Monthly Archives: May 2012

Glory Days

Posted on by Renée
16

The last few days have been A.MAY.ZING.

The weather has been insanely perfect. Finally we can shed our coats, sweaters and scarves and hey- even socks (yes I live for the first day of the year where I don’t have to wear socks!!!) and actually have some lovely spring weather. I am not one to complain usually about weather and I am not super affected if it is rainy or cold. I know that some people are affected so I do try very hard to not be too simplistic about it – I honestly think (for me) that how you feel has to really come from within and we can’t let the weather dictate “good” or “bad”. For some people this simply isn’t true, they can become very depressed if subjected to too many dark and dreary days. We do live in the Netherlands though and it does rain a lot here, we have to keep the sun shining from our hearts in that case, right?

But anyway…while I *think* I’m not affected I have to say the last couple of days I feel incredibly happy. Like the Bliss-type of happy. Why? Because the last two days I have been out in the sunshine, enjoying the fresh air and the gorgeous surroundings. Even just listening to the birds in the woods is like a symphony in my ears. Truly incredible. So maybe the weather really can do a lot for our mood?

Yesterday we went to my mother-in-law’s with the bike for the first time on our new bike rack for the car. I have the Leontien Ladies Ride coming up next weekend, so I wanted to get a good ride or two in, before doing 70KM in one go. So after a little visit (and some non-paleo ice cream…) with MIL, BIL and SIL, I headed out with my trusty map to go to Ede and then swing back around to Arnhem. Some of the route was twice the same, but most wasn’t. It was truly glorious.

Today was equally incredible, but today I wasn’t alone. Hubs joined me for a planned 36KM ride from Putten to Hardewijk and back. Putten is about 60KM from us, but now that we have the bike rack, it’s a non-issue :) Hubs isn’t as up to speed on fitness as I am (LOL) so we didn’t want to go too far or for too long, just in case. But he did great! We went quite a bit slower than I normally go when I”m alone (my avg pace was 16.3KM/hr alone; today’s was 13.3), and we stopped quite a bit along the way just to enjoy everything around us. I was looking forward to an ICE COLD WHITE BEER (oh yes and oh no not paleo friendly), somewhere along the way after presumably working up a sweat and burning off some calories.

I should mention that I’m still not eating bread and trying as hard as possible to eat paleo where I can. So yesterday AND today I had chopped veggies with me, dried sausage (found some 97% gluten-free in the supermarket) and pickles (as shown above; great to replace electrolytes). Of course we also had plenty of water with us. Since I’m not super strict, you will “hear” me mention beer and other things that aren’t exactly paleo (hello ice cream!), but hey, I’m living life and enjoying everything, many things in moderation :)

So Putten to Hardewijk; I haven’t really been out in this area much, certainly not in Hardewijk and little did I really know there was a lake there! OH EM GEE, seriously the view did not get better! Along the way were farms, sheep, cute little cafes, and lots of forest. Once we hit Hardewijk we stopped to have our lunch, then moved out circling around back through the woods. At about 23KM or so, we stopped literally at this little hut where you could self-serve coffee, tea, cookies, soup and have a little break. You just leave your coins in the little container, totally based on trust. I love this concept SO much. Turns out they are scattered all over, and you can be sure we’ll be locating one of these little places again.

A few kilometers further, we found another little cafe in the woods and it was time for that lovely liquid of life and some bitterballen and to soak up just a few more rays of sunshine.

Sadly it was time to leave, since we didn’t want to be home later than 7pm, so we made our way back to Putten and after about 20 minutes underway we were back at our car.

The bike rack has already been a GREAT investment; I simply can’t WAIT to map out more routes for us to do!

I think after these two days of cycling, I’m definitely ready for the ladies ride next weekend!

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Do you love to cycle? how far do you go? Do you use any tools to help you find the best routes or do you just go out there and do it? What’s been one of your most favourite days cycling ever?

Marikenloop 2012

Posted on by Renée
Reply

Wow, I can’t beleive it’s already been a week ago that I was able to participate in the 10th annual Marikenloop in Nijmegen! This is a Ladies Only race and has really grown in participant numbers over the last several years. The first year they had a little less than 1500 ladies running through park Brakkenstein. The course has changed over the years but there’s always the opportunity to do a 5 or 10K at this race.

This year there were over 12,000 participants! It’s an extremely popular race in the Netherlands for the ladies. I loved being able to participate this year, since it’s in Nijmegen, which is only about 20KM from where I live (to compare with where I do many races, somewhere around 100 – 130 KM from home). I was also extremely happy that one of my friends was also participating. I don’t know Niki that well, but what I do know I like, so it was great that she had also signed up.

The race itself is a charity event, sponsoring PLAN: Girls First; in a nutshell PLAN is helping girls in developing countries have a better life and better opportunities.

The Netherlands finally started having “normal” spring weather some time last week. That meant that the chances of it being warm on Sunday were high. Well, I would definitely say it was WARM on Sunday. Like, very. Even when I woke up in the morning it was already warm, no jackets or sweatshirts were needed. I debated wearing a short sleeve shirt or a no sleeve, then regretted choosing the short sleeve (but hey, it matched my nails!) later.

I woke up after a good 8 hours of sleep, had my breakfast and got ready. Most of my stuff was already prepped from the night before, so no rushing around searching for things like I do in some cases. We left on time (hubby came to support), in fact early because I like to be early… got the train and arrived at Nijmegen to find a bazillion people waiting to go to one stop further, so we ended up missing one train and waiting 20 minutes for the next.

As I said, it was warm. QUITE warm. We must have arrived around 12:45 and I went to pick up my shirt to wear AFTER the race (never wear a race shirt before I’ve run it!), we walked around, I ate my (paleo) snacks and had my picture taken as if I were on the cover of Runner’s World Magazine :)

Around 1:30pm Niki texted me that she had arrived with her posse and we were able to find each other pretty easily in the crowd. Niki’s ankle is a bit messed up and she had been taped just prior by her physical therapist who actually joined her at the race. Around 2pm we went to our starting area to do the warm up and then eventually get in the queue to start.

Well we must have been in the “slowest of the whole bunch” group because the race officially started at 2:15 yet we were unable to even reach the starting line until 2:40! Niki and I both decided we were just going to keep at each other’s pace and see how her ankle held up. Sadly, just after 3KM Niki signaled to me to go on, that she needed to stop. I felt bad leaving her behind but was hoping she just needed to slow down a bit and would catch up later.

I ran up until about 5K and then decided to walk a bit. It was now officially HOT. I needed to slow down my heart rate some and I was incredibly thirsty. Not only that, but because I was hydrating before the race, and did the necessary couple of trips to the ladies’ I still at this point needed to “go” because of the delay with the start. At 43 you don’t challenge your bladder as much as a 23 year old would, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I hit the drinks station just before 6K and there was a little scouting hut there so I went around to see if there was a loo I could use. YES! There was! I did my thing, then went and splashed cold water on my face, went back out to the drinks station, had another sports drink, took a deep breath and carried on. I lost about 5 minutes during this whole process.

I think I may have walked about 350 meters again around the 8K mark and after that just decided it was time to run through. Most of the run was through the woods, but at 9K we were out on the city streets again. As I was running up to the finish I saw only Niki’s fiance, but my Hubs was next to him apparently (I have bad eyes), so I waved, sped up and crossed the line.

Finish: 1:14:39

Not my fastest 10K, I take 5 min off for my break at the scouting hut, which would leave me around 1:09. Not bad considering the heat and the walking. Poor Niki never made it. She had to be medically escorted back.

My friend Alli also came to have an ICE COLD BEER (ahhhhhh… carbs I will make exception for, especially after a race!), so once Niki’s crew headed off to meet her where she was, hubs, Alli and I had a couple of cold ones before we had to head back. Getting back was a slight challenge since there were so many people, but eventually we made it. Once back in Arnhem neither one of us felt like cooking anything so we had something to eat in town.

It was a nice race, a beautiful course and a great day. Some not so nice things happened, namely that I didn’t get to finish with Niki, not even close, even though we were kind of hoping to do that together(ish), I didn’t like that I started 25 min after the actual start time, and the heat was a bit much. I would definitely do this race again, and hopefully I’ll have a chance next year to have a better time as well.

Friend Makin Monday: May 21 2012

Posted on by Renée
6

Every Monday My Girl Kenlie posts a FMM – this is meant to interact with other bloggers, link up and get to know each other a bit better. I always say “one of these days I’m going to participate in FMM” but then I never do. So for once, here goes.

Since I’ve never taken part I can’t assume that you know the rules. If you don’t know how it works, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog and then add your link the comments section here or at Kenlie’s blog www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links as well so everyone has the opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM blog post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

FMM: Three Things

1. Three of your favorite movies:
- Pulp Fiction
- The Machinist
- Fight Club

2. Three of your favorite things to drink:
- water
- coffee
- red wine

3. Three of your favorite songs:
Ok seriously this one is way too hard to narrow down. So off the top of my head:
- Higher Love by Depeche Mode
- Mad World by Tears for Fears
- Beautiful Day by U2

4. Three people who have recently been a positive influence on your life (outside of your family):
-I’m not sure this qualifies as recently, but I do know that if my friend Michael hadn’t died suddenly at the age of 40 (3 years ago) I probably would not have been as serious about changing my health situation as I was and am since then.
- My friend Marcellus is my running hero; he totally inspired me to start running myself and was the one who got me to sign up for my first race (which was a 12K)
-Leontien van Moorsel; a strong. amazing, honest, down to earth athlete who I adore very much.

5. Three things you to do keep yourself entertained:
- Music
- Running
- Blogging and spending time online

6. Three things you’re attracted to in the opposite sex:
- Natural Chivalry (that comes from one’s own desire to be a gentleman, not because he HAS to)
- Sense of Humour
- Ability to cook, enjoy food and good wine

7. Three things you love about yourself:
- I’m funny
- I have determination
- I am usually a very positive influence on people

8. The last three people who text messaged you:
-Niki; we were meeting each other at the race yesterday
-Alli; she was letting me know that hopefully she could meet up after the race for a beer
-Lisa; we were in her neighbourhood up in Friesland and wanted to meet up for coffee

9. Three things you’re looking forward to this week:
- sadly I’m looking forward to having to go to the dentist simply because I can work from home that day (so NOT looking forward to the dentist at all, just the sleeping in and working from home bit)
- possibly checking out a new gym
- seeing the kids again on Friday

10. Three wishes specifically for yourself…What are they? (Be selfish, and be honest.)
- I really would like to get my finances sorted so we can move, but I know this is going to take some time
- I wish my parents would help a little bit to get us all to the US this summer, but I would never expect it
- my third wish would be that I could have some sort of relationship with my brother

11. Three of your favorite quotes:
- “whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right” – Henry Ford
-‎”You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” A.A. Milne
-”I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.” Audrey Hepburn

12. Three of your biggest fears:
- that something will happen to my parents and I won’t be able to get to them easily
- that I will have to leave my job instead of ever being able to move closer
- that my husband will die before me

13. Three of your favorite TV shows:
I don’t watch much TV but I love
-The Office
- the Big Bang Theory
- South Park

14. Three of your favorite things to purchase when you’re shopping.
I don’t like to shop actually but I would have to say:
-Nail polish
-Any nice smelly pretty body products
-Make up, especially by Benefit

15. Three things that you enjoyed last week:
- going to Groningen and staying at a B&B with my Hubs
- Going to the Seal Rescue Center up North
- Seeing friends Lisa, Niki and Alli (see “last 3 people who texted”)

16. Three things that you always have in your bag or close to you if you’re not a purse kind of person.
-phone
-travel card
-nail file

17. Three types of food that you wouldn’t want to give up.
-a great Indian Curry
-Pizza
-Spinach – hahahaha!

18. Three things you do to enjoy burning calories:
-running
-biking
-weight training

19. Three things you dislike about blogging:
- whether we like it or not, blogging is like High School. You are one of the cool kids or you aren’t. Once you get over not being a cool kid, it’s ok
- sometimes, when you really, really need some feedback you don’t get it. And you can tweet and post your links all you want, that’s just the way it is.
- There are some blogs that I used to comment on all the time and never had a visit back. Now that I don’t really have a lot of time for my blog I do understand that this can happen and do my best not to take it personally.

20. Three ways blogging has changed your life:
-I have met some amazing people! Not just online but in real life! I’m really grateful for that!
-I like that I have a little history of accomplishments and a lot of work in progress. When I feel down I can always go back and actually see how far I’ve come.
-I’ve learned a lot about myself and others and can only see positive things from that

Now it’s your turn to answer the questions! Don’t forget to come back and link up in the comments, and have a happy Monday!

Gym Woes

Posted on by Renée
8

Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of great news to report since my last post.

In fact there’s kind of some bad news. My gym, my NEW gym, at least the branch in Arnhem, where I live, has been taken over by another company. That means I can no longer go there. This also means that I am not seeing the personal trainer anymore, nor have I actually been to the gym for a couple of weeks.

Funnily enough, remember back when I went to the gym with a friend of mine, in another town (I thought I’d mentioned it anyway but I can’t find the post)? Well we both belonged to HealthCity and then her branch was bought out by Basic-Fit. They took away a lot of the classes, no more trainers and you had to pay extra for things like showers and lockers. At HealthCity they also had things like free beverages (non-alcoholic) and child care services (not that I needed it, but still), but that’s all been dropped as well.

What pissed me off the most is that they just assumed I would switch over to the new membership and they deducted the money from my account, whilst my company also deducted the membership fees from my salary. I got the money back, thankfully.

But now what? I can go in Amsterdam, but that means being home pretty late, so I’d need to really re-think my food schedule (not only eating something before gym, but AFTER the gym, since it’s 2 hours to get home, but ALSO that food is already prepped for the next day, since I won’t have time the rest of the evening to prepare). I could go in Nijmegen (a city close to me) but I can’t take public transport at all. I’d have to go home first, eat, get the car, drive a half an hour…. You get the picture. Again, I’d have to re-do my food schedule as well. I could go in Utrecht, which is halfway between work and home, but again I have the same challenge really.

This is quite annoying.

I quit my other gym to go to HealthCity and now I really don’t think this is going to work out. I signed up for a year! I feel like I’ve been tricked! Surely they knew they were going to sell. You don’t just make this decision from one day to the next. I started in Feb, they officially changed 1st of May.

My biggest fear is that my company also are not going to get me out of this contract and I will be paying eventually for two memberships, since I really do NEED to go to a gym to work out. I want to do strength training and I don’t have the space or the equipment at home.

In the meantime this means that any and all weight loss is stalled yet again because basically I’m only doing the bare minimum.

I realize this really is a luxury problem, but it still could end up costing me quite a bit if I end up not going to any HealthCity. No one likes to just piss money away, whether it’s a luxury or not!

What am I going to do…?