Never again, was one of the phrases I was heard to utter after finishing the Great Wall of China half marathon in May this year. Along with, oh my god that was so unbelievably hard, f&*k me that was insanely hard, wow we did it, that was amazing, etc etc. Don't get me wrong, it was the most amazing experience - running/crawling/climbing/hiking/edging along sheer and skinny crumbly worn away paths up and down the beautiful and majestic section of the Great Wall at Jinshanling (about 2.5 hours drive from Beijing). BUT, I remember feeling SO amazed, coupled with satisfied when it was over, and was so glad that I would never have to go through that again. (Plus, was PSYCHED to have won first place woman too, guess this added to the amazed feeling). The general consensus was that they should really change the title of the race, and instead of calling it a marathon/half marathon/10 km etc running race, they should label as an endurance/ultra hiking/climbing event, as the WHOLE thing is on the steps (and in some cases what's left of them) on the Great Wall. In the sun. On a public holiday (i.e. crowds of Chinese tourists and hawkers offering t-shirts, beer and chocolate when you're just struggling to breathe). Had I known this previously, I maybe would have reconsidered and would have entered the other race that is also run on the Great Wall, but organised by the Danish (I think! Don't quote me on this...) instead of the Chinese, as this one apparently has just 5km on the beautiful wall and the rest through winding countryside roads: ahh picturesque and not crazy-hard. But now that it's been and gone, am super glad for the one that I did of course.

Here are a couple of tamer shots (i.e. those taken by my excellent coach/Husband who diligently played cameraman for almost 5 hours while he waited) from the 'kinder' parts of the course:

So, to sum up = amazing and beautiful surroundings + insanely hard = a once in a lifetime, very glad it is over, experience, right? So, why oh why am giving serious thought to re-entering this race next year?! A friend (who has entered near year's race) asked me if I was going to do it again, to which I thought my response would surely be 'no never! But you have fun now...', BUT, it triggered a longing in me to actually want to go back and do it all over again! Crazy. Oh memory is a funny thing hey. Maybe enough time has passed so that now it just seems wholly nostalgic and a GREAT experience and all the ridiculously hard, painful, dehydrated and delirious memories have faded/been eradicated. So, watch this space. (However, more than likely time/money/life will prevent me from going up again next year to Beijing at that time of year, so may have to resign myself to running the race vicariously through my friend.)

Wow, can't really believe how fast that working week went (again) - got my longer run scheduled for tomorrow (18km endurance plus 4km recovery pace), and got my skittles all ready to go. Today was strength training - I did 10 minutes of legs, 10 minutes of back and biceps, and 10 minutes of chest and triceps (using Hasfit.com - a great website with heaps of different workouts that are all FREE, and you can mix and match depending on what you're after - added bonus is that Coach Kozak shouts encouraging things at you like 'there's no reason to stop'/''Keep going'/'I see you! Why are you slowing down?!'). Then I did 30 minutes of my own strength shizzle (lunges, squats, deadlifts, push-ups, dips) while I did a bit of 'lesson planning' for next week (i.e. rewatching that old classic The Lion King, before I use a clip in my lessons).

Yesterday I did my 12km endurance run in the morning, as planned. It was going great until about 9 or 10 kilometres in, when for some reason, legs felt heavy and things just slowed down altogether. Weird. Not like I'm not getting enough pre-running fuel (copious porridge and toast the night before hey, oh and yes, copious dark chocolate too), so maybe I'm just tired. Oh, and this had to have coincided with the only time a creepy stalker on a motorbike decided to pace me and stare (bore his eyes, very awkwardly) at me simultaneously and repeat (definitely an anomaly here in China, as it is the safest country I've been to/lived in!) - bit of a worry: would I have been able to sprint off if needed to?! Surely, yes? Survival would have to be a plus of marathon training? Anyway, all good. I mumbled a hurried expletive in his general direction and pretended I was going down a street that I wasn't. Win.

Off to eat tasty treats now. Zajian!

Yes, I was a pussy and did NOT go for my belated run yesterday evening. I really really tried though! I had my coffee, had left three ish hours from my last meal, was half-dressed and almost ready to go, when Husband mentioned dinner and what we were going to do for it, and I realised that yes, it was still pissing down rain, was dark and cold, we still had a lot of moving of furniture to do (we changed the apartment around - they say a change is as good as a holiday yes?) and I was hungry (at the mere mention of food). So, excuses excuses I know. Oh well. Made up for it this morning and did the run from yesterday plus the one I had scheduled for today (an easy recovery pace jog, so made for a good longer cool down).

It was still raining this morning, but not as hard (more of a constant drizzle). I have recently discovered the saving grace of putting OIL on my ponytail before heading out for a run in the rain/drizzle. Why did I not know this years ago?? My hair (being a bit bleached/highlighted/messed with) tends to form one giant dreadlock / rat's tail / ball-of-doom if I run in the rain, however I've found putting oil (just olive oil straight from the kitchen) on it, saves the day. Can't believe its taken me this long to find this out.

Maybe it was a good thing I didn't go yesterday? Maybe I would have tripped in the dark and wet and twisted something? Maybe that's why I wasn't meant to go, and instead was meant to lift heavy furniture instead (hey, weight training / cross training right?) and then make us a beautiful healthy dinner, finished off with the ubiquitous porridge dessert/extra meal before bed of course. Whatever the reason, my legs felt GREAT on this morning's run so maybe the impromptu rest day was secretly needed. What didn't feel so great however, and apologies if this is tmi, were my boobs hey. They seem to be double their usual small size (and for those of you who know me in person, you will know this is still not at all huge), felt something like this:

and even wearing two sports bras didn't help - felt uncomfortable and heavy the whole run. (I salute you larger-boobed ladies - it must be a lot harder to run with boobs!) Hmmm, so maybe my perma-wish of having bigger breasts is out the window now, and actually, I would take running over wanting larger breasts any day.

This striking realisation brought back a memory of a similar train of thought. A very wise, very beautiful woman once asked me the following very hard question, so, to brighten up an otherwise dull and dreary Wednesday, answer me this:

If you had to pick either running or sex for a whole year (i.e. you get to choose one at the expense of the other, but can't have both!) what would you choose??

Hmmm, quite the conundrum isn't it?! C'mon - I'' tell you mine if you tell me yours! (Once I make my mind up that is...). Answers on a postcard please (Ok, or just below...) :)

Boo... Rainy and cold here today. This means: 1) I did NOT go for my training run as planned this morning, but chose staying put in my warm, comfy(ish, well ok, rock-hard Chinese) bed with Hot Husband (you know I would chose you over a run anytime Lovely, if you're reading this!); and 2) now I will get the joy of a track workout run this arvo/evening in what looks to be an all-day raining session.

However, one big perk of this rainy, average Tuesday, is that now we can stay inside in the warm and dry thanks to a mid-term exam that all the students are having today. I arrived at my lesson this morning to be told this news. Love these surprise holiday/resting days! So, fingers crossed that by this evening it has cleared up enough for me to not pussy out of heading to the track.

What's on schedule for today is: a 2km warm-up, 8km tempo at half marathon pace, and then 2 km cool down. Hmm, now if I had been a bit less lazy this morning, then I could have run the 8km portion outside on one of my riverside routes, as it would have been early enough to avoid the crazy traffic (both vehicles and people traffic), however now I am resigned to the track, especially as it will more than likely be dark for some of my run (and I've well and truly learnt my lesson about running in the dark, after a sprained ankle earlier this year, owing to my stupidity when I thought going for a run in the early morning, in the dark, along a boardwalk on a beach, in a new city, was a good idea. It was a bad idea and I fell off the boardwalk, d'oh).

So, this is pretty much the view here today (yes, not my own picture, but you get the idea):

This change in the weather (i.e. it is now the COLD you would expect from November) has meant that I have rediscovered my porridge (or Oatmeal to those American readers) addiction. Seriously, it's turned into a staple food this past week. Does anyone else go through food phases and have mini-addictions? Am I the only one?? It usually turns me off the food for a while after I've had a few weeks of it though, so maybe my body knows and wants to let me know, 'ok Lou, move along now, nothing to see here, you've had quite enough porridge/toastie sandwiches/cereal/insert addictive foodstuff of the moment here'.

So, back to lesson planning / internet research for me. I know it seems I am very happy to get my lessons cancelled, but actually this is not the case (well, maybe half the case). The same thing happened with the same students last week, so by the time we see them again, they will be two weeks behind all the other students with our lessons. Hey-ho, will they remember our names?!

Have truly terrific Tuesdays everyone! :)

Well, well, well. Another Monday is upon us. Unbelievable how fast these weekends go! (And we're not even drinking at the moment, so no partying/hangover to blame for the super speedy weekend.)

It has been a fairly productive weekend. These things happened:

We doubled up two to a bicycle Bali-motorbike-style to go on a covert mission:

It was HOT and SUNNY on Saturday; we rode past our usual puppy-walking park:

There was even BLUE SKY:

We ate delicious lunches out (the usual egg-plant, dumplings, tofu, cauliflower, and other vegetable shizzle awesomeness):

We went to purchase carpet/a rug for our getting-colder-apartment floor:

We stopped for kafei (coffee):

Puppy inspected the new rug. Shortly after this she decided (contrary to what we'd told her) that it was in fact grass and to be treated accordingly (pissed on):

For some reason she is being extra cuddly and loving lately, so here are another couple of our beautiful puppy Bear, just 'because':

Hmm, exciting times yes? Haha. Lots of exploring by bicycle anyhow, and legs didn't feel tired after Saturday's run, so all good. Today was a non running day - I did some strength cross-training instead. Feel pumped for tomorrow morning's run, and for the rest of the week. :)

Just got back from a longer run - 19km at an easy/slowish/comfortable endurance pace. Took 1 hour 35 minutes. Ahhh, an hour and half ish of beautiful sunlit mountains as a backdrop behind the river I've been using as the core scene of my runs. What a great start to a weekend (as I've said before - going for a run is the 2nd best way to start the day!). I read some advice recently about running your long runs nice and SLOWLY, as you've got other days set for speedwork (so true), so I took this approach this morning, and feel pretty good and not at all exhausted (as per other long runs) now.

I also used this morning's run to trial out a new fuel experiment. I'm not very good (ok, I'm rubbish in fact) at fuelling during a run, other than the hurriedly-try-not-to-choke-as-I-attempt-to-drink-on-the-run gulps of water and sports drinks at the aid stations along the way of most races. (I am excellent at pre-fuelling, post-fuelling, and all throughout the day fuelling though.) However, I think this is definitely what let me down in my first (and only to date) full marathon back in 2008, where I learnt that 'the wall' is not mythical and that mid-race fuel is to be respected and consumed early enough). So, am aiming to do a whole lot better this time around, on January 2nd, and thus this morning's trial was more for that race's training than for the Shanghai half (where the water and sports drinks should be enough).

I took a pack of Skittles with me, as I've read on another runner's website that this works for her (and being a relatively small city in China, I am yet to find any sort of specific running shop or outdoor shop that sells those fancy energy gels such as Gu). Now I know, yes, yes, Skittles and other sweets are not the same fuel per se as glucose gels and lollies, and the nutritionist in me should know that I'm choosing sucrose over glucose, and thus initially would surely have a slowing down/detrimental effect as the initial insulin response takes effect, etc etc. HOWEVER, they seemed to work pretty well! I was worried about eating on the run / choking / feeling sick etc. (if I eat usually anywhere up to 3 hours before a run, then I get bad heartburn and feel like I'm going to vomit during the run, so again a reason why I'm a fan of early morning runs) but this didn't happen and they were easy to chew whilst running (slowly). 

Does anyone have any other great fuel tips/advice??  

Maybe it was the skittles that gave me a great run, or maybe it was the beautiful (if you don't look too closely) river that I run beside most days. There is just something about water hey. Whether it be a river, an ocean, or a big lake - I seem to yearn for it and seek it out: to run and mediate-on-the-move beside it. There is something really calming, restorative, and even powerful about a body of water and of running alongside it I think. This is the river that I will soon be running alongside, if only for a short section of the race (which starts on The Bund in beautiful Shanghai): 

I am so excited! Can you tell?! :)

Also, stay tuned for more 'beautiful China' photos, coming soon! Think I need to add a page to this website just for beautiful China photos, for those who may have stumbled across this actually looking for information about CHINA and not just what so far has seemed to be mainly me rambling about running training. So, as ever, slowly slowly with this technology malarkey, as a power nap (crawling back into bed) is now beckoning.

Hope everyone's weekends are fantastic, and good luck to a few that I know who have races tomorrow! (You know who you are). :)

Yes! Friday is finally here! Seems like it's been a really long week for some reason. Haha, shouldn't complain - only had approximately 8 hours of 'work' this week, due to a lucky (for us) school trip on one of our teaching days, where we could 'take a rest' (i.e. do research and other things online).

Looking forward to the weekend. Just three of these babies left til the Shanghai race. Plan to get my longer (18km) and final run for the week out of the way bright and early tomorrow morning, instead of Sunday, and then, who knows?... Our 'little' city in China will be our proverbial oyster. :)

This morning was a 13.5km run at endurance pace. Legs felt strong and all was right in the world. Yesterday was a non-running day, i.e. my cross-training day, which featured some weights, some kickboxing, and some yoga. The yoga was done whilst listening to a 528hz frequency meditation track on youtube. 528hz is apparently the love frequency and the healing DNZ frequency important for every living thing on this planet they reckon. So, not sure if it is a bit of the placebo effect, but I did feel pretty reenergised following the yoga portion (and I was crazy dead tired before, was a pretty poor kickboxing performance). Anyone else heard of this 528 frequency for DNA healing?

Still trying to work out timing for my race. It's starting to stress me out. Well, not too much, I guess. I think about it and try to do the sums while am cooling down, and maths not being my strong point is the stressful part. This morning's run (a usual route of mine) took me 55 minutes to complete. So, am thinking of doing that sort of pace for the first 11kms and then going slightly faster and at what I think is my 10km race pace for the remaining 10km. Having no proper instrument/Garmin-esque tool to run with, I use a fair bit of guess work. However, maybe will finally take the leap into acquiring some sort of running technology like a Garmin that can tell me accurately how fast and far I am running. (Again, Santa, if you're listening, a Garmin would be ace!). For some reason, have resisted thus far or just not gotten around to it, to the shock/horror/amazement of the second place winner at the Great Wall race, when we were standing in our winner's trio positions to get a photo - "She hasn't even got a watch!" she was heard to cry.

Oops. Gave the game away that I am not a 'proper' runner maybe? Rookie mistake. I suppose that, just like learning how to set up a blog and writing one, I will eventually succumb and upgrade my technology ability and (hopefully) get a Garmin. Maybe (being lazy re: technology) it will just take time. Who knows, one day I may even progress and get some sort of smartphone thing? (Actually, nope, probably won't do this one, wish we could get rid of all mobile phones, but that's a story for another post).

Happy Friday everyone! :)

Just about to head to the track for some tempo repeats (3x 1600 m tempo with 400 m job between) plus the usual 2km warm up and 2km cool down. It is cold and I am tired. Feeling particularly UNmotivated this morning. But, it's on my training schedule yes? So, if I don't just fucken do it, then I'll just have to try and fit it in either later today or tomorrow morning instead (when SLEEPING IN is on the schedule instead, haha...). So, may as well suck it up and DO IT hey. (Never been great at afternoon training, or evening training, or anytime after 7am training to be honest, unless it is strength or yoga.)

Shouldn't be so tired, as had a very early night last night. Put on a movie at about half 7. So, was probably well asleep by approximately 7:41. Haha, crazy Tuesday night yes?

As per this post's title, I am thinking about films/movies about running, i.e. the names of some films that would be uber-motivational. All I can think of is 'Run Fatboy Run'. So, if anyone out there is reading this and has any good suggestions re: running movies, PLEASE let me know! Think I know what I'll be doing after classes this arvo. Thanks!

So, yes it is cold again this morning, but I WILL just fucken do it, no worries. At least it's not THIS cold yet:

...and today was that day: have progressed from shorts and a singlet (feels like this was only last week) to long leggings, one long sleeved shirt, one big baggy t-shirt, and now: GLOVES. Yes, it was cold this morning. Oh how I miss barefoot running on this beach in Bali (daily or every other daily run was usually Echo Beach - Seminyak/Legian/Double 66 - Echo Beach):

Today was an easy 8km recovery pace run, which was great. Felt very fresh and glad of my rest day yesterday. So, came home and smashed out some strength training too. Great start to our day of researching accommodation for upcoming holidays and looking into our next teaching job after our contract here is up in June (unless we somewhere manage to stay another year, could be very easy to do, it is so relaxed and cruisey here).
Off in search of FOOD now. Love this gig. :) xx

ps - Saw this on another running blog today, and thought it was an excellent idea - imagine the motivation someone would gain from their own, personalised bracelet, complete with the words 'just fucken do it!' inscribed in the metal?! HINT HINT Santa! xxx http://www.etsy.com/ie/listing/105708855/marathon-or-running-inspirational?ref=shop_home_active

Today is my proper rest day - no running and nothing too strenuous. The most I have done physically today has been gentle cycling to the post office and back, and walking to and from my one lesson of the day. It's been a pretty relaxed and happy Monday so far. Have been playing my students songs about not worrying and being happy, i.e. those by Bob Marley and Bobby McFerrin, so hopefully they too have been able to have a relaxed start to their generally full-on week of school.

Off to the night market this evening as we didn't manage it yesterday due to being crazy tired. There is everything and anything for sale, along with many stalls of tasty treats, yum:

While making breakfast this morning, and leisurely getting 'up' for the day (followed by copious lounging and chilling with our laptop in bed), this question repeated in my head: Why the blog?'

Why write a blog? Online? For all to see? I know, I know, a 'blog' is a kind of online journal or log of something, yes? Well, then why not call it something a little nicer than a 'blog'? (Which honestly sounds a bit euphemistic: another blokey phrase re: dropping the kids off at the pool, or laying cable etc. You know what I mean.) So, why not Ournal? (online journal) Or, Oiary? Or Oniary? (online diary). Or Oughts? (Online thoughts.)

Well, whatever its name, here it is: my thoughts on running while living in China. So, why do it? Why put my thoughts out there in a manner akin to that described in Ben Elton's 'Blind Faith', i.e. just like sharing? One word: motivation. This has  already helped with my running training, and no doubt will continue to do so in the future. I love running, I love writing, and I love rambling on about things, it seems, so why not combine the three? Further more, if anyone out there feels the same, then they can respond/get in touch/or tell me about their own running lifestyle (hence the reason behind the online/public aspect I suppose).

Love Sundays. But that has been said already and won't shock you. Been very lazy since the run this morning and it is perfect cloudy/rainy weather to do so. We were going to go to a local hotel and use their sauna/spa/get a massage/lunch buffet etc, but think we'll do that another time. Far too relaxed here to move too far yet. But think we'll definitely play more Ping-Pong in the near future. That was heaps of fun. Here is us, doing it for Australia and England: