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Another ARD Today

9/25/2014

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Yes, still sick, annoyingly enough, so have taken today off completely - off from yoga dates/training/work - the lot. Boo.... Is all I can say, but apparently rest will cure this cold. It surely is only a cold, but apparently two rest days earlier in the week did not cure it. Yesterday, in a futile (and probably very stupid) effort to feel better / sweat it out / get back into training, I went for an early morning run before work, then did a quick weight/strength workout in between lessons in the morning, and then taught all afternoon until 6:30pm. Hmm, cue: not very well today (despite keeping up my water/veggies/garlic/chilli regime). Possibly my own fault?? I really did think I was getting better yesterday, oh well...

One thing I noticed on my run, and I have seen this often here in China, was people running in their 'civvies' or usual, everyday clothes, and not specifically any 'running' gear. (Did you see this too, when you were in China, Amy??) For example: jeans and a shirt, or jeans and a jumper. I have seen people running in leather jackets. I have also seen people running in wedge sandals instead of trainers. Hmm, this seems to go against the grain of everything that every sports' clothing/shoes company wants us to think - surely to take part in a sport, you have to buy the right equipment and clothing first, yes? China has served as a reminder that really, all you need to run is: YOU. You need nothing else: just the will and spirit and desire to get out there and run (although the pragmatist in me is adding: oh and a sportsbra for women, even if you've got small girls like me - protect those important Coopers ligaments, Ladies!). It is extremely motivating when you buy new running items, however. Nothing puts a spring in your step, like breaking in new running shoes, for example. But for times when you may feel unprepared (i.e. your usual running clothes are in the wash, or your trainers are wet/lost/broken), there is always a way to run. Sure, you may not run at your usual pace or time, but you can still run (or jog, or walk). Unless you're ill or injured. Then I think: back to listening to your body and getting some REST (note to self: take your own advice).

Hoping this cold pisses off today, as tomorrow we are being judges for an English public speaking contest. Not sure if we have to give a detailed verdict or if it's simply a case of holding up a score card, Olympic-gymnastics-judging-style. I'm hoping it's the latter. In the meantime, while resting, I'm going to give this healing ginger tea recipe a go:
http://higherperspective.com/2014/09/flu-ginger-tea.html?utm_source=MAM

Aaand, for something completely unrelated to both running and sickness, here is us and some fellow English teachers with the man-of-the-moment up here in Inner Mongolia - the very famous (or infamous, depending on which country's history you are reading) Genghis Khan:

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Have a great weekend everyone! I will most likely be 'off' running for the next few days (and therefore blogging too - or all you'll get is me whinging re: how frustrated I am). See you when I see you!
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Too Busy to Blog?

9/15/2014

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So it seems this blogging malarkey may be reduced to every other day now, or every couple of days. My profuse apologies in case you're an everyday reader! But alas, somehow we have been landed with a busy schedule, and although going from 10 hours of teaching per week to around 16 doesn't sound like much, it is making a huge dent on our usual 'free' time. Hmmm... For example, yesterday we didn't finish 'work' until the grand old time of half past six in the evening!! This is a new teaching experience for us. However, the enthusiastic, lovely students we teach are kind of making up for the hectic schedule, so I'm sure we'll get used to it.

In fact, this morning I went for a run with one of my said new students. As you may know, I'm usually very much a solo runner, however running with someone else was pretty good! We ran for about half an hour and at a very comfortable, slower pace than I am used to (actually started off uncomfortable as it felt strange to be actively slowing the pace down, at first...) but chatted the whole time. I'm sure there's some kind of valuable lesson here re: the benefit of friendship and slowing down occasionally as opposed to always running for at least an hour or more and at your hardest effort (usually).

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I have another running 'date' on Thursday with another friend. That will be on the university's sports track, so that will be a first for me here. Looking forward to it.

In between yesterday's busy teaching schedule I did manage to get some strength training and the usual dog-walking in, and tomorrow I have an early morning yoga date again. So, pretty on track with my fitness, however, it's not too running-heavy nor geared towards my upcoming half marathon in October. I think I will rectify this with a weekend longer run to make up for less running kilometres during the week.

In other Tongliao related news: It's starting to get a fair bit colder here now - quite autumnal. But still hot and sweaty in the too-crowded classrooms during lessons.

That's all folks. Have a super day!

What's your usual finishing time from work? (Ours used to be 4pm at the latest! Oh Yiwu, how we miss you...)




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Cycle Tour of Tongliao

8/29/2014

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Oops, no blog post yesterday as I was tied up spending the day cycling around this beautiful, new (for us) city: exploring in the sunshine. No photos were taken yesterday, and apparently this is a 'blogger fail' hey. Oh well, here's a couple from a couple of weeks ago, doing kind of the same thing anyway:
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Do you like our shiny new bikes?? We do, but they are somewhat painful on the arse after many hours of peddling around town. But, despite that, it was a successful day: we found copious motorbike shops (we're going to get an e-bike next week we think. So, cue LOTS more exploring further afield), a swimming pool, coffee shops, restaurants, a big market, food streets, and wide, wide open roads.

Today's run was a 12km ish run mostly through newly tarmacked woodland riverside parks nearby: the only vehicles around (once I got into the woodland area and off the main drag) were a couple of trucks and motorbikes from the construction team who are still working on these parks. My legs felt great and fresh having had a couple of days with no running and by replacing run-days with cycling and cross-training. Win.


On for my weekend is probably: some more exploring, writing, reading and maybe some more cycling. Kind of loving the cycling now I've got wheels again. What's on for yours??







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Time for Tongliao

8/25/2014

9 Comments

 
We've been in our new 'hometown' for a little over two weeks now, so I thought I'd finally share some pictures and thoughts on my new town and local running route.

Everyone is very friendly and welcoming in this little city, and there are even lots of other foreigners to chat with, courtesy of there being lots of medical students from Pakistan and a few African countries here, as well as a few other English teachers too. Kind of refreshing, although I am still keen to improve my very sketchy Chinese while I'm here, oh yeah, and pick up a reasonable amount of Mongolian too.

One of the best things about Tongliao so far (other than the wonderful people, and amazing food), has been the BLUE sky. Sooo blue that some days we feel like we're back in Australia, and it seems to be a regular thing too, not just a freak occurrence. We've been having beautiful days of bright blue skies and hot, hot sunshine. Kind of hard to imagine it getting down to the -25 to -35 that other residents say its gets to in the not too distant future (they reckon it starts to get cold in October! Eek...). So, I've been enjoying some runs through this new city (love exploring a new place by running through it), and I've found beautiful riverside parks, boardwalk walkways over sections of river, and wide, long freshly tarmacked roads through newly created riverside woodland where there are no cars, bikes and foot only. It's actually reminded me of my time in Perth and Mandurah, Western Australia, due to the sandy riverside walkways and paths and beautiful views across the water.

Check it out, I actually took my camera on a run for a change and tried to snap along the way of all the beautiful sights I see. Thought I better record it posterity now before the weather changes and all the flowers are gone. Here are a few:




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No, your eyes did not deceive you - there are two riverside beaches in this park too! Lots of people paddling in the water on Sunday arvo when I was there, but not sure if people full on swim there.

This usual route is a 12km run, and it is shared with many other runners, cyclists, basketball player, tennis players, football players, fishermen, and walkers, although I've just realised no one else is in these pictures (this was at about half 6 am when I usually go about half 5 am, so think I missed the peak/rush hour on this particular day). This is one active town and I like it.

In other news, we started teaching yesterday, and it seems I haven't forgotten how to do it. Phew... It had been a while.




Does it get very cold in the winter where you are? (This will be a whole new level of cold for both of us.)







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    A 30-something's running and travelling experience around the world.

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