Beer in Bruges, Chocolate Truffles in Brussels

Friday morning 4:45am: Our alarm goes off. We give it the smack down. We’ll catch the next train.

5:45am: Alarm goes off. Mumble and roll over.

5:50am: So are we going to Belgium, or spending another day in Amsterdam? If we’re going, then we have to make a move now...

Yes, we decide we’re going for it.

7:15am: Board train to Antwerp, where we’ll connect to Bruges.....

11:30am: Leave our bags in a train station locker. Rent bikes again. You can see the look of tired on my face.

This little girl was so cute, I couldn't resist taking a picture. 

The overprotective American mom in me thinks, where are the helmets? Eek.

Tool around the city for a couple hours. Eat the most delicious waffle with ice cream and hot fudge in a cafe. Chase it with fries from a street vendor a little later.

Bruges was once a capital city for European trade during medieval times. Now it's a cute, quaint little city catering to tourists. It would have been nice to slow down the pace and spend the night, but he saw most of the highlights.

Pick up some souvenirs. Talked with the shop owner who makes all this incredible lace by hand.

Ride closer to the coast to see the windmills.

4:00pm: Tour the De Halve Mann Brewery

We thought it was going to be your typical brewery tour. They talked more about the brewery's history, rather than the generic beer making process itself, which made it more interesting.

Tasting the Brugse Zot. I'm normally not a beer drinker, but this was really tasty.

After the beer break, it was time to get moving again. We rode our bikes back to the train station, picked up our bags and boarded a train to Brussles.

7:15pm: Arrive in Brussels

The Mannekin Pis Apparently, this little guy is a famous landmark.

We window shopped all the candy stores. We found a great one where the salesperson let us taste-test to our hearts' content. We assmebled this nice little box from their truffle buffet (!). See the top two on the right an left...Biscoff truffles, but with a lighter, praline-like filling.

9:30pm: Had a lovely, traditional dinner. Anything with stew or gravy in the decription normally scares me, but this was perfect. Not too heavy, very flavorful, and full of falling-off-the-bone meat. Mr.B had beef, and I had rabbit. Our sauces tasted very simmilar, except mine had raisins and chunks of potato in it, and his was served with fries on the side. I didn't think to take a picture until we were done eating.

11:00pm: Stopped in a pub for a nightcap. I skipped the beer and went for a cappucino. They topped it with shaved chocolate and an extra square on the side. This was a no chocolate left behind mission.

6:30am: Check out of the hotel.

These tennis-ball sized muffins and 10oz drinks cost us 12.50 euro, which translated to approximately a $20 USD charge on our Mastercard. Unfortunately, this is one of the reasons we don't do these oversees trips as often as we'd like. It adds up fast!

7:30am: Catch another train. At first we thought we thought we were getting on the B Train by mistake. Luckily took us to Brussels International for our flight home, not the Bronx :)

10am: Board flight and pass out until we arrive in NY.

Quick Eurotrip

Last week was a light mileage week (and consequently, the start of this week as I was recovering)

My workouts looked like this:

Sunday: 8mi run (1:04:44, 8:05/mi)
Monday: 9mi run (1:15:02, 8:20/mi)
Tuesday: 4mi run in the rain (32:53, 8:11/mi) moved inside for 2.5mi treadmill (@7.0, 1% incline) 15 mins elliptical
Total: 23.5 miles run, 15 xt

I have a good reason though, so let's get to the good stuff. We decided to use the last few days of Mr. Blondie’s vacation to take a quick trip.

It was a whirlwind time. We were on a mission to cover as much ground as possible.

Originally we’d talked about doing something tropical. However as the date got closer, I couldn’t shake the desire to do something more adventurous. On Monday, we surveyed our direct flight options of out of JFK. Amsterdam, Prague, and Brussels all piqued our interest.

Wednesday morning we played the eenie, meenie, miny, moe game. Amsterdam. Yes, Amsterdam it would be.

On our way to the airport, we stopped at Barnes & Noble to pick up a travel guide. Rick Steves' did us well in Spain last year, we were counting on him to guide us again this time.

We met up with my inlaws in NY to drop Emily off, then boarded a 4pm flight out of JFK to Amsterdam.

We cracked open the guide book and started plotting our plan of attack on the flight. The travel guide also included info about Belgium. After reading it was only a 3 hour train trip to Brussels, and another 45 minutes to Bruges, we’d decided to do them all.

We landed at 6am Thursday morning (Amsterdam time), and the race was on!

7:45am: Walk to a small hotel recommended by the book. No one is there yet. Wait until someone rolls in around 8. Check in.

9:00am: Rent bicycles. You’re not really experiencing the city unless you do it by bicycle, so says Rick.

10:00am: After many wrong turns, navigate our way to the Van Gogh museum. Great time of year to go, no line or crowds.

1pm: Sit down at a café to have lunch. Spend an exorbitant amount to have tasty, but euro-tiny, baguette sandwiches and espressos. Thank you weak dollar.

2pm: Tour the floating Flower Market. Marvel over the million different varieties of tulips and seeds.

4pm: Visit the Anne Frank House.

I thought this was absolutely fascinating. Seeing the conditions they lived in, along with other artifacts from the holocaust up close….it’s even more mind blowing that something like this took place.

6pm: Canal boat tour around the city.

8pm: Fulfill our curiosity and quickly stroll through the Red Light district.

9pm: Dinner at Japanese Pancake World. Not classic Dutch cuisine, but still something new to us.

Could've used those chopstick to prop my eyelids open

11pm: Pass out in bed

Our alarms would be going off again very shortly……

1st Race of my 31st Year

So I decided to take advantage of having the hubby around more than usual by running a 5k for fun this month. If you were gifted with an extra few hours to yourself, that’s what you’d chose to do right?

Naturally.

But then my competitive side took over, and it turned into me running two 10k races on back to back weekends.

Naturally.

Anyway, this week’s race left me feeling more satisfied than last week, and I’m glad I came out for it. I didn’t place, or even get a PR, yet I’m still very pleased with how it went.

I ran smart (well, smarter than usual anyway) and finished feeling STRONG. Totally the opposite of last week race, when I thought I was going to drop after finishing.

The Charles Harris Run is a popular 10K in Atlanta. It’s a point-to-point race with an overall net-downhill, so and draws a lot of runners looking to establish a good seed-time for the Peachtree Road Race.

Source

The set-up is a little different for this one, as you park at the finish line and they shuttle you to the start. I got there a little later than I’d hoped, and only had time for a quick 2 laps around the school track before the race started. The temp was just creeping up past 40 degrees at this point, so at least I was able to defrost my blood a little bit.

I was able to give a quick hello to Kristy and Jaime as everyone was milling around before the start. Then I found Lee, and settled in next to her at the starting line.

I love how the blogging community has turned into a real life one now. It’s added incentive to show up when you know you’re going to have familiar faces there to greet you.

We chatted for a few minutes as I went through my standard pre-race dance of tightening my shoelaces and adjusting my ipod a billion times. Then we were off!

I guess we were a little farther back then I thought because it took few seconds to get moving, and then there was a bunch of bobbing and weaving to be done for the first half mile or so. Despite what felt like a slow start, it was actually a perfect first split, 6:49.

Source

Around mile 4, I caught up to Kristy, who was already blazing the way to a new PR for herself. I tried to utter hi, but was sucking too much wind to get anything out. Instead I just spooked her by tapping her on the shoulder and giving a thumbs-up.

We had been mostly going up and down rolling hills to this point, and I was able to maintain a relatively even pace for those. Then just when you need it, mile 5 has a nice, long downhill for you. Still feeling like I had fuel in the tank, I was really able to take advantage of it.

As you turn the corner at the bottom of that hill, you’re met with two more small uphills. They look innocent enough on the elevation map, but they make you dig deep one last time before the finish.

I was so focused on the finish line, but about 40 feet before we crossed, all of a sudden I was like “Hey a ponytail!” I realized there was a girl just a few steps in front of me and I gave it all I had to pass her, and finish with an official time of 42:54.

After taking in a few swigs of water I headed out and ran an additional 5 miles for a cool down. I wanted to hit 35 miles for the week.

You can’t be in racing shape year round, and you’re just asking for a world of problems if you try to tell yourself otherwise. I feel satisfied with this performance, and that I ran it to the best of my current ability. This was just what I needed to get the some competitiveness out of my system, so I can focus on basebuilding until August when official marathontraining starts. At the ripe old age of 31, I hope to have some more PR’s ahead.

How do you define a successful race?

I was happy to finish feeling strong, but I have to give a shout-out to Lee, Kristy, and Jaime who all rocked it with sizeable PR’s J

Stats:
Official time: 42:54
Pace: 6:55/mi
Overall: 138/948
Gender: 27/367
AG: 7/59

Coincidence (10K Race Recap)

My official finish time for the race I ran on Saturday was 43:54. That’s EXACTLY the same finish time of my New Year’s Day race. Crazy right? Especially considering my mile splits were all over the place again.

Well, before I get to that, let’s backup a minute.  Run the Reagan is actually a festival of races. There’s a 5K, 10K, and half marathon to choose from. I wanted to run this half marathon last year, but it just didn’t fit with the husband’s schedule.

Really my only goal for the year is this, and I don't have intentions of doing much else.

 Hopefully having a schedule free of races will quell my desire to push the pace on every.single.run. I know it's counter productive, and yet I can't resist.

But the Mr. happens to be on vacation this month.  It’s not often I get a Saturday morning to myself, so  I decided take advantage of the opportunity. Just one little race couldn't hurt....

With the mileage I’ve been running, I would have been fine physically to run the half marathon this year, but psychologically, I just wasn't feeling it.  In fact, the 10k was more distance than I felt like tackling.

This looked to be a decent sized event, and a short, sweet 5k sounded good. I haven’t raced one on my own since last September, so that’s what I registered to run.

As I was figuring out the race logistics early last week, I realized the 5k wasn’t scheduled to start until 11:00! Somehow I’d overlooked that important detail. Plus, the venue was an hour drive each way. I wanted to have a morning to myself, but I didn’t want to kill half the day being away from home. I emailed the race director and he was kind enough to switch my registration to the 10K which started at 9:15.

Like I mentioned before, I was excited for the 5k. The 10k required a lot of pep talk to get me out the door. It was forecasted to be a rainy weekend, so the night before I gave myself an “out”. If it was raining when I woke up I wasn’t going to go.

Nope the weather was perfect. Low 50’s and overcast. I got suited up, grabbed my waffles with peanut butter, and shuffled out the door.

My plan was to go out at 7:05 for the first mile, then 7:00 for the 2^nd and 3^rd, then give it everything I had for the final 3.

Nope that didn't happen. U-G-L-Y.

The course was a straight out-and-back. The first half of the course was slightly downhill, meaning we had a climb back to the finish line. Knowing this, I consoled myself the fast start was ok, and it was good to have the time in the bank for the way back.

I was passed by one woman around mile 2 and another one shortly after the turn-around.

Watching my pace slowly creep up was a big confidence crusher.  I should really retire the Garmin when I race. My best races seem to be the ones where I didn’t have it. However, I had both the women who had passed me locked in my cross-hairs. They were my motivation to keep going.

Around mile 4, I passed the first woman who had passed me. She didn’t put up a fight. I passed the second woman in the last half mile. We played leap frog for a bit, but I was able to open up a 10 second gap on her by the end.

Source

Official time 43:54. The same time I ran on New Year’s Day after staying up past midnight drinking champagne.

So I went from not caring about my 10k time and doing it for fun, to feeling like I should’ve done better and wanting a do-over. I’m now signed up to run another local 10K this Saturday in a second attempt at a better race.

That’s the problem with having Type A personality. Your greatest nemesis is yourself.

I was still quite happy to leave with a new little trinket though.

Stats:
Chip time: 43:54
Pace: 7:04/mi
Overall: 26/711
Gender: 3/367
AG: 1/49

One Big Party

Just when you think you’re done with the holiday season, February rolls around. In our house that means a month long party.

The first half of this month it’s been all about Emily’s 3rd birthday. First it was her party with family in NY.

Then we celebrated her birthday at home during the week, before going to NJ to celebrate with my side of the family.

Little does she realize Valentine’s Day is not all about her as well. Yet another party at school with balloons and goodies.

I was hoping to do a lot of running while I was in NJ since I’d have some very reliable babysitters on hand. I did get to run, although not the 10+ milers I was dreaming about.

When we first arrived on Thursday, my mom took us to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Yeah, at this point I was still dreaming big that I’d run some of that off.

Then we walked to a nearby kiddie salon for her first haircut. I'd been putting it off since I didn't know where to take her in Atlanta.

Just a little off the back please.

I started off Friday morning with an 8 mile run. It was 26 degrees when I stepped outside. Brrr, I’d forgotten what real cold felt like.

Then we took Emily to an indoor kid’s play-place to burn off some energy.

And shopped for her party afterwards, and put together party favors.

Cupcakes, in a cup. Simple idea that ended up being a hit.

Between preparing appetizers and decorating the house on Saturday morning, I squeezed in a quick hour on the treadmill. I covered a little over 7 miles doing a mix of sprints and incline changes. We had gotten snow Friday night, and the streets weren't clear enough to go outside yet.

About 30 friends and family members came to her "Princess Party"

We caught an early flight back to Atlanta on Sunday morning.

Jackpot. Love when this happens.

We were all pooped after the previous day's activities, but I couldn't pass up the relatively balmier 40 degree weather and ran another 8 miles around our neighborhood.

The only solid New Year’s Resolution I made for 2012 was to keep track of my mileage. While I can look back in the blog to see snapshots of the workouts I was doing at different periods in time, I’ve never tracked my workouts consistently in any format.

It’s not high tech but it works.

January's Stats: 132.8 miles run and 2.5 hours of cross training

February to date: 92.2 miles, 2 hours cross training

I think these totals look good, even without previous year's numbers to compare. I feel like I'm running a lot, in a good way, even though I’m not training for anything specific at the moment. I love running in chilly weather, so I enjoy the time outside.

How much cake I have consumed/intend to consume is usually a driving factor in how I plan workouts these days. I'm only partially kidding when I say that. My birthday is coming up in a few days as well. Gotta offset that too……..

Do you have a mileage goal that you aim for each month when you're in "maintenance mode"?

Do you do big birthdays or prefer to keep them private?

I love throwing big parties for other people, but I don’t like a whole lot of attention on myself when it’s my turn.