let it rain

we've had rain here almost constantly for about 4 days now - it's been lovely. The kids are a bit over it though. Oh and it makes me very sad we don't have tanks - but in order to have tanks you have to have functioning gutters - us, we just have 'strategic' drainage points at various spots along the entire guttering of the house - who needs a tank ... pfft!!

So, we decided to stay ... we wanted to go, but it had to be right, and there were a few things that just weren't. We had no g'tee that Max was even going to be able to get into a school (international) over there as a lot of them were full already for his age level. And although we had a housing allowance as part of the package - it wasn't enough for us to be able to live within walking distance to a school AND be on a train line that was close enough to where Arie would be working. The company kept telling us these things would all be fine and would be worked out when we got there ... but for me, these were deal breakers - I wasn't prepared to go on the off chance that these things might work out.

In addition Japanes workers get no sick leave ... If you get sick you have to use your annual leave - and I'll get to that in a minute. I read a study on the internet which said that only 20% of the workforce over there used their annual leave for leisure activites. 40% used annual leave for their own sick days and 40% for the care of sick family members .... wow! No wonder they're all so highly strung and commiting suicide all the time (huge sweeping generalisations there!!!)

Standard annual leave is 12 days per year with 15 public holidays (which is about the same amount of public holidays we get depending on the state you live in) ... 12 days!!!!! A would have got 2 days leave when the baby was born - so who knows what we would have done with the other 2 children while I was in hospital ...

So for those and a few other reasons which are way too complicated to go into, we decided, sadly, to stay - but now the decision is made I feel good about it. A has also been told by another player in the industry that when we decide to go, to let them know and they'll arrange it - and not on local hire terms either - so that means he'd have the same entitlements he would have here ... so the plan is to do it a few years time.

For now we're tuning our attention to some renovations and trying to decide how far to go with them - do we raise the house and do a full on renovation or do we sell and buy somewhere else???? Life is full of decisions I don't really want to make!!! Why can't someone just tell me what to do.

I'm experiencing extreme frustration at the moment with my latest uni assignment ... yeah, yeah, I know I say the same thing every semester - so A tells me anyway. But this is really doing my head in. It's a very theoretical assigment and I'm having trouble wading through all the academic self important talk of all the books etc ...

Next week Max starts a "Happy Coconuts" which is a group that does sport lessons for 3 to 6 year olds. A is concerned that he can't catch a ball!!! So they spend a few weeks at a time learning the basic skills of a variety of different sports - next week they start AFL - which Max should like because he likes to kick and handball around the back yard ... he just can't catch the ball! :)

Still got the hangings on of something - perhaps a mild sinus infection - certainly not 100%, but life goes on.

Had my first hospital appointment this week - just a paperwork session really - back to see the doctor in 2 weeks.

OH .... guess where I spent 2 3/4 hours on Wednesday night??? The EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT OF THE MATER CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL!! Max swalloed a 1 Yen coin - between the size of a 5 and 10 cent piece. I just sent him back to bed - he wasn't choking, he could talk and swallow etc etc, and thought it'd just come out the other end ... well, to be sure I called the 13HEALTH number they have here where you can speak to a registered nurse - and they said "oh no, you have to take him straight to the emergency department, if it passes through to his intestinal tract it can cause perferations etc etc - they'l have to remove it from his stomach under anesthetic" GREAT! So at 8pm I packed Max into the car and drove to the hospital (not far from us) ... anyway, to cut a very long night short - after waiting forever to see a doctor in a room full of vomiting children, he had an x-ray - coin is in his stomach - the DO NOT remove them, and they DO NOT cause perferations - he can just poo it out! The doctor said the only time they worry about it is if the coin gets caught beteween the throat and stomach - which obviously wan't the case with Max, who later told me he thought his trip to the hospital was "fun" .... It certainly wasn't for me, and I'm hoping like mad that we didn't walk out of there with more germs than we came with.

So that was my excitement for the week. :)

Sorry for the long post - I had to make up for my short non-post just for PH!! - and I can't be bothered spell checking, so there'll be loads of mistakes cos I think faster than I type - or is it the other way around?!

we're staying - I have a head cold and feel horrid - will be back later to fill in the gaps.

decision time

Awwww, it's nice to see comments from all of you after so long ... And I'm not even doing any running at the moment for you to comment on. If we go to Japan I'll have to change the title and topics of this blog and will definitely continue it.

Japan japan japan ... Geez, I've never lost so much sleep in my life as I have over the last couple of nights. I'm wasted. We have a deadline for the decision of Friday morning - yup, tomorrow morning.

It's not that we don't want to go - I think we do - there are a lot of uncertainties about the move which complicate the decision. We know we'd come out of the other side of a 3 year stint with financial gains and the experience would be priceless.

But here we have family, a great lifestyle, secure good job, we don't struggle money wise.

Part of me wants to go simply for the adventure and the experience and to make sure I'm not one who stays in the suburbs of Brisbane my whole life doing what I've always done and getting what I've always got.

But the other part of me wants to stay where it's comfortable and the factors are all known and within my comfort zone.

ANYWAY .... just some thoughts. Took the kids 10 pin bowling this morning and not surprisingly has aggravated my sciatica a little - by the end of the day I'll be hobbling. But I won (against a 4 and 2 y.o mind you!)!!!

It was Maeve's birthday on Monday - when I get around to taking the photos off the camera I'll post some.

First round of crunch time coming up at uni this semester. FINAL SEMESTER ... EVER!!! woo hoo!!!!!!! Really interesting subjects, I wish in a way I had more time to devote to it. Will be very relieved when it's all done and dusted.

Pregnancy is going well, aside from the sciatica pain. First check up with the hospital next week. I'm always quietly terrified leading up to those appointments that I'm going to go there and they won't be able to find a heart beat or something terrible will have gone wrong. Silly I know, but I can't help it.

Anyway, it's bed time for my little munchkin - hopefully a nice quiet 2 hr nap ... fingers crossed.

maeve poured water on the laptop and after a commedy of errors by DELL it's FINALLY fixed. Thank goodness we had an accidental damage policy ...

Anyway ... decision re Japan is likely to be made this week. Still in 2 minds. Why does it have to be so hard.

No running. Sciatic nerve playing up just from gym work. I haven't been reading any blogs (haven't had internet ...:) And I'm sure there isn't anyone still reading this one.

Hope all who ran at B2B ran well - will have to go catch up and see how things went ...

how do you ...

I'm freezing. Looking forward to summer. Our house (like most old homes in QLD) just isn't built for winter.

So I'm wondering how you decide if it's the right thing to do to move your family to a foriegn country? How do you determine that the cultural experience will be more beneficial for them than the experience of growing up with local access to grandparents and cousins and aunts and uncles? How do you decide that you will survive living in one of the biggest and busiest cities in the world. not speaking a word of the language? How do you decide that you will be OK having a new baby in said city without the help of friends and family? How do you decide that it will be the right move career wise, especially when it could mean the start of a totally new life for your family that means you might not return to Brisbane, or even Australia for a significant period of time? and mostly, how do you know you won't regret it if you decide not to go ...

Anyone got a crystal ball going cheap?

stuff ...

so, there hasn't been much going on. I've been feeling a bit ordinary. A bit nauseous. Haven't felt much like going to the gym or getting out for a run. I've had a couple of better days this week and have told myself I'll get back to the gym next week.


Surprisingly eating wise I've actually gone off junk food. That said, I have had to eat for what feels like all day every day to fend off the sick feeling. But the thought of eating stuff like chocolate just turns me off even more. So that's a plus!!!


I've been thinking a lot the last couple of weeks about the whole exercise and pregnancy deal. I've never been very confident about my body, let alone my pregnant body and the thought of waddling up to the gym with a pregnant belly is enough to make me want to hibernate for 7 more months. I haven't a clue what I would wear for a start.


When I was pregnant with my first I attended some exercise classes specifically for pregnant women, so it wasn't so bad, we were all in the same boat, although that said, I know a girl who looks so damn good when she's pregnant it's almost a crime. It's just not fair that some women get the "you will look like a graceful fertile goddess" and others get the "you will look like beached whale, puffy, fat and uncomfortable" - where's the justice I ask you?

Anyway, so I'll continue to struggle with that and don't know what will happen.

Max is determined he's having a brother and told me the other day he would be "very cross" if the baby was a sister and was a bit surprised when I told him even I didn't know if it would be a brother or sister. I found out for both Max & Maeve, but this time I'd like a surprise. We'll just have to prepare Max for the fact that it could well be a girl!!

The Japan job is still in the background. A is off to Tokyo for the weekend on the 27th. After that if both parties still wish to proceed we both head over sometime in August to check out housing and schooling ... but the July trip is the most important and we'll hopefully have a much better idea about things after that. I feel a bit in limbo at the moment. Realistically if we were to accept the job I would be going until the end of October because of uni. A may have to go before that, but I hope not. Anyway, we'll cross that bridge when/if we get to it.

I was wearing my shirt from the GC 10k the other day and Max says to me "Great shirt Mum"!!! ahhhhh, I love him!! :)

straight lines

2 of them ...

pink ones ...

So I'm wondering if the glute pain I've felt on the last 2 runs has been a bit of sciatica - early days I know, but the body is a strange thing.

Also I've been getting horrible sinus headaces every day and have been feeling totally exhausted, so the desire to exercise (and run) has been minimal. I have to say I saw Clairie run past in the half on sunday and she looked amazing - she is amazing.

offical time

1:11:20 - 42 sec PB. I'm dissapointed it wasn't more (not that I was expecting it to be) but can't complain given the preparation I did and the glute thing.



a few highlights I thought of last night -



seeing the guy run past the cheersquad in the full in a white singlet and 2 red seeping marks in 2 unfortunate locations - poor fella, I wanted to give him my sachet of sports shield.



The girl in purple who ran past me in the 10k and said "Hi coolrunner"!!



finishing



the fact that i didn't fall over or cause a spill in the congestion of the start :)

And realising there was a payoff for being a larger runner when I could waltz right through the 'medium' t-shirt and medal collectiton queue when all the other girls were waiting for ages in the 'small' and 'x-small' lines!!!

I can walk normally today and the glute is feeling much better - I'm convinced it's a nerve thing as there is no muscle soreness and it's fine to stretch etc, it just seems to be certain positions/movements which causes a sharp stabbing pain and me to catch my breath! It's certainly less frequent today.

GCM 10K Race Report

So, this is going to be a long post. Consider yourself warned.

Saturday afternoon we packed the kids up and took them off to mum and dad's for the night and headed to our hotel at the GC. Mainly because I'm lazy and didn't want to get up at some ungodly hour and deal with traffic and stress about getting there on time.

Had a short rest at the hotel and then headed out for a 'romantic anniversary dinner' - we went to a nice Italian place on Tedder Ave and then once back at the hotel took a walk down Cavill Ave for an ice cream. mmmmmm!! Watched the Lions game and for a little while it looked like they might actually win their first game in AAAAAGES. Unfortunately it wasn't to be.

I wanted to get up early in the morning to participate in the cheering for the half and some of the full. So we were up at 6:30, had breakfast at the hotel and then on the bus to the race prescient. There were people everywhere, infact, when we were out the night before it seemed every conversation I overheard was about running the next day!

Found Cirque and a couple of other CRers and joined the cheersquad just before the home stretch. I was particularly keeping an eye out for Nikki who was running the half. When she ran past I thought she was below the time she wanted and looked a little distressed, so I decided to run alongside the track to try and gee her up a bit coming into the finishing area. Turns out she'd been having some knee problems and was struggling a bit.

After that saw a few CRers go past in the full and then had to head to the loos and the start line for the 10k. Graham and I lined up together and ran together for the first 4k. The run was tough for me today. From the start the HR was sitting around 180 and I felt like I was fighting to keep my breakfast down for the first 4k. Plus I managed to get 2 stitches (one each side) before we hit the 2k mark!!!!!! I ran through those and managed to get rid of them with some 3:2 breathing.

At the 4k mark I stopped for a short walk break then got going again. I managed to catch Graham and kept behind him for a little while (he didn't know I was there) but took another walk break as we came up to the turn onto the bridge. My glute was really hurting and I was struggling a bit and felt like I couldn't even walk properly, let alone run. Just in time Paul Kelly's Dumb Things cane on the mp3 - it was just what I needed - so after a bit of walking I took off with the music and managed to close the gap a little again. Coming up to the last drinks stop on the bridge I realised I couldn't really feel my fingers on my left hand. It was totally numb and tingly and my glute was killing. I kept shuffling and I didn't think I was going to beat my time from Brisbane. Then I saw Nikki at the side of the road, which gave me a great lift, I looked at the watch and could see the turn around leading into the finishing area and worked out if I really gave it everything I had left I could probably beat my Brisbane time.

So I ran, and it hurt like hell. I just really really wanted to beat the time. Passed quite a few runners coming up to the finishing line and by the time I crossed it I was totally spent. I just wanted to sit down and vomit!! I was in such a state I forgot to check my watch until I was walking in a daze past the medical tents, at which point it said 1:12:06 - so I obviously beat my Brisbane time of 1:12 ... it's just a matter of by how much.

Anyway, my glute has been really sore and I'm still this evening struggling to walk and move without feeling like someone is stabbing me in the butt with a huge great big knife. I'm hoping that it will feel better in the morning.

I'm not sure why this is happening. But it's not much fun.

I'm off for an early night.

tagged

Ok, I've been tagged by Kathy ... have to answer with one word. And I haven't given any thought to who I'm going to tag - my head's in a bit of a spin today ........ Nikki - you're tagged

1. Where is your cell phone? Phone table
2. Relationship? comforting
3. Your hair? short
4. Work? home
5. Your sister? which one (oops, that doesn't keep to the rules does it?)
6. Your favourite thing? down time
7. Your dream last night? didn't
8. Your favourite drink? fresh orange and pineapple juice with a sqeeze of lemon on ice (how can you make your fav drink into one word?!)
9. Your dream car? a free one
10. The room you’re in? lounge
11. Your shoes? colorado's
12. Your fears? failing
13. What do you want to be in 10 years? happy
14. Who did you hang out with this weekend? husband
15. What are you not good at? waiting
16. Muffin? chocolate, chocolate, chocolate
17. Wish list item? renovations
18. Where you grew up? Darwin/Brisbane
19. The last thing you did? played with my kids
20. What are you wearing? jeans, top & jumper (now unless you're wearing a dress or one piece, you can not answer this in one word!)
21. What are you not wearing? jewelry
22. Your pet? guinnea pig
23. Your computer? laptop
24. Your life? satisfying
25. Your mood? excited
26. Missing? sisters
27. What are you thinking about? future
28. Your car? camry
29. Your kitchen? lovely
30. Your summer? hot
31. Your favourite colour? can't choose
32. Last time you laughed? today
33. Last time you cried? today
34. School? no thanks
35. Love? yes please

Glute update

This morning I plodded off to my usual Monday morning torture PT session at the gym. Did 10 minutes on the treadmill at a 6min pace before the PT to test out the Glute. Didn't get a run in before the BBQ on Sunday - there just wasn't enough time with other stuff going on.

Anyway, during the treadmill run it felt fine. After I stopped I could feel a slight niggle in the same glute, but nothing that bothered me too much. After my PT and some further cardio work I gave it a bit of a going over with the foam roller. Ouch! Rolling through the length of the glute I could feel a spot where it particularly hurt and there was a bit of a knot there.

So I'll just keep stretching it out this week and hope for the best on the weekend.

Peter - you could be right - could very well be a mental thing.

I almost forgot to pick up my race kit from Southbank on Sunday afternoon. If Nikki hadn't of reminded me I would have totally forgotten. So I have my number and my timing chip. I'm all set to go.

Movie Review

It was nice to get out on Saturday night - we don't get a chance to do it that often, and most times when we do we're both too tired to really enjoy it. We went to Wagamamas above the Wintergarden. Nothing to do with the Japanese theme of late - just wanted something yummy and quick that wasn't 'cafe' style food. The movie was pretty funny. If you're prepared to leave your brain at home and sit through an hour and a half of juvenille teenage boy humour then you'll enjoy it!! The plot is pretty non-existant, but Will Ferrel and the dude from Napoleon Dynamite, Jon Heder, are pretty funny together. I enjoyed it.

I have a busy week this week - and it's school holidays - which means no kindy for Max this week ... (where's the crying smiley when I need it?) I will survive, I will survive, I will survive ... :)

Saturday run

Ok, short version is I ran, it wasn't great. Long version follows ...

Met Nikki this morning for a 6k run around the river and cliffs. I was aiming to run most of the route at about a 6min/k pace. The first three (I think) ks were good, between 5:?? and 6:15. The body felt good, but I just couldn't get enough air in my lungs. Really frustrated me because other than the breathing I felt like I could have kept the pace up for much longer. Anyway, stopped to catch my breath and noticed a twinge/tightness in my left glute. So I stopped along riverside to stretch it out and kept running.

Stopped to walk up Gold Coast Hill then took off again looking forward to the gentle downhill slope of the story bridge. The pain in my glute was getting worse and combined with a nasty stitch I decided to walk at the end of the bridge down to the river/cliffs.

Took off to run again but the pain was quite sharp and by this point Nikki was getting a bit worried about me I think! The pain felt a bit like a pinch of the sciatic nerve. I'm telling myself that's what it was, hoping that's what it was. It was like a constant dull ache with a nice sharp pain on foot strike and a lesser pain on push off. We ran mostly to about the concrete steps down the cliffs, and I stopped to stretch for about the 3rd time in the run. The glute wasn't tight at all, still good flexibility, just hurt!

Walked a bit and then ran the last half K (more to avoid turning into an popsicle than anything else.

Finally finished the 6k, have no idea how long it took, don't think I want to know. Bit dismal really.

Felt slight discomfort in the glute for most of the day walking around the city, but seems to have subsided as I write tonight.

So ... not sure what the story was. I might try and squeeze in a run tomorrow around lunch time and see how it feels (we have a family BBQ with A's family at southbank and the lure of a quick jaunt around southbank and the river seems too good to pass up! I'm not sure if that'll go down well though, so we'll see).

But my overall impression from today is that I am going to seriously pay for my laziness over the last couple of weeks next weekend! ah well. I'm taking all the wonderful advice and I'm just going to run and have fun. As long as I beat my Brisbane 10k time I'll be happy. I'm looking forward to the atmosphere and meeting some more CRers (and spending a night away without the kids)

Anyway, A and I are heading out for dinner and a movie - going to see Blades of Glory - should be good for a laugh - so I'd better go and get ready.

So, what's going on

I'm still here Kathy ... just feeling a little 'blah' about it all, so avoiding blogging about it :)

My husband always tells me off for putting too much information on here, I don't so it intentionally, I just start typing and it all just comes tumbling out. I figured, if people want to read it they will, I've never had any nasty comments, I think most people who comment and lurk here are referred from CR and I trust that runners are nice kind people!!

Anyway ... today is absolutely freezing by Brisbane standards. Reminds me of the winter days in Melbourne apparently I've gone a bit soft since then because I'm finding it hard to drag my lazy butt out of bed and pull on the running gear in the dark and the cold. Not that I ever ran in Melbourne ... but y'know.

Feeling a bit apprehensive about the 10k. I know I can do the distance and it won't be an issue, but I don't think I'm going to be able to do it in the time I originally set in my mind. A run this weekend with Nikki will show how bad it's going to be.

There's been heaps going on non-running wise. The Japan thing is progressing (frustratingly slowly) but it's been consuming my thoughts. I'm feeling pretty positive about it, although I have moments of doubt and reality check. Still waiting to hear the all important bottom line discussion, but we are the preferred candidates and they want to fly A to Tokyo to meet the team and get better acquainted. Some numbers will have to be put on the table before that happens ... the cost of international schooling in t0ky0 is outrageous. The thought of sending Max to a Japanese school has it's attractions, but my heart would break for him being thrown into a non-english speaking environment and trying to make friends and survive. Plus I'd find it hard not being able to communicate with teachers and parents ...

Anyway, lots to think about and no decisions made yet - but 'they' have indicated a time frame of about 3 to 4 months max before take off ... scary.

A few other things going on but nothing to bore you all with.

Need to sit down this week and sort out my playlist for the 10k - I know I know - terribly antisocial of me to run with headphones in, but hey, I paid my $45 and I'll run the damn thing however I like. Not running with anyone to chat with to keep my mind from all the negative thoughts and would really love a nice fast playlist to spur me on and try to reach that 59:xx - 62:xx goal (making a 10 min PB at worst and 12 min PB at worst). I'm a little afraid to admit that outloud because a) it shows how slooooow I am and b) I'm not sure I'll make it. :(

Quote of the day ...

this afternoon we were across the road from our house in the park 'picking' grass for the guinnea pigs and some lovely local yobbo had left some thing which looked like polyester quilt filling strewn across part of the park. Here's our conversation :

Max - Oh look mum, Mary's been here!
Me - really?
Max - Yeah, I think Mary's been here mum!
Me - Mary? Who's Mary?
Max - You know, Mary who had a little lamb!!

I laughed alot!

ETA - A has a phone interview with the Japanese mob tomorrow morning - well, not 'the mob' as such, but the mob as in the aussie slang who are offering the job ... after that they decide if his japanese is something they want to risk and will talk bottom line - which is what we're waiting for ...

Totally not running related ...

but I just wanted to share these:

because I know I spend a lot of time complaining about the kids and not enough time saying how great they are. Aren't they cute? I love this last one of Maeve, so engrossed in her painting.

Had my exam on Tuesday and I think it went quite well. You can never really tell how well you do on an exam until the results come out, but I know I passed, just not sure how well I did beyond that. I am so relieved to have that subject done. I think I figured out why it was so hard for me. The lecturer is a true academic, in every sense of the word - laughs at his own jokes, uses his own texts as readings, and can't seem to talk in plain english. I think he just explained things in a very complicated way and I found it extremely difficult to figure out what it was he wanted us to understand, what the main gist of it all was. But his assessment has been surprisingly easy. I went ito the exam on a pretty comfortable mark, which was surprising. And the first 40 questions were multiple choice and many of them the choices were so blatantly ridiculous that anyone with half a brain could have figured out the answer even if they knew nothing about the subject.

So anyway, 1 semester down and only 1 more to go. I hate that feeling mid semester - you feel like you're never going to come out the other side alive, the pressure and work load is just so intense and will you ever see the light of day again kind of feeling. You know in 6 weeks it's all going to be over, but it's so hard to remember that during the middle of the semester isn't it?!

anyway, off to bed for me.

p.s - good on you queensland!

cold!!

The last two days in Brisbane have probably been the coldest we've had all year. SO far we've not really had a winter ... well, I think winter is well and truely here.

Last night we had a Brisbane CR dinner to farewell Davo, who's moving to Tassie. It was a good night as usual. Leaving the restaurant at 10pm I was surprised at how cold it was outside and by the time I got to my car I was shivering uncontrollably. Tell you what, I cranked up the heater on the way home!!

The worst part was I'd agreed to meet Veg for a run at 6am the next morning. She was still back at the restaurant and I was sooooo tempted to text her and say I'd rather stay in bed.

When the alarm went off this morning at 5:30am I even hit the snooze, which I never normally do, and spent the next 5 minutes battling with myself to get out of bed.

Got up, got dressed and headed out to the car - my usual policy of no heater on in the car on the way to a morning run (because it makes it harder to get out of the car at my destination) went out the window!! :)

Standing at Southbank waiting got Veg & Nikki was torture. It was freezing. I wished that I had spent the $60 at the Nike outlet the day before on the nice pink running jacket I'd seen!!!

I don't think I felt my arms again until about 5k into the run! Bridge crossings this morning added a new dimension to running on a cold morning - the wind was freezing!

I understand now why people wear gloves on a cold morning.

Listen to me going on about the cold. I don't envy those of you in more colder areas ... Kathy!!! I think my inner slob would get the better of me and I'd be content to be fat and lazy and warm!

Anyway, running wise, we did 1 hour at about 6:30 pace. One k was 5:22 pace ... woo hoo!! Felt good too - coming up and over the story bridge and down to the kp cliffs. Veg & Nikki were running behind me and I decided just to push it down the nice gentle slope of the story bridge and see what happened. Shame all running can't be done on such a gradient!!

I've had a nasty cough all week - still left overs from my cold/sinus a couple of weeks back and hadn't run all week because it has been raining (hallelujah) here most of the week and I've had my sister visiting from Gladstone. So the legs are a little tired this morning. Doesn't help that I'm plonked on a chair studying for my exam on Tuesday. Speaking of which - I'd better get back to it.

73%

so, I got 'the essay' back ... the one I had the submission stuff up with ... 73%. I'll take that any day of the week.

Noice.

So I'm sitting on a Distinction going into the exam with 30% riding on the exam ... easy peasy!! :)

I've found in my old age as a 'mature aged student' (geez that's a horrible term) that I am slighly more obsessed with my marks than I was when I was just bumming around at uni after high school!! I went into this semester knowing I had a big ask infront of me and a lot on my plate with study and kids blah blah blah and siad I was aiming for just passing and would be happy with that ... but the perfectionist in me refuses to listen to that logic when it comes to assessment time.

Tell you what, that is a load off my mind.

personal record

ran this morning for ... wait for it .... 1hr 40min!!! Wowsers!!! :) Longest time ever spent running!! The distance was a touch under 13k - which is the longest distance I've ever run as well.

Another first - I got to experience going up "Gold Coast Hill" which Tesso tells me is named that because the PCRG runs it to toughen them up for the GCM. I've often run in the other direction (downhill) past and around it and now I know why!!! We only walked it today, but watching the runner in front of us struggle to run up it was enough for me! :)

Today's run certainly wasn't one of those where everything just clicked into place - but what can you expect when you don't run for a week. And even though I was running with Nikki, the last quarter of the run was tough going. But it feels good to be able to say I can run further than 10k, albeit slowly, when most people can't/won't even walk that far. Nikki was very good at giving me a bit of a nudge when I felt like walking, so that was great.

The new running pants were great - very comfortable. And no blisters this morning. The short hair was no drama either, which was good. I wore my hat as usual and it just stayed tucked under and behaved very well!

Tesso - I've been to that acupuncture place - it's in the shopping centre above woolworths right? A couple of chinese GPs who also do acupuncture. I went there when I was about 81/2 mths pregnant with Maeve to have a few treatments to try and get the ball rolling so she wasn't overdue. I remember thinking I hoped it worked because the doctors had the bedside manner of a wet fish and the bed was really uncomfortable (although I'm not sure any bed is comfortable when you're laying there looking like a beached whale!! )

anyway, hopefully the headaches I've been having will go away once my sinuses clear out - always seems to take a couple of weeks after I've been sick for that to happen.

I wanna know...

what's on your playlist for running/exercise?

Let me know - either via comment or on your own blog :)

fluff

Yay! One subject finished, one exam to go until the next one is done and then a little break until semester 2 kicks off. I have resolved to keep up better with on line lectures and discussions next semester - I don't think I listened to one lecture in its entirity this semester - I read lecture notes, but I couldn't make myself sit infront of the computer and listen to a boring voice read and stumble their way through what I could read better myself ...

Once semester 2 is finished I will have finally graduated and have 2 complete degrees. It will only have taken me 13 years since high school graduation, and I will have buikt up enough HECS debt to have studied medicine!!! :)

On Thursday I had all my hair chopped off. Apparantly a very 'in' thing to do at the moment. I did it because I love my hairdresser and trust her and she suggested it! So, perhaps if I am brave enough I'll post a pic ... sometime. I must say I quite like it. A doesn't, but he's never liked me with shorter hair. Such a guy thing - what's with that?!

You will note by now the serious lack of running and exercise information from this entry :) Well, as a result of rushing to ger my essay finished by Friday morning, I'd been spending a few very late nights in front of the computer, which meant dragging my lazy butt out of bed early in the morning was harder than it should have been.

I've also been struggling with maeve who has been waking at ungodly hours, grumpy and refusing to go back to sleep. So getting out in the morning means getting up at or before 5am and leaving A to deal with the grumpy baby who only wants mummy.

Since being sick last week too my sinuses are still giving me a bit of grief - nothing major, just a constant dull sinus headache all day long :(

I know, I'm full of excuses these days - and I feel terribly guilty for it, especially when people like RMR, Celeste and EM want to run and can't. But sometimes I think I just do as much as I can and have to accept that other stuff gets in the way sometimes.

Meeting Nikki & possibly Veg for a long run tomorrow. Normally I do 10k (yes, I know this is just a stroll in the park for some of you) but for punnishment for my evil ways I think I might drag it out to 12 tomorrow - see how I feel.

Bought some new 3/4 Brooks running pants from Rebel. The were reduced, but not quite as nice as the 2XU pair I really want. At $90 though, I'm not sure I can justify the 2XU ones - I'm trying to convince myself that the Brooks ones are just as good and will last just as long etc etc etc...

A few responses to comments:

Ben :

There was a time when I thought I had a lot going on in my life.Then I
started reading your blog.Stay cool. It's got to get stable at some point.

This made me laugh - I didn't think things were that bad!! I guess we all have our own dramas :)

Celeste - I emailed Scott - thanks for that suggestion.

re the japan thing - it's Tokyo by the way Tesso - we're still very much undecided. There seem to be so many cons as opposed to pros. A crystal ball at this point would be really great if anyone has one!

RMR - I've finished this series of Heroes - this time minus the BR icecream. Can't wait for the next series to start.

Anyway, I'm off to take another dose of "I don't care what it is as long as it takes away this damn headache"

breathe sarah ...

*sigh*

panic is over ... for now!!! Thanks for the kind words. My lecturer got back to me at about 11:30am and told me not to panic and to email the essay to him, he will try and mark it over the weekend so that I have some feedback before the exam.

So, now I wait for my mark and see if I get penalised for the "late" submission (because he didn't mention anything about if I would or not). He seemed pretty understanding and agreed that the electronic drop box on the uni forum can be a little unreliable at times. I might have to start stressing over the amount of study I need to do for the exam once I get my mark back!

Study and me have such a love hate relationship - I love using my brain for something other than deciding what to feed the kids for dinner, where to take the kids today, and counting to 10 before I blow my stack at the kids (oh, you think I'm joking!) - but on the other hand I can't wait until this is over and I have a life (albeit revolving around the kids!) back.

Anyway .... back to the interesting stuff ....

PT on monday was good - nothing unusual to report, except I couldn't do any of the running intervals Drew had planned due to my painful blisters (what a sook). Seriously, I tried to run on the treadmill before the PT, but after a couple of steps it was just agony.

This also meant I decided to rest on Tuesday and not run because my blisters were still too sore. By this morning they were fine and I toddled off to my spin class - they had a new instructor who was B O R I N G. blah blah blah.

I know she was probably a bit nervous, being her first class and all, but she was just trying a little too hard to be chummy to everyone. But perhaps it was just me feeling like a grumpy old so and so due to the essay dramas. Anyway, did the class, came home and have been sitting here at the computer ever since trying to get my other essay for my other subject done. This one is proving a little more interesting and easy than the anthropology one.

Land of the Rising Sun

Here's the basic 'in a nutshell' details ... So, there's a job. It's in Japan. 2 to 3 years. A speaks Japanese. I don't. The kids don't. Could be good money. Could be fun. Could be interesting. Could be risky. Could be cold. Could be expensive to have a baby there. But we'll cross all those bridges when we need to. That's about all we know at the moment. A met with the guy at the airport on Saturday - the guy wants us to seriously consider it - I need more details before I can seriously consider anything. So we're waiting to hear more.

Running tomorrow. Might get up pretty early and head out for 45+ min hit out. Wouldn't mind doing a 5k timed run and seeing where I'm at - will probably be bitterly disappointed, so that might not be a good idea. :) I think I will strap my feet this time.

I'm ashamed to say I ate my way through the stress of my assignment with the aid of my brother who turned up on my doorstep last night with a tub of Baskins ice cream and episode 21 of Heroes he's downloaded off the net ... how dare he?!!!! Don't ever eat ice cream at 9:30pm right before going to bed! :)

crap...

Some of you may recall a few weeks ago I was a little bit stressed about an Anthropology essay I was writing. Well, I just found out - literally 3 minutes ago - that my lecturer has not received an essay from me ... ^%$#@

Because it's an off campus course, everything is submitted on line via an internal uni web site, I thought I had submitted the essay and was a bit concerned when I still hadn't received a mark back yesterday - sent a message to the lecturer and he says he has not received an electronic submission from me.

crap.

I don't know what to do. I've sent him an email and hope to have a response tomorrow asap. I think I feel sick. Why should he believe me - he doesn't know me, he's never met me, he has no reason to believe me. crap. 30%. 30-freakin-per-cent.

Was going to write about gym and running, but I just can't now ...

F@*& it, you know what, I'm so mad - I want to hit something, really hard. geez I stressed so much over that essay I can't believe this is happening. This is so bloody frustrating - and there's nothing I can do about it until I hear back from the lecturer ...

There's a bear in there ...

It's been a long day and this is going to be a long post - consider yourself warned! Where should I start ... the run ...

Went and ran with Veg, Katy (ihatetoast), and Nikki from CR - Katy left us about 1/2 way through - we started at the G'will bridge and did a length of southbank, across victoria bridge, under the expressway and over the g'will, along the cliffs, over the story bridge, along riverside and the gardens and back over the goodwill. All up, just under 10k i think and 1:05 of running.

A thoroughly enjoyable run despite feeling the start of a large blister at about half way and then feeling the start of another about 3/4 of the way through on the other foot :( I bought new shoes in March and as much as I love then they seem to create blisters in the same place if I run anything over about 5k ... The blisters are always in the inside of the arch of my foot - on both sides. So any suggestions on how to deal with that would be welcomed - the girls today suggested new socks (which I will check out) but also strapping?? How do I do that??! I'm clueless!!

I really enjoyed the company and we chattered away the whole way - sure makes the time go a lot quicker!! I struggled a bit with my throat and chest and breathing, but nothing that was going to stop me. We had a toilet stop part way through and while I was waiting for the girls to come out of the toilet I really began to feel the effects of running with the remains of my cold/sinus/whatever - felt quite light headed but the option of returning to the car on my own - a couple of kms away - was less attractive than the thought of finishing the run with the others. As long as I kept running I was fine. Stopping was a whole other story ...

I was really glad to be out there this morning. Driving in my car at 5:45am this morning I passed so many people out and about, a couple of packs of cyclists, lots of runners, and the PCRG was hanging around the g'will waiting for their start at the time we were there - saw Tesso - but it just gave me that 'happy all over feeling' to see people out early in the morning and doing their thing. I've missed that with my recent slackness - sure was busy out there this morning.

Anyway, coming home from the run I began to think I might have over done it a little. And by about 11am I was certain of this ... the background headache i was feeling had turned into a splitting one and all I wanted to do was crawl into bed. I didn't get to do this until much later.

Came home and got ready to take the kids to the Playschool Concert - which was fantastic. They loved it and it was really nice to see them singing, dancing and clapping along. They both love Playschool :)

Max then had a 1am birthday party at McDonalds, so we raced home, Maeve had a sleep, I had a nap and were were late to the party! I've got to say, I understand why parents have parties at McDonalds, but they really are crap and it didn't do anything for my headache and caused me to take some pretty strong pain tablets before I killed lots of people! ;)

Then we finally got to come home and relax ... well kind of ... I had to go do some grocery shopping!

Tomorrow is A's birthday - I went and got some yummy fruit and croissants and english fruit muffins for breakfast tomorrow morning and his mum is coming over for roast tomorrow night. Tonight we're having take away something cos I'm too buggered to cook - I'm not sure these plans are going to do much for my plans of beating Miners this week over at FF, but that's life! Consider yourself lucky Miners! :)

I've been feeling pretty beat all day, and I don't think I did my sore throat any favours by running this morning, but I don't think it's anything I won't get over.

This week I AM going to run - there's only 5 weeks to gold coast ... holy moly!! :) So if I don't get out there I'm going to regret it. Plus I had such a great time this morning that I'm feeling more motivated and excited about it.

There's some other life changing/exciting/scary decisions being made in this house at the moment ... involving jobs and countries of residence and a whole heap of other decisions ... geez, like there isn't enough on our plates at the moment ... but more on that as we know more - early days and we're not sure it's the 'right' thing to do yet - how do you decide something like that anyway???

feeling better

Thanks for all your well wishes and advice! :)

I'm feeling better - I sound a bit funny and my sinuses are still a little stuffed up, but the fogginess has cleared, so that's good.

Peter: "since it's uncool to run with a hankie, i've mastered the bushman's handshake"

that is absolutely disgusting!! :)

So tomorrow's run is looking good and I'm actually looking forward to it, which I'm really happy about because I thought I might dread it ... :)

My lovely husband had a medical check up yesterday for work - pretty thorough - and they measured his resting HR, which was in the low 40s and his body fat was 14% - It's so unfair ... how can someone who does 1/4 of the physical activity I do, and eats pretty much whatever he wants, have those results??? He thinks it's funny!

Tomorrow we have a full day - I'll come and report - not much running related, except the morning, but all of it good family fun stuff.

Oh, I just want to clarify something ... I'm not pregnant and probably won't be for a few months - August at the earliest probably :) It's not something that comes easily for us, and hopefully won't involve too much heartache - but there's still a few months to get in some quality running :) So I just have to pull my socks up and get a few people to give me a swift kick and remind me how lucky I am to have my health and fitness and get on with it.

Jumped on the scales this morning to check on the FF progress ... I know, I know, I shouldn't, but I couldn't resist ... anyway MINERS - you're gonna have to pull out a 1kg + this week ;) If the scales are the same/better on monday anyway!!

Sick

Woke up in the middle of the night on Monday and felt horrible - sore swollen glands at the back of my throat and a gluggy kind of nose and throat feeling. Today felt really foggy in the head (some would say that's no different to my usual day to day functioning:) ) and have generally felt worse rather than better today.

I'm hoping whatever it is goes away because I have a major essay due next week and was planning on a run on the weekend with Veg ... I skipped my run on Tuesday and have no plans to run tomorrow, despite saying I would - I'd rather get better first. There's no point running sick and getting even more run down ...

Anyway, I'm off to bed early - it's just gone 8pm and I can hardly keep my eyes open. Hopefully I'll feel better in the morning. Thankfully Max is at kindy tomorrow and I'll only have 1 little monkey to take care of.

Let me just say, some of the comments last time made me chuckle a little bit ... but this one :

Ph said "to deal with cold i go to bed dressed in my running gear...but then again, we are not expaning our family ;-) "

...very funny!!

Ben - I like your idea of going out with a bang!! I might have to use that for motivation ... once I get over this cold/flu whatever it is.

nighty night.

issues...

Lost .3 this week with FF - but admittedly I had a pretty slack week ... I was thinking Miner's 'challenge royale' would be a butt kicking, but it seems he managed a .5 ... so what d'you reckon?? Still in the game there. So this week is going to be better.

This morning had my PT and some cardio at the gym. Drew again threw in some cardio interval type work. I normally have a couple of weetbix for breakfast with 1/2 a cup of milk (at the most) - but this morning I decided to have sultana bran instead and I think I had more milk than normal. So all through the PT I was fighting that gluggy throat feeling of trying to keep breakfast in the tummy ... ewwww.

Now, there was NO running this week. What's happening??? I had planned a long run on Saturday morning but circumstances beyond my control meant that I couldn't go. A got a call on Friday night and had to go and help a friend early saturday morning which lasted all day. I was good though and got on the elliptical trainer at home for 45 minutes - but it doesn't compare to the real thing.

I'm struggling with the motivation to get up early and get out the door for a run - a commbination of the darker mornings, cooler weather and me just being tired all the time really doesn't help much. Also lurking in the back of my mind is the fact that there has been significant discussion in this household about having another baby and although I know there are people who run through pregnancy - I can tell you now - that aint gonna be me :). I'm not a happy pregnant person. But I don't know how long it might take, or even IF it will happen. Anyway, the doubt is there about this little venture and new found enjoyment continuing for an inderterminate amount of time and I think it's making it hard to be motivated.

But GCM looms and this week I AM going to go out on Tuesday morning and Thursday morning and the weekend, as I normally would do before I got so slack! I'm never going to make my CG goal if I don't get back into it.

Anyway, I think that's it from me for today.

QUICK - there's a famine coming ...

take everything you can, you'll need it for future fat stores ...

I've joined Beki's (sekhmet from CR) Fat Fighters - and if I could figure out how to put hyperlinks in with blogger, I'd do it, but alas, I'm am technologically stupid and you'll have to resort to the sidebar if you want to take a look.

But my body (brain??) seems to think it's going to be a famine and I'm having a battle of wills - I won't say yet whose winning ...

I'm on housecleaning and assignment duties today - so I'm going to ban myself from the computer.

building sandcastles

This post isn't much to do with running at all really ... but it's all part of the bigger picture.

Normally I run on a Tuesday morning, which I had planned to do this morning as I wasn't going to be going to the gym either because I was meeting Kathy today (more on that later). But last night I fell asleep on my bed while I was doing some reading for uni (what can I say, the textbook was called "The Political Economy of the World Trading System") and as a result I didn't set my alarm or get my clothes out ready for my run - I have to do this otherwise I wake the whole house turning on lights etc.

So I didn't run this morning ...

Took the kids into southbank where we spent some time building sandcastles on the 'beach' (which was the absolue highlight of my day - both of them loved it and I think it set the tone for a really great day, hardly any fights or tantrums and just generally pleasant) before meeting Kathy - her blog is linked in the sidebar - she has amazed me with her weight loss of 40kg and her attitude and dedication to exercise and trying new things, so it was great to put a face to the blog and take a walk through southbank with her.

Came home and fluffed around doing not much really, washing and making dinner etc...

This evening I got on our elliptical trainer for 40 min, burned 350 cal. Now, this is something to be celebrated because we have had this trainer for about 3 years and I can count on my fingers the number of times I've used it. A uses it every morning - he's funny, he gets on it and goes full pelt for about 10 min each morning - but I've had some strange aversion to using it - stubbornness more than anything.

Did 11.3 k in 40 min. I'm going to try and jump on it most nights for 30 or 40 min - can't hurt the running at all and it might help me reach my goal of being under 70kg by the GCM.

So I'm sweaty and I stink, so I'm off to have a 2 min shower :)

Oh, and I just want to say how good I am that instead of going to the haircut I had booked for tomorrow, I've put it off and will be heading to the gym for my spin class. I deserve extra points for that ;)

Running in the Rain

So in the early hours of Sunday morning I woke to the sound of rain ... part of me was excited - I would finally get to experience running in the rain and see for myself what was so good about it - part of me just wanted to stay in bed nice and dry! :)

I got to southbank with the plan to meet the other girls at 5:45, and just as I got out of my car it started to come down quite heavily. It was still dark, it was quite a cool morning, I don't own a running/rain jacket. By the time I'd jogged the 20 meters from my car to the meeting place, I was cold and wet and starting to wonder what on earth could possibly be good about running in the rain. I was there first, so stood under some shelter and waited for the others and tried to warm up!

The downpour didn't last that long and by the time we set off the rain had eased to a light spit. I could handle that. In fact, I found it quite humid to run in those conditions. Part of it I think was the shirt I had on - the race shirt from the Brisbane Marathon festival - it's a beautiful BRIGHT yellow - you'd never miss it. But although it looks like the technical kind of fabric some of my other running gear is made from, it really doesn't breathe at all and is quite hot to run in.

Anyway, we'd planned to do at least 8k on Sunday. After about 20-25min we dropped Katy off at her car, then shortly after that we made a toilet stop, then shortly after that we ran into tankgirl from CR who was on her way to the MDC at southbank. So it was a bit of a stop start run and in the end only ran about 7k because I had to get home for mother's day celebrations. But it was still a good run - quite a social run. There were lots of people out and about, lots who looked like they were headed to southbank for the run, which was exciting. A bit of banter back and forth between us and a few other runners who we passed or passed us about the race shirts we were all wearing - there were a lot of them out there on Sunday morning! That was fun.

So then it was home for breakfast, which was croissants (a real treat for me as I never have these - don't think of the calories!) and Max gave me a bead necklace he'd made for me at kindy.

This morning I headed to the gym for another go at the aerobics class I did for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It's called "fat burner" but I've been disappointed at the number of calories burned (according to my HRM) for the class on both occasions.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to have my PT, but I'm meeting Kathy tomorrow morning at southbank!! Should be fun.

Rant for the Day

Tell me - when did it become acceptable to pay $3.?? for a lettuce???? I've just come home from grocery shopping, and granted, I did have to buy nappies and washing powder, but I am always amazed at how expensive our grocery bill is. Especially when we're trying to eat healthy, lots of fresh vegies and salads. It's just crazy. No wonder this nation has an obesity problem - it's probably cheaper to eat 3 meals a day from the Mcdonalds than it is to eat 3 healthy meals. And another thing that ticks me off big time about shopping is the very strategic placement of an assortment of kids bubbles, balls, toys and other crap at regular intervals down each isle. It sure doesn't make it easy to shop with kids.

Anyway ...

Here's a question for you - why does my remote locker device for my car not work when the car is parked out the front of our house? It works EVERYWHERE else, but WILL NOT lock or unlock out the front of the house ... how weird is that? It can't be the batteries because it works fine everywhere else, and we haven't even had the car for a year yet ... I can't figure it out!

I love hills

...not likely!! But I am really happy that this morning when I headed out for a 5k run along my usual out and back route from home - which I think I've said before is mostly downhill the whole way out and all uphill the whole way back. well, this morning I ran THE ENTIRE WAY BACK. I was able to run up the hill all the way home without stopping! I was slow, but I did it!

I also discovered an advantage to being slow - Augie March's 'One Crowded Hour', which is one of my favourite songs, is perfect for running to when you're slow like me!! ;)

Running tomorrow with Vegie & she said I Hate Toast from CR might also come - I'm looking forward to that because any time I've read her blog it's been an absolute crack up.

Happy Mother's day to any mum's out there. I hope your toast in bed isn't too cold!

one word

Edited to add ... one word ... GASTRO. Wednesday night - Maeve is vomiting no run Thursday morning - vomiting all morning. So far, 1/2 a banana and 100ml of water have stayed down ... I'm not holding my breath!

Wednesday ... okay, so pre-kids I used to look forward to Wednesday's because it meant the working week was 1/2 over and the weekend was coming soon ... a break from work, time to relax, do the things I wanted to do ... I'm not even going to go into what wednesday means after-kids, except to say the weekends no longer hold the same promise as they used to ;)

BUT ... now I think, it's Wednesday, the week is half over, only half a week to go before I get to run on the weekend :)

PT on Tuesday was tough, as I expected it to be. Drew threw in some cardio intervals on what RMR calls "the mincer machine" ... after a few minutes 30 sec intervals with 30 sec recoveries my legs felt like jelly ... funny how you push yourself a lot harder when there's someone standing there telling you to go faster!! so that combined with some bench presses, some squats with weights (well, they have this machine which meant I was pulling weight up on the way up, and then countering the weight on the way down), some standing tricep rows (if that's what they're called - who knows?!) and then a few minutes of intervals on the rowing machine - all of that in a circut 3 times then onto cardio work for 20 minutes before stretching and heading home. I was pleased to see the total calories for the hour was 720 and no soreness today either - noice.

Drew asked me half way through the session if I thought I was working hard enough - now that's a tough question for me to answer because the lazy Sarah says "of course" ... so I asked him if HE thought I was working hard enough and he said some very nice things about my commitment and work at the gym, which were good to hear - everyone needs a little pat on the back every now and then.

Today was spin - nothing unusual to report.

I've decided that my gym schedule is going to be 3 days a week, as opposed to the 4 I have been trying to do - my 2nd weights session has often been dropped. So I've decided to keep my PT and cardio on a Mon, run Tuesday, Spin on Wed, Run on Thurs and Box on Fri - then I'll split my 2nd weights session so that I do arms & upper body after spin on Wed and legs/lower body after box on Fri. I feel good about that, means I'll have an extra day back to do housework!!! Yeah right!

The countdown seems to be on for GCM with newsletters being emailed weekly from the organisers. I'm really looking forward to it ...

The good news and the bad news ...

The good news is I had a great run this morning. My friend didn't turn up, as I expected, so I got to go for a run with music for the first time in ages. I LOVED it! :) Did a bit of music fartlek in the middle of the run with the aid of a live rendition of U2's Bad/Streets Have No Name (if that doesn't get you running, I don't know what will) and a bit of Fat Boy Slim. I have to say, that was a lot of fun. I would just pick up the pace for a chorus/verse and then drop it back a bit, for a chorus/verse and keep going like that. 2 tracks (well, 3 really with the U2 combination) of fairly decent length. It felt really good.

I ran from New Farm park out along the river and floating walkways to the story bridge, where I turned around and came back - all up just under 6.3km and a time of 38:48, which is an average of pace of just over 6k/min. I was really happy with that.

The music really helped me with the negative thoughts I normally suffer from. I didn't think about walking except to think to myself "hey, I haven't even thought about walking yet"!! In fact, I only stopped to grab a quick drink from one of the water fountains along the route.

Sara - the Sony charges up in 3 minutes!! So no getting caught with flat batteries. I saw yours and Andrew's articles in Runners World this week. It was the first time I'd ever read the magazine. As a beginner runner I really liked the mag and will probably buy it again.

The bad news is that when I bought the mp3 player, which looks like this but in green:

I didn't buy an arm band because the only ones you can get are sony ones and cost $30 - I thought I'd just tuck it under the shoulder strap of my bra - which is what I used to do with the shuffle and in hindsight is probably why the shuffle died - because when I finished the run and took the sony out, you could see there was moisture (sweat) under the coloured casing :(

a. I never knew I sweated that much

b. It never ocurred to me that sweat could get in there!

Anyway, I left the little bugger on a windowsill today and most of it seems to have dried out, hopefully it hasn't done any damage ... time will tell.

I'm not running the MDC on Sunday. I wish all the races weren't on Sunday's. It would have been nice to run it just as a training run and see how the time went.

I have a PT scheduled for tomorrow. After last week's, I'm keen to see what is in store for me. I enjoyed last week's even though it was hard, and couldn't raise my arms above my head for 3 days after. In fact, I think my arms have toned up heaps over the last couple of months, there's not a lot of wobble happening there, which is good. ;) I'm also looking forward to getting stuck into some cardio at the gym after the PT - once again, it's much easier to do with some music!

Miners - I'm still trying to figure out if you actually do want an explanation or if something about those bags and balls has been lost in translation!

Kathy - I just wanted to say I hope you're feeling better. Your blog entry today gave me a lot to think about and I'm really glad you have the courage to be so open and honest.

This week I need to start on my next assignment ... will it ever end?! I've been looking at my watch for the last hour, wondering if it was too early to go to bed ... time to catch up on some blogs first.

weekend report

Got out for a run on saturday morning. Ran through Southbank from the g'will bridge end and out along the river towards west end to what was the 10k turn around point the other week (which is just before the west end markets start) and back to the g'will bridge. Not sure how far it is and can't be stuffed looking it up and mapping it out on anything. But took me about 40 min, albeit with a few walking breaks (what a sook). It wasn't the greatest run, just ok, but I was out there and that was all that mattered.

As usual I was exhausted on Saturday night and pulled the plug on any plans for a Sunday morning longer run. Am going out tomorrow morning, probably out to New Farm park for a change. A friend was going to meet me, but I have a feeling she's going to pike - which is fine by me because I want a chance to break in my new mp3 player. Ended up getting a Sony 1G. It'll be nice to have some tunes to distract me from the negative thoughts in my head. I'm no purist and will do whatever it takes to get me excited about getting out for a run ;)

The diet has been pretty good the last couple of days. I've definately noticed a difference in my attitude and approach to the whole issue. However, I'm not being pedantic about it either. We took the kids to southbank on Saturday afternoon and ended up staying for dinner - had Pizza. Don't ever go to Amici's at Southbank - it's terrible. Anyway, ate 2 slices of pizza, but didn't stress about it. Aside from the Pizza, Max threw the mother of all tantrums as we were leaving *sigh*. He's being very difficult of late. Everyone tells me it gets easier, I just wish it would get easier quicker. 4 is not a very pleasant age for our household at the moment.

Tomorrow is a public holiday in QLD, so a long weekend, which is noice. But bed time for me if I'm going to be up to be off for a run in the morning. We also have an afternoon tea birthday party for A's niece - so that will test my resolve with the party food etc etc...

motivation...

*sigh*

hmmm ... this week has been a real non-running week. I've struggled a bit this week with even wanting to run. I've wanted to run, half heartedly mostly. I'm going to blame uni and tiredness. But ever since the 10k a couple of weeks ago I've found motivation is lacking somewhat. I know I've been busy with essays etc, and sometimes life just doesn't have the same plan you do, but in a way, I think it's been my own laziness too ...

Didn't go out on Thursday with the pram - Maeve was ready for a sleep and I couldn't be guaranteed that she would sleep in the pram. Oh, she's 12kg and the pram is about 15kg ... 30kg baby :o can you imagine ... eeeeeee!! :)

Last night I got the running gear out ready to go for the morning, set the alarm and was intending to head off in the morning for at least 5k - I just couldn't get out of bed - probably the remnants of the late night on Wednesday when I was writing that dreaded essay. And the naughty sarah in my head told me I didn't need to go because I had Box class this morning. :(

So I stayed in bed and then went off to Box, which was fun, but something was missing. A thought ocurred to me today in that class - we had about 4 new people starting and a comment of Kathy's came to mind - I was no longer the biggest person in that class, I certainly wasn't the least fit person, and I could actually hit those bags and balls with some force and kind of look like I might have a bit of a clue about what I was doing (just a teeny bit!!).

Vegie is off running the Glasshouse at night this weekend, so I have no running partner for Sunday morning :( Ah well ... I'll still go out, and it'll probably be good to just have some time running with my own thoughts.

Plan to head out tomorrow morning too.

I filled in my 10k entry form for the GCM on line yesterday. Woo Hoo!! 8 weeks. I'm going to use that 8 weeks as a kind of a challenge. Not just for running, but I'm going to try really hard with the diet side of things and see just what I can do if I put my mind to it and stop making excuses.

I was thinking today I really need to get my brother into running - he lives in the same suburb as me, and he has a real runner's build, tall, thin and wiry. He might be really good at it - I've suggested it to him a couple of times and he thinks I'm mad ... with my genes he could be right, but then that means he's in trouble too ;)

funny thing ...

Peter said in the last comments

well done on the assigment - forget the retail therapy...reward yourself with a run...hehe

So I was on my way home this morning (about 11:30, after being out at the shops with Maeve, Max is at kindy today - hadn't yet seen this comment and was going through all sorts of scenarios in my head trying to figure out a way I could go for a run with Maeve in the pram!!! :) I'm still trying to figure out if it'll work or not - I guess there's one way to find out. I'm feeling a bit ansty as I haven't been able to get out for a run since Sunday ... well, when I say "haven't been able to" I really ought to say I haven't tried hard enough, but I've been burning the candle at both ends as it is, so I'm not going to beat myself up over it too much.

Anyway, I *think* I'm going to go and get into the running gear and put Maeve in the pram and see what it feels like to run in the middle of a beautiful Autum day pushing and extra 30 kilos :o !

check it out

I have a new photo!!! :)

That's me coming up to the finish of the 10k at Brisbane a couple of weeks ago - which is why I look like I'm in pain ;)

ok, back to the assignment - 700 words to go.

ETA - the assignment is DONE!! I have never, in my life, struggled so much writing an essay as I have with this one. I am SO glad it is over with! I think some retail therapy is in order ...

still procrastinating...

I was going to go for a run this morning (normally do on a tuesday) but had a PT scheduled at the gym today and wasn't sure if I should - I'm glad I didn't because the PT was HARD today. I think Drew tok on board my whinging about being bored and unmotivated last time and decided to step it up a couple of levels. Which is good.

But not good for running because I won't get to go until Thursday now.

I did a new class at the gym on Monday which was in an effort to inspire me to get excited about being at the gym again (not sure that it worked though). The class was basically an aerobics class, and I was pretty happy with myself that I was able to keep up with what the instructor was doing without looking like a complete dork ... well, I suppose tha last bit is subjective really! ;)

But as far as workouts go, I find it really hard not to compare everything to running these days. I can burn as many calories in half an hour of running as I can in a 50min aerobics class ... so it makes it hard to be excited about it if the main reason you exercise is to lose weight.

Ideally I would just like to run. But it's not possible. The gym allows me to fit exercise in with family life as it has childcare available. I could get up at 4am every morning like some of you do ... hmmmmmmm - nah!!! :)

Seriously though, I think I am going to have to start getting up earlier on weekdays to fit in more running. I know the gym work has a place with cross training and all that, so it's not going anywhere. anyway, as much as I complain, I do enjoy it mostly.

I think our Guinea Pigs are having a domestic (2 males) because everytime I go outside, 1 is at one end of the hutch and the other one is at the opposite end. This is unusual. Normally they both hide in the covered area of the hutch... I hope they patch up their differences, I'd hate to be kept in a cage with someone I didn't like. and one of them definately has the raw end of the deal - he's been sent to what seems to have been nominated the poo corner!

Today Deakin released their semester 1 examination timetable. The location of my anthropology exam scheduled for the 12 of June was listed as Box Hill town Hall (which is in Melbourne) ... what the?!! I politely informed them I reside in Brisbane and could they please change the location. Just seemed silly to me that they would schedule an examination in Melbourne when all of my student info indicates I live in Brisbane.

anyway, I'm absolutely hating my anthropology subject at the moment. I won't bore you with details, but suffice it to say that it is driving me totally nuts, my children are becoming addicted to tv, I'm not sleeping well and it's making it very very difficult to stay away from the chocolate!

if there's one thing I'm good at, it's procrastinating

Just quick post because I'm supposed to be writing an assignment (yes, another one. this one is worse than the last one and is due Thursday). I've just had to go and get a pillow to put on my chair because my butt is not happy about being parked on this hard chair for the last couple of hours. Particularly as there doesn't seem to be much movement on the essay front.

Anyway, went out for a run this morning around the city/river. I was having the usual saturday night debate in my head last night, should I shouldn't I? I should, but I don't think I can be bothered, I'd love a sleep in, looks like it might rain, cold, dark, wet ... etc etc ... But Lisa rang me and we agreed to meet at the Goodwill Bridge at 5:45am. It's certainly not getting any easier to get out of bed early with the cooler weather and shorter days.

But as usual, once I was out of bed, it wasn't so bad.

I just wanted to say what a fantastic run it was this morning. I came home and told my husband that it was a really great run, but could explain to him why it was great. It was just one of those runs that felt really comfortable, my head was in a really great space and the negative thoughts were at a minimum, everything just felt 'right' - anyone who runs will know exactly what I mean, but it's hard to explain isn't it?

I even thought that it was easier for me to talk and run, but I'm sure our pace wasn't any slower than previous runs. All up about 7k in 51min. A thoroughly enjoyable morning.

here's a picture of where we went - through the city this time from riverside rather than through the gardens - the later (I discovered this morning) is a much more enjoyable run - you avoid most of the car fumes and saturday night drunks still hanging around outside the casino and other places - not to mention the alleyways through the city that smell like a men's toilet.

ETA - oh I meant to say, stretching - I admit I am sometimes guilty of skipping or not stretching enough, but it seemed to me that the quads tightened up during the run on Friday, not after. I could literally feel them starting to tighten up - I stopped for a little stretch, but I think the damage was done. anyway, feeling much better after this morning's run, so I think I must have just been tired from Sunday.

Kathy - I had to laugh at your wonderings about the manure ... mum and dad have 32 acres - they're a bit nuts about their gardening and I think my dad's words were "dump it all on the veggie patch" :0

About Chi Running - I've looked for this book at borders ... no luck - I remember someone else reading it - was it Kathy? Is it worth a read?

Peter - I've sent you my email address via CR.

Miners - yes the DFO near the airport - the Brooks shop there is great, and other stores there are great for cheap kids shoes.

The Polocrosse was kind of fun - it rained all day, so we got pretty wet and cold. The kids, who have not ever seen real horses before absolutely LOVED it. Maeve's reaction to the horses was priceless - it was worth it just to see that. The game looks awfully dangerous if you ask me, and I don't know how they don't fall off and get trampled. Horses are amazing animals - I'll let you in on a secret - I was obsessed with horses in my youth - in fact, I though I was one! Don't laugh! how embarrassing !

5km

this morning's effort - Av HR: 158, 5.2k in 32.54, which is about 6:30min ks ... for me that was pretty good! It doesn't feel right because in hindsight it wasn't that difficult (aside for some tightness and soreness in the quads - more about that later). I need a way of switching off my brain when I run. I have to fight so hard to keep the negative thoughts at bay and it really frustrates me.

I haven't decided what to do training wise - everyone has a different opinion and I guess it's a matter of finding what works for you. I'll probably procrastinate making any decisions (decision making is definitely not one of my strong points) and just keep plodding along for a while. My aim is to get this morning's pace feeling a little more comfortable and be able to sustain it for longer - as Benny pointed out, 6:30min ks is a 65 min 10k - I'd be stoked with that.

About 2/3 of the way through though I was really feeling it in my quads ... man, what a sook - I just don't get it - If I'd run a marathon on Sunday I could understand it, I ran a measly 10k with only 1 easy run since then.

When I got home I could barely get out of the car, and had to go down the back steps sideways this morning!!! Disgraceful!!

I also seem to have broken out in some kind of a rash all over my neck, shoulders, upper chest and upper back. It's red and itchy and is driving me slightly nuts.

No run tomorrow as we're off to Warwick for the day to watch my sister's partner play polocrosse. Would you believe that my mother is driving down in dad's ute so she can collect a ute full of horse manure (polocrosse is played on horses and they're having the polocrosse World Cup 2007 down there this weekend 800+ horses in one tiny town = a lot of manure)????? I don't even want to think about it. She's completely nuts!

Not much to say really - went out for a 5k on Wednesday morning - had to keep telling myself this was supposed to be an easy recovery type run and not to push myself too hard! Found it quite an enjoyable run. I just did the usual 5k out and back route around my house - all down hill on the way out and all up hill on the way home. I'm finding I am capable of running a lot more than I used to on the route home (as opposed to the usual walk run walk run), so that made me happy.

Planning to head out tomorrow morning and time my 5k around the river by Yeronga so I can measure my improvements over the next couple of months before the GCM. I'm not expecting great times tomorrow - I haven't been going to the gym this week and then had last week not doing much before the 10k ... so I'll probably be a bit slow.

I've been feeling a bit bored with the gym lately & spoke to my PT about it - I decided to have a little gym holiday this week as a result. Also changing my schedule up a bit to try and combat the boredom. It's not just boredom, it's also a time management thing. I feel like I spend my life at the gym and the life/gym balance is out of whack, particularly on the days when Max is at Kindy and I go to the gym, come home, Maeve goes to sleep, she wakes up, has lunch and then we go get Max - I never get anything else done. So I've swapped my 1 day off gym to a thursday (which is a kindy day) which will hopefully allow me to get a few jobs done on the Thursday. We'll see how it goes.

I want to head out to the DFO and get some new running gear ... maybe tomorrow.

thanks

I forgot to say a huge thank you for all the encouraging comments on my first 10k - thanks :)

3 posts in one day - can you tell I'm procrastinating ...

so what now???

RMR asked if I ran with a HRM - the answer is Yes. A question about this - I know HR is an individual thing and what works for one may not for another, but when running my HR is ALWAYS high - I'm talking in the 170 - 180 range, but mostly sitting around 172/175 ... I know that will improve as I get more used to running and as I get fitter, but I was surprised that it was so high. That's not really a question is it? More of a statement ... feel free to respond to my statement!!

So I'm planning on heading out for a run tomorrow morning.

I'm actually quite sore today - but I think that has more to do with the massage (read remedial, ouch that hurts, what the hell are you doing, sports massage as opposed to the dim lights, oil burner, relaxing massage!!) I had last night. I'd booked it about a week ago because I thought I'd pull up a bit sore after Sunday and would benefit from it ... turns out I probably didn't need it, but it was still enjoyable in an odd painful kind of way!

So I'm a bit sore today but nothing major.

anyway, back to running ... an easy 5k tomorrow and then I want to focus on getting my time down for the 10 at the GCM. I'm hoping that running in July, earlier in the day and on a flatter course will all contribute to this, but I like to think there's actually something I can do to have an effect on the outcome too.

I'd like to aim for something under 1:10, but closer to 1:05 - I'd like to know what my wonderful readers think (ooh, bit presumptuous?)? Realistic?

Feedback from some runners on CR seems to indicate that I just keep running as I have been and the improvements will come - there's no need for any specific speed work at this stage ?? So I should just keep running my 2 or 3 5k runs during the week and a long (well long for me - say 8 to 10k) run on the weekend? Should I push myself in the 5k runs, make one of them a kind of a time trial or tempo run? I'd like to be able to keep a 6:30 pace, I couldn't sustain that for the whole race on Sunday and would like to be able to by the time the CGM comes around. Am I setting myself up for a dismal failure?

The other option is to follow a structured program, like a Hal Higdon 10k here : http://www.halhigdon.com/10ktraining/10kinter.htm ... I'm not sure I would class myself as intermediate, but his beginner program would probably frustrate me.

I'm just feeling a little lost - I'm not sure how I should be going about this. If I should just be plodding through my usual runs, like I always have, then fine, I'll do that ... or if the above sounds ok, then I'll do that, or if there's something else I should be doing, I'll do that :) !! I'm willing to try anything, I just want to see some good results in July ...

Looks like I'm getting a new iPod for Mother's Day - YAY!!! The shuffle has finally died once and for all, so I'm thinking a Nano ...

a couple of photos

The only running action shot you're going to see on here of me - the others remind me all too clearly of the fact that I need to lose weight - this is us (top LH cnr of the photo) just going under the bridge near the start of the race, still trying to find a comfortable spot in the crowd in which we could run without having to stop for people in front - a bit frustrating that part of the race isn't it?

some of you may have seen this on CR already ...

10k ...

OK, so last night I had the worst night’s sleep in my life!!! I just couldn’t stop thinking, couldn’t switch off. Went to bed at 8pm and ended up getting up to watch TV at 10:30 – went back to bed an hour later and finally managed to drift off, only to keep waking up to look at the clock, worried I might sleep through my alarm!

Anyway, my ride arrived at 5:15am and we headed off to see the marathoners and half marathoners get their start – that was inspirational, seeing those guys just fly past and thinking some of them were going to be keeping up that pace for 42km! Wow! I could never do that. In fact, after today I don’t think I could ever do a half either!

Our 10k started at 9am and it was already warm so I knew it was going to be hot. We started out at about 2 thirds of the way at the back of the pack and quickly overtook people in front of us as we settled into a nice pace. At that point I was feeling good, but for me it’s always a mental battle, finding my rhythm in the first 3ks or so. As we came up to the loop of the gardens and about the 5.5k point I was feeling horrible. My legs and my arms felt like dead weights and then I started to feel tingly all over my arms, legs and face. We walked the majority of the gardens loop, and what wasn’t walked was a very slow, very sad shuffle. I was feeling pretty disappointed in myself at this stage, because I was feeling pretty bad and felt like I wasn’t going to make it to the finish by the 1:15 goal we’d set.

The walk around the garden loop allowed me to recover a little and towards the end of the loop I seemed to be able to get back into a reasonable pace and rhythm, used the drinks station to wet my face and head and felt much better for it.

I had wanted to run up the goodwill bridge, I knew I could do it, I’ve done it in my weekly runs, and we started running up it, but I said to Lis that there was no point killing myself getting over the bridge and then wanting to collapse on the other side. So we walked up and ran down. A huge boost on the other side of the bridge was seeing Peter there who ran with us for a few metres – this was totally unexpected, we thought he’d gone home after his HM and seeing us off at the start, so that was really great. A few nice downhill sections through southbank allowed us to get a bit of pace back, but the tingling returned about 1km out from the finish.

That last km was an absolute killer. Lisa really pushed me (for which I’m grateful) but it was hard. Put in a bit of a push down the finishing chute.

It was great to hear the announcer say my name as we came up to the finish line! I felt like a star! A slow, hurting star!!!

Came in at about 1:12 in the end. I don’t know what the official time was, we’ll wait and see. I was happy to just finish given the way I was feeling at half way.

Highlights:
finishing!!!
Watching the HM and Marathon runners – amazing.
Cheering on fellow CRers in the Marathon and HM
Seeing my family waving from the top of the victoria bridge at the start of the race, and then seeing them again about 1km from home.
Seeing Peter at the other side of the Goodwill Bridge – a much needed lift!
Getting a huge cheer by Clairie & Tesso as we headed out through the tunnel out to west end

I’m glad I did it – it was hard, but worth doing. Now I have something to aim for at the GCM. About 9 weeks to try and train for that. I’ll be seeking some advice on CR about how to go about that, so anyone who has any tips, please let me know what you think I should be doing. I have no idea how to get faster ... I don’t even know if it’s possible.

I’m debating now if I should enter the MDC in May – it’s only 8km, but I’m just feeling a little too tired and sore this evening to contemplate it properly.

There were several points in the race that I thought I never wanted to run ever again!! Don’t worry, I will run again, probably on Tuesday.

After the race I was thinking what a great place to run an event from. After I finished we took the kids for a play in the new water park recently opened at southbank and the cool water on my legs was like manna from heaven!! When I finished the race my legs and arms were covered in little red dots, looked like a shaving rash or something - took about an hour for that to disappear.

I don't know why today was so hard for me. I think a combination of me being tired from lack of sleep, nerves (even though I felt quite calm), and the heat.

I learnt today too that you should take a pair of thongs or something to put on after the race - putting my runners back on after cooling my feet in the water for a while was not fun. I was hobbling a bit by the time we made it back to the car.

I was also happy to discover that my t-shirt they handed me at the finish line actually fits!!!! Wooo Hoooo!!! So I have the t-shirt, now I need the GCM one, then the B2B one and I'll have the whole set!

Wow, this post is way too long - thanks for sticking it out to the end!!!

I am quite proud of myself - overall a great experience, and an accomplishment no one can ever take away from me.