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"