Bendoeslife

It has been a long while since I posted here. But as you all know, life often gets in the way, and my life is particularly hectic as since March we haven't spent more than a month at the same place. So the schedule always changes, depending on where we are, what we do and who we are with. So while I have been bad with updating the blog, I tried to focus more on the doing than on the saying what I have done. There were ups and down, but I never stopped running altogether since February, and since July I have been running steady. I am now back to 12 -14 miles per week, and have added some speed work. The goal is to run a half marathon in November, so it quite motivating. I have found a good training programme and I really stick to it. Not only does it give me a plan to follow, but it also includes speed work, which I have never done before and seems to work wonders with me. It is hard work, but my pace has really improved and the runs that are not speed focused seem a lot easier. I also invested in a GPS watch, which allows me to watch my pace. So this morning I went out for a long run (6 miles), when most of my previous runs were 4 miles, but with speed work. I would usually have been a little daunted by the number, but this morning I was thinking "it might be 6 miles, but if I don't have to stick to a fast pace, I believe it'll be easier than my last speed run". And somehow it was. I was just running at an easy pace (9:30 / mile, which used to be my fast pace) and it wasn't that bad at all. The voice in my head just told me to stop once (some days she doesn't even talk to me anymore), and I just kept going, even though my legs were stiff and my butt muscles were sore. I just did.

Then I came back home and soaked myself in a nice hot bath to relax my poor muscles and I picked up an old issue of a running magazine, in which they were relating the story of Ben Davis, who went from morbidly obese to marathon and ironman runner. Ben made a cool video about his story that you can watch on youtube. It made me want to check out his website Bendoeslife where I found this very inspiring post that I wanted to share with you :

We run.

We run because we have to.

We run to go fast, and we run to go far.

We run to break the tape; we run just to finish.

We run for fun when no one’s around.

We run to get inverted V muscles above our kneecaps.

We run to get the regular V above our hips.

We run to clear our mind.

We run because we’re mad.

We run because we’re ecstatic.

We run because now we know what it feels to nod at another runner. We understand them, and they, us.

We run to lose weight.

We run to keep it off.

We run to eat cupcakes.

We run to eat crabcakes.

We run to be lions.

We run two marathons in eight days.

We run for cancer.

We run when others won’t.

We run and sometimes we hate it.

But we run and we always love it.

We run up hills and we run through puddles.

We run because it’s poetic.

We run because it’s bad ass.

We run while people sleep and we run because it helps us sleep.

We run because runners have better sex.

We run because once we have that medal, you can’t take it away.

We run because some of you don’t think we can.

We run.

And we run together. 

Back to being a beginner runner... again !

Yep, that's right, I am back to the beginning again. The injuries kept creeping back (I hurt my knee in January and just started running again a few days ago) and keeping me from running so I lost all stamina and I am back to running 1 mile at a time. It's annoying and it made me give up both the half and the full Paris marathon, but at least now I do not have to push myself too hard to get the mileage in. I will run my 1 milers until I feel really comfortable (which is not the case right now, it's tough on my legs and lungs), then increase to 1.5 miles then 2 and slowly build back to where I was. This time I really want to take my sweet time and make sure I don't overtrain. Right now I am struggling during the runs, but I have the memory of how running felt good after a while and that keeps me really motivated !...

Cold running

I have finally been able to run again for the last few weeks. I am slowly getting my weekly mileage up to 10 -12 miles a week... It will be tight, but I think I will be able to run the Paris half marathon in March. No PR there, just to finish the race will be my goal. The one thing we didn't think of when we signed up for those events, was that it meant our training was going to be during the coldest months of the year ! Living in Thailand we forgot about that, but we got reminded the hard way. This morning, we went out for a 4 mile run by 30 degrees F and a good deal of wind. It took me about 1.5 hours to warm up after that ! Although it made me realized one thing : when you go out to run in this weather, you're hooked, you're a runner.

Spinning

Yes. Because that is all I can do right now. My injury finally seems to be getting a little bit better, but I still cannot run. It has been over 8 weeks. So to stay in shape and to keep sane, I have been going to spinning classes twice a week, and it is great fun ! A good workout, a great sweat session, nice rythme and music, I love it ! It is the perfect cross training !

Unfortunately, a lot of time has passed, and I have lost a lot of stamina, so I think I am gonna have to forfait the Paris marathon. It makes me really sad, but it seems like I got this injury because I increase my mileage too fast in the first place, so rushing my training for my first marathon seems like it would be the best way to get even more badly injured. The good thing is that we also signed-up for the half in March, and I still have hope that I will be able to run this. I am hoping to start running again (but just a little and very slow) by next week, and start the training in about 3 weeks, while still enjoying my spinning classes !

Injuries suck...

As planned yesterday, I did go on a short and slow (veeery slow) run today. And even though I alternated running and walking and ran only 2 miles, I still have a pretty bad pain in my right calf. Actually, it was not so bad during the run (otherwise I would have stopped) but now, a couple hours later, it is pretty bad. So I went online and found that apart from rest and ice, most people use calf sleeves and compression socks, and it seems to work really well (and it also relieves shin splints, which I get a lot of). So tomorrow, we will go to our favorite running store and get my some of those. It's great, because it gives me a little hope that I will be able to run again before 2012 !

Stuck

Two weeks. I haven't been able to run for 2 weeks. It feels like 2 months. I used to think of some of the runs as a chore, but now I am at that point where I miss running. I really do.

The pain is almost gone from my calf, but not completely, so I will try to go for a very gentle run / walk tomorrow. I tried to rest as much as I could during those 2 weeks but I still did a fair amount of walking (I usually do), and I also went to the gym a couple times to keep my muscles in shape (lifting weights and biking).  It is really frustrating to sit here not able to run and see the days go by and the start of the training plan getting closer and closer. It starts next week and I should be running 15 miles. I probably won't be running that much, but I am excited to start running again tomorrow. And to get back in the grove, I planned a nice long workout at the gym tonight, followed by a nice long sit in the hot tub.

Marathon training

I have had many ups and downs since I started running. Actually I started running many times... and yes after a while I would drop it... Mind you I always has a good reason : too much work, being sick, moving places, changing job, and lately even free diving ! But I always come back to it. And this time, I have given myself a huge goal to achieve to make sure I won’t drop out : we have signed up for the Paris marathon next year in April ! I am really excited and training really hard for it ! Of all these years of running on and off, I’ve always only managed to run up to 3 or 4 miles, on a flat course. This time, after 2 months, I am running 4 times a week on a hilly course and up to 9 miles at a time. I am still running very slow, but al least, I am running... I am so proud of myself ! Although I have to say that to get there, I had some help... A few months ago, I bought myself a little contraption that records all my runs ! The sensor goes in my shoe and the receptor on my mp3 player, and all my runs are recorded on a website for me ! It also gives me my split times, my pace, distance, etc... It makes me accountable for my runs and it is (for me) a huge motivation to see all these miles that I log every week !

Apart from this little gadget, the most precious thing I have learned in the last few months, is the power of your mental. Your brain is ultimately the one that can make you stop even though you still have the energy to keep going. Especially when you are a beginner, you brain will tell you over and over something like “this is too hard, you should just stop and go home, enjoy a nice comfy couch and a cold drink !”. And until you stop listening to it, your legs will believe it and running will be the toughest thing you have ever done. But once you learned to change that message your brain plays repeatedly, you can use that trick to your advantage. You will come up with a few mantras and sentences that will give you a bigger boost than any energy drink !

Unfortunately you will meet a few setbacks in your training : fatigue, sickness, sometimes injury. I just stretched a muscle in my calf last week, which has been keeping me from running this week. I will give it another couple days before I go back out there. The annoying thing when you are starting to run again after an injury, is that you have to seriously cut back your distances and take it really easy, so I basically have to go back to running just a few miles at a time. Luckily, the proper training for the marathon hasn’t started yet, I am still in the pre-training phase. So from next week, I will take you along my runs and share with you the evolution of my training and my weekly mileage.

I know it is a bit of a change of direction for this blog, but I can’t really be much more minimalist than I am now, since I don’t even have a house ;-) My husband and I are now living at his parents with just a few boxes of the stuff we sent from Thailand. We bought a house that we are rehabbing with the intention of renting it out. Then in January, we are leaving to France for a year to volunteer on organic farms. I will keep you posted on this obviously but in the meantime, most of the posts will be about my running training. I guess it is relevant after all : can you think of a more minimalist sport than running ?

People change

As we are getting ready to leave Thailand in about a month, we start to look back on those last 7 years. What we did, what we would do differently now, what we want to do, and how we have changed. On the latter, I just realized yesterday how different I am from the person who arrived here 7 years ago. It all started from a sentence I told the Husband yesterday : “I am happy to quit smoking, I can give up my wine, but damn I won’t stop running”. This may sound to you like a weird sentence, but see, we just started our freediving course last week. So now you understand about the smoking and drinking. But why running ? Well, freediving is a very demanding sport (I will come back to this on a later post) and, especially at the beginning, you should avoid any activity that would create lactic acid in your muscles, keeping you from being able to completely relax in the water. So my coach has been urging me to stop running. Now to understand how this sentence is so strange coming from me, you need to meet me 7 years ago : young party animal, chain smoker (French in a word), absolute meat lover, night owl, and against any type of exercise. And here I am today : vegetarian, non smoker, very occasional drinker, early riser and freediving everyday while preparing for a marathon ! If somebody would have told me 7 years ago, that I would ever say such a sentence, I would have never believed it.

As I was re-reading my very first post in this blog, I realized that I have achieved one of my very goals, to simplify my life. While we were getting ready to move out of the country, we went through all our stuff. After 2 weeks of work, we finally got rid of most of it, and ended up with 6 boxes of personal belongings that we sent to the US and about 2 bags of traveling items. It is like starting from scratch, we now own a few objects, books and souvenirs, everything useless was discarded or donated. But most of all I feel like I have simplified my way of life : I have cut out the heavy drinking and smoking, drastically cut down on meat, and I am now following a healthy diet based on whole foods and produces, while exercising 4 to 5 times a week. I will be leaving Asia much lighter than I arrived !

The Zen of Asia ?

I came to Thailand to enjoy a simpler and easier life.

After 7 years of working in diving, the Man and I were running a dive shop. It was great except I ended up with more responsibilities and stress than when I was working in a business bank in Paris.

No life, no time to dive, socialize or have friends, write on my blog, exercise, or even read a book, just work. We would come home at night and crash in front of the TV. Every night. Every now and then I would go out and blow off steam at the local bar and come home at 4am, plastered. Then our few days off would be spent doing the chores around the house, shopping and catching up with our errands, or, after the nights out, just lying in bed feeling like I was gonna die.

I am reclaiming my life now. I have resigned my position as a manager and we have decided to leave Thailand. No idea what we will do next and that is the fun of it. The whole world is opened to us, we just have to grab it now. Well, not exactly now. Before we leave, we have decided to take a few months to enjoy Asia. We have already taken a tour on the motorbikes down the South of the country, went to see our friends in Koh Tao, and started exercising everyday again. We are getting married in 2 weeks, and then we have planned a honeymoon in Nepal (1 month), maybe a short trip to Myanmar, and then a whole month of free diving. 

Some days are really busy with organizing everything, and some days are quite lazy. But we try to squeeze in exercise just about everyday. I am back on track...

I am a triathlete

Two weeks ago I have completed my very first triathlon ! We have been training for it for the last 3 months and I was really looking forward to it and I had a great time.

We signed up for the triathlon a few months ago and when we did, we also signed up for volunteering the day before the race. It makes the entrance fees go down a lot and it is a good way to get in the mood. The pre-race day was actually a very good day: not only did we get to meet all the people organising the race, but it also allowed me to know the race course inside out, as well as all the technicalities of the race. We also spent the afternoon welcoming the contestants and signing them up so I got to meet a lot of my fellow racers. The fact that there were people of all age, all genders and a lot of first timers made me a great deal more relaxed about the race.

We got up the next morning at 5 am and drove to the race course. It might be the crack of dawn, but the freeway is packed with cars heading to North East... The race welcomes this year 800 contestants. When we get to North East, the town is already buzzing with the activity of all the people unloading their bikes and walking / riding towards the race start.

We get to the entrance and through the “body marking”: a bunch of volunteers write with permanent pens on your arms and calves your Bib number, S for sprint distance or O for Olympic, and also your age. It’s quite funny to walk around and see all these people with their age tattoed on their calves and it can give you a good boost during the race when you pass a 19 year old kid... but a bit depressing when you get passed by a 65 year old...

Then you get to the transition area : this is where you leave all your stuff and where you come between each event to get the equipment you need. I find my spot, install my bike, my towel, my shoes and some food and drinks for the first transition. When ready, we warm up and go for a quick swim in the lake to test the water temperature, 81 degrees, quite nice. The swim part in the lake is for most people the more stressing part of the race : the visibility is very low (about 3 to 4 inches, which makes a big difference with training in pools) but also because each group counts about a hundred people going at the same time, which makes it difficult to avoid getting kicked and elbowed. I was myself a bit worried about the swim so it was nice to give it a shot before the race.

A last check in my transition area and then we head to the starting point. It is 7am and we are all here, 800 people in swimsuits and brightly colored swimcaps, waiting for the start of the race. The air is crispy and you can feel the excitment. The contestants are chating around, waiting for the signal. There are still a few anxious people asking last minute questions about the course, and the very anxious ones checking out where the safety canoes are. Last safety birefing : the contestants will have to go down to the dock where they will jump in the water and tread until the start, that way the race officials can spot right away the people that might be at risk. It seems to me that there is quite a few people here signed up for a triathlon when can barely swim... It’s a bit of a funny idea no ? 

Because there are so many contestants, the start will be staggered in waves : The Man is in the first wave, with the males from 25 to 39 year old, and wears a beautiful royal blue swim cap... Then the green caps, white caps, and then the females from 25 to 39 year old (me), wearing bright pink caps. Each wave will leave 4 minutes after the previous one, which means that I will leave 12 minutes after The Man. Having done a few races himself and this being my first one, we agreed that he will wait for me in the transition area after the swim...

7.30, the first wave goes. I stay on the shore watching The Man. I am not quite as anxious as I thought I was gonna be. I am actually pretty calm. I am just waiting for my turn. 10 minutes later, I am in the water, with a hundred other female contestants, ready to conquer my first 750 m in open water. 3, 2, 1, go ! I read a lot of articles before the race and they all advised to stay in the back of the  pack if it is your first triathlon : you only lose a few seconds, but that way you avoid a good deal of elbowing and kicking. So there I am, at the back of the pack. For the last 3 months, I have been training 3 to 4 times a week swimming free style for this race, thinking there will only be pro swimmers and I didn’t want to look like a complete rookie... First surprise : around me, I see people swimming the breast stroke, the back stroke and even some kind of doggy paddle... Some people are even hanging to the safety canoes for dear life, and I wonder how they will get through this... I even pass some people from the 3 previous groups still in the water !

The swim goes pretty well, I pass a reasonnable number of people (and not only the ones that can’t swim) and leave the water after 19 min and 25 secs, my best time ever. Light jogging to the transition area, where I dry off, put on my clothes and shoes and push my bicycle towards the bike course, where The Man is waiting for me.

The course is 25km long. A couple of weeks ago, we came down here to rehearse the bike course and I had a really really hard time... So I had prepared myself mentally and knew the bike would be the physically most painful event. Did the training do the trick ? Was my mental preparation that good ? Or did the adrenaline kill the pain ? In any case the bike event was a lot easier than expected. A few longish hills but really not that bad. I even passed a few people (and got passed a few times as well). In a race like this you can find a few different levels of investments : you will find the people that are using grandpa’s bike (like me), the ones that have the neighbour’s trail bike, those who invested in a entry level race bike and those whose front wheel costs 10 times more that my whole bike. Those ones passed us a lot.

Anyway, the bike went well, and thinking back on it, I think I could even have pushed it a bit more; but when it is your first race, all you think about is to keep some energy for the last part.

After an hour and 14 minutes, we are back at the transition area to put away the bikes and go for the last bit, the run. I don’t know if any of you ever trained seriously on a bike, but for those of you who haven’t, let me tell you that walking after a long time riding is something of a challenge. Let alone running. We wobble in and out of the transition area and start running. Slowly. Very slowly. The legs are shaking, the knees are in pain, the calves are cramping. After a while though, it all seems to relax a bit, apart from my shins that are killing me. I have had shin splints for months and nothing I did seemed to cure them. The only way I can run without hurting is to run the first 7-8 minutes at a very slow pace. Which I usually do, but today I got caught up in the race and was going a lot faster than I should have had. Ouch. Can’t run very long, I have to top and walk a few times during the 5k. Funny how the part that I was the most confident about is the one that atually caused me trouble.

Finally, after 2 hours and 15 minutes, we cross the finish line. I am very happy and my shins are really relieved. The time is not fast, but I finished and I am very glad I did it ! I really enjoyed the training and the race was a great challenge. People were very nice, helping each other and everyone was here to have a good time. I can’t wait for the next race.

Mindful Partying

I have to make a confession. I was not always a sporty, healthy kind of girl. In fact, before I met The Man, I was the ultimate Party girl. And for the first 3 years we spent together, we were living on a tiny party island where there was always something to celebrate. Alcohol was flowing, cigarettes were part of my everyday life and if sports was once a big part of The Man’s life, it was now nothing more than a memory... After 3 years of a rather unhealthy life, we decided to get a bit healthier and started to run. For a while. Then life caught on, and we slowly gave up. But we tried again. Then gave up. A few times. Then we were offered another job and finally left the party island for another part of Thailand. We thought it would then be easier to do sports. Parties became exceptional but our jobs were far more demanding and we had a lot more responsibilities. We decided to start exercising again, encouraged by the fact that there was a gym 5 minutes away from work, but in the end we didn’t exercise nearly as much as we had planned. The truth is that life will always be in the way and you will always think you don’t have the time, but it is your responsibility to make time for it. I understood that when I found the website www.6changes.com. Now I exercise everyday, I am even preparing for a sprint triathlon. But to tell you the truth, the party girl in me is still here, and when we go to a party, I can hardly keep her at large. I still enjoy a few drinks, and even if don’t smoke like I used to (a pack a day), I still enjoy the occasional cigarettes. The problem is that when I start drinking and smoking, I cannot stop. I can down a bottle and 2 packs of cigarettes in one evening. No party, no problem, but I’m not gonna avoid all the parties to stay away from unhealthy behaviors all my life ? We are 4 weeks away from the race, and this weekend happen to be one of The Man’s best friend birthday pool party. A little bash in a huge farm in the middle of Pennsylvania that lasts for 3 days. We got there late of Friday night and enjoyed a few drinks and even a few cigarettes. Usually when I party, my brain switches off, and I just drink and smoke without even realizing it. This time I tried to focus and appreciate every sip of my wine and every drag of my cigarettes. And I ended up smoking and drinking a lot less. The next day we even managed to get up quite early and go for a run. Now the run was extremely tough on me because my friend happens to live in a very hilly region. But I made it. We spent the day by the pool and yet another challenge was waiting for me : mindless munching... Everybody brought a lot of chips and dips and real food was to be serve later during the day. I had a few chips, but nothing out of hands. The huge pitchers of fresh water with lemons and mint that my friend kept bringing on the tables help tremendously... By the evening, I just had a few chips, a real (although not exactly light) dinner and a couple of drinks, and was well hydrated and prepared for another party night. Again, I focused on appreciating drinks and smokes and that kept me away from any excess. We left the party on Sunday a lot fresher than most people, some of them nursing pretty nasty hangovers...

I am a morning runner

Definitely. I tried just about every time of the day, and my morning runs are by far the best ones. That’s it. It’s weird though because I am not a morning person. Really not. I will even go back to bed after my morning run if I have a chance. Yes, because some days I go really early; as soon as the sun is up, I will wake up and go running... to be back after my run, streched, showered and in bed by 7am...

Those early runs are the best though, and the days I get up and run early are also the best days. There is something about running in the crisp morning air. Seeing the world waking up. The smells. The silence. That very special morning light. The quietness. Being pretty much the only one out there, knowing most people are still asleep. It makes me feel special; and alive; and happy. Healthy and happy, is there a better way to start a day ?...

I don’t like flying

First of all it is one of the most polluting form of transportation, and second, it is the most annoying one. Well, especially leaving from Europe. The number of security checks we had to undergo before we could get on the plane is just ridiculous. They checked our passport / plane tickets at least 6 times, made us empty pretty much the entire carry-on baggage (you have to put aside keys, phone, wallet and change, laptop, camera... well there was only my book left in my bag...), not to mention their new thing with liquids...

Illusion of safety. That’s all it is. They can check all they want, if someone wants to blow up the plane, they will find a way. But today, everything seems to revolve around safety : medias show you nothing but terrible images of violence, war, crime, to make sure you are too scared to go see out there by yourself. They surround us with the Fear, to make us accept the unacceptable (more taxes, more wars, less freedom) and make sure all we do is buy more stuff that will make us feel better. More confortable. More alive. I own therefore I am.

Well that’s just a double bonus for all the politics and company owners : the Fear allows them to do pretty much what they want and on top of it, they’re making money off it ! They don’t really care about us, they don’t really care about anything but their own benefit in the short term. They don’t even care about their own kids. Otherwise would they put a lease on the next generation’s future like they do ? Who knows what will happen in the next few decades ? Will the next generation be responsible enough or will they even be able to take care of the nuclear waste we are producing today ? Will they have a chance to ever feel the taste of blue fin tuna before the 15% of what’s left in the water is definitely fished out ? Will they be able to enjoy the incredible experience of swimming with sharks before they go extinct ?

We have to realise today that some resources of this planet are coming to an end, and if we keep going this way, it will all to be gone or too badely polluted pretty soon. And it could all end up in the extinction of the human being and a lot of animal species. Earth will probably survive though, recovering slowly and creating new types of creatures, new ecosystems, new species. Let’s just hope the next “Superior Beings” will be less destructive and more attached to that beautiful home that Mother Earth gave them...

Declutter 101

Apart from training for the triathlon,  I have done a lot of cleaning since we got to France. I cleaned my room (I still have a room at my mum’s house) and got rid of most of my stuff. A lot of clothes, an insane number of shoes, bags, purses, make-up, tons of books and papers and even jewells. My god I owned a lot of crap. I am not quite done yet and I hope to clear out even more stuff, but it already feels great. My closets are nice and almost empty. But now I have piles everywhere in my room. Of stuff to give away. And amazingly enough, it is not that easy to find associations that would take your stuff for free. They are really picky on what they take these days.

Because my piles were not big enough, I decided to go through my mum’s stuff as well. If I do own a lot of crap, my mum could easily fill 2 houses with what she stocks in this one. It is unbelievable. And because she has this much stuff, she usually can’t find what she needs, so she buys it again. When we were cleaning her office, I found half a dozen cutting knives, 4 staplers, 5 scotch tape dispensers, etc. I also found some boxes we packed when she moved out from the last house, 15 years ago. Unopened. It tooks us a whole day, but we did a very good job. We tossed about 10 bags of garbage, 2 boxes of books and random electronics. Now we can see the color of the wood on my mum’s desk. This is was room 1 of 7. We still have a lot of work to do...

I realise when I come back here how lucky I am to live away from this crazy consumming frenzy. We have been back for a week now and even though we don’t watch tv, I can feel the constant message urging you to buy more, to get more stuff, bigger stuff. It is everywhere. It is all the time. It is insane.

Everything here seems to be about getting more : more stuff, more good deals, more knowledge, more travels, even more friends (real or Facebook friends...). The quality doesn’t seem to matter so much as long as you get more stuff (you don’t need) and that they are good value. Which leads us to a society of waste. Today everything is disposable and everything comes in huge amount of packaging. When I get the garbage out at the end of the week, the volume of waste is bigger than the volume of food I bought !  How did we get to this much waste ? All these packages that will end up in landfills or burnt and turned into CO2! Do we really need this ? All these plastic wraps and containers that are made of petrol, the same petrol coming from oil companies that can’t even control a broken digging platform after a month and a half ? The news are talking about 12,000 to 19,000 gallons being released everyday in the Gulf of Mexico. The american are very angry. Most of them want to boycott BP. Why only BP ? Do you really think the other companies are any better ? Boycott petrol altogether ! Say no to plastic bags ! Get a green car ! Install solar panels ! Enough of these technologies we cannot control ! We can make a better world by consuming less and living more. Get outside ! This Saturday, go walking instead of spending the afternoon in a crowded mall or in front of your tv ! You will get much more life from being outside in the nature than from any stuff you will ever buy.

Cold weather

So in the end we took a whole week off running. Egypt is definitely not a place for sporty people. In a week there, we saw 2 people exercising. That is including us two.

Then a few days ago we arrived in France. Running here is a lot easier, you can find parks and also, the weather is chillier than Thailand. A lot chillier. Actually, it is really cold. We run in pants and sweater. Weird. 

We are also lucky to have a pool right next door to where we stay. It is only 25m long, it is indoor and it is pretty crowded, but we do enjoy it anyway (got a bit too spoiled in Thailand...). Plus, the lifeguards are also trainers and they are immensely useful. Everytime we go, they give me advices, training tips and they really do help me a lot improving my technique. We try to go 2 to 3 times a week.

Also yesterday, we got a couple of bicycles that we borrowed from my friends. This afternoon we are gonna go for a long ride along the Marne river. There are a lot of very cool places to go riding around here. Loads of bike lanes along the river, many parks, woods and forrests. The plan is to check them all out. That will be a lot of riding...