Author: Harmwiegers

  • The beauty of racing

    A race is a dedicated short period in which your actions are extremely goal-oriented: you give your all to finish as fast as possible. Such a focused sprint to the finish line presents itself in various areas of life, and the same effects apply as in running. Think of the last days before the deadline…

  • Ready, fire, aim

    When you want to learn a new skill or start a new habit, the most important step is to just get started. For someone who wants to be a runner, the number one action is to go outside and run for a few minutes. Unfortunately we often get distracted by all kinds of questions. What…

  • Race prep

    We’re in the last 1-2 weeks leading up to the next event, so race prep has started. This involves daily stability and core exercises, but also reflecting on insights from previous races. So I read the after action reports I wrote after some of last year’s events to review the lessons. Here’s a reflection on…

  • Thinking too small

    Last fall I ran my first backyard ultramarathon, and this unique race type displayed a very visible lesson that has stuck with me ever since. The race starts with a lap of 6,66km that you have to complete within an hour. Exactly one hour later you have to be in the starting area for another…

  • Permission to not achieve

    During the last 5 months I was always preparing for a race. I wasn’t fast enough to run competitively (yet?) so I raced against myself, but training was serious and numbers-driven. Room for playing around was limited, as I wanted to hit a certain number of kms weekly and do specific speed workouts to up…

  • Why I run

    I enjoy running for a number of reasons. I like to maintain an active lifestyle, I find it important to be outside regularly, I aim to keep my body healthy, and I am fascinated by optimizing and improving. But for me, running is more than just something physical. A number of years ago I realized…