few weeks, but I am excited to do it!

Jumping time

Today I went on a ride with Bizu. I am very lucky that I get to ride this horse. A year ago the owner got pregnant and wasn’t able to ride her as much. She is a really sweet horse and today we decided to go jumping. This was only my third time jumping and I finely feel that I am getting the hang of it.

But somethime it still won’t go exactly as planed, but we still jumped and I did not fly off this time!

Most of the time we do dressage, but ones in a while it is good to change it up and have some fun together. And after we were done jumping we rode outside back home. I went back to my home and she could go out onto the field with her friend, Moonlight.