WRD: Gin, Hot flashes and Ranch Dressing
Sounds like an amazing combination, right? It will all make sense soon, I hope.
Welcome to the Weekly Run Down!
Deborah and Kim are the amazing hosts for the Weekly Run Down! Feel free to join in as well to wrap up your week in fitness!
This week: Plan vs. Actual
- Monday – Pilates
- Tuesday –
RPM in the AM (team dinner in the evening)Mistaken on the team dinner date, did my usual RPM Sprint + RPM in the PM - Wednesday – took the day off to hang with my friend Yvonne, run in the evening
- Thursday –
RPM in the AM, biking to massage appointments in PMnot a chance of getting up early (surprise) + the weather was horrendous so I did not bike to my appointments - Friday –
15 mins easy, (4×5 mins threshold, with 2 mins jog rec) 15 mins easyDid go to the gym, did not run after all due to a bit of foot pain, did cardio, strength and balance instead - Saturday – parkrun testrun in Eindhoven
- Sunday –
Run 70 minRPM #73 at home
The week started off normal enough. I’ve learned now to bring Pilates stuff to the office, so Monday was pilates as usual right after work. I’m still torn about quitting.
I got the date wrong (really need to start using my agenda more) for my team dinner (it’s in March) so on Tuesday night I did my usual RPM Sprint and RPM. Unfortunately Vincent couldn’t make it. I’m ok to do lessons on my own but I’m just so used to doing RPM with Vincent, it feels weird if he’s not there.
Wednesday I took the day off and had a lovely lunch date with Yvonne. It was so good to spend time with her and just talk about stuff that seems to constantly be weighing me down. We need to do that more often. Martine had asked me to run with her in the evening, but when I arrived home after my lunch date, I received a message that she was having some issues with her calf and thought it was better to not run that evening. And I agreed with her – we both have had injuries and we both are careful not to push something if we get a bit of a flare up. I still wanted to run and finally got myself out of the door about an hour later than planned. Another enjoyable easy run.
Thursday I once again did not manage to get up early. Storm Ellen started kicking up and the weather was too awful to bike to my massage appointments in the evening. Ron came home, picked me up and delivered me to the health center, then went to the gym himself and picked me up after my last appointment.
Funning thing about Thursdays … lately we’ve been going to Momento after my massage appointments where I’ve been having one gin and tonic to kick off my weekend.
That said, I don’t drink a lot, in fact I just had nearly a month with no alcohol because 1) it’s empty calories and 2) It seems to make hot flashes worse/ more frequent. Side note: WTF. We have to go through periods for 35 – 40 years and then when we’re finally done with that crap we can’t even have a drink without worsening menopause symptoms???
Friday got to sleep in a wee bit. In the afternoon I went out to get myself some groceries for lunch (we didn’t have much in the house) and then I went over to my neighbor’s (she’s a friend, too; we know each other from running) place to see how she was doing. She’s just had a major operation and lives on her own so I just wanted to check she was doing all right and just be a bit of company for her. Because I spent quite some time over there, I only got back home (and ate my lunch at almost 4pm…) around nearly the time Ron would be leaving work. We decided to go to the gym together and I would just do my run on the treadmill.
Welp. That didn’t happen. The foot was acting up a bit and I didn’t really want to pound it on the treadmill for an hour, so I ended up doing an hour cardio (bike, arc trainer, step mill) and some strength and balance.
I am of two minds at this point with my training. On the one hand, yes, I want to run a strong 10K in March and in April. On the other hand, I refuse to pressure myself or feel bad if I miss a workout. I do still have some time and my intention is to have a good running week next week.
parkrunday – Formerly known as Saturday :)
Since the Eindhoven team came out to support us at our first official public test run, Ron and I wanted to go out to support them. Today was the last test run before the event is launched in 6 cities in the Netherlands.
It’s about an hour drive, so we “only” had to leave at 7:30 (Dusseldorf is almost an hour and a half – we left much earlier to go to parkrun there) to arrive around 8:30, find parking and walk over to the meeting point. It was great to see the team again and they had around 20 parkrunners participating in the run. They were able to test with all the equipment, barcodes, scanners, tokens – everything! So they are pretty much ready to go!
I had a good run – happy to run the whole way coming in at 32 minutes. Of course, Ron had to go and show everyone that his training is paying off, coming in first at 22 minutes (apparently he was also “just jogging” LOL).
Afterwards there was coffee and chatting and they gave me some test tokens they were using so that we can also test with scanning and tokens at our next test run. We drove home, had lunch, showered, etc. And then we were off to Amsterdam.
We had plans already for months to go see my friend and ex-colleague Angus. He also worked at Starbucks and was one of the 200+ who lost their job at the end of September last year. He took the opportunity to travel for several months (good on him!!) and then came back and started up a new job. So we had a LOT to catch up on.
Many times in the past we’ve gone to the Hard Rock Cafe for cocktails, appetisers, burgers and fries. And we share a love of Ranch Dressing that Ron still tries to understand (but: does not compute). So basically it was a food fest swimming in an offensive amount of ranch… (it’s the little things, y’all; no where else can you get ranch dressing here in NL but at the HRC).
I’d be hiding the truth if I didn’t mention that I also ordered 3 Gin & Tonics – oh my – I could not manage the 3rd (thank goodness, or I’d have paid big time) so Ron helped me out with it.
The oddest part of it and maybe a lesson learned – I didn’t feel bad, intoxicated, nothing like that when I finally made it home. But as soon as I laid down my stomach started somersaulting. I thought “oh no, am I going to be sick??”. I tried to find a position where it wasn’t hurting so much and finally fell asleep. When I woke up this morning, I was fine. However, I think too much food and drink shenanigans are over for me. I’m 51, not 21.
And… here we are at Sunday – a truly lazy, stay indoors day. At some point we were both getting bored (and don’t remind me that I could have used the time cleaning, that wasn’t an option *wink*) so Ron did an hour on the bike and some strength and I went in and did RPM while he was finishing up. I feel better for getting something done. Storm Ellen just kind of wrecked any possibility to run outdoors today.
OK. That was a lot of post for the week, especially the weekend.
Coming up Next Week
The Plan for next week…
- Monday – Not sure yet! No pilates due to (school) holidays
- Tuesday – back to back RPM
- Wednesday – Run 40 minutes easy
- Thursday – *RPM in AM if I have massage clients; Run in the afternoon with parkrun global rep (if no massage clients then I can also go to the gym in the evening)
- Friday – Run 10 mins easy, run 10 mins steady, run 10 mins threshold, run 10 mins easy, run 10 mins threshold, run 10 mins easy
- Saturday – parkrun launch!! Our first official NL parkrun that we’ll go to is in Nijmegen
- Sunday – Run 80 min (approx 12KM)
Friday I’m back at the orthopedic clinic for the MRI on my ankle.
That’s a wrap!
How was your week? Do you find yourself sometimes dealing with quite a few plan B’s? Do you drink alcohol? If you are “going through the change” have you noticed it giving you worse menopause symptoms? Do you like ranch dressing? Where’s your favorite Hard Rock Cafe located?
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I am so with you on not pressuring yourself to do a certain pace etc. In the “long run” it just doesn’t matter. You look so happy at your parkrun. Hope that foot behaves this week. Have a good one and thanks for linking up
I have that same issue with alcohol–hot flashes aplenty! I have to really limit myself. But I suppose that’s a good thing… You had such a good week and that’s good to see.
Please tell me the name of that INB top you’re wearing? I’ve never seen that design before!
Oooh…gin o’clock sounds like a lot of fun. What a good way to kick off your weekend. I read somewhere that you can’t do your long run too slowly. I believe it. Great workout week.
G&T was our go to drink last year when we went on vacation for valentine’s day. I think I’ll surprise the hubs and make some for our kid free weekend next week. 100% there is no reason to fret over a missed workout, you got this.
I love HRC!! We always try to find one when we’re visiting a major city. And, I love ranch dressing :-) We really should be friends :-) Alcohol? I honestly don’t drink much…maybe a couple times/month. Like you said, empty calories and I’m such a light-weight, I get loopy and silly really fast LOL
I’m a fan of ranch as long as it’s not garlicky, but creamy blue cheese is my guilty pleasure! That Parkrun course looks lovely. Has storm Ellen passed through yet? I went through menopause two years ago — while working on two cases for different hot flash drugs! — and while the hot flashes were annoying they didn’t interfere with my life too much. I did have some insomnia, but my symptoms subsided after a year although every once in a while ….
Really awesome job on your workouts this week! I love that you were able to meet up with a friend on Wednesday. You’re so right that we should do things like this more often – sometimes it’s just good to chat and vent.
I second the motion for a huge WTF about all we women go through from periods to menopause crapola. I rarely ever drink but I will say my AIP diet lessened my hot flashes. Now that I’ve reintroduced many foods, they’re back with a vengeance. Ugh! Glad Parkrun continues to go well!
I’m not sure if they were calling our weather at the weekend Storm Ellen or not – we didn’t have the same warnings but it’s been terribly windy and now it’s wet as anything again.
I don’t drink, I just can’t tolerate it any more, apart from the very odd gin and tonic. I have some cherries in cherry brandy from Christmas that I couldn’t eat then as on anxiety pills that wouldn’t let me (and antibiotics, ditto!) but I don’t seem to even fancy those.
Great news on parkrun and having tokens to practise with is brilliant!
I have had a fairly easy menopause, knock on wood, but then again I don’t drink anyway. Maybe that makes me a stick in the mud, but I never really saw the point and that was easy for me to give up (a long, long time ago). Just don’t take away my nut butter or chocolate. :)
I love your purple braids!
I love that you guys are setting up Parkrun. 32 min would be a race for me, LOL!
Nice photos from the park run! And I’ve definitely experienced that my body can’t really take a lot of alcohol any more. I usually end up regretting it if I have more than 2 drinks.
I am crying with laughter about the ranch dressing. I wonder if you can make your own? It would be hard to give that up – it’s just so great for so many things LOL!
The nearest HRC is at Universal Studios in Orlando. It’s fine, but it’s not my first choice. I remember in high school, it was a thing to collect the tshirts from different locations, and I had them from NYC, London, Paris and Orlando. i thought I was pretty awsome and worldly. Funny thing: we went there a few months ago, because we had a huge group, and Mr PugRunner ordered a $25 burger which was dressed with edible gold leaf. It was a promo for some charity, and he just had to do it.
I’ve never been to a Hard Rock Cafe, but then I can get ranch dressing pretty much anywhere. ;) I only eat it on pizza crusts though.
I notice that I don’t sleep as well after I drink so I do try to limit it to Friday evening happy hours. We recently rediscovered Tom Collins – I hadn’t had gin in years until bought it to make the TC’s.
I’m sorry your foot bothered you so much last week. There’s nothing wrong with a lazy Sunday every once in a while!