Running to Think

Monday, 18 April 2016

Running for clean water

Hello runners&friends!

When I run the long distance, I drink, fresh and clean water carried by myself or gently provided by supporters. Such a nice feeling and relief!
Unfortunately, there are people in this world who don't have such a gift. Unbelievable uh?
There are children and adults who can only satisfy their primary needs with dirty water if any.
What can we do?

I'm fundraising for children and communities around the world who are in need of clean water. Only $50 can provide someone with clean water for life. Did you know that more than 1,000 children under age 5 die every day from diarrhea caused by unsafe water? That’s more than AIDS and malaria combined.

I joined World Vision, one of the largest providers of water in the developing world, and I need your help to reach new people with clean water.
With your help, we can provide clean water, basic sanitation, and hygiene education to prevent disease and death.

Will you join me by giving a donation to help me reach my goal?

Visit my page on World Vision. Water will be tastier for all of us.

Thank you!

Saturday, 2 April 2016

So what's the plan?

Unknown 17:20:00 0 Comments

Hello running lovers,
it has been a while indeed. Had to catch up with some priorities in life.
I was recently running in the city of Leuven, when I heard my name from a distance. It was a lucky moment since I usually wear headphones and really live in another dimension with no people, nor noise around.

"Francesco!" that voice screamed.

He was an old friend of mine, I trained with for a while when I was into triathlon and Ironman. He is now in the belgian army and apparently he has not been actively training anymore.
He asked about me, and since I was running, there was really no doubt about my dedication.

"Nothing changed man" I said
"I eat, I run, I work. And I keep doing that in every permutation".

He asked me about the blog, this space I created almost three years ago and abandoned for a while.
That guy made me think. He told me that he was checking the site once in a while, hoping for me to post something.
I understand my writings are probably not like the ones by Shakespeare (even though that guy was boring enough not to have a website ;) but hey, I should have kept writing!

So, here I am, in my flesh and bones, on my keyboard again (brand new clicky one), writing about my passion, and ramblings while I give time to those two legs down there to recover and get ready for their next one.

Gipsy is back.

Tuesday, 29 December 2015

New shoes review: Adidas Glide Boost

Unknown 11:58:00 adidas , boost 0 Comments

Christmas is not just chocolates and candies, especially when it is time to think about new running shoes. Recently my running habits have changed into trail, and I am basically burning more trail shoes than road ones. Anyway, I hit the road "once in a while", and with that I mean for about 60 km per week.

After a distraction of about 3 months and a quite disappointing New Balance 860 v5 that have been pierced by my thumb in about 2 weeks, I decided to go back to one of the best shoes I have been running for a while now, namely the Adidas Glide Boost (don't remember which version I started with).

The technology of these shoes is just amazing. They sell them as a repository of energy that boosts at the right moment of your running activity. For those who are not familiar with material science, the Boost is nothing more than a hyperelastic material that is very resistent and light. A sole made of such a material takes the properties of it, that is lightweight, very flexible and super comfortable.

The first feeling I got is indeed like wearing a pair of socks, just with a nice protection under my feet. It is not easy to find shoes that are resistent, stable and comfortable at the same time.

The glide boost has a bit less Boost material than the sister Energy Boost. This is not bad as we might think, especially for those who want to feel a bit the road a bit, and need a more responsive piece under their feet.

If you put these shoes upside down, you will read something ridiculously funny: Continental. That's right! The same protection of tyres used for high performance cars.

Do you understand what I mean now?

Glide Boost by Adidas are the best road running shoes I found so far. One more reason to buy two pairs in a row this time.

The colors are still a bit too flushy. But there is an improvement with respect to the old version (which was fluo yellow). These ones look more like a python snake :)

Happy running!

Monday, 23 November 2015

Updates from the running department

Unknown 08:05:00 delicious , nutrition 0 Comments

It has been a while since my last post. A lot happened in my life. I changed job, moving from academia to industry, finished the renovation of my house, found some time to go on holiday, also lost motivation to run long distance for a while.
But I never stopped completely.
There was some kind of innate mechanism in my brain that was forcing me to put some shoes on and run, almost every day.
However, I reduced the weekly mileage from the usual 110 km to barely 70. Still OK to keep up the shape.

I feel that things are getting better now. Motivation is slowly coming back. Even though motivation is not the only one ingredient to achieve a goal, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, today I want to start writing again about my running adventures, and I want to start in an unusual way. That is sharing a recipe of a super tasty and well presented dish I made myself, after Halloween.
Spoiler alert: it made my girl really happy to see such a beautiful dish, even more so with one candle on the table and a glass of good red wine.

The recipe I created literally from scratch is called "Fusilloni with pumpkin, mushrooms and leek". Delicious!

The recipe is, as usual, for two people, as I prefer to have dinner with Caroline.

Ingredients:
300 gr of pumpkin
150 gr of white mushrooms
1 white leek
1 red onion
200 gr fusilloni pasta
salt, persil, black pepper

Procedure
Chop the pumpkin in large pieces and soften in hot water for 10 minutes.
Chop leek, onion and mushrooms and brown off in a pan with one table spoon of olive oil.
Then add the pumpkin and add half a glass of water to keep it wet enough to steam. If it gets dry, keep a lid on.
Boil fusilloni pasta and 2 minutes before they get ready add them to the pan with the pumpkin.
Finish cooking the pasta in the pan.

Serve as in the figure below.

Buon appetito!