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Accidental Naked Run, and Doubling Up

4/16/2014

Yesterday’s run at the track bombed. I did indeed get myself out there at about half 7 last night, and started warming up (1.6kms). Felt ok. Then, I didn’t even complete ONE of my six 1.6kms intervals at VO2max pace, but stopped after just 800m to walk. WTF?! Yep, some weird, random, intense pain that I get from time to time, and its kind of crippling and agonizing (they have investigated at various hospitals but everything looks normal, so it’s hard to explain when it’s not happening). So, that was kind of (= very) frustrating, and I called it a night there, after oh, maybe just 15 minutes. Went home and ate some amazingly tasty carb-laden food prepared by Husband (who is a not-so-secret, awesome chef, just sayin), surely that counts as training instead? J

So, this morning’s training is an 11km (ish – depends on the route I end up taking) run this morning, and a short 4km run later in the day. Yep, a double-up day. First time I’ve done this or seen this on my training schedule, but it looks like this is to be the norm for Thursdays now. So, I hope I like it! Do you ever run more than ONCE in a day?

Phew, back from Run Number One for the day. Was an awesome run! So, maybe missing the speedwork yesterday (or most of it anyway) was in fact a (painful) blessing in disguise? Anyway, just got back from one of those awesome, feel-like-I’m-flying runs, which turned out to be an accidental naked run (Garmin couldn’t find my location, so after a while it turned to power save and I forgot to switch it back on, oops), but I think it was roughly 11kms, maybe slightly more. A beautiful morning for a run. And now to face those Thursday kids! Hmmm, wish us luck, we’re going to need it. J

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Oops, I Did It Again...

4/15/2014

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Yep, 'swapped' that speedwork session that I had scheduled for early this morning, to a later unidentified point in the day. So really, I swapped it for more sleep. Seemed a good idea at the time. Actually even really thought I had gotten up and was heading to the track at about 5:20 ish as planned, but alas, was only a very boring life-like dream. So, now will be aiming to get this track workout in at oh, say around 7:30 or 8 tonight. This will be a challenge for me, so will have to tell myself to 'just f*&ken DO IT!'

In other news, we MISSED that supposedly awesome, beautiful sight of the 'pink moon' or the red, coppery coloured moon that was supposed to come into effect due to a lunar eclipse. We read about it and it sounded awesome, But, unfortunately missed it due to, you guessed it, sleep. It was apparently red in appearance at around 3am between 14th and 15th, d'oh... Maybe we'll catch it next time. Did anyone see the Pink Moon??

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A Goldilocks Kind of Run

4/14/2014

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After a somewhat (unexpected) busy Monday (we only have one lesson but a lot of the day entailed marking and putting smiley faces and ticks on some stories we've asked the students to write, as part of a short story competition), Husband and I got out in the beautiful sunshine and blue sky (no, I'm not kidding) and took Puppy for a walk, on a newish route that cuts off the shop where the non-incident took place (in her head). As soon as we got closer to my usual running route, I said my adieus and set off, Garminless and fancy-free. It was a beautiful afternoon, and perfect weather for a run! Not too hot, and not too cold but just right, (so, a Goldilocks kind of run? Sounds better than a porridge run hey),with an occasional light breeze chucked in for good measure. Awesome stuff. I ran one of my usual routes which takes me approximately 10kms through some parks, along some busy roads (unavoidable though) and then down along the riverside for a beautiful loop over one of the many bridges and then more riverside action, before heading back along the busy roads to the parks and then home.

As I was running today, a guy on a bike (with a helmet and everything! Not something you often see here hey) asked me if I was a runner and if I run marathons? (In Chinese, and a little English). My Chinese running speech has finally come in very handy! Haha. Had a brief conversation (In Chinese mainly, some English too though) about running and compared races we had been in here in China, and apparently there was one about 400kms away yesterday, d'oh! Missed it. But hey, maybe I have found a running buddy (or running group? As he showed me pics of him and a running friend at the race) in this city, just before we leave, oh well... I have not often run with other people, am very mush a solo runner, but when I have gone running with other people, it's been great, and I've loved it. Maybe it's the worrying beforehand, re: talking while running, having different paces, potentially annoying the other runner etc, that puts me off running with people, rather than the actual main event, which has always been awesome. However, I wasn't expecting to find a running buddy or group in our little city here in China, so watch this space! Maybe if I run with someone else here in China my Chinese will drastically improve too?

Do you prefer running alone or with another person, or do you run with a group at all?

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Not Much Running, and Scam Update

4/13/2014

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I didn't do any running ALL weekend. Boo.... Nor, did I get up for my morning 9.66km run this morning. Hmm, chose to sleep a little bit longer again. Hey-ho. Will hopefully get out there after work and get back on track.

As for this potential scam, well, we feel she is definitely pulling some sort of scam, although just what is the point of self-inflicting a bruise and willingly getting injections in your arm for no apparent need remains to be seen. When we took our Chinese friend with us on Saturday evening to try to work out what she was saying to us, we found out that she says that, yes, she was bitten, and that the doctor agreed when he inspected the 'bite' and thus gave her the injections and treatment. WTF!? There was NO bite! She said that after she had been given these two injections for the TWO small circular bite marks (akin to that of a snake??) that her wounds had disappeared overnight, albeit for the extremely dodgy looking (self-inflicted/knuckle imprint) bruise. Our friend believed what the girl told her and told us that, yes, our dog had bitten her. So, we reiterated there was NO way that a bite would be gone today, nor would there be only two small circles if she had, and that I had witnessed her leg first hand yesterday where there was nothing there. Hmmm, so, our friend said, don't worry, it's all fine now and over. Well, so we thought, but then they have exchanged phone numbers to call each other when she has the THIRD shot! For NO bite or broken skin or anything! She is getting injections for an imaginary wound. It is very strange. Will keep you updated. Hopefully this is the end of it though.

Any running or races for anyone this weekend?? Mine was very chilled (read = lazy) but I guess I needed it, as still feel tired today. Have a great Monday everyone!

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Are We Being Scammed? Or: Inadvertent Weight Training

4/11/2014

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Yesterday, I had a short strength or weight training session scheduled in the afternoon, which I decided to forego in place of drinking wine on our balcony and then cleaning up the apartment (let's face it, a workout on a hot Friday afternoon, post a week of 'work' was never really going to happen). Little did I know that actually I would be getting that weight training in after all. In the form of my roughly 8kg little puppy dog. Carried in my arms, alternating between arms for roughly, oh, maybe about TWO HOURS!! Wtf...

Let me explain: I set off on a QUICK walk with puppy, aiming to get a few beers and some bottles of cleaning stuff for the project ahead. Five minutes later in a little corner shop an assistant trotted over to see if she could help me find what I was looking for (I was, at that point, doing the charades version of what is surely the universal sign for mopping the floors). Anyhoo, as soon as she's about a half a metre away, Puppy cheekily pops up to say hello on her leg (like, jumps up on her leg, all friendly, no aggro etc). Cue this girl SCREAMING like she's been stabbed or something. I'm like, 'what the?' Took me a few moments to realise she is screaming because of Puppy. And then it begins. A two to three hour drama of this girl carrying on like she's been bitten (she definitely HADN'T) and dragging me (and Puppy, looking all cute and confused) to first the dentist, then the pharmacy and finally the hospital across the road. I was shitty at first, and was like 'there's nothing there!', in my limited Chinese I tried to get this point across. Then I thought that maybe this girl was a bit of a nutbag and genuinely panicked (egged on by her manager who kept instructing us to go here and there, all the while she's LIMPING, yes, limping, from our Puppy's paw on her, through clothes....) So, I thought, ok, try to calm her down and appease this situation. So, went with her to the hospital and thought they'd take one look at her leg (where there was NOTHING there) and tell her 'mei wenti' (= no problem). Oh, how wrong I was. The doctors didn't even look at her leg! (Too busy or too lazy??) Told her to get into their shower there and scrub it with a special soap for TWENTY minutes straight, then she was to get two shots in her arms!! Wtf!? She has to come back next week and next month too. For no wound or scratch or anything??? Very confusing. Sensed a scam coming on, but had no phone, no money and no way of contacting Husband or the school to say 'wtf'?'. Did have an Australian bank card on me though, so after a few different bank attempts (with her limping in tow, as apparently I was to foot the bill yes?, hmmm....) found one that accepted my card and could withdraw the pricey amount needed for these UNNECESSARY and RANDOM shots she was getting. All the while, I am holding my dog in my arms as every time I put her down on the ground and she heads towards the crazy girl, she gets screamed at and is a bit confused, so thought it would be safer to carry her - very sore arms today hey, but at least I did get that strength training in after all.

Anyway, we went back this morning, me and my Husband this time, to introduce him and to say, hey, how is that leg of yours? Well, now it has a large bruise that looks very much like a fist or knuckles on it! Definitely not caused by a little puppy's paw jumping up to say hello. Hmm... Very suspicious now. We are heading back there in a couple of hours with a Chinese friend who can hopefully clear this up for us. We fear that she may be trying to scam us and say that our dog has bruised her (there is no way that our little dog could cause the bruise she has - we think that twenty minutes of unnecessary scrubbing in the hospital shower or her own fist could possibly be the culprit!) and may try to get yet more money out of us (we've already had to pay a fair bit for the shots that there was no need to get). Either this girls is jatz crackers and a few screws loose or we are being scammed. Will keep you posted! (Side note: this is very bizarre as we often comment re: how safe life is living here in China and how sad we'll be to leave this loving, little community.)

ps - no run today, have swapped it for tomorrow! I seem good at doing that hey. :)

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Feeling Hot Hot Hot

4/10/2014

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As the famous Nelly (I think) once sang: “It’s getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes”, was the next line “and then put on your running gear and go for a run in the hot, sweaty afternoon”? It should be I reckon. For that was the tune of my afternoon after a difficult-ish day at work (Thursday kids are hard work!). I had a 10km easy/recovery pace run scheduled but my morning did not seem to start early enough to get that in before work, so I postponed it to later in the day. Note to self: stop postponing scheduled training runs. It is getting too hot to do this much longer!

Had to do it though. It served a dual purpose of a supermarket trip to get some much needed delicious wine (how eerily right my picture from the day before was), so, felt pretty good, you know, two birds one stone etc…

Now this morning, the birds and chirping and a large, orange orb is gently rising on my horizon – a beautiful morning for a run, and I won’t be missing it today. Shortly will be out on an easy 8km run by the riverside, before I begin my last workday of the week, yew!

Can’t believe how quickly these weeks are going, but that’s more than ok with me. As I’m now one week closer to going back to the Lucky Country, to seeing family and friends, and to running the Gold Coast half too. Here’s a quick pic to whet your appetite for this race to come (July 6th), yep, soon I’ll be here (coincidentally, this is exactly where our new apartment is! Can't wait.):

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Will Run for Wine

4/8/2014

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Ahh, trackwork done and dusted, yeewww! Feel like I smashed it this morning. Well, for me personally anyhoo. This morning was a 1.6km warm up, then 6x 1.6 at VO2max pace (between 3:45-3:55 for me) with 3 minute rests and then 1.6 cool down. Felt really strong and much better at this workout than two weeks ago, so wow, training must be working hey. Who knew?! My fastest kilometer according to trusty Garmin was 3:47, woohoo! Last time it was 3:55. And my fastest mile, although I don’t work in miles so this is fairly meaningless for me, ohwell, was 6:05. I still very much needed those 3 minute rests though, and walked to recover during those delicious 3 minutes.

So, training for this week = very much on track = happy Lou J

Another thing making me happy this week = finally having found a wine that I love here in China – and it’s only taken me almost 2 years to find it, haha. It’s a Chilean Sav Blanc that one of the bigger supermarket sells and is slightly pricier than the Chinese reds we usually buy, but sooo much nicer and one bottle usually lasts me three days, so I feel fully justified in this purchase.

So, another sunny but hazy (polluted?) day here in our part of China. Kind of counting down the weeks now til AUSTRALIA!!! Just a bit excited. Then it’s our Chinese road-trip to Inner Mongolia straight after that! Roll on July. Have a GREAT day everyone!

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Sneaky Speedwork Swap

4/7/2014

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I am still using the school computer (which is so frustratingly slow, just saying, hence - no pictures or anything fancy hey). I am doing so as I don't want to wake up Husband who is ill with some horrible stomach thing or food poisoning, boo.... Miraculously he got our computer to work again last night, but I fear it won't be for long. So, thanks Kristina! I will be signing up for the dropbox account shortly, and hopefully our pictures can be saved, yay.

Today's scheduled run called for another speedwork session at the track. BUT, I rolled over and thought, hey, why not do that one tomorrow morning instead? So, I have taken the executive decision and will be heading out shortly to literally run some errands that are in dire need of running, and get my 'tomorrow morning run' in simultaneously (an easy pace 9.66km run). Win, I reckon.

This is a very short, very boring post! Feel free to liven it up. Tell me one strange or unknown or surprising fact about yourself!

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Hotelling

4/6/2014

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I am sat here writing this on a school computer as our laptop seems to have finally given up the struggle and now won’t even turn on. Boo… We knew it was coming. It’s about 3 years old and has been having problems for a while now. But, what to do about all our documents and photos stored on it? Any computer experts out there reading this with some helpful advice?? That would be tops.

So, I’m hoping this post will still make it out there into the wide world of the web, as some sites get blocked from computers here in China (and now I’ve got no VPN to help me out with this issue, oh well…).

We discovered our computer’s deadness upon our return from an amazing indulgent hotel weekend yesterday arvo. I love, love, love hotelling and Husband chose an entirely decadent spot for us to retreat to for the night and most of yesterday. Definitely feeling spoilt hey. Our Saturday featured afternoon tea, nice white wine, then an AMAZING and huge feast for dinner: bucket-sized glasses of really nice red wine, seafood, cheese, cakes, ice-cream, BBQ – so glad I went for that long run in the morning hey. More than compensated for it in the evening. Oh, and in the morning yesterday, where there was an equally amazeballs breakfast buffet, and more relaxing to be had at this hotel.

Yesterday was a rest day, and it seems I took this very seriously, haha. Although we did go for a walk to and from the hotel room and the huge restaurant, which was a fair way (massive hotel) and then when we got back to town took Puppy for a walk to our favourite dumpling restaurant and met some friends there for yet more tasty treats and a few drinks.

Today’s scheduled run was an easy pace 9.66km run, which I did and felt great, so did a wee bit of strength training afterwards too. It’s a holiday again today, but I’m pretty sure our ‘holiday’ will now be spent running around looking for a computer shop to help us in our hour of need.

So, come on guys, how will we save all our stuff that’s on the dead laptop?? Is it salvageable?? Thanks, and I wish you all excellent Mondays. :)

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Naked Running and Small Steps to Happiness

4/4/2014

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This morning’s run was my long run of the week: 19km at an easy pace. It was a beautiful morning, full of the scent of those fragrant Spring flowers adorning most of the trees in town and down by the riverside. My legs felt great and I was so pleased to be out and running again. Today marks the start of a three day holiday or festival here in China, called Qingming Festival, which we think is to do with celebrating or commemorating your ancestors and those who have passed away. The whole town seemed to be out en masse this morning (early, early morning too – 6am ish), cutting clippings of willow tree leaves to fashion into a crown. We are yet to make our crowns. Maybe later, who knows. Interesting point here though: when a ‘holiday’ falls on a weekday here in China, you often have to work the weekend as compensation for those ‘holiday’ days. However, when it falls on a weekend, like this weekend, there is no weekday holiday compensation. Hmm, bit of a rort yes?

I would love to be able to tell you how long my run took me this morning, but unfortunately my Garmin ran out of power when I was about 2 kms away from home (note to self – charge things the night before if you want to use them!). Hmm, so, at the 17km mark it had taken me about 1:28 I think, so, not sure about my overall time. But, who cares hey? As I felt GREAT running it, and I guess that’s the whole point anyway? It got me thinking. As much as I LOVE my Garmin (thank you Rob and Dund!!! Awesome present!) and it is a great tool for training and for speedwork and trackwork especially, I think for the Gold Coast half marathon I’m going to run it naked.

No, I won’t be scaring the byjasus out of the lovely Gold Coast folk at early o’clock in the day by running past them sans clothes, but I think I will leave the watch at home, and run the race purely on how I feel. I love using the Garmin, but I love running free and by going on how I feel too, i.e. technology free: naked running (I’ve also heard this called zen running, but I prefer naked). I find that when I wear the Garmin on a long run, that I am constantly checking it for my pace or time, and that detracts from the pure bliss of just running.

My run got me thinking about other things that make me happy. So, without further ado, and in no particular order, here is my list of small (and not so small) steps to daily happiness:

- Running, lol, who’d have guessed it?!

- Friends and family

- My husband

- Seeing my puppy run around with an inane grin on her face and tongue lolling out

- A glass or two of a good Shiraz or Sav Blanc

- Dark chocolate, the darker and bitterer (is that a word?) the better

- Nature – connecting with the grass barefoot

- Writing

- Sex

- Planning trips and travel adventures

- Classic (black and white) movies

- Spring flowers

- A platter or some sort of food-on-a-plate

- Walking on a beach

- Bonjovi

What would YOU add to the list???

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Accidental Naked Run, and Doubling Up

Oops, I Did It Again...

A Goldilocks Kind of Run

Not Much Running, and Scam Update

Are We Being Scammed? Or: Inadvertent Weight Training

Feeling Hot Hot Hot

Will Run for Wine

Sneaky Speedwork Swap

Hotelling

Naked Running and Small Steps to Happiness

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