Mother Giraffe

/ May 12, 2013 / 27 comments

Thanks Mum

Happy Mother’s Day to the woman who has loved me unconditionally since the day I was born. Even when I threw tantrums, embarrassed her at children’s birthday parties, kept her awake when I was sick, learnt to drive, dragged her to Body Attack, and left Melbourne well before she was ready for me to go.

Mum and Me

P.S. we were never a great team in the game ‘getting to school’. I may be a couple of decades late, but I get that it wasn’t your fault. And the Corinella Party? Pretty sure I turned out just fine without it. So forgive yourself and realise that you got it right. Three times.

 

 

Run

 

I couldn’t be with my Mum this mother’s day, but I did have some fun running in the Mother’s Day classic:

...a different kind of running. And a big thanks to Kristy for taking this awesome shot.

…a different kind of running. And a big thanks to Kristy for taking this awesome shot.

Sometimes, running and/or walking should just be for fun. No time. No pressure.

And in costume.

giraffe

We got macarons for being well-dressed.

We got macarons for being well-dressed.

I am still not running training. Sad face. But, with any luck, Señor Swiss Ball will help me channel my inner awesome runner this week. For the last few days, the rules have been no running, no cycling, no rowing, very light elliptical work, and slow move, high rep strength work.

And if you’re reading this…please make it happen. A girl can only take so much non-catabolic activity. It’s criminal.

 

When karma gets you for doing something is completely useless to your every day life

Not running also making me batty.

Yesterday, I meant to go to the gym at lunch time, once I finished catching up on the week’s invoicing. At 5pm, I was finally done, and when I left the gym, I noticed that the nail salon across the road was still open. Never one to think things through, I took my sweaty self in and asked for a mani/pedi.

As the kind woman operating the foot spa scraped the crap off my poor runner feet and black toenails, I looked at her in horror.

I’ve left my wallet at home. And my phone. Can I please borrow yours?

She looked at me, got up quietly, handed me the phone, and watched in amusement as I dialled my own number.

That’s right friends. 5 1/2 years into my relationship, I do not know Mr The Rake’s number. 

Luckily for me, a very serious man answered

Hello, this is Kate’s phone, [Mr The Rake] speaking. 

 

Hi babe, I was wondering if you could help me out?

 

Uh huh. 

 

So I’m at the nail parlour.

 

Uh hah. 

 

And I don’t have my wallet.

 

Uh huh. 

 

It’s in the hallway.

 

Uh hah. 

 

Could you please bring it down for me?

30 minutes later, Mr The Rake opened the sliding door, looked at me, said

The traffic’s pretty bad

Put my handbag at my feet, and walked out.

Guess who walked home in disposable thongs?

WORTH IT

WORTH IT

 

Happy Mother’s Day, and have a great weekend!

 

Your Turn!

Have you ever dressed up for a race?
How often do you have a break from running? 
When was the last time you let your purse or wallet at home?

 

Category: Blog, Moments that make us Smile, Race / Tags: , , , , ,

Why I’m Not Running

/ May 7, 2013 / 14 comments

I wish I had an awesome excuse for being MIA, but sadly, no alien abduction, secret society, record contract or cult activity here.

The boring reality is that I’ve been doing too many things. Turns out that the whole ‘I’ll go run a business’ thing is, well, kind of exactly what I expected in the hard department. But so, so rewarding. The kids I work with make me smile all the time, and now that we’ve been seeing them for a few months, their marks are improving, and they’re happier individuals. And it’s the best.

steve clown

Source
Mushy enough for you?

 

Mr The Rake – it’s been really tough, and I know you’re the one who’s copped most of it, but thank you. So much! No way could this Runner Chick have just started a business without your love and support.

Rake

So you’re saying you need me now?

Oh, hang on. This is a running blog.

Well, guess what?

I’m not running. 

Yup.

Say what?

NO

But only for a week! Senor Swiss Ball has decided that I need to start at the beginning. So it’s a week of walking and slow weights work and getting my spine to stay in a straight line.

There’s method to the madness. If I can help my body to get stronger and more efficient, I will run faster. In the mean-time, I am an anxious lump of runner crazy. I had to sit Senor Swiss Ball down and request a list of rules and permitted activities, as well as a timeline for when I could run again.

Have any of you ever ‘started again’? It feels so counter-intuitive, but I suspect it will be hugely important over the coming months.

 

Today’s Moment

One of our year 12 girls got 2nd in the class on her latest assignment!

 

Your Turn!

What are you excited about at the moment? 
Have you ever re-started your running?
Have you ever been abducted by aliens? 

Random aside – I once met a guy who cheerfully told me he’d been part of a cult, and it wasn’t too bad.

Category: Blog, Moments that make us Smile / Tags: , , ,

The Dream Team

/ May 1, 2013 / 14 comments

You know my rainbow week? It started with a head cold and a bunch of business problems. Sweet.

On the sunny side, this week has less puking than last week. It also has a French manicure!

Yep, I am TALENTED

Yep, I am TALENTED

This has nothing to do with running, but was clearly important enough to be on the blog.

Between last week and this, running has felt like a black hole. 

Actually, that would mean there had to be running to get sucked away in the first place.

Point is. Running = not much.

BUT I have made a conscious effort to get off my butt and get moving, even on crappy days. And over the last few days, it hit me that I finally have the ‘dream team’ I’ve wanted forever. 

You know those elite sports people who have a coach, an on-call physio, a nutritionist, a masseuse, a sports physician, and probably someone to cut up their meat before they chew it?

I’m totally one of those people now. My ragtag team consists of a nutritionist, chiro and now a personal trainer. I’m feeling pretty special!

Let me introduce…my dream team

 

Mr Magic Man

The chiro I love for beating the crap out of my legs once a fortnight. Other hobbies include sticking needles in me, and insulting me for fun.

Without him, my legs would fall off. Or worse, I would be taking time off running injured.

These are all the bits that got injured last year.

These are all the bits that got injured last year.

 

Ms Meals

This woman is my new hero. Last time we talked about her, she’d given me bigger breakfasts, told me to eat carbs, and had a scale with a separate number screen.

Yesterday, she gave me MORE food. She is also a former triathlete, and is all over my stomach woes and fuelling options. You know you’re onto a good one when her eyes light up talking about gu chomps and hand-helds.

Nutritionist Approved

Nutritionist Approved

Random aside – after being told to go home and have three serves of carbs for lunch yesterday, I arrived home to find nothing but white bread and pumpkin. My list of suitable carbs tells me that one serve =  2 cups cooked mashed pumpkin.

Dude. Not even I like pumpkin enough for 6 cups. And I LOVE pumpkin.

 

Senor Swiss Ball

Senor Swiss Ball has been a mate of mine at the gym for awhile. So I was pretty excited when he decided to use me as a guinea pig for some of his advanced training techniques. On the cards for the next few weeks is a focus on postural alignment. Apparently if your body isn’t all curved over and shit, you have a lower injury risk. And breathe better. We all like breathing. 

 

Of course I had to bust out some of my 2XU goodies too, which definitely helped me get to the gym.

I hated the visor photo, so I tried again. But then I posted both, so I guess that kind of misses the point.

SAMSUNG

SAMSUNG

 

Also – Mum, I still don’t clean my room. Or anything else.

Ain’t no-one got time for that.

 

Today’s Moment

Tutoring opened on Wednesday night for the first time today. We’re growing!

 

Your Turn!

Who would you have in your ‘dream team’?
What help do you wish you had but don’t?
What was your ‘moment’ today?

 

Category: Blog, Fuel, Moments that make us Smile / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Well, crap

/ April 28, 2013 / 17 comments

 

Today, I’m taking a leaf out of Candy Fit’s book, and stopping to take stock of the bigger picture.

Tattoo

Remember this one? My 42 reminds me that sometimes, you get the answer before the question, so take a chill pill and enjoy.

You see, last week was fucking awful not as pleasant as it could have been. After such a high on Sunday, I spent the next few days in a fog. I felt sick and headachey, and it just dragged on. I did mention it to Mr Magic Man, the chiro, when I saw him on Wednesday. After a little sarcastic ‘and where was my text to tell me about this?’, he got stuck into my shoulders and – voila – pain and sickness gone!

So I was overjoyed and went out to a very fancy dinner (happy graduation to Mr The Rake’s sister!) in the world’s best mood.

Flash forward 8 hours, and I was slumped over a bucket.

Delightful.

Ick

Ick

In the interests of irrational finger pointing, I’ll blame the chiro. Mostly because he’ll fight back. (And clearly everyone throws up after acupuncture and a knee adjustment).

The week was a bit of a write off.

Bugger.

This was meant to be a shiny happy post. My bad.

The point is, even though it was crap, I really don’t mind. For one thing, now that the week has been a steaming pile of poo, I fully expect the next few weeks to be full of rainbows (I’m sure there’s something eloquent to be said about the lows making the highs, but I’ll leave that to the experts).

More than that, awesome things happened. We got to celebrate Jen’s graduation in style, my body had some down time to recover after Sunday, and yesterday I hit the hills.

In fact, I felt so good I pulled a double and managed a one hour elliptical session later that afternoon. DOMS. That is all.

running the hills

…and then….

I arrived home today to find a package addressed to me.

2XU, just for funsies, delivered a completely unexpected parcel -


With new compression tights, a bag, Oakley Radars and a whole stack of other goodies, I feel like a small child diving into a ball pit.

The moral of the story is have a bad week, and be rewarded with free stuff.

That’s how life works. Right?

 

Finally -

A huge good luck to Abby at Back at Square 0, who is running her second marathon today. She’s had a really rough time during her training, and got really sick a couple of days ago. She’s still running!

 

Today’s Moment

Duh – free stuff!

 

Your Turn!

When did you last have a really crappy day/s?
Did things improve? How?
Are you into hill running?

Category: Blog, Moments that make us Smile / Tags: , , ,

I’ve been waiting for you (half marathon recap)

/ April 24, 2013 / 31 comments

 

Dear everyone – please find below a series of very unflattering photos, which ruin what was otherwise an AWESOME race So awesome, in fact, that you get a full recap. Which very rarely happens. Unless I run a marathon.

*There’s less sharting in this story.*

 

The SMC Road Race Half Marathon

Half marathon number 2 happened. And it really didn’t go anything like the plan.

Donna and I waiting to run (the race was dedicated to Boston)

Donna and I waiting to run (the race was dedicated to Boston)

After last weekend’s mediocre effort (note to self – cake and tempure prawn do not a good pre-race day meal make), I still felt pretty wrecked, so the plan for Sunday’s SMC half marathon was simply to run, go with the flow, and enjoy a pleasant long run.

For once, I ran naked – no garmin, no heart-rate monitor, no watch, no phone. Just me. It’s not that I’ve never run without gadgets before, but I’ve never been in a timed race without them. I figured I had nothing to lose if I just worked off how I felt.

It turns out I feel a hell of a lot better than my watch thinks I do.

I picked a man in front of me – green guy, and kept pace behind him for awhile. He was met 3km in by a girl in a pink belt, who I think might have been his daughter. I’m fairly sure she beat him, which is pretty great, given his surprise when she caught him -

What are you doing up here?!

Green man and pink belt became my targets in the first 10km. I estimated that we’d finish the first 10km loop in about 55 mins.

Can you spot pink belt?

Can you spot pink belt?

Taking a step back, my PR for a 10km is 50:20. For a half marathon, I’d only ever run Canberra, which took me about 1:57:xx.

I was feeling pretty good when I passed green man coming down a hill after 8km, but I’m sure you can imagine my shock when I rounded the final corner and saw the clock at the 10km mark – 50:26.

Shit.

I’d just busted out one of my fastest 10km ever, and I still had a lap to go.

Say what?

Say what?

At that point, I hit race mode.

Which was unfortunate, because it was at that moment that Green Man bloked me. 

In the most non-creepy way I could manage, I called out:

I’ve been waiting for you

To his credit, he laughed, and told me he had to save some fuel for the hill ahead.

Fair point. I hadn’t thought of that. Turns out that hills are even more brutal the second time around.

No drama. I realised I probably wasn’t going to get a negative split, but was still feeling good. At this point, I was thinking that if I could just keep moving, I might be able to come in under 1:55.

Then the cruellest thing of all happened. At this race, the course in 5km long, meaning that once a half marathoner hits 20km, they reach the finish line, only to have to turn around and go back 500m to make up the final km. It felt like the world’s looooooongest kilometre.

Are you serious? Again?

Are you serious? Again?

In the self-satisfied way that only a runner would understand, I finally, finally turned that last corner to the finish line, cheering myself because everyone else was busy eating sausages.

I crossed the line at 1:48:46.

All over.

All over.

I think I have a new favourite distance.

 

Your Turn!

What is your favourite distance to run? 
What’s the next BIG race you have on your calendar? 
Have you ever run a race ‘naked’?

 

 

Category: Blog, Race / Tags: , , , ,
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