Welcome to the year of the Rat!

It was Chinese New Year last week - I wish we would have gone to Antwerp and seen the parade in Chinatown but we forgot and saw it on the news instead! Something to do next year?

The Daily OM did not forget and here is what they have to say about it:

Since the rat sign is the first in the Chinese zodiac calendar, we may feel the energy of a cycle beginning. We may also feel a pioneering spirit that helps us to forge ahead with a completely new endeavor. .... A competitive nature may develop within us, leading us to use the rat’s ability to focus on priorities. The rat can also remind us to be less worried about pleasing everyone we meet and more focused on our goals. (http://www.dailyom.com/)

I am definitely feeling the energy of a new cycle beginning...my pioneering spirit is awake after a month's hibernation and yes, I am ready to forge ahead with a new endeavour! I've got six weeks til Easter and my goal is to get two resistance workouts in per week plus 150-250 minutes total of aerobic exercise (including but not exclusively running) and to build my long Sunday runs back up to 8 loops around the lake. My running goal this spring is to beat my 11 K time at the Ladies Run in Kortrijk in May.

Yesterday, we were having beautiful sunny warm weather (all the plants and birds are thoroughly confused around here). We went out to the lake with the intention of doing four loops, but as we finished the third one, Stefaan had to poop out on me, as his knee was killing him. Not good. I continued on while he set off to find the boys on the playground, and I ended up doing the total four loops (5.6 km) in 36 minutes. Not a bad time for me at all. It felt good but I was thinking a lot about the Disney race and how it felt and remembering some of the harder parts of the course and what it felt like to run that distance. It still amazes me that I did it.