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New Shoes and New Jobs

6/24/2014

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Another week, another random pain, hmm, what’s going on? Today’s random (and I hope one-off) pain was in my lower right calf, and then another niggling (but more subtle) similar pain occurred in the left calf towards the end of my run too. The pain wasn’t too extreme, just annoying, but in the end it caused me to reduce my last tempo interval by a kilometre, as I decided to listen to my body and call it a day earlier than planned. (Today’s run was as follows: 1.6km warm-up, 2x 4.8kms at threshold pace with 3 mins rest in between, then a final 3.8kms threshold pace instead of a third 4.8kms interval, then the 1.6kms cool-down.)

I have an awful feeling that this week’s random pain may be a shoe related issue. I.e. that my shoes are well overdue for a change. I have read that you should change your running shoes every 800kms or so. Now, I was planning on getting a new pair at the expo during the marathon weekend in the Gold Coast, but now I’m not sure if I should wait and run in the shoes that I’ve got and have been training in, or buy a new pair and hope I can break them in in time for next Saturday’s race, or run in my older, even more worn out but trusty pair of shoes. Hmm, what to do? Or, maybe it has nothing to do with the shoes and is all in my head?? I hope so.

Something that helped immensely today, and not just with the run, but with the actually getting up and out there in the, yes you guessed it, continuous pissing down rain, was a mantra courtesy of Kristen at Glitter and Dust (http://glitteranddust.com/), about not trading what you want most for what you want right now. Thanks Kristen! This actually woke me up, as I was midway through a random dream re: eating a chicken burger (even more random as I have recently gone back to being mostly vegetarian, along with Husband who is newly vegetarian) and was wondering in the dream if I was awake or dreaming this, and if I was awake then why was I eating a chicken burger so close to getting up for my morning run? Then it struck me, oh it must be a dream, and the mantra came in, adapted to suit the occasion, and spurred me on to wake up as I told myself: ‘don’t trade sleeping in again for what you want most Lou!’

I wish I’d remembered this phrase yesterday afternoon though, when I absolutely traded in what I want most (to get a new PB at the Gold Coast half marathon, and thus, sticking to my training schedule, rain or no rain) for what I wanted right then: going for beers and snacks of our favourite marinated cucumber dish and edamame beans, followed by dinner with a nice bottle of red. So, no, yesterday’s run was out the window! Oops…

Another awesome mantra that helped a lot this morning was courtesy of Kristina over at Blog About Running (http://blogaboutrunning.com/) where I reminded myself that ‘I’ve done it before, I can do it again’. Thanks Kristina!!

 

I have written on here before about how sad we will be to say goodbye and how much we have loved working here. We also often say how this is the best job we’ve ever had and that it doesn’t feel like a job. There’s been no criticism (‘constructive’ or otherwise), no dramas, and no stress. We have been able to plan our own lessons and teach what we like and use whatever method we choose to, and have always been praised and appreciated. The working hours are great as are the perks of the job, and the other teachers are very friendly and warm and welcoming. If you like the sound of this teaching job, then read on: there are two vacancies here at the school we are leaving soon! It is a great position for a couple, or for two single teachers. If you are hold a TEFL or TESOL or other teaching certificate, and would like to come and teach in China, then please get in touch and send me your details, and I can pass it on to the woman in charge of hiring foreign teachers. Here are some more details about the job:

- Work just over 10 hours a week. (Sometimes less when there are exams, sports days etc.)

- Accommodation provided (fully furnished, utilities paid for, all mod cons, air con, TV, internet etc)

- Bicycles provided too!

- Airfare reimbursed at the end of the contract.

- Extra expenses reimbursed at the of the contract too. (For telephone, medical, and travel.)

- Medical insurance covered by the school.

- After the initial visa to get in the country, the school pays for your health examination, resident permit and all renewals etc.

- Breakfast and lunch provided 5x a week.

- Work only Monday to Friday, and usually between 10am and 4pm.

- Lots of time off and freedom to explore this and other cities.

- Teach 13 to 15 year olds (depending on which grade you teach), and between 22 and 44 students in a class or half class.

- Must be a native English speaker.

 

I’m sure there are lots more details I could tell you about, but if you like the sound of it so far, then please do get in touch! They are looking for someone (or two people ideally) to arrive in late August, for the beginning of term on September 1st.

 

Here are a few photos to give you an idea of where we live and teach:

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I hope the school finds some new teachers in time for September. Of course, we'll naturally be jealous of whoever takes our place! :)




So, tell me, what do you reckon I should do re: my shoe dilemma?

How often do you replace your running shoes?

10 Comments

Zongzi-Making Champions!

5/28/2014

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What a fun Thursday morning we've had here in China! We got a call late last night telling us: 'good news! You don't have lessons tomorrow. BUT, you are going to a zongzi making contest and please be ready at 7:30am'. Hmm, our usual lessons would start at half nine, was this really good news??

Yes, it turns out it was. We took part in the annual zongzi making championships, where a local zongzi champ and a foreigner get partnered up and it's a 'zongzi off' to see whose sweet little packages the judges like the best. For those unaccustomed with zongzi, they are: "an essential food of the Dragon Boat Festival. In early times, it was only glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in reed or other plant leaves and tied with coloured thread, but now the filings are more diversified, including jujube and bean paste, fresh meat, and ham and egg yolk". Luckily they kept it fairly 'simple' for us I guess, as we stuck to just two fillings: rice and a small dried fruit (zongzi) or two in the centre.

It was a pretty intense competition, and those zongzi are fiddley little buggers to tie up with string! Especially when there's a camera or 10 in your face, capturing your awkward and fumbley attempts. We can't have done too badly though, as me and the lovely zongzi champ who I was lucky enough to be partnered with (team 12 pictured above) came in first place! This was quite a shock to me, as I was pretty sure mine were fairly inferior, sub-standard zongzi, but there you go. Woohoo! So, as Husband pointed out, I am now the 6th Zongzi Foreign Champion for Yiwu (our city here in China) so I'm quite stoked about that. Husband did awesomely too (better than me, I thought), so I'm surprised he didn't get first, second or third place himself. However, we both got some excellent certificates, a cash prize each (one for taking part and one for winning first place), and some tasty lunch, along with a great morning of bizarre zongzi making fun with some wonderful, warm, friendly people.

Here are some pictures of the event to give you a better idea:


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Ok, and onto the running bit: This morning (early early early morning due to our change in schedule - yes, I managed to switch my workout to a 4:30am start in honour of said zongzi event) I was down at the track completing my speed session for week. This was: 1.6km warm-up, then 4x 3.22km at threshold pace with 3 minute rests in between, and ending with 1.6km cool-down. I changed this slightly: instead of the 3 minute rests I carried on running but at a much slower/easy pace for three minutes, and only did a couple of laps of the last set, as I was worried about making our trip in time. All good though. A great, sweaty morning workout, and due to the obscenely early time of the day (which was actually really nice and peaceful, and only slightly unbearably humid and heavy) I had the whole track to myself. Win.




Ever eat zongzi? Have you ever taken part in a food contest? Either making food or eating food?




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Upcoming Caravan Tour

5/4/2014

2 Comments

 
This morning’s run was an easy paced 11-12 km run. My usual route through town to the river, then alongside the river and back through a couple of parks to home, stopping off to buy breads and tea eggs en route. The last kilometre or so were spent with Puppy – came back to grab her for her ‘walk’. Attempted a run or jog with her, but she is too easily distracted and jolts me unexpectedly to a stop by pretty much every tree. (There are a lot of trees in this town.)

 

Lately we’ve been thinking, talking about and planning our ‘amazing caravan around China adventure’, so I’d thought I’d share a little more re: the places we are aiming to visit.

We are hiring a caravan (plus a car and driver to tow it and us) for 28 days and during this time we are aiming to visit 6 new provinces, and many many beautiful places. The first stop being Mount Lushan, in Jiangxi province, some 535kms from here, closely followed by the amazing Poyang Lake (a HUGE freshwater lake, the biggest in China I think).

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We want to visit some ancient villages, known as Hui Villages, and thus head to Anhui province to see and hike up and down yet more beautiful mountainous areas. So far: Huangshan and Jiuhuashan are on our list here:

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From there, we will head over to Henan province and check out the very famous Shaolin Temple, Longmen Caves, and White Horse temple:

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Then it’s on to Xian in Shaanxi province, to check out the thousands of terracotta warriors:

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We then hope to drive up and into Shanxi province to visit the ancient walled town of Pingyao, and then check out some cave locations at Lijiashan and the Yungang Caves:

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From here it’s up into our new province – Inner Mongolia – where we’ll be spending the next year teaching in a university, but before we arrive at our destination we want to visit the town of Hohhot and Xilinhot and then the majestic, vast grasslands and beautiful scenery and people at Hulunbeier:

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To say we’re a little bit excited would be a huge understatement. Can. Not. Wait. Not sure how much access to internet we’ll have while we’re travelling and on the road, so if you don’t hear from me much in July and August, you’ll know why.

 

If anyone is reading this has been to China and can recommend other places that are worth a visit or that you loved, please get in touch! Would love to hear your experiences and what you thought of some great places to see.
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    A 30-something's running and travelling experience around the world.

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