Mar 31 2013

Sunday March 31, 2013: Running anniversary

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Happy Easter to all of you.

Last Friday was my running anniversary. 4 Years ago on that date I put on my running shoes and went for my first run in years. And I haven’t stopped running since. Sometimes a lot, sometimes not so much but I never stopped. When I started this running thing I would never have thought I would still be doing it today but I do.

In these past 4 years I have run 465 times. I ran 2.467 km (1541 miles) and ran for 296 hours and 31 minutes. But nothing shows more than pics so here are few of the past 4 years.

My first 5K:

Tomorrow it’s April 1 and my half marathon training starts. When are you going to do this you ask?

Well on October 22nd but I’m using a 28 week plan and it’s 29 weeks till half marathon date. It’s a very safe schedule that builds up the mileage slowly. Every week has 1 tempo run, 1 easy run, 1 long run and every other week I do a speedwork session. I’m putting my running first for the past couple of months and if I need an extra rest day I will “sacrifice” one of my cross training days. The past 4 weeks will be the thoughest and those weeks I don’t do cross training. I also put some races in my schedule to see how my time on a 5K or 10K will be so I can estimate a finishing time on the half marathon.

Weekly workout review:

Runs: 2. Mileage: 8.1 K (5 miles).

Cross training: 1 (Yogalates).

Walks with Bella: 6 days (3 hours and 15 minutes).

Meals:

Saturday

WW recipe: a salad with apricots and warm goat cheese with honey with a honey-mustard dressing.

 

I baked a banana bread on Saturday afternoon. First time I ever made this and it’s delicious.

 

Sunday

We had our traditional Eastern breakfast.

 

Dinner was for starters carpaccio.

Main was pork tenderloin with mushroom sauce, roasted potatoes, zucchini with tomatoes and capers.

 

Dessert was vanilla quark with mango and pineapple.

Mar 29 2013

Friday March 26, 2013: Mishmash

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A couple of weeks ago we did a photo shoot together. I had a Groupon deal for the shoot itself, turned out that ordering the photos (especially the digital ones) was pretty expensive. Besides that we weren’t very much impressed with the photos. We picked out the best photo of us together, of me alone and of R. alone. The one of us together will be a gift for both our Moms too.

You might wonder why you haven’t heard me about Weight Watchers the past couple of weeks. Well that’s because I quit WW (again). I had a subscription for 3 months and needed to renew it. The past couple of weeks I hardly kept track of my Points. I’ve noticed I eat better/healthier when I don’t have the “pressure” to keep track of Points. When I count I somehow want to eat more (and do that too) because it feels I can’t have it and that’s when I want it.

Another reason that made me decide to quit is that I missed cooking from my own recipes/cook books. I felt I had to eat WW recipes and haven’t used much of my own recipes the last 2 months. I don’t have about 100 cook books to keep them on the book shelves and do nothing with them.

What does this mean? Well I’m not giving up on trying to lose the weight but I quit following a diet or a food plan or count calories. This time I’m really done with it. I just want to eat healthy 90% of the time and do my workouts. If that means I lose weight slowly or maybe not at all: so be it. I’m almost 45 and for the past 13 years I’ve been on diets on and off and I’m done with it and it isn’t working for me (anymore). I just want to live my life without thinking about calories, it makes me cranky.

I won’t be talking about weight loss anymore on this blog. I might post my weight every now and then but that’s it. I will be focussing on living as healthy as I can and exercise.

I have a long Eastern weekend. Today is my day off and in Holland we don’t work on Eastern Monday. This means a 4 day weekend: woohoo! Still no sign of Spring weather however but it has to come here someday, we just have to be patience.

Workouts:

I had a run scheduled this morning and I didn’t really want to go. I had to convince myself to go and in the end I did and it was a good run. Glad I went and didn’t listen to the inner lazy voice.

Stats:
Distance: 4.9 K / 3 miles
Time: 00:33:24

Speed per km: 8.80 km/hour (5.5 miles/hour)

Time per km: 06:49
Weather: dry, very hard wind, -2C (26 degrees)

Last song on Ipod before finish: Little Steven – Bitter Fruits

Movies I’ve seen lately

Breaking Dawn Part 2

I didn’t go to the theatre to see the last movie of the Twilight Saga because critics weren’t all that good and I have to say I wasn’t that impressed either. I think the first one still is the best one. But nevertheless I’m sad that there’s no more Edward & Bella, not in books and not in movies.

Mar 26 2013

Tuesday March 26, 2013: Mishmash

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Holy crap it’s so cold. When you are behind glass it looks perfect because the sun shines, it’s dry but as soon as you stick your nose out of the door it’s frozen because of the hard Eastern wind. The forecast is that the wind lies down after Thursday but still it’s too cold for this time of year. At least the crocuses aren’t fooled by the weather and they come up everywhere.

 

Sunday evening we had our anniversary dinner. I bought a Groupon for a 4 course dinner, 2 for the price of 1. We didn’t know the restaurant before but we will definitely go back someday. It looked a bit like a library and the food was great. We had a selected wine with every course. It was delicious.

Workouts:

 

After a week of almost doing nothing (no running and only 2 other workouts) I got it together and did a X-TrainFit workout, completely focused on the arms and shoulders. I did two rounds of dumbbell / body weight exercises. Felt great afterwards. Total time: 48 minutes.

Monday morning I went for a short and easy run. The wind was still very hard but I choose a route where I wouldn’t have to run against it very much. The run itself went great and I didn’t take walk breaks.

Bonus: I came home in daylight. I have been waiting for this for a couple of weeks. Just a few more weeks and I don’t have to run in the dark anymore, can’t wait.

Stats:

Distance: 3.2 K / 2 miles
Time: 00:21:50

Speed per km: 8.79 km/hour (5.5 miles/hour)

Time per km: 06:49
Weather: dry, very hard wind, -3C (26 degrees)

Last song on Ipod before finish: ABC – All of my heart

 

This morning I did a Yogalates workout but I stopped before I was finished. I wasn’t into it. To be honest I don’t like yoga all that much. I do it because it’s good for my flexibility but it’s my least favourite workout to do. Total time: 15 minutes.

Weekly workout review:

Not my best workout week, mostly because it was so freaking cold and I didn’t run because of that and kept the walk with Bella short.

 Meals:

Sunday

We started with carpaccio.

After that I had Iberio (I think that’s a Spanish) pork.

 

Main was beef tenderloin with pepper sauce and vegetables.

 

Dessert was crème brulee with icecream.

 

Monday

“Broodje (sandwich) shoarma” . A popular fast food here but not the healthiest choice. I made a healthier version myself with chicken (normally it’s pork), I made the garlic sauce myself and ate it with Turkish bread. I also bought some tomato-egg salad to go with it.

 

Tuesday

Chicken in pesto-cream sauce with baked potatoes and stir-fried spinach with garlic.

Mar 23 2013

Saturday March 23, 2013: Mishmash

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It’s been a week since my last post. I haven’t been feeling much for blogging the past couple of days. Without sounding negative again, the reason is that the weather has such a big influence on my mood, my exercise and my food intake. Today it’s -2C (28 degrees) but because of a very hard Eastern wind it feels like -15C (5 degrees). For heaven’s sake: it’s Spring! Can we please have some weather that looks like Spring? We have someone else here at home who can’t wait till the weather gets better and she can be outside all day:

 

Speaking of our lovely Bella, Sunday it was 3 years ago since we lost our previous beloved dog: Roussy. There couldn’t be a bigger difference between Bella and Roussy, the only comparison is that we both love(d) them very, very much.

Monday it was exactly 20 years ago R. and I officially started dating. I can’t believe how fast those 20 years have gone by. I can’t imagine my life without him, he’s the most important person in my life. We are celebrating this tomorrow with a nice dinner.

 

Last Thursday I went to my first fashion show ever and it was great. I have seen so many beautiful clothes, I have to make choices because I can’t buy them all. This summer has clothes I like: feminine and colorful. At the beginning of the show I got some coffee with chocolate and during the break we got a glass of Prosecco. At the end of the show we got a goodie bag with discount coupons for shops in my village and a little box of chocolate. The store was open after the show but it was very crowded and I’ll go there next month to buy something.

Our uninvited guests have returned too. These ducks are almost everyday on the roof of our garage and they stare at me when I’m cooking in the kitchen. They were here last year too, they are the same ducks and did the same thing last year: sit and stare.

A short post today and I hope I’ll get back in a good mood soon and back to regular blogging.

Have a great weekend!

Mar 15 2013

Friday March 15, 2013: Mishmash

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I’m glad to say I am all better, except from the bruises on my left butt but that just needs time to heal, also my lower back needs a bit more time to heal.

Wednesday night I had a date with my friend K. We had sushi for dinner. I took photos of the food but totally forgot to let someone take a photo of us. The thing with K. is that the minute we see each other we start talking and don’t stop till we say goodbye, it’s always like we had seen each other yesterday even if it has been 3 months. Being around her is so comfortable.

 

My company sponsors the Dutch Moto GP team. The official team presentation for the press was held at our office yesterday. I am not particularly interested in Moto GP but R. is. I went down to see the presentation and it was fun to see.

 

I can’t believe the weather. For crying out loud, Spring starts in a week and it’s still Winter. It’s cold and we had some snow this week. We are breaking weather records but not the ones that make you happy. Last Saturday we broke the rain record: it rained nonstop for 24 hours, the old record was almost 100 years old when it rained 23.5 hours. Last Monday we had the coldest March 11 in a century. It’s way to cold here for this time of year and I’m so done with it. Last year around this time I was already running in my capri’s. Now I still have to wear thermo clothes under my winter running clothes. The cold effects my running and my walks with Bella because I’m so done with it, I can’t get motivated anymore to run or walk in the cold, I’ve had enough. Let’s hope warmer weather will be here soon. I know I can’t wait.

And finally: how stupid is it that Google Reader stops at July 1? I’ve already looked into other readers and am testing feedly at the moment. So far it’s working good but I have to test some more. Do you have any suggestions for good readers?

Workouts:

Plank challenge March

I have to restart this challenge but won’t start till my butt and lower back are completely painfree, probably next week.

Monday morning I did a short easy run, just to see how it would go. And it went very well, better than expected. I didn’t take walk breaks. It was freaking cold though, the temperature wasn’t that cold but there was a very cold hard wind.

Stats:

Distance: 3.2 K / 2 miles
Time: 00:22:52

Speed per km: 8.40 km/hour (5.2 miles/hour)

Time per km: 07:09
Weather: dry, hard wind, -1C (30 degrees)

Last song on Ipod before finish: P!nk – Who knew

 

I had one more workout program on my wish list: Jillian Michaels Body Revolution. It was hard to find a seller in Europe but after a couple of months I finally found a seller on Ebay Germany and I could buy the program. This makes my workout collection complete, I have a great variation of all kinds of programs: strength, cardio and yogalates. I did the first workout of the program last Tuesday and it was a great workout, I like it a lot. I had 4 circuits, every circuit was done twice and existed of 3 exercises. Between the circuits was a 1 minute cardio interval. All the workouts are about 30 minutes.

Mar 10 2013

Sunday March 10, 2013: Little update

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I have been taking a little blogging break from posting and reading blogs. Reason is that I haven’t been well since Wednesday.

 

Wednesday evening I was upstairs and ready to go downstairs. I made a wrong step and fell down the stairs and landed halfway down the stairs. I missed a couple of steps and landed mostly on my left bottom. I couldn’t move for a few minutes. Needless to say I did nothing more than lie down on the couch that evening and go to bed early. The entire left of my lower body hurted and so did my lower back.

 

When I got up on Thursday morning I seemed fine, except from the bruises on my left butt and I took a shower. There something happened that has never happened to me before: I got a panick attack. I couldn’t breathe and it felt I was going to faint. I got out of the shower as soon as possible and got down with my head between my knees and tried to get it together. I sat down on the couch for an hour and finally got dressed and went to work. At first I seemed to be fine but in the afternoon it got worse. I can’t explain what I felt, I still don’t know what was happening but I went home and was in bed by 3 pm. I got up at 5 pm and went back at 7 pm till 9 pm. At 11 pm I went to bed again and slept all night.

 

The next days I still wasn’t feeling well. My bowel problems returned, I had no appetite (I hardly have eaten the past days) but at the end of the day my stomach felt like I had a huge dinner.

 

Again, I don’t know if my problems of the past days have something to do with my falling or that it’s a coincidence this happened but I can’t explain. Today it seems to be better, I had a light breakfast this morning.

 

I haven’t been working out the past days and I didn’t take long walks with Bella. But I need to start moving again because that’s better for the recovery of my butt. I tried a Chalean Extreme workout this morning but had to cut it short but at least I tried. Later today I will take Bella for a longer walk again. And I’ll try running again tomorrow.

 

It was a stupid accident and it could have been worse because I could have broken something or fall on my head. It’s only a bruised butt and painful lower back.

 

So in a nutshell what happened to me the past couple of days. I know I would be positive on my blog but hey, I didn’t do this on purpose :)

Mar 5 2013

Tuesday March 5, 2013: Spring is coming

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We are having amazing Spring weather yesterday and today. When I was driving home this afternoon it was 17 C (62 degrees) and the sun shines all day. It lifts my mood and not just mine, everyone around me is so much more happier now we have better weather. Even Bella is a happier dog, I seriously think she had Winter blues too, she has been a bit down the past weeks. It’s not going to stay like this, after tomorrow it’s getting cooler again but for now I’m enjoying it very much.

Another good thing is that it’s still light outside when I take Bella for her long walk after dinner. By the time I get home it’s getting darker but I know it stays longer light every day now for at least the next 6 months.

And although I didn’t run my fastest time last Sunday, doing this run and finish it, has been so good for my running motivation and my self confidence. I’m moving on and start training for a 10K run. I have already registered for it, it’s on Sunday April 21.

I didn’t run this morning even though I had planned a run. My calves and knees were still hurting too much from the trail run Sunday. I’m won’t be doing trail runs for now anymore, just road runs. I’d rather go to the forest with Bella and just walk. I will do my run tomorrow morning, in a couple of weeks it will be light during my early morning runs and my goal is to built a good running base during Summer that I can maintain next Winter and run a bit less then. Running in the dark is hard the longer the Winter lasts.

Workouts:

Plank challenge March

Monday: 30 seconds

Tuesday: rest

I did two 10 minutes workouts by The Firm Express Monday morning: kick start your metabolism followed by Shortcut to flat abs. Total time: 21 minutes.

Meals:

Monday

A dish of potatoes, endive, bacon, onion and herbs cream cheese. A bit high in WW Points I found out after entering it but it’s very tasty (although you wouldn’t say that due to the crappy picture).

Tuesday

 

WW recipe: chicken filled with cheese and ham, cooked potatoes and carrots with a tablespoon of sour cream.

Weight progress:

Weight loss this month? None!

Gain this month? Yes!

I totally screwed up last month. I didn’t gain it all back what I’ve lost in January. I can’t say I’m very upset about it. February was just a lousy month in which nothing went very well. I’ve started counting WW Points yesterday again and will post my weekly points review again because it keeps me accountable to myself.

 

Mar 3 2013

Sunday March 3, 2013: First 5K of the year -> done!

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Thursday I had a follow up appointment at the dentist. The appointment was first scheduled for March 19 but a couple of days after the first treatment I started to have pain again. This time I couldn’t bare anything cold: no drinks, no food and no wind. Everything that was cold, gave me pain in the treated teeth. At first I thought I would sit it out till my next appointment but on Monday I said to myself that I was crazy going on like this and rescheduled. The emergency filling was removed and it all looked good so he gave me a permanent filling. I should be painfree after the weekend and so far so good, I haven’t had pain after the treatment.

Friday night my friend T. came over for her birthday dinner. Usually I cook for her but I haven’t had much cooking inspiration lately and I could buy a Groupon for a dinner in a restaurant. I decided to use the Groupon deal and go out for dinner. I didn’t know the restaurant but the food was very, very good. We had a nice evening with great food.

Saturday we were invited by friends of ours for a pleasant evening with them and our other friends and it was a pleasant evening. We did go home on time because I had a race on Sunday and I didn’t want to be tired for that.

Workouts:

March has started and I followed my friend Shelley’s example: she did a plank challenge in January that I’m going to do in March. Started this on Friday:

Friday: 20 seconds (I thought this would be a piece of cake but 20 seconds is longer than I thought LOL)

Saturday: 20 seconds

Sunday: 30 seconds

I took a short run on Friday morning because I was still recovering from the dental treatment and had a little after pain. I didn’t walk and I couldn’t be more surprised that this turned out to be my fastest run so far this year. Felt good!

Stats:

Distance: 2.2 K / 1.4 miles

Time: 00:14:35
Speed per km: 9.05 km/hour (5.9 miles/hour)

Time per km: 06:38
Weather: dry, not much wind, 2C (35 degrees)

Last song on Ipod before finish: The Corrs – OldTown

Trappenbergloop Huizen 5K / 3.1 miles

My first race in almost a year! Because my training plan hadn’t been going all that well lately due to crappy weather my goal was to go, run it and finish and that is exactly what I did.

It was a trail run and it was sometimes hard because there were lots of sticks, pineapples and other stuff on the paths. You had to look where you were running all the time. I prefer road races if I have to be honest.

The course was 2 rounds of 2.5K and the first round I ran without walking. I did start to fast and had to pay for that in the second round where I had to take 3 walk breaks. But overall I am satisfied with how it went. I finished and that was what I came for.

I was also happy that R. and Bella were there to join me so R. could take some pictures of me.

Before the start, I’m in the middle with the pink jacket and head band.

Coming through after 2.5 K:

 Run to the finish:

I did it!

Stats:
Distance: 5 K / 3.1 miles
Time: 00:34:20

Speed per km: 8.74 km/hour (5.5 miles/hour)

Time per km: 06:52
Weather: dry, not much wind, 4C (39 degrees)

Last song on Ipod before finish: Queen – We will rock you

Weekly workout review:

I’m okay with the results of this week.

Meals:

Friday

Starters: Carpaccio.

Main: beef tenderloin with a pepper sauce, mashed carrots and caramelized chicory.

 

Dessert: a vanilla pie with whipped cream.

Saturday

Lunch: a salad with apricots and warm goat cheese with honey with some honey-mustard dressing.

Mar 1 2013

Review February 2013

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Notes February:

  • I’m so glad February is over. It hasn’t been a very good month mostly due to the weather and tooth pain.
  • The first day of March always feels like Spring is started, even if the weather isn’t that good, it’s something mental for me.
  • It is what it is and I won’t be looking back but move on forward and know March will be better.
  • Total time I did something (including walking): 19 hours and 17 minutes.

Workouts February:

Running. Done: 6

Strength training. Done: 3

Cardio. Done: 2

Yogalates/Stretching. Done: 2

Workouts:

Number and time of workouts in January: 15 workouts, total time 7 hours and 21 minutes.

Number and time of workouts in February: 13 workouts, total time 7 hours and 2 minutes.

Yearly mileage

Total February: 27.5 K / 17.1 miles

Total till 02/28: 64.3 K / 40.2 miles

Total running time: 7 hours and 35 minutes

Races:

-

Book I’m reading

George R.R. Martin

A Song of Fire and Ice – Book 4 A Feast for Crows

I still haven’t finished this book although I’m getting close to the end now.

Highlight(s) of the month

Weekend at the beach with R. and Bella.

Low this month

Root canal treatment and second treatment after another month of pain.

The weather, need I say more?

Feb 24 2013

Sunday February 24, 2013: Positive mind

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When I told R. about the complaining about the weather on my last post (which everybody by now is doing here in Holland) he said that he thought that I complained a lot in my posts lately and you know what? He’s right. I usually don’t complain this much and why should I keep complaining about the weather. Yes, it sucks we had snow again today and it’s still cold but I have no influence on it and have to deal with it, why should I let it influence my mood.

So as of today back to normal blogging and look on the bright side of life and see things positive. And I have a good life. 4 More days and this horror month is over and it’s March and I have some fun things planned next month. Not going to tell everything yet but three things are special:

  • I’m doing a 5K race next Sunday, my first official run in almost a year.
  • We have booked a foto shoot. Never done that before.
  • I’m going to my first fashion show ever. The store where I bought my “Christmas” outfit has a fashion show twice a year and every time I get an invitation but I never went, until now.

And what does a girl when she needs more motivation to go out for a run? Yes, she buys new shoes.

One of my Brooks need to be replaced soon and today I bought new ones online. Because I always have the Brooks Adrenaline in the same size, I buy my running shoes online because it’s 10% cheaper than buying them in a running store. At first I thought about buying a “safe” blue pair but ended up buying these cool yellow/purple ones.

Weekly workout review:

I haven’t done anything this weekend. Needed some rest to recharge and make the rest of this year a good year, starting tomorrow.

Meals:

I won’t be posting all my meals anymore only the dinners and when I make something special/different for breakfast and/or lunch.

Saturday

Lunch: I heated a bread in the oven and had “Tuna with a twist” on it. This is tuna already spiced with herbs. I put some rocket salad on top of it.

 

Dinner: I had one portion WW Bolognese sauce left in the freezer and I cooked some pasta to go with it.

Sunday 

Dinner: Japanese teriyaki with basmati rice, a WW recipe.