Done it! (NSIM I mean)

We left Amsterdam on September 5^th to have some holiday before the Northshore Inline marathon of 2012. We travelled from Minneapolis to Bismarck, ND (for the United Tribes POWWOW) and Medorah, ND (for the hot air balloon contest) as the most Westward point to visit.

Everybody we talked to asked us what we do in North Dakota, while tourists most likely go to the big international sceneries, like Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, New York, Los Angeles and other well known places. Besides North Dakota we also travelled a lot through Minnesota and Wisconsin.

North Dakota is one of the States in which rolling prairies and badlands can be seen as it was in the history as described in the books of Karl May. It was for me like driving through the books and seeing how it looked like when riding a horse was the only way to cross the immense nature. Besides that we have met very friendly people and visited small towns throughout the state. We really have enjoined our stay in North Dakota, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

In between North Dakota and Wisconsin we were in Duluth, where I would skate the Northshore inline marathon and finally meet with most of my Endomondo skating friends. The day before the race we had a dinner together, which was a great way to meet and talk to each other.

And there she was: RACEDAY!

On Saturday 15^th we had to gather at the DECC to get on the bus to Two Harbour where the race would start. In the bus I sat right next to Mike Williams and during the long ride we talked some to kill the time. As it took the bus almost 45 minutes to get there I was wondering if the distance would be more than 26.2 miles they told us.

The race is very well organized with chairs and toilets aside of the road and transport for the dry clothes to the finish, water stations at the start and three more along the road. At the finish are also chairs and food inside the DECC to recover after the race. A huge thanks to all the volunteers that made it possible for us skaters to participate in this race.

I started in wave 1 with an estimated time between 1:30:00 and 1:39:00 of finish time. The first five miles of the track was repaved and had a smooth black asphalt finish and was downhill most of the time. In that part the speed must have been at 00:01:30/km, later I heard some of wave 1 saying the speed was 26/27 mph. I could not check this, while my GPS failed to register the distance in the first 24 minutes (bummer).

That part of the race I was skating up front of wave one where two pace lines were formed. Downhill the right pace line was a steady one and uphill the left line had a better performance. Switching between the pace lines was done by everyone, leaving sometimes a gap that had to be closed again. On a regular base I filled in the gap and switched also to keep up my rhythm and speed.

I am used to long strokes and a pace line that skates the same way while I am skating the ice rink in the Netherlands. In the Northshore the strokes are much shorter and that leaves no time to recover while one leg is behind the other leg. At the half marathon check line I had to decide to go on by my own to find my rhythm I was used to. The short strokes took out too much energy and I still had to do another half to finish.

The second part I skated my own pace and that was way better, sometimes I tried to hang on to a group passing by, but as soon as I found out it didn’t have the rhythm I needed I stepped out again. The track has hills, most of the time rolling ones, but at the end there are two hills that are rather steep and you have to make it while you are getting tired. So you can understand I needed the cheering and cow bells of the fans to get to the top.

Then the final part, through the tunnels, is there and you can feel that the end is near. My friends told me that last year the surface of this part was not good to skate on. Well I must say I didn’t notice a big change with the other surface we skated on, so they did a great job altering the grooves. My speed didn’t drop in that part, only on the last cross over (up hill) to the finish line.

After the last part I crossed the finish line, rather tired but happy that I was able to cross it in the estimated time schedule and improving my best marathon time with more than 16 minutes. Almost all of my friends also improved their marathon time in this race!

Here are my official finish times of the Northshore Inline Marathon:

And now? Well I am not sure I will ever be able to do this race again. What I do know is that in the USA inline skating is far more a sport that is combined with actual racing and amateur marathon skating. And there is more possible to organize with the wide open spaces and make things happen by the local government. In Europe only the Berlin marathon is combined with an inline marathon event where even more people are participating (this year almost 6,500 participants).

Maybe an European tour can be combined with an event for the amateur inline skaters, starting in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Paris. Who knows what this will do for inline skating on the Olympic Summer games.

Next year I will focus on the Berlin inline marathon, as soon as the subscription is open I will enter it and will try there to improve even my time at the Northshore.

I find myself in a better shape already and I know I can improve even more by staying focused on my training and losing weight until my final goal. But i also know i am close to mid 50 now and not young anymore, but if i look at the time my fellow age members have been riding at the Northshore and in Berlin there could be a much better time to skate.

 

I will focus on that for next year.

Ed van Harmelen

October 2012

Achievements	Goals 2012	So far achieved	2011
Weight goal	87.0 kg	98.0 kg	107.0 kg
Weight loss	20.0 kg	9.0 kg	5.0 kg
Kcal burned	200,000 Kcal	165,397 Kcal	48,500 Kcal
Distance exercises Skating distance	3,600 km. 2,500 km.	3,209 km. 1,709 km.	1,600 km. 737 km.
Best time half marathon (skeelers)	45:00	0:42:33	1:04:04
Best time marathon (skeelers)	1:45:00	1:32:05	2:37:36

Rolling on to NSIM

The past weeks it was raining cats and dogs, so no inline skating for me so far. Saturday  7^th of July there was a tour in Almere and a race for the Dutch Inline championship. I skated the tour over 50 km. in total and had sore legs the day after, but not as much as the first time Tom and I had such a long skate. My feeling was OK when I started the tour, it was my goal to ride this day a marathon at an average of 02:30 (24 km/hr) to 02:45 (21.8 km/hr).

We were riding in a small pace line and every time someone else took over the rhythm and pace changed, so it wasn’t as steady as I hoped it would be. Over all it was a beautiful day with nice weather and nice company. Well, next time better for my goals!

My marathon time is after skating today (July 20th), again a little better and now  finally under two hours: 01:58:13 (with a lot of head wind), so I have to work on endurance at a higher speed to reach my goal of 01:45:00. I can do the speed thing and keep it up for more miles, so I found out when I was going for a fast half marathon time. When I hit the dike to Lelystad I had a strong back wind with that I was able to keep the pace average under 00:02:00/km (00:03:12/mile). My half marathon time was way better than it was and ended at 00:49:00!

It is too bad that the first part of our path is always a struggle with surface changes, wooden bridges and some parts are really bad with roots of trees coming up from under the pavement, raw surface material and bricks. A better time is possible if I see my friends in the States skating on the smooth surface of their trails.

My son bought new skates and is trying to get used to the new fit and pushing himself to the limits. So far he I is disappointed because it doesn’t feel right and he is having blisters growing, his shoes are too tight and other mischief.

As I read in a lot of internet messages, new skates need the time to get used to. Struggling for the right feeling, position and getting blisters is most of the time part of the process of getting acquainted to your new skates. It is not something that will be done in a day or so, it takes weeks and sometimes even months before you say: “Now it is right!”.

I was very lucky with my new skates, I did not have all the issues others had. They fitted right away and besides a little pain on my heels, no blistering, no re-molding or other issues came along. My skating lessons in the past years finally paid off, the investment had a great ROI.

By using the right technique I was able to correct my pain causing errors and my supplier Mijnten at Hoevelaken used the right molding technique to make them fit like a glove. I hope you all get the right feeling before we can meet at NSIM and all can have a blast skating this marathon.

Last week we finally have made the arrangements for the Northshore Inline Marathon and our trip to the States! Our tickets and the camper is booked and now the joy is getting into our lives for this trip. We are so looking forward for this! We will be arriving in Minneapolis on 5^th September and be leaving again on 26^th September.

Finally meeting all my American inline skating friends in person will be fun. As Christine already said: it’s a small world now, you are able to make friends anywhere and if you are able to, you can really meet them.

I am close in achieving my skating goals for this year, my weight however is still something that I have to work for. My son’s 26^th birthday and my own 54^th birthday was a moment where I fell back on bad habits, now I have to pick up the routines I was used to. I will be picking up my sports routine for the coming period and that includes weight training, spinning and inline skating. That must do the job for me!

On my birthday I got a set of new wheels, the Bont Mayhem 85A, these are great wheels! I have tried them the day I had my new PR set for the half marathon. I was able to skate 1 km at 36 km/hr (00:01:40), my feet were shaking and my heart was pounding, but I had a real blast! My next goal will be 1 km in 00:01:30, I think and I hope I can make it…..speed (on skates) is an addiction.

Ed van Harmelen

July 2012

Achievements	Goals 2012	So far achieved	2011
Weight goal	87.0 kg	100.7 kg	107.0 kg
Weight loss	20.0 kg	6.3 kg	5.0 kg
Kcal burned	200,000 Kcal	131,798 Kcal	48,500 Kcal
Distance exercises Skating distance	3,600 km. 2,500 km.	2.574 km. 1,366 km.	1,600 km. 737 km.
Best time half marathon (skeelers)	45:00	0:49:00	1:04:04
Best time marathon (skeelers)	1:45:00	1:58:13	2:37:36

Changing waves and the rollercoaster of life

When I wrote the first part of this blog it was 28^th May and we made an inline skating tour of 47 km at Hoevelaken. That week and the week before that I have been skating in total at least 114 km and also made 35 km on a bike and at spinning class.

On Monday there was spinning class, one hour and 23 km, on Tuesday I went out skating to do at least a marathon distance and tried to make it within 2 hours. I started at the right pace but failed at the last 5 km to keep it up. I finished in a time of 2:05:01, again a better time and I know the 2:00:00 limit will fall within a month. Later that week I was skating a half marathon distance in 00:50:52, OK with the wind in my back but it felt good.

For the first time I was able to keep up my pace within 02:15 minutes for 11 km and even had enough energy left to speed up for the final 5 km again. And today I was skating with wind up front and good hold the pace around 03:00 for a very long time. We caught up some guys on our way who were struggling with the wind and saw us coming up. They asked if they could hook up with us and of course we allowed them to do so.

Last year (and this year) we usually started to skate in the direction the wind was blowing to, to avoid skating with head wind. For some time now I feel strong enough to skate either way and have enough power and energy to skate lower and faster. If I can keep this up I feel that I can make the NSIM within 01:30:00 and 01:45:00 especially while the road is more smooth as it is in our town, you can draft a good pace line if you’re lucky and most of the time it is a descending track.

I have looked at Christine Spurrs’ time before NSIM 2011 and her time at NSIM, there was a huge difference in time. I have decided to change my goals again and by the end of June I will make my final choice in which wave I will start in September at NSIM.

I have come from a long way, in 2006 my left knee wouldn’t move anymore, first they thought it was damaged  a damaged meniscus, but it turned out to be a piece of bone that was broken inside my knee. It took me seven months to get on the ice again and almost a year before I could play field hockey again and that because of a very small motorcycle accident a few years before that.

The operation to replace the piece of bone succeeded luckily very well, but running gives too much pressure on my knee. Therefore I chose for ice speed skating and inline skating as my new major sports.

I am not planning to become a professional speed skater (I am too old to start with becoming one :)), but I am eager enough to look for the best time I can get and keep on trying to improve myself. I have to thank my son for taking me out once last year, that made me change my mind again on inline skating.

Due to family matters and a flu I caught this week I wasn’t able to do some training. This week was a sad week for our family, my wife’s mother died on June 1^st in the early morning hours after an intense week of suffering, suppressed by morphine.

Her funeral was last Thursday and we are convinced she finally found her peace. She had a hard life with lots of bad things that happened to her and with her family. We will remember her fighting spirit that she showed us.

Ed van Harmelen

June 2012

Achievements	Goals 2012	So far achieved	2011
Weight goal	87.0 kg	99.2 kg	107.0 kg
Weight loss	20.0 kg	7.8 kg	5.0 kg
Kcal burned	200,000 Kcal	111,257 Kcal	48,500 Kcal
Distance exercises Skating distance	3,600 km. 2,500 km.	2,063 km. 1,029 km.	1,600 km. 737 km.
Best time half marathon (skeelers)	45:00	0:50:52	1:04:04
Best time marathon (skeelers)	1:45:00	2:05:01	2:37:36

Almere Road Rash and Safety

Every sport I have practiced brought me somehow and at a certain moment smaller or bigger injuries. It is part of me and I have learned to cope with, sometimes a longer period than I ever wanted and sometimes a very short one.

The reason why I started skating was a simple one, I have had an operation on my knee and that took me out of sports for over six months. After that I had to recover and ice speed skating was one of the sports I was allowed to do. The movement of skating is a controlled, sliding one, running is with every step you make an attack on your limbs and muscles. Skating however has the disadvantage of falling, well that is what I do on a regular base.

This week I was skating a new route to try out that I had drawn on Endomondo. The path I took was surprisingly good, better than I hoped for. The start was part of a route my son and I take often, the track was along a dike but now I took a detour.

It started with tiles and a bridge, after that part it was concrete of a good quality. While I was skating I was looking on my phone to check out the route I had to take, and then there was a  1 cm rise of the next plate which I missed.

In a glance I remembered my falling of last year where I injured my shoulder and was taken to the hospital for a checkup. This time I fell on the same shoulder and after that on my head. As a result some road rash on my knee, a heavily bleeding finger, damaged shoes and a little stone embed in my helmet.

This is the main reason why I am wearing a helmet these days every time we go skating, I really hope that all of you also wear one. I was used to skate without a helmet and only wearing wrist pads. After we went to the first FNS of Almere we decided to make an example of us to other skaters by wearing our helmets. Now I was happy with that decision!

This week I have skated almost 100 km, and I think I am getting better and are stronger than a month ago. Today I skated 21.70 km alone and this evening another 19.43 km with my son. Normally I have to recover of skating, but this time I even had enough power left to keep up with his ending sprint back home. Despite all of my inline skating, my weight loss is still behind schedule I hope it will change again soon.

For sure this summer will be great!

Ed van Harmelen

May 2012

 

Achievements	Goals 2012	So far achieved	2011
Weight goal	87.0 kg	100.6 kg	107.0 kg
Weight loss	20.0 kg	6.4 kg	5.0 kg
Kcal burned	200,000 Kcal	95,508 Kcal	48,500 Kcal
Distance exercises	3,600 km.	1.755 km.	1,600 km.
Best time half marathon (skeelers)	50:00	0:54:38	1:04:04
Best time marathon (skeelers)	1:50:00	2:07:29	2:37:36