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Cycle Tour of Tongliao

8/29/2014

Oops, no blog post yesterday as I was tied up spending the day cycling around this beautiful, new (for us) city: exploring in the sunshine. No photos were taken yesterday, and apparently this is a 'blogger fail' hey. Oh well, here's a couple from a couple of weeks ago, doing kind of the same thing anyway:

Do you like our shiny new bikes?? We do, but they are somewhat painful on the arse after many hours of peddling around town. But, despite that, it was a successful day: we found copious motorbike shops (we're going to get an e-bike next week we think. So, cue LOTS more exploring further afield), a swimming pool, coffee shops, restaurants, a big market, food streets, and wide, wide open roads.

Today's run was a 12km ish run mostly through newly tarmacked woodland riverside parks nearby: the only vehicles around (once I got into the woodland area and off the main drag) were a couple of trucks and motorbikes from the construction team who are still working on these parks. My legs felt great and fresh having had a couple of days with no running and by replacing run-days with cycling and cross-training. Win.

On for my weekend is probably: some more exploring, writing, reading and maybe some more cycling. Kind of loving the cycling now I've got wheels again. What's on for yours??

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The Afghan Hound

8/27/2014

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No run again today. On for today's schedule is some Hasfit (remember that?) Feels like it's been far too long, so I'll be mixing in some strength and cross training this morning, courtesy of this excellent website (www.hasfit.com). I like it because you can pick and choose short workouts and they feel very effective and efficient. I think I'll do some kick-boxing and something called a 'Warrior workout' today, roar....

Now for something completely non-running related and probably a bit random. I read this book the other day and I thought I'd share my views on it. "Away From This World: The Afghan Hound" by Fardin Azizzada - wow, what an incredible story. It's about an Afghan refugee and details his childhood in Afghanistan, rife with fear and being persecuted (due to being a minority ethnic group there) and then later his extensive travels in a bid to fight relative safety away from persecution. I hadn't heard of the Hazara people before reading this book hey, but they seem to be yet another minority group suffering genocide at the hands of those in the majority. So tragic and pointless (why? Why kill others because they are different to you??). I really enjoyed reading this book, despite the tragedies that unfold, and although it is a fictional novel, it reads very much like an autobiography.

Do you use websites for workout inspiration?

Do you like to read novels? If so, what are you currently reading?

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And the Winning Prize Goes to.....

8/26/2014

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... Marion! Congratulations Mani, you were the first to get back to me and correct my temporary blond affliction (sorry other Blonds!) informing me that it is a HERD of horses, not a gallop, nor a huddle, nor even a flock, lol... So, without further ado, here is your virtual prize:

Embracing something of a wave-particle duality, what's inside is pure possibility at this stage, and can be whatever you imagine it to be! I.e. another mountain bike, some cycling gear, cake etc.... Enjoy!

Now, onto the 'running' bit. No run this morning, but I got back to some strength/weight training. I was shocked to realise that I am down to doing this only about once a week, with the rest of the days taken up by running and cycling as I've recently bought a mountain bike. Why the mountain bike? I hear you ask (well, maybe). We-ell, Husband and I have registered for this event to be held on the beautiful grasslands of Xilingol next July! http://www.genghiskhanmtbadventure.com/ Clicking on this link will take you through to the page for the Genghis Khan Moutain Bike Adventure and Extreme Grasslands Marathon!!!

This is going to be awesome! So excited. Some friends of mine did it this year and highly recommended it, so Husband and I will be competing together, although not the running portion for him due to an old rugby injury (his knee). We will take part in two days of cycling (out of the three available) and I will also do the half marathon. We have opted for the 'long' option, so that means about 60kms on one day and 40kms on the other (the 'short' option was about 20kms each day). So, in between now and then I will be getting in as much training as possible while there is no snow and minus temperatures to contend with. However I still want to pick up my strength training and do more of that, so will be aiming to get a few more sessions in each week. It's all about balance right?

Who else is keen?? Fancy an amazing adventure to the beautiful grasslands of Inner Mongolia AND you get to take part in an awesome challenge too??! This could be your backdrop for a run or cycle next July if you come on over (although we'll probably be dressed in racing gear by then instead):

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Time for Tongliao

8/25/2014

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We've been in our new 'hometown' for a little over two weeks now, so I thought I'd finally share some pictures and thoughts on my new town and local running route.

Everyone is very friendly and welcoming in this little city, and there are even lots of other foreigners to chat with, courtesy of there being lots of medical students from Pakistan and a few African countries here, as well as a few other English teachers too. Kind of refreshing, although I am still keen to improve my very sketchy Chinese while I'm here, oh yeah, and pick up a reasonable amount of Mongolian too.

One of the best things about Tongliao so far (other than the wonderful people, and amazing food), has been the BLUE sky. Sooo blue that some days we feel like we're back in Australia, and it seems to be a regular thing too, not just a freak occurrence. We've been having beautiful days of bright blue skies and hot, hot sunshine. Kind of hard to imagine it getting down to the -25 to -35 that other residents say its gets to in the not too distant future (they reckon it starts to get cold in October! Eek...). So, I've been enjoying some runs through this new city (love exploring a new place by running through it), and I've found beautiful riverside parks, boardwalk walkways over sections of river, and wide, long freshly tarmacked roads through newly created riverside woodland where there are no cars, bikes and foot only. It's actually reminded me of my time in Perth and Mandurah, Western Australia, due to the sandy riverside walkways and paths and beautiful views across the water.

Check it out, I actually took my camera on a run for a change and tried to snap along the way of all the beautiful sights I see. Thought I better record it posterity now before the weather changes and all the flowers are gone. Here are a few:

No, your eyes did not deceive you - there are two riverside beaches in this park too! Lots of people paddling in the water on Sunday arvo when I was there, but not sure if people full on swim there.

This usual route is a 12km run, and it is shared with many other runners, cyclists, basketball player, tennis players, football players, fishermen, and walkers, although I've just realised no one else is in these pictures (this was at about half 6 am when I usually go about half 5 am, so think I missed the peak/rush hour on this particular day). This is one active town and I like it.

In other news, we started teaching yesterday, and it seems I haven't forgotten how to do it. Phew... It had been a while.

Does it get very cold in the winter where you are? (This will be a whole new level of cold for both of us.)

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Inner Mongolia (AKA 'the money shots')

8/24/2014

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There is one word to sum up my runs through Inner Mongolia (nei menggu): 'nature'. Probably my favourite runs of the whole trip, and an oft used mantra from my 50km trail race in the mountains courtesy of Husband/coach came back to me: 'one with nature'.

I had plenty of company on some of these runs, including cows, sheep, birds, hares, WILD HORSES (yeah, just try getting that song out of your head now. Yep, you're welcome!), and a puppy, to name a few. No human was encountered on any of my runs however (bar a couple of cowboys on motorbikes speeding off to herd his cows in the distance), and I truly felt 'one with nature', as per the mantra.

SO beautiful, and so peaceful.

The first run was during our stay in a farmer's traditional yurt / ger (a monglian tent). I'd asked one of the guys there, where was good to go for a run. To which he spread out his arms, indicating the vast choice of open running routes, i.e. the grasslands, d'oh... So, off I went bright and early the next morning about half 5 (although could have been even earlier - felt like it was light from about 3 in the morning out there!). I couldn't see where I was placing my feet on each step and sort of had to run with high knees, due to all the long grass. There was thousands of rocks and roots too, was actually pretty treacherously going, and I was worried about putting my foot down awkwardly and twisting my ankle. However, all was good, and I made it back to the campsite unscathed. Later that day, another of the guys there showed me some pictures of him holding up a fairly huge snake that is common to the land all around us. I asked was it poisonous/venomous to which he'd said of course. Hmmm, lucky I didn't know about that before my run!

The next three runs also took place in the grasslands of Xilingol, but further along, and from our own campsite (i.e. just the caravan and us) at the edge of a lake. We stayed here for four nights total, and it was the most peaceful tranquil place to camp. The farmers who owned the land would come and say hello on their motorbikes before they set off for some cow herding, but apart from that it was just Husband, puppy, myself, and bliss.

The runs I had from here were far less daunting and I had a sandy motorbike track to follow for most of the way, until the road opened up to a gravelly road, which later joined on to a 'proper' (although still small) road. Yep, we were 'out there' and felt respectably off the beaten track. It was exactly 4kms to reach the road, and once on the side of the road (still the grasslands, which covers a HUGE area) you could run left or right to various yurt campsites and streams. My 'usual' run out here was a gentle 11kms run across grass, sand, gravel, and swampy muddy land. The first one was an early one and I kid you not, I ran up to a group of wild horses (what's the proper name for a group of horses?? Do you know?) who swiftly galloped away upon seeing me. Two days later, I ran up to the same group of horses, who this time, did not move. I slowed to a walk and looked at them, trying to tell them 'hey, hello there, it's ok, I'm a friend!' What looked like the main dude, a fairly large white stallion with a long white main and tail walked directly towards me. Shit! Were horses aggressive? Or did he remember me from the other day and had come to check me out? Or, was he hungry and used to humans feeding them perhaps? He got really close (about a metre or so) and we just looked at each other for a while. I then started to carry on walking, and had to walk through the group (as they were all over the path) who seemed to be curious and calm this time, each one moving slightly and looking at me, but not running off like before. So beautiful and amazing to see up close, and I'm not a particularly 'horsy' girl.

We took so many photos of the grasslands, it was hard to choose which to upload here; have a look at the serenity and beautiful countryside that is 'nei menggu':

Ok folks, what is the correct name for a group of horses?? (I.e. a gaggle of geese, a flock of birds, etc...) First one to answer correctly wins a virtual prize. :)

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Shanxi (one a) Shizzle

8/22/2014

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We continued on from Shaanxi province into its neighbouring Shanxi province (yes, a little confusing there) and headed to the only fully intact ancient walled city in China: Pingyao, of course, with Whitney singing out mercilessly and repetitively.

"I'm saving all my love, yes I'm saving all my love, I'm saving all my love for you!"

Pingyao was an awesome place to visit, and I'd love to go back someday. It was a very friendly, very felaxed, very beautiful little city, and reminded me of the awesomeness that is Bali, so you know it's gotta be good. My run (about a whole week after the Hua Shan visit due to just how smashed my legs were after all those steps) through Pingyao involved running out into the beautiful, but dusty, countryside for a few kilometres before running completely around the outside walls of the city, in the beautiful first light of the day and vast orange orb of sun.

"I decided long ago, never to walk in anyone's shadows! If I fail, if I succeed, at least I'll have my dig-ni-ty!"

Here are a few shots from beautiful Pingyao (which I've renamed 'Ping-WOW!' as it's such a cool place to visit) to give you an idea. You can't tell in the photos how dusty/muddy things were though, but you get that I suppose with a walled city where mud is a major component of its construction. Didn't seem to bother the relaxed and happy local residents though.

"and IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII e IIIII, will always love youuuuuuuuuuu!"

We also visited the amazing Yungang Caves up near Datong at the very top of the province. AMAZING huge, intricately carved and patterned Buddha sculptures set into a rock wall. No running took place here, just some slow shuffling between each fantastic cave with massive gaping looks of awe plastered on our surprised faces. Unfortunately they didn't let us take photos of the really, absolutely, out of this world, amazeballs caves and statues, however here are a few of the ones we could capture:

"Bittersweet memories, that is all I'm taking with me!"

Aaaannnd, that's it for Shanxi province. Next up will be our final province, the very large, very beautiful Inner Mongolia, where I managed to get 5 awesome runs in. More on that in the next post.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! I'll leave you with this, courtesy of my recent Whitney education/indoctrination:

"Learning to love yourself, is the greatest, looovve, of all!"
,

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Shaanxi (with 2 As) Shenanigans

8/21/2014

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Ok, I've realised that I was erroneous when saying that I ran in every province we went too! Oops! I think I got confused because I had an early morning run before we left Baimasizhen (the White Horse Temple town) and then we were exploring the town near Hua Shan in Shaanxi province later that afternoon. However, I did do some running in Shaanxi, namely on Hua Shan, and up and down copious/hundreds/thousands of steps. True story.

We had a plan that we would both be able to visit Hua Shan, me with my love of a gruelling, hard workout, or a hike, and Husband with his love of seeing new places however knee pain and ankle pain and general loathing of all things that are steps. The plan went like this: Husband would get the cable car to the top and I would hike the 2ish hour climb to meet him, then we would look around for a while before both taking the cable car back down. Sounds a good plan yes? However, it was just not meant to be.

Problem number 1: the ticket office sold us the wrong ticket (even after repeated questions checking we were definitely going to the right spot for the cable car up to the North Peak) so we both arrived at the cable car point that would take us up to the West Peak. This peak's cable car did NOT feature the option to hike up underneath it, as the other one of the two did. Bm-Bm - fail.

This smoothly led to problem number 2: We both took the cable car up, however this side's cable car was a crazy long (about 30 mins) world's first cable car in operation that UNDULATES and goes up one mountain then down a little then up to an even higher peak and then down a little. The views were INCREDIBLE! It was amazeballs, no other word for it. Check out the pictures below. You think you're there but then, boom, another treacherous peak and you're still climbing. Oh, did I mention Husband's severe vertigo that I was kind of previously unaware about? Let's just say he did NOT have a fun cable car trip. So much so that when we arrived at the top, and even after many hours up there, he refused point-blank to get any sort of cable car back down.

Which eventually led to painful problem number 3: Husband's knee is very painful anyway, so walking up and down steps is a killer for him. The only way off this mountain, as you might imagine, was down. Down steps. Thousands of them. On precipitous ledges which did nothing good for a person with vertigo. I was so proud and so happy that we eventually made it back down safely and securely and I think my husband is so very brave for doing what he did that day.

However, it wasn't all problems, and truth be told, I LOVED this day climbing up and down and around this mountain (Sorry Husband - I have a thing for mountains). So, why was I running on various portions of it, you may well ask? Well, as per problem number 3, Husband's knee cannot take the pain, so once we'd arrived at the top, we realised there are 4 main peaks, North, South, East and West, and hey, there are MANY steps to enlightenment. We wanted to see as much as we could while we were up there, so we agreed that I would go off on a little mission, as fast as I could, see the sights/peaks that Husband couldn't get to, take lots of photos and then come back and we could resume checking out some less step-y parts together (at that point however, little did we realise it's ALL steps on Mount Hua). So, I got to run up and down lots of stairs. Loving it. Thankful for all my earlier stair training in the year. Then when the other tourists got too plentiful, it was too hard to keep the pace up, even just walking was hard and there were plenty of frustrating single-file sections. Soooo busy, just like every other tourist attraction in China, we've found. But soooooo beautiful and amazing, just the same. Here are some photos for your visual pleasure:

I recommend, if you're going to Shaanxi province, DO go and visit Hua Shan (Mount Hua), but try to go early to avoid the plentiful crowds. It was so beautiful though, despite the pain. Oh yeah, my legs were fairly wrecked for about a week after this. Brutal. But again, many steps to enlightenment and all that.

The only other running I did in this province, was probably AWAY from the horrendous crowds when we went to visit the site of the famous Terracotta Warriors. Sadly, this was probably my least favourite tourist attraction that we visited. Maybe it was the stinking hot, sweat-inducing weather, or maybe it was the thousands of other tourists and tour groups barging past me, or maybe it was all the trinket shops and touristy crap all around the actual site, but I was not a fan. Great to see and 'tick off the list' but WAY preferred the mountain visit.

Ok, that's it for Shaanxi Province. Stay tuned for Shanxi Province, coming your way soon. Cheers!

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Henan (and Houston)

8/19/2014

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We crossed the border into our second new province of the trip, Henan, excited and eager to get to our first stop of Song Shan, near Dengfeng, where the very famous Shaolin temple sits. This was just following a fair bit of tension between the drivers and us, or namely the main driver (self-titled 'boss' we think) and Husband, owing to a dispute over music and of who's holiday it really is. I won't say too much at this stage (again, watch this space for the book! Haha, don't mind the blatant plug there) but one of the drivers had some definite 'control' issues. I was thinking the dispute was over and we could get on with 'our' holiday; it seemed they had found common ground over their shared love of songs by Whitney Houston and Celine Dion. Great. Or so we thought. As we drove into Henan and further into the province, the (we'd soon come to realise) ever-present sound of Whitney's voice in the particular songs the driver liked of hers was blasting through the car. Then he'd repeat the same song. Again. And again. And again. So began the theme 'album' or few songs for our entire trip (still considering calling the book "28 days of Whitney" for this very reason).

This couldn't diffuse our excitement however, and we settled in for a few days about 200 metres from the Shaolin Temple. I am a relatively late-comer to the joys of "Kung Fu" featuring David Carradine (thanks Husband for my 'education' earlier this year!), but for those of you well versed in this series from back in the day, we went to see where Grasshopper learned and lived, and to see if we could meet some enlightened monks and find out what it's all about. What we mainly encountered however, was hundreds (or thousands?) of other tourists and scorching hot weather, with a few mini Grasshoppers and a few bonafide monks around too. We did however, meet this monk outside the temple's grounds, who we think may be one of the dudes in charge? Either way, he seemed pretty chilled and enlightened to me:

There are possibly up to a hundred kung fu / wushu academies scattered all around near Shaolin Temple too, with hundreds of youngsters practising their martial arts moves in the 40+ degree heat. Dedicated. I got to see lots of monks-in-training on an early morning run, just before sunrise, when it seemed every academy sends its troops out for a gruelling-ish run, along the dusty main road and up and down a winding mountain road. This was the only run in the whole month where I had company! They were very serious little dudes though, and some seemed very young and small.

Another run in this province was had near the oldest/first Buddhist temple in China: the White Horse Temple, or Baimasi. This was a great run, past veggie fields, the temple, and the very relaxed neighbourhood nearby where we were staying.

I only had two runs in this province, and days-wise could have had more. However, the heat was intense here. 'Hot' would be the key word for Henan, with 'dusty' coming a close second.

The people was lovely here (around Longyou, the Longmen Caves, and the White Horse Temple), very friendly (with the definite exception of near and around the Shaolin Temple, where people were very Unfriendly for some reason) after they got over their initial surprise of seeing two laowei, a puppy, and a caravan roll into their neighbourhood.

The food in Henan province was AWESOME too. Maybe my favourite food of the whole trip. Yum.

After our last stop in Henan of the White Horse Temple Town (Baimasizhen), we continued on to Shaanxi province, Whitney singing out loudly and proudly and with each favourable song on repeat (then repeat, repeat, repeat again).

Did you used to watch Kung Fu?

Do you know if there is a name for some sort of condition where somebody plays the same song over and over again for hours?? OCD or something else??

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Phew... Where to begin?!?

8/18/2014

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Well hello there! We're back from our long trip around China. We arrived at the uni (our new home) just over a week ago, however, getting the internet (amongst a few other things in the apartment) has been slow going and we only just connected today. But now, I'm ba-ack!! And I've had a BLAST. There have been many 'ups' on our trip of course, but also a fair few stressful times, and 'downs', mainly due to one of our drivers, but more on that later perhaps... Basically: we made it! And saw some amazing sights, ate some sooo fricken tasty food, and met some wonderful people.

I ran less than usual, as I knew I would, but I still managed to get a couple of runs in in each province (and even managed FOUR in the last week, all in beautiful Inner Mongolia, our new province for the next year).

I thought, for the purpose of this primarily being a running blog and whatnot, that I'd try to focus on mainly the running aspect of my trip (for the rest, you'll have to buy our forthcoming travel book haha - we are going to write a book about our adventure! Lol, watch this space). So, I will write about a different province's running environment and my experience on each day's blog post, starting with today's tale of, dum-de-de-dum, drum roll please.....: Anhui province.

Anhui was our first province after leaving our home-province of two years, Zhejiang. There is truly only one word for Anhui province (or the parts we saw anyway) - fecund. Everywhere was so beautiful, lush, green, and there were abundant veggie patches everywhere. I had two runs through Anhui province: the first through a quaint and beautiful mountainside village near the very famous Huangshan, which was slightly undulating owing to the mountain nearby. The second was a flat run but at the foot of another famous mountain, Jiuhuashan, with the most beautiful backdrop of jagged peaks of said mountain and similarly lush, fecund fields of veggies and rice paddies too. This second location reminded me a lot of running through the Balinese countryside. Gorgeous.

I have no photos of the actual running routes but here are a few shots from Anhui province anyway. Your imagination can fill in the rest. Picture running past gorgeous green, verdant, lush fields and mountains, fresh water streams, with a fair few traditional village houses and the odd ye olde bridge or two chucked in for good measure.

Short and sweet for my return then! Still have much to sort out here in the new apartment and things on campus. So, tune back in tomorrow for Henan Province's instalment.

I hope you've all had a wonderful month and I'll now be able to catch up with everything I've missed since being offline (pretty much, got on our personal emails and fb a few times when we had wifi in places, but it was sketchy to say the least - kind of nice not having the computer though, I must say!).

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Cycle Tour of Tongliao

The Afghan Hound

And the Winning Prize Goes to.....

Time for Tongliao

Inner Mongolia (AKA 'the money shots')

Shanxi (one a) Shizzle

Shaanxi (with 2 As) Shenanigans

Henan (and Houston)

Phew... Where to begin?!?

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