Running in Verona, Italy {with a side trip to Milan}

After a lovely time in Lugano, Switzerland, which was a rude awakening at my lack of skill in the Italian language, we took a train to the actual Italian-speaking country of Italy itself. I was really wishing my Italian grandmother had passed the language on down the genetic line, but truthfully she diligently studied the language and practiced speaking it with her Italian club on into her 90’s. It makes me realize how hard it is to stay fluent in a language when you don’t have daily exposure to it, and I don’t feel so bad for not spitting out much/any Italian after 16 years of non-use.

We left Lugano by train en route to Verona, but first hopped off the train in Milan, left our luggage at the train station’s luggage desk, and took the subway to the Duomo. I had been to Milan years ago (all part of the same huge trip in 1997), but it is so different to go back to a place as an adult.

Yep, the Duomo was just as impressive as I remembered. We walked around a bit, and here is where my Italian Carbfest began:

Oh boy was I glad that I ran that morning in Lugano.  We walked around for a little while and saw a couple of strange things on the street, like this:

(Seriously, does anyone know if this is a trick or was he really suspended in air like that on a pole held by one hand of the other guy?)

We got our luggage and boarded the train to Verona. This was a rude awakening. Goodbye, Swiss trains, hello, Italian trains! The train was oversold, seats were scarce, and people were jammed in the aisles. Hot, crowded, and confusing = welcome to Italy! Now THAT was just as I remembered my beloved Italia from years ago.

But ah, Verona. I loved Verona and could have spent more time there than one night. We walked around a bit that evening, had the most fabulous dinner (another carbfest and plenty of wine!), and so the next morning I set out running in Verona to work off that meal. I asked the front desk of my hotel about places to run and they were at a loss, so I just went out with my map and my tiny camera. At first I found some nice wide open plazas to run through:

And ran along the old city wall:

And a few other cool places:

Before I reached the castle:

At this point I had to run back and meet up with my husband and friends, and the city was getting crowded with tourists and cars. With all the stopping and starting for crossing streets, narrow streets filled with people, it really wasn’t that great a workout but I loved exploring.

I headed back to the hotel and we went out with my husband and friends on foot all day. The old Coliseum was set up for a Paul McCartney concert, which was an interesting mix of old:

And new:

I was happy to get a bit more of a workout in by climbing the 370+ stairs of the clock tower for an impressive view of the city:

I took the elevator back down, I actually don’t love going down stairs, it’s not that comfy on my knees.

We walked around a bit more, saw Juliet’s balcony, some really cool areas, and a gorgeous bridge, where I saw there was a nicer area across the river that might have been a more solid running area for me. Oh well, the stairs of the tower were the real calorie-buster of the day. We boarded a train for Venice, where we spent 3   nights.

Next up: Running in Venice! Coming soon to a blog near you…

Running in Lugano, Switzerland

After a few days in the middle of the mountains in German-speaking Switzerland, where I managed to fit in a run up a mountain and some toboggan/zip line adventures, we took a train to Lugano. A great little city on a gorgeous lake – still Switzerland, but a totally different feel. We promptly switched our ears to Italian, and I realized that I could speak absolutely zero Italian, despite living in Italy for several months in 1997.

Here was the view from our balcony:

After exploring the city a bit on foot, it started to rain so we stopped for a great dinner and called it a night.

The next day, I really wanted to exercise before our train to Italy, so I tried to squeeze in a run. I was on limited time if I wanted to make it to the hotel breakfast before it closed. Headed out of the hotel door and OOPS – delayed by the train at the track crossing:

So I lost 5-6 minutes there. But I figured better short than nothing. I love exploring a new city by running because I would never get to the very end of a park and see this view otherwise:

Or see these people fishing in their boat:

There was some sort of urban art going on with bright blue snails all over the waterfront area:

At least there was an explanation in English so I could sort of get what was going on:

These guys had the best view of the city and were everywhere along the water.

Downtown had a few cool things going on, like huge chess board near the main square.

And another art piece – in the pedestrian tunnel that takes you to the water, the walls were entirely chalkboard and people could write anything they wanted. The walls were covered the first night when we were walking. Then on the morning of my run, all the messages were being washed away:

Realizing that my train track delay, my admiration of snails, and my scenery-viewing was going to jeopardize my ability to eat breakfast at the hotel, I tried to quickly dash back to the hotel. Um, no such luck – by this point it was crowded downtown. Seriously, how can you get in a good run through crowds on tiny streets like this?

And these hills – I thought I had left behind serious hills in the Lucerne area!

With the hills, tons of people walking around downtown, and the time crunch, it really wasn’t much of a workout. But I’m glad I got out there, and it made me feel less guilty for my pasta lunch and gelato dessert in Italy later that day when we arrived.

Toboggan Adventures on Mount Pilatus in Switzerland

In the past few years, I’ve done a lot of traveling for work. Usually it’s a hectic “Amazing Race”-style trip where my main view of an interesting city is from the window of a taxi as I go to the airport, my face plastered against the glass. My coworker and I always say, as we finish a jam-packed trip to a new city: “This trip makes me want to visit [insert city name here]!” because it usually doesn’t even feel like I’ve been to Buenos Aires or Lima or Xi’an or Seoul.

My current trip to Switzerland has been a treat because other than wedding activities, which were fabulously filled with seeing our friend wed his new bride, meeting new (and seeing old) friends, a cool jazz concert, amazing food, and lots of wine, I had a bit of free time.

The last time I was in Switzerland was in the late 90’s after grad school, on an extended backpack and youth hostel trip. I traveled for a couple of months with my sister and then extended my student-fare plane ticket to see more of Europe and live in Firenze/Florence for a few months. The only Swiss city I went to on that trip was Interlaken, where upon arrival I saw three people writing papers at a picnic table. The conversation went like this:

Me: “What are you doing?”

Them: “Writing out our last will and testament.”

Me: “….”

Them: “We’re going bungee jumping off the highest jump in the world today.”

Me: “Where do I sign up?”

We did an activity called the “Adrenaline Duo” – canyoning and bungy jumping from a gondola hanging between the mountains. The guides told us it was the highest gondola jump in the world. I loved every second of it.

So back to the present: Leading up to this trip, I thought back to that fun day in Switzerland I had years ago and looked for an activity to do on this trip. Everything seemed too far from where we were staying, so I shoved the thought aside and looked into bike rentals or swimming in Lake Sarnen. I learned after arriving that the lake is filled with glacier melt water, and is pretty chilly without a wetsuit. Hmmm, I thought, what can I do for a bit of fun on Saturday morning?

I picked up a brochure for Mount Pilatus Adventure Park – tobogganing, tubing, a ropes course with zip lines. And bonus: I met fun people who wanted to do this crazy stuff also, plus they had a car that would fit me and my husband. The stars were aligning!

We headed to Kriens, where you take a 30-minute gondola ride up the mountain to the adventure area.

Note: The area was a little confusing, with the toboggan one direction and the ropes course the other.

We headed straight for the toboggan since it was High Priority #1. I have to recommend to anyone going to Mount Pilatus that you head to the ropes course first for two reasons:

a) the lockers are free (they were 2 Euros by the toboggan)

b) you get a discount on the toboggan ride with any paid ropes course admission

Okay, so back to High Priority #1: Toboggan Ride.

It was awesome. I would have done it again once I had the feel for the sled and how to accelerate and brake. The ride was longer than I expected, but there were sharp curves and I was a bit of a wuss, braking quite a bit. Next time, I’m on accelerate all the way, baby!

At the bottom, they pull you back up the mountain in reverse on another track.

Next, we headed to High Priority #2: Ropes Course and Zip Lines. After signing some paperwork, we were outfitted with helmets and harnesses and had an orientation on safety and how to clip the carabiners for each type of element. It was foggy.

They had 10 different courses of varying difficulties, and all seemed to have zip lines. 

(A little blurry but an action shot nonetheless!)

It.Was.So.Fun! We really needed more time on the mountain, but had to get back to the wedding. So we did a few of the courses, and headed back down the mountain by gondola. We didn’t have time for the tubing or the freefall adventure, but the experience we did have was worth it. My arms and legs were like jelly from tightrope walking on cables, and we only got to the Medium level courses. I’m curious what Difficult looked like!

 

What a great day – zip lining in the mountains followed by wedding festivities that lasted late into the night. I can’t wait to come back to Switzerland someday.

 

Running Up A Mountain

All’s been quiet on the blog and social media front since I have had a finicky and slow internet connection for several days in the middle of the mountains in Switzerland for a friend’s wedding. How dare they not give me a lightning-fast connection so that I can post on my blog instead of going outside in the fresh Swiss mountain air!

Speaking of the air, there’s nothing like exercising outside and taking deep breaths when all you can smell is cow manure. Ahhh, refreshing.

When we arrived in Switzerland, we met up with four other friends at the Zurich airport and headed out by train to the area of the wedding. We stopped for lunch in Lucerne and although I really enjoy trying whatever is the local specialty on a menu when traveling, this is not the meal that one should order if one is:

a) lactose intolerant

b) trying to lose weight

I was only able to eat about 1/20th of what was basically Swiss mac and cheese.

One morning, I set out on foot to run up the mountain to a chapel that looked really interesting – you can just barely see the Rapunzel tower at the top of this photo:

It’s typically a religious pilgrimage type of attraction since Brother Klaus, a 15th-century saint, became a hermit and traveled up the mountain to this chapel and received visions.

Anyhow, to run up there you first have to run down a gorgeous path to a stream and another chapel:

The run down was peaceful and it was moving to be in a beautiful place with such history. The first part was paved, but there were also a lot of trails, and I realized my shoes aren’t really made for that type of terrain.

Going up was a challenge, but I took some walking breaks and waved to the cows, and admired the view of Hotel Paxmontana, my starting point:

As the chapel got closer, I got more inspired to run even though it got quite a bit steeper:’

Who needs an Ipod when you have the sounds of cowbells?

Getting closer still… 

Made it!

I’m going to tell my daughter this is Rapunzel’s tower:

 

The run down was easy, but that first steep downhill? Yeah, you have to run back up that to conclude your journey. My calves better look awesome after all the uphills.

All in all, a great workout and a really amazing journey.

 

 

 

 

 

I Run The World.

No, no, wait – don’t read it that way. I don’t “rule” the world. I run the world. Specifically, I run around the world, as in: I run in many places IN the world.  No delusions of grandeur here, I “rule” nothing except maybe the game Scramble on my phone (seriously, I do rule at that game and hardly ever lose).

So about this running the world statement. I travel a lot, mostly for work. In fact, in the last 12 months alone my job has involved traveling to Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Spain, Germany, France, and Oman. I am lucky that my husband works from home most days, and is used to taking care of all three kids on his own.

Right now, I’m in Switzerland with my husband for a wedding, which is amazing. The only thing not amazing is the Wifi, but it has been good to unplug a little bit. I don’t like unplugging 100% because I want to be able to check in back at home and a few other things online, so I would love if the Wifi worked a tad bit better, but I’m not sitting around the chalet room much so it will do for a few nights.

I’ll post something else tomorrow with pictures since they are not uploading on this connection, but for now I’ll just leave you with this random tidbit about my day:

Running down a mountain involves running back up a mountain.

I love to run when I travel, and feel like I get a good sense of the area. Whether it’s Topeka, Kansas or Hamburg, Germany, I try to get out for a run and explore on foot. And I’m currently in the middle of the mountains in Switzerland, so I went out and ran these hills, and it was great!

Doing the Running Stroller Limbo!

Yes, I went there, I posted a video of the Hoff singing. Singing AND doing the limbo. Who wouldn’t want to see David Hasselhoff doing the limbo? [shhh, if you don’t want to see it, just don’t click play.]

Today is the first day of summer vacation for all the school-aged kids in the ‘hood, including my 7-year-old daughter. But for the 18-month-old boy, it’s just a regular day where you start yapping with your cute (but loud) voice before 6am, hoping your mommy comes and picks you up so you can start your lovely day. Except mommy was tired. But as the clock ticked on after 6am, I started to get anxious about getting in a workout today. You see, I have some forced rest days later this week since I’ll be on an airplane (and nobody on an overnight flight wants to see me doing squats in the aisle). So exercise today was a MUST. And the day looked like this: dentist, work the office day, work a concert, come home and pack for my trip. It was 6am or 11pm and I chose 6am.

I threw on my running clothes, scooped F. out of his crib, gathered food and milk for him, and headed down the front steps.

Three things I learned on today’s 5K with the jogging stroller:

#1. It’s getting hot and humid out there, even by 7am. Bring a towel next time.

#2. Don’t decide to try Energybits for the first time right as you walk out the door and think “what the heck, I’ll chew them up!” or they’ll end up a sticky, gooey mess in your teeth. I think I was supposed to just swallow them whole. I had to explain that one to the dentist this morning (honestly, it’s not candy!).

#3. Someone needs to trim the branches, bushes, and trees. Holy overgrown neighborhood, Batman.

I was sweeping branches and bushes out of the way so they wouldn’t poke my toddler, I was trying to get people who were waiting for the bus to move out of the sidewalk before we ran them over, but most of all, I was doing the limbo to avoid getting poked in the eye by branches. But hey – I discovered that the limbo is apparently a good core workout, and combined with tossing food and pacis at my kid, I had an upper body workout taken care of!

Oh, and an honorary #4:

#4: You will feel like a rock star if your wake-up alarm goes off midway through your run! Nothing like your heart rate pumping along and realizing you have already burned a bunch of calories when you would have been sleeping!

 And this leads me to wonder – why do I even set a wakeup alarm if I have a toddler that will start not-so-politely calling for me by 6am?

Was it 24 laps or lengths? Ah, who cares, I did 24 of them!

Last night I was determined to get to the pool to do some laps. Determined! I had the will but not the way (aka the time). Isn’t that old phrase: “where there’s a will there’s a way”? Well, sometimes there just isn’t a way, like when you have 3 kids and have to: drop a car at the shop, wrap presents, take kids to a cousin’s birthday party, pack separate food for your food-allergic child to eat at the party, put the 1yo down for a nap, take the 7yo to a swimming party, make dinner, pick up the car from the shop, do laundry since the 3yo is out of underwear, put the kids to bed, and stop off at the wine store because we have a winemergency.

And when we are out of wine, it is truly a winemergency because how can you handle a Saturday like that if you don’t have wine to look forward to at the end of it?

Once upon a time I had Saturdays that were relaxing. Ah, those were the days…

So I put the 18 month old to bed and my up-for-anything au pair and I decided to hit the neighborhood pool to do laps. My husband handled the not-happy-about-it 3.5 year old, and we quietly snuck out. 

Brrr… the water felt pretty chilly and I was a total wuss getting in the pool like the older women I used to make fun of as a kid at the pool, until I realized – Oh wait! I am one of those older ladies now, OMG!!! – and jumped right in. Defy the old lady stereotype!

Once I got going the water felt GREAT! I, however, started to feel like I had a lot of work to do to build up my endurance and work on my form for the triathlon. I swam 3 freestyle/1 breaststroke lengths (or laps? Weigh in below!) a few times and thought I just might be done now. So I rested on the side of the pool and decided to work on my form and get into a better groove. And when I started back up, it felt better and better each length. In fact, I could have kept going, except the lifeguards were hating us by that point – it was 9pm and the pool was closing.

I ended up doing 24 lengths, and although I know I have a lot to work on in the next 3 months, I’m feeling pretty good about my first pool training session of the official Triathlon training.

After spending my entire childhood practically living at the pool every summer, on the swim team and later as a lifeguard, I’m now perplexed by the length vs. lap distinction. I’m sure now that a lap = there & back, but that means my entire childhood memories are wrong. Ack, I’m not sure I can handle this mental mind game – my mind is blown.

Do you call them lengths or laps?

 

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Bellying Up to the Barre

Have I mentioned I like to sign up for things? Errrr, ummmm, yeah, I think that’s been said – it’s pretty much a theme here. I’m almost afraid to admit that I was a wee bit impulsive and signed up for another (running) race – but I’ll post about that insanity another day. (Hint: 3 words. The first is Glass, the second is Slipper, and the 3rd is Challenge.)

Hand in hand with the love of signing up for things is a love of trying new things. I’m always game to try any new workout, fitness class, DVD, group run, join a team – anything that will help my (ongoing) quest to lose-the-baby-weight-and-get-fit. Said baby is 18 months today and I am serious about it – after 3 kids I am ready to feel my best and be fit enough to tackle new challenges. Well, I am serious about it except for about 45 minutes ago when I had a (small) piece of cake. NOW I’m serious about it again. My only obstacle is TIME.

Today I found myself with a couple of hours between the regular work day and a work event at about 9pm. I pondered my choices:
A) Keep working straight through (I could always use the extra time in the office)
B) Eat and drink excessive amounts of calories
C) Shop for my trip (did I mention I’m going to Switzerland and Italy next week?!)
D) Exercise

First, let me explain that I live too far to go home in between these two things. I would battle insane amounts of traffic only to see my kids for 5 minutes and then turn around and drive back downtown, leaving two boys in a puddle of tears because I came and went so quickly (my daughter’s pretty blase about it). Without quality time at home, it’s better to just avoid the two hours of driving.

So last night it hit me: I would have TWO HOURS OF KID FREE TIME. Um, hello!!! I’m always stumped with what to do at times like these because it feels like a race to cram a bunch of errands or work or catching up on emails or tracing the two hundred check boxes on my endless To Do List with all its sad little empty check boxes calling attention to the fact that I never have time to do all of the things I need to do.

So naturally, I stared at the big list of empty check boxes and promptly booked an exercise class. Gone are the days when I’d spend those two hours making progress on my To Do List, or sitting eating a calorie-fest dinner with a calorie-fest drink while working through a project on said list. Lately, I’ve been putting my Quest For Fitness as #1! (Well #3 right after my family and work, of course.)

So as the work day came to a close at 6pm, I did a Superman change in the bathroom and went to a Barre class at Barre 3.

It was great, a really awesome workout but different from anything I have done! I have been doing so much running, and since the half marathon I’ve also branched out to biking, 30 Day Shred, gym workouts, and other weight and cardio workouts. And my weekly Pilates class. I’m enjoying variety and cross-training now that I’m not hyper-focused on a long distance running race. But this was different – a lot of small, repetitive movements and holding positions. We worked upper body, lower body, and core in an interesting way with a motivating instructor. I also liked how she spent time to show newbies like me how to propoerly position ourselves, without making me feel like an idiot – they were all about the positive energy at barre class.

Sometimes it almost seemed like not much could possibly happen from slightly pressing my thighs into this squishy ball while positioned in a particular way, but then – hello, the shaking. OMG the shaking. Apparently if you shake, you’re doing something right, and I was shaking like a leaf on a tree in a derecho. So I’m hoping I’ll see some results after a few trips to the studio.

I’m definitely going back, and glad I had booked the package of 3 classes at a newbie rate. It’s a bit pricey for regular thing, but maybe sometime in the future I’ll be as addicted as others and be reaping the benefits of regular barre workouts.

I do have one confession. I am still not used to non-cardio workouts and have trouble trusting that they’re working me like a good elevate-your-heart-rate run. But I know that Pilates has done so much for more core strength and this has transitioned into more solid posture, running form, and overall fitness and the barre wokrout was seriously hard – I could feel it working.

(PS – is this where I mention that nobody told me to say anything nice about barre workouts or this studio? I was just a regular newbie trying the class on my own and decided to write about it.)

Welcome Back, Morton’s Neuroma! BTW, I’m Not Glad To See You.

Ever since my 4-mile race on Saturday, I’ve had pain in the foot. For years I’ve suffered from a variety of foot and toe issues, most notably a Morton’s Neuroma in my right foot. It used to feel like shooting nerve pain that would start in the ball of the foot and spring towards my toes, but now it’s just a general PAIN in that area, and can be pretty intense. I’ve had cortisone shots that worked with varying degrees of success, but now I just manage it with icing, not wearing heels, and yelping in pain once in a while.

It’s hard not to feel like I’m getting old when I can’t wear the cute shoes I see on everyone else.

The pain had been better. A LOT better, I didn’t even notice it on the recent Half Marathon. It flared up the past week and I can’t help but wonder if it’s my feet adjusting to my new running shoes, the fact that I wore heels one or two days recently to work, or if there’s something else going on. I’ve been seeing a podiatrist regularly for this and other foot issues, but now I’m wondering if a Orthopaedic Surgeon who specializes in Sports, specifically the foot, would be better for this problem. I have a lot of running I need to do for my upcoming races and need to be able to do more than 3 miles without limping!

My podiatrist had said it could eventually go away, but somehow I don’t think I’m going to be that lucky.

(I’ll spare you a not-so-cute image of the foot with this post, and please, PLEASE don’t google Morton’s Neuroma surgery while you’re eating. Ick.)

Have you seen a Podiatrist or Orthopedic Specialist for foot issues? Have you ever had a Morton’s Neuroma?

Sleepless nights yield good races – who knew?

Apparently I can thrive in a race on 4.5 hours of sleep – who knew? This was never the case before!

I got home from my 13-hour day at work last night after midnight (or is that considered to be this morning?). I had worked a full workday and then two concerts back-to-back. Although the coffee I consumed at 9:30pm was completely necessary in order to drive home late at night after being on the go nonstop since 6:00am, it meant that I couldn’t wind down right away when I got home. I went to sleep around 1:00am. Ouch.

I was registered for a 4-mile fundraiser race this morning for a foundation that focuses on awareness and research of concussions. It was in honor of a wonderful young man who passed away two years ago after sustaining a concussion playing football. I am happy to support this mission because I think the cause is really worthy, and I have had concussions in the past – including last summer when I fell down the stairs head first. I liked the distance – 4 miles – because it’s what I do for in a lot of my runs, so I figured I’d just do my run with a crowd this day.

Of course my toddler picked today to wake up at 5:45am woofing like a dog at the top of his lungs. He loves to woof like a dog but this is clearly not the time of day when I find it hysterical.

The run started and ended at a high school track, with an out and back on a local road. I was happy to have my Garmin watch and not have to mess with my phone, plus I’m loving the data that ends up on the Garmin website once it gets uploaded.

Run = 4.01 miles. Time = 37:25.

Average Pace = 9:20/mile. Average moving pace = 9:13/mile. Fastest moving pace = 7:26/mile (what the WHAT?!).

Mile 1 = 9:48

Mile 2 = 9:24

Mile 3 = 9:13

Mile 4 = 8:54

I never claimed to be super fast, and I’m just thrilled that all my miles were under 10 minutes, and I even had a sub-9 minute mile. And the best part – each mile was faster than the one before! (I think I sped it up along the way since I needed the potty!)

I felt awesome and would have actually gone for a swim today if I had had time. Instead, I took a 3yo to soccer class, cleaned up a poop-tastrophe, then took 3 overtired kids to Toys R Us. I was walking around the store thinking I looked like an advertisement for online shopping – i.e., NEVER DO THIS. EVER.

Then I got the pleasure of taking a 7 year old to a bounce party.

I am exhausted.

Cue falling asleep on the couch with laptop on lap in 3… 2… 1…