Ihop Monday

How could we come to America and not go out and have pancakes for breakfast at least once? We have been asking ourselves that question until today when we finally fulfilled a lifelong dream and went down to Ihop at around 9am after training. The pancake options were good; banana and strawberry, chocolate chip, original buttermilk and harvest grain options were all available amongst others. Me and Andrea went for the double blueberry and cheesecake choices instead - the others looked good, but hopefully there will be other opportunities. We weren’t disappointed as both tasted great, although as you have probably guessed, as we are in the land of the fatties, they were also pretty huge portions. Full and fulfilled we headed back to the apartment.


Mmmmmmm pancakes

In the afternoon, Andrea met up with one of the Oregon University running groups. We had been in contact with the coach of the group, Tom Heinonen, who recommended we go down and join in with them on the steady run his group was doing. Everyone was very welcoming and Andrea managed to explore some new routes around Eugene - this one was nicknamed the finger (because it’s shaped that way!) - while I went to the bike shop to get some gear for a newly flat tyre.

In the evening we went down to the coffee shop at borders where we met up with pro-coach Brad Hudson, who we had met previously when out and about in Eugene a couple of weeks previously. Being a geek I didn’t want to pass up an opportunity so found him on facebook and bombarded him with messages until he agreed to meet up! A slight misunderstanding meant that we were waiting for each other at other ends of Borders for around 20 minutes, but when we finally saw each other we ended up chatting for around three hours. Brad was really encouraging of the setup we currently have and gave us lots of good advice and things to think about and incorporate into Andrea’s future training program. We will probably end up incorporate some of the stuff he suggested straight away! At around 10:30pm we got back to the apartment, with our heads still buzzing. Both of us have felt a bit sleep-deprived lately and with so much stuff going round our heads I’m not sure that tonight will be any different…