Back to a plan

I was looking at my running/exercise plan I had made with such great hopes back in September and thinking about that old saying about the best laid plans... But it is best not to worry too much about what is past and simply get on with it, as much as possible. So that's what I'll be doing to the best of my ability.

So the plan said 6 loops around the lake today, which I thought was doable (last week should have been 7 but we missed that). Luckily the weather was fine, not too cold and not raining, so we headed out. There were lots of walkers on the trail around the lake, for a long distance walking event (Belgium has a lot of walking clubs), luckily they were going in the opposite direction, so we didn't have to keep going around them, but instead got to read what clubs they were from on their shirts as we passed. By about 10:30 the usual Sunday runners were out - boy, some of the guys are fast! We did our 6 loops at a very comfortable pace (I haven't run this distance in quite some time) and ended up finishing the 8.4 km in 58 minutes (which included generous walking breaks, getting a rock out my shoe, and lots of nose blowing!)

It felt nice to be back and I am sincerely hoping that I stay well for the next five weeks before we leave for Florida and don't have to miss any more workouts. Because as I said to my doctor, when you are not feeling well, and you can't do your usual activity, you really miss it and feel even crappier! I've been reading a book* by David Servan-Schreiber which confirms this - he says that exercise is one of the most effective ways of positively influencing your brain chemistry. But we runners knew that already, didn't we!

*The book was originally written in French under the title "Guérir" but I got it from the library in Dutch, "Uw Brein Als Medicijn". It was translated into English as "Healing without Freud or Prozac". Check it out, it's excellent! I also got his book on cancer prevention from the library and will be reading that next. I'll keep you posted!