A Whole Lot of Blogging Going On!

UPDATED!

09.10.17 Medal Monday: Amsterdam Marathon 2011 - 2016
08.10.17 #13HappyHalves : Keeping Dreams Alive
06.10.17 Before Berlin Marathon 2012

A selfie taken a few minutes after I reached the finish line of Berlin Marathon 2017.
I double backed because I almost forgot to take a picture,
and hoped that no volunteer will ask me to hurry along! :D

“It's failure that gives you the proper perspective on success.”  

― Ellen DeGeneres, Seriously... I'm Kidding

Yes! I did it. :) 9 days ago, I reached the finish line of Berlin Marathon! 5 years of patiently waiting,  4 years of keeping hope, and continued dedication to the sports, I fell in love with 6 years ago!

Today, I am taking time to sort out my thoughts and summarise the past eventful 9 months of going back to Berlin!

I plan to write 7 blogposts in the next weeks;  the topics are below with a preview on what each blogpost will be about:

Back to Berlin 2017

A brief summary of my second Berlin Marathon 2017.

I had fervently hoped I could minutely document everything about

1. my Berlin marathon training
2. the marathon weekend 
3. and share it up to date, as a series of blogposts. 

The documentation, I could say was 95% success while the blogging goal massively limped behind.

Still, I am not giving up!

There is a German saying, "Aufgeschoben ist nicht aufgehoben!" (literally : Postponed is not canceled. ) 

I might not have managed it during the marathon training for Berlin 2012, or 2017 but I can still write the stories about, behind and everything around Berlin Marathon, any time I have the "time" for it. :D

Future "Back to Berlin" project is I am sure in the horizon for me.  It's great to have blogposts in the archive of past Berlin projects.

If you cannot wait though for the blogs, and would like to read the stories of each step on my path towards Berlin Marathon 2017, check out my Instagram post hashtag:

#hfnl_back2berlin2017

Before Berlin Marathon 2012

(Edit: Please, click on the link above to be redirected to "Before Berlin Marathon 2012" blogpost :) 06.10.17)

Speaking of documentation, I still have to share stories behind Berlin Marathon 2012, as well!

Here and there are scattered blogposts mentioning Berlin Marathon.  Before I even began with the Berlin Marathon 2017 project, I had planned that if I got in again I will make time to write about Berlin Marathon 2012.

The story behind Berlin Marathon 2012 began in Summer 2011.  The original plan then was run Rome in Spring 2012 in preparation for Berlin but everything changed after December, 2011!

Mom in Balance
Pink Ribbon Run
28th of August, 2011
at the finish of my first official 5K race,
which was also my first race, ever

7  Days After Berlin Marathon 2017

I ran in Breda!

You will read the why, the how and what will follow next!

5 Consecutive Years of Breda Singelloop

A brief summary of my 5 consecutive years in Breda Singelloop

Breda Singelloop Medals
2013 : 5K
2014 : 10K
2015 : 21K
(not on the picture)
2016 : 5K and 21K
2017 : 21K

running towards the finish line of my 10K

Memorable 2016 race day in Breda!
My daughter and I ran her first official 5K race together.
Afterwards, I ran 21 km, as part of my #13HappyHalves project

Breda Singelloop 2017!
I ran a PR on the course of Breda and PR in the  half-marathon distance.
Photo courtesy of MeeùsFitClub
taken by Wietse Visser Photography

#13HappyHalves 2017 Edition: An Update

(Edit: Please, click on the link above to be redirected to "#13HappyHalves : Keeping Dreams Alive" blogpost :) 08.10.17)

13 Happy Halves philosophy : running mainly for the stories (of fun and never giving up!) not solely for statistics !

The project, the philosophy of the 13 Happy Halves ultimately helped me finish my second BERLIN-MARATHON - my 4th marathon!

#13HappyHalves

After 2013, 2016, the 2017 edition of  #13HappyHalves project - specifically the Breda Singelloop 2017 race !  - brought an an amazing sub-2:30 half-marathon time!

Even though I achieved *the* first sub-2:30 half-marathon in Enschede in April, 2016, I can now admit, that I did not completely felt fulfilled upon achieving it then because of various reasons.

The reasons for this, I will elaborate in the blogpost. In brief: I was VERY grateful but there was a nagging feeling, that stayed with me that I can only articulate a year and a half later.

Running Stories Versus Running Statistics

This blogpost will be all about my thoughts on: why focusing on the stories behind your running will eventually bring you the satisfactory running statistics you aspire.

Singelloop Breda 2017
Photo courtesy of MeeùsFitClub
taken by Wietse Visser Photography

6 Years of Happy Feet NL Stories

A blogpost on why I am not unhappy about having smartphone issues! :D

If you are connected with me on Instagram, you would know how avid a user I am of this social media app.

I am having phone issues (I hear everyone groan : what's new! :D) and might not be as active as I would like to be.

So, in the mean time, you could follow and contact me via my FB blogpage (my blogpage email can be found there in the about section.).

You could also leave comment under this post, if you would like to reach out or have questions. :)

After finishing, and seconds after I got my finisher's medal
at the Berlin Marathon 2017

03.10.17

Tuesday

15:07

Berlin Marathon Training Week 13 - Week 26

Blogger's Note:  

Due to daily life being busy, I had a lot of my weekly marathon update written in blog draft form.  Specifically  Berlin Marathon Training Week 13 - Week 26, all remained unpublished.  Until today! Week 13 is finally done!

Week 13 photo documentation

Instagram Story edits, helped me a lot keep track!

Beginning this week: Week 27, I will be regularly publishing training updates once again, every Monday.  Week 14 - Week 26 will be edited as time becomes available but I would like to finish them before my 6th RUNniversay (in 19 days!). Basically, I have at least a day for each unpublished blog draft.

Often, when I go back to piece together my own story/documentation, I can no longer recall why and how I did, what I did. hahaha ;)

This is  the original reason, why I started blogging after all: to remember and never forget! :)

The dates of the blogposts will  be the dates , they were created in draft form. I'll be publishing them with annotations (such as what you are reading , now! :D ) mainly to avoid confusion in the future!  

Specially if lots of time has passed in between; I've learned not to trust my own memory and simply write everything down. 

If you would like to read through/back from Week 13 until Week 26, you can find these posts under the tag:  

 Berlin Marathon Training Week 13 until Week 26. 

They (a total of 14 blogposts) won't show up all at once because I am still in the process of (20.07.17: 1 published blog!) finishing each post.  

It is always about the links, the notes for specific training days (thoughts/epiphanies  I had during the run, which I don't want to forget!) and my struggle to let go of my perfectionism, which makes it longer for me to publish!

Anyway! Taking a much needed rest  (from blogging, social media, training), and what I did during those breaks helped me a lot regain a more positive, productive attitude.  I've re-learned how to look at and approach everything with simplicity.  I hope my renewed energy, positive attitude, my never ending quest to simplify will continue on as I write my future blogs.

Week 27

SUPER happy, after being ill 4-5 days, a recovery/tempo run!
This was the first time I ran once again from the marina in Naarden,
starting from where our sail boat lay at anchor.

P.S. to Celebrating 172!

Once again to avoid confusion, even though I will be adding a total of 14 blogposts ("old unpublished draft post", which will be preceding (since they will be published on dates they were written in draft) the celebratory 172 published blogs, I still will count them as published after 172.

My apologies, I am confusing you, dear readers! :D  

It is simply a process of completing my Berlin Marathon training documentation.  One of the mini-goals of this 2017 marathon adventure, I am trying to achieve!

Celebrating 172! blogpost has been titled as such, so it is easier for me in the future to keep count of the blogs I will publish thereafter.

SimpliF(L)Y Summer!

I love this photo of M.
A  beautiful Summer memory.

“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.” ― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums

Monday

Finally a blog update after two months of silence! :) How has your Summer been, so far?

Before I continue, my apologies for those, who visited my blog last Saturday, and did not see any published post.  I am not sure if somebody even :D noticed that  I wrote about my going back to "regular blogging" in my Instagram profile:

print screen of
@happyfeetnl
17.07.17

Plans

It was my intention to start posting blogs every Saturday.

Writing that intention in my Instagram profile was a way of making a commitment.  If or when somebody read it, did not really matter but the act of putting it "out there" is enough for me to prepare myself mentally and have something challenging to do, to look forward to.

Unfortunately, I felt unwell around Wednesday and by the start of the weekend, I was ill. So, Saturday evening I changed  Saturday to Monday as the day of my blog updates. My obsessive mind was soon put at ease!

Normally, you see, I would give myself a hard time about plans not getting accomplished as I envision them.  I would further on obsess mentally about the fact, that when I make plans, they go awry.

Yes, I have learned to be more flexible and less awful to myself!

Before I even became a runner, I've contemplated a lot of times on NEVER ever making any more plans in my life because plans going awry was more of a constant than plans going according to schedule and how I envision them.

It is against my nature, though; I have to make plans! I need the structure, the anticipation, the energy making plans gives me.

After receiving a Garmin watch, as a gift from a friend,
I made plans to use it as a tool to sit less and move more.
The goal was humble: 1000 steps a day.

The number of steps was not the main goal; it was the consistency of moving daily.

SimpliF(L)Y!

Why did I "ramble" on about plans of resuming blogging ;) instead of diving into the update of my marathon training?!

9 weeks and 5 days to go!!!

Well, it is because in the process of training for my second Berlin Marathon, I went through significant transformations: mentally and physically, which made me happier and life feel so much lighter.

Mondays, making plans, and simplifying are just some of the topics that I would like to get into before I share the statistics and details of my marathon training.

These topics are things I had difficult issues with my entire life, and now I am getting better at them.  Significantly. All because of my marathon training.

I won't get into all of these topics on this blog! It will be too much for a single post.

One major thing I can share right now about my Berlin 2017 marathon training: the process has thus far been very rewarding; it  continues to make me happy and I can't wait to run the marathon in September.

Quote

Let me direct your attention once again to the quote at the beginning of this blog. 

If you are a long time reader, you know by now that I almost always start my blogposts with a quote.

I have 5 reasons for this:

1. I love collecting quotes and my blogposts are my way of archiving them.

2. Quotes are my meditative mantras; searching for a  "quote for the day" puts me in a positive mindset, before my day has even begun.

3.  The words in the quote  I chose for particular blogposts gives me something to focus on, when I write. The message behind the quote often makes me feel more centred and confident in writing the message, I would like to convey.

4. I always hope, that reading the quote at the beginning of a blog post gives my blog readers a clue about what my blog is going to be about or gives them the emotions behind the message I am trying to convey.

source: Google Images

(Daily) Blogging & Simplifying

Simplifying life has always been my personal goal and more so, ever since my second daughter was born 15 years ago.  The weight of motherhood seemed daunting the second time around.  My way of coping with situations I feel will be challenging is to either write my feelings about them or find solutions by reading a book(s)!

the book I bought in Germany
on the 5th of July, 2002
a month before my second daughter was born
(28th of August)

In 2011, 2 years after we moved to the Netherlands, I created the blog "My Daily Mooosings in the Netherlands" .  I wanted to document our "new life".  I also wanted to hold myself accountable to my goal of simplifying life.  I did this by focusing on the positive things in our lives, and by writing those thoughts in blog form rather than in my journals.

Week 26

Mixing it up a bit: I began the week with an LDR-
LOVED it!
17.9 km run
10th of July

I  have yet to accomplish a 365 blogging project in my 11 years of blogging (my blogging life began September 2006, as an anonymous blogger). 

Blogging about my marathon training (even if I have most of those blogposts in draft mode - currently 14 posts unpublished -  from my marathon training 2017 !) and how I have been dealing with the setbacks, have given me back the zest for blogging, I somehow lost or lose periodically.

I am contemplating on embarking (yet again!) on a 365 blogging project. Making plans...

The difference this time is, it will be a daily celebration of recording life, versus the process being a personal challenge (i.e proving to myself, I can do it!).  We will see, how it goes. ;)

from my Instagram Story
10th of July, 2017

Training for a Marathon 

The adventure of running 42 kilometres, the preparation, helps me simplify my life, the life I share with my beloved family.

M and I were photographed by the official graduation photographer while taking a photo of J.

Eldest after her graduation from middle school!

It truly lifts my spirit high to look back at 26 weeks of work I have put into Berlin marathon training -including the ups and the downs marathon preparation brings.

I soar with the thought, that almost 6 years after I made the plans, that I will run the marathon  in Berlin 2012 in my 40's, I am still running 5 years, later. I am confident, that I will continue to be a runner for many more years to come. As long as I am physically able to.

Week 15
My second medal in 2017

26th of April

Week 17

8th of May

Week 17

9th of May

Week 12

My first race in 2017

2nd of April

 OH, the Stats!

If you can no longer wait ;) 😄for future blogposts to see some marathon training stats, here you go! :D

I am truly proud, 22 days to my 6th RUNniversary, to share the mileage I have ran.

It is incomplete because I was not able to keep the records of my running statistics from August 2011 - August 2012.  Nevertheless! This fact, tiny detail in the big scope of things, does not diminish my sense of accomplishment.

January - July 2017

I began training for my first 5K on the 8th of August 2011

It was not until August 2012, a month before I was to run Berlin Marathon that I won a Nikeplus Sportswatch.

This watch was the first ever gadget, that helped me record my running statistics.

August 2012 - July 2017

P.S. Keep On Keeping On

Thank you, if you made it this far. :) I hope you did.

I hope, if you have been a regular reader, that you will take "hope" with you, after reading this post.

Hope for things to  get better. Hope that you can accomplish a lot with small continuous, consistent steps.

There has been extreme highs and extreme lows in my life.  I can tell you now with confidence, life goes on and it gets (yes, it always eventually does!!!) better, the more we all exert a little bit more effort to try to get to the next day.

Writing, documenting life, running, they are my tools to cope & at the same time celebrate life. You can choose your own tool. We all have what it takes to overcome life's hurdles and challenges.

I wish you luck! Hopefully, I'll "see you"again, here. Soon!

My last Instagram Story for July, 2017!

I used it to announce my blogging come back.

CORRECTION on the day and dates!

It'll be every Monday: on the24th & 31st of July.

We'll see how it goes for August.

BACK TO BERLIN: Week 13

Too many people have refused to begin running or have quickly dropped out of running programs because they 'have no talent for it.' Ridiculous. Talent has nothing to do with it. The only thing that matters is mental discipline.
- Amby Burfoot -

This Week's Purpose

I love beginning the week with a sense of purpose.  

My purpose this week (Week 13: 10.04 - 16.04) is to research on how to be an effective runner.


***** (please, see at the bottom of the post, how I fared at the end of the week with my intentions) 



Since I almost always write a daily impression of my day in my Instagram account, I will link my daily post there, here. If you would like to read a longer recounting of a specific day, simply click on the date (when link is available!) and you will be redirected to @happyfeetnl 


10.04.17, Monday : 20 bike km, rest from running

11.04.17, Tuesday:  20 bike km, 5K tempo

12.04.17, Wednesday:  


20 bike km and I shared my 4 minute planking routine on my IG Stories

13.04.17, Thursday: 

20 bike km 

 2

20 bi

14.04.17, Friday: 

PR on my 5K!!! I'm currently putting together my 5K story: 2011 - 2017; hopefully, you will be patient with me (I am sure you are, if you are still a loyal blog follower at this point! :D ), until I can give you the complete story of my road to this 5K PR.

15.04.17, Saturday:  

As P my beloved, K (middle daughter) and M (youngest daughter) put together a 1,000 piece puzzle, I put together pieces of my own mental process puzzle!  The result in a separate blog (continuing the series of  Detoxing Happy Feet 2017). :)

16.04.17, Sunday:  

Simple (Easter) Sunday!

Total  :    80  biking km /     11 (rounded off ) running km

***** P.S. On the purpose of this week : I discovered my new "running coach"! :D

Resting on the couch on a very lazy Sunday, M gave me a quick tutorial on how to view youtube on our SmartTV. Yup, the youngest in the family teaches the rest of us, how to use technology! :D

This is how (through random zapping!) I came across, The Run Experience.  I don't want to get into every thing I watched and every thing that I will be trying out in this blog, all out once.  So, you'll probably see/read what I have learned and what I am trying in the coming weekly training recaps.

I am excited about my training in the coming weeks, and excited to share them to all of you. Here is hoping we all learn something to keep moving forward and becoming happier & stronger runners. :)

✓ Week 1, 2 and 3 (Biking : 188 km Running (started 3rd week) : 21 km)
✓ Week 4 (Biking : 60 km Running : 13 km )
✓ Week 5  (Biking : 50 km Running : 29 km )

✓ Week 6 (Biking : 0 Spring Break! Running : 29 km )
✓ Week 7 (Biking : 60 km  Running : 36 km)

✓ Week 8 (Biking : 43 km  Running : 35 km) 

✓ Week 9 (Biking :  20 km  Running : 32  km)

✓ Week 10 (Biking : 50 km  Running : 24 km) TAPER

✓ Week 11 (Biking : 50 km  Running : 22 km)  RACE WEEK/10K✓
✓ Week 12 (Biking : 41 km  Running : 33 km) 

✓ Week 13 (Biking :  80 km  Running : 11 km ) 

13 weeks of Biking : 642 km
11  weeks of Running :  285 km

created 10.04.17 13:01 Monday

updated   19.04.17 01:37   Wednesday

actually published 20.07.17 12:32

Blogger's Note:  Due to daily life being busy, I had a lot of my weekly marathon update written in blog draft form.  Specifically  Berlin Marathon Training Week 13 - Week 26, all remained unpublished.  Until today!

Beginning this week: Week 27, I will be regularly publishing training updates once again, every Monday.  Week 13 - Week 26 will be edited as time becomes available but I would like to finish them before my 6th RUNniversay (in 19 days!). Basically, I have at least a day for each unpublished blog draft.

Often, when I go back to piece together my own story/documentation, I can no longer recall why and how I did, what I did. hahaha ;)

This is  the original reason, why I started blogging after all: to remember and never forget! :)

The dates of the blogposts will  be the dates , they were created in draft form. I'll be publishing them with annotations (such as what you are reading , now! :D ) mainly to avoid confusion in the future!  

Specially if lots of time has passed in between; I've learned not to trust my own memory and simply write everything down. 

If you would like to read through/back from Week 13 until Week 26, you can find these posts under the tag:  

 Berlin Marathon Training Week 13 until Week 26. 

They (a total of 14 blogposts) won't show up all at once because I am still in the process of (20.07.17: 1 published blog!) finishing each post.  

It is always about the links, the notes for specific training days (thoughts/epiphanies  I had during the run, which I don't want to forget!) and my struggle to let go of my perfectionism, which makes it longer for me to publish!

Anyway! Taking a much needed rest  (from blogging, social media, training), and what I did during those breaks helped me a lot regain a more positive, productive attitude.  I've re-learned how to look at and approach everything with simplicity.  I hope my renewed energy, positive attitude, my never ending quest to simplify will continue on as I write my future blogs.