Activity level: High

poppies on the cycling route to Louvain-la-Neuve

Just a quick note on a beautiful Friday morning before I head into Brussels for a haircut and then a singing rehearsal with my friend Julius, in preparation for this weekend's Bach concert.

It's been a busy week with lots of activity... Wednesday I rode my bicycle the 5km to Louvain-la-Neuve, which was a bit of a climb, around 100m elevation.  It's a nice journey that passes through the LLN Golf Club, a quiet route that largely avoids large roads.

The pool complex has two 25-metre pools, and the upstairs one had six lanes dedicated to serious swimmers.  Joy of joys, the lanes were even labelled by speed, and there was a dedicated fast front crawl lane.  Amazing!  I bought a ten-visit card, which cost 37 EUR.  After the free lane swims at Jimmie Simpson it was a bit of an ouch, but it's totally worth it.  I managed a bit more than 2km and hit my speed targets, so I was happy.

Yesterday I drove Maggie to work and then went to Lawrence's house for a fast 12km run on his usual loop.  It is a lot of hard surfaces, cobblestones and asphalt, and we were at around a 5:38 pace... surprisingly I never hit the top heart rate zone, and I'm not terribly sore today, so that's quite good news.

After the run we had lunch and then played lumberjack.  There are many dead pine trees there, some of them maybe 12-20 metres tall, and we took down two of them during the afternoon, with the help of some ropes and a come-along to help direct the fall.  The first went well, but the second didn't fall the way we wanted, and ended up with part of the crown stuck up against a nearby maple tree.  Fortunately it's in a stable position, but it will require some figuring to get it down safely.

Duncan heard that he has passed his year, but there was some issue with his maths result.  We'll hear more in a few days when he goes to get the detailed marks, and I'll likely go in and talk with his maths teacher then.

Maggie has her last day of school today!