Had to rock this creepy surgeon / gangsta look on my long run this morning, due to the horrendous smog/pollution here:

It was so bad that you couldn't even see across the river, and I actually saw some other people, maybe 5 or 6, wearing masks too, and that IS a rare event, so I knew it was bad. Upside of wearing a mask = less filth down the lungs and keeps you heaps warmer. Downside of the mask = a wet face for almost three hours due to the breath / condensation, and no one can see your serene runner's smile as you pass them (pretty sure you give off a suspicious, gangsterish vibe instead).


This morning was my long run, and was a 30 ish km run, that I took very slowly and cruisily, stopping for toilet breaks and to buy and drink some drinks along the way (was woefully underprepared this morning). It took me two hours and fifty minutes, and my legs felt pretty good, albeit a bit of calf stiffness (the first I've experienced since Sunday). I used this morning's long run (which will be my longest training run pre marathon - and I think, has been my third longest run ever!) as a trial run in carrying a bag, and that went well. So, now just need to remember to buy and pack drinks and snacks for the main event, and to try eating on the run next weekend on my next longish run.


I almost didn't go this morning, as outside is so feral, but then I remembered all the carbo-loading I specifically did last night in preparation for today's long run. Namely: beer, dumplings, the ubiquitous stuff-on-a-stick, awesome pizza-type-crusty-bread-with-awesome-chilli-sprinkles, and a mini cooking apple and banana covered in syrup (like a softer version of a toffee apple).

Ok, this crusty bread. The BEST reason to go to the night market. Here is the before and after shot (the big mound of dough and bowl of tasty stuff = the before; the one lone bread, as they all get bought and demolished immediately when a batch is ready, in the background is the after):

Ok, and I'll leave you with one more shot of that amazing mountain of doughy goodness, and wish you all a wonderful weekend!

Ok, legs are FINE today, no excuses. Will aim to do some strength training later today, and maybe maybe go out for a run tomorrow? Or maybe a long run Saturday morning? Got to prepare for the FULL marathon now, on January 2nd. Any tips for marathon training would be very welcome! (This will be only my second full marathon.)

I have carried on with the eating-heaps-of-food-as-recovery, as well as playing copious games of 'Duck, Duck, Goose!' with my students (do you remember that one? Involves lots of running/screaming/trying to catch each other). A friend's recovery advice (and advice for life in general) is to have plenty of the all-important things in life: bacon, sleep, and sex. Wonderful advice to which I fully agree (minus the bacon bit - sorry Peter, not a convert on that yet! I'll stick to coffee instead) - I would happily do the research and scientific testing of this one, then I could publish my findings in Runner's World or some other sporting publication. Reckon it would beat chocolate milk as a recovery aid hands down.

Any other suggestions for recovering quickly after a hard race or workout?

Feeling the cold here now. Wore THREE tops to run in on my long run this morning, plus the usual gloves and long running pants. Still cold now (having not moved much since I returned - trying to psych myself up to get into our cold, uninspiring bathroom). The weather report for the low temperature today says this:

But it feels more like ZERO methinks.

Still, it was nice: crisp and fresh on my run, not wet, which was a blessing, and there was the beautiful, big, orange orb of sun rising up as I ran past the eery, completely still river with its ghostly fog hovering just above the surface. However, it was not my best run. Had a lot of (womanly) pain for most of it (whoever said that exercise made it better??) but those excellent endorphins kicked in at about kilometre 15. An elderly gentleman speeding past me in the opposite direction gave me a hearty thumbs up as he went, to which I eagerly responded with my own thumb of course (the equivalent of a Chinese runners' high-five perhaps?), so this gave me a well needed boost. As did seeing a former student of mine near the end of the run and hearing an enthusiastic 'Hello Louise!'.

So, another week's training done and dusted = feeling awesome. :) Time for zao fan (breakfast) and probably more exploring/cycling, shopping and lots of COFFEE this weekend (once I get back up that is).

Have a great weekend everyone! And all the best to those running in a race tomorrow (i.e. Maggie! All the best for the marathon! What a great birthday present to yourself hey!).

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!

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). :)