Lake run

Off on a run around mosvannet! The loop around the lake is 3 km, but I’m doing two loops with my hiking friend – giving 4×4 intervals a shot. That is 10 min warmup, followed by 4 min of hard running, and 3 min light running (recovery) four times. Here we go!

TGIF

Yesterday was date night!  Went out for dinner with J after enduring 55 brutal minutes of spin class. I really wish I enjoyed exercise more – while I love the feeling of accomplishment afterwards, and the post-sweating-buckets glow, I really wish I could be one of those people who love pushing their bodies and revel in physical activity.

Anyway, dinner was great!  Went to Renaa, a fairly new restaurant here, and they had so many delicious-sounding menu items.  We ended up splitting the steak tartare (don’t be afraid of raw beef, it’s DIVINE! Sorry, vegetarians), then my dining partner had halibut with mushrooms, and I had a chicken and coucous tagine.

The best olives I’ve ever tasted. Ever.

Red wine.

J’s halibut. Yummy!

My chicken tajine (tagine?)

Outfit.  Ugh, I know, awkward myspace mirror photo.

Take a hike!

My friend Elisabeth and I have started hiking on Sundays when the weather’s decent and we’re both free.  Living in Stavanger, Norway has definite benefits – we’re very close to gorgeous nature, and hiking trails of varying difficulty abound.

This Sunday we went to Lifjell – great views!

Glimpse of Thailand

Bangkok and Phi Phi Island

Changes

I’ve decided to make some changes.  I haven’t been on in months, mainly because I’ve been a bit ashamed that I

a) haven’t been losing weight

b) haven’t been following WW point

c) CERTAINLY hasn’t had a realistic approach to this so-called marathon training.

So, some announcements. Obviously, I’m not going to run a marathon in late September. I still have no idea what I was thinking.  I’ve been reading a lot of Healthy Living blogs, and everyone’s just so motivated, consistent – and actually make their goals. I, on the other hand, have been running (jogging) just every once in a while.  And I’m OK with that.  I’ve readjusted my expectations and come to the conclusion that I’m going to take this slow. I want to live healthy (but still fun!) lifestyle, and I will run a marathon at one point in my life (even if I just walk) but it will not be now.

Instead, I’ve registered for a 10K in Stavanger next weekend. Much more realistic.

In other news, summer is coming to an end here. Sad panda.  I spent a wonderful 3 weeks in Thailand with J – and as a lovely last hurrah, I’m off to Kalkan, Turkey in mid-September. FUN TIMES AHEAD.

These past two weeks have been good, though – my eating’s not great, but not awful either – and I’ve been working out 4-5 times each week.