i shouldn't have

my achilles was feeling good.
i ran yesterday.
felt great... for the first 1.5km.
then... not so great.
thought it might be in my head.
turns out it's not.
crap.

fabric fantastic!

a while ago i received this wonderfully fantastic fabric filled package in the mail. it was beautifully packaged by the people at sew, mama, sew (i love them! check out their blog and their store! - feb 08 is quilting month and they are featuring some beautiful and inspiring quilts)

i love me some beautiful fabric and i'm sure others do, too, so i have to share this deliciousness: what colours, what prettiness, what fun!! i can hardly wait to start using them, but for now they are stacked in my bedroom so that my eyes can feast on them whenever i want. seeing these beautiful fabrics in the morning sunlight puts a big smile on my face as i get ready for work... i could just leave them in a pile for months and be perfectly happy... but i am itching to start sewing so i may have to dig into my pile of loveliness :)

tastes good mommy

so this is the BEST spaghetti and meatballs recipe i have ever tasted. it is a regular at our place but this is the first time the monkey has really gotten into eating it :) as you can see, she really enjoyed herself tonight!

i wish i could say that i somehow mixed a little of this and a little of that and came up with this amazing delicacy, but all credit must be given to the 'italian spaghetti sauce with meatballs' recipe on allrecipes.com (which, by the way, is such a great resource for cooking inspiration).

oh my... it is G.O.O.D. the secret is in the oil and the amount of time you cook the sauce. if you are going to try this (and you should!), do not skimp on either one :) the meatballs are really tasty, too. i have been eating this for 4 days straight, and while my lack of freezer space has something to do with this, i also really really really like it.

race planning!!

ok, i'm starting to get excited :) afore mentioned achilles injury seems to be healing swimmingly (ha ha) and i've started planning my race schedule for the year and set my finishing goals. this is highly inspiring to me - i love having a goal to work towards :)

so... my race schedule for 2008! key races for the year are in bold.

1. 12 april - les traine-savates, cheseaux-sur-lausanne - 10.4km

this will be my first time running this race. it looks pretty lovely - through the vineyards and countryside north of lausanne. a good first race of the season and a good practice leading up to my key goal race (see number 2).

2. 26 april - 20km de lausanne - 10km

i know it's called the 20km race but i am running the 10km version :) i would like to try the the 20km version, but it has a pretty steep climb in it and my knees would seriously have issue with that! i have run this 10km race a few times - last year with v! it has a fun atmosphere and i am hoping to reach my goal of a 50 min 10km here!

3. 1 june - frauenlauf - bern - 10km

another first time race for me and it's just for fun. my first all women's race!

4. 29 june - triathlon vallée de joux - sprint-ish distance

this looks like a beautiful triathlon up in the jura that i was planning to do last year but just didn't make it to. will be a wonderful warm up for the 'big one' (see number 5).

5. 12 july - zuri triathlon - olympic distance

my key triathlon for 2008. i have done this triathlon twice before (once at a medium distance and once at olympic distance). actually, mom was there when i did it the first time!! it is a very well run triathlon and is followed by the very inspiring ironman zurich the next day. this is the triathlon where i have set my triathlon goal to break 3 hours. this is a very challenging goal for me - in order for me to be successful, i will need to seriously improve on both my swimming and cycling :) the first step towards reaching an ambitious goal is setting it, i say!!

6. 13 september - triathlon d'aubonne - olympic-ish distance

i did this triathlon 2 years ago and the bike just about killed me :) i'm hoping it will be better this year as i'm getting slightly less pathetic at riding in the mountains...

7. 20 september - run to run carouge - 10km

ok, yes, 10km is my favorite distance to run :) i've run this race twice before, and i got SO close to cracking 50 min both times i'm positive that this year will be a sure thing...

8. 5 october - morat-fribourg - 17km

this one may have to fall by the wayside in lieu of marathon training but we'll see :) i've never done it before and with this being my last year in switzerland, i'm going to try to run this swiss classic.

9. 26 october - lausanne marathon - 42.2km

my first one. it is an out and back course i know pretty well as i've run the half marathon on this course 3 times before (the 'back' portion of the marathon). what scares me is that every time i've finished this half-marathon, my first thought is always - 'i can't imagine turning around and doing that again'. well... i'm gonna do it this year, if i can stay injury free :) i haven't decided if i want to try to do it in 4 hours or if i just want to set finishing as my goal.

also, the first half of this is to be run as part of the phedippidations world wide half marathon. read about it. it's cool. i'll write more about this wonderful event another time, i'm sure.

10. 6 december - course de l'escalade - 4.8km

this was my first official pure running race way back when and it is a hard one to describe. exciting, challenging, so much fun. i finished in just over 24 min last year and am hoping that lining up closer to the front (be on time, christine, be on time!) will help me to break my goal of 23 min this year. yay! i'm excited already :)

so there we go. that's the list. as i write it out, i'm thinking i might be a little overextended leading up the marathon and may have to rethink that.

here's to running, racing, and enjoying life :) now, who's running these races with me???

my belly

so here's the thing. i love triathlon. it's king of a funny thing, really. i am not 'good' at them in the sense that i am normally at the back of the pack when i get to the finish line, i inevitably question my sanity at the beginning of any run section of any triathlon that i've ever done, and it takes a lot of my free time to train so that i can complete one without passing out.

but... i get immense personal satisfaction when i do complete one. when i set the goal (registering to run a triathlon is a rush in and of itself), train for months, feel the blur of excitement on race day, dip my toes in the water before the start, and then push on and push on and push on to the finish line - sometimes strong (those are the ones to remember!), sometimes thinking about how my feet feel like lead weights, but always with this overwhelming feeling of accomplishment. of completing a physical challenge, of showing myself some of what this body is capable of. it is a pure and simple joy. and i really really love it.

plus, you know, the training helps me not weigh 300 pounds.

which brings me to where i am right now. no, not 300 pounds. but i am a little bit heavier than i was a few months ago. add up christmas (i am a sucker for stuffing), a trip to canada (i overdose on all the bad food you can get in NA while i am there - an unfortunate side effect) and a training lapse (christmas busy-ness, a sore knee, and general laziness - training would have gotten in the way of my eating!), and it's amazing how fast you can put on the pounds.

oh well. january is supposed to be diet month, right???

i lost about 25 pounds about 4 years ago after being a little overweight for about 10 years before that. i finally sucked it up and just ate less - exercise was never the problem for me - i've always excercised, it was the food intake that got me. i have been good with not gaining back the weight (well, there was a little spike there when i had a baby in my belly!!!) - when i'm training for a triathlon, half-marathon, etc... and eating reasonably, the weight maintains itself.

only problem is... i haven't been training much (yeah, see above). on the one run i did do when i was in canada over christmas, my knee started hurting. my own fault really, it was a cold day and i was definately not dressed for the weather (v - you were so right - i needed another layer - or 2!!) i had a knee injury last year that seriously hampered my running and so i'm completely paranoid about injuring it again, and so i didn't run again until i got back to switzerland a couple weeks later. my knee was fine during my first run, but then started hurting during the next run and so i adjusted my running form so that my knee didn't hurt. i should know better!!!

i now have an achilles tendon injury, which means (according to my internet search self diagnosis) no weight-bearing activities. theoretically, this means no walking, but it is not injured so badly that it hurts to walk, only if i try to run. so... no running for me. i'm not sure how long but probably a few more weeks. this makes me sad. there is nothing like running for me when i need to clear my head, lighten my mood, calm my mommy nerves.

so when i can't run, it's a bit of a triple whammy for me - i don't get to train for my road races / triathlon, i don't have my go-to coping mechanism, and to top it all off, i tend to gain weight.

this is a long story to say... in order to reverse the gaining weight thing, i've been having to bite the bullet and just eat less :) never fun, but i think it will be effective.

plus... it is maybe a sign that i'm supposed to be swimming more. so, tonight i hit the pool, and it was fun. it really was fun. i did mostly drills - working on my total immersion technique so that some day when i do triathlons i will need to worry about getting kicked and jostling for position within the pack of swimmers rather than needing to worry about them closing the swim course before i finish it! v and i took a total immersion weekend course together when he was here in november, and i have not been diligent enough in putting into practice what we learned. thankfully, it seems like i still remember some of what we were taught by martina in the english ghetto (long story for another time).

plus... knitting seems to be taking on the coping mechanism role. it's also fun and challenging and lets me think or not think depending on what's needed. it will never replace running, though - knitting doesn't burn quite enough calories to allow me to eat quite as much chocolate as i'd like :)

inspiration and popcorn

how much do i want to see this movie?!?
spirit of the marathon

no sign of a release in switzerland as of yet. what are the chances that they will bring it to the nyon film festival.

pass the popcorn please.

there's a pig on that cow's belly!

allison. the monkey. she cracks me up. last night we were reading this book: 'la ferme'. the book has pictures of lovely little farm animals with a short phrase helping to identify the animals. allison likes this book a lot and even more now that she associates the farm with grandma and grandpa.

one of these animals in this book is "le cochon" with the phrase "qui est tout rose?" in our house, this question is always followed by much giggling and snorting (snorting like a pig as opposed to gratuitous snorting) as we discover that it is 'the pig' that is 'all pink'.

last night, however, the pig became infamous. when we were on the page of 'la vache', we saw a lovely picture of a black and white spotted cow with a bright pink udder. allison became very excited and said 'look mommy - there's a pig on that cow's belly!'

oh my. how she makes me laugh.