Long Run Day

Sunday is long run day, but so far it's not too long yet: we did 6 loops around the lake, which means 8.4 km, in 53 minutes. We kept to what felt like a nice and easy sustainable pace the whole time. When we finished I felt like I could have done another loop if I had to (which I will next week!) but Stefaan said his knees were starting to hurt. He had a stressful week at work and didn't manage to get any other runs in, so hopefully it is just because of that...I sure would hate to lose my running buddy as the runs get longer.

This week we decided to do two loops before taking a walk break, then one loop, walk break, then two loops again, walk break, and finally the last loop. It went fine, made the whole workout seem to go a bit faster. We also figured out a system to remember whether to run clockwise or counter-clockwise: on even numbered days it will be clockwise, on odd numbered days, counter-clockwise.

The weather was gorgeous today, sunny and crisp. However, the boys are starting to get a bit fed up with the whole going to the park thing, as all the playground equipment was wet today. And since the weather will only be getting colder and the runs will be getting longer, it won't be fair to them to expect them to hang out so long. So we decided with them that we'll rent a movie especially for them for Sunday mornings that they can watch together while we are out running (with cell phone of course!) This seemed to be a much more attractive option - the whole way home they were animatedly discussing what movies they plan to get!

My thighs and shoulders were still sore from doing weights on Friday, so I am looking forward to doing my yoga later today and getting everything loosened up! Week one is almost done, only 15 more to go!

Total running kilometers this week: 16.75
Total cardio exercise minutes: 358

Cross train & Strength

Got myself up to the gym right when they opened and did 40 minutes on the elliptical. I really enjoy the elliptical, it seems like a fun, carefree workout compared to the pounding and seriousness of running.

I was a bit nervous about my strength exercises, because the machines often stress me out. Luckily it was not busy at all in the gym, that helps when you are feeling insecure! I had a little trouble working the new leg press machine, but finally figured it out and did 2x 15 reps at 60 kg. Then with dumbbells I did chest press on the bench, stationary lunges, and bent over arm raises. Then the lat pulley machine (that one doesn't intimidate me so much, I know how to use it!) at 20 kg. Then back to the bench and the dumbbells for a tricep extension. Finally I could lie down on the mat! Just two ab exercises: a medicine ball crunch and a twist crunch, and I was done - yay!

Hope everyone has a good weekend - we'll be doing 6 loops around the lake this Sunday!

Speed workout day

Yesterday's swimming went very well (compared to last week!) I did 32 laps in 25 minutes, doing six laps of breaststroke and then alternating two of crawl. I am noticing that crawl is getting a bit easier, I am not as winded as usual after those two laps. Nice to notice myself improving!

Today's assignment was a speed workout - another great way to make improvements! I first did speed workouts on Jenny's recommendation when training for my 11 K last spring and I really enjoy them (which surprised me to no end). The cool thing about them is, by running little segments at a challenging speed, then dropping to a more moderate speed, the moderate tempo running becomes so much more comfortable in comparison. Also they are really short workouts compared to the rest of the program, so it is fun to be done so fast.

Today I had to do 6x 1 minute plus 2 minutes recovery. My fast segments I did between 11.5 and 12 (this was a first for me!) km/hr. My recovery segments were between 8.5 and 9 km/hr. I was just looking back in my little runner's log book and when I first started out doing speed workouts in March, my challenging segments were 9.5 to 10 km/hr and the recoveries about 8 km/hr. So I have definitely improved. What is so neat is that after a minute of running at 12 km/hr, dropping down to 9.5 feels like a really slow and easy jog. At the end of the 20 minutes, I had done 3.15 kilometers total, and was drenched in sweat, which made my bike ride home clammy and chilly as it was only 10 °C out!

My gym has started this new thing (I think it's a trick to get people to come in and work out more): you can borrow movie DVD's for free, you just have to leave your membership card behind and bring the movie back in two days. Isn't that a neat idea? They have a whole selection of about 200 different movies so I picked out one the boys would enjoy (since I plan to go in again tomorrow); it will be a nice surprise for them this evening!

Strength & Swim day

Wednesday - strength training and swimming! I did my strength training first thing this morning when I got home from biking to boys to school. I had to ditch the one legged squat, it was way too hard on my knee and I was having a really hard time with it, so I simply replaced it with a wide legged squat (i.e. a plié squat!) - always good to be able to modify in a pinch!

I am actually looking forward to swimming, since I am feeling so much better than last week, and I am going to be trying out my new swimsuit for the first time. I had to finally cave in and go get one - my old one was just getting too baggy and saggy and generally old and worn out looking! I found a really nice Speedo Silhouette that is very flattering. Hopefully it will also be comfortable to swim in. Maybe it will even make me faster!

Week 1, Day 2

Tuesday is easy run and yoga day. I went to the gym to do my run because, in spite of the fact that it was not raining out, it was very cold and windy this morning - so cold we got our gloves and scarves out for the bike ride to school. So I thought I would be more comfortable on a treadmill indoors. My target was to do 35 minutes, and I decided once I got going to hold onto a pace that was easy enough to do the entire time without stopping for a walk/water break. So I ended up doing 5.2 km, not slowing down til the end.

Biked home (it was still only 12°C out!) and then did my yoga - it took about 30 minutes. Felt so good to lie down at the end and just breathe!

Week 1, Day 1

This weekend I fiddled around with the last details to the 16 week half marathon training plan I am going to follow, and today it starts! Basically this is what it will be:

• Monday: strength
• Tuesday: easy run & vigorous yoga
• Wednesday: strength & swimming
• Thursday: speed workouts (hill repeats every 4th week)
• Friday: strength & cross train (elliptical)
• Saturday: rest
• Sunday: long run & gentle yoga

So today was strength training. I have decided to use some ideas from The Abs Diet Get Fit, Stay Fit Plan. I actually got this book in the library originally for Stefaan (it is by the editor of Men's Health magazine, so more geared towards men). But I liked the way their program was set up. Two days a week you focus on abs at the beginning of the session, by doing five ab exercises two times in a circuit (targeting each of the different abdominal muscle groups). Then you do a general strength workout with one exercise for all the other muscle groups alternating upper and lower body. On the third day, it is a more general and shorter strength workout. This one I will do on Fridays at the gym, and try to work on getting over my insecurity of doing weights there!

The Monday and Wednesday sessions I will do in the privacy of my own home. Today the exercises went well. The hardest one, oddly enough because it looked pretty simple in the book (this one comes from the Body for Life book, another great source of inspiration), was the one-legged calf raise, probably because my previous strength routine did not have any calf exercises. But I figured it should be good for the running. I have also kept some of the Sanefit exercises in my routine; another book that helped a lot is Matt Roberts' Fitness for Life Manual. It helps to get ideas from different sources especially since I will have to change the routines again in five weeks.

This week we are supposed to have terrible, windy, rainy weather, which means I will probably have to go to the gym to do my run tomorrow. Oh well!

Beautiful day

The weather has been gorgeous this weekend - lovely fall weather, sunny and a slight breeze. So we really enjoyed our run this morning, we did 5 loops around the lake (7 km) in 45 minutes. The first four loops we did at an easy pace but the last one we pumped it up and finished fast, doing the entire loop about 2 minutes faster than our average pace.

Tally for the week: running 16.3 km total. Total cardio minutes 355.

We spent this afternoon enjoying the beautiful music of La Petite Bande performing Monteverdi's Vespers - my friend Helene invited us to come to their dress rehearsal and it was a fun thing to do (perhaps less so for the boys but we only stayed for the first half). Thanks Helene!

Final Friday

Yep, this is the final Friday before half marathon training officially starts (for me and Jenny anyway!) I had a great time yesterday evening at the play with Aisling and Oliver; not only was it wonderful to see them (even though too short, as usual!) the play was excellent as well. It (Making History by Brian Friel) was very well written and acted. Thank goodness I had read the background information Aisling sent me about it before going; it was all about Hugh O'Neill, a very famous figure in Irish history whom I had never heard of before and I think I would have been totally lost otherwise!

Linda and I met early this morning to finalize our plans for our first workshop in October. It looks like we are going to have a really interesting program and we'll be making some yummy recipes for the group. My part of the workshop will be about immunity and how food and lifestyle factors can influence it. I still have some work to do on the text and since I have been feeling so physically run-down the last few days (and don't want to compromise my own immunity!) I decided to give myself a well-deserved day off from cross training and get ahead on my writing this afternoon. Hopefully this will allow me to start the training with fresh legs and less stress!

I have found this fantastic tea made by Yogi Tea called Women's Fitness - it is absolutely delicious, with cardamom, rosemary, cinnamon...it smells and tastes wonderful. The fun thing about Yogi Tea is there is always a little "fortune" or saying on the tag of the tea bag...mine today was:

To learn, read.
To know, write.
To master, teach.

This is so fitting because this is precisely the reason Linda and I started doing our workshops; so that, by teaching others about all the principles we have learned and live by, that we would become more competent and knowledgeable ourselves. Cool, huh? I just love being awake enough to notice the synchronicity in life. Anyway, it sure gives me some motivation to get cracking this afternoon!

Speedy dorks

I slept really well, in fact, so well that I had a hard time getting out of bed! But if you're a mom, duty calls and I got the boys going and off to school. Luckily Stefaan decided to get a run in this morning before he left for work, and even more luckily, he hadn't left for the run when I got back from school. So even though I didn't really feel like running, I thought, here's my chance to just get it out of the way, so I put my running clothes on (more about those in a minute) and off we went. We did a new loop from home, through a park here in the neighborhood which is really nice to run in (soft dirt paths and a bit hilly, lots of trees) but I don't dare to run there by myself, it is too quiet and it spooks me out to do it alone. Here is the link to our route: http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/belgium/leuven/43580304
We ran the big outside path in the park 2 1/2 times, and then ran home. It took us 31 minutes. When I mapped it, I was surprised to see it came out to 4.71 km - I really didn't think we had run so far. We are getting faster - cool!

Now...about those running clothes. I caved in and bought us each some of those tight running pants that "real" runners wear. I always thought I would never get those; to me, they looked kind of dorky and uncomfortably snug! But the Aldi was having a special promotion on cold weather running items, and I went and got us both a nice jacket, a coolmax long sleeve shirt for me, and yes...the running pants for both of us! We both wore them this morning to run (what a sight!) and they were actually very comfortable. And since it has really gotten colder the last few days, it was nice to have them on! The boys did have a good laugh when they saw their dad wearing his this morning...so I guess they still do look dorky. Oh well, just another sacrifice we will have to make for the running.

Today was a struggle

Yesterday afternoon I worked through the yoga poses I mentioned in the blog...it took me about 30 minutes to work through them at a fairly vigorous pace. The balancing ones were very challenging, and afterwards my legs really felt like they had gotten a tough workout. It felt so good to lie down in corpse pose, I almost fell asleep!

Today was a struggle. I could still feel my legs from yesterday's yoga. Not bad, like you sometimes have with strength training (you know when you can barely lower yourself down on a seat?) but definitely my thighs, front and back, were tight. My sinuses have been bothering me, I spent the morning doing errands, which I always find so draining, and I felt cold all day long. So I was really not in the mood to go swimming (and get in the cold water!) and I started mentally negotiating with myself about not doing it. I decided to check my emails before we had to go and when I saw everybody's comments from yesterday's blog, I just felt like I couldn't let all these lovely supportive people down and blow off swimming. Also, I thought there was a chance that the swimming might actually make me feel better (especially my legs). It probably wouldn't make me feel any worse. So I grabbed my bag, got the boys' things for badminton, and off we went.

I swam laps for 20 minutes, lost count of how many, but it was probably only about 16-20 because I was going slow. After a while my neck was killing me (does anyone else ever get this from breast stroke?) and the sinuses felt really bad so I just did some pool jogging for about 5 minutes and then got out.

I'm glad I did it (strengthening my "commitment" muscle!) and actually my legs did feel a lot looser when we biked home. And hopefully it will help me get a really good night's sleep and I will feel better in the morning! I need all my energy for tomorrow evening as I am joining Aisling and Oliver for a play at the Irish Institute in Leuven and we are going to go out "on the town" together afterwards - really looking forward to that!

Just call me Jenny

Why? Because I have become a vigilante, harassing innocent people and getting them to start running...My latest victim is my friend Joy, who innocently asked if she could come watch my race in December when she is here visiting, and next thing she knew, she was signed up to run the 4K Corrida in Leuven on New Year's Eve! On the up side, she will get two bottles of wine (if they hand out the same prizes to everyone as last year) so that should compensate the pain a little bit, and it will be fun and a great incentive and the "kick in the butt" she feels she needs! I am so proud of her for stepping up to the challenge...it is daunting, believe me I know this first hand, but oh so gratifying when you actually cross that finish line. Running my first race (a 5K) was one of the proudest moments of my life - I felt great about myself and what I accomplished. That feeling is what will make me keep running, even after the half marathon is over and done with.

Today I wanted to do my easy 30 minute run just around the neighborhood to save some time, but it was pouring down rain (now of course it's reasonable out), so I hauled myself over to the gym and got on the treadmill. I decided to do it with only one short water/walk break at 15 minutes. At 12 minutes, one of my favorite very motivating songs came on ("Round Round" by the Sugababes) and I pushed the speed up to 10.5 km/hr and was able to hold onto that speed through the end of the song which took 3.5 minutes! I took a quick break and got back up to my usual tempo of 9 km/hr, which at this point felt quite relaxed. Finished up my 30 minutes with another fast two minutes and by the end had done 4.6 km altogether, sweating like a pig, but feeling great! Plus they were handing out free samples of Clarins products at the gym, so that was an extra bonus I would have missed if it hadn't been raining!

Must be the day for free gifts; I stopped by the health food store to pick up some things on the way home and they gave me a cute plastic water bottle and a free carton of soy milk!

This afternoon I plan to test out the vigorous yoga session I plotted out to do with my half marathon training (once a week after an easy run). Here are the poses I'm planning to do(number refers to pose number in Light on Yoga):

• Warm up with Sun Salutations
• Tree (2)
• Triangle (3)
• Revolved triangle (4)
• Warrior I-III (7-9)
• Half moon (10)
• Flank stretch (12)
• Giraffe (13)
• Chair (17)
• Candle (18-20)
• Extended upright foot (21)
• Dancer's pose (199)
• Corpse

....and Joy, good for you...I know you can do it!

Off to a good start!

Monday morning and I got my strength training out of the way already, so I am good to go for the rest of the day - isn't that a great feeling? My plan for this week is pretty much the same as for last week...and then next Monday I will start my "official training plan" for the half. I am actually looking forward to getting started with it.

Yesterday evening I spent an hour working through the yoga poses. I wasn't terribly stiff from our run in the morning, but I did feel really good after I finished the yoga. Some of the poses went very well, but others were challenging and I am interested to see how I will progress with them in the weeks to come. Making the yoga an integral part of the half marathon training is going to help me really stick with it, instead of just doing it ad hoc here and there, like I used to, so I am glad about that.

So last week, I ran 16.45 km, walked 1.9 km, biked a total of 180 minutes, swam 20 minutes, and did the crosstrainer 40 minutes. My total for cardio exercise for the week was 370 minutes. Someone was asking me why I always add up my minutes of cardio every week; it's an idea I got from Bob Greene's The Best Life Diet and I think it's a really great way to monitor your level of exercise. He basically breaks activity into five levels, according to how many minutes of cardio you do and how many sessions of weight training. The idea is to slowly increase your minutes in order to move to the next level. I found it to be really motivating to keep track of my minutes throughout the week. When I first started keeping track last spring I was at a Level 2, but I slowly increased and now consistently am at a Level 4. I think half marathon training is going to put me at a Level 5 - I hope I can keep up!

Buckeye Alley

What I now call "Buckeye Alley" is a treacherous place to run. It's a portion of the path around the lake lined by wild chestnut trees, and the buckeyes are strewn all over the path right now, along with leaves and their broken prickly hulls to camouflage them. The buckeyes are nearly as big as a golf ball and I keep imagining what would happen to my ankle if I run and hit one right on stride...so I keep my eyes on the path. We did 5 loops today (7 km) and it took us 44 minutes, which is pretty good. The weather is gorgeous, it's going to be a lovely fall day.
This evening I plan to try out the yoga portion of my long run day routine for the half marathon training. I spent a few hours last week going through Light on Yoga and I think I've got a good selection of poses now that will support the running (numbers refer to pose number in LoY):

• Forward Seated Bend (67)
• Seated Angle (66)
• Revolved Head to Knee (60)
• Bound Angle (44)
• Sitting Lateral Twist (114)
• Dove or Pigeon (184)
• Lying Down foot/toe sequence (108)
• Shoulderstand (87)
• Plough (91)
• Camel (16)
• Up dog (32)
• Down dog (33)
• Cat stretch
• Virasana (40)
• Forward seated bend (67)
• Corpse

This selection is the Sunday evening gentle stretching session; on Tuesday I plan to do a more vigorous session after my easy run. I'll post those poses too.

Medicine Ball

My right knee was really bothering me when we biked to school this morning. To qualify this, I must add that I had my youngest on the bike seat and we had to go to a recreation area at the top of a big hill (the school is holding a special initiation day for their theater project later this year). So the ride was twice as long and constantly uphill and I was carrying 25 kg more than usual! No wonder my knee hurt!

When I got home, knowing that my plan was to run 5 km and do my strength workout, I decided to give myself a break and drive to the gym. I briefly considered just running outside, because it is beautiful weather, but I thought the treadmill would be easier on my knee. So I drove, even though it takes just as long and parking is more of a pain. But oh well.

So I got going on my treadmill with the intention of doing some higher speed intervals and I did three of these at 10 km/hr, about 3-5 minutes each. I was pretty proud of myself that I could maintain this speed for a relatively long period of time. The flip side of this was that I needed to drop to a slower speed and take a bit more time for my recovery minutes than I usually do, so the total time was actually slower than I had anticipated (34 minutes for the whole 5 km). My knee didn't bother me at all during the run (but if feels sore right now).

I finished off with my usual stretches and then I decided to get my ab exercises out of the way since I was already laying down on the mat (which feels so good after running!) One of the exercises in the Sanefit program is a sit-up where you hold a medicine ball between your knees and you do a crunch, bringing your knees to touch your elbows. Now I don't have a medicine ball at home, so I had been modifying this exercise by using a mini basketball. But I was laying there on the mat, thinking to myself that they must have a real medicine ball somewhere in the gym, and for once I could try it out "for real". So I got up and found one, it didn't seem that much heavier than the little basketball....but man oh man, was that a tough exercise!!! I really had to work hard to do all the reps and I can still feel it in my lower abs as I write this. Whew! But it was fun to try out something new...

I finished off the rest of my strength exercises after getting back home, and now I have a couple of hours to recover before facing that uphill bike ride this afternoon. At least the going up will be without a kid this time!

Loop-dee-loop!

My planned workout for yesterday was swimming 26 laps, which I did in about 20 minutes. It's hard to see the clock from the lap section of the pool (especially since I don't have my glasses on!) so that is just a rough estimate, but that's okay.

Speaking of estimates, I took Mark's advice and looked at the site http://www.mapmyrun.com/ to see if I could map the loop I ran on Tuesday. Lo and behold, it worked beautifully! I was able to map it, save it, and figure out how far I actually ran (4.45 km). How gratifying to know I ran a bit farther than I thought! This is so fun to do, and I think it will make it more motivating for me to do neighborhood runs, as one of the main reasons I like the treadmill is that you know your distance exactly. Thanks, Mark! Here is the link to my loop if you want to take a look: http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/belgium/leuven/550797535

Today's plan was to do cross training on the elliptical at the gym. I picked one of those variable programs and had an enjoyable workout for 40 minutes. Tomorrow's plan is to run 5 km and do my strength workout.

Tuesday: not so easy to get going!

My plan for today was an easy run of 30 minutes, but I really did not feel like doing it, because I have a lot of stuff to do to get prepared for the monthly weight loss group I am leading, which starts tomorrow. But I knew it would bug me if I didn't follow through with what I had planned (plus I wouldn't have anything to write in this blog!) I felt more like going to the gym, but if I just do my run outside in the neighborhood it saves me the 20 minutes just getting there and back. So I was doing some mental waffling back and forth while stalling by cleaning up the kitchen and making the healthy snack I'll be offering the group tomorrow.

Stefaan had gone for his run earlier, and said it was actually a very pleasant temperature to run in, so after I was done in the kitchen, I decided to bite the bullet and just do it! I started out running to the school, which is exactly one kilometer, so I would have an idea of my pace - it took almost exactly 7 minutes. Then I just kept going, making up a route as I went along until I had done 30 minutes. So I am guesstimating that I did about 4 km. I arrived back home hot and sweaty, but happy and relieved to have gotten my run in. Now I can get all my work done with a clear conscience!

End to one week, start of another

Yesterday, Stefaan and I ran four loops around the lake. We were both tired after a busy week and decided to make it an easy distance. We did the 5.6 km in 37 minutes and then went home and had a quiet relaxing Sunday with the boys.

My total running kilometers last week were 19.6; I also walked 5.4 km, biked a total of 140 minutes, swam 20 minutes, and did one strength training session.

Last night I sat down and planned out my exercise for the coming week - I started doing this some time ago (when I am not already following a training plan) because otherwise it seems the week gets going and then you can get ahead of yourself and "forget" to schedule exercise. This morning, the plan was to do strength training, in addition to my regular biking. Now I know that you have to change up your strength training every 4-6 weeks, and I did just finish the Sanefit program. But I am very busy this week and not ready to learn a bunch of new exercises, so I layed out the cards from the program and rearranged them into two full-body workouts. So I will get the same exercises, but will do it twice a week and in a little bit different order. Hopefully this will be enough change for my muscles right now! I am going to do do this for the next two weeks, and then I will go back to three times a week at the start of my training plan, but then with something different.

Hats off!

I had a surprise in my mailbox yesterday: "Hats off to you! For signing up to run the Disney half. For giving your time to train, it's not easy. For all your encouragement and support and believing in me. Let's go team Crawshaw! Love, Mom"

Aw, thanks Mom! That's so nice! I love the hat and got Gillis to take my picture in it (I even remembered Gayle's chin trick!) This hat is definitely going to become one of my training essentials and will travel with me to Florida in January!

Today I biked to the gym with the intention of running 8 km. I got going on the treadmill and decided to take water/walk breaks at 2 km intervals. This was fine til 4 km when I got off the treadmill to use the ladies room and of course, when I got back on, my program was wiped out (but I had expected this and knew how long it had taken me, 27 minutes). For some reason after my little break I was having a really hard time getting back in my rhythm; I had to slow down my pace a bit and take breaks at every km just to feel ok. This was kind of discouraging and then I was thinking, maybe I should just do 7? 6? 5? Then I started arguing with myself, and decided (thinking of Stefaan) I came to do 8, I was going to do 8! Even if my second 4 km was going to be a lot slower than the first, I was just going to stick with it and do it. So I kept going, and after a bit felt better and was able to get back to a normal pace for me, and ended up completing the second half in 29 minutes, which was better than I expected, so I was pleased. That put me at a total of 56 minutes for the whole 8 - one minute faster than my Corrida time last December!

I was VERY sweaty, and by the last 2 km my left underarm was starting to get very chafed. I am going to have to figure out something to prevent that, because it really stung! When I got home I put some coconut oil with a drop of lavender essential oil on it to soothe it and it feels better now. If anyone has any chafing tips, please let me know!

Monkeys

I just read Jenny's post about her swimming workout yesterday and I am amazed at the number of laps she did! I also did my swimming workout yesterday...I did 22 laps (in a 25 m pool which means a total of 550 m) mostly breaststroke with a few freestyle here and there in 20 minutes. I could have done another ten minutes but I was a bit nervous about getting out in time to collect my badminton players, so I cut it short. My plan for now is to slowly build up the time and laps each week. The website Jenny mentioned, http://www.swimplan.com/ was very interesting. I signed up to see what kind of a plan it would produce for me, but for now it seemed a bit complicated. I'll wait til my own swimming plan gets totally boring before using it!

We had a great visit with Christina and Wim, who had just gotten back from a trip to Brazil and had so much to tell about it! It was cool to hear how Christina was surrounded by ten monkeys in the jungle and she wasn't even scared! I sometimes feel like I am surrounded by three monkeys, and believe me, I get scared!

We ended up staying up late talking and drinking wine...so it was hard to get out of bed this morning. At the moment I am really waffling about what kind of exercise to do today. I have to drop off an insurance paper at the orthodontist's office, so I could bike there and then do strength when I get back. Or I could drive there and drop it off and then head to the gym and do the crosstrainer. Hmmm.... I just can't decide. Biking means I can just get on my bike and go without too much hassle about changing clothes, traffic, etc. But going to the gym means I can listen to my music and I will be inside in case it rains again (which it might today). I plan to run at the gym tomorrow...bike to piano lessons on Saturday morning...and do a longer run on Sunday. Hmmm...I think I will go have a cup of coffee and think about it some more - I'll let you know what I decided later!

Update: I decided to do the bike ride, thinking the fresh air would help me wake up a bit, and to my surprise it only took 12 minutes to bike to the office. Coming back was a little bit longer, as it was more uphill. So total time was 25 minutes. Then since I was already warmed up I did my last workout in the six week Sanefit program - whew!

Plans and good intentions!

My friend and seminar partner Linda and I just met this morning to work on the invitation folder for our upcoming seminars this fall. We did one together last spring and it went really well, so this fall we are expanding and doing two topics: two sessions in October on immunity and how food and herbs can help prevent winter illnesses; two sessions in November on natural remedies to self-treat winter illnesses. Hopefully we will have as much interest as last spring, when we even had to unfortunately turn people away (we are limited by how many people we can seat in my kitchen!)

This afternoon the boys start back up with their sports: Florian has judo and the younger two play badminton. While they are doing that, my intended workout today is to swim (the swimming pool is right in the sports hall where they do their activities). I'm not sure how many laps I will do (certainly not as many as Jenny!) since it has been a while. I'll post it later!

Finally, this evening, Christina and Wim from London are in town and they are coming over for dinner! It will be great to catch up with them. I'm planning to try out a recipe for a vegetarian broccoli lasagne. So I still need to go get my shopping done before the boys are home at lunch time (Wednesday is a half day of school in Belgium). Luckily it's not raining this morning so I can go on my bike.

Back to business as usual

I made it to the gym today, finally! Yay! It was so good to get back. No rain, no wind, no dog poo to navigate around, a bathroom in close proximity, a holder for my water bottle that is not attached to my body, and my Mp3 loaded with some new songs (anyone out there remember Thomas Dolby getting blinded by science?)....what more could I possibly desire? It was great!

I was going to run 5 km on the treadmill at an easy pace and then I got going and decided to do 6, which took 42 minutes. I think I am going to adjust some of the distances on my training program to be just a little bit longer, as when I originally wrote it, my favorite "normal workout" distances were 5 and 7 km, which I feel like I am starting to outgrow.

First day of school

The boys headed off to school today. Because it was raining really hard, we walked instead of biking (you get a lot wetter biking), which meant I got a 30 minute (2 km) walk in this morning and will get another of the same this afternoon when I go to pick them up. So even though I am really eager to get back to the gym, I decided to save it for tomorrow, and get a bunch of much-needed cleaning in this morning (which is also very satisfying)!

First and last run of the week!

Yes, I hate to admit it, but today was my one and only run this week! As usual we headed out to the lake and did 5 loops (7 km) in 48 minutes, but it felt hard, hard, hard! Amazing how just a few short runs during the week make that longer run so much easier. Florian ran the first loop with us, as he has decided to train to run the Corrida with us on New Year's Eve. This way he can win two bottles of wine to give to his godparents for New Year's. He'll do the 4 K, so he will have to build up to running at least 3 loops around the lake. I think he'll be fine.

The boys go back to school tomorrow...I am looking forward to getting back in our routine and back to working out at the gym, believe it or not! I have really missed it. Hope you all have a great Sunday!