The Insanity that was April

What a month.  Man.  Am I glad that’s over.  I still have an unfinished post for Week 13, but I figured better to try and get April closed off now and move on.

 

April 1 + 2 and Week 14
Weekend of 1 + 2 did homework, housework, walked and biked (after picking up bike from repair shop due to blown tire on the way home from training Friday night). RoPa Run charity event in the evening 1st April. Ron ran 30KM Sunday and I biked with him.

Week 14 – started walking at lunch (Monday/ Wednesday), started dry needling sessions for the trigger points in my lower back and bum. Weighed in Monday at 77.5KG. Skipped training Monday night due to school priorities, went on Friday night.

 

Saturday was school all day, Ron went to Rotterdam early to pick up our race packets. Right after school I hoofed it  to the train station to get to Rotterdam in time to eat dinner (not too late, due to the race in the morning).

 

Sunday – Rotterdam Marathon!  Ron ran the marathon (as a “training”) and I ran the 1/4 marathon.  This was supposed to be my PR race, the race I was training for with Runiversity but, alas, once again I had to switch priorities and also accept that my body wasn’t quite ready for it.  Had a GREAT time though, my girl Babette and I ran the whole way together and just had FUN!   The marathon started at the same time (different location) so we finished and then spent the rest of the day along different points of the course to cheer on friends and Ron of course.  Most of the Runiversity runners were running the Marathon for the very first time so I was very happy to be there to support.

 

 

 

 

Week 15
Walking at lunch again this week (Monday/Tuesday), started swimming lessons (breaststroke), had dry needling again and had my first appointment with (yet another) Sport Physio.  On Thursday I ran with Gerrit, and on Friday Ineke and I worked on final preparations for our presentation at school Saturday.  Amazingly enough, we got through the presentation without flubbing it all up. One for the books – my first presentation fully in Dutch!

A friend of mine invited me out for drinks Saturday as another friend was visiting from London, so after school and dinner we went out! It was a long time since I’d really been out to a hip and cool bar (where the youngsters hang out of course) and it was SO MUCH FUN.

That meant that Sunday (Easter) was a totally lazy day. Felt good to just sleep in and watch Netflix!  (we don’t do anything for Easter or really any of these types of holidays.  We just like to have the time off and certainly appreciate it.  Not against religious holidays, just not religious!)
Week 16
Easter Monday we had the day off. Ron and I ran together – my first long run of this year, 16KM. Basically we did 13 and then stopped off for coffee, then 3KM home from the café.  I was surprised at how well it actually went.  Happy about this, since I have my first half marathon of the year coming up.

Back to work Tuesday, walk at lunch, swimming in the evening, Wednesday no walk as I had dry needling at lunch and the sport physio after work. Thursday I left work a tiny bit early to get out to Amsterdam to see a former colleague for dinner. Friday got up  early, Ron dropped me off at Gerrit’s to take care of his kitty for the weekend (it was day 1 so I wanted to get there in the morning)  Spent quite some time walking downtown, to the library, a few shops, etc. Then home to study. Last Runiversity training was Friday night – we ended up doing a sort of boot camp session.

 

Saturday was study and run errands.  I wanted to be sure to go to bed early and get enough sleep,  because Sunday I was replacing someone in my RoPa run team for our team practise session.  As I mentioned some time ago, I’m not running on the team, I’m supporting the team during the RoPa run as a massage therapist (and whatever else I’m needed for like making coffee or sandwiches).Sleeping was not meant to be.  I slept horribly and woke up (late I might add) feeling really off. This never happens to me! I couldn’t eat my breakfast and I struggled really with all food.  And still I ran a total of almost 17KM throughout the course of the day.  I do not recommend doing this – I was totally broken for 2 full days afterwards.  Not enough food, not enough water.  Deep respect to my RoPa run team members.  We did one “block” as a training;  for the real thing they do 5 blocks of around 70KM in total.  I am fairly certain I will never do something like this. Personally I found a marathon to be easier!!  At least you keep going!  With the RoPa run everyone takes turns running about 1.5KM and then switching.  One of the hardest things I’ve experienced.

 

Week 17

As I mentioned I was off-grid for two full days after the practise run.  Monday and Tuesday I only worked in the morning and went home at lunch to rest and try to eat something.  No swimming on Tuesday.  By Wednesday I was feeling better and good thing – I had dry needling in the morning (at 8am – nothing like getting needles stuck in your a$$ first thing in the morning).   In the evening I had sports massage (because sometimes we need massage too).  Did some studying in the evening.    No walking at all at work this week since we only had 3 days and 2 of them I’d already gone home at lunch.

Thursday was King’s Day here in the Netherlands so a day off for pretty much everyone (but people working in bars, cafes and restaurants).   I studied and I ran and then we decided we would go ahead and go into town to celebrate a bit.  Actually hit up a few places (avoided the most crowded areas in town – it’s actually craziness in most cities in the Netherlands on this day – EVERYONE is partying), and since I was eating fairly normally again we were able to finally check out the “other”  mexican restaurant in town (there used to be only one and it’s AWFUL), which was pretty good.  Had a couple of beers and saw a few friends in town along the way.

 

Friday was my normal day off and I spent it studying most of the day.  I wanted to get out and run a bit but it just didn’t happen.  We had already decided earlier in the week that if the weather was ok and I was feeling ok we’d go participate in the Rietvelt Natuurmarathon (Nature Marathon) in the Oostvaardersplassen.  Participants could run as a duo – one person runs for a bit, the other is on the bike and then switches.  There were also “solo” runners – this runner runs the whole marathon his/herself and they had bike support for the full distance as well.  Of course my husband had to do a marathon as a training (because… the “real”  marathon is Liverpool end of May and Chicago in October).    It was an absolutely gorgeous day.  I had never been out to this nature reserve (in my whole 20+ years here!) and I was just completely in awe of how gorgeous it was.  Even if there was a point where we had to run and bike through what felt like the Amityville Horror Swarm of Flies.  On the way home we also stopped off at Radio Kootwijk – another place I’ve never been.  I love this country so much!   So tiny yet so many things still left to discover!

 

Sunday back to studying again,  went to Gerrit’s for his birthday gathering and then came home,  had a lovely 5k run, dinner, more studying and then prepping for work again.

 

April Nutshell:

Walking at lunch: 13.55KM (5 times)
Running: 62.4KM (8 times)
Swimming: 2 lessons
Biking: (not counting commutes) 97.8 (5 recorded rides)

Because of school I completely scrapped everything else which means my house is slightly messy, I didn’t log my food on MFP and I didn’t achieve cleaning out my cupboards and getting my starbucks mugs sold. It’s ok; basically school and continued movement are at the top of the list right now and everything else is a bonus.

It’s May 1st today and amazingly enough, after ALL of the stress and busy-ness (and the beers and not logging my food), I lost 1.3KG in April.

I’ve decided for May I’m not setting any specific goals due to exams coming up on the 13th.  So basically I’m just going to keep things in check as much as possible and keep moving.  After the 13th I can re-assess and see what I want to tackle next.

 

How was your April?  Did you achieve your goals?  Or were you crazy busy like I was? 

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It’s Monday and  I’m linking up this post on the Weekly Wrap again this week from HoHo Runs and MissSippiPiddlin – check out their blogs as well AND the links that others have dropped in the link up!