I Didn’t Do Anything this Weekend, and #30summerdays Photo Challenge (days 2-8)

Except for running and getting coffee, I didn’t leave the house all weekend, and it was the most amazing weekend ever.
Every now and then I need a few days of doing nothing for a while. Sure, it sounds like a waste of time, I could have gone on a trip or to the park or at least do some shopping. But it wasn’t a waste at all.

 
It seems like life responsibilities always take away from the fun things we want to do, although they aren’t one bit less important, like playing with the kids, cooking, baking, taking naps, and getting home pedicures and manicures for me and my little girl.

 
I got a couple of good long runs in, so I was relaxed and happy. I am aware of the fact that I wouldn’t have been the most pleasant person to stay home with, without getting my running done.

 
#30summerdays Photo Challenge: Day 2 through 8

 
I’m really enjoying doing the #30summerdays photo challenge.
I’m not trying to take particularly pretty or interesting pictures. The goal for me doing this challenge is to take more pictures of my life and share them with you. I also love randomly looking through my phone pics a while later and remembering all the simple moments, when they become good memories they don’t seem so simple anymore.

 
Day 1 is here

 
Day 2: Monday, ugh! What’s keeping you going today?
Quite obvious, but coffee gets me going every day. 2 cups before I go work out, and another one in shake form after my workout, that keeps me awake all day.


 
Day 3: Who made you smile today?
My little girl, she’s such a source of smiling/laughter in my life.
We were watching my oldest during his swim lesson and she wanted to go in the pool, so she was crying. Eventually I started taking pictures of us to distract her, and she was a happy girl again.


 
Day 4: Look up. What do you see?
I love flying and I work for an airline. When I think of the sky, I think of planes. And I get to see them often too, right over my head!
This picture is from a past vacation to St. Marteen in the Caribbean, where the airport is right by the beach and they fly literally right above your head, quite an experience.


 
Day 5: #TBT Share a photo from a past summer trip!
Our first and last family trip to Uruguay, where I grew up. I wish I could go more often to visit family and friends, and for my kids to get a stronger sense of the culture I grew up in.


 
Day 6: National Doughnut Day! Snap a pic celebrating! Or, what did you have instead?!
We don’t eat a lot of doughnuts in Israel, but croissants and all kinds of sweet baked goods are one of my favorite treats.


 
Day 7: Saturday! What are you up to?
Family time and running!


 
Day 8: Time to relax before the start of the week. What does relaxing look like to you?
Long overdue pedicure and a funny movie while the kids took a nap, so relaxing!


 

Do you enjoy doing challenges? Which kind of challenge is your favorite: fitness, pictures, etc?

 

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Being Confident in Running

It’s easy for me to lose my confidence in running. An uncomfortable run or a slower pace is all it takes for me to doubt how far I’ve come. Doing a really fast speed that made me feel proud a few days ago, becomes meaningless after an achy run.

 
I try to not think about running soon after a difficult run, and eventually when I think about my training with a cooler head, I pretty much know where I stand.
I think I can figure out where I stand training wise, I know what to expect when I go to a race, I know what speed I’ll be able to pull when I do speed work. Taking the bad runs as something that happens, and those really too good runs as something that happen as well, there’s a balance, a happy medium, a pace I can hold for 10K and a pace I can hold for 1K, that’s just the way it works.

 


 
I ran 39K/24.2M this weekend, and it was great. 25K/15.5M on Friday, and 14K/8.7M this morning.

 



 
I follow a training plan because I enjoy the number’s game, and because my mind works like that, it needs to know what to do, it needs to plan in advance how far I’ll be running and at what pace. Sometimes I want to forget about racing and even about getting faster, I want to run because I like it, without paying attention who passes me on my route and who I pass. Running is fun, healthy, and it makes me happy.

 

Do you follow a running training plan? If yes, is it to run longer/faster/improve in any other way?

 

Random Thoughts from the Last 10 Minutes

1) I wish I was a better cook and baker: I know I’m not great in the kitchen, but it just took me over 3 hours to make 3 simple cakes.. The kitchen counter is a mess, so let’s say it will be another hour before I’m done. How do some people host dinner parties, I’ll never know.

 


 
2) I can’t believe my son is 6 years old: My little boy is turning 6 tomorrow, how can that be? It seems not long ago we came back home with him from the hospital. Time is a weird concept.

 
3) Races are awesome: I thought I was done with racing until next season (October), and then a friend sends me a message today asking if I’m in for a night race on June 12th… and I said yes. Now I’m thinking of the training runs I want to do and I’m all happy inside.

 


 
4) I love reading blogs: Most nights after the kids go to sleep I sit on my computer and read blogs, the perfect way to unwind and just enjoy what I’m reading. I hardly remember when was the last time I read a book, and I don’t miss it.

 


 
5) I’d be fine with every date being a coffee date: Every time my husband or a friend asks me what I want to do when we meet, I think of talking over coffee. There’s something so perfect about that combination. But I don’t want to seem so uncool so sometimes I just say other things, like going to a bar or a movie..

 


 
6) My left arch hurts and I wonder if it’s because of my running shoes: I seem to get a bit of a soreness every time I run in my Brooks Pure Flows 2. This doesn’t happen with my Mizunos or even my Brooks Pure Cadence 2. I need to pay more attention and figure out what is causing this.

 


 
7) I need new work shirts: Seriously, since spring started, every night I get my clothes ready for the next day, I can’t find any nice short sleeve shirts I want to wear. I stand there for 5 minutes trying to figure it out, and in the end choose to wear a dress. Not that I don’t like shopping, but I can’t find the time to do it.

 

 
About running, after Tuesday’s easy 10K, I did another easy 10K on Wednesday, and a fartlek run on the treadmill today, first run with speed after last weekend’s race. 3 x 10 minute intervals at pace Min/KM: 04:50, 04:35, 04:20 (Min/Mile: 07:47, 07:22, 07:00). With warm up and easy breaks, I ran 45 minutes. It was a hard run only because it was too hot in the gym, it really made me want to be outside.

 

Do you run by time or distance on your runs?

I go by distance and pace outside, and by time and speed on the treadmill.

Would you rather cook a meal or bake?

I prefer baking, and I enjoy it when I do it stress free. If I’m baking with a deadline then I get stressed of messing things up.

 

Sticky Independence

Cold weather and I are bitter enemies. Even here in Israel, there were some mornings that the thought of running outside made me want to quit running altogether.
But now spring is here, and it got warm really fast.
I went for a run at 06:00 in the morning, with 25C/77F when I started. Humid and sticky.

 


 
It was an easy pace run so I wasn’t making a lot of effort, but still finished my run sweaty and tired.

 


 


 
It’s a non-working holiday in Israel today, Independence Day, and we spent some time with family. My husband’s parents both come from really big families, so get togethers become huge events with lots of aunts and uncles and nephews and children all over the place, quite fun. I think we were over 50 adults and at least 20 children.

 


 
Sometimes I miss eating meat, but then I think about the bigger picture. My veggies were delicious, and I also had a large piece of some round thick bread, I don’t know exactly what it was, kind of like a pita but four times the size.

 


 
A little break in the week always does wonders to my energy levels, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s morning run and strength training, although my alarm is set for way too early.
It will be another easy run, similar route as today. I’m doing mostly moderate runs this week after Saturday’s race, the only speed work will on Thursday.

 

Do you get to see your extended family often? Is there anything you’ve quit eating?

 

A Darkish Morning, and Random Pictures from Last Week’s Passover Holiday

I drove to my new, recently opened gym early this morning, but when I turned the corner to get into the parking lot, I realized the lights were out. They were having an issue with the electricity, and they had no power. The joys of a recently opened place.

 
Anyway, not something worth getting annoyed over, stuff happens. I’m sure it was a million times more frustrating for them than for me.

 
I figured I might as well skip today’s workout and take a rest day, but then I was already in my running clothes, and then I remembered we runners are so cool and easygoing, we don’t need anything to go running except our running shoes, so why not just run outside.

 
So I drove back home, because there’s one more thing we need, our GPS watch. I got my Garmin, and went for a nice run outside, not too easy, not too hard: 10.5KM/6.5M at 04:54 Min/KM (07:53 Min/Mile).

 
I had to reset my watch the other day because the elevation measure somehow got messed up and it was way off, same long route I usually do, which measures about 30-40 meters elevation gain throughout the whole run, was suddenly giving me 300 meters elevation gain.

 
Now it seems to be working fine, but I can’t find the feature for 1-second recording instead of smart recording (every few seconds), so I’m not getting an accurate measure at any given second, which sucks.

 

 
Last week we celebrated Passover, and we had a few days off from work/school.
We had a great time with our family, quantity and quality time, always needed!
I know I have the most amazing and perfect kids in the whole world, but when I spend a lot of time with them, I discovered new ways in which they are perfect and I didn’t even know it.

 
A few random pictures from last week:

 
Picking up flowers, it was permitted of course:

 


 
Family bike ride, or cross training. The pictures don’t do justice to how hard carrying the buggy was:

 


 
Around Tel Aviv:

 



 
Art expo:

 


 
Random lunch, eating matzah too:

 


 
Some adult time in the evening:

 


 
Retail therapy for our house, I have neglected it, my budget goes to running gear:

 


 
I am so happy they opened this store in Israel. Now there’s officially no more space in my kids’ closets:

 


 
Grocery shopping, the never ending chore. I actually enjoy this store, it’s a health market where I buy a lot of the stuff I eat:

 


 
At the beach:

 


 

What is the weirdest reason why you had to miss a workout?