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For those who are running or want to start with running, I have some good news.
After some hard work, the new My Asics 2.0 website will be released on the 3rd of January 2008. The only downside is that the current My Asics site will be down on the 1st and 2nd of Januar, but we’re all too busy with partying and eating anyway then.

If you’re going to make a promise for the next year to get in shape, make use of this handy website then.
Like the current site you can still create your own program that’s fitted to your fitness level.
After creating your schedule, you’ll get the tip of the day, see the progress you’re making, watch your own statistics and create your own log. If you combine this with a decent and fantastic hearth rate watch, like the Garmin Forerunner 305, you’ll be a winner for sure. And the is also an extra motivation to fill in your training statistics ans see the progress you’ve made.

All we know now is that the My Asics 2.0 site will have a new layout, the navigation menu is altered and that there are some new stuff added. What kind of stuff will be a surprise for the new year’s launch. They made me curious for sure.

This Sunday, Lewis Hamilton will make his appearance in the most watched auto TV show over the world.
He will try to beat the fastest lap time on the Top Gear track in a Suzuki Liana.

He isn’t the first F1 or ex-F1 driver, Mark Webber, Damon Hill (who many still believe is the Stig) , Nigel Mansell and Jenson Button gave it a try in earlier shows of Top Gear to gain the fastest lap.

I’m curious if Lewis will succeed in this mission after his 2nd place in this year’s thriller season.
Top Gear will be aired at 8PM GMT.

As a little extra, here’s a video fragment of a young Lewis Hamilton aged 12 on Blue Peter, a Kids show in the UK.

UPDATE: see Lewis Hamilton’s Top Gear lap here

Tonight the last games of matchday 5 in the best competition of the World ended.
I watched Werder Bremen against Real Madrid a great game won surprisingly by a very good Werder Bremen.
Real could have had enough points to qualify for the next round if they’ve just played a draw against Werder, but Werder despiratly needed the win to make sure they’re still in the running for 1 of the 2 places that will qualify for the next round of the Championship League.

The first half in my eyes was a little dissapointing by moments, first Werder gained the lead and did warn Real by some good play. A few minutes later Real Madrid equalized and did try to gain the upperhand in the game, but a strong Werder Bremen didn’t let them.
A few minutes before the end of the first half Sanogo shot Werder in the lead once again.

The second half was much better. Both the teams played at a very fast pace. Werder managed to score again after 15 minutes, 3-1. After this goal, Real Madrid waked-up and did push Werder towards their own goal. A marvelous goal by Van Nistelrooy put them back 1 goal behind. They still got a few more chances to score again, but Werder Bremen held their lead towards the final whistle. A well deserved win for the german team. Next week they’ll play against Olympiacos to gain a place into the next round.

To round-up matchday 5 here are all the results.

Group A
Beşiktaş  2-1 Marseille
Liverpool 4-1 Porto

Group B
Rosenborg 0-4 Chelsea
B Valencia 0-0 Schalke

Group C
Bremen 3-2 Real Madrid
Lazio 1-2 Olympiacos

Group D
Benfica 1-1 Milan
Celtic 2-1 Shakhtar

Group E
Stuttgart 3-2 Rangers
Lyon 2-2 Barcelona

Group F
Dynamo Kyiv 1-4 Roma
Man. United 2-1 Sporting

Group G
CSKA Moskva 0-1 PSV
Internazionale 3-0 Fenerbahçe

Group H
Sevilla 3-1 Arsenal
Steaua 1-1 Slavia

A couple of weeks back I was searching for a new heart rate watch. At first I was thinking to buy myself the Polar RS200SD (SD is with footpod), but after reading an article in RunnersWorld (the leading magazine for runners here in the Benelux) my mind was set for the Garmin Forerunner 305. The only problem I had with this device was the price. If I should bought it here in Belgium it should costed me around 330€ or $465. This is to much for a watch in my opinion. But then there’s eBay

There are a lot of shops on eBay where you can buy the FR305 for less then $300. After reading tons and tons of reviews, I finally made the decision to buy myself the FR305. Surfed to eBay, logged in with my account and ordered one via a shop that ships to Belgium.
There’s one shop that was cheaper, but because of the 99,9% positive feedback I bought it via one that’s a little bit more expensive. I must say, they did an excellent job delivering it. Ordered on Saturday night around 11pm, they received (or checked it) the payment on Monday the 12th, shipped it on Tuesday the 13th and I received it just a week later.

What came in the box:

So far so good.
Following the manual I charged the watch for about 3 hours until it says it’s fully charged.
Now the fun can begin.

After installing the software and connecting the watch via the cradle and USB I could simply upload training workouts I just created to my watch.
A big advantage the FR305 has is that you can setup your personalized screen. For example, I like to see my heart rate, my average running pace, distance I’ve ran so far and how long I’m running in one screen. It’s all possible with the Garmin 305.
It has much more things to display, but that you can display on alternate screens that you can use also while running.

Then it was finally time to stretch my legs, run a few kilometers and test the FR305 of-course.
Once back home, the fun part started. Connected my watch to my pc, beep beep, that’s it, data imported onto my screen.

Here you can see that I created a workout where I had to run 3 times 1km, rest 1 minute in between and finish with a 500m run.

The red line indicates heart rate and the blue line indicates speed.

I totally fell in love with the FR305, I only own it for a week now, but I can’t imagine running without it anymore. But I must admit, it’s hard to not watch at the screen while your running. You real have to commit yourself not watching

The only downside about all of this right now is that I picked up a little injury at my hamstring yesterday while playing soccer. So no running for me this week

If anyone of you need more feedback about this watch, just contact me, I’m happy to help you out about this great piece of equipment

Today the Preliminary group stage draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South-Africa went through in Durban.
After some boring speeches of the FIFA leaders they finally got to the drawing itself.
I was curious to find out against who Belgium had to play. Because of the bad results the last two years, they just made it into the 3rd pot.
For Belgium this means that they will be drawn against 2 stronger countries for sure. If they had made it into pot 2, then it’s just 1 stronger country.

Here are the full results of the draw:

Asia:
Group 1: Australia, China, Iraq and Qatar
Group 2: Japan, Bahrain, Oman and Thailand
Group 3: Korea Republic, Korea DPR, Jordan and Turkmenistan
Group 4: Sausi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Lebanon and Singapore
Group 5: Iran, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Syria

Asia drawing explained

North and Central America and Carribean:
This is a very complex draw, explaied here.
Group 1A: Dominica vs Barbados then USA vs Winner
Group 1B: Turcs and Caicos Islands vs St Lucia, then Guatemala vs Winner
Group 1C: Bermuda vs Cayman Islands, then Trinidad and Tobago vs Winner
Group 1D: Aruba vs Anitgua and Barbuda, then Winner vs Cuba
Group 2A: Belize vs St Kitts and Nevis, then Winner vs Mexico
Group 2B: Bahamas vs British Virgin Islands, then Jamaica vs Winner
Group 2C: Domenican Republic vs Puerto Rico, then Honduras vs Winner
Group 2D: Canada vs St Vincents/Grenadines
Group 3A: US Virgin Islands vs Grenada, then Winner vs Costa Rica
Group 3B: Suriname vs Montserat, then Winner vs Guyana
Group 3C: El Salvador vs Anguilla, then Panama vs Winner
Group 3D: Nicaragua vs Netherlands Antilles, then Haiti vs Winner

Europe:
Group 1: Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Albania, Malta
Group 2: Greece, Israel, Switzerland, Moldova, Latvia, Luxembourg
Group 3: Czech Republic, Poland, Northern Ireland, Slovakia, Slovenia, San Marino
Group 4: Germany, Russia, Finland, Wales, Azerbaijan, Liechtenstein
Group 5: Spain, Turkey, BELGIUM, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Armenia, Estonia
Group 6: Croatia, England, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Andorra
Group 7: France, Romenia, Serbia, Lithuania, Austria, Faroe Islands
Group 8: Italy, Bulgaria, Ireland Republic, Cyprus, Georgia, Montenegro
Group 9: Netherlans, Scotland, Norway, Macedonia FYR, Iceland

Groupwinners and best 2nd place directly qualified to WC2010, other 2nd place finishers will play 2 games against another 2nd place finisher.

Africa:

Group 1: Cameroon, Cape Verde Islands, Tanzania, Mauritius
Group 2: Guinea, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Kenya
Group 3: Angola, Benin, Uganda, Niger
Group 4: Nigeria, South-Africa, Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone
Group 5: Ghana, Libya, Gabon, Lesotho
Group 6: Senegal, Algeria, Liberia, Gambia
Group 7: Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambiaue, Botswana, Madagascar
Group 8: Morocco, EthiopiaRwanda, Maurithania
Group 9: Tunisia, Burkina Faso,Burundi, Seychelles
Group 10: Mali, Congo, Sudan, Chad
Group 11: Togo, Zambia, Eritrea, Swaziland
Group 12: Egypt, Congo DR, Malawi, Djibouti

After these matches are playd, they will again be drawn into a final group stage as explained here.

My conclusion is that Belgium has a nice group and have a chance to qualify for the World Cup as long as they all will fight for it. And hopefully with another trainer, not Vandereycken who’s coach now and in my opinion made sure we didn’t go to Euro 2008.