Into the Groove and Word Verification

Kids are back to school which means I got back to the gym this morning - yay!  It was so quiet there, which was kind of nice.

Fran and Ewa mentioned in comments on my last post how annoying the word verification is on the comments form - yes, I had noticed this change on other blogs.  But I've looked and looked and can't figure out how to turn it off, so if someone knows the secret, please let me know.  I'm willing to give it a try, if I can just figure it out.  I've been all over the Blogger site trying to find the answer to no avail...  Grrrr... 

I couldn't resist

Okay, so I didn't give myself a FULL week off - I couldn't resist yesterday, it was unseasonably warm and so I went for a quick run around the neighborhood in the morning.  It felt great, as it always does when I haven't been running for a while.  Which is why it is good to take a little break from time to time.

It was a great start to the day, which ended with walking downtown for a concert of the Flemish group Yevgueni, with my husband. We had never seen them live before, but it was very good and they even played the one song of theirs (Nieuwe Meisjes) I have on my Mp3 player as running music (it has a great beat):



This video is from Marktrock, the music festival held in our town every summer.  I've said it before, I'll say it again: Leuven is a great place to live!

I'm so excited!

I just got an email about a new addition to the Ladies Run series of races we have here and guess where it's going to be held???  Right here in Leuven!  Not only that, but Kim Clijsters is going to be running it too!!!  I was so excited, I signed up right away!  It's on May 6 and I'm going to do the 10K.  Woo hoo!  Just what I needed to give my running a little boost of enthusiasm for the next ten weeks.

Gillis and I had a nice trip to Brussels for the passport - the only downside was that we ended up spending a total of 2 hours at the embassy, mostly waiting.  I've never known it to be that long, but they seemed busier than usual and there were a bunch of people with complicated things, so there we sat.  Oh well.  After we finally finished and parted ways with my husband who still had to get back to the office, we walked back downtown and made a stop at the big Chinese grocery store.  I needed nori sheets for my veggie sushi rolls, and I let Gillis pick out some cool looking Asian snacks.   It's always fun to go there.  After that we headed back to the train station, hopped on a train, and went home.

Crocus Vacation!

My kids are on vacation this week (in Belgium we call this week "Crocus Vacation" but it is also linked to Carnaval, Ash Wednesday and the 40 days of Lent), so I decided to take a full week break from formal exercise.  Sometimes that is a good thing to do, especially since I've been having little odd aches and pains here and there, and my usual nagging hip pain seemed to radiate up the back up my hip to my lower back on Sunday after our run. 

Instead of my usual exercise schedule I've been hanging out with the kids, decluttering and cleaning, and taking care of a bunch of appointments and errands.  Just trying to be proactive - but yesterday I was wondering, as we waited for the second day in a row in a boring waiting room, why do I do this to myself?  Oh well, it will be a good feeling when all these things are taken care of.  The big one will be tomorrow, going into Brussels to renew my middle son's US passport.  Both parents have to appear in person so we will meet my husband there.  Luckily the embassy is pretty close to his office.

Yes, getting all these things done takes endurace, but if you were wondering what it feels like to do a 100K race, which takes real endurance, check out Mark's blog to find out - he just got his race report up.  Amazing and inspirational - I'll try to keep it mind in the next waiting room...

Update and Congratulations

Just a little update - Stefaan and I got out this morning and ran to the park with the big lake - we hadn't been there in ages.  It was a strange sight to see there were still big patches of ice in the lake, where the water birds were standing up.  It felt good to get back there and we did one loop around the lake and then headed home via Vlierbeek Abbey (see picture).  For a total of 7.4 km and 54 minutes - yay!

A big congratulations to my brother-in-law, Mark, who ran 100K yesterday in 11:04 in Florida - isn't that amazing?  Stefaan and I were talking about it during our run, it is hard to imagine running that far, that fast.  Mind blowing!  Good job, Mark!

Walk in the Countryside

Yesterday my friend Ingrid and I went for one of our famous Saturday afternoon walks, this time in Bierbeek, out in the countryside to the south of our city:
It was relatively warm and felt a bit like spring.  This was a great walk, through fields and forest, it had a bit of everything.  And luckily it wasn't too muddy, and my new hiking boots worked out well.

This morning I am planning to get out for a real outdoors run - it has been too long!  Even I get tired of the treadmill after a while, believe it or not!

Have a happy Sunday!

Winter in Brussels

Just got back from Brussels, where I met Aisling for lunch at a new place: Be Positive, which I discovered is right around the corner from my husband's office building!  We tried texting and phoning him to meet us but to no avail (he was probably in a meeting).  But that allowed us to keep to our usual agenda of catching up on all things we always have to catch up on: basically, girl talk!

It was a funny little place, actually more of a shop than a real restaurant, but with two tables for two where you could sit and eat the ready made sandwiches, salads or soups for sale in the shop.  We both opted for the soup, which was a mixed veggie soup and came with bread.  Very warming for a chilly day in the city!