Sunny and Cold

I actually love bright sunny cold days. I had some errands to do, so decided to do them first and let the sun come out and warm things up before I got my run in. Coming home I saw it was 2°C. I was thinking of Laurel's heroic race in -26°C temperatures and thinking I was pretty lucky - compared to the conditions in Canada, Belgium is nearly tropical! I still bundled up, very grateful for the cute fleece running hat Katy gave me for Christmas. I have been wearing it not just running, but walking and biking too, since we got back.

I did a big loop around the neighborhood, 7.6 km in 55 minutes. I bumped into my neighbor Kristel, who was walking to pick up her son from school for lunch. Well, actually, I caught up to her! We walked together for a minute or two til our paths split up again.

When I got home I discovered while mapping my run on Map My Run that they have some workout calculator features, where you can figure out your pace, your calories burned, your BMI, etc for any run you map. Kind of like a Garmin, except you don't have to wear it! Pretty cool.

Then it was time to wash the windows - because the only downside to when it is bright and sunny, is that unfortunately you can see ALL THE DIRT on the windows, can't you?

14 years ago...

14 years ago today, I became a mother! Hard to believe he is so old, so tall, so independent...I can still remember those chubby toddler hands and the funny things he said. So many memories! Also unforgettable: our trip to London, just the two of us, when he was five - what an adventure on the Eurostar (see pic!)

Happy Birthday, Florian!

Just a little recap on the running front (only 5 1/2 weeks til the half marathon!): we ran 10 km out at the lake on Sunday, we were lucky with cold but very sunny weather and it went well, taking us 65 minutes to finish. This morning, I went to the gym, did 4 km on the treadmill in 31 minutes and then took my Bodyvive class, which was fun. I actually think I am starting to catch on to some of the choreography - yay!

Senseless Tragedy

Thanks to everyone who got in touch on Friday about the stabbings at a daycare center here in Belgium. Nobody we knew personally was affected, but my heart goes out to the babies, parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents, and the women who devoted their days to taking care of small children there. Everyone here is devastated.

A Day Early

Got my mid-week longish run in a day early since I have to be home tomorrow for workmen. My left glute was tight the whole way, probably from yesterday's exercise class. But I got 6.5 km in in 50 minutes. Not as fast as I am accustomed to, but at least I got out there and got it done.

Now I am thinking of making falafel with the chickpeas I cooked from scratch last Friday, before I have to give up and throw them out!

Just briefly...

Hop, skipped and jumped to the gym this morning, did 3.2 on the treadmill (2 miles easy on the Runner's World plan) in 22 minutes and then headed for the Bodyvive class, which is still an hour of pure concentration to keep up with but very enjoyable! And sweaty...

Have a great day!

Tag!

Alex of Making Waves tagged me with some questions that recap 2008....here it goes!

My favourite memory of 2008: crossing the finish line at my first half marathon and being overwhelmed by emotions as they put the medal around my neck

My favourite movie of 2008: Into The Wild. I read the book many years ago and the story still has a hold on me. Just the whole idea of giving up everything, including most material possessions and relying solely on yourself is incredibly intriguing. The movie was tragic and beautiful, even though the end is hard to watch. Sean Penn is a talented director, and I really liked Emile Hirsch's portrayal of Chris.

My favourite food of 2008: This year I learned to love tofu! My favorite way to eat it is cut into cubes and simply stirfried in a bit of oil until golden brown, and then add some stir fried veggies and garlic and maybe some soy sauce - yum!

My favourite place in 2008: London with Stefaan and the boys, especially the day we spent in Greenwich

My favourite event in 2008: The Disney Half Marathon

What I am looking forward to most in 2009: so many things! Felix's first badminton tournaments, running another half with Mom and Jenny, redecorating our bedroom and getting our plumbing problem downstairs sorted, more workshops with Linda, lunches out with good friends, a possible London trip for Stefaan and me, Florian's big ski adventure, Mom and Dad's visit for Gillis' holy communion, and Gillis starting secondary school in September. That's about as far as I have thought at this point!

I suppose it's my turn now to tag someone else.... Mom, you're it!

Good Decision

The weather forecast said rain and strong winds for this morning, so I decided last night that I would get up on time, see how it looked outside, and if it indeed looked pretty bad, I would get to the gym when it opens at 9 and do my run there. I had to do 6 lake loops which translates to 8.4 km, which is still reasonable on a treadmill.

Well, it wasn't raining when I got up, but it sure was windy - if there is one thing I dislike worse than running in rain, it is running in gusting winds - so I headed to the gym. Did 8.7 km in 63 minutes, stretched a little and headed home - in the pouring rain! So I was glad I had made the decision to run on the treadmill inside where it was dry and warm.

I was a bit worried my knee was going to bother me, because we were moving some furniture downstairs yesterday and it wasn't easy on my knees! But it was fine. Now we've had lunch and are going to tackle the rest of the furniture!

Good luck to Mark, who is running a half marathon today - I can't wait to see how fast he runs!
Go Mark go!

Sunny day, chasing the clouds away...

Finally some sunshine! Yay! It is so much more enjoyable to run on a sunny winter's day, than a gloomy or wet one. So I was lucky today. I did 6.3 km in 48 minutes and enjoyed it the whole way.

I've been trying some new recipes from the Bittman book I mentioned a few days ago. He repeats a "Bulgur Pilaf with Vermicelli" recipe from a previous cookbook, calling it "glorious", which intrigued me, so I tried it a couple days ago - oh my gosh - YUM! And so easy too!

I'm not going to copy his entire recipe here, but basically you sauté a chopped onion in olive oil; when it is soft, add a cup of bulghur and half a cup of vermicelli, sauté briefly, then add a generous two cups of vegetable stock. Simmer ten minutes and then let it sit, covered, another 15. That's it! And all three of my boys ate it up, which is unusual, because under normal circumstances, there is always someone who has an objection to something.

Taking Stock

A blog is a useful thing...I keep a separate exercise log where I record all my running, biking, walking, strength, etc, and how many minutes I do, plus how many kilometers I run. I like to add up all the numbers at the end of the year to see if I've improved over last year and motivate myself to do better the following year. Only there were a few runs the week before we left for Florida that I had forgotten to record, but luckily I could just look up that day in my blog and there it was!

In 2008 I recorded 13,633 minutes of exercise which came out to an average of 262 minutes per week - I go by Bob Greene's exercise levels in his "Best Life" book, and this puts me at a level 4, although many weeks I do hit a level 5. I am pretty proud of myself, considering I started out in 2007 at a level 3. This year my goal is to get more consistently into level 5, which means averaging 360 minutes or more per week.

I ran a total of 766 kilometers in 2008! This is an average of nearly 15 km a week. The year before I had a total of 697 km and an average of 13.4 per week. So I definitely bumped it up this year. My running goals for this year are to keep improving, to consistently run 15-20 km/week and to sign up for one race each season. In March I will run the Princess Half, in May I plan to do the Ladies Run 11K for the fourth time, in July perhaps Rijkevorsel again with Stefaan and the boys (?), the 10K Dwaars door Mechelen which I think is in September, and in December the Corrida 8K here in Leuven. Sounds like a plan.

Today I stepped out of my box a little and took a group class at my gym. This time of year the classes are new and so it is a good time to try them out. Also, my new training plan has a very short easy run on Tuesdays of 3-5 km, which really doesn't take very long, so I can easily combine the two. The class is called "Bodyvive" and is a combination of low impact aerobics to music and then resistance training with a ball and elastic bands for a total of an hour. I am so bad at things that involve choreographed steps and so I have always avoided those kinds of classes, but I thought it might be a good challenge for body and brain to try something that does not come easily. It was pretty challenging for me but I enjoyed it and the upside was that I had to concentrate so much that the hour flew by!

Congratulations Jenny!

Jenny completed the Disney Marathon today! I spoke to her briefly and she was really happy about how she did - it sounded like she had a great race and she was pleased with her time, 4 hours, 12 minutes. Great job!

Thanks to instant email alerts we were able to follow her progress from the other side of the world, while having lunch at my mother in law's and then later cake and coffee at my sister in law's.

Because of our family visits, I had time for a short run today (5K), and did it at the gym to escape the cold! It was very very busy at the gym (luckily I got there early or I wouldn't have had a treadmill) - was it all from people escaping the cold, or do you think there were lots of people working on their brand new New Year's Resolutions??? If it's the latter, things should calm down in a couple of weeks!

Then after I heard Mom ran 8 miles today and hearing all the runs she has on her schedule the next 8 weeks to get ready for the Princess Half, I decided I better knuckle down and so I went to Smart Coach on RunnersWorld.com and got myself all set up with a serious schedule. No fooling around anymore for me or I might just be eating Mom's dust come March 8!

Catching Up and Readjusting!

I've just been catching up with everyone's blog posts from the past week - sounds like everyone is off to a great start for the new year! Readjusting after our two weeks in Florida was made even more difficult by abnormally low temperatures and an unusually tenacious snowfall last Sunday, which is still on the ground - not normal here in Belgium by any means. At least this will make the normal winter temperatures seem nearly tropical once we break free of this cold snap!

But as I get back to my definition of "normal" I have been taking some needed down time to read the stack of books I brought back...one of them I'd like to mention is the recent book by Mark Bittman, "Food Matters. A Guide to Conscious Eating". I just finished it last night (yep, in the middle of the night, still not sleeping on Belgian time) and it is really good. If you have read Michael Pollan this will all be familiar territory as far as the reasons for changing your eating habits (for Bittman the main arguments are environment and health). His personal prescription is to drastically reduce consumption of animal products, simple carbs, and junk food. The way he puts it into practice is by eating "nearly vegan" until the evening, when he has a (generally healthy) dinner of his choice, which may sometimes include meat, fish, pasta, white bread and on occasion, classic desserts. I think this is an excellent approach for people who are put off by the "extremeness" of going vegan overnight, and as we all know, doing something, some small step, towards a healthier diet, is way better than doing nothing at all and keeping our head in the sand about the destructiveness of the typical American diet.

The nice thing about Bittman's book is that it includes lots of creative recipes. I was making myself all hungry last night reading through all of them! I certainly like his approach to keeping recipes simple as far as not having huge long lists of odd ingredients, emphasizing whole foods as opposed to "products", and the ideas he gives for variations for nearly every recipe.

While reading "Food Matters" certainly doesn't make me want to add meat back to any of my meals, it does reconfirm my committment to a plant based diet and makes me feel good about the approach of my husband and kids to food: they are not vegan themselves but they do tend to eat mainly vegan in the meals I make at home without complaint (mostly!) and when we are out it is their own choice. It's not really that big of a deal in our family and I am happy that this way of life is hugely beneficial to their health while reducing our impact on the earth.

And now I am off to try Bittman's lentil soup recipe from his huge cookbook "How to Cook Everything" which Jenny has and loves. Something warm and comforting for this cold day!

And in case I don't make it back here before Sunday, I want to send a huge Good Luck out to Jenny who is running her first marathon on Sunday morning in Orlando! She is hoping that lots of us will run on Sunday morning "with her", so if you can, please keep her in your thoughts on your Sunday run. If you have been following her blog, you will know how dedicated and committed she has been with her training so we all expect her to do well and have a great race. Not only that, I am so proud of her already for completing such a rigorous training schedule and being a huge inspiration to me personally.

You are going to ROCK it, Jenny! Go, go, go!

First Run of 2009

Well, it was my first run of the new year on my last day in Florida...it was an easy, enjoyable run around Jenny's neighborhood - it has this great loop that is 1.7 miles, so I did that twice, plus a little extra. Mark figured out it was about 5.5 km, and it took me 40 minutes. It was about 60 degrees F and quite windy, but it was bright and sunny. Not too many people were out this early on New Year's Day, but I saw lots of fireworks debris on the sidewalks, which we had enjoyed watching the night before with the kids.

After everyone got their runs or walks in, and the kids were all dressed, we headed south to Clearwater Beach to have an early lunch at Frenchy's, one of our favorite spots on the beach to eat. Then we all headed out to the beach - the boys built a gorgeous sand castle and some of us went beachcombing, searching for shells and intact sanddollars.

Later in the afternoon we went to the Salvador Dali museum in St. Pete - a place I had been wanting to go for about 25 years, since way back when our grandparents lived here. We really enjoyed it - it was worth the wait! After that we headed back north, stopping at the Mellow Mushroom for pizza with Mark's parents, brother Jim and his family. I hadn't been to a Mellow Mushroom since way back when in Atlanta...it was so good! Jenny, Mark's dad, and I shared a vegan pizza with loads of veggies and tofu and it was delicious.

Then it was time to go home and pack suitcases and get a last swim in before getting up this morning and heading to the airport in a short while...and back to chilly Belgium where the high is about 2 C! Ouch! At least we had the chance to escape it for a short while...