Blog - Alex Reuneker

Training for a faster 10K

08 September 2019 in Sport by Alex (10K training program)

I'm going to train for a faster 10K. My current PB on that distance is 36:26 and I'm hoping to shave off a minute. While this may not seem like much, it actually is – it's the difference between an average pace of 3:38/5:51 and 3:32/5:42.

The program I've created a program, loosely based on Pfitzinger & Latter's 10K plan in Faster Road Racing: 5K to Half Marathon. The 11 week plan has five workouts a week, with one day of cross training and one day full rest. The first week has a total of 75K and it peaks at 88K in week 6.

The guidelines I'm following in this program are:

Each week consists of a tempo workout, a speed workout and two endurance runs, each with its own benefits. (More on that later.)
The hard efforts account for approximately 20 percent of a week's total, the other 80 percent of the kilometers are at easy pace (whether it be a long run or the warming-up to a speed workout). This guideline is based on Matt Fitzgerald's 80/20 Running.

Let's hope I can do this and let's also hope I do not forget to continue this series here.

enter image description here I'm the last guy there, with the yellow shirt. It was very, very hot this day, so I was quite happy to run a 10K in 37:24

Seinfeld and Jean Paul, the Marathon Runner

05 September 2019 in Sport by Alex (seinfeld marathon new york alarm clock)

Okay, technically not a movie, but episode 5 ('The Hot Tub') of Seinfeld, Season 7. The episode revolves around Elaine's friend Jean Paul, a marathon runner from Trinidad who has previously missed his chance to compete in the Olympic marathon because his alarm clock didn't work properly. (No, it was not the snooze...) This time he has come to New York to run the famous 26.2 Miles.

enter image description here The cast of Seinfeld. Copyright Castle Rock Television.

To make sure he doesn't oversleep this time, Jerry offers his couch to Jean Paul to sleep on and he promises to wake him up in time. Kramer's hot tub ruins that plan however. Be sure to watch this episode!

Garmin-HRM Run and Duracell batteries

28 August 2019 in Sport by Alex (garmin duracell battery broken)

As is often the case, things stop working when fixing is impossible, expensive or just annoying. In the latter category, my Garmin HRM-run chest strap stopped working just when I was visiting the States. I figured it was the battery, but of course I didn't pack any batteries.

enter image description here Garmin HRM-run chest strap, © Garmin

I bought some quite expensive Duracell 2032 batteries and replaced the old with the new. My watch however did not find the strap. I carefully followed the instructions on both Garmin's site and on their forums, including waiting half a minute (and longer) between taking the old battery out and putting the new one in, but nothing worked. As the batteries came in a two-pack, I tried the second one too. Nothing, so I figured the strap was broken. I usually keep all my receipts, but, of course, when I got home, I couldn't find this one. So, no warranty. Therefore, I bought a new, less fancy strap.

A couple of weeks later, I ordered some batteries online and I figured I could use some CR 2032's, so I ordered ten of those, but this time, from a different brand – GP. I tried them in my 'old' HRM-run strap and guess what, it worked again. I talked to someone at Garmin and he said 'Oh, yes, Duracell's do that some times.' Nice... it would have saved me a lot of money knowing that before investing in another strap.

Moral of the story: try different brands of batteries. If you use a Garmin HRM-run chest strap, try other brands than Duracell.

Vitadock to Garmin Connect

21 August 2019 in Sport by Alex (vitadock weight garmin import)

If you use a weight scale from Medisana, you can only sync your weight stats with the Vitadock app and website. As I could not find any way to get these data into Garmin Connect, I wrote a converter which you can find at https://reuneker.nl/files/vita/. It's limited in the sense that it only allows you to import your weight (so not BMI, bone mass et cetera), but it works.

enter image description here Photo by i yunmai on Unsplash