On a much cheerier note, today (30th March) is Mother's Day for all those in England and America, so a very Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!! Hope you all have lovely days and get spoilt exactly the way you want.
The best laid plans and all that.... SO, my plan of switching my speed session to this morning instead of yesterday was thwarped by a mysterious, horrible, one-day only (I hope) illness yesterday, that's left me feeling a bit weird and not at all like training this morning. Not sure what it was, but it was intense and awful and at one point I was going to ask Husband to take me to hospital (yep, those local Chinese hospitals that are not at all fun - I speak from experience from when Husband hurt his back and we had to venture into one, complete with a not-fun ambulance/rickety-van-masquerading-as-an-ambulance ride). So, no more chills, aches and throwing up this morning, so I hope I'm fixed. Awful - you know I'm ill when I couldn't even finish half of the amazingly tasty breakfast Husband had created (tomato/onion/garlic scrambled eggs on toasted rice bread topped with asparagus). Maybe I can get that run in later this arvo or this evening maybe. Hate, hate, hate being ill and lying around all day, boo....
On a much cheerier note, today (30th March) is Mother's Day for all those in England and America, so a very Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!! Hope you all have lovely days and get spoilt exactly the way you want.
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Off I went, keen as proverbial mustard to give my 'motivational speech', complete in English and Chinese (Chinglish?) this morning. I first stopped by a class of my former students for a practise run-through. That went surprisingly well, and they could understand most of my Chinese. So, there I was expecting to be marched off towards the sportsground, where I was expecting the whole school to assemble for the flag-raising ceremony that I am to give the speech at. However, due to the terrible weather (wow, even the officials have noticed) all the schools have been told to keep their students inside at the moment, until the awful smog clears up So, that gives me an extra week's preparation, and also means my mother will get to come to the ceremony too as she'll have just arrived from England - if she wants to that is; first day in a new town with a 7:30 ceremony might be a bit of a rough start to a holiday? So, I believe it was this man, Albert Einstein, who said that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? For some reason I woke up thinking about this quote and its ramifications yesterday morning, and it got me thinking. For example, there's a good friend of mine who is constantly trying to lose weight. They go great-guns for a while: they stop drinking, they do more exercise, and hey-presto, they lose a fair bit of weight. Then without fail, they will have a few days on the drink and the weight comes straight back on, every time. I guess we, as people, are strong creatures of habit. But also creatures of HOPE. We really think or hope it will be different this time, hence the repetition of our 'mistakes' from previous attempts.
It got me thinking about doing the same thing over and over again with regards to running, and expecting different results. I think, in running long distances and endurance terms, that actually this is not the case. If you run the same route over and over, and at first (if it is a longer distance you're not used to, it may seem hard or too difficult). Then, over time, as you repeatedly run this route, it gets easier and easier to do, as the route and distance becomes habitual. However, if you are aiming to change your running speed or style or form etc, then yes, I think you must try different things to see different results. So, I am really happy that I actually followed a training plan for once, before this last half marathon, one that included speedwork, tempo runs, slow/recovery pace runs, and trial 10km races as part of the preparation for aiming to get a faster time at the half marathon. This was my first time using a track, and my first time diligently sticking to a program. And it worked! I didn't 'insanely' follow my usual own advice and same tactics for a race - I didn't repeat what I've been doing over and over and expect a different result - I did different things and got a different result. Yay :) Now, just need to work out how to transform this 'get-faster-for-a-half-marathon' training I've been doing, into 'train-legs-and-stomach-for-long-distances-and-survive-the-full-marathon' training. Hmmm, watch this space. But any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks! Yup, THIRTEEN days til the race! Feels pretty close / exciting / scary now. :) Can't wait for 1st December!
Another very cold, early morning training session today. The moon was still very much out, and so half of my run was lit by the powerful, magical bright yellow shine of the (full) moon. Was a bit mesmerising and distracting though as I kept staring at the moon as I completed my loops on the track, and had to remind myself to look where I was running (i.e. not trip and fall in the dark). Today's training was as follows: 2km warm up, 1600m tempo (half marathon race pace), 400m jog in between, 1600m tempo again, then 2km cool down. Followed by: getting under every blanket/doona/duvet that we own in an attempt to warm back up, breakfast, shower, and a back-into-bed-power-nap. Monday mornings are GREAT, don't you think? :) Yesterday was, you guessed it, my REST day, and it was great. Although, turned out to be an actively resting day where we cycled around to do some errands (and drink coffee) for a lot of it, plus the usual dog walking and house work. But no running anyhow. Did spend a lot of time researching jobs and places we'd like to live in next year - going to be such a hard decision: so many amazing and beautiful places we could go to! Got to choose between: beaches and the coast (really miss the ocean and fresh air), mountains and amazing scenery, and beautiful vast grasslands and completely new cultures. Ahh, decisions decisions, at least we've got a full 7 months or so to make our minds up! In other exciting news: my mother is coming all the way to China (from UK) for a visit! She's going to be here for Christmas and New Year's - we're very excited! We have to work on Christmas day as it's not a holiday here, but that's ok. Ok, better go and get ready for teaching and another beautiful day in China. Have a great Monday everyone! |
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December 2018
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