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Zongzi-Making Champions!

5/28/2014

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What a fun Thursday morning we've had here in China! We got a call late last night telling us: 'good news! You don't have lessons tomorrow. BUT, you are going to a zongzi making contest and please be ready at 7:30am'. Hmm, our usual lessons would start at half nine, was this really good news??

Yes, it turns out it was. We took part in the annual zongzi making championships, where a local zongzi champ and a foreigner get partnered up and it's a 'zongzi off' to see whose sweet little packages the judges like the best. For those unaccustomed with zongzi, they are: "an essential food of the Dragon Boat Festival. In early times, it was only glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in reed or other plant leaves and tied with coloured thread, but now the filings are more diversified, including jujube and bean paste, fresh meat, and ham and egg yolk". Luckily they kept it fairly 'simple' for us I guess, as we stuck to just two fillings: rice and a small dried fruit (zongzi) or two in the centre.

It was a pretty intense competition, and those zongzi are fiddley little buggers to tie up with string! Especially when there's a camera or 10 in your face, capturing your awkward and fumbley attempts. We can't have done too badly though, as me and the lovely zongzi champ who I was lucky enough to be partnered with (team 12 pictured above) came in first place! This was quite a shock to me, as I was pretty sure mine were fairly inferior, sub-standard zongzi, but there you go. Woohoo! So, as Husband pointed out, I am now the 6th Zongzi Foreign Champion for Yiwu (our city here in China) so I'm quite stoked about that. Husband did awesomely too (better than me, I thought), so I'm surprised he didn't get first, second or third place himself. However, we both got some excellent certificates, a cash prize each (one for taking part and one for winning first place), and some tasty lunch, along with a great morning of bizarre zongzi making fun with some wonderful, warm, friendly people.

Here are some pictures of the event to give you a better idea:


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Ok, and onto the running bit: This morning (early early early morning due to our change in schedule - yes, I managed to switch my workout to a 4:30am start in honour of said zongzi event) I was down at the track completing my speed session for week. This was: 1.6km warm-up, then 4x 3.22km at threshold pace with 3 minute rests in between, and ending with 1.6km cool-down. I changed this slightly: instead of the 3 minute rests I carried on running but at a much slower/easy pace for three minutes, and only did a couple of laps of the last set, as I was worried about making our trip in time. All good though. A great, sweaty morning workout, and due to the obscenely early time of the day (which was actually really nice and peaceful, and only slightly unbearably humid and heavy) I had the whole track to myself. Win.




Ever eat zongzi? Have you ever taken part in a food contest? Either making food or eating food?




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Nervous

5/27/2014

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As promised, here is Husband and I hard at ‘work’ being the voices of the English oral exams yesterday. Loads of fun. Hmm, I wonder if we could do this professionally and get paid for it? Oh yes, that’s right, we kind of do at the moment. But I would love to do this on a more regular basis, not just every couple of months. Anyone out there looking for a voice-actor? Who specializes in having a half English/half Aussie accent?? I am available.

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Today I’ve got some yoga and a stair session on my schedule, as it’s really NOT. LONG. NOW. Eek… Got another slightly confusing email from the race organizers again, complete with directional signs, course map, and an elevation chart. Shit’s about to get real hey.

Here’s a snippet of the detailed email (translated using Google translate again, so maybe not the best):

“Prior to the beginning and end of the game are located in the Five Sacred Mountains Scenic Village Hotel in clear water, the track length of 50 km, the track surface types include: cement roads, dirt roads, gravel, board the oil, gravel, grass mountain Austin, deciduous jungle road, boardwalk, stone staircase, wild dirt roads and so on. The race track located mainly between the mountains, the highest elevation of 2281 m, the lowest elevation of 553 meters, with an average altitude of 1233 meters, the cumulative climb 2605 m."

 
The ‘grass mountain Austin’ and ‘deciduous jungle road’ sections sound fun, don’t they? Hmm, there is a fair bit of elevation too.

Nerves are setting in now. For two main reasons: nerves about the course (I am aiming just to finish and not get lost); but also, nerves about going and meeting other seasoned trail runners and ultra running superstars. I will be going sans-Husband (my usually excellent companion/coach/support team/photographer), so will be sharing a room at the hotel there with another runner. Let’s hope there’s no see-through glass bathroom wall that many of the Chinese hotels favour over here. Nothing says ‘hi, nice to meet you!’ like waving at your new room-mate from the toilet.

 

Do you get nervous before an event? What do you do to calm or get rid of your nerves?
10 Comments

One Step At a Time

5/22/2014

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This morning I FINALLY made it for my track session. Hallelujah! It's only taken me 4 days... (I know, I was going to do it yesterday - instead I went for a beautiful run in the peaceful drizzly afternoon followed by 15 sets of our apartment stairs = job done.) So, this is what happened early this morning: 1.6km warm up/easy pace, 9.66km at threshold pace (yep, you read that right - 9.66 fricken kilometres!), then 1.6km cool down/easy pace. Phew. I did it! This is the longest I have run at this quicker pace (between 4:07-4:18) Feel awesome that I completed it.

Not gonna lie - the first 7-8kms or so were tough. Really tough. Maybe from the not-much sleep I've had this week or maybe from some really rubbish womanly pains or whatnot, but whatever, I digress and ramble... So, I had two choices: I could do maybe half of my planned session, or just stop and call it a day early, OR, I could keep going, focusing on ONE kilometre at a time (and at times, one hundred metres at a time, or even one step.) I am so glad I chose the latter. And with each kilometre closer to the end of the faster threshold pace section, it got easier and easier, and I felt miles better. I am feeling pretty confident about my improved pace now, and have shown myself that I can run faster for longer. So, am giving serious consideration to running most of my next half marathon at threshold pace, with a 1.6km ish warm-up and a kilometre or so, in between each 9.66km at threshold, at an easy pace. Something along those lines anyway.

This is my plan for my next half marathon, which is: the Gold Coast half marathon!!! Yes, it turns out I can make it after all. I am pumped! However, I now have a 50km trail race to run exactly one month prior to the Goldy race, so I hope my legs recover quickly enough for me to put this new plan into action. Watch this space.

In other news: it's FRIDAY! Kind of ecstatic about that. Hope you all have a blinder. Tell me something you are doing today / over the weekend!

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Not Long Now...

5/18/2014

2 Comments

 
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Not long now until the Runners' World 50km trail race. I was reminded of this fact when I excitedly opened an email from the race organisers this morning. This is what I was faced with:

各位尊敬的2014RW五岳寨国际越野大奖赛参赛者:    您好!    感谢您参加2014RW五岳寨国际越野大奖赛!    赛事最新行程如下:6月6日从集合地出发,7日参加比赛,8日早晨8:00从比赛地便返回出发地(北京),具体信息如下:    1.从北京出发的集合地点是北京西客站大方饭店门口,集合时间是6日早晨8:00,出发时间是早晨8:30。   2.由于车程较长(北京出发车程至少5个小时),在大巴上我们也为参赛者准备了简单水和食物,除此之外您也可自备食品。   3.由于五岳寨海拔较高,六月初虽是夏季,但当地早晚温差会很大,请您带好长袖衣物! 
 PS:①请保持您的手机畅通,我们的工作人员将在近期联系您并告之乘坐大巴车车号(如北京一号车)信息。         ②本周组委会还会将赛道以及补给等相关信息以邮件形式发送给所有参赛者。         ③ 号码布、芯片以及装备包在选手们到达赛地签到时统一领取。


Hmmm, so, after using the not-so-trusty Google translate, this is the result:

Hello !

    
Thank you for participating in the International Cross Country Grand Prix Walled 2014RW Sacred Mountains !

    
Race latest itinerary is as follows : June 6 Depart from the collection , the 7th race , the 8th from 8:00 game will return to departure ( Beijing ) , specific information is as follows :

    
1 Meeting Place starting from Beijing West Railway Station in Beijing generous hotel entrance, the collection is the 6th time 8:00 , the starting time is 8:30 .

   
2 Due to drive longer ( Beijing starting drive at least 5 hours ) , on the bus we have prepared a simple water and food for the participants , in addition you can also bring your own food .

   
3 due to high five岳寨海pull , though it is summer in early June , but the local morning and evening temperature will be great, could you take a good long-sleeved clothing !


PS: ① Please keep your phone unblocked , our staff will contact you to ride the bus and told the license number ( such as Beijing-1 car ) information in the near future .
         
② committee this week will be the track and supplies , and other related information is sent to all participants by email .
         
③ number bib , chip and equipment bag in the race to sign players to reach a unified collection.



So, not entirely sure about everything they wanted to tell us, but hopefully I've got the gist of it anyway. Sacred mountains sound awesome! As does Grand Prix! Glad I'm picked up running on stairs again, think my legs will need it for this race.

Any fluent Chinese speakers / translators out there - was Google close enough? Any further translation would be much appreciated. Cheers! Have a great Monday everyone!



2 Comments

Really Rather Rocky-esque

5/17/2014

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Another rainy, wet Saturday here in China, so no run outside as planned (I pussied out - I was aiming to run it on the track, as when I speed up to threshold pace or VO2 max pace or whatever is on the plan, I like the convenience of not having to stop for pedestrians or traffic, hence any session that specifies a pace to aim for, I have been running on the track. When it's wet, I have this inner fear that: speed work, looking at Garmin for my pace, and trying seamlessly to run through puddles and water will somehow lead to me tripping over my own feet. Anyhoo, I digress...)

Instead, I chose to do some stair running (30 reps of the building again) followed by some strength moves (i.e. squats, push-ups etc, nothing too fancy). I was harnessing my inner Rocky, and it was intense hey! Here's a sweaty, tired snap of me on the stairs in question:


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Yes, that IS a Rocky t-shirt! (Thanks again Josh, love it!). And yes, I did put my camera on a self-timer mode to take this red-faced shot, haha...

So, I know these stairs aren't exactly the terrain I'll be running on, but I hope they'll prepare me somewhat for some of the uneven surfaces and up and down sections (which, I'm pretty sure form the majority of the trail race).


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Hope you're all having Super Saturdays. Got to run now (no, not literally) as watching an awesome documentary series with Husband that is kind of blowing our minds! Will post the links soon. See you!
6 Comments

2nd 2nd Wedding Anniversary, and 34 Big Ones!!

5/12/2014

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You may or may not have noticed there was no blog post yesterday from me yesterday. This is because it was our second second wedding anniversary (we had two weddings!) yesterday, so I didn’t want to spend time online when I could be spending it with this beautiful, amazing man:

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Yes, two years ago yesterday, this was us in Bali, with our friends and family, getting married for the second time in 5 months:

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We had a lovely day – the school had given us the day off for it, so we spent a relaxing, chilled morning together (after I got back from my 34km long run that is! Yep, you heard right – 34km! My longest training run EVER. I was aiming for 35km, but I was sick of back-tracking and doubling back by then, so I thought hey, am sure I’ll get that one km in at some point later in the day, by walking puppy or something…) before we went out for a long, relaxed later lunch/early dinner, reminiscing about our 2 years of marriage and all the places we’ve visited since getting together.

 

Great day, just a shame we didn’t organise to have today off too! Starting to feel a bit tired and achey-ish today. Although other than a bit of tiredness, I’m surprised how good my legs feel, despite the massive run. Crazy really, as when I think back to my first marathon, it was probably around the 35km mark that everything started to go wrong and my legs were spent. What a difference a few years makes. Feel happy with my progress, and it encourages me to keep going – we never know what we’re really capable of until we ‘just fucken DO IT’ hey!
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Tuesday's Training Update, and Why-oh-Why is it Wednesday Already??

5/6/2014

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Oops, forgot to write yesterday. No run yesterday - I swapped it for some yoga in the morning, followed by lots of cycling around in the beautiful sunshine as we explored parts of town we hadn't been to before as our students were having exams all day (= no classes for us). So, more of a cross training day. However, I must get my running legs back today. Namely some stair running. I'm planning on doing the steps of our apartment building, maybe 25 or 30 reps of them (7 story building), and I'll try to count them today, so I get a more accurate description of this run. Later, if the weather is still nice I might also get my easy paced 9.66km that is on the schedule in (after work that is).

That's about it from me here in China. Short but sweet (ish?). Arrghhh, is it really Wednesday already? Can't we pretty please have another Tuesday-exam-day, please Universe?? Oh well. Enjoy your day everyone!


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May Day

4/30/2014

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It is the May Day holiday here in China, which means it's a holiday today, tomorrow, AND Saturday (which is usually a 'holiday' for us anyway). So, in true Chinese fashion, we're working the Sunday to compensate for having a holiday fall on a weekday. Hmm, I think someone in charge must have got confused re: what constitutes a holiday! Hey-ho... I kicked mine off with a speed session at the lovely track this morning which saw me doing the following: 1.6km warm-up, 5x 1.6km at VO2max pace (around 3.55 for me) with 3 minute rests in between each 1.6, then 4.8km easy pace run/cool down/recover. My calves were still a little tight but overall it was a good session. Then Husband and I went on a cycle/explore around town, drank some coffee, and we will soon be drinking beer and meeting our friends to go shopping. BUT, it's a beautiful, sunny, HOT day today, so maybe too nice to spend indoors doing our least favourite activity of shopping? Hmm, needs to be done though (Husband needs new clothes).

As for the rest of our holiday? Not sure. I have a long run scheduled for Saturday morning: I'm aiming to do around 25kms and include LOTS of steps and mountain trails. I paid the entry fee for the 50km race this morning, so this trail race business just got real.

Think we'll also be doing lots of planning of our itinerary for our upcoming amazing caravan adventure, and I'd love to do some writing and general chilling and resting. Hopefully this beautiful weather lasts all three days of it!

Last year today, I was HERE undertaking this extremely difficult, crazy adventure 'running' race on the beautiful Great Wall of China:




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All the best to those runners who have gone back for a second year running - you guys are amazing! Once was enough for me, haha.
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Runner's World Fifty Kilometre Trail Race

4/28/2014

2 Comments

 
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I thought I'd post some more re: this trail race coming up on 7th June. I will really need to step my training up for this one, quite literally, and may soon be visiting my old friends the hundreds of steps up the mountain at the Southern edge of town. (Yes, will definitely keep you posted re: my training for this race Kristina!). Re: this training. Hmm, now I'm not too sure what to do for it exactly. I am aiming to alter my current 'advanced half marathon training plan' and add in a couple of stair/mountain sessions each week, and try to add in a few extra kms to the long run each weekend, as currently the training plan goes up to 28.8km but no higher. Watch this space. Did some excellent work for this training plan this morning by choosing to sleep in and get a little bit more rest before a long day of teaching begins, but hopefully I will get out there this arvo for that 9.66km one I had planned.

Ok, so on to the info for this race. This is on the website I found when researching events in China:

"Runner’s World China 50KM Trail Race – Registration Open!


Hey!

Spring HeyRunning Camp Chinese Media Partner, Runner’s World China, is organising The Ultimate 50KM Trail Running Grand Prix for the second year and we can help you register if you want to run!

The race is set to take place on Saturday 7th June in the Wuyuezhai National Forest Park, Hebei Province! This is an off-road trail race so expect wild trails, mountains, steep climbs, streams, technical downhills and some amazing views. There are no shorter race distance options, but if you’re looking for an extra challenge then this is it! A bunch of HeyRunners, including Head Coaches Linus & Neil, raced last year and had a really FUN (exhausting) time!

More info available via the race website HERE and below:


What: The Ultimate 50KM Trail Running Grand Prix (Male & Female races)

When: Saturday 7th June 2014

Who: 300-500 Chinese and international runners

Schedule: Leave Beijing at 13.00 on Friday 6th June by coach to reach race destination (est. 5 hours). Race starts at 6AM on Saturday 7th June. Return to Beijing either late Saturday afternoon/early evening or Sunday morning.

Registration: Email 
heyrunning@heyrobics.com titled ‘RWC 50KM Registration (Name)‘ and we’ll send over the registration form.

Cost: RMB700 (includes hotel accommodation, transport, meals, race registration and race prize)

Contact: Email 
heyrunning@heyrobics.com for questions a full schedule and more info or say Hey at one of our weekly sessions!"




So, I'm all registered, just need to finalise a few travel and logistical details, and soon I'll be running/scrambling through here:



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2 Comments

Break in the Weather

4/1/2014

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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?

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

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