Thursday, September 15, 2005

Be. Here. Now.


Katrina over Florida
Originally uploaded by juliainitaly.
Be Here Now. That was the title of a popular esoteric, funky, spirtual book from the 70's. I remember I used to see it on the coffee tables of people's houses, next to the joints (hey, I grew up in California during the 60's and 70's!). It always stuck with me because sometimes I forget to be in the moment. I am always yearning for the past (sadness) or worrying about what will come in the future, whereas I have a really difficult time with what I am doing right in this moment. I have a really short attention span, I am constantly juggling doing three or four things at once and I often start doing something before I've even finished with the last thing I was doing.

Last night I had a really difficult workout:

15' warmup run + 4 x (1km fast/1km slow) + 20' + 4 x 1km fast, rec. 3'.

While I was warming up I was worrying about the eight km after and then while I did the 8km I was thinking about the faster 4 x 1km that I had to do. Why can't I Be.Here.Now? Think about the moment, concentrate on what is going on NOW instead of constantly having my mind somewhere else. I wasn't really super happy about the 8km that I did, but then the 4 x 1km went super. I was able to run them all at 4'57"/km. This is like a 35 second improvement for me from this last spring and that is a lot! Four more weeks to go on this marathon training but I really have to concentrate on each single day and not worry about what is to come.

Friday, September 09, 2005

Fitday!

I just bought the PC version of Fitday. It is fantastic! If you are trying to keep track of what you eat, this is the software that you MUST buy now. Over the years I've tried loads of dietary software and internet based trackers but have never been satisfied with them. I wasn't even that crazy about the fitday.com site. Then they sent me a message that if I wanted to download it, I could for just $ 19.95. I thought for that price it might be worth a try. It was, it is...go here if you want to check it out. Too bad I don't get commission on this!

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Funky new glasses


Glasses 2
Originally uploaded by juliainitaly.
I am back! I survived two weeks down at the dreaded Mother-in-laws house at the beach. I think the change in my mental attitude helped a lot. I don't care about how she/they treat me anymore (well, sometimes it does bother me...) so I'm not offended anymore when they get in weird moods. I averaged three runs per week and tried as best as I could not to gain too much. I got away with only gaining one kg, which is a miracle if you could have seen all the food that passed in front of my face: pizza, foccaccia, tons of fresh watermelon, grapes, great wine, delicious fried calimari fish...the list goes on and on but I used a lot of control and am very happy with that. Please note that when I go down south for vacation I have ALWAYS gained at least 4kg, so this was a victory.
Evan was accepted for part time day care. Yesterday I went to the preliminary meeting. I love the school and really liked the teachers. The building itself is airy and has lots of space and fun toys and activities. I think it's going to be a good thing for him. If you don't know it, the area that I live in has the world's best day care centers. People come to study them all the time to see what they're doing right. So, he starts next tuesday for just two hours a day with me present the whole time. Then we'll slowy take it up from there until he's able to stay at the school from 8.00am to 1.00pm without me. Olivia starts school on Wednesday also and I can't WAIT for that to happen. Spoken like a true mother!

I bought some funky new glasses last week. I don't know if they make me all that attractive, but they are so comfortable that I just can't take them off. A good thing too since I can't see clearly without them!