Let’s just get it out there from the beginning, I didn’t reach 100 push ups as I guess I had hoped. In fact, I don’t even feel I came close, but we’ll get back to that.

Looking back at my introductory announcement and the one hundred push ups site, I think that I did read a bit too much into it. The site does not promise that you end up doing one hundred push ups if you follow the six week program, but in their own words “you’ll soon be on your way to completing 100 consecutive push ups”.

I started out by taking the initial test, just before I made my announcement, and did 18 push ups. The following Monday I started the program with day one of week one. The first two weeks were challenging, but not very hard. After the second week the idea is to take another test to see how much you improved.

The program is quite simple. You take and initial test, and based on your result you follow one of three paths through the program. After the second, fourth, and fifth weeks you test yourself to see if you should follow a different path.

Weeks three and four were really hard, but increasing the rest between each set meant I was able to complete them. Unfortunately, I got a little bit sick at the beginning of week four and had to spend a week away from the program there. When I returned I took the test again and restarted week four.

When it was time to get started on week five I had to do another exhaustion test. This time I did forty push ups putting me right in the top of group two. It was here that I first wavered. Turns out that doing forty consecutive push ups is really boring. The added element of boredom added to the hesitancy of the final two weeks, and to be frank I did not really see the point anymore, and was merely pressing on because I wanted to (I guess I am just a bit stubborn).

In the end I did the final test, and now I can do 47 consecutive push ups. I ended up doing a total of 1917 push ups. And I can feel and see increased muscle definition and volume of the chest and arms muscles, especially the pectorals and triceps. I don’t think I would recommend the program to anyone who doesn’t love doing push ups, because it just ends up being boring. Instead I would go for a variation of push up exercises to strengthen the chest area and arms more generally. Men’s Health had an article a while back with six different push up exercises (also available here) that I would suggest instead.

My original maximum heart rate was calculated by my old Polar pulse watch based on my resting heart rate. I can’t remember exactly when I calculated it, but it was at least two years ago. Then there’s the fact that your maximum heart rate decreases slightly when your overall conditioning improves. In the most intensive intervals I have had a hard time getting my heart rate up in the highest zone. To get the most out of my workout, and to decrease the risk of overtraining or injury, I decided to perform a maximum heart rate test.

The test goes as follows:

• Warm up for five minutes
• Run for six minutes increasing the pace/intensity every half minute
• When you, after the six minutes, almost cannot run any further, sprint until exhaustion
• Measure your heart rate and note it down
• Cool down for five minutes to let your heart rate settle down a bit

After the test I measured to 95% of my old maximum heart rate. However, I felt that I didn’t sprint quite to exhaustion so I decided to compromise and set my new maximum heart rate to 97.5% of my old maximum heart rate. I’m doing my first intensive intervals tomorrow so it’ll be interesting to see how it feel with new values for the heart rate zones.

P.S. I haven’t forgotten the 100 push up challenge, but due to slight illness it has been delayed slightly. Update will follow in approximately two weeks.

I would tend to agree with them, and since I’m not at 100 yet I decided to take the challenge.

The first thing to do is to take the intial test. The test is really simple, you just do as many good form push ups as you can. The number of push ups you complete determines your rank. Although I view myself as reasonably strong, my 18 push ups only landed me in the third rank (out of seven possible). A somewhat annoying result. Of course, it only makes the challenge larger which is what I thrive on.

After completing the test you simply follow the program for the next six weeks, take a couple of days to rest, and take the test again. Since the program is meant to train three days a week it is natural to do the training Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, which is what I will do.

Come Monday I am starting on the first week, which means I’ll try to do one hundred push ups in the beginning of August. I’m turning into a real exercise junkie with running 4-6 times a week, this challenge, and my climbing sprinkled in where there’s room.

Honestly, I don’t know now whether I will run another marathon. However, given that I am already–the day after–looking at possible races, I think it is very likely that I do run another marathon. If I do run more marathons I also know that I will strive for the Boston Marathon. There’s only one hitch in that you have to qualify for the Boston Marathon. For my age group it means I must complete a marathon in 3:10:00…

Thinking back to yesterday this entry describes how the race unfolded from my point of view with a few lessons (hopefully) learned thrown in for good measure.

I had been training for this since November, so I reckoned I was be ready. Since I completed the race, I must have been, but the last 10 km was probably the hardest thing I have ever done. Now I can also admit that I several times on this last stretch toyed with the thought of throwing in the towel.

For all the hardship, however, the feeling running the last 200 meters was so worth it. I felt like my feet didn’t touch the ground, and–although I would have sworn it wasn’t possible–I actually sprinted the last stretch. I wish I could bottle this feeling and sell it, I would be a millionaire in minutes.

You may remember that my original goal was 3:30:00. As I said back then, it was an ambitious goal, but it was what I trained for in my training sessions. Later I revised my goal for 3:45:00, and that was also what I set out to do yesterday. At the Copenhagen Marathon they have pace holders, people that run at a set pace to help you keep your desired pace.

Yesterday I started right ahead of the 3:45:00 pace holders, and alongside the Sirius Patrol. And I really think it went really well, at least the first 27 km did. Of course I was tired when we passed the start line the second time and started the last loop out towards Østerbro, but I felt good. Unfortunately, I started hurting around the 30 km mark, and around the 32 km mark I realized that it was just a matter of completing.

Fortunately, I did complete. I didn’t look very good when I passed Susan, Simon, and my parents after 39 km, but I kept on pushing and before I knew it I started hearing the Samba beat from the band at Knippelsbro less than 500 meters from the finish. It also helped that the 4 hour pace holder were yelling words of encouragement to the group of runners around them. I heard it and knew I had to up my pace, there was no way I was going to be overtaken by the 4 hour group.

My efforts were enough, and I kept the group behind me.

Now that I have completed my first marathon, I have also learned a number of lessons (at least I hope I have). I’ve listed them below, if nothing else because then I might remember them if/when I decide to run another marathon.

• Start out slow! (how hard can it be???)
• Set a pace that is slower than you think. If you have energy at 30 km then you can always speed up.
• Since I was training alone I used a belt with water bottles and energy gels. Next time I should train for the aid stations to avoid the belt, it just ends up being uncomfortable.
• Powerade tastes sweeter than soda, so try to vary the energy intake (for example by bringing a few energy gels).
• You can do it!!!

Finally, a thank you for the support of all the spectators, you helped me finish the race. Maybe I’ll see you again next year.

Today I ran a half-marathon. The aptly named Helvede I Nord, or in English Hell In the North.

The race is called Denmarks maybe hardest half-marathon. It starts in Tisvildeleje and runs through the forrest, hills, sand, and trails of Tisvilde Hegn.

There were several factors that helped make this one of the most grueling things I’ve ever done. First of all it had snowed during the night and left a good inch of wet snow on the ground. As people passed over the snow it was compacted into something closely resembling ice in slippery qualities.

Secondly, I have just bought new shoes. Not something in itself that should influence this race. However, the reason I bought new shoes was that, on my 25 km run last Sunday, my right shoe started squeezing into my ankle. When I put on my shoes this morning I could feel that it would start doing the same right from the beginning. Therefore I had little choice but run in my new shoes. My new shoes which I had only run in once before.

Lastly, the route is just really hard. The last 5 km contains 4 really hard hills you have to run up, or as it turned out in my case, walk up. The first of these hills comes directly after almost 2 km in the sand dunes and on the beach.

The race was really beautiful. The sun almost broke through the cloud cover before the start, but that was just a feint. Around the 11 km mark it started snowing again, and kept on snowing for the rest of the 21.1 km.

After I finished in the descent, but not great, time of 2:02’40” I talked to some of the other people I had met on the route, and those that had run the race before told me that the conditions had made this the hardest time yet. A heartening feeling for the next time I run it. And I will. This will probably become my favorite half-marathon, closely followed by B.T’s, and I can very well imagine that I will go up and run the route again sometime over the summer.

To celebrate we had family and a few friends over for a nice dinner Saturday night. At least it turned out very well, as it should, I had been doing food related stuff (shopping, prepping, cooking) for most of Friday and all of Saturday. The menu was a variation on the traditional danish suppe, steg og is or literally soup, steak, and ice cream.

Update: Now with recipes.

We started with an Asparagus Velouté which is my brother’s self-professed favorite soup. The soup is somewhat time consuming to make because you have to first prepare a consommé which is a very light clear soup. Only then can the real preparation start. The soup tasted as good as I remember it, and was served with lightly steamed baby asparagus, of course laid out like a Fleur-de-lis.

Then we had a veal rump steak which was roasted in the oven at 180 centigrade for 45 minutes (and then rested for 15). I had asked the butcher for the best beef or veal steak based on taste and tenderness, and followed his instructions to the letter, or rather, Susan did. The steak was served with baked potato and pea cupcakes, butter blanched spring onions and carrots rolled in a steamed savoy cabbage leaf, and an espagnole based sauce.

We rounded off the feast with a very rich chocolate mousse served on a raspberry sauce/puree with a cranberry sorbet from ParadIS. The ice cream was a plan B since our lemon mousse had failed to set, note to self: when scaling up a recipe it is important to look at the scaled up measures when adding stiffening agent to the mixture… However, the sorbet went really well with the fluffy almost cake-like mousse, and offset the richness perfectly.

All in all it was a resounding success. The soup was rich and creamy, the meat was as tender and flavorful as the butcher had promised, and the chocolate mousse was to die for. Of course, I have to try and make the lemon mousse some other time and see how it turns out, it really was quite simple.

I have also promised to share the recipe for the chocolate mousse, so I will add that below when I get home. I will also add the lemon mousse recipe as people didn’t get to taste it.

Recipes

Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients:

150 g plain (dark) chocolate
75 g butter
2 large egg yolks
3 egg whites
a pinch of salt
25 g caster (superfine) sugar
1 tsp. vanilla-flavored sugar

Directions:

Melt chocolate in a bain marie, remove from the heat and add butter. When the mixture is very smooth, quickly blend in the egg yolks. Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until very stiff, then whisk in the sugars. Carefully mix the chocolate preparation with the whisked egg whites, using a wooden spatula. Pour into a dish and chill for at least 12 hours.

Lemon Mousse

Ingredients:

2 egg yolks
5 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. cornflour (cornstarch)
6 limes
2 lemons
2 egg whites

Directions:

Beat together egg yolks and sugar. When the mixture is foamy, add the cornflour and then the heated juice of the limes and lemons. Bring the mixture to the boil stirring all the time. Stiffly whisk the egg whites and fold into the mixture. Pour this mousse into remkin dishes and serve chilled, for example with a salad of blood oranges and pink grapefruit.

Having given up the iPhone again (it wasn’t mine to start with), I really miss the iPod functionality off it. Of course that can mean only one thing, I really hope I get an iPod touch (16 or 32 GB of course, have to have room for all my music) for my birthday.

The iPhone was a really swell acquaintance, and I would love to have an iPhone nano once Apple makes that (and I’m sure they will.) The phone part worked really well, and the functionality in general was top notch. The only things that bothered me were writing text messages, and not because of the touch screen, but because of the lack of Danish dictionary; as well as the size, I really love the small size of the Nokia 5310 and iPod nano (old tall one, not the new fat one), so the iPhone just felt a bit clumsy.

Recently I ran into another problem, however, which turned out to be really frustrating. In Finland the operators send out time information on the network, so the phones can set the time automatically,. The operators in Denmark don’t. When I returned from Finland some time ago I therefore had to set the time manually, but the text messages I received still said Finnish time (+1 hour from Danish time). Ended up being really frustrating, and as happy as I’ve been with the text messaging UI on the iPhone, it doesn’t work at all if the messages are out of sync. Apple are aware of the problem, but their solution (to turn on automatic time) doesn’t work if the operator doesn’t broadcast time updates.

In the end, the little annoyances, and the knowledge that I was only borrowing the phone, led me to allow the next one from my team to use it. Now I’m just hoping for an iPod touch

Having wanted a Garmin Forerunner 305 for a while I finally decided to just buy it. I had just learned that my next bonus would be quite reasonable, and my birthday is just next month. Of course, it was only after talking to my mom a couple of days later I realized how stupid it was to buy something off my wishlist this close to my birthday.

In any case, I can hardly take back my new purchase, but I do feel quite bad for not thinking about it before.

I recieved the Forerunner Thursday (and you can see my unboxing on Flickr) and played around with it a little bit to familiarize myself. It was on Friday, however, that I did my first proper test with a 6 km tempo run.

Since I was only missing something like 20 km to reach the 1000 km milestone in Nike+, and for comparison purposes, I brought both the Forerunner and my iPod on the run. The differences were astounding: The Forerunner measured the run to 6.25 km with an average pace of 4’43”/km. On the other hand the iPod measured the run for 5.76 km at an average pace of 5’08”/km…

I measured the route using a Danish running route planner (løberuteplanlæggeren) to 6.22 km. A little bit of arithmetic shows that the Forerunner deviated by less than 0.5% while the Nike+ kit was more than 7% off!!! That’s a huge deviation and completely solidified my resolve.

After that test run I decided that I, after today’s long run, would stop using the Nike+ kit for running altogether. It simply doesn’t give me the information I need. Add to that the ability to make workouts, something which I suggested for the Nike+iPod experience all the way back in my original Nike+ review. You can do that with the Forerunner, and so much more. Unfortunately, the Mac software does feel a little unfinished, but it seems they are working on better solutions. At least I can still use it for the things I need (post-run information and making workouts).

So how did it go with my Nike+ running? Well, I passed the 1000 km milestone today.

A fitting end to a love/hate relationship.

I felt really good throughout the race, and although I had periods where it was hard going, I did have energy to sprint the last 100 meters or so. So, what time did I reach? Well, I’ll tell you, I crossed the line in 45 minutes 3 seconds!!

Although I missed my goal by a measly 3 seconds, I am still very happy with that result. Of course, I am now setting my sights higher for my next 10 km, but I don’t think that will be until the autumn. In the meantime my next focus is Marathon Test 2 which is 15 km, a couple of half marathons, and of course the marathon in May.

Am-I-Dumb.com – How Smart Are You?

Impossible-Quiz.com – The Impossible Test