I started jogging (on 2007-05-21) by means of the excellent 'Start to Run' training guide (authored by Mieke Boeckx). This training guide gradually builds up one's capacity during 10 successive weeks. Each training session consists of alternating running and walking/resting periods. As time progresses, the running periods lengthen and the walking periods shorten (and eventually get eliminated).
I highly recommend this activity to everyone. You can download a training schema and some extra tips at the 'Start to Run' training website (in Dutch).
I started participating in the yearly 10 kilometers of Mechelen in 2007 (on Sep 23), at that time resulting in 0:54:56 under 26 degrees Celcius cloudless sunny whether conditions, which was a bit too hot for me. In 2008 (on Sep 28), I finished in 0:51:59 at 22 degrees, again cloudless sunny whether, see picture below (tagged 2236).
Illness prevented me from participating in 2009, but a week before the 2010 event, I joined a similar 10 km event in my home town: the 'Sint Amands Classic Run'. In fact, both my kids (at that time age 6 and 8, respectively) ran their 1 km event in the early afternoon. Back home, I simply decided to return and sign up right before the 10 km start (although being doubtful because of also having jogged my usual 8 km the day before). Anyway, the wheather was fine (somewhere between 15 and 20 degrees Celcius), and I managed to come in after 0:55:16 with no muscle issues afterwards. On Sep 26 in Mechelen (below 15 degrees Celcius with some rain), my Polar watch stopped at 0:50:01. Therefore, my next target was getting (and remaining) below 50 minutes, i.e. obtaining an average speed of 12 km/h.
Except for a couple of 'lazy' years (from 2011 on), I jogged twice a week (in principle each Tuesday evening and Saturday early afternoon). Both weekly jogging sessions each approximately took 1 hour, invariably consisting of 8 kilometers of running with subsequent cooldown. I always trained below 175 bpm (heart beats per minute), resulting in a speed of about 11 km/h. This improved my endurance/performance, although my primary goal simply remained being healthy.
Some years ago, I gave up running in favor of (3 times a week) hometrainer sessions.
I restarted running in May 2020, mostly 2 km before/to the gym, and 6 km after/from the gym (or the entire 8 km at once in case of no gym). Current records:
Out of curiosity, I also performed a couple of 400 m maximum speed sprints. It took me 3 attempts to reach my target:
Total running distance per year:
I decided to start running/jogging at a more natural pace from 2021 onwards, aiming at lowering my heart rate. This currently results in an average speed of (slightly above) 11 km/h. Unfortunately, 3 months into 2021 (after 142 km), on 2021-03-29 I necessarily put jogging on hold, due to multiple (6x) tendinopathy. However, after shockwave therapy, I restarted running/jogging on 2021-09-06, mostly just 2 km to/from the gym (i.e. mostly being too exhausted after the long gym sessions to run any further).
On 2021-09-26, I joined the 7.5 km Plantentuin Meise jogging, which I finished in 39:16, at excruciating 189 bpm heart rate near the finish line after a long ascent (of many), see picture below (tag not visible).
On 2021-11-01, I joined the 10 km of Mechelen again, finishing in 49:35 (after almost clamping on to the 5 min/km tempo maker's flag), i.e. over 12 km/h, hence faster than 11 years ago (albeit feeling like a total train wreck, due to my slightly improved but never-ending multiple tendinopathy).
In fact, once per week since May 2020 I've also been fitwalking in the Rivierenhof park (Deurne) with a small group of friends, i.e. walking + some basic fitness exercises. This unfortunately was discontinued at 2021-06-03. (Additionally, I sometimes did/do longer walks elsewhere.)
Total walking distance per year:
The story continues: ...