Category: Yoga

Really Liking This Place

9/9/2014

We kind of really like our new home. Could you tell??

This morning I went to an early early yoga session followed by a breakfast of tasty, saucy tofu (I am a tofu freak). The friend I went with goes every day to yoga, however I am going to join her on Wednesday and Friday mornings (leaving the rest of the week free for running, cycling and a bit of strength training). Should be a yoga champ (or a bit more flexible anyhow) in no time, yes? Ahh, there's something about starting the day with yoga that just makes you feel, well, great.

It is still sunny and hot during the days here too, so we're still enjoying lots of cycling and e-biking around in the sunshine. However, it's apparently cold enough in the evenings now for one of our new, go-to outdoor restaurants in one of the many food streets nearby to have dismantled for the season!! Nooooo! We got there yesterday evening, salivating at the thought of what's become one of our regular dishes (an amazingly tasty, spicy, healthy veggie soup) and it was a no go - tents were being brought down, the once crowded pavement was getting emptier and emptier, and it seemed a major clean-up/dismantle operation was in progress. Sad. Face. Indeed.

Oh well. There is still a plethora of other food choices hey, so all's not lost. Plus, Husband is an awesome cook too, so perhaps we'll get back to home-cooking occasionally.

Hmm, this is supposed to be a running blog, yes? Ok, so: no running today, but I might go for a bike ride in between classes. Then I plan on an early morning run tomorrow morning. No doubt one of my usual 12km routes (as I have to be back for a quite early lesson).

Any similar tofu freaks out there?? I've always loved tofu but since I've come to China, I've been ecstatic at the range of tofu choices here hey. You'll have to come on over and join me if you are into tofu and experience the many innovative and delicious varieties.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!!

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Message from the Universe

9/8/2014

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I have registered for another running race!! Pretty pumped to report I will now be taking part in the Beijing Half Marathon on Sunday 19th October! I know, I know, you were getting ready for another: 'I didn't do any running but here's what I did instead' blog post, well, that is just not on the agenda for today. I feel like I may finally have gotten my running mojo back this morning, and possibly all down to this new motivation of having another race on the horizon in the not too distant future (as the grasslands race just seems so far away still! So, hard to really focus on any proper training). I think there's nothing more motivating than having an event to plan and work towards, so I'm so glad that I have signed up for this race, and it's in an easily accessible city (from here to Beijing is an hour's flight I think) so Coach/Husband can come with this time (the last two races he has stayed behind), which will be awesome.

And the reason this random registration came about? (As, it wasn't on my mind even a couple of days ago...) Well, a new friend mentioned she will be running the Beijing marathon on 19th October, with her uncle, who she usually cheers on while he runs it. We got chatting about running for a while after that, and training etc, and I asked does she still run in the colder months here (key question for me apparently), to which she answered, to my dismay, NO, it is too cold. Boo.... BUT, she said she does yoga instead, and this then led to a discussion of where she goes for early morning yoga sessions. The result of this little tangent is that I will now be joining her on some early morning yoga classes, woohoo! But, I digress... Back to the subject at hand: the Beijing marathon.

So, later that day, as I'm scrolling aimlessly through the sometimes addictive time-waste that is the newsfeed of Facebook, I noticed a post from another friend putting it out there about it being the last chance to sign up for the Beijing marathon, and to get in by today. I had seen no mention of said race before, so, this mild coincidence I took as my cue from the universe that I am meant to be running in the Beijing half marathon! Haha, why, you may ask? I know, it's only a small coincidence, but hey I'll take it. I read some work by Deepak Chopra lately along the lines of: whenever you notice a coincidence, it is the universe trying to tell you something or pointing you in the direction you are supposed to go in. Therefore, I feel the universe was telling me not only about this race (thanks Universe!) but that I should sign up before it is too late. So, to cut a long ramble short: I have signed up for the half marathon, and Husband and I can go for a fun little weekend away in Beijing as well.

Having this race to look forward to has already improved my running, I'm sure of it, and I was up and out there early and determined today. However, for this particular race, I think I'm going to adopt a very casual training plan this time, and not worry about time, speed, pace, PRs/PBs etc. I just want to run it purely on how I feel (Garmin-free) and take in the Beijing sights along the way. I'll keep you posted with my rough training 'plan' as I go. Today I ran approximately 12kms through one of my usual routes through a park. Legs felt strong and I felt great.

As promised, here's a shot of Husband and our new e-bike! Ahhhh, felt awesome to be flying along (at 30kms/hr) with freedom and the wind blowing through our hair yesterday....

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Yoga, Kickboxing and an E-bike

9/8/2014

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Well, that weekend came and went didn't it!? A bit too quickly for my liking, but there you go. Actually, we're kind of still on our weekend, courtesy of the Mid Autumn Festival that is currently being celebrated here in China, so ALL GOOD.

No running over the weekend, but I did do an intense, efficient body weight workout (courtesy of Hasfit) and some cycling around town and through the riverside parks. Feeling unexpectedly sore and stiff today, I think from the Hasfit workout (hadn't done that particular one in a long time).

Something that I did do however, was to sign up for the yoga club, and the kickboxing club!! Very excited about these two activities, just hope I can understand the instructor. Mind you, might be a good way to improve my Chinese, yes? Husband also signed up for the kickboxing club, so watch this space on how we go on this one. Many years ago, back in the day, I used to go to a kickboxing club on a Friday evening, and it was LOADS of sweaty fun. Can't wait.

In other exciting news (for us anyhow) we bought an e-bike today, so now can cruise freely and easily around town and further afield. Yay! I will not, however, be riding said e-bike, but will happily straddle it and hold on as Husband does the honours (I am a terrible driver so am sure riding an e-bike will not be one of my strengths). Watch this space for e-bike adventure pictures! (Before it gets too cold that is).

Do you practise yoga? Kickboxing? (I can see my running diminishing and diminishing until it's an every now and then thing, perhaps having been replaced by all the fun cross-training! Oh dear...)

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Rain and Red Bayberries

6/27/2014

6 Comments

Update for today: 1) it's still raining; 2) my legs are still tight/sore (but a little bit better I think?); and 3) it IS the shoes!!! Noooo.... I should have clarified the other day, that I have two pairs of running shoes (one about 2 years old, and one about a year old, the latter I was planning on racing in) and when I slipped my older trusty pair on yesterday morning to go somewhere, my legs and feet felt fine, no dramas. However, when I put the slightly newer (but still needing to be replaced, they are well overdue too) pair on and skipped out the door to take Puppy for a quick walk when the rain subsided a bit - boom, instant calf ache/pain, and also some foot pain too (the balls of my feet). Hmmm, so it's safe to say that I will NOT be racing in these babies next week. Looks like I'll be back in my older pair, as they don't seem to give me the grief of the other ones, and for some reason don't seem too worn out? (Which is crazy as they are well, well overdue for a change.)

Yesterday we went back to the hotel pool for some excellent sauna and pool jogging/running/playing malarkey. This was GREAT, and I hope has helped my legs? Felt great to be splashing around and occasionally stretching in there too. Managed to do about 50 minutes in the pool! This was a mixture of pool running/jogging, stretching, doing random kicks while holding onto the side, and a few laps of 'proper' (sort of anyway, I am not a good swimmer AT ALL) swimming. Wow, let me just say that, after ONE lap of 'swimming', I was extremely puffed and feeling my heart rate soar, and would swiftly get back to pool jogging instead. I am not a swimmer hey. This is crazy yes? As Husband is a swimming teacher (as well as English teacher and all round Champion/wonderful man). He did try to teach me back in 2012 in New Zealand, but to be honest, I don't like swimming, so we let it slide. However, maybe, just maybe, in the future I like the idea of doing a triathlon, or, dare I even say it, an Ironman!?! So, will eventually have to conquer my fear (loathing?) of swimming.

The first 25 minutes or so in the pool were just me by myself (while Husband was sauna-ing) and, pool running by yourself? Yes, the time goes SLOWLY (I hear you, Kristina!). It was only when Husband joined me and we added in lots of funny aquarobics-style moves, and backwards jogging, funny arms/faces combos, that the time flew by. A few super-hot (are there any other types? lol) saunas later and skulling of a litre and a half of water = feeling awesome.

When we got back to school we went to the leaving 'party' for Grade 9 students (kind of a speech/presentation event with music performances etc) - these were my students last year, and now they are leaving this school in order to go on to high school next term. They are all grown up! Literally. Most of them have shot up and now tower over me.

My former student friend Jenny must have heard my call for increasing my intake of healing vitamin C and antioxidants, as she arrived early in the morning with a basket of these amazing, juicy, delicious little fruits (called 'yangmei', or red bayberries), and told us of the party later in the day and asked whether we would come. There were more in the punnet, but, erm, as previously noted - they are delicious! (Thanks Jenny!) So, a fair few have gone already:

This last shot is Husband and the Principal of the school - a lovely, very chilled guy (like all the teachers here). We often call him the Prime Minister or President as we see him coming, lol, as in 'Look! It's the President!' Lovely guy, and has always made us feel very welcome and respected/valued.

It's easy to see why this town is so lush and green and colourful, what with all this rain! Here are a couple of shots that Husband took yesterday, and I love how colourful and full of plants/trees this school is:

Another highlight from yesterday was seeing and talking to (via the power of Skype) my BEAUTIFUL nephew! (and my bro, my sister-in-law, and my mum too, of course). He has grown up so much since I met him last year. He is about 14 months old and gorgeous. Not sure when I'll get back to England to see him in person again, so for now I suppose he'll have to go on thinking that Aunty Lou lives in the computer.

I'm off to do some (indoor and safely out of the rain) yoga now. Have a Super Saturday!!

Have you seen/tried those fruits before, where you are?

Are your relatives nearby or are you spread out across the globe too?

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Fankle Pain

6/25/2014

12 Comments

The rain has stopped! Hurrah!! However, looks like the humidity is returning in full force, so I’m sure there’s yet more rain in our not-too-distant future.

The morning I went for a slow, recovery paced run, 11km, on a regular route down by the riverside. The niggling calf ache/pain (I guess it's really my upper ankle, or 'fankle' - fat ankle - as its painful and slightly swollen/has a bruised feeling) was still there, and it felt like it got better and then worse, then better, then worse again throughout the very slow run (20 minutes slower than usual). In fact, my legs felt tight and achey all over, and by the end of the run my right hip had started to ache and feel strange too. What’s going on? It feels like I have just run a hard race or a marathon yesterday or something. Perhaps, this is a delayed reaction to my 50km trail race (back on 7th June), and I didn’t get away with such an awesome, quick recovery after all? Hmm… Not good. But, I think I will do the sensible thing, and cancel my runs for the next two to three days, so the rest of this week, and rest my legs (albeit for the usual walking and cycling as transport, and maybe some yoga too) and see how they are feeling on Monday’s planned 9.66km easy paced run. I am still thinking about the 16km run I should be doing over the weekend though, hmmm. If I can, I may also get back to the hotel’s swimming pool for some active recovery pool running/jogging.

I will also be eating lots of healthy, healing foods, and will be aiming to get more sleep than I’ve been getting recently.

I hope my legs are back to normal by next Saturday!! How annoying. It’s got me worried that maybe I have reached my peak during my training and that when I come to run the actual race, I won’t be able to repeat and emulate the successes I have had when training. Hmm, maybe running an ultra 50km trail race just one month before this half marathon wasn’t a great training idea, in hindsight…

Have you got any secrets/tips for a speedy recovery?

How many days would you take off from running if you’re feeling sore?

Aaaand, a few shots of the beautiful Gold Coast, in the hope that this mental motivation helps my legs return to 'normal' in time for next week (and ideally in time for Sunday so I can get my final long-ish run in):

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Husband, Herbs, and Healthy Food

6/22/2014

10 Comments

Surprise, surprise, it is STILL raining here in Yiwu. After all my talk of enjoying a run through the summer rain and drizzle, I woke up this morning and was decidedly not keen to get wet out there today, so instead I did this super fun kickboxing workout instead: http://hasfit.com/workouts/home/cardio-aerobic/cardio-kickboxing/ and will soon be doing some relaxing yoga, plus some core work (finally! It hasn't happened yet, even when I've put it down in my schedule, hmm, seems easy to forget about all too often).

Over the weekend (in between and during the downpours) we cycled around to a traditional Chinese herbalist/medicine shop where Husband gets his turmeric from. It is a fascinating place full of things that for the most part we have little to no idea of what they are or the benefits they hold. We actually went in with a list of a few different items as well as his usual turmeric (he has it daily, as well as ginger and garlic, separately though, usually as a small shot mixed in with some olive oil - so good for your health, don't know why I haven't followed suit yet) however it was a case of things getting lost in translation and they mixed all of the other three herbs and ground them up together, instead of three separate bags, hmmm, must be good for something hey. (Super mix?)

The rest of the weekend was spent avoiding the rain and resting/watching documentaries, catching up with family and friends 'back home' via Skype, and eating delicious, healthy meals, as per these pictures below, some of our favourites dishes here in China:

In other news, it is less than TWO weeks now til I get to see this amazing woman (on the left):

Oh, and I will run the Gold Coast half marathon too. :)

In an excellent twist of fate, Husband's best mate from here in Yiwu will be back in town for his summer holiday with his family (he gets back on the day that I leave town), so Husband will be able to have a good catch up with his good friend, while I am on a mission travelling to Oz and back seeing my best friend and running a race.

I hope YOU had a great weekend!

Do you eat/use turmeric in your cooking? Heard/know about its amazing health benefits?

Do you regularly take any other herbs/spices/supplements? (Husband eats a few raw garlic cloves and gnaws on fresh ginger each day, and has about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of turmeric.)

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Healthy Living in China, Continued...

5/19/2014

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Check out the size of those beans. Runner beans (haha, so, pretty apt, yes?) I know, I look sort of disgusted with them, but fear not, this is clearly my I'm-so-in-awe-at-the-size-of-these-beans look. Just to put it in perspective, here are those same beans using a handily positioned banana for scale:

Fricken huge, gargantuan beans! Whilst I'm not usually one to photograph what I'm cooking or eating, these bean photos somehow led to a further couple of photos on this particular arvo: my raw ingredients, followed by the finished product. Et voila!:

A bit blurry, but you get the idea. SUPER healthy, although nowhere near as amazingly tasty as Husband's chef-like creations.

Not much running to report as yet this week. Traded my easy paced 9.66km yesterday morning for some yoga, and skipped the early morning track run today. Noooooo! So now I'll be playing catch up and aiming to fit the run in at some point today. We have a two hour siesta in between classes today, so there's a possibility there, or otherwise the night time session is on the cards. It has finally stopped raining (for now anyway) so that will be an added bonus.

Enjoy your Tuesday everyone! Tell me, who does most of the cooking in your house? Do you like to cook? (I like to, but I'm usually more of the short-order breakfast cook, specialising in stuff-on-toast or sandwiches. Husband is so much better at the fancy meals.)

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3rd Best Way to Start the Day?

5/7/2014

4 Comments

Haha, because we all know my first two favourite ways to start the day... So, this morning: yoga and coffee seemed an excellent alternative. I might get in a run later this arvo, who knows. Yesterday after work, I DID manage to go on my run - an awesome, feel-like-I'm-flying 11km run in the late arvo sunshine. Bliss. Thanks to Coach/Husband who reminded me that it's not long til I have to run FIFTY km, so I had better 'just fucken do it'. So glad I did.

I also got in a quick stairs workout yesterday morning before work, and did 17 reps of the full building. Oops, still yet to count how many steps there are. Watch this space...

Ok, this is a super short one today, as have to get to class. Here's to a terrific Thursday everyone!

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Sharing Is Caring

11/27/2013

2 Comments

I've never felt so cared for pre-race! Ok, ok, maybe that is a big lie - last year my wonderful husband and coach organised a surprise school announcement over their loud-speaker system, thus probably confusing every student in every class, until our teacher friend chimed in and followed him with a translation of his speech (something along the lines of this being a prestigious event and that we wish her all the best etc - worst wife ever, I had chosen this inopportune moment to duck back to our apartment to use the loo and missed it!). This was then followed by an impromptu ceremony in the school boardroom and I was presented with a beautiful bouquet of flowers, a small speech from the school's Dean and a mini photo shoot took place. Not sure what happened to the official photos but here's one of the beautiful, surprise flowers:

So, I sure felt special and cared for last year. I feel equally cared for this year. Yesterday those caring organisers sent me another text message re: Sunday's race. It reads as follows:

"Dear runners, please obtain Vitamin A, B, AND have more carbohydrate before the race. If you feel suppression in the chest or hard to breathe during the race, please slow down your pace to relieve anoxia symptoms. If it doesn't work, please withdraw immediately OR ask the referees n volunteers near u for help."

Pretty caring hey. Should I be worried? They seem to be...

Looking forward to my text message today. How about a cheery: "Yay, it's only 3 days to go, get excited dear runners!"

This morning was my LAST scheduled training run, woohoo! Was another 5km run. Took about 22 minutes (again, always say about and ish as I'm going off clocks en route, and have no specific running instrument yet, so I hope I'm right about the timings and distance - I use mapmyrun a lot to work out routes and distances). Now, I'm going to do some
yoga, drink copious green tea, and go and teach hundreds of teenagers about computer terminology in English. Have a thrilling Thursday everyone!

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Safety First

11/26/2013

3 Comments

I have never gotten a text from the race organisers before an event before, but yesterday I received this beauty of a precautionary text message, it reads:

"Shanghai International Marathon Organizing Committee: Dear runners, it's five days away from the race. Please make a self-assessment on this rest day. Do u feel well recently? Do u catch a cold or have a fever? Do u keep training regularly? Pls make a final check according to the Eligibility that specifies people unfit to run the race. Caring life is everyone's responsibility."

I am happy to report: yes, no, and YES! in answer to their caring (worried?) questions.

This is also the only event I've ever entered where you have to have had a proven recent health examination complete with doctor's signatures etc before you can even finalise registering. Has anyone else ever had to get a health certificate before they could participate in a race?

Today is a non-running day. So far I have slept in and lounged around a fair bit, having mentally relegated my cross-training session to after work now, but am hoping it will still happen. Might do a Hasfit workout followed by some yoga and stretching.

Cloudy and cold here today, not a very inspiring Wednesday, hey-ho... As the kind and caring race organisers pointed out yesterday, now only 4 days to go! Bit nervous now...

3 Comments

Really Liking This Place

Message from the Universe

Yoga, Kickboxing and an E-bike

Rain and Red Bayberries

Fankle Pain

Husband, Herbs, and Healthy Food

Healthy Living in China, Continued...

3rd Best Way to Start the Day?

Sharing Is Caring

Safety First

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