Spring has sprung!

Out for my Sunday run and what a burst of color! Even the lilacs are blooming, which seems rather early but I love all the colors I saw today. My legs felt slow - probably all the hiking up and down hills last week combined with no running at all - but it felt good and I got 9.2 km in an hour's time, which was a comfortable, easy pace. I am very excited as I signed up today for the Breda Singelloop 15 K on October 2 this fall, which I am going to run with Fran! It will be my first race with Fran, my first race in the Netherlands and my first 15K, so I am really looking forward to it!

Back!

A relaxing five days in Germany where we did lots of walking and hiking, ate very well and other than that, just enjoyed the peace and quiet (we practically had the hotel to ourselves). We were in the area of Germany called the "Vulkaneifel", where there are a lot of geological formations created from the prehistoric volcanic activity that took place there, and lots of trails to hike. I took my Garmin with me to keep track of our kilometers but mostly to be able to enjoy looking at the maps of where we walked on my computer - what a modern souvenir! Here is a walk we did from our hotel to a dolomite formation in Gerolstein called the "Auberg" and then into town for lunch:



When I get a bit more organized I'll put some pictures up!

Great Day for a 10K

We had to get up very early to drop our oldest off at school for his trip to Poland...but still I waited til 10 am to get out for my run - I wanted it to be warm enough so I could just go in a short sleeve shirt and capris! It was awesome weather - perfect for running. I was feeling great so I decided to combine a couple of loops around the lake with once around the Finnish track, which added up to 10 kilometers altogether!



This afternoon we'll be heading to the Botanical Gardens in our town to take photographs for our youngest's communion. And then start getting ready for our little trip to Germany. It will be strange to travel with just the three of us!

Have a happy Sunday!

Running with Madonna (and Sue)

Did anyone else see the Madonna episode on Glee? I got a huge kick out of Sue Sylvester's version of "Vogue"! She is so evil but she cracks me up...

That episode inspired me to put some vintage Madonna songs on my music player and they certainly pumped up my run today! My friend couldn't meet me, but I still ran out to the lake and back - it is just a gorgeous day and nothing was going to stop me from releasing my inner Material Girl... I did 7.4 km in 48 minutes...I only stopped to strike a pose at the water fountain, which is finally turned on again after the winter.

It's been a hectic week - older kids in exams (which means they are home half the week), a party for my 16 year old and his friends at our house, planning things for our upcoming remodeling project, trying to keep up with my husband's business trips (he's in Hungary right now and he goes to Dublin tomorrow) and getting things ready for other upcoming trips: my oldest will be going on a school trip to Poland during Easter break, my middle son will be going skiing in Austria at the same time, and while they are gone, my husband, our youngest and I will be spending a few days in Germany (Gerolstein in the Eifel region). Phew! I am looking forward to a few days of total relaxation (and no cooking, laundry or cleaning). I do plan to take my running shoes with me, though!

Running with Jillian is more dangerous than you think

My husband couldn't run with me this morning because he had to take Felix to his badminton tournament, so Gillis helped me to download a Jillian Michaels podcast onto my music player. I've never really run with a podcast before, either my husband and I chitchat or I have music, so this was a nice change.

It is significantly cooler outside today as compared to yesterday, but still a good temp for running, and I was lucky - it stopped raining just as I was ready to get going. Everything looked clean and fresh, and I was enjoying listening to Jillian's endocrinologist, Dr. V., talk about the top 7 ways to get energized. Towards the end, Jillian was talking about her one big vice, coffee, which was making me feel like having a nice cup of hot coffee, and then it made me think about coffee cake, and I remembered there was one more piece of the raspberry coffee cake I made the other day, left at home, and I started feeling like having my hot cup of coffee with that nice piece of coffee cake...

So you can guess what happened when I got home after 52 minutes and 7.6 km - I sat down and enjoyed that last piece of coffee cake with a nice hot cup of coffee. Yum...

On second thought...maybe running with Jillian isn't such a hot idea after all?

Amy's Hot Yoga

Gorgeous day here! It got up to about 23 degrees C (about 73 F) and it was lovely and sunny - just perfect for spending the day out on the patio. First I got all the dead leaves swept up from the winter, cut back some of my plants, pulled some weeds... and then I had a lightbulb moment - I decided to go get my yoga mat and do my Saturday yoga outside in the sun! It felt so good!

Sadly, tomorrow is going to be 10 degrees cooler and rainy. So I am very happy I took advantage of today. Carpe diem!

A good start

I met my friend Anne out at the lake this morning. She is new to running and thought that planning to meet up with me would help her be motivated to get out there. I brought along a "Start to Run" program for her, and a challenge! Ten weeks from now is the Kortrijk Ladies Run 5K - this was my very first race ever in 2006 and I told Anne if she wants, I would run it with her for her first race and help her get ready for it. In my opinion, there is nothing more motivating than being signed up for a race.

I think she was a bit overwhelmed, so we went around the lake once together, running 2 minutes and walking 2 minutes. She did really well! After stretching for a few minutes we planned to meet up again next week, when she will tell me if we are going to sign up for the race or not...

After that I did a loop on my own around the lake and then ran back home - altogether, including the one time around the lake with Anne, I ran 9.2 km in 63 minutes. Not bad for a gray and gloomy Friday morning.

Finally, thanks so much for all your kind comments on yesterday's post. You guys are so thoughtful! **hugs**