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It Happened...

9/4/2014

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...I had to wear long running tights and TWO running tops this morning, as it was quite cold. Noo..... It's happened already. I thought I'd have at least until October until I'd be in my 'winter' running gear here. People we have asked have told us that it starts to get cold here around about October time. Brrr, we beg to differ! It was quite cool last night when we went exploring the many food-streets literally on our doorstep (an awesome discovery). Apparently it will get down to between -25 and -35 degrees C! Oh dear. We are woefully ill-prepared at the moment, and so as soon as we get our first month's pay it's off to the shops we'll go, stocking up on essentials like: boots, jumpers, thermals, trousers, facemasks, and jackets, I suppose.

It seems crazy that it's soon going to be so cold, as it's still pretty hot and sunny during the day here, maybe between 24 and 30 degrees? A climate of extremes for sure, and one we are both completely foreign to and unfamiliar with. So, my next, pertinent question to all those who suffer through arctic-esque winters with proper snow and minus degrees days for months on end: What do you wear when you go running?? Are you still able to go for your usual runs? Are facemasks the go?? I have gloves, long tights and a long top that I wear under a t-shirt, but I'm thinking if I'm wearing these already (minus the gloves) then what will I do when it gets COLD-cold?!

Still, despite the cooler weather this morning, it was still a beautiful, awesome run: about 10kms through my usual route but just cutting off a small section of it. Why? Coz I felt like it. :)

Yesterday we had no internet all day, but if we had I could have told you all about my strength/weight training in the morning, and that I had full intentions of having a slothful, chilling afternoon again with Husband (we are making the most of our lighter-than-usual schedule - it changes next week I think). However, the afternoon was unexpectedly taken up by having coffee and discussions with one of my students and his friend, and then said food-street exploration and a fun dinner and beers out with Husband. I am more than ok with that.

It's just about the weekend, so I wish you a wonderful weekend filled with fun runs and/or good times!!!



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How About the Humidity...!!

5/16/2014

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Feeling hot and sweaty here in China. It is back to being crazy humid even though it's a cloudy, not too hot day. Cue sweating and feeling puffed the instant you leave your lovely air conditioned apartment. Due to this humidity, I waited til 8 o'clock last night to go for a run! Shocker. Miraculously, my night time run at the track was a success last night. I wasn't going for any particular pace or time or even distance, but ended up doing a comfortable 10km, taking just over 46 minutes.

Puppy even joined me for a couple of laps, and f*&ken hell, she is fast! Would love to take her down to the track more often, or even when I go in the mornings, but I fear she may get a bit overexcited with the other runners there and may choose to pace them / try to lick them / say hello in her signature way - trouble is people are generally very fearful of dogs over here. Even super cute, friendly, little ones like this:


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Not much else to report. SO glad it's the weekend. Got a 22km run planned (where most of it will be at threshold pace) and maybe a picnic with a good friend if the weather is good.

What about you - what's on for your weekend? Any running or races this weekend?

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What's 'on' for your weekend?? :)

3/28/2014

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Yesterday’s run was the 12.8km as planned, and my legs felt great again. The day before when I tried to do the same run but in the afternoon, as I slept in, my legs felt awful! Only managed 10 kms ish and then slowed to walk the rest of the way. Really slow and sore – tight inner thighs and felt like I’d just run a race?? I was perplexed until I remembered, oh yeah, that’s right – speedwork, first in MONTHS, maybe that’s why am sore? Glad it didn’t last long though.

 

I read about this way of keeping track of your runs and how you’re doing and progressing and think I will implement it soon. It is nothing fancier than a few coloured highlighters and you mark or tick the runs you have completed according to the colour system: yellow means the run was good, legs felt great, could have kept running for hours; orange means that you felt not 100% but still an ok run; and red means that the run was a bit of a struggle or you felt off or tight or sore etc… So, based on this highly technical system, lol, yesterday morning’s run was back to a definite yellow but the one the afternoon before that was an orange or dare I say it, a red??

 

This morning I had another speedwork session planned but upon hearing the rain hammering down at early o’clock, I decided to make today my rest day instead and swap the speedwork for tomorrow morning. Win. I think. Plus the sun is just coming out, so I hope it stays this way for the rest of the weekend.

 

I hope you all have wonderful weekends whatever you may be doing and wherever you are! What is ‘on’ for your weekend??
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Weird goings on with the time and space continuum...

12/12/2013

1 Comment

 
Ok no messing with the date today. Weird stuff - I posted a post yesterday (which I will copy and paste below, as per the link on facebook), but which does not exist here anymore? But exists on the link from facebook? What happened? Did changing the date make me go back ./ forward in blogging time? No idea. But anyhoo, here's the post from yesterday:




So, predictably did NOT do any ab / core work yesterday. BUT, I have received some excellent suggestions for doing so, and will be putting these into practise soon, I hope. I did plan on doing some abs at some point in the evening, but then somehow a long puppy-walk, shopping for toasty warm pyjamas to lounge about in (never to sleep in! You crazy pj-wearing-to-bed-folk you), eating too much dabao (takeaway), and lounging in said toasty pyjamas, all took a precedence. Plus, once those padded/quilted/feels like wearing a doona/duvet/quilt (take your pick depending on your cultural preference) babies were on, there was no way they were coming off to do a few minutes of abs. I would post a picture of these amazing pjs, BUT, I am hoping that Husband is going to get a similar, yet a bit more manly, pair today, fingers crossed that the Chinese's large size fits him (we have trouble getting normal 'larger' size clothes here - we don't know where they buy their clothes?! As there are loads of tall men here!). They are quite comedy, and the most unsexy, unattractive things you could imagine (stay tuned for that pic), but are so warm and so comfy. Sadface that I can't wear them to teach in. Although I do see people out in the early morning walking their dogs whilst wearing them, so maybe this would be ok?

Ok, that's enough pyjama talk yes? On with the post. Not much to report running wise today, as it is a cross-training day for me. I did these workouts: http://hasfit.com/workouts/home/advanced-high-intensity/advanced-workout/ (a 30 minute 'Warrior' workout - a mixture of strength, cardio, plyometric, ABS, and mixed martial arts), and http://hasfit.com/workouts/home/cardio-aerobic/cardio-kickboxing/ (30 minute fun kickboxing workout).

So, got some ab work in, BUT will attempt to get some more in this evening, in between some more cleaning (it is a daily battle here - you clean, the next day it's dusty again, grrrrr), organising some things, practising for that postponed speech, and coaching/teaching some students. Poor Husband has come down with a bad ganmao (cold/flu) so plenty of rest, TLC, and hot toddies for him today. Plus PJS! The healing power of toasty warm pjs hey.



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OR, maybe Weebly was censoring me? As there may have been swearing in the title, as I enthused about those awesome pjs.




Now, here's today's thrilling instalment:




This morning's run was my long run of the week. About 20kms ish. Which I took nice and slowly, and used this as my opportunity to try THIS as fuel:

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Yes, that is a Snickers bar. Yum. Still seemed slightly wrong to be eating chocolate at half six in the morning, but hey-ho. It's not junk food, it's FUEL. Seemed to work alright and didn't make me want to vomit on the run, so that's a bonus. Still prefer skittles though, as easier to eat those while running.

Ok, got to rush back to work now for a couple of lessons before we head off to catch a train to Shanghai this afternoon ready to meet my mum at the airport tomorrow morning. Excited!

Have a GREAT weekend everyone!

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

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