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Spring happiness
Mar. 26th, 2011 06:02 amI had the bestest day yesterday.
The weather was as fantastic as promised, and so I waited for Slavica and then set out to climb the Vodno shortly before 8.30. The fleece jacket had to go ten minutes into the hike, because the sun was so warm, and the air not as cool as I'd thought. Preferring baroque music to the sounds of nature, I listened to Bach on the way up. It's difficult to describe how happy I was feeling without getting dangerously close to cheesy territory, but the combination of an insanely blue sky, fruit trees in full blossom, green buds on all the trees and shrubs, spring flowers galore, and the feeling of being healthy and in excellent form was quite overwhelming. And Bach. Go figure. The smells and fresh air almost got me drunk -- that slight, sweet perfume of cherry and apple blossoms, then a whiff of almond blossom, and suddenly there's a patch of violets and hyacinths, and the scent turns intense and heavy.
Since it was Friday and therefore little to no traffic up there, I chose to do the whole hike on the road and am proud to report that I managed 11km distance, covering a difference in elevation of about 800m, in 1h50.
After I got home I ate a little bite and changed, and then went -- by taxi, though -- down to the tennis club where I spent two hours sitting in the sun, having coffee and reading Vargas Llosa's The Bad Girl. Then I played two hours tennis with Elena.
Surprisingly I didn't go out like a candle as soon as I'd eaten dinner, but managed to stay up till 10 p.m.
Thigh and bum muscles are a bit sore today, which isn't going to prevent me from doing it again, this time with Irene. And tennis in the afternoon, but it's going to be doubles, so that's a bit less challenging. Apart from the fact that we'll be playing with two guys (Sándor, who's the coordinator for the EU presidency at the Hungarian Embassy, and Gregor, a Polish guy from the EU delegation), which I hope isn't going to mess my serves up too much -- I usually get a bit nervous when playing for the first time with new people.
Today I mustn't forget the sun screen. I got away with it yesterday, but a repetition would surely result in sunburn, and we can't have that.
Since I hadn't eaten overly much during the day, I was of course starving last night and made myself a scrumptious omelette (4 eggs, red peppers, ham, ajvar on top) which kinda fell into a black hole, i.e. I wasn't hungry afterwards but neither was I anywhere near full. So I had an enormous bowl of Greek yoghurt with honey, and that did the trick. The thing is, when I'm eating egg I have to keep it proteines-only, since otherwise I almost can't digest it -- it sits in my stomach for ages, and not in a good way. So I was glad I had that yummy, fat Greek joghurt.
Ayway, the fact that I held up very well yesterday but certainly do feel my muscles today encouraged me to try and really do the "Climb the Vodno every day for a whole week" project. That, and either tennis or gym in the afternoon, should allow me to lose a bit more weight and increase my physical fitness considerably. I'm not paranoid about weight loss, but getting rid of 4 or 5 kilos wouldn't do any harm. And since I love being outdoors and exercising, that week will certainly be a good one. Let's see whether it's possible time- and weather-wise. If it is, and if I can do it towards the end of April, I think I might dare to think about this year's half-marathon, which takes place on 8 May. Hubris, I know, but I kind of like the idea.
The weather was as fantastic as promised, and so I waited for Slavica and then set out to climb the Vodno shortly before 8.30. The fleece jacket had to go ten minutes into the hike, because the sun was so warm, and the air not as cool as I'd thought. Preferring baroque music to the sounds of nature, I listened to Bach on the way up. It's difficult to describe how happy I was feeling without getting dangerously close to cheesy territory, but the combination of an insanely blue sky, fruit trees in full blossom, green buds on all the trees and shrubs, spring flowers galore, and the feeling of being healthy and in excellent form was quite overwhelming. And Bach. Go figure. The smells and fresh air almost got me drunk -- that slight, sweet perfume of cherry and apple blossoms, then a whiff of almond blossom, and suddenly there's a patch of violets and hyacinths, and the scent turns intense and heavy.
Since it was Friday and therefore little to no traffic up there, I chose to do the whole hike on the road and am proud to report that I managed 11km distance, covering a difference in elevation of about 800m, in 1h50.
After I got home I ate a little bite and changed, and then went -- by taxi, though -- down to the tennis club where I spent two hours sitting in the sun, having coffee and reading Vargas Llosa's The Bad Girl. Then I played two hours tennis with Elena.
Surprisingly I didn't go out like a candle as soon as I'd eaten dinner, but managed to stay up till 10 p.m.
Thigh and bum muscles are a bit sore today, which isn't going to prevent me from doing it again, this time with Irene. And tennis in the afternoon, but it's going to be doubles, so that's a bit less challenging. Apart from the fact that we'll be playing with two guys (Sándor, who's the coordinator for the EU presidency at the Hungarian Embassy, and Gregor, a Polish guy from the EU delegation), which I hope isn't going to mess my serves up too much -- I usually get a bit nervous when playing for the first time with new people.
Today I mustn't forget the sun screen. I got away with it yesterday, but a repetition would surely result in sunburn, and we can't have that.
Since I hadn't eaten overly much during the day, I was of course starving last night and made myself a scrumptious omelette (4 eggs, red peppers, ham, ajvar on top) which kinda fell into a black hole, i.e. I wasn't hungry afterwards but neither was I anywhere near full. So I had an enormous bowl of Greek yoghurt with honey, and that did the trick. The thing is, when I'm eating egg I have to keep it proteines-only, since otherwise I almost can't digest it -- it sits in my stomach for ages, and not in a good way. So I was glad I had that yummy, fat Greek joghurt.
Ayway, the fact that I held up very well yesterday but certainly do feel my muscles today encouraged me to try and really do the "Climb the Vodno every day for a whole week" project. That, and either tennis or gym in the afternoon, should allow me to lose a bit more weight and increase my physical fitness considerably. I'm not paranoid about weight loss, but getting rid of 4 or 5 kilos wouldn't do any harm. And since I love being outdoors and exercising, that week will certainly be a good one. Let's see whether it's possible time- and weather-wise. If it is, and if I can do it towards the end of April, I think I might dare to think about this year's half-marathon, which takes place on 8 May. Hubris, I know, but I kind of like the idea.
