April | 2012 | The Memories of Our Corks

There’s nothing more pleasing than a good dish of pasta after a 5k evening run after work!

I’ve always been very active! But running wasn’t really my thing.

Almost 3 years ago we moved into our first own flat! We belong to the fortunate group of people whose building has its own gymnasium – and that’s when I started thinking about running!

I started by running a mere 10 minutes at about 8km/h on the treadmill and believe me…I was nearly out of breath! At this point I would think:

Not my thing – going to swim!

But then in March 2010 I decided to do my first 5k Race for Life. Training was a must. Slowly slowly 10 minutes became 20 and then 30 and then 40 and after approximately 45 minutes I was able to reach the most wanted 5k for the first time!

I did the 5k Race for life in Hyde Park on a sunny saturday morning in May with a colleague.

Joana's 5k Race for life 2010 - Hyde Park

We got to the end in 43 minutes!!!

And that’s when I got really into running!!!

Now I could run 5k everyday! And the only reason I don’t is because I participate in other gym activities: I do Pilates once a week and join the group classes when I can. I am also learning ballroom and latin american dance at The London Academy of Dance (www.thelondonacademyofdance.com) which I absolutely adore and strongly recommend!

So, I don’t run 5k a day but AT LEAST once a week, and time allowing, twice or 3 times. I can do it now under 30 minutes – my best time was just a bit more than 26 minutes. Occasionally I reach the 10k!!! I always have to be listening to the right music and at the moment my preferred speed is 10 k/h – at this speed I can keeeeeeeeeeeeeep running…just like Forrest 🙂

And there’s really nothing more pleasing than a good dish of pasta after a 5k evening run after work!

Obviously after running 5k one DOES NOT want to be cooking for a long time. So my preferred two pasta dishes after running are pretty quick to make: Spaghetti with Courgettes and Carbonara!