It has been one year since I started recording data of my running exercises. Over 127 days I managed to do 900 kilometres of endurance training during nearly 90 hours. Under the early morning heat of 2 July I achieved my personal record of 13.800 meters, which took me 1:25h to finish. It was around that time that I started exhausting myself. On that particular day, for example, I was in the survival mode during the last twenty minutes.

I find it difficult to control myself and not to run too fast. I think this resembles my attitude in life: ‘todo o nada’ (all or nothing). This makes endurance sports good for me, as I can practice balancing. In September, though, I was on a schedule of 3 trainings of one hour each week. But somehow this started to bore me, and I found a new challenge in running fast. Now, in hindsight, this must have lead to the fatigue I experienced since October.

I have reduced my training drastically, because the muscles are painful and I cannot stand long trainings (few exceptions though). Nowadays I train with a heart frequency meter that confirms what I could have known: I was testing my resistance levels too much, and I lacked sufficient recuperation periods. I hope that from April onwards, my body will have recovered and that I can restart longer trainings.