Blog Archives

Event-less

11/30/2015

An early, brief post from me this week as tomorrow I will be away having a long overdue catch up with the most amazing woman. I can't wait. We're going to relive our time spent in the Blue Mountains back in 2009 by retracing our steps and going back to said Blue Mountains. I know, imaginative hey! Haha... Looking forward to days of chatting, tea-drinking, possible bush-pig attacks, and Alf appearances.

Before then, today will be spent travelling down to Sydney with another amazing woman to go to a Taylor Swift concert! (Don't judge - she's awesome.) I know hey, one week it's UB40, the next I'm talking about T Swift. Spent many a roadtrip and karaoke session singing along loudly (and badly) to many of her songs, some of which really resonate with me and may have made me bawl during said sing-alongs at times. Not sure if I'll be the oldest concert-goer there by a good twenty years, but hey-ho - I'm excited!

So, as I'll be away tomorrow, this means I won't be able to go to the Heaton Gap trail run in the morning, nor the Central Coast half marathon, nor the Dune Buster challenge over at Stockton. Arrghh, so many great running events taking place tomorrow! Oh well. Another time for sure. Feeling a bit bereft of events lately as I have no official races coming up. Hmmm, what to train for then?! I did get an email about the Gold Coast Airport Marathon registration opening on December 8th so I will be jumping on that one for sure. Not sure if I'll be able to beat my time from last years' marathon (a pb too) of 3:36, but I have to give it a good try hey. After all, it will be my local race by that point, as I am moving up to the Gold Coast in late Feb. So, no excuse! I can even train for the race on the same roads that it will be held on. Watch this space. For now though, I will be running and training when I can, but the focus on the next couple of months will be on friends, family and travel. And I wouldn't change this for the world.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and week ahead, and just because it makes me happy, here are a few pictures from yesterday evening's 10km ish beach and trail run (same place as Sunday morning's run - Glenrock Reserve) as I finally made it to the Friday Fruit Loops session, and it was wonderful! Quite exhausted at the end of it though, as the 10km turned into 20ish km for me, what with the run there and back home again afterwards, phew...:

0 Comments

This Ride, and a Successful Glenrock Gallop

11/23/2015

2 Comments

The past week or so has been one or heightened happiness for me, and I can’t put my finger on the reason why. It just is. It is what it is. If life is just a series of peaks and troughs, or high and lows, then this last week definitely falls into the ‘peak’ category, and for no particular reason. I did the usual things: bit of work, bit of running/training/working out, bit of writing, bit of seeing friends etc. The usual shizzle, however I had more than a few moments of simple contemplative bliss. The kind of moments that make you think ‘ahhh…. There it is’. But how do you hold onto that feeling? How do you get it to last? That euphoric mid-long run ‘runners’ high’ or that warm feeling of contentment that comes from being around people you love. Nothing lasts forever in this world, that is plain to see. You only have to look at nature and the natural cycle of things – nothing lasts, things grow and peak and then decay, and then life begins all over again. We know this. Yet we, as a species, are kind of arrogant enough to believe that WE are the different ones/things, that WE are permanent, forever, unstoppable. Everything has its moment, and everything changes. The only permanent fixture of this life/world is impermanence. You can’t stay put in one spot forever, regardless of how happy you may be in that exact moment. I remember being about 10 or 11 and having a bit of an existentialist crisis one day, when my friends and I were sitting atop a fallen tree out in a forest we’d gone walking in (yep, this was well before the days of iphones or even any mobile phones) and we were hugging each other whilst singing Whitney Houston’s ‘I Will Always Love You’ at the top of our young voices, and I remember thinking, “Oh shit. I don’t want this to end. Soon we’ll be out of school, having to get ‘jobs’ and ‘be adults’, having to say goodbye to each other etc etc’. I wanted to just stay right there, in that moment, forever, wondering ‘what’s it all about?’.

Sometimes when I’m with my friends around a dinner table, or just about to finish an amazingly hard race or training session, there is that similar, warm, nostalgic feeling and the ache that ‘I wish this would never end’. But it has to. It must. You can’t stay put around that figurative table. I wonder is this what makes ultra-running so appealing? The joy, the pain, the events, are all that much longer-lasting? Happiness is such a transient, pernickety thing, and whilst particular instances of joy cannot, of course last forever, and there will be troughs and lows to follow, no doubt, the beautiful thing about this amazing life is: there will be other times. Not the same as previous experiences of course, but different, new, exciting. So, if you’re feeling doubt for any new path or adventure or journey you’re about to embark on: don’t. It’s all just a ride anyway. I forget who spoke about this, I should really look it up hey, but he spoke about life being just a ride: it goes up, it goes down, but it’s all just a ride. Was it Bill Hicks? (Answers on a postcard please!) This quote was sent to me by a very dear friend the other day, and it sort of sums up what I’m rambling on about:

Aaand, here’s the running bit: This morning I FINALLY made it back to Glenrock for a glorious trail run. It. Was. Awesome. I’ve been meaning to get back there ever since the ‘Sand&Slog’ beach & trail run a couple of weeks back, but things have either cropped up or the weather has been ferral, or a combination of both! Point in case, this was my Friday late arvo attempt of getting to the ‘Friday Fruit Loops’ session at 6pm: 5pm head off from my starting point in Newcastle (just at Newcastle mall), confidant that I’ll easily make the 8km ish that google maps informed me it was. There I was running comfortably along in the FORTY degree heat, thinking, hmmm, it’s not that bad, is that a slight breeze I feel? Cue five minutes later or so into the run an abrupt stop for a good ten minutes as there was a guy on the pavement who looked in trouble and a girl trying to help him. Turned out he’d been knocked off his bicycle and the car driver who did it had driven off (“Nah, he was nice though” the poor guy on the ground told us) but had called an ambulance before he did so. Another man stopped to see what was happening and then two doctors popped up out of nowhere it check everything was under control. A minute later the ambos arrived and I bid my farewell, and carried onwards towards Merewether (I was in the CBD still). Now, the heat was getting a lot worse, and I was sucking down my water (I had a full camelback and a handheld bottle too, but was chugging through my supplies pretty quickly). Definitely my slowest run for a long time, and it’s funny how running in the extreme heat feels oh so similar to that ‘I’ve-hit-the-wall’ feeling. Hmm…

Anyhoo, I persevered and was soon running through the Junction and onwards towards City Road, which again Google maps informed me was the best way to get there. When I was about 2-3km away and City Road started to veer around up the hill as if to go towards Charlestown, the pavement seemed to disappear and it looked like there wasn’t really a safe pedestrian route up there (but maybe there is after all??? Any advice on this is definitely welcome!) so I thought I would cut in and take a ‘safer’ route using the roads just off to the left – big mistake: huge! I stupidly manage to get myself lost somewhere in between City Road and Scenic Drive, in the many quiet, hilly streets there. Wtf… It was ridiculously hot now. I was failing. I was also now running late and conceded my defeat and sent a message saying I wouldn’t make the 6pm start. Sweat had dripped heartily into my eyeballs when I had stopped to write my message to them so I was now temporarily blind with stinging-af-eyes. What else could go amiss??

When I eventually got up onto Scenic Drive it was about 6:10 but the map told me I STILL had 2 km to get there. Arrghh, so close yet so far… I turned left onto Scenic Drive and began the long run home to Carrington from there, with Glenrock teasingly tantalisingly close on my right, literally just across the road. I thought about just going for a solo run in there anyway and hopefully bumping into them but I was kind of fearing a bit of heat exhaustion now, having been running in the heat for a while now and my water was getting pretty low. Running down and past Merewether Ocean Baths it seemed most of Newcastle had the much better idea to go for a dip in the ocean instead – it was packed! I make silly decisions sometimes…. Anyhoo, what was meant to be a beautiful evening trail run, turned into a two and a half hour sweaty solo mission. Oh well. I did run a new route which is a good thing, but I don’t think I will attempt running in 40 degree weather again.

SO pleased then that this morning’s run was perfect weather conditions! Not too hot and not stormy or raining. Just right. And so awesome. Trail running with some wonderful people just makes me smile, and is the best way to start the day, so thank you to all you excellent Five30 runners from this morning! I will definitely be back.

I hope your weeks and weekends have been just as awesome! Lou xx

Ps – in other news: I have now completed the 150km virtual run challenge that I was doing – this morning’s run brought my total to 156km for the month of November so far. Interesting experiment as I never track how many km I actually do in an average month.

Pps - a few photos from this morning (thanks Roz for taking them!):

2 Comments

115km down; 35km to go

11/15/2015

0 Comments

So, I'm getting there with the 150km challenge. I'm well over halfway now and it's only 15 days into November. Woohoo! This weather isn't helping much though hey. Newcastle = the rainiest place I've lived in (and I have lived in both London and Canberra). Ohwell. It's only water. I'll only get wet. This got me out the door this arvo for a late afternoon long run, and luckily the rain only spotted and drizzled and saved the full-on, pelting down rain for when I was safely back home - thanks Universe!

Last Sunday, despite the stormy, rubbish weather, I did make it the 'Sand and Slog' beach and trail run session - and it was AWESOME! So much fun. Nothing beats a good trail run, I've come to realise. I've also come to realise that my usual running shoes just aren't going to cut it for more frequent trail runs - I was slipping and sliding a lot in those muddy conditions. And my bargain basement camelback (got it on special for a princely sum of just ten big ones) carked it on the way back too, boo... So, lack of equipment aside: I would love to do more trail running! And will be doing so shortly. Watch this space.

This weekend has seen me doing a lot of one thing that I haven't been doing much of lately, save for the quickest and easiest of ways: cooking - I've been cooking up a storm and rediscovering my love for delicious, healthy, fresh Chinese-style meals. So tasty, so fresh, so healthy, and so much natural flavour owing to the ginger, chilli, garlic, sesame oil, vinegar, rice wine etc... I don't know why I haven't tried cooking up a few of my favourite Chines dishes until now (I flew back from China in April this year, so it's been a while now) but there you go: better later than never. I should have taken more pictures during said cooking process, but I quite literally ran out of time (aimed for a slightly overambitious attempt of 6 different dishes for some friends last night - I failed and reduced this down to 5, and was still woefully overtime - had guesstimated things all wrong!). If you look carefully, you can just about make out the food (which was: beef and green beans, spring onion pancakes, egg and tomatoes, rice, and spicy marinated cucumbers):

Today has seen me making another marinated cucumber dish, egg-fried rice, tofu-fried rice, and one of my favourite dishes ever: ginger-fried tofu (which is actually still a work in progress and didn't turn out exactly how I had hoped, so just as well that I didn't experiment with this one last night):

A weekend spent: running, cooking, working out, seeing friends, reading novels, editing your own novel, and eating, drinking (tea or turmeric lattes or coffee!) and being merry = a weekend well spent. Not much actual 'work' got done, but that's ok. There'll be more Saturdays later down the track for that, I'm sure. I hope your weekend was a great one too! Catch you all next week.

0 Comments

Forty-Five

11/9/2015

0 Comments

That is the number of kilometres from week 1 of the month-long 150km challenge for November. So far, so good. Hopefully I can keep these numbers up for the next couple of weeks, as I know I have a few things on at the end of the month where I won't be able to get a long run in, so if I can do the bulk of the km in the first 3 weeks of the month, even better. It would have been another 30km or so more had I actually gotten up early this morning and gone off to join a beautiful trail run (the 'Glenrock Gallop') over at the Glenrock Reserve (I was planning on running from here to there (from 8 to15km depending on the route taken), joining the 8km trail run, then running home again, BUT, for the first time EVER I sadly slept through my alarm. WTF?! Boo... Not sure what happened as I went to bed super early in preparation for it, but must have needed the sleep I guess. Maybe staying up WAY past my usual bedtime on Friday night as part of a genuinely entitled Netflix&chill evening with some wonderful women coupled with an early start for a beautiful breakfast date with some other equally wonderful and amazing women caught up to me and I just needed the extra z's today. It's all good, nothing an afternoon beach and trail run won't fix!
Yes, that's right, feel like I've been given a second chance, as there's a group run entitled 'Sunday Sand + Slog (Beach and Trail) later this arvo. How lucky am I?! Sounds loads of fun, so maybe the extra sleep and missing this morning's run was the universe's way of guiding me towards this arvo's run instead. I am planning to run from here to the start (about 10km) join the guys on their sand and trail run, and then run the 10km home again. Then my Sunday long run can be ticked off my mental to-do list! (And the kms can be added to my tally for the virtual run, woohoo.) Something a bit different for me, as I'm very much a fasted, early morning runner usually. Watch this space.
In other exciting, non-running related news, in just 3 weeks' time I will be seeing this beautiful face again! Kim, I can't wait til you're here!!!!

0 Comments

Runner's High

11/4/2015

0 Comments

It took me a fair few days to get over last Sunday's trail race - my calves were decidedly 'smashed' for want of a better term. I attempted a light, and very short 20 minute recovery run on Wednesday afternoon but my legs told me: "not yet, not quite fixed yet". I ended up cancelling a charity run I was aiming to go to on Friday evening and another trail run up at Heaton Gap this morning - listening to my body, and giving it a bit of a break from running (sticking with 3 bodypump classes and my usual walking throughout the week). Although I did manage to go for an awesome, slow, long run early this morning after all (thinking if I kept it close to home then if my calves played up at least I could walk home and wouldn't be stuck in the bush!). And now? Well now I feel AWESOME and my legs feel back to normal. Woohoo!! Must have been all those healing foods, turmeric, rest, and strength training, as I'm now back in the game!
Just in time too as the month of November will see me attempt to complete a cumulative 150km - a virtual run with all proceeds going to the Indigenous Marathon Foundation (more details here: http://imfvirtualrun.com/). There were a range of distances to choose from, from 3km right up to 150km, but I thought, why not?? It's for a great cause, and you even get a shiny medal with your chosen distance on at the end of the event/month. You can even walk your kms, or run/walk - I am going to try and get mine in via running alone, just so that it's a challenge and something out of the ordinary for me - as I usually walk a minimum of 7km++ a day as my mode of transport into town and back, and this adds up to at least 140km (just counting Monday-Friday walks) from transport alone. So, as of this morning's awesome (but slow) session, I am now 22km into my 150km target.

As I was running along the foreshore early this morning, I passed a group of revellers wearing blankets and looking a bit worse for wear, having clearly been out still after the festival that was held down on the foreshore yesterday. One of the girls and I exchanged a knowing look and a smile, and I felt the true meaning of the word Namaste hey: the light in me recognises the light in you, or the soul in me recognises the soul in you - or whichever way you like to interpret it. There was an exchange of more than just a smile: we respected each other and smiled at the other, sending out love to each other with absolutely no judgement: each going about our morning at the complete opposite ends of the spectrum: her having not yet gone home and gone to sleep and having various chemical-induced highs and dancing all day and night, and me having gotten up super early to be out there in the early morning light and running to get my running-induced natural highs - yet both of us meeting in the middle at that awesome time of day (the best time of day for sure). As I continued on, along the foreshore, lost in my own thoughts, it struck me: I used to be her! Well, not literally of course, but in years gone by I would have been in exactly her position. In fact, I think before the festival yesterday was 'This That' it stemmed from 'Fat As Butter' back in the day, which I went to in 2008, before I left Newcastle. Back in the day, it was unthinkable for me to even consider going out, going to a new town or country, or meeting new people, or doing something new, without something lined up for it, be that alcohol (the worst and legal drug) or something else again. Here's me circa 2004:

And here's me in a more recent picture (last week at Kedumba's trail race):

Oh how times and people have changed. I was talking about this with a good friend yesterday, about how we have both definitely changed, and that whilst we don't regret all the years of partying and things we did back in the day, that there is no way we would to revisit those times again. I'm glad I had all those experiences and adventures sure, as if I hadn't then maybe I'd be curious now (a late bloomer in that regards if this was the case) but I wouldn't go back for all the vodka/pingers/insert-substance-of-your-choice-here in the world. This sounds hugely clichéd but truly: nothing compares to the feeling of extreme, constant happiness and clarity that I have these days (since removing drugs like alcohol etc from my life), and there is nothing quite like that runner's high either. I used to believe that saying that you have to have the bad times to appreciate the good times, or that of course, you should expect the hangovers and come-downs - just a part of having the really fun times, yes? Can't have one without the other? Wrong! I've realised lately that you CAN have highs and great times without any lows to follow. Don't believe me? Try it for yourself. No pressure of course, and each to their own hey. But I have found something that really works for me, and whilst there may be stresses that come and go (mainly financial stresses/worries - which will probably never go away, so why bother worrying about them anymore?) that for the most part, I am ecstatic and happy. Like, all the time. I reckon it all comes down to the choices we make: I've made some unfortunate choices in the past (say, oh, from age 18 to 25 ish? lol) but everything really does happen for a reason, and now I'm choosing the path that's right for me.

Enjoy your Sunday, and Namaste hey :)

0 Comments

Event-less

This Ride, and a Successful Glenrock Gallop

115km down; 35km to go

Forty-Five

Runner's High

Author

Archives

Categories