Roped in...

My workout life has been so routine lately it hardly seems worth posting - I get to the gym 3 days a week (I love getting in early now that they started opening at 8), I do yoga class twice a week and I walk and bike.  But this week I got to do something out of the ordinary so I thought I'd share!

My oldest son and his girlfriend wanted to go indoor climbing on Monday but none of their friends were free.  Charlotte is very petite and too light to belay Florian, so he asked me if I would go with them so I could secure him.  My very first reaction was oh no, climbing, ugh!  I've only been a couple of times in a climbing gym, which I find kind of scary and intimidating, and once outdoors during our trip to South Dakota two years ago (which I loved, actually) - see pic:

Yes, that's me up on the left and Florian on the right.
So fun!

But then I thought, hey - my teenage son and his girlfriend actually want me to come with them (okay, they needed me, but still).  What kind of mom would I be to pass that up??? So of course I said yes.

I still went to the gym on Monday morning, but I cut my usual weight routine in half - I didn't want to have wobbly muscles if I was going to try and climb.

In the afternoon we biked to the climbing gym, got our belts on and got started.  Florian had to remind me how to belay; I practiced on Charlotte while he made sure I did it right, and then I belayed him (much harder with someone heavier of course).  Then I got a turn!

We continued to take turns climbing and I ended up doing four routes altogether and it was just as fun and challenging as I remembered.  It was cool watching Florian and Charlotte climb; they're both really good.  So I'm looking forward to the next time they need me.  Although not too soon - my right shoulder was killing me from the belaying, which is actually hard work.  Especially when you really don't want to drop your son's girlfriend.  ;-)

Happy New Year!

It felt great to get back to the gym this morning after the holiday hiatus.  While Felix, my youngest, was in a cast and/or unable to bike from breaking his ankle in October, and I had to drive him to school, I got in the very good habit of going straight from dropping him off, to the gym, which now opens at 8 am.  Perfect!  It's so nice to get there early, I always have a parking spot and nothing is crowded.

When the weather improves in the spring I'll go back to biking there, but it is nice to have the car option in the winter.  We really cannot complain - so far we've had a very mild winter and lots of pretty days for my husband and I to do our long walks.

One of the most beautiful perfect sunny winter days was the Sunday before New Year - the day the annual Corrida was run here in Leuven.  We did a long walk in the countryside that day, but I couldn't help thinking about all the runners racing through downtown, everything all festive and bright, and I realized that it would make me so happy to be able to participate in that one race again.

So that is one of my fitness goals for 2014 - to do the Corrida again.  I've been doing 2 short interval runs on the treadmill each week and I will continue to build on that.  The Corrida offers a 4K, an 8K and a 12K, so I am sure I will be able to build back up to at least one of those distances.

Hope all your plans and resolutions for this new year are coming along nicely!

Merry Christmas to One and All!

Christmas 2005...boy, that brings back lots of memories!

Now these three are all taller than me!

Here's the update:

Hope you all have safe and happy holidays,

and I wish you all the best in 2014.

Amy

Currently

I admit it freely - I totally stole this idea from Andrea!  But I think it's a nice idea for a blog post when inspiration is nowhere to be found...like so often lately in my case!  Feel free to use it yourself if you feel so inclined.

Currently...

Reading: The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, which won the Man Booker Prize this year.

Drinking: coffee, coffee, coffee and when I can't take it anymore, Spicy Rooibos tea

Watching: Modern Family, Homeland, and Extreme Hoarders

Anticipating: collaborating on Christmas Eve with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law - guess who they asked to bring a vegetable platter, three healthy salads, and a plate full of American Christmas cookies?

Wishing for: peace

Loving: how my big teenage boys still enjoy pulling out all the old Christmas decorations

Listening to: all my old Christmas CDs...Feliz Navidad is still an all time favorite:



I also want to wish you a Merry Christmas, and a very happy New Year in 2014!

Like riding a bike

The past two weeks at the gym, I've been able to do something I haven't done in an entire year: run.  And it really is like riding a bike - you don't forget how to do it, your body remembers.  And even though I was a bit apprehensive, it went well.  I did two short interval runs.  Last week was a first try, just 15 minutes, and very slow running broken up with equal amounts of fast walking.  Yesterday, I did 20 minutes, 3 minutes of running, faster than last week, alternated with 2 minutes of fast walking.  And no hip pain so far.

Last year, I was in excruciating leg and hip pain, and on the advice of my osteopath, I stopped running.  She said I could walk, swim, bike, use the elliptical, stretch, do upper body weights, and even do yoga if I was careful not to do any extreme stretches with my lower body.  I just needed to give my body a break from running.

So I did all these things but I really missed running.  I missed the stress relief, the feeling of exhilaration during a good run on a warm day, and the way it kept my weight stable.  I struggled to replace running with other activities, which just didn't seem to give me the same kick (or calorie burn).  It was depressing but I kept trying to focus on what I could do and I kept going to the gym, getting long walks in on the weekend which used to be reserved for long runs.

I kept listening to my osteopath and my body.  After a few months of no running, I suddenly realized the chronic hip pain I had been dealing with for years, was much better, almost non-existent.  That was such a great feeling.  But I knew I had to be careful.   So I waited.

There won't be any more half marathons in my future, that I know.  The training required for long distances is not healthy for my body (and I make no judgement on anyone else's exercise routine here - if there is one thing I'm sure of, it's that we all have to figure out what exercise works best for our own body, and because we are all different, that varies hugely from person to person).  But what I hope for right now is that I can incorporate a bit of enjoyable running into the rest of the things I do each week to keep my body healthy.

If there's one thing I've learned this past year, it's been to expand my repertoire of enjoyable exercise.  I don't think I would have ever signed up for the long distance walking event I did with my friend last spring had it not been for all of this.  But I'm happy I can carefully add in a bit of running again now.  I'll start with the interval run once a week and listen for what my hip tells me about it.

Goodbye Fall

There was frost on the grass this morning when I got up - you can really feel it in the air the last couple of days that winter is about to begin.  Fall is my favorite season so I wanted to share a few pictures from this fall before it's too late.

We spent a lovely Saturday afternoon walking at Horst Castle:

 There is a network of great walking paths all around the countryside surrounding the castle...













...and it was just the right time of year to spot those bright red toadstools with the white spots.

 Unfortunately that very same day, my youngest son, Felix, fell at badminton practice and injured his ankle.  He's got some badly torn ligaments and will be in a cast at least until the end of the year.  He was in a lot of pain at first, but is doing better now.  And getting very skilled at walking around with crutches!

Felix being in a cast meant that we had to change plans for my birthday lunch out - we had it at home instead, and I made this amazing vegan layered pumpkin cake - yum yum!  (The original recipe calls for sweet potato puree but I subbed pumpkin and it was delicious.)

Italian-Belgian Blog Friend Meet-Up!

I've been blogging for seven years now, and I've been very lucky to find a group of lovely, like-minded fellow bloggers all over the world, who really feel like friends.   As Andrea recently mentioned on her blog, the frequency of posting and commenting seems to ebb and flow as people's lives naturally evolve, but the warm feelings for blog friends remain.

And so I was tickled when the blogger you all know as the Black Knight contacted me to say he'd be in Belgium for work and hoped to meet up.  I've only ever had the chance to meet up with one other blog friend, Fran - we actually got together twice and one of them was for a race in 2011 - but it was such a neat experience,  I was very much looking forward to meeting Stefano.

As things eventually worked out, I met up with Stefano (and his colleague who helpfully took our picture) at the airport a few hours before their flight back to Rome.

The funny thing about meeting a blog friend, and I had the same experience when I met Fran, is that you feel like you know so much about the person, having read their blog posts over the years, and yet, they are also a stranger to you in many ways.  But you quickly get over that as you start to talk about common ground - which with Stefano and me was running with injuries (or not running with injuries in my case), kids, grandkids, travelling, and politics.   Stefano in person is just like he comes across in his blog - intelligent, kind and funny.  And a very dedicated runner.  I'm so glad we got to meet!