Tag Archives: The Firm Express

Apr 7 2013

Sunday April 7, 2013: Spring has arrived!

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Finally Spring is here! Since Monday the weather is getting better and better and it can lift one’s spirit so much after this long Winter. It’s also longer light every night since Sunday when the clock went forward with an hour. And I’m not the only who’s happy that Spring is finally here:

I’m sorry that I haven’t been commenting much on your blogs last week. I did read everything but it’s been a busy stressful week at work. Besides that I catched another cold last Monday and have been pretty sick till Saturday. Being so busy at work and not feeling well made that I didn’t have energy at night to do much. Today I feel much better.

Few changes at work. Last week my direct manager asked me if I was willing to work for our communication manager. His current assistant gets a new job at his department and he needs someone to make his appointments and answers his phone. Of course I said I would do it.

His assistant also is editor in chief of our intercompany magazine and I’ve been asked if I would do this. I had to think a couple of days about that because it’s a lot of extra work but it’s fun work. I decided I am going to do it but that meant I had to leave the vitality team. I can’t do everything and had to make a choice. Hmmm probably should update my linked in profile with “editor in chief” LOL.

I’m home alone this weekend. R. is in Italy for a motor exhibition and will be home tomorrow.

Workouts:

Tempo Monday

Half marathon training has started and I started with a 30 minute tempo run. I mean by that that most of the run is at an easy pace and 3 minutes are tempo. The tempo minutes build up and so will the time of the total run. I’m using paces for the different runs based on a 5K of 30 to 31 minutes, this means I have to run a lot slower than I usually do. I need to work on that because it will make the longer runs later in the schedule easier. Pace for the run was 06:45-7:00 per km and for the tempo part 6:27-6:42.

Stats:

Distance: 4.4 K / 2.8 miles
Time: 00:30:24

Speed per km: 8.70 km/hour (5.4 miles/hour)

Time per km: 06:54
Weather: dry, sunny, not much wind, -3C (26 degrees)

Last song on Ipod before finish: Mumford & Sons – The Cave

Strength Tuesday

I did a short workout by The Firm Express: Sculpt. These workouts are short but the tempo is high. You hardly have time to get up from the floor to do your standing exercises. They combine upper and lower body exercises in 1 too to get the max out of your workout. Total time: 20 minutes.

Rest Wednesday

An unplanned rest day, I hadn’t been sleeping well for the past 2 nights and was too tired to do something in the morning.

Easy Thursday

Easy run of 20 minutes, recommended pace 07:09-07:24/km. Still wasn’t completely rested and took it easy but without walking breaks.

Stats:

Distance: 2.9 K / 1.8 miles
Time: 00:20:20

Speed per km: 8.49 km/hour (5.3 miles/hour)

Time per km: 07:04
Weather: dry, sunny, not much wind, 0C (32 degrees)

Last song on Ipod before finish: Communards – Don’t leave me this way.

 

Rest Friday, Saturday and Sunday

Decided to take a couple of rest days to heal completely from my cold.

Meals:

Monday

 New recipe: chicken in apple-balsamico sauce. It was delicious and definitely saved in my recipe database for another time. We had baked potatoes and a salad with it.

Tuesday

 

“Hachee” of minced meat with onion, mashed potatoes and carrots with peas. I was home late and this recipe was ready in 15 minutes: perfect. Also a new recipe and also being saved for busy days.

Thursday

Pasta with zucchini, mushrooms and ham in a tomato sauce.

Saturday

A recipe by Bill Granger: chicken with shi taki mushrooms and red pepper. I wasn’t very impressed by this meal and won’t make it again. I made it for one but it was a bit too much, didn’t eat it all.

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.

 

Dec 6 2012

Thursday December 6, 2012: Mishmash

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Daily stuff:
Thank you for the nice comments about the village where I live. If you ever visitHolland, you’re more than welcome to come and see for yourself.

Shelley asked some questions about the traditional costume women wear in the youtube video I posted. There are only about 270 women in the village that wear this every day. The youngest women in this costume is born in 1950. The costume is special by the use of the “kraplap”. You can see someone in the traditional costume every day in the village but it’s a dying tradition. The younger people don’t wear it except for special occasions. It is expected that you won’t see it every day anymore in 10 years.

Weekend plans: tomorrow night we’re going to a concert by The Golden Earring. The best Dutch rock band that we have but we haven’t seen them play live yet. You may know them because their song Radar Love was a huge hit in theUSAin 1973. When I looked it up I saw that Bill Clinton used the song back in 1992 when he was running for president.

But .. that is if the roads are good to drive. The weather forecast gives very bad weather for tonight and tomorrow morning: lots of snow. Hopefully the roads are clear in the evening.

We are also going to buy a Christmas tree. We have a fake one in the addict but it’s so much work to put it up that we tried a real one last year and we liked that. My company sells Christmas trees and I get a discount on it which makes the tree not too expensive. Do you have a Christmas tree yet?

Workouts:

I have decided to start over with the 5K training because I missed a couple of runs. The program is only 6 weeks and the “long” runs are adding up fast. It seems like it’s easy but it’s not because I’m working on my speed. I want to be faster compared to the running version 1.0 of me. That means that the running parts are fast (at least fast for me). But it went well.

Stats:
Run-walk ratio: 6 x 2 minutes, 1 minute walking inbetween (12 minutes running, 6 minutes walking)
Weather: dry, not much wind,0C(32 degrees)
Distance: 2.5 K / 1.5 miles
Time: 00:17:52
Last song on Ipod before finish: Glee Cast – Stronger.

This morning I did a Firm Express workout: cardio and sculpt.
Total time: 20 minutes.

Outfits:
Yesterday’s outfit

Dinner:

Wednesday dinner

 Turkish pizza: meat with onion, tomatoes, garlic and spices on a wrap heated in the oven with some garlic sauce.