The heat is on

It took us a long time, but today we finally turned on the heating for this winter. I remember last year we already turned it on in November. This year we were able to hold out a bit longer. It has been freezing at night and I couldn't get my feet warm any longer. So heat is on. And it's still working. I am always a bit worried when it's been off for so long if the boiler will break down. But holding up so far. Yay!

Things have been pretty uneventful lately. Work has calmed down for the year. Should be like this until  January. I am looking forward to our holidays in Canada. Three more weeks!!! Which also means that Christmas is just around the corner. I actually bought some Christmas cards on Friday and filled in the envelopes with the addresses. Now only need to write the cards. Better do that tonight and get them out the door during the week so they arrive on time. I picked a nice Japanese design. It's a great winter scene. Snow falling on trees and some people walking towards a gate holding up umbrellas. Very serene. Everyone will get the same card. I wish they would mix the motifs more in christmas cards packs. But the nice ones are always one motif per pack. Hopefully nobody will compare cards ;-)

I have been able to keep up with running twice a week. The long run has been a bit shorter than intended. Turns out that running and breathing in cold weather and wind really really sucks especially running into the wind. Urgh, that was one of my worst runs last weekend. I basically walked most of the way because I just couldn't suck in any air. This week went much better and I was able to extend my long run for a bit again. I cheated and walked for a couple of hundred meters about half way through though. The incline I had to go up was just too steep, so I took a break and had some water. Walked up the hill and started running again. But overall I would say a really good run.

Now enjoying a nice Sunday evening at home. The bf is cooking and I am listening to podcasts and will make some nice winter punch later. Already took a bath in a mulled spices/ ginger scented bath water. Veeery relaxing. And very deserved after running in the cold. Hope everyone else is also enjoying the first Advent!

New shoes

Autumn has hit us properly. It's really cold in the mornings, I can see frost on the rooftops! And it tends to be windy and rainy as well. Awful weather really. But it of course also means that I took out all my winter clothes (I love winter clothes, the colours, how cozy everything feels). This is when I noticed that my boots look worse for wear. I had them for several years now and the sole is almost completely gone. Not sure if I can get any traction in icy conditions this winter. Since I don't love this particular pair anyway, I got a bit excited as I could now justify the purchase of a new pair!

So the last couple of weekends I have been searching for nice boots. And my initial excitement wore off quickly when I realised that I don't have 'boot feet'. They just don't fit. I don't know why, but I don't find any of them comfortable. Not even the ones that are ugly and supposed to be comfortable. I am not even going anywhere near the fashionable ones. So great. Not sure what to do for winter now. I guess I have to find some other sensible shoes (but I want boots!). I will be looking around a bit more, but I am really impatient when it comes to trying on shoes (or clothes), so not sure if I will actually get something.

But in better news, I was also looking through running shops to find a new pair of trainers. The old one is getting a bit worn out now that I am actually running in them regularly. They were already old, as I got them four years ago. So I went to one of those fancy running shops, hopped on a running machine and had my gait analysed. I thought it would be a bit more technical, but I was on there for only about 20 seconds (first time I ever went on one, was weirdly disorientating, I felt like I was losing my balance constantly). Turns out I have a neutral, normal gait, so don't need any special shoes, neutral ones are fine. I actually ended up buying the ones I tested running in. They were a perfect fit, not too wide, not too small and I love how the laces are stretchy. And here they are, my little beauties:

My old shoes were purple too. Did not chose this because of the colour though. They are from Saucony. Never heard of this brand before. But then again, I don't really know anything about running. 

Already tried them out. Gave me blisters on my long run, but not too bad. Wore them again after and it was already not so bad. The blisters only came after about 4k. I guess I just have to get used to them first. But otherwise they are really comfortable. Very happy!

Being on the treadmill for the very first time made me want to go back on it. I live in an area that is a bit hilly so I cannot do a lot of flat runs. Which gave me the idea of hopping onto a treadmill to see how far I could run. There is one at my bf's dad house. We will be there over Christmas anyway, so I might just hop on it and see how far I can go without hills and outdoor distractions...

Apologies to everyone reading this. I really don't want to turn this into a running blog. I will post less about running and more about other things next post, promise!

Running off the Cake

I ran my first 5k this weekend! I am just a little bit proud of myself. I know it's not a super huge achievement. There are people who run marathons, but I still can't help myself and feel a bit proud.

As I did not really have any idea or feel of how long 5k was I ran it super slow because I didn't want to run out of steam. As a result it took me forever, but I enjoyed it. Was a great day to do it. I did it in the morning (late morning), the sun was out and it was very cool. Perfect running weather.

It was a much needed run as we had cake week at work. Every year during Frankfurt book fair most people from my department go to Germany to attend the fair. Not me. So all of us who are left behind bring in cake. I kicked off the week with cinnamon rolls on Monday morning. I actually prepared them on Sunday, but didn't actually bake them till Monday morning. So they were all nice and fresh. Though I was sweating on the way to work as the dish was superhot. But the bus and tube was so packed that I couldn't put it down. I think it turned out ok:

The bottom was a bit gooey. We have a shitty microwave oven. I don't think it actually heats to the temperature it says on the display and the heat is very uneven. I left it in twice as long as instructed and it wasn't cooked through all the way. Next time I will try to make a bit less dough to give it a better chance to heat through. They were delicious nonetheless!

Next day one of my co workers brought in chocolate cake.

I didn't remember to take a photo until after I ate almost all of it. Soo good! The icing was made with kahlua and I think got me just a bit tipsy. I didn't take pictures of the other cakes, but they were: ginger cake, golden syrup sponge cake, lemon drizzle cake, ricotta and raspberry scones and forest fruit cheesecake. All of them were amazing. But now I am all caked out and really needed some exercise. Will go for another run today (though a bit shorter) and do a little workout. Makes me feel less guilty about all those sweet things.

Next week we are back to normal boring work. But I found out last week that I still have three days of holidays unallocated for this year. Must have calculated things wrong somewhere. So yay, feels like an extra prezzie now. Might take a long weekend in October and maybe some long weekend in November and December as well. Cannot wait!

But now back to enjoying this weekend. Lunch time. There is some nice olive bread, beef, gherkins and mustard. Love me some good bread.