Run, Laugh, Eat… Curry?

Posted on 14 April, 2013 by Renée

I mentioned previously that my husband and my stepdaughter have a (renewed, in Hubs’ case) interest in running. While Hubs and I rarely run “together” – his pace is much faster than mine – I love going out for a run with him and can’t wait to go for our after work runs in Sonsbeek Park again soon.

That my stepdaughter is showing interest is really special to me. She’s been running for about 5 weeks now and even arranged a few necessary clothing items so that she had more sporty gear to run in. A few weeks ago she was looking for a pair of running pants and had some trouble finding what she really wanted so eventually I had a look on Wiggle to see if there were any decent sale items and found her a pair of Nike Running pants for €35 (to help her be responsible for her new hobby, she will give me €15). She also has a Couch to 5K program on her phone and just recently expressed interest in doing the Color Run 5K in Amsterdam at the end of May. We’ve talked a bit in the past about not being “good enough” in gym and I explained to her that everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses and she shouldn’t feel bad if she does the very best that she can at that moment. I can imagine that she has thoughts in her head now about her body image – she is 15 after all and she has two examples of women in her life who have struggled with their weight. I just want her to feel good about herself and if running gives her that, then I’m really happy.

Hubs has been really doing a lot to not only improve his running technique but has also been setting a lot of great goals and results for himself. I’m so proud of him for going to the gym regularly and that the running is going so well. He’s had some issues with his joints and hips but with the Chi Running techniques and proper warm-up and cool-down things are going really well now. He’s like my coach and supporter all in one :) We are even (all three of us) signed up to do a Chi Running workshop on the 9th of June. This is getting serious.

I should explain the title a bit. Hubs has been to India a few times and each time brought back a passion for cooking Indian food. We love good, spicy, tasty food and there is no shortage of it in this house. What’s cool is that you can make it into a healthy meal (just by reducing the amount of oil in a dish for example you can slash calories and fat) and you can also replace rice with cauliflower, which we do often now. Curry dishes are a regular thing for us, in fact I eat leftovers for breakfast sometimes! He’s the Curry Master and I of course the obedient servant. (and who’s going to argue with an amazing dinner made with love and spices, every night?)

Heading out

she’s wearing my old shoes until she graduates from C25K, then her reward is a proper pair!

Today the three of us went out to the park for a little warm up exercise together, then The Girl did her thing and Hubs and I headed out to Westervoort. I’ve been under the weather and wasn’t really sure what my capabilities were today but Hubs wanted to do 10K so I said “OK”.

doing our warm up stretches and exercises

About 4KM in, I decided to walk just a bit, my breathing was a bit off and I didn’t want to push it too much. It was also a little warm, though luckily I wasn’t overdressed.

I knew Hubs would be taking the long loop and since I was so far behind I decided to cut through and then head towards where he was so we could meet up (and then I would turn around and follow him).

coming around the bend

Because of the weather, there were tons of people out, mostly on bicycles, but quite a few cars too. It’s kind of tricky on these country roads if there are cars coming from both sides, but you just have to be careful.

There he is!

Once again he was ahead of me within minutes, but I honestly wasn’t running very fast at all. I just kept going, back up and over the bridge and then home. All in all, 11 kilometers.

Not bad for a first run after the Half! I’m off to Rwanda tomorrow until Saturday and on Sunday I am signed up for the Spieren voor Spieren (“muscles for muscles”) City Run in Hilversum (like I did last year) – I have my running stuff with me so hopefully I’ll at least have a chance to run in the hotel gym (but really How Amazing Would It Be to Run in Africa???) but I heard from a colleague too that running in Kigali is totally safe during sunlight hours and that if I have the chance I should just go for it.

Berlin Half Marathon – CHECK!

Posted on 13 April, 2013 by Renée

What a whirlwind!

Life was busy before and leading up to the Half and didn’t stop. With a few days break I’ll soon be off again, this time traveling to Rwanda with my company!

But the HALF in Berlin! What a day! Let me tell you what happened leading up to the day…

Normally I wouldn’t drink or eat out a few days before but a friend of ours turned 50 on the Thursday and asked us to come out at least for a glass of champagne straight after work. Of course, we obliged. Hubs and I went and had pizza (my eating/ food habits are out of whack at the moment anyway) afterwards so that we could get home early-ish and get packed up.

Saturday morning up not too painfully early, got ready and headed out at 8:30 to pick up M. She doesn’t live far from us and is actually on the way to Düsseldorf, where we happened to be flying out of to get to Berlin. The weather wasn’t so great in the Netherlands or in Germany; I’d been checking for days and it was snow, snow, snow, but funnily enough on the forecast showed a giant sun with a few clouds hanging around and warmer temps. We were keeping our fingers crossed that it wasn’t too good to be true.

Things went pretty smooth – picked up M, were early enough at the airport, got ourselves some yummy coffees and a bit of food and eventually headed to our plane. We were off! The flight’s pretty short so it was uneventful and we arrived in Berlin with our bags being almost the first off the flight. We then figured a taxi split would be easiest – Berlin airport (Tegel) is right in the middle of the city so it’s not expensive really to get where you need to be. Found our hotel, checked in and then all decided a nap was in order!

My friend Alex. who used to be my colleague in Amsterdam, is from Berlin and moved back about a year and a half ago with her boyfriend. She happened to be volunteering at the Half and was kind enough to pick up my race packet! This took some stress off – otherwise I’d have had to immediately go to the Expo after checking into the hotel and we didn’t have a lot of time before the Expo was closed. Alex and I arranged that she would drop by the hotel and at least we could have a chat and a coffee and I’d have my race materials as a bonus. Alex was right on time and as lovely as usual to see and it was great getting a bit caught up! A while later she had to go and we all needed food as well and besides we had a big day ahead Sunday so we didn’t want to be too late!

We headed off towards the Alexanderplatz and about midway turned down a street that looked as if there were a few restaurants and we were right! We settled on Italian (I didn’t think Mexican or Korean would be a good idea…) and instead of pasta carb-loading I had risotto and a salad. Oh and a beer :) Seemed like a good idea anyway.

Back at the hotel I had a bath and got my stuff all ready for the next morning. I actually slept pretty well (the hotel bed was huge with fluffy pillows and blankets) and was up Sunday morning around 6:30 to get ready in a non-stressed way. We had decided the evening before to meet for breakfast at 7:30. There were a LOT of runners at the hotel (we were only 3KM from the Alexanderplatz, which was near the start/finish) and I didn’t want to be fighting for a table at breakfast. I was pleasantly surprised to see a HUGE breakfast room with an amazing array of different types of foods. No worries at all to get a table. I was feeling a bit nervous but made sure to eat properly (and vowed to eat all the things the next day as I didn’t have to run a race) and once we finished we went up to the room to finalize my bag and my stuff. Right before we went downstairs I just panicked and had a little cry to my husband – what if I was going to fail? I felt so nervous but I knew I did everything I could to prepare (did I?) and there was no reason to worry (was there?).

We decided that walking the 3KM to the start was the best idea. I wouldn’t take that long, right? Wrong. It actually took longer that I imagined, but we were still on time in the end. I thought walking would make my legs super “warm” so I wouldn’t have to panic about not having enough time or space to do some warming up exercises (thank dog we did this and it was so incredibly busy – there was no WAY to anything once we were at the starting corrals). It was amazingly sunny and blue skies – a bit cold but perfect weather for running!

Eventually I said goodbye to Hubs and M as it was impossible to get into the corral. Hubs really wanted to see the elite runners and I just needed to somehow get into place. Start time was 10:05 and I of course was in the last corral. We were like sardines, all packed in, waiting to go. Around 10:20 we started moving slowly up to the front. At 10:30 we were off!

I had decided a few days before that I didn’t want to continually look at my watch or my heart rate. I just wanted to run and enjoy. I wanted to RUN the whole way. I knew if I thought about people who inspire me, people I love, and Lotte, the little girl with Epilepsy who inspired me to run for charity, I would make it through. I wore my “Because I Can” bracelet to think of Janet and my “Go the Distance” bracelet to think of Robby. I had a strange calm the moment we started like I really could do this!

There were no KM markers until 4 kilometers. I was actually happy with this because it felt like less than that! The route was fabulous, passing by so many historic buildings and monuments. I chose Berlin because I love it so much from an aesthetic point of view and it did not disappoint on Sunday! I eventually looked at my watch at 5K, 9K and 20K. I wanted to know where I was and if I was just intuitively on track. It was going well. At 5 I was around 31 minutes. At 9 I was at 58 minutes. Somewhere around 13 or 14 I was really starting to get tired. My brain wanted me to stop. I again thought about the ones who would get me to the next KM marker. Tammy. Robby. Janet. Lotte. Repeat. At 17 I was so happy because I thought at 18.5 I would be at Checkpoint Charlie. That would mean I was, for all intents and purposes pretty much at the home stretch. I ran through Checkpoint Charlie with a HUGE smile on my face.

I checked at 20 because I wanted to know, again, if I was on track. I gave myself the time goal of 2 hours and 30 minutes. At 20 I was at 2:15. Again, smiling down the road, I thought “Girl if you can’t make another 1.1K in 15 minutes you may need another hobby!” I laughed to myself :) Of course I was going to make it.

I crossed the line and stopped my garmin at 2:23:24. My official time of the race was exactly the same. I DID IT!!!!!! Not only that, but I crushed my time from my first Half which was 2:41:49. Ladies and Gents that’s almost 19 minutes better than the first time!!!

Once I finally found my posse we headed to Alexanderplatz for sausages and beers (as you do when you are in Germany) and later walked back to the hotel (making it more than 6KM just in walking around + 21K for the race), I took a nice hot bath, had a nap and we later went out to Mexican to celebrate.

It was a great weekend, a great race and I am super grateful to everyone who supported me, especially my husband and M – it wouldn’t have been the same without them!

Since I’ve been home I’ve been under the weather and very busy at work. I haven’t done anything running or gym related. Monday I’m off to Rwanda. When I return I have a 10K in Hilversum. AFTER all of that I think my life may finally get back to normal again. Then again, I’m not sure what “normal” is…

Week 7 and 8, Good and Bad + a 10KM Race

Posted on 17 March, 2013 by Renée

Yes, again behind on posting. Well you should know by now how it goes with me. Sometimes I can get in a few times a week, sometimes once a month. It’s tough sometimes to make the time.

Anywhoo. TWO full training weeks have gone by! It’s been dynamic!

Week 7

Run one was a 15KM at 70 min D1 and 30 min D2. It seems like forever ago, but I did mention it on my last post so at least I covered that one!
Run two was 6.5KM at 45 minutes as a recovery run. I did this at the gym in 42 minutes. I honestly can’t believe how much I appreciate the treadmill these days.
Run three was 12.5KM at 75 minutes in D2. Ahem. Yeah. That didn’t work out. It was more like 1-4 at D2, 5-7 at D1, 8 – 10 at D2, 11 and 12 were practically walking and then I sped up a bit. It was a Wednesday morning; a good indication that I was already tired from early rising. This was definitely NOT a good run at all.

There should have been another run but there was a LOT going on at work. In fact it was insane. So much to do. So many meetings. Working overtime. I did not run again until…

Week 8
Originally in the plan was a long run, but I had signed up for the Dunea 10KM (a part of the CPC Loop – which is part of the series from Like2Run; same as the Rotterdam Ladies Run and the Bruggenloop that I’ve participated in in the past) so it was 10KM or nothing! Luckily my friend PP (who ran the Amsterdam Half when I volunteered) signed up as well, so I had the motivation to get out to Den Haag early on a Sunday morning to do it.

In the train station – I feel sentimental especially with the backdrop “I wouldn’t want to trade with anyone”

It was absolutely FREEZING cold. A huge change from the week before when we’d had really pleasant weather. Before I actually found PP I stopped off at the HipHardlopen Tent; I love these ladies so much! They sell the running skirts that I used to buy from the original company in the US, but not only that they are just like Cindy and Christy – they are runners and they know exactly what we women like and need to feel good when running! And I’ll admit it, I like that they remember who I am from 2 years ago when I met them in Utrecht before the Half Marathon. I think that’s a perfect way to make an impression and keep your customers coming back.

Anyway, we finally found PP and eventually it was time for us to start. We hardly did any true warming up, but at the same time we were moving and jumping around to stay warm so I suppose that did the trick.

take the picture Hubs, we are freezing!

We started off with PP just in front of me, but at a certain moment I decided to cut across and move around some “slower” groups just to get a good pace. I felt good and was happy with the surroundings – I lived for 7 years in Den Haag but never really ran there (only in the woods near my old apartment) so this was a special run for sure! My pace felt pretty fast and turns out it actually was. I made the 10KM in 1:00:50. My fastest 10KM to date. This beats last summer’s Westervoort Run which was 1:04:06. Honestly, I was pretty gobsmacked. After my last run the Wednesday before I thought I’d be in around 1:05 and that PP would come in before me. Gave me a very good feeling! Hubs could NOT stop talking about how impressive it was!

So that 10KM was Week 8 Run 1. Another friend met up with us and the beers afterwards were WONDERFUL…

Run two was 9.5KM, 40 min D1, 20 min D2. Thank dog for treadmills is all I can say. Pretty broken after that.

Run three was 12KM, 60 min D1, 20 min D2. Absolutely dreadful. Seriously. Not only again ruined by a dog, but two of them and one owner yelling at me that *I* was doing the wrong thing (this is not the moment for a lesson on how to handle dogs when 1) you don’t really like them, 2) you are slightly afraid and 3) they are jumping on you). There were tears folks. And a lot of walking. I never actually made it into D2 and only did 10KM.

Run four (yes! I made a run four!) was incredible! 6KM at lunch with colleagues. My fastest 5KM time and my fastest 6KM in total time. Even faster than Sunday’s race! 35:48. That’s faster than 10KM per hour.

So, it’s all over the place you guys. Good, crap, great. The whole spectrum.

Today starts Week 9. That means in three Sundays from now I will be running Berlin Half Marathon!

Today’s run was scheduled as 18.5KM 110 min in D1, 15 min in D2. Seems I got those switched up a bit because I only did 10 at D2. I also walked some, so I was about 7 minutes behind on target time. But I did it. I think that’s the important part. Total time 2:11:18.

Something I did for fun – on Saturday, which was a rest day, my stepdaughter asked me if I would go out in the park with her to run. She wants to see if she likes it, to better her condition, get a little bit more fit (I don’t think she’s unfit by the way, but apparently she’s having what I had when I was in school – getting low scores on fit tests and being picked last) and already even downloaded a few apps on the phone so she could try it on her own. I feel really good, that I actually had a positive influence on this kid – she’s seen me in my non-fit days and watched me progress, just like others in my family, so it’s very cool she wants to do this. We did some jogging/ walking and ended up doing 4KM in a half an hour! To me that says she’s already quite fit, she just needs to build up and learn some breathing techniques. I am definitely going to contribute to getting her a good pair of running shoes and have visions of us doing races together sometime!

It just made me think – my parents had zero influence on me as far as fitness was concerned. Not that they weren’t supportive, but I guess the encouragement wasn’t really there. I’m not blaming them, but I think now, at this age, it’s just so important to get kids to understand that their health really should be a priority. We didn’t have that sort of vision 30 – 40 years ago, the priorities were different. Both of my parents are different now – but when you find out you can actually control diabetes, for example, just with eating right and exercise, it changes your whole perspective.

Were you active when you were young? Did your parents encourage you?

Here’s a question for the runners – what’s your fastest 10KM ever?

Week 4 Half Marathon Update

Posted on 18 February, 2013 by Renée

It was am incredibly stressful week last week. In my head I knew it would probably be like that, knowing that it was my last week before holiday (yay!) but I also knew I needed to go to the doctor care of some female stuff (don’t worry, everything is fine and I won’t go into detail) and that maybe I wouldn’t be feeling great but I really hoped going into the week I would still be able to do my runs and my cross training.

Well, sometimes we have to just accept what our bodies will or will not do and not get too wrapped up into thinking you’ve failed. Monday I was absolutely exhausted already and my body and brain were not having anything to do with a fartlek training session. I did try but I probably only ran maximum 20 minutes on the treadmill. It just wasn’t happening. I struggled to push myself past thinking what a failure I was but eventually I just let it go. Thankfully my husband was with me to remind me that even great athletes have bad days, but it doesn’t mean suddenly they are no longer athletes.

On Tuesday I had my doctor appointment and let’s just say I felt pretty bad physically. There was no way I was going to make my Les Mills GRIT class that evening.

Wednesday morning I decided I was going to try again. So I packed my bag for the gym in the morning , ready for another treadmill run. I also decided I was going to skip the fartlek training all together and move on to the next training run which was 65 min at D1 and 10 min at D2. This actually went quite well once I got started (seriously I really never thought I would enjoy the treadmill as much as I am lately!!).

Thursday the plan was to run at lunch with a colleague and the weather was not in our favour but we brought our stuff anyway. About 15 minutes before we were supposed to head out it started sleeting. We were supposed to do 6km (PP and I have a similar average pace) and to be perfectly honest I’m still amazed we did anything at all! The sleet combined with the wind was like little razors against our faces! In the end we did 5K which was a total win in my book!

Friday was a rest day thankfully- I was absolutely wrecked from finishing stuff up at work and not sleeping well. I did get to sleep in a bit Saturday, thankfully, but I had a 12.5K on the schedule and wasn’t exactly looking forward to it. Knowing that I wouldn’t get a chance to run again for a few days I finally got my head together and went out and did it. Once again, a great run once I got started. 75 minutes at D1 and 10 minutes at D2. It’s worth noting that as I was not on a treadmill it was still a challenge to do a faster continuous 10 min but I managed to stop only once and pick up again after only a few seconds. Progress!!

Week 4 was probably the hardest week so far and here I am now, blogging from my dad’s living room in Albuquerque already in Week 5. Dad’s arranged a week pass for me at his gym and I’ve gone this morning just to unstick the body and legs after 18 hours traveling. Feeling pretty good, just hanging out at home. I love it!

Week 1 – Complete

Posted on 27 January, 2013 by Renée

So, hey, did I mention I’m running the HALF MARATHON in Berlin in April?

Perhaps you remember me saying it before, but Berlin is one of my favourite cities in Europe. It’s a complex city with lots of history (certainly not always with shining moments), amazing architechture, dynamic people and whenever I’m there I feel the buzz and the vibrancy the city has to offer. So when I was considering doing a Half again, I thought about where could I go that would be really special, that would mean something to me? Admittedly, I was also envious of Joanna running the full Marathon last fall in Berlin so it just made sense to me sign up at least for the Half as well.

In 2008 I went to Berlin for the first time properly (the first time was actually a few years before that; I’d been at a music festival in Leipzig and had taken a friend back from there to Berlin where he was from – spent only about 4 hours there before I had to drive back to the Netherlands) and I was immediately in love. It was my birthday weekend and we found an apartment we could rent for the four days we would be spending there. On top of that the weather was amazing. We were good little tourists, seeing the sights, doing the Fat Tire Bike Tour, drinking local beer and eating sausages (as you do). Even though on that particular trip I fell down the stairs the last evening we were there (no I wasn’t drunk but I was on a pub crawl – it was the 3rd place we stopped off at, so my third drink) and twisted my ankle pretty badly, I already knew I wanted to go back. I should add at this point in my life, I was overweight but still had the “at least try to be active” mentality and was probably on attempt number 3,682 to get my crap together and lose weight.

The Famous Checkpoint Charlie

The next time I went to Berlin was in 2010 – as you know I finally made the commitment again in 2009, right before I got married. And I started running at the same time. Well, “running” – I started the C25K program, in the middle of the night (it seemed) so no one would see the fat girl “running” in the park. But by June 2010 I was running and wanting to run every time I would go away somewhere. This trip was no exception. We rented an apartment again and this time brought all of our running gear and gadgets to have a go at it in Tiergarten. It felt incredibly special to run in Berlin, being a girl from a Smallish City in New Mexico. You just never even dream of these things, you know? I also felt fitter, stronger, even though I wasn’t anywhere as fit as I feel I am right now. We even did the Fat Tire Bike Tour again, only the Third Reich Bike Tour rather than just the “basic” tour.

They actually call her “Chick on a Stick”

The Reichstag – Parliament building

Even the train station is impressive – this photo doesn’t even do it justice! It’s huge and all glass!

Although I’ve run now in other cities in Europe (and also looked for Half Marathons I could possibly participate in), my feeling was really for Berlin all along. After the disaster of the HM in Utrecht in 2011, I needed that something extra to give me the desire to really do it again. Just in case though, I’ve also decided to do it for charity and once I’ve got all of that set up then there is really no turning back, right?

So, this past week was Week 1 of the training:

Monday – 7.5KM or 40 minutes running at D1, 10 minutes D2 (this is the levels given by www.hardloopschema.nl) – basically D1 is kind of relaxed, D2 is pushing a little harder). I went from jogging around 7 minutes per KM to 6:30 in that 40 minutes, last 10 was at 6 min per kilometer. I had to do this on the treadmill as there was just way too much snow outside.

Tuesday – Cross Train – basically did my Les Mills GRIT class (high intensity) and 20 minutes on the Arc Trainer.

Wednesday – Intervals – 6 x 600m D2 – D3, two minutes walking between each. I have to say I thought I would die OR throw up. I never run intervals, I don’t like them, but hey now is the time to step out of the comfort zone!!

Thursday – was scheduled to run but forced to rest. Too busy at work to get the lunch run in and too busy to stop at 4:30 and do it after work.

Friday - did my Thursday run – 6K or 40 min D1. This was actually done in 38 minutes. Was SO nice out, cold but crisp and SO great to get out of the office and work off some stress.

Saturday – rest day! Spent the day actually with M at the Rotterdam film festival and according to my fitbit (that I received finally from Gail!) still walked buttloads (so I guess I worked off that popcorn, eh?), more than 14,000 steps to be specific!

Today starts week 2 so I guess I better get on it!

The Last Race of the Year

Posted on 18 December, 2012 by Renée

Was Fabulous :)

Seriously I thought it was going to very cold or very rainy or very icy but it wasn’t so bad at all.

Unfortunately my family was not able this time to come out to Rotterdam due to the timing of the race. It was a kind of sad revelation on the Friday evening beforehand that I was going alone. On Sunday morning, I got myself up, fed and dressed and hubs took me to the train station to head out. It was raining at the time and I had on plenty of layers, plus I had my brand new camelbak that I bought not only in case I needed to carry my belongings (there were lockers but I wasn’t sure I would get one as it was limited), but also for my up and coming Half Marathon training, so I figured I might get wet but I would be ok. I ended up putting my valuables in a locker and carrying nothing but my telephone.

I tried to do the warm up but it seemed like a bit of a clusterfuck, so I just did some warming up on the sidelines where others were jumping and skipping. Soon it was time to get in my starting corral – the last one as per usual – and with only 7000 runners we were off only 7 minutes after the official starting time (not like the 7HL which was almost 1 hour after our own starting time!).

I ran naked. That is… I forgot my iPod! I used to think that I could never run without music, certainly not a distance like 15KM! It would be excruciating! I would never finish! In reality, it was fine. I run more and more often these days without music – if it’s dark and I’m alone I don’t use it, if I’m just running 5K or so I don’t use it, if I’m with the hubs or someone else I don’t use it. It’s getting easier to run without it. And, you know what I noticed? I run faster without it!

On this particular Sunday it was no different. I felt good, I was very ok without the music, I was in one of my favourite cities in the Netherlands how could it go wrong? My favourite bridge in NL is the Erasmus bridge, hence why you see me smiling in the above photo running across it.

Before the bridge though, would you know it, I ran into Joanna! We wanted to meet before the race but alas, it was not meant to be. Being that she is a small Filipina woman with a long black ponytail I knew I couldn’t be wrong (in a sea of tall blond Dutch people!) so when I ran up next to her I just said her name and she shouted and smiled and gave me a hug! We were determined to keep our paces though so one short encounter gave enough energy to keep going.

One thing I noticed about this race – no one was stopping. Every time I thought “I’ll just walk 100 meters” I noticed that no one around me was stopping. This was really good motivation to keep going.

Though we had 5 bridges in total, the van Brienenoord was the big one.

photo from http://www.rotterdam.nl/tekst:van_brienenoordbrug

The Van Brienenoordbrug is one of the longest bridges in the Netherlands (though I couldn’t find the distance quickly online) – and I have to say I’m really glad I ran over the Sacharov here in Arnhem a few times because that was probably the hardest part of the race, and that with still 5KM to go.

I loved running in Rotterdam and I knew based on my time that I was going to come in earlier than my planned 1:40 time. Very happy to report in that my arrival was at 1:37:05. 2 minutes and 15 seconds faster than the 7HL in November!

Best of all, cutest race bling EVER.

So, SO happy my dear friend Yvonne was able to come and see me finish and have a drink and bite with me afterwards!!

It’s been a GREAT running year, I’m so grateful I was able to start running again in January. I have no idea what 2013 will be like, but I do know that the possibilities are endless. Can’t wait to share my training and plans with you all soon!

Seven Hills and that Pesky Little Problem I have

Posted on 5 December, 2012 by Renée

Some of you may remember when I did this race two years ago…

I desperately wanted to do it the next year but I had that little knee problem and was out of commission for this event in 2011.

So as soon as I could run again (when was that, back in November or December last year?) I knew that the Zevenheuvelenloop would be done in 2012! Oh yes!!

I mentioned a few times this summer that I was training more hilly terrain and to be honest, I’m really glad I did. That, in combination with the stuff I did with the physio and then later at the gym (and at home) really helped me this time around in Nijmegen.

Unfortunately hubs’ was not able to run with me. Though he has tried, he just has too many problems with his hips. We are really not sure what to do – we thought maybe new and proper fitting shoes would help, and it did a little but not enough. We also discovered that he absolutely has to run his own pace to run a minimum of 5KM without pain. Running with me (ie slower) makes the pain come faster. So we knew at some point that a 15KM was definitely not in the cards for him.

I asked my running hero, Marcellus, if he wanted to take hubs’ place and he accepted :) This is a fairly big deal because while I don’t mind going all over the country to do races, most people I know stick to their own area. He’s Dutch, and pretty much lived here his whole life (except for one year in the US) and had never been to Nijmegen! (though this is typical; I, as a foreigner, have been to more places than most Dutch people have been in their own country). Marcellus is the one who encouraged me to keep going through my C25K program and convinced me to skip right over a 5K (and a 10K) for my first race to join the company running team to participate in a 12K. So, yeah, I was pretty excited to have him at least start with me at this race.

we’re actually smiling because it finally stopped raining

Unfortunately it had been raining all morning the day of the race, though this is not something we are not used to, and to be honest I always seem to have my best times when it’s raining so off we went from Arnhem to Nijmegen (a 20 minute train ride). We met M and another colleague at Starbucks before we headed off to our starting corral. It was cold and we weren’t due to start out until about 13:45 (we were in the last corral) but that time came and went with no sign of starting any time soon. Since we arrived around 13:00 I already questioned myself if I should try to use the loo again (I’d been about a 1000 times already) but I thought no, I’ll be fine, we are going to start soon anyway.

Two o’clock also came and went. Oh my God. Is this rain going to let up? Should I go to the toilet? I think I have to go to the toilet! What if I go and we start? Ugh!

I think it must have been about 14:30, somehow the rain stopped and clouds parted and suddenly the sun was shining! It was glorious! And finally… we were off! But now… I really had to use the loo…

photo courtesy of Loop voor het Leven (http://www.loopvoorleven.nl/loop-voor-leven/)

What I really wanted to accomplish was just beating my original time in 2010 of 1:39:26 and to be honest it was looking pretty good, BUT…

I really needed the loo.

And every time it seemed like I could go, the loos were locked up.

Finally around 9.5KM there was a portapotty that was open. Finally some relief!!

The bad news? I lost about 3 minutes in that damn thing! I did my best to make up some time and had a good couple of KM’s, but it wasn’t going to be my day to break any records. Oh, wait, but I did. My time? 1:39:20. Six seconds faster! Ha!

I seriously need to do something about my bladder!!

Overdue

Posted on 25 November, 2012 by Renée

It really has been almost a month since I blogged. With good reason. Seriously it’s been a wild crazy busy couple of months and the stress level has been pretty high.

I meant to update at the end of October – remember I had some goals?

1) I will not only log into MyFitnessPal every day, I will actually log the food I eat as well.
2) if I am out, for whatever reason, and I am unable to log electronically, I will do it the old fashioned way and the enter when I have a chance (I am volunteering at the Amsterdam marathon this month and will be away from the computer at that time)
3) the whole month of October I will be beer-free
4) I will go to the gym twice a week. No excuses.
5) I will run minimum twice a week.
6) I will continue to not eat the chocolates from work, the entire month of October. (not cutting out chocolate in general, just not mindlessly stress-eating from the candy jar.

I did fairly well with MFP – though I keep missing a day here or there and messing up my days in a row. Prior to going to Cornwall in September I was maybe one or two days shy of a year when I forgot to log in. I think the point here though is, logging in at least plants the seed and makes me think about what I’m going to end up entering in my food diary. Food logging isn’t the worst habit to have, in fact, I am sure that it stops people from further damage (if there is damage).

I was not beer-free the whole month, however, there were a lot less excuses for it. I had beer after the Amsterdam Marathon (where I was a volunteer, not a runner) and I had beer when I went to Brussels to the new Hard Rock Cafe with a couple of friends (one who was here for just 48 hours, purposely to go to HRC).

Running – I wanted to run minimum twice a week and it averages out to that – my mileage was 71KM which is amazingly the most I’ve run all year in a one month period.

It looks like I didn’t mention the gym in my goals and I thought I had – I wanted to go at least 2 times a week in October. I didn’t manage this every week but I went way more in October than I did since I joined my new gym earlier in the year.

November was pretty mental. Like really mental. My brain was playing a lot more tricks on me than usual – basically there is something going on at this very moment that I can not share yet (possibly next week) but it’s something that has had me waxing and waning between self-confidence and self-doubt. The times when I’m not feeling super confident seem to be the times that I’m most vulnerable to eating junk or not going to the gym or not sleeping enough. It’s definitely been a rough month yet I still have some running, cycling and gym under my belt. I’m treading water and it’s going ok but eventually I need to do something else…

I’ve got some other things I want to talk about like my weekend away at the spa hotel and the 15K I did last weekend, but those are for the next post.

What Triggers those Feelings

Posted on 15 October, 2012 by Renée

You know, I think I must still have it in my brain sometimes that I “can’t” do something.

It’s silly actually because I prove time and again I can do things. But when I was young, when I was in school, I was one of “those” kids.

You know, the little ones, that had no strength, that possibly had coke-bottle bottomed glasses, who seemed to trip over their own feet for no reason or just fall over without anything seeming to cause it. That was me.

oh come on you have one of these awkward photos too!

I tried to play sports, I wanted to play and do stuff with others and I’m sure I did, just not organised (of course I played with others, and to this day I’m lucky that I still have some good friends from a long time ago). I wanted to play tennis for example, I thought the kids looked so cool down on the court. Unfortunately something bad happened one day at the tennis courts and it pretty much changed the way I looked at myself (I’m not closed about this subject, but let’s delve into that later).

I remember when I moved to my dad’s and went to school in Amarillo, Texas, I wanted to be a pom pom girl (yes. me!). I wasn’t good enough for that. I wanted to play basketball. I wasn’t tall enough, fast enough or good enough for that either (and even in tryouts I got a basketball in my face and broken glasses again). I couldn’t do track because I couldn’t run. I was that kid that got picked last for teams.

I moved back to my mom’s in the 8th grade (back in New Mexico) and I started doing ballet and gymnastics through the community center. I was ok at gymnastics but at that point too old for ballet. I swam and I swam ok but I couldn’t seem to do a breast stroke to save my life.

To put it this way, I was always just kind of mediocre.

So I guess I wasn’t meant to be athletic. I was the little girl/ pre-teen with big glasses who liked to read and played in the school orchestra. This back in the day when Nerds weren’t cool.

I remember when I was older I tried to be on my company softball team. I was stuck in the outfield. The night before our first game I got hit in the face with the ball. It wasn’t soft I can tell you that right now. That was the end of my softball career.

So yeah. By the time I was 22 or so I just figured I was not meant to be athletic.

I think this is where I struggle now. I only started running in March 2009. Well I had a brief stint probably in 2000 – 2001 but it didn’t last long. That was way before I knew about playlists and podcasts and Couch to 5K programs. In March 2009 I started, with my hubs, following the C25K program, determined to make it. It really took a lot of effort and I can tell you there were tears along the way.

I remember “running” in Berlin, more like crying and waddling, because my iPod was stuck and I couldn’t know when to run and when to walk. All I wanted to do was complete that day, I wanted it more than anything (amazing how reliant we are on these little machines). Eventually we worked it out and just re-did that day the next day.

I spent a long time constantly comparing my own progression with others. So-and-so was already running a Half Marathon, why can’t I even do 10K? So-and-so ran a 5K in 25 minutes, I can’t even make it in 40, what’s wrong with me. I’m so NOT an athlete!

After I hurt my knee and worked hard to recover I decided no more comparing. It worked for a while. I’d say for the most part I am not comparing to others (though it does still get to me every once in a while when others are running faster than me, but they are NOT me, we are different). But now it feels a bit like I’m comparing myself to, well, ME.

On Tuesday last week I was all ready for my run, the run after the 15K I just did for the heck of it the Sunday before. I’ve been bringing my stuff to work and then changing either at the train station (in the loos) or in the train itself (in the loo) and making sure I fuel up properly before I arrive home. Hubs will then pick me up and we’ll go down to the park (like 500m away) and do at least 5K. It’s kind of hilly so good conditioning and training for the Zevenheuvelenloop we are doing next month.

It’s no secret (I joke about it) that I am a 44 year old woman with an 80 year old bladder. This is not good my friends. This bladder doesn’t like running and jumping (exact reason I didn’t do the jumpsport class at Fitbloggin) and I’m not going to pretend that I don’t regularly wear some sort of protection “in case”. It’s also no secret or surprise that runners in general have bladder or other factory issues (thanks Jeebus I don’t have the 2nd problem) and it wouldn’t be the first time you ever heard of someone peeing themselves. It’s just, well, Tuesday I couldn’t even make it through 3 KM without doing just that.

Yep. That’s right. Bladder Fail.

And how embarrassing. It would have been fine had I not been wearing a pink skirt that, uh, pretty much showed what just happened. No, you can not pass that off as sweat, ladies.

So freaking annoying as well. I was so annoyed at myself, at my body! Why won’t my body just do NORMAL things? (no, do not tell me that this is normal, oK? yes, it’s a normal function but it was uninvited at that time thankyouverymuch)

So irritating. I ate that day and planned dinner according to that run. I needed that minimum 5K. I needed it. Why did my body fail me? Why do I work so hard and for what?

So now maybe you understand. I honestly felt defeated. By myself. But it’s ok, I know it’s not the end of the world and it doesn’t mean I’m a failure.

I’m not a failure.

I am fabulous.

I am an athlete. I’m just an athlete who needs to do kegels more regularly.

What an Odd Week

Posted on 7 October, 2012 by Renée

This week was so strange. Good and bad it was just really all over the place. Most of the stress and “bad” came from work – I can’t say too much about it but I’ve gone through probably the hardest thing I’ve had to go through so far in my career, besides when I was made redundant and sent home only to not find work for 6 months. I have been a people manager for a little over 3 years and I’ve definitely learned a lot from the experience, so I guess what happened this week was just another thing to tick off my list.

Since I started off the month with goals, the bad was compensated with good – on Monday I went to the gym (this wasn’t even the most stressful day) and it helped me tremendously to have a release – the pain in my neck and shoulders from the tension was beyond anything I’d felt before and for a short period, it was gone.

Tuesday was the “worst” day. I was all over the place mentally. I just didn’t focus well at all (and I found out later that this had a big effect on my work) because I knew I had to handle something major. By the time I got home, luckily the hubs had made dinner and I was able to put together my Wednesday blog post (see? I’m trying!).

Wednesday was aftermath day at work. It felt so slow and I was quite discombobulated again. I was tired and stressed and knew I had to just make it through the day. Once it was over with I left the office with my gym bag again, this time with my running gear inside. I changed at the station and hopped on a train home. Hubs sent me a message “I don’t think you’ll want to run, it’s raining.” I sent one back “please bring me my pink Nike jacket and my black cap, rain won’t hurt me.” And so he did. When I arrived it was in fact raining but I really needed that run. I ran more than I’d planned (5K), 7.5KM in total and the rain felt so invigorating! Call me crazy but rain running is just so refreshing and as long as there is no lightening and I’m properly dressed then bring on the precipitation!

On Thursday I worked from home. I needed to do complete my team’s performance evals and with everything going on in the office I had to have some time on my own to do this. First thing I found out in the morning was that something I *didn’t* complete on Tuesday morning caused a HUGE problem and delay with our financial year-end close. I know it’s ok to make mistakes, but I remember bursting into tears thinking “How could I be so stupid!???” I am glad that 1) my boss wasn’t cross with me for it and 2) it was solvable and didn’t have an impact on the actual close itself. But still. I hate that I let stress get the better of me and that it caused a huge issue. I worked quite hard on the reviews, but didn’t eat properly and then ended up eating stuff I wouldn’t normally have and consuming way too many non value added calories.

Friday was another day of fun. All those reviews I wrote? Now it was time to deliver. I admit that this is not my favourite part of the job, although some go very well and it’s good to have a dialogue, the ones that don’t go well are too close to confrontation and defensiveness. The thing is, I know it helps me grow, each time I get through it, it’s just, well, hard. I had my gym bag and I went again to the gym after work. It felt very good once again to get rid of some stress.

On Saturday I finally got some seriously needed sleep and eventually I went into town, alone, to attempt to go shopping. One thing I really would like is to stop looking like such a raggamuffin all the time. I just don’t like shopping, I do it terribly alone and I end up being really frustrated about the whole thing. I don’t understand sizing or styles at all. I don’t think that we as curvy girls should be stuck with the trends of the non-curvy girls. I ranted a bit about it:

I felt a bit better when the responses came in, especially that others know how this feels and that it has an emotional impact. I did end up with a few things and I may give it another shot next weekend. We’ll see. I want to say though, I don’t normally have a lot of hate for my body anymore, I HAVE come a long way from that, but seriously, I wish I could just have a better experience and I don’t think that any store out there will be catering to my body type, at least not a shop I can afford (and, I am sorry, but I don’t want to shop at the Fat City type shops. I spent years and years in those clothes and I feel like I deserve to have more choice right now – for those of you in North America, you have so much more choice; we have like 3 shops and that’s it!)

Today again I was able to sleep in, yay! I love it when I get to sleep on the weekends, it really makes up for the 6 hours per night I get during the week! I decided at 12 I was going for a run, and in true “It’s Me vs. Me” fashion it took me forever to finally get everything together to go and do it (2 hours):

Because we all know that a 30 minute run actually takes about 3 hours once you talk yourself into, change, check twitter, retalk yourself into it, strap on your electronics, check twitter, fill your water bottle, warmup, run, cooldown, check twitter, pass out, stretch, check twitter, shower and change.

(go see Thea if you haven’t yet, she is über-cool)

At 2pm I left with about 10KM in mind. It was a glorious day with the exception of two girls in a bus at the bus stop staring at me while I was getting sattelite on my Garmin and then basically sticking their tongue out at me when the bus finally departed, I felt good. (But really, WTAF was their problem??? No idea!) I wanted to run along the dyke and the farmland near my apartment and then go up to Velp (a couple KM away) near my old gym, then loop back around to my house (which is about 3.5KM from the gym). Somehow or another I took the wrong bike path which didn’t lead me to Velp at all… and I noticed I was already almost at 7KM so it was going to be at least 14KM total at that point (since, well, I’d have to turn around and go back). But the sun was shining and my legs felt great and breathing was good. The views were spectacular and I couldn’t help but just smile. I walked 1 kilometer at 7KM to take a few pics and drink some of my Fitmixer (which is amazing stuff you guys, and let me tell you I’m not getting anything for saying that and once mine is finished, it’s finished… I only have the sample given to me at Fitbloggin and I won’t be able to get any more here as they don’t ship internationally) before I headed back again. So basically my run was this:

1 KM walking / warm-up
6 KM running
1 KM walking
6 KM running
1 KM walking / cool down

I could have gone on with my energy level the way it was but my feet were actually starting to hurt (I think I need different socks) so it was good that I arrived home when I did.

It was my turn to cook dinner, so while I was doing that I did three lunches up in the oven (post on Weds) and started making the enchiladas I promised the hubs. Somewhere around 45 minutes into cooking, my stomach really started bothering me. I posted on twitter and was reminded about chocolate milk. Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of milk products ever in the house, but I did have Turkish Yoghurt so decided to try that. It did help a wee bit and then with dinner it eventually calmed down.

At the risk of making this post even longer, I’ll just say that food was all over the place this week. I’m not sure why it seems harder to keep it under control compared to a couple months ago, but I just need to keep working at it. It is my goal to log every day and close out my food journal daily at MFP, even if I’m over in numbers, just to that I’m accountable and I did accomplish that this week but look at this:

Mind you the 1st is wrong, I’ve no idea why that happened -

Monday was total 1573 with 364 cals burned from exercise

Basically my goal for each day should be 1440 calories. This can go up if I work out so, fair enough, some days are higher. But some days are just really high, regardless. I want to fix that. I eat when I’m hungry so I tend to eat exercise cals (at least some) but this week has just been, well, a bit outrageous. Time to fix that.

So yeah, stress, food, exercise, a lot happened but a lot still needs to be done. Let’s see what the new week brings!

How was your week? Do you like to run in the rain? Do you eat your exercise calories or activity points?

{run} {laugh} {eat pie}

amazing what changes when you start to run

Tag Archives: Running