So much for regular blogging! (September Roundup)

Hey! So… my intention to blog more regularly was strong but not strong enough! Lots going on, so I’ll try to recap a bit:

School

So, SURPRISE, school is pretty hard. I still don’t quite have my groove yet. I haven’t really been to school since I graduated from Portland Community College in May of 1994. I just don’t know how to study efficiently yet. AND… studying in another language is just as hard as I thought it would be. I keep telling myself to feel the fear and do it anyway! I have also been reframing my words… so if I say “I hope I pass my exams” or “I really hope I’m going to remember all this stuff” or “I hope I’m going to be good at this” I change it to:

I am totally going to pass my exams.
I am going to learn this and remember it.
I am really going to be good at this!

So mostly I’ve done anatomy and physiology but also we’ve had two hands-on lessons. I think I just need a little bit more time to feel more comfortable and confident about everything. After I finally catch up the blog I’ll be sorting out how I’m going to tackle my next batch of reading and studying.

Work

I was waiting to hear if I got the job I applied for and … I GOT IT! and while this post is about September, I actually officially started on the 1st of October. It all went pretty fast once they actually made the decision. And I can tell you… so far I am so happy! What a huge change. From being thrown in the deep end with no training and hostility all around me to being welcomed, trained, and even already praised for picking up on some fairly important and urgent issues. Seriously, what a relief! This has made it a wee bit harder with school starting and then starting a new job but I can handle it. I don’t however have a new contract and I won’t actually know if I get a new one until probably March or April but that is also ok because I’m working on Plan B which will at some point turn into Plan A!

Running

In my last 4 weeks of preparation for the Köln Marathon, I ran 120 kilometers and participated in 3 10 English Mile races! The first one I blogged about a tiny bit on my last post (Tilburg 10 Miles), the 2nd one was my hometown race, the Arnhem Bridge To Bridge (Run to Remember Freedom) – I needed to do more than 10 miles so before actually going to the race, I took the train out to Rheden and ran 10 kilometers to Arnhem Central Station where I met up with the hubs (He ran from station Duiven, 19KM). And this was my best year yet at B2B! 2 minutes off my PR and my beloved SocialMile was in full force cheering us on. At the end I picked up the flag and crossed the finish line like a boss!

I love running this race because it IS local – this means that many of my running friends from Arnhem and Nijmegen are participating so it’s just great fun. And of course one of my running besties, Babette, was there as well and totally smashed her own PR!(which was not surprising due to her training for Berlin!)

After the Bridge To Bridge, the next Sunday we were off to Amsterdam again to run the Dam tot Damloop. And actually this was my absolute BEST 10 Mile race ever. I actually had just *under* 6:00/km as an average pace. No idea how, but I was just fit and ready to run I guess! Amsterdam is SUPER flat though, so that helps for sure. This time we were with Meeus where I was able to catch up with Udjen, Edwin, Eva and Joanna.

after these three races I had another really good few sessions and was feeling like maybe the marathon could be had for under the 5 hours but that’s another blog post…

Old gym,new gym

Even though I LOVED the gym I was going to, I decided it was time to scale back a bit. It was costing me EUR42 a month and I wasn’t even using half of the actual facilities and classes, so i decided to change to a cheaper, no frills gym, conveniently located in the building across from where I work. The difference is massive… in price and quality. EUR11 per month if I go between 7am and 5pm (and available all day Sat/Sun). It’s fine; the machines are clean, there are a lot of them and they all pretty much work! If I want to take classes I have to pay extra, but I’m not sure that I ever really will. Also, showers cost 50 cents for 3 minutes! But it’s fine. It’s safe and clean. There are quite a few meatheads there but I don’t really care. I just put on my headphones and do my thing and it’s all good. I’ve been twice so far (right before 5pm) and what I’d really like to do, once I get my work rhythm, is go at 7am and get it done for the day! This way I have more time to study in the evenings. That’s the plan anyway.

Coming up
Recap of Dublin (I know it’s very overdue!)
Recap of Cologne

and… soon we are off to Lisbon again, this time for the Rock n Roll Marathon (remember? I did the half two years ago!)

By the way, I have the feeling I’m talking to myself, so I’m basically going to take the pressure off and just blog when I can. What’s nice is having a record of the things I’ve done, am doing and am accomplishing. Life gets hectic and sometimes we forget to remember the details. So really, these are just my life’s details. I would have loved for the blog to be something engaging or inspiring and I think it’s run it’s course, but I will continue posting and just not worry anymore if I’m doing it “right” or not. If I’m NOT talking to myself, then I thank you for being here. xx