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Food, miles and more

An early start this morning. Nobody said it would be easy right? Tell you something...it is NOT. I love the way running makes me feel and the mere thought of finishing that half marathon October 20th just makes me happy but the hours I'm putting in to this are insane. My whole life seems to twirl around my running schedule. I get up at six in the morning on my only day off in a seven day week just because I have to eat breakfast before I go for a 11km run. I know I can't make it without my oatmeal so I set the alarm, grind my beans while half asleep, poor hot water into a filter and end up with a huge thermos full of tar black coffee. When my eyes finally do start to adjust and I'm actually able to understand what it is they are saying on the morning news, I get up to get my sacred oatmeal ritual going.

Making the perfect bowl of oatmeal is something of an art and it helps me in my own proces of getting ready for a run. First I measure half a cup of organic oatmeal and toss it in my saucepan, I add just enough water for the oatmeal to get soaked but not too much because than it will not get my favourite thickness. I add a sliced banana or blue berries or just cinnamon and than the simmering starts. My zombie self stirs the porridge the entire time. After about 12 or 15 minutes it is cooked to perfection and I poor it into a bowl. Than I add just a splash of cold (non-fat) milk and agave syrup. Perfection.

We are now an hour into the day and I'm already having a quarrel with my brain. She's trying to make excuses for me not to go but my body will not have any of that so even though it poors, it is still half dark outside and I'm still yawning despite two cups of coffee I do get dressed to go for a run. This week is my last real week of running before I have to start tapering. So even though I'm having a hard time getting up this early on my only day off this week, I'm determined to make the most of my run. Tapering is probably the hardest part because you have to let go and just believe that you have done all you could do and now you need to relax.

My training schedule right after my first ten mile run was kind of strict so the past two weeks I ran another ten mile run, did a ten kilometer event and had a few short trainings as well. I also designed a hoodie and a baseball vest as a personal reward for my long training sessions. Sometimes you have to be kind to yourself. My hoodie as a print on the back that says: 'The will to succeed is nothing without the will to prepare' and the eighties baseball vest says:'I'm only half crazy: 13.1' I'm a little scared and very excited. It all comes down to a few more runs and than I'm just going to have to do it. And I will.

Me finishing the Sloterplasloop

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