It must have been more than 20 years ago that creating something new online and exploring social platforms felt exciting. But here we are, 2024, and it seems the web is full of opportunities for decentralised, personal yet social interactions, away from the algorithms of big tech platforms.

I want to use this page as a personal canvas, something I can use to post updates, share what’s on my mind, let you know what I’ve been up to, interact with others, and own the content that I publish.

You can follow content posted on this page on any network that supports the ActivityPub protocol by subscribing to the account @thijs@wesselink.online. You can also follow me personally at @thijs@social.lol .

A small but significant run, as it was the first time after suffering an injury after my last run, two weeks ago. I was mostly immobile for a good five days, and putting any pressure on my right leg resulted in pain.

Thankfully though, and a little surprising to both the physio and myself, the muscle injury didn’t seem to happen from overtraining or too much intensity, but probably from not cooling down well enough after the race (1hr car ride back home, then waiting 45 minutes before showering). Good news then, muscles tend to recover better than bones or strings do, so hopefully with a bit of work I’ll be back on track.

Today’s run wasn’t pain free, but it’s progress, and the road to recovery for now. This and next week will see some easy short runs, building up some muscle strength and flexibility before going on a (trail running holiday) to sunny Las Palmas Friday next week.

Race day, with a 10-English mile run around the Apeldoorn area (Midwinter Marathon event, which was lovely).

I kept very steady for the first 12km, staying close to my desired marathon race pace. Then, from 12km onwards, I accelerated heavily, with the last 4 km going 15 seconds faster each km run. The finish line crossed at 03:40. Interestingly enough, that did get me a 5k personal best (PB), which I never had expected to achieve during a 16km run, and which might not be a good thing after all.

Not too surprisingly in hindsight then, I picked up an injury, a little pain that was aching for a while before, became a big pain just now. I will visit the physio and probably need to take some rest.

A reflection I had Today, about knowledge and experience:

The more you know and experience you gain, the more you realize what you don’t know. In a world where the loudest voices clamoring for attention, subtlety is often drowned out. Being confident means being comfortable admitting to what you don’t know yet, and not screaming very loudly about what you do.

Today I rounded up my work assignment, and since it was located in very close proximity to the house I grew up in, I decided to go for a short walk in the old neighborhood, somewhere I hadn’t been for 30 years.

Two things stood out for me; first, how nothing had changed physically, from the houses to the playgrounds and parks, things looked exactly how I remembered them. But then secondly, how everything had changed proportionally, everything was much smaller than how I remembered it. The playground where I remembered scaling that dangerously high climbing wall? Only 50cm high. The huge field we played football on? Maybe 20 meters end-to-end. The ‘run around the block’ I did with my parents? Maybe 200 meters or so. Funny how such things blow up to epic proportions as a kid, made me smile.

Today, Camiel’s fartlek run, which was

5min warm-up
2x 1:30 5k race-pace, 2x dribble
4x 1:00 5k race-pace, 4x dribble
4x 0:30 1,5k race-pace, 4x dribble
2x 0:15 400m race-pace, 2x dribble
cooling down

After a hectic day, traveling between four different places, and the last day of my previous work assignment, this fartlek run felt great to build up some speed and release some energy.

A quick lunch run, as this week’s schedule (starting a new work engagement on Thursday) made this a little more convenient.

Lovely weather, the sun is starting to regain some of its warmth, and lots of birds are returning to the grassy fields again.

As for the run itself, followed a pace closer to my desired marathon pace, which unsurprisingly given the short distance went fine. I’m not sure it achieved much, but oh well, it was nice to exercise. Camiel’s fartlek workout will be later this week, so the intensity will come then.

Book review – When less is more

Earlier this year I finished All the lights we cannot see (ATLWCS), and it became one of my all-time favorite books. During the last two weeks, I read another book by the same author, Cloud Cuckoo Land.

In summary, I feel this book demonstrates a clear case for less is more. Also, it’s impossible not to compare to ATLWCS, as the books are similar in set-up.

Whereas ATLWCS focused on 2 main intersecting storylines, CCL has 5. ATLWCS weaved together roughly 2 time periods, CCL had 5 time periods, ranging from the fall of Constantinople to a spaceship in the near future. The beautiful storytelling is still there, it’s just a lot more to take into, and that makes it much harder to become emotionally attached to any one of the characters and plot.

Reading the book took me two weeks, but it felt longer and became only truly enjoyable for the last 150 pages or so. I read the following review online, and this hits the nail on the head for me.

Excerpt of review by heatherwoolery on The Storygraph

Three stars for me ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Something interesting happened on the long weekend run Today. After treating myself to three trail (forest) runs this month, the first longer run on the road felt extremely dull, and while HR was good, I had to deliberately put a brake on the pace to not overshoot.

Then, after about 8km, things started to ‘tick’ all of a sudden, and the km’s just flew by consistently and easily.

Someone told me recently that after focusing more on endurance, it now takes her almost 10km to start getting in a comfortable running ‘zone’, and I think today I noticed something similar myself.

Pace was consistent, HR never exceeding HR zone 2 (and 20 bpm’s lower on average than in December), a sign significant progress is being made.

It’s time for some anaerobic exercise today, with 10 interval sessions pushing a high pace. The first 8 stints averaged 4:25, the last 2 stints averaged 4:08. Overall, I am very happy with how I feel about the current progress. That also marks the 100km point for KMs run in January: more than 10 hours of running. With the month being a week from over, this is probably a personal record. They say the road to a marathon is a long one, but so far, I’m enjoying it a lot.

New profile photos

It was high time to change my Linkedin profile, considering the last one dated over 8 years. I found a professional photographer and Today the results of the shoot came in. Super happy with the outcomes, which I’ll use both professionally and some in a more personal context. For Dutch readers looking for a good photographer, I would highly recommend working with Wendy, who is both fun and a very professional, making me feel at ease and finding some great perspectives to shoot the photos from.