Premiärmilen, new PB and March check-up!

What an amazing ending of March we had this past weekend! Beautiful, warm sun and on top of that my mother was here visiting and I ran this seasons first 10K race... Sunday's race was nerve wracking because lately I've been feeling tired and my legs heavy. I've had a hard time keeping up the speed during my fast runs. So considering that my goal was to beat my personal best, 46:15 from last years Hässelbyloppet, but I wasn't sure that I would be able to at all...

I started the day with oatmeal and tried my best to get ready in time. I took the metro alone since H had to take the girls to a birthdayparty and my mother to the metro to go home, and I was at Norra Djurgården about an hour before the start. The weather was amazing but I was a bit cold and warmed up more than I usually do, I ran slowly for about 15 minutes and stretched... I even got stuck on a picture warming up only minutes before the start:

It's me wearing the orange top and the blue/mixed colored pants between the guy in blue and the guy in yellow... The start went off and off I ran! The first kilometer felt pretty good, a bit crowded but nothing compared to some other races... I think I started a bit to fast, after 2-3 kilometers I was already pretty exhausted and started to worry about if this would be doable... Maybe this would be the first race I have to disrupt? Fortunately I'm very stubborn and I continued, a bit slower though, and stumbled in the goal on 45:18! My new personal best!!! The chocolate bar and the hot coffee tasted wonderful and the sun and all the runners just made me so happy. This is why I run! This beautiful feeling of achieving something that I never would think was possible a few years back...

So how about the rest of March? Well here's the sum-up:

January: 104,0 km
February: 139,2 km
March: 204,2 km
Total 2014: 447,4km

Actually I never believe I ran this much during one month so that's another thing to be proud over. To celebrate I just bought a new bike and cycled from the store and home today, 15 kilometers. It's spring for real!

Spring again, birthdayparty and a obstinate 4-year-old...

I'm feeling dizzy... This weather is really confusing, one day snowstorm and the next a warm springsun and flowers popping up... It's not easy to decide what to wear and which shoes to use...


It's a lot of activities every weekend and this one was no different, we visited my cousin on Saturday, we had an old Canadian friend over Saturday evening. Today we put up a new postbox, played outside in the beautiful weather and Lovisa attended a birthdayparty. This was the first time that I just dropped her off and came back 3 hours later to pick her up... It went very well but it was a tired little girls I picked up... Lovisa is in a wired phase right now, one moment she acts grown up, listens and is reasonable and the next she cries over the most trivial things, screams and acts like a baby. It's to say the least challenging... Much more challenging than running in a snowstorm... Today she was totally freaking out over the terrifying fact that she couldn't have more candy when she actually had more candy than usual... First she was a very nice girl and shared some candy with her little sister and a moment later she cried and screamed when her candy-bag was empty... It's not easy being 4 years old trying to be grown-up and it's not easy being 35 years old trying to be a grown-up either...

Anyway after a nice bath their now sleeping good in their beds and the time is 07:23 pm. To grow up takes a lot of energy both for the ones growing and for the parents trying to keep up...

I think I'm going to sleep good tonight...

A challenge!

This winter never really hit it off so it does feel a bit unnecessary that it has to come now, a heavy snowfall hit Stockholm today and the whole city seems to be a white, foggy snowchaos... I chose to look at it differently though, I saw my usual "15 km run home from work" getting more challenging... And it was bloody tough but I made it home!

And I didn't even get a "bravo" when I stumbled inside all sweaty, wet, warm and cold at the same time, no, instead H looked at me and said "why didn't you take the bus?"... But that wouldn't have been challenging at all...

Tekniska museet and the weekend when winter returned.

And just like that another week past by in the speed of light... Or at least that's how it feels like... After sunny and for the season very warm days winter returned on Saturday and we decided to escape the cold winds into a museum. H wanted to go to "Tekniska muséet" where they right now have an exhibition about the history of computer games. It turned out to be much fun even for our youngest one...

"Tekniska" also had other things to offer, here Lovisa is trying to cycle enough to make energy to light up a bulb:

And luckily the museum also had a room for their smallest visitors...


It was fun and totally worth going, it just amazes me how exhausting a visit to a museum with two very active girls can be, Saturday evening I fell asleep before 10 pm... And the same goes for this evening - goodnight!

I'm getting old...

Oh, lovely weekend! The first real spring weather arrived the same time as me and my sister went to Västerås, a city located in between Stockholm and Värmland, to hang-out, eat good, sleep a whole night, take a Sauna and shop! We started off with the sauna, made ourselves as beautiful as possible while we sipped on a glass of whine, ate a 2-course meal and shared a bottle of Amarone, ended the evening in the bar with a cold Staropramen. We talked continuously and that's not that strange since this is actually the first time we were alone since we had our children. So we had quite a lot to talk about. It all felt very good until we woke up Saturday morning with a major hangover and had no one else to blame but ourselves... We could just conclude that time change and we can no longer drink as we used to do, go figure... After a nice breakkie we did feel a lot better and was ready to hit the town of Västerås, a nice little city with plenty of shops to spend some money... 

We looked at old pictures in our mobile phones and concluded once more that time change and goes way to fast... Just look at this, H and Andréa almost 2 years ago:

And cutest Lovisa, over 3 years ago:


I can just conclude that I think I'm getting old...

February check-up!

It's sooooo annoying with all these infections going around and around. I started February with a cold and finished it with one to, just as I did in January. Could we decide that it's enough with the infections now? Otherwise it's going to be hard to achieve any of my goals of 2014.

Enough with the whining, I did run quite a lot considering infections and crappy weather and bloody tiredness...

January 104,0 km
February 139,2 km

Total 143,2 km

Less than a month left to my first 10K race of 2014 and I'm getting a bit nervous thinking about it...

Fettisdagen!

The only positive thing with Andrea being sick is that I got the chance to bake and eat a homemaid Semla. And that's the best kind.


Andrea ate about a tablespoon of whipped cream and left the rest, me on the other hand almost licked the plate clean...

The Sunday snack...

When the kids are sick I'll admit that our snacks are not that nutritious. Or how about a doughnut with pink sprinkles and a ball of icecream in the middle...

First movie ever!

The expectations were enormous when Lovisa was going to the movies for the first time ever yesterday. Andréa was home sick with H and to cheer Lovisa up we went to see "The Pirate Fairy". We took the car to Vällingby city and Lovisa could hardly sit still...


We bought the popcorn, found our seats and all of a sudden she was very serious and when the movie finally started she sat totally still and was very focused during the 1 hour and 18 minutes that the movie lasted. Pretty amazing according to her mother.


Today we're trying to make the best of this grey day after a more of less sleepless night with a very feverish Andréa. Lovisa had the perfect idea during breakfast: "let's go to the movies today again mum!"