The rain has stopped! Hurrah!! However, looks like the humidity is returning in full force, so I’m sure there’s yet more rain in our not-too-distant future.

The morning I went for a slow, recovery paced run, 11km, on a regular route down by the riverside. The niggling calf ache/pain (I guess it's really my upper ankle, or 'fankle' - fat ankle - as its painful and slightly swollen/has a bruised feeling) was still there, and it felt like it got better and then worse, then better, then worse again throughout the very slow run (20 minutes slower than usual). In fact, my legs felt tight and achey all over, and by the end of the run my right hip had started to ache and feel strange too. What’s going on? It feels like I have just run a hard race or a marathon yesterday or something. Perhaps, this is a delayed reaction to my 50km trail race (back on 7th June), and I didn’t get away with such an awesome, quick recovery after all? Hmm… Not good. But, I think I will do the sensible thing, and cancel my runs for the next two to three days, so the rest of this week, and rest my legs (albeit for the usual walking and cycling as transport, and maybe some yoga too) and see how they are feeling on Monday’s planned 9.66km easy paced run. I am still thinking about the 16km run I should be doing over the weekend though, hmmm. If I can, I may also get back to the hotel’s swimming pool for some active recovery pool running/jogging.

I will also be eating lots of healthy, healing foods, and will be aiming to get more sleep than I’ve been getting recently.

I hope my legs are back to normal by next Saturday!! How annoying. It’s got me worried that maybe I have reached my peak during my training and that when I come to run the actual race, I won’t be able to repeat and emulate the successes I have had when training. Hmm, maybe running an ultra 50km trail race just one month before this half marathon wasn’t a great training idea, in hindsight…

 

Have you got any secrets/tips for a speedy recovery?

How many days would you take off from running if you’re feeling sore?




Aaaand, a few shots of the beautiful Gold Coast, in the hope that this mental motivation helps my legs return to 'normal' in time for next week (and ideally in time for Sunday so I can get my final long-ish run in):

Ahhh, there is something SO refreshing, calming and peaceful about running in the summer rain. It's awesome. An added bonus is that the usually crowded riverside pathways are pretty much empty when there are the frequent Yiwu downpours. Which was the case this morning, while I went for a slow, easy paced 15km run in the rain. No music, not much people traffic, and no set pace to try to keep to: just running at the pace that I felt like through the drizzle to slightly heavyish rain. I have mentioned my dislike on here for running on the track in the rain, but out on the pavements and by the river is a different story.

…is without a doubt early morning, just on first light. Ahh, green tea, sunrise, then a nice, easy riverside run (just over 12kms). Most of the city must share my sentiment as it was a busy little riverside park this morning: walkers, joggers, TaiChi’ers, hula-hoopers, ballroom dancers, you name it, they were there. Just one of the many, many aspects I’m going to miss about Yiwu when we leave (in just about 6 weeks now!): the beautiful parks and the active park-goers.

 

It’s been on our minds a lot lately, I suppose, the whole ‘we’re leaving’ thing, as we’ve started to say our goodbyes to some of our students as after the final exams we’ll give them next week, we won’t see them nor teach them again (and are, effectively, finished up for the year). I was getting a bit choked up on a couple of classes hey! I will miss the students, and the other teachers here. We often comment that it’s ‘the best job in the world’, or ‘good gig’, and we will be really sad to say goodbye. However, we came to explore China, and not just one city or part of it, and so, after almost two years here in this lovely, friendly, ridiculously laid-back city, it’s time to move on.

But (in no particular order) we’re also going to miss:

• Our friends. But we will keep in touch with everyone, and our best friends here are actually going to move to Australia soon! (One of their family already has.) So, I know we’ll see them in the near future, which is awesome.
  
  

• The people: the local shopkeepers and restaurant staff, some amazing chefs, people we meet at the parks etc. Some of the friendliest, warm-hearted people we’ve come to know.
  
  

• The food. I’ll leave it there with this point, or else I could ramble on and on about the amazingly delicious, fresh, tasty food we’ve had the pleasure of living on for the last couple of years.
  
  
• The lush trees, plants, flowers. This city is amazingly colourful and GREEN, with such a massive array of different plants. I’m no botanist, but the many different trees/plants/flowers are pretty impressive and beautiful. Maybe making it worth it for all the rain that occurs here.
  
  
• The relaxed, chilled, completely stress-free lifestyle.
  
  
• The short distance to bigger cities, and transport hubs like Shanghai and Hangzhou (by bullet train).
  
  
• Cycling around on our ‘workdays’ (and weekends) and exploring yet more and more of this city and its neighbouring villages and countryside.
  
  

I think the only thing we won’t miss about this place, is the occasional apocalyptic style pollution. Oh, and maybe the traffic sometimes.

 

Is it REALLY Friday already?? This week has flown by, truly. It’s a holiday for us over the weekend (well, it usually is, but hey-ho) as it is Dragon Boat Festival here over Saturday, Sunday and Monday. So, that long weekend that many of you had that I was coveting last week? Amazingly we get ours here this week instead. What a wonderful universe we are a part of: put it out there and it happens yeah?

 

Have you moved house/towns often? (Think the longest I have stayed in one place since leaving home back in the day has been 4 years in Newcastle, Australia, but I moved house several times there.) Recently?

Do you like moving to a new place? (I love moving to a new place, but don't like working out the logistical 'stuff' issues with moving. )

How long have you lived where you are?

Ahh, speedwork. I love it and I hate it. (Hate it when I’m in the middle of it and pushing myself so much that am well and truly out of puff and feeling a bit sick at times / Love it when it’s over and I feel amazing and badass at having done it and showing myself that yes, I can do that.)

 

This morning’s training saw me back at the track doing this: 1.6km warm-up, then SIX times: 1.6km at VO2Max pace with 3 mins rest, then finish with another 1.6km cool-down. According to a pace calculator (where you plug in the time you are aiming for and the length of the race), my VO2Max pace should be between 3:46 – 3:56. This was tough hey, not going to lie. So, most of the time (according to Garmin) my pace crept back up to about 4:05 and sometimes 4:10 (even though it felt like I was running at the same speed). Garmin told me at the end that my fastest km took 3:55, so I guess I kept it pretty close to the target pace. It was tough but I feel AWESOME now. J

 

Yesterday’s run was a nice 10 km (I think – Garmin reckons it is 10, but mapmyrun.com had it at almost 12km?! wtf??) run on a usual route down by the river. Spring has definitely sprung and the beautiful pink, purple, and white flowers adorning trees all around town = a beautiful, early morning run.

 

So, we’ve got the usual four lessons today, but quite frankly, I kind of just feel like staying in our flat and organizing and having a massive spring-clean instead. Better snap out of it, as Tuesdays are great lesson-wise and student-wise.

 

Husband is busy studying and preparing for his Chinese driving test (theory) tomorrow. Wish him luck! He will ace it I’m sure. The only trouble being that most of the questions do not make any sense (very bad translations) and some are completely wrong but you have to put the answer that they say IS correct (even when it’s clearly not). Hey-ho. Positive thoughts he will pass first time, and then we can get one of these babies to tour around China in and to drive up to Inner Mongolia with our puppy:

Welcome back! It’s been a while hey. Have well and truly been on a bit of a running/blogging hiatus of late. Here’s what happened: I took an impromptu trip back home to Australia in early January (probably just after my last entry I suppose) to buy an apartment (yay!) and didn’t take my laptop, thinking ‘I’ll write when I get back’, and well, that just never happened hey. If it weren’t for the lovely, caring, and inquisitive Kristina and Annie, then this would probably not be getting written now. So, thanks you two! Here it is as promised…

 

SO, lots to catch up on then. Here are some nutshell points from the last couple of months:

 

-          In Australia I did as many runs (in between house viewing appointments and bank trips) as I could in the early morning sunshine and under those blue, blue skies. LOVE RUNNING IN AUSTRALIA. Namely beautiful Newcastle, which has a lot more hills than I remember.

-          I missed my husband and puppy (who had to stay here in China due to no puppy-sitter being available) A LOT.

-          I got to catch up with my two besties a lot during my quick trip. LOVE THESE TWO:

-          Teaching, teaching, teaching, as usual.

-          Husband and I got interviewed by another journalist, this time from a newspaper from the province, not just our city, who is writing a book about ‘foreigners’ in China and has chosen 15 lucky ‘laoweis’ to be in it. Watch this space for a copy. J

-          I turned THIRTY. (So, really must update my ‘about me’ section hey, still living in the past of 29…)

-          Eating, eating, eating, Chinese food, Chinese food, Chinese food…

-          We accepted a job teaching at a university for next year (term starts in late August) in Inner Mongolia!!!!

 

We are VERY excited about moving to Inner Mongolia!!! I am now picturing me (and Puppy) running through endless grasslands, with those blue, blue skies, and (we’re hoping) fresh air. Mongolian hospitality is famed as being awesome too, and the food (we think) will feature lots of hotpots, strong booze, and yoghurt at most meals. Combine that with loads of happy 18-25 students of ours (instant group of friends yes?), and an exciting, colourful (the traditional clothes look amazing up there) culture and outdoors, back-to-nature lifestyle = one happy husband and wife teaching team.

 

For those who are unfamiliar with where Inner Mongolia is, it is right up the top of China, just next door to Mongolia, but it is a part of China. Most of the people there are Mongolian, but the national language is Chinese.

 

Bring it on!

 

Oh, and in other exciting news (well to me anyhow) – I have registered to run in the Gold Coast Half Marathon in July! So, another exciting trip to Australia (for both of us this time) is on the cards, and in the next few months leading up to this I’m planning to train my arse off and get under that 1:34 time from my last half. Would LOVE a time of 1:30, so I’ll see if I can make it happen. I’ve got another training plan, so I’ll be putting that into action in the next few minutes when I head out into the (getting warmer) morning air. This training plan is much longer than my last 12 weeks one, so I’ve missed the first few weeks of it already (it is an 18 week plan).

 

Lastly, is this the face of the happiest dog in China?? Quite possibly. Here’s our beautiful puppy on her first trip to a further away park (we finally installed a puppy-basket on Husband’s bike), where you can imagine you’re in Bali or somewhere a lot more tropical than our city, on a good, sunny, clear day, which amazingly it has been all weekend.

Happy Monday and Happy Running everyone! xxx

Frosty this morning, but still no snow. Booo... Weather report lied to us. BUT, no rain, and there was blue skies and sunshine late yesterday arvo.

This morning's run was an easy usual riverside route, shorter route than on Tuesday, but bliss just the same. Yesterday was a cross-training day and I did some strength training. Nothing much to report other than STILL haven't started that ab work I was on about last week, and this week is now shaping up to be busier than previously thought, what with a still-ill husband layed up in bed, a visiting mother to introduce to the students and centre the lessons around her visit, coaching some students for the finals in an English contest, preparing our performance or program for next week, trying to show Mum around town in between teaching and planning weekend trips while she's here, AND a call late last night for some last minute translations/proof reading of about 8 essays for today's coaching of said students. In the words of this awesome little parrot dude, WTF?!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbfzahtZsN8

Maybe we'll see this view tomorrow morning, c'mon the snow!: