Extracurricular activities

You might think by reading this blog that all I ever do is run. And that when I don't run, I think about running. While that might be kinda true, it's not the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I have rest days from running when I lift weights at the gym. And then I have rest days from these rest days, to rest from all that heavy lifting.

I almost passed out from trying to lift 5 kg at the shoulder machine today. That's a whopping 2,5 kg per shoulder. I need that rest.

On my real rest days I do other things, like baking. Even though I love baking, it's not something I do often, but for me Christmas is all about the baking and the stuffing your face with cookies. And if you've made too many cookies (can it ever be too many?), you try to stuff said cookies down your loved ones' throats, because why should you be the only one with an expanding waistline? If Christmas sounds a lot like a food orgy, that's because it is.

Now I'm waiting for Google to send a lot of the wrong kind of traffic my way, just because I wrote the word ”orgy”. 

Yesterday was one of the real rest days, and I spent part of it preparing some gingerbread cookie dough. For those of you who've never tried making such cookies, the dough needs to rest at least a few hours, but preferably a whole day, before it's shaped into cookies and baked. I spent the better part of the afternoon today making these. The flat was filled with the smell of cinnamon, cardamom, clove and ginger.

Today was, of course, no rest day. Oh no. It was a triple session day. First, I ran 2 km to the gym in my VFF, because it was ages ago and I thought I needed a reminder of what good running technique feels like. It's a strange sensation, to run on fresh snow in VFF. It's like running on cotton. Only your toes get really cold. At the gym, I joined a class for a 40 minute core session, and then I used the machines for another half hour. Afterwards I ran home. As per usual, I felt more energised after my workout than I had done when I woke up.

Unfortunately, unless I get myself a pair of VFF Lontra, I will have to wait until spring to run in VFF again. The toe pockets that are so useful for the biomechanics of the foot also create a problem: the toes can't warm each other up. It's simply too cold to run in VFF during the winter.