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Five Days Out! Plus: The Return of Cheesey Louisey...

11/20/2016

Tis only five short days until the Halong Bay Marathon. My training/tapering is on track, however this past weekend has been spent catching up with friends and definitely partying too much - ie. not preferable the week before a race! Oh well. That's life yes, and it was great to see everyone, so hopefully the few gins and beers won't have affected my performance too much. There was lots of dancing too, so surely that counts as a bit of cross-training yes?

Hey-ho, can't undo it now. I will focus on upping my intake of meals/snacks (including lots of banh mis, pho, and sweet potatoes) this week in the build up to Saturday's marathon, plus will be looking at these very easy-on-the-eyes shots of where the race will be held, for extra run-spiration this week!

Now all that's left to do, is a couple more short runs, and to get my pre-race massage tomorrow (4 days out from the event), and then its off to Halong Bay on Friday night! The marathon starts at a respectable 5:30am on Saturday, so hopefully it won't be too hot or humid, for the first half of the race anyway. I am pumped and can't wait for this one! Starting to feel those familiar nerves now, or wait, am I just a bit hungover/tired from the weekend...

Watch this space - the next post will be a post-marathon post hopefully!!

For those local to Hanoi - there will be a return of Cheesey Louisey tonight! Come on down to The Doors for their variety show, from 9pm I think, for some cheesey comedy by yours truly (amongst other actually talented acts). Hope to see you there!

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Tapering Down in Danang

11/13/2016

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I'm back in Danang for a very quick visit, combining seeing my friends (who are still in the country and travelling South en route to Ho Chi Minh City) with some marathon-prep R&R. Danang and Hoi An hold a very special place in my heart, for a number of reasons, so I'm thrilled to be back here, however briefly. Sometimes you need to get out of Hanoi and get some fresh, ocean air into your lungs, top up your Vitamin D by chilling at a pool-bar in the glorious sunshine, and marvel at the blue blue sky (that almost comes close to rivalling that of my greatly missed Australian blue blue sky). Of course, eating delicious things around Hoi An followed by a fun night of dancing, pool and beer pong, also helps immensely. Rest and recovery days are just as important as training days, right?

I planned ahead though of course: getting my long-ish run of the week in on Friday night instead of over the weekend. As I have officially started my 'taper' for the Halong Bay Marathon (it's just under two weeks' time now!) my 'long' run was only about 18-20km and felt great. That's the thing about long, long runs - they make every other run afterwards feel really short.

So, all is on track for the race! It looks to be a beautiful course and I can't wait to get down to Halong Bay and run this one. Pumped!!

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All The Feels

11/7/2016

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This post comes a week and a bit too late, due to having spent the most incredible week with the most incredible people and quite frankly impromptu food and drink tours around Hanoi while they were here obviously took precedence. (I had some special friends visiting from home for just over a week. Cue many a G&T, Vietnamese meal, and many many a cheap beer with these much loved people.)

So, re: the Long Bien half marathon - I WON! How exciting! I am taking this as a good sign for my next full marathon that's coming up, and training is still almost completely on track, despite this last week of not much sleep and lots of food and drink and good times with my guests. I got in my last LONG-long run on Sunday just gone: 35-36km: twice round West Lake and then back near home and then into the bustling old quarter again. My legs were feeling it later though and so far I haven't ventured out again. I am planning on a short recovery run a bit later though.

The Long Bien race itself was good but SO so humid. Which slowed everyone down a fair bit. This was one of my slowest half marathons yet (just over 1:45) but somehow I managed to win it too, and I'm sure the weather and humidity was the reason. We are just a little bit wet in the above photo! This is me with a couple of other 21km finishers (including 2nd place female!).

Another slow-down factor could have been the fact that it was a course that featured two laps of the same route: mentally tough for sure! At least you know exactly what's coming on the second lap though. The route itself started at the Savico Megamall way out the back of Long Bien and meandered past the large, statuesque Vinhomes in the Vinhomes Riverside compound. It felt like a nice Sunday run, if a little too humid af! I reckon I could pick a mango tree in a line up now too, be it that most of the trees were labelled and I was trying to effectively distract myself (count trees? Similar to counting sheep?) To win first place, was pretty damn exciting too. Thanks to the Long Bien marathon organisers on a great job well done! This was the inaugural race, and I hope to take part in their second one next year.

Now how to time-travel back a week to "G&T Tuesday"? Or "Tuborg Tuesday"? (We couldn't decide)

I wish....

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Five Days Out! Plus: The Return of Cheesey Louisey...

Tapering Down in Danang

All The Feels

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