The humidity here in Yiwu this morning is insane. Just saying. Out of control humid. So, I’m sitting here with a face that’s covered in sweat as I write this, nice…

This morning’s scheduled run was a speed session down at the track, which it seemed I’d not long ago left (I went for a quick 6km run last night seeing as I’d missed the early morning slot). On schedule was: 1.6km warm-up, then 4x 3.22kms at threshold pace (4:07-4:18) with 3 minute rests in between, then 1.6km cool-down. This day calls for a double up run with an 8km run scheduled for later, however, due to already being drenched and soaking wet and not wanting to relive the similar feel of last night’s humid/soaking wet run, I decided to tie these two together and just keep on running and get it all done and dusted for the day, and so, once I’d finished the speed workout, I had a drink of water, a banana, and set off on the 8km recovery run.










A Few Things Re:These Runs:

• The humidity caused my speed intervals to be extremely tough. It seemed it was a battle between me and the humidity. Sucks to say but the humidity eventually won out and I cut the last interval short by 1.2km. Booo humidity…
  
   
  
  

- I was absolutely drenched not long after I began the track run. Soaking wet. Which is not too fun to run in. I think I was getting extra strange looks this morning, not only for being a running laowei but for being a soaking wet/drowned rat kind of running laowei. Check it out, I tried to capture just how wet I was when I got back: the first one will give you the idea of the weather conditions over here and in the second one I was trying to show that it looks like I’ve been in a shower fully clothed. Ohwell…

• My feline friends were back at the track, but this time there was an extra tabby and tortoiseshell one. Cute.
  
   
  
  
• During the recovery 8km, something worrying happened from kilometer 3 to 7. Knee pain. Uh-oh. WTF?! Very random knee pain in my left knee, and only very slight. I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it. It felt kind of like if I had screws around my kneecap, that the ones on the outer side of it were being tightened or screwed in further, if that makes sense. Now, I’m not sure if I spoke too soon re: being fully recovered after the ultra race, or if this is a completely unrelated (one-off) random pain. I hope the latter! I’m supposed to be getting back into things hey! And building my speed back up for the half marathon in less than 3 weeks time! Noo… So, I’m not sure what it was, but it seemed to disappear again by the last kilometer. Strange hey? I will keep an eye on it (and maybe not run tomorrow, not sure), and will be trying out some of those joint capsules that the wonderful Runner’s World folks gave me as part of my prize. Haha, maybe they know something I don’t (more than likely). Can’t hurt anyway, so will give them a go.
  
   
  
  
• My shoelaces came undone during the track workout. TWICE. Kind of annoying and put me off my pace. The second time it happened I was wavering anyway with feeling the full extent of the heat and humidity (it felt like running through a heavy, warm cloud) so I took this as a sign that maybe I should shorten that last 3.22kms interval and start my cool down early. Listen to my body and all that. I hope my laces last the distance on 6th July!
  
   
  
  
• Apart from the not going the full distance in the speed session and the random knee pain during the recovery run, I was pretty happy with my effort this morning. I was able to keep at threshold pace for the distances I had set out, mostly anyway, and felt like my legs can do it. Although it was hard. I guess there’s a reason it’s called speedwork, and not run-at-an-easy-comfortable-pace-so-it-doesn’t-feel-like-work-work. You know your workout is hard and challenging when you are talking to yourself and making deals/excuses, i.e. ‘if you don’t run this last kilometer you will always get it in later in the day’, or: ‘you’ve done extra kilometres walking to the track and during the 3 minute rests, so you can stop early’. Lol…
  
   
  
  A Few Things Not Re: These Runs:
  
   
  
  

  - Our staple go-to breakfast a lot of the time (when we don’t feel like going to the school canteen for brekkie) is ‘Eggy Rice’. I thought I would share the ‘recipe’ here. It’s a good ‘un – very easy: Take any leftovers you may have from the night before (for example, for us today: leftover spicy beans and cauliflower with rice that I made last night). Chuck it in the wok after heating a little oil first. Fry for a couple of minutes:

If you’re like me, the next step is to douse it with aromatic vinegar, et voila: Eggy Rice. It tastes a lot better than it looks, I promise. I guess it’s like a Chinese ‘Bubble and Squeak’?


 -  Very soon, I get to hang out with my favourite girl in the world: Annie. Here is us back in January this year:

• I. Can’t. Bloody. Wait. It will only be for 3 days, but that is 3 days that we will definitely enjoy and here’s hoping we can work out how to freeze time during those days. She is amazing and travelling up from outer-state to meet me at the Gold Coast when I fly there for the half marathon. Amazeballs!
  
   
  
  
• The opposite of this excitement would be the awful, awful pain of seeing the man you love being so utterly heartbroken and shattered, and knowing that you can’t do anything to take his pain away or make it better. All the love/hugs, time spent hanging out with him, nutritious and regular meals, support when he needs it, and alone time when he needs it, are not going to bring his cousin back (she was like a sister to him; they were very close), and it’s so painful hey.
  
   
  
  
• Running (when you’re not trying to keep your speed up at the track and are constantly checking Garmin!) is the best form of therapy and also a great time to meditate on the move I reckon. I. Love. Running.
  
   
  
  
• Yesterday in what was both a crazy hot AND humid day, I decided it would be a good day to do a thorough 3 hour clean of one of our apartments here. You know it’s a good workout/cleaning session when there is sweat dripping in your eyeballs.
  
   
  
  Have a terrific Tuesday everyone!
  
   
  
  Have you experienced the kind of weird knee pain I described above? Do you think I should take some unscheduled rest days or maybe it was all in my head? (I hope the latter.)
  
   
  
  

Once the rain subsided I made it (at last) to the track for the following run: 3.22 easy pace, 6.44 threshold pace, 3.22 easy. My threshold pace is supposed to be between 4.07 and 4.15, and I stuck to this range, sometimes going up to 4.15 but sometimes going too low to 4.00 or 4.05. When I remembered to take note when Garmin beeped at my kilometre marks, my average times were 4.07, 4.07, 4.08, 4.09, and then 4.03 (oops, the last one was a little fast then). Total time of 58:07.  Fastest 5 km was 20:38. Felt great. LOVED leaving the track, haha…

So, come on people, HOW do I change my trackitude and learn to LOVE going there for a run, rather than having to psych myself up to even get there? It is definitely a love/hate relationship. Ok, let’s look at the positive aspects of running at the school’s track:

• It is accurate in terms of distance and speed (now that I’ve got my trusty Garmin)
  
  
• There is no traffic or lights to have to stop at
  
  
• No pedestrians to avoid (or motorbikes on the pavement coming straight at you)
  
  
• Most of the time I have got it all to myself
  
  
• It is 300 metres from my apartment
  
  
• I feel amazing at the end of a workout at the track
  
  

Ok, a couple of those pesky (but substantial) negative aspects:

• It is kind of (ok, sometimes, very) monotonous. Akin to an outside treadmill?
  
  
• It is synonymous with speedwork (or attempting speedwork on some days)
  
  
• Sometimes there are some awkward moments when others are on the track and I attempt some ‘excellent’, mid-running Chinglish.
  
  

So, you see, lots more good than bad going on down at the track, so I hope this helps me next week to bound on out there full of enthusiasm and genuine excitement for my speed session. Ahem. Watch this space.

Yesterday’s run at the track bombed. I did indeed get myself out there at about half 7 last night, and started warming up (1.6kms). Felt ok. Then, I didn’t even complete ONE of my six 1.6kms intervals at VO2max pace, but stopped after just 800m to walk. WTF?! Yep, some weird, random, intense pain that I get from time to time, and its kind of crippling and agonizing (they have investigated at various hospitals but everything looks normal, so it’s hard to explain when it’s not happening). So, that was kind of (= very) frustrating, and I called it a night there, after oh, maybe just 15 minutes. Went home and ate some amazingly tasty carb-laden food prepared by Husband (who is a not-so-secret, awesome chef, just sayin), surely that counts as training instead? J

 

So, this morning’s training is an 11km (ish – depends on the route I end up taking) run this morning, and a short 4km run later in the day. Yep, a double-up day. First time I’ve done this or seen this on my training schedule, but it looks like this is to be the norm for Thursdays now. So, I hope I like it! Do you ever run more than ONCE in a day?

Ahh, trackwork done and dusted, yeewww! Feel like I smashed it this morning. Well, for me personally anyhoo. This morning was a 1.6km warm up, then 6x 1.6 at VO2max pace (between 3:45-3:55 for me) with 3 minute rests and then 1.6 cool down. Felt really strong and much better at this workout than two weeks ago, so wow, training must be working hey. Who knew?! My fastest kilometer according to trusty Garmin was 3:47, woohoo! Last time it was 3:55. And my fastest mile, although I don’t work in miles so this is fairly meaningless for me, ohwell, was 6:05. I still very much needed those 3 minute rests though, and walked to recover during those delicious 3 minutes.

 

So, training for this week = very much on track = happy Lou J

 

Another thing making me happy this week = finally having found a wine that I love here in China – and it’s only taken me almost 2 years to find it, haha. It’s a Chilean Sav Blanc that one of the bigger supermarket sells and is slightly pricier than the Chinese reds we usually buy, but sooo much nicer and one bottle usually lasts me three days, so I feel fully justified in this purchase.

 

So, another sunny but hazy (polluted?) day here in our part of China. Kind of counting down the weeks now til AUSTRALIA!!! Just a bit excited. Then it’s our Chinese road-trip to Inner Mongolia straight after that! Roll on July. Have a GREAT day everyone!

My husband (and coach!) is full of good ideas hey. Last night, for example, he put it out there, that why don't I still try and get a track workout in, later that night? (maybe my uber-grumpy mood about the rain stopping play was that obvious??) So, hmm, I thought, maybe just maybe there's a chance of getting my speed session in after all. We had a very early dinner at around 4:30-5 ish, so I thought, yeah, why not? Wait til about 8pm then give it a go. Now, bearing in mind this is usually when we're definitely winding down for the day and not drinking coffee to go and do some speedwork around the school's track, this was definitely new ground for me. But the rain had all but dissipated to nothing more than a gentle, light mist (like running through a cloud I reckon), and the light pollution around town meant that I wasn't running in complete darkness and so threw out my fear of tripping in the dark and twisting an ankle again. So there I was, warming up in these perfect running conditions, plus I had the whole track to myself, when I began my first interval: on the plan for this session was 12x 400m ran at economy pace (my pace calculator tells me that this should be between 3:30 - 3:45), with a 400m jog in between, with the usual 1.6 warm-up and cool down. I did it, made the correct pace all the way around, then happily settled down to my jog. Then interval number two. Ok, that didn't feel so good. Weird heartburn / sick feeling, and was a bit of a struggle. This got worse and worse until on my 5th interval I thought I was going to actually heave and vomit everywhere in the not-so-pitch-black open space of the track. Hmmm, maybe I wouldn't finish the twelve planned economy pace laps as planned, and instead focused on not throwing up everywhere as I slowed it back down to cool down and retreat back home. I wasn't sick in the end, hurrah! But note to self: do not attempt speedwork within 4 hours of eating (maybe 5?). I thought 3 hours would have been enough time, but definitely not. Sucks, as the conditions were perfect and my legs felt great. Still, happy that I got a short session in at least. But, I'll definitely be trying out some more night-time runs in the future, so thanks Husband!

This morning's run was a 12.8km run at easy pace, and that was all fine and dandy. Except upon returning having no power for the start of the day. An electrical mystery, which is all fixed now, luckily.

So, back on track with the training and running, and the rain has stopped for now. Fingers crossed this continues!

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone! What are your running, or otherwise, plans for today?