Yesterday’s run was an AWESOME run! Smashed it! Or, felt like I did anyway. It was as follows: 1.6kms easy, 4.8kms threshold pace, 1.6kms easy, 4.8kms threshold, 6.2kms easy. I stopped running 500m early, as I wanted to buy a drink and some breads on the way home and happened to be coming up to the amazing-crusty-bread stall, and then walked about 1km home from there. Altogether it took 1:27, and my legs felt great. My fastest 5kms from this run was 21:17 and my fastest 10kms was 43:42.

I was pretty nervous about running threshold pace for those two distances (threshold pace being between 4:07 – 4:18 for me and the time I’m aiming for in the big race) but it went fine, and no dramas at all. So, now I’m thinking, what if I do something similar to this on the day of the race? Just do a third extra of what I did this morning plus an extra kilometerish at threshold pace? I.e. 1.6kms easy, 4.8kms threshold, 1.6kms easy, 4.8kms threshold, 1.6kms easy, 6.7kms threshold. So, perhaps I will don Garmin on race day after all.

This run left me feeling pretty confident and kind of on top of the world, and it just goes to show, that you CAN do hard things! Or things that you find the idea of quite daunting at first. I think most things, before you try them for the first time, can seem daunting and a lot harder than they actually turn out to be. Case in point (recent examples):

-          Speaking loudly/teaching/aiming to keep control of 50 kids at a time = pretty daunting before we began this job here. Now = piece of cake (haha, although ‘control’ isn’t a word I’d use in this case).

-          Giving a speech to hundreds or thousands of people = super daunting and ‘scary’ before. After having done it = not so bad, and I can do it.

-         Running/climbing/crawling up and down the Great Wall of China = extremely daunting at first look. After the race = exhilarated and ecstatic at having done it.

-         Speaking Chinese = very hard and a challenge. Now = very hard and a challenge. (Haha, ok, this one will be a work in progress…)

 

I was inspired the other day (thanks Kristina!) to rifle through all my old photos (ones on the computer anyway) for a good ole’ nostalgia session. Didn’t think I had any digital ones from 2003 but surprised myself and found some (shockingly bad) photos from my days at University down in Brighton, England. Here’s a not too bad one from then, this is me with my old housemate Matt and lovely friend Sarah:

Is it weird that I can pinpoint which year (and probably which month too) by my hair at the time? Other than the hair occasionally changing colour, I don’t think I’ve changed too much? What do you think? This is me in 2004 in Hastings, England. Arrghh – used to love this skirt way too much. Haha, must have loved the way it made my legs glow luminously white or something:

Fast forward to 2007 to Australian life where I was going through a platinum/bleached blond coupled with a spray tan look. Winning yes? Haha. This was when I had a mobile spray tanning business, so, hazard of the job?

Aaaand, then I chose to dye my hair super dark brown for a change in late 2008. Hmm, interesting thing, when you dye your hair: complete strangers think it’s acceptable to weigh in on if they preferred your hair blond or brown. The same thing happened when I changed it to red back when I was 17/18 – complete strangers telling me that they preferred it before. Creepy much? Oh, and pretty sure boyfriend at the time told me instantly it was horrible and he also preferred the blond hair I had before the change. Thanks for that!

And another one of my dark hair, complete with my favourite lady! (Also sporting dark hair, Annie! Remember this?)
LOVE Australia Day!

Then, this is where I’m in between brown and blond, attempting to dye it back to ‘normal’ (much prefer having lighter hair, so it seems those strangers were right!). This was my very first  full marathon! In 2009 in the Hunter Valley Australia:

Another one from that marathon weekend. I went with my friend Ruth, who was running her first half marathon, and I was pretty pumped – can you tell?

This is one from a triathlon I took part in, in Newcastle, Australia in I think 2007 maybe? Or late 2006? Hard to tell as I can’t see my hair colour, lol… I only did the run portion while my excellent friend Joe did both the swim and the hardcore cycle section (which was up and down some very steep hills). I think I ran the 4km stretch along the harbour and back in 17 minutes, which isn’t too bad considering I wasn’t really a ‘runner’ back then (yet). I look just a little bit nervous, haha.

Me and my favourite again. Both of us back to blond again (mine still with a hint of brown though, so this must have been mid 2009? Or August 2009 to be precise - was this your birthday drinks Annie?):

Here is Husband and I! Back when we had not long gotten together. This is early 2010, in Newcastle, Australia. I love this photo so much. We used it as postcards for details for our wedding when we got married in 2012. Look at his beautiful blue eyes!

Ok, no running today – it is a day of rest, lol. Long run done and dusted yesterday, and NO achey legs this morning, awesome. Oh, and I think it’s Easter today? So, enjoy that if you are celebrating. Am guessing lots of lovely long weekends for you folks back in Australia and England? Enjoy!

Ok no messing with the date today. Weird stuff - I posted a post yesterday (which I will copy and paste below, as per the link on facebook), but which does not exist here anymore? But exists on the link from facebook? What happened? Did changing the date make me go back ./ forward in blogging time? No idea. But anyhoo, here's the post from yesterday:




So, predictably did NOT do any ab / core work yesterday. BUT, I have received some excellent suggestions for doing so, and will be putting these into practise soon, I hope. I did plan on doing some abs at some point in the evening, but then somehow a long puppy-walk, shopping for toasty warm pyjamas to lounge about in (never to sleep in! You crazy pj-wearing-to-bed-folk you), eating too much dabao (takeaway), and lounging in said toasty pyjamas, all took a precedence. Plus, once those padded/quilted/feels like wearing a doona/duvet/quilt (take your pick depending on your cultural preference) babies were on, there was no way they were coming off to do a few minutes of abs. I would post a picture of these amazing pjs, BUT, I am hoping that Husband is going to get a similar, yet a bit more manly, pair today, fingers crossed that the Chinese's large size fits him (we have trouble getting normal 'larger' size clothes here - we don't know where they buy their clothes?! As there are loads of tall men here!). They are quite comedy, and the most unsexy, unattractive things you could imagine (stay tuned for that pic), but are so warm and so comfy. Sadface that I can't wear them to teach in. Although I do see people out in the early morning walking their dogs whilst wearing them, so maybe this would be ok?

Ok, that's enough pyjama talk yes? On with the post. Not much to report running wise today, as it is a cross-training day for me. I did these workouts: http://hasfit.com/workouts/home/advanced-high-intensity/advanced-workout/ (a 30 minute 'Warrior' workout - a mixture of strength, cardio, plyometric, ABS, and mixed martial arts), and http://hasfit.com/workouts/home/cardio-aerobic/cardio-kickboxing/ (30 minute fun kickboxing workout).

So, got some ab work in, BUT will attempt to get some more in this evening, in between some more cleaning (it is a daily battle here - you clean, the next day it's dusty again, grrrrr), organising some things, practising for that postponed speech, and coaching/teaching some students. Poor Husband has come down with a bad ganmao (cold/flu) so plenty of rest, TLC, and hot toddies for him today. Plus PJS! The healing power of toasty warm pjs hey.

OR, maybe Weebly was censoring me? As there may have been swearing in the title, as I enthused about those awesome pjs.




Now, here's today's thrilling instalment:




This morning's run was my long run of the week. About 20kms ish. Which I took nice and slowly, and used this as my opportunity to try THIS as fuel:

Yes, that is a Snickers bar. Yum. Still seemed slightly wrong to be eating chocolate at half six in the morning, but hey-ho. It's not junk food, it's FUEL. Seemed to work alright and didn't make me want to vomit on the run, so that's a bonus. Still prefer skittles though, as easier to eat those while running.

Ok, got to rush back to work now for a couple of lessons before we head off to catch a train to Shanghai this afternoon ready to meet my mum at the airport tomorrow morning. Excited!

Have a GREAT weekend everyone!