Personal Best at a 5 km race

Thursday was race day. Blodomloppet. I entered the 5 km race with a goal to run it in less than 25. Since I ran my first race 6 years ago, I haven't trained for a 5 km. I have always had my focus on increasing miles and never on getting faster. Until this year. I took a break from running when we moved to Sweden, mainly because of lack of time. So, when I started running again in March, I had this idea, that maybe I should train to run faster instead of farther. My previous best 5 km time was 26:46:56. I set my goal at 25 minutes. Running a 4.3 km run during lunch breaks my time improved from over 24 minutes to 22:20 to 21:59:58. But then it was very hard to get under 22 minutes again. I missed it by 7 seconds, 15 seconds, 45 seconds... Then finally, I ran the route in opposite direction (less head wind) and finished in 21:26. 8 days before race day I ran 5 km in 24:59:58, so I knew I could do it. However, the race route was supposedly hilly. During the actual race, I stayed focused and on pace. First mile was mostly uphill, but not too much of a climb. The second mile began uphill, then changed into a descent. After 2 miles I was on pace to finish just under 25 minutes and I was feeling good. I just kept going, putting one foot infront of the other. It wasn't until after 4km that I checked the total time and it was 21 minutes. I had fallen behind. I had almost 1 km left and had to do it in less than 4 minutes. I still had lots of strength, so I sped up, determined to make my goal. My watch stopped at 24:31. Official result was 24:33, finishing 108th out of 3108 women. I beat 3000 women, and finished strong in under 25 minutes!!!

I felt good, but finishing a half marathon sure feels like more of an accomplishment. Next race is Tjejmilen (10 km women's race) in Stockholm in September and then I plan to run Göteborgsvarvet (half-marathon in Gothenburg) next May together with my Swedish interns and some of our Arkansas colleagues.

Au-pair reunion - we made it happen!

William and I took the train from Linköping to Copenhagen where we met up with Irina and Maja who flew in from Münich. There we rented a car and drove down together to Nykøbing, Falster. Grit and Milo took a 6 hour bus ride from Berlin and Mette drove down with Sebastian and Nicoline from Copenhagen. So there we were, almost 10 years after our last get-together. My totally awesome friends! And now with their really cool kids!

 

We spent 4 nights together in a beautiful house on the Danish country side. We hung out, played, went to the beach, cooked and spent the evenings, after the kids were asleep, catching up over wine. These girls are great! Hanging out with them makes me so happy! And now they are all wonderful moms!

Now that I am back in Europe I hope to make this in to an annual get together. I also plan to visit each one of them. I love traveling in Europe, and William is a great travel partner!

Living in Sweden Observation #18

When my male coworkers go on paternity leave it is "See you in 6 months!" (or sometimes more).

My new year's resolution - part 2

Coffee drinking habits was the first thing I wanted to change. The other, was my clothes and accessories shopping habits. It's not that I buy a lot of clothes. It's not that I spend too much money on clothes either. However, after having to go through my closet when moving, and ending up donating half of my wardrobe and still feeling like I have a lot of clothes, I decided I should not buy more.

The beauty of this resolution is threefold:

1. Less stuff - Less clutter. We have less closet space here in our rental house than we did in Arkansas. Plus, knowing our housing situation is not permanent, it will be less to move.
2. Money saving - Considering the move was expensive, the saving money aspect of the resolution is a bonus.
3. The challenge - Challenges trigger me, so I am in!

So, how am I doing on this challenge? Now it is May (so I am a third of the way through) and I have not bought any clothes for myself, other than socks, that I was in desperate need of. I will need to get some rain pants, but other than that I should have everything I need. Summer will be the most difficult season to stick to the challenge, cause it is so much fun to shop for summer clothes. When I go downtown, I need to remind myself to not look at clothes. There is nothing I need. I actually just unpacked my summer clothes and jewelry, so I should be good for a while.

I was debating whether to say I couldn't buy any clothes for the entire year, or if I should set a limit, like 5 pieces of clothing or something like that. I do think allowing myself 5 pieces of clothing is the way to go. Then I need to be very conscious and selective about what I buy. A necklush is currently high on my list.