Tempo run | finding race pace | NN Marathon Rotterdam 2025

Hi all, welcome back to my #running blog!

In 6 weeks I will be running the NN Marathon Rotterdam 2025 - with this blog I will keep you up to date with my journey on on my attempt to beat 3:22:00. Posting here also helps me - staying consistant and evaluate my training runs.

Busy week at work combined with a peak trainingsweek means a lot of laundry. One of my still clean shirts available was my racing shirt from my first Marathon back in 2015. During the run it was fun to think about how I how I trained back then (10 years younger, 15kg lighter but less experienced).

After setting a planning for the weekly kilometers until the race yesterday I am now working on finding the running speed I feel comfortable with.
In order to do so I ran without music and tried to be very consious on how I am holding my pace. Today I tried 4:25/ km. Which should be doable according to my heartrate - but I also found myself breathing a bit heavily so I am inclined to test 4:30 next. Then again, peak weeks just started so 4:25/ km might still be doable.

After 3 short runs on these new shoes I feel comfortable on breaking them in properly before the race. Taking them with me on Sunday’s long run will determine if they cause hotspots / blisters and if some customization is needed.

My run today was again filled with sun, which is very nice - but also a huge contrast from my training last year where March had quite some snow in the Netherlands

Happy running!