Morning! (Or evening depending where you all are). I'm still on the face on this planet, just haven't been able to log on and write on here due to Shanghai shenanigans and welcoming my mum to China. But she has arrived! Just got back from this beautiful city yesterday:

I will post more pictures soon (this was taken two weeks ago when we were there for the marathon, but hey-ho, pretty similar still).

So, my posts may be few and far between, or maybe just short and sweet but will try my best to keep you updated during this month. Got a shortish, easy run in yesterday, along the riverside / The Bund in Shanghai. Love that city, but not the smog.

Now we're back in our own city - pissing down rain and windy! Nice welcome for Mum hey :) Oh, and the speech has been postponed AGAIN due to weather (will it ever happen?). No run today doe to weather, and not sure if tomorrow's the go. May have to focus more on cross training this week.

Ok, must go and sort some things, but I hope wonderful weeks are on the cards for you all.

Well, am back from Shanghai now, tired and stiff, but extremely happy. It's been a weekend of firsts hey: first time I have run a half at the time I got (which I think was 1 hour and 32 minutes but the official results are not out yet, and you know me, watchless and running fancy-free), first taste of pumpkin pie at an American restaurant yesterday, and first well deserved chilled sav blanc after 32 days of booze-free tee-totalism (in preparation for the race).

So, let's start with the race, as that was the reason behind our trip to groovy Shanghai, and yes, two of my three readers (hello you two!) have said that you are looking forward to the race recap! So I hope you haven't forgotten me - we had very poor internet connection where we were staying, hence my disappearance from here for a few days. Well, it started off pretty much how I'd thought and remembered from last year's race. However with the awesome added bonus of NO rain! Result. Thousands of other runners packed in and queue-jumping to get as close as possible to the starting line actually made it not quite so freezing cold, and they had a warm-up/aerobic session too, which was fun to watch, although I didn't participate with the aim of conserving my energy for the race:

The first 10 or so kilometres were spent dodging thrown away plastic ponchos that were strewn around and trying pass as many people while not tripping up. I was at the 10km mark at 45 minutes. Something went a little wrong around 14km, when for some reason I thought I was at 18km (must have zoned out completely) and I started to pick up the pace a lot (i.e. ran too fast too early). Not sure if this affected my overall result as the end couple of kms were amazingly hard and painful, and the phrase 'running my guts out' kept circulating hey. Kept telling myself the following: "C'mon, what have you been training for?!", "just 2 little kilometres more then you can stop, keep going", and "we can do these hard things!". I saw Husband at the finish line and attempted a wave, which is why I look a little bit strange here:

 Almost vomited when I stopped, but luckily managed not to. And, D'OH! Didn't even look at the clock when I passed the finish line, so confident was I that it'd be just like last year where as soon as you hand your timing chip back in they print off your certificate there and then, showing your chip time and overall race time (last year's was two minutes difference, I guess from where you're stumbling/half running/half walking just to get started and over the line). But, I THINK (and Husband thinks too) it was one hour and 32 minutes! Woohoo! PB for me - a whole 12 minutes faster than last year! Initially was actually a bit disheartened and had this thought: "How the f*&k do people run faster/get faster - ran my guts out and still didn't get under an hour and a half". Pretty stupid yeah? Seeing as I've ran the fastest that I've ever ran, so beat myself hey. Last year I got a prize for coming in at 42nd place, however this year, have no idea of my position yet (I keep checking the website in hope the results are up yet), and no prize, boo, haha... We think they may have spent the money this year on extra security instead, as that was pretty full on pre-race, with these fellas blocking the way and stopping you from getting to certain parts of the Bund (by the river in Shanghai):

So, once I'd warmed back up (and perked back up realising that I've achieved my goal of running faster than last year, and of getting a brand spanking new PB), we got ready and headed out to have some fun (i.e. food and drink) in Shanghai. We ended up eating in an American restaurant where we ate the biggest quesadilla/wrap ever (HUGE - ordered one and shared it and it was still a sh*&tload of food!), called 'the fat bitch' - what an awesome idea: it looked like it was a pizza base, covered in chips, chicken, beans, cheese and salad and then rolled up to be a huge wrap/roll/quesadilla thing. We shared a bottle of chilled sauvignon blanc, which was beautiful, and then ordered our first ever taste of pumpkin pie too. This was also soooo tasty. Not usually one for food/drink pictures, but here you go (minus a pic of the 'fat bitch', we were too busy stuffing it into our faces):

All in all, a GREAT weekend! The air was a bit of a downer, as it was pretty polluted (lungs and chest felt very strange immediately afterward the race), but that's what you get when you run in China I guess. Here is me, mercilessly flaunting my medal and race bib, just coz I can:

Last pic for today, and it serves no purpose other to show you the groovy PINK SPARKLY walls in our stylin hotel; enjoy!:

This morning's run was an 8km endurance pace run, that took about 35-36 minutes. So, all this training to get a faster result at the race on 1st December, and it seems I am not getting faster, or not by much anyhow. This was about  4.5km/min pace, so that means if I run at this pace for the whole race it will take me about 1 hour 34 minutes. Ok, ok, that IS still about 10 minutes faster than my previous (and best) time from last year, so actually I would be very happy with this result. BUT, what if I could go even faster? And get closer to 1:30, or dare I even put it out there, 1:25?? Stoked would be an understatement. So, I am thinking about running the first 11 ish kilometres at this morning's pace, and then stepping it up to about 4km/min for the remaining ten kms. Really hope I can do this on the day!

Maybe I should just forget about the timing aspect of it altogether and just focus on the fun and amazing atmosphere of the race through the streets of Shanghai. After all, I am doing it for my love of running (ok yes, AND for the medal, certificate and race t-shirt). So, it shouldn't matter what my time is (although a voice in my head says it does!).

I will try not to think about my expectations on the day. That way if I smash them, I will be THRILLED, and if I don't, then I will still be happy. As my excellent coach/husband reminded me yesterday: I didn't ever expect to win the Great Wall half marathon, I only wanted to finish the course within the time limit, but then an amazing thing happened and I somehow did (still don't know how). So, I will see what happens on the day, and leave it up to the running gods (or training gods?) to decide.

(Disclaimer: these are more than likely NOT running/training gods, and are used here for imaginative purposes only:)

(These were taken at a nearby temple just at the edge of our city, at the foot of some mountains.)

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). :)