The Rain, Oh, the Bloody Non-Stop Rain

The last few days here in Sydney have been pretty rainy. In fact, it's honest-to-goodness been raining for a full week, no breaks.

Unfortunately, it's not supposed to stop any time soon.

Rain has brought out the worst in me. On a good day, I spend most of my time squirreled away indoors, reading The Internet and watching too much TV. On days where it rains non-stop? All productivity grinds to a halt. Let me tell you, Steven's lucky I'm still showering (and I'm only doing so because it's the warmest place in the house! Humidity + no indoor heating = really cold house).

Yesterday, I fell to a new low.

I began watching Bachelor Pad 2012. That's right, I'm watching reality show RERUNS, and I'm hooked.

This morning, however, there was a break in the clouds.

Suddenly I got my mojo back! I was more active in these few hours of sunshine than in the past 5 days!

I took a homemade wrap down to Steven during his lunch hour.

We had some Starbucks until he had to go back to the office. Then, I went home, and decided I wasn't going to wait on my run this week. I had sunshine NOW, so I had better haul ass.

It was the muddiest run in my life.

That water was literally FLOWING down the steps, creating muddy puddles everywhere.

However, I don't think I've ever had so much fun on a run before. I was dodging puddles left and right, leaping, jumping, cross stepping like a pro. I loved the patches of sunshine and new green grass on lawns. I even loved the huge hills and massive downhills. I'm definitely going to miss these neighbourhood runs, especially those bush-walky / trail bits that are just so beautiful.

I'm lucky my Vibrams are lightweight, water-happy shoes because I got them soaked.

Post run, I did some stretching, drank about 3 glasses of juice, and showered. Does anyone know how to gracefully get out of sweaty, sticky work-out clothes without pulling a muscle? I need some sort of shoe horn for workout clothes.

My stats:
4.45 miles in 55:07
Average pace 12:22 min / mile

Rain in Sydney, and work anyway

It's been a few days of rain, with maybe one day of break in between.

With all the hot-cold-hot-cold weather, both Steven and I got sick recently, which resulted in 9:30 bedtimes and lots of our favourite herbal remedy and not-so-favourite throat gargle (that stuff tastes like choking on iodine).

Needless to say, I've had to skip most of Ashtanga this week and my run this weekend.

Despite the sniffles and coughs, I got all done up for a Saturday work day.

I love my new job, so it makes working Saturdays really not so bad.

My wonderful co-worker got me some genuine Australian lamington. That shit is gooooood.

It's a soft white sponge cake dipped in chocolate and rolled in coconut. They filled this one with fresh cream.

After a long day of work, I got home to a bunch of Caution cones in our building because of the rain.

It turns out I live in Sparta.

Hard, long (not really) run

Today's long run was hard.

And not only because the weather was poop: rainy, wet, dark, cold.

It was 5.34 miles of increasing agony. I was supposed to do 6.2, but I figured I was cold and wet and tired so I would just go home.

I was running on 2 muffins and a bazillion cups of coffee, so I'm going to forgive myself for cutting my run short.

After dinner, Steven took me for a romantic Korean dinner (not really...it was crowded and delicious like always, but not really very romantic... not that this is a complaint! Steven, I really do like Soon Tofu!)

Now, it's time to visit our favorite place in the world!

It involves yogurt that is possibly frozen with balls that are possibly made of mochi.

Yup.

See you there!

Energizer Night Race

10 K in 1:01:58

5K split 29:22

6:09/K pace

I placed 531 overall, and 65 in my age group!

Not bad for my first race.

The day started rainy and miserable, and I wondered if it were possible to run at all. Considering Energizer is a night race...

Rain + Dark = I'm Not Doing It.

Then, by mid-afternoon the skies cleared and we even got some blue!

So I grabbed the race shirt and got ready:

I was prancing around quite excited, and quite early, and Two-Two thought I was taking her out.

Instead I sat on the couch, waiting for my friend to pick me up.

There was no parking close to the race site, so we parked at the furthest lot and took a shuttle.

I figured out the head gear the day before.

Thoughts while running:

(no photos because, well, I was a bit busy, and I don't have a small camera or one of those nifty packs to carry things)

"I've never seen so many bums moving in unison in front of me!"

"How does anyone run when you're packed like a sardine? This isn't running--it's shuffling."

"That girl thinks this is a HILL? She hasn't seen a hill."  <--- I run in a valley, so I'm going uphill all. the. time.

"That old guy is going at a good pace! Imma catch him."

It turns out the old guy went at EXACTLY my pace. It was perfect. He sped down the downhills, kept his leg turnover rate high on the uphills, and pushed through the flat parts. I kept pace behind him for the last half of the race, and I owe  him a lot of my success!

I'm super happy with my 1:01 for a first race, and how easy it felt. I was hardly out of breath by the end, so the last 500 meters was a mad dash so I could get panting.

Overall, I loved the enthusiasm and general hype of a race, but I hate running like a sardine.



The next day, a bunch of friends and I went out for breakfast at my new favorite place. Over breakfast, Jen and I decided to do a half-marathon training plan, but not sign up for a race.

We're going to try a nice steady increase in mileage over the weeks, and stay accountable for our runs with our blogs and the fact that we live together cuz she can smell it when I don't run because it doesn't stank of Sandy in the house.

Completely unrelated note:

Everyone saw him put strawberry jam on his potatoes, so now you know I'm not exaggerating!

What a loveable weirdo.

Race Day

It's race  rain day.

Thanks, weather, for the wet dog.

She's scared of peeing in the rain.

I'm scared of running in the rain. And in the dark.

Energizer, you're killing me.

I guess we'll see how the day goes. If it clears up by mid-afternoon, tonight's run should be do-able. But if it's pouring like it is now...I'm going for froyo.

A new froyo place opened up at Bayview and Eglinton called Yeh!

It's interior had seating for children and big bean bags!

They had watermelon and pineapple water.

To be honest, it all just tasted like water...

The topping selection was goooood! Four buckets of fresh fruit, and the all-important mochi balls.

These are legit mochi balls, and that was one good brownie.

But both Strawberry-Jam Boy and I thought the yogurt tasted a bit bland. We got mango, and by the end, could hardly taste it anymore under all the toppings.

Sigh. It looks like Menchies is still on top.

Amy's here!

My friend Amy is here on a 2-week visit from our homeland, Taiwan.

She has missed Canada and our foliage.

So I decided to wash my Vibrams in honour of her arrival. Just kidding. That makes no sense.

I was running through some rainy weather last week, so it was a disgusting chore. Luckily, I don't have a picture to share with you. You're welcome.

That's my excuse for not running today. That, and that I was busy doing stuff like this:

After lunch with our working girlfriends, we had dessert at Prairie Girl Bakery.

The artistry in my iPhone photo astounds you? Yes, it astounds me too.

Being the addict I am, I had to have Red Velvet Cupcakes with Classic Cream Cheese Frosting.

There is nothing in the world like a fresh cupcake. My only fault with the cupcake was that it's severely top-heavy.

 

Amy and I gave up on the grab and bite method and asked for forks. Much easier. I polished off every drop of cream cheese frosting. Oooohhh baby.

By the time I got home, my Vibrams were STILL wet, so naturally, I took Steven out for a nice dinner at Pizza Nova. Then, we walked to the Yonge/Sheppard Yogurty's. 

Steven and I are big Mochi Ball hogs, and both of us immediately noticed that the Balls at Yogurty's are not as chewy and bouncy as the ones at Menchies. Plus, Steven's yogurt melted really fast (maybe because he gets supermodel-on-a-diet portions), so that was annoying. The mango pieces tasted weird to me, but maybe that's because I mixed it with hazelnut froyo...and my tastebuds exploded in confusion.

Hello Interwebs! How did you spend your Wednesday?

This is a whole new world of sore

I did pretty well on my weekday runs this week.

I ran 3.67 on Monday, 3.24 on Wednesday and 4 miles even on Saturday. All of them were relatively easy, but definitely pushing my endurance (and do-not-vomit) limits.

Thursday morning was a whole new world of pain. There was a pulling, nervy, tight sensation in my right hip, which abated as soon as I stretched it. It launched me into a 30 minute yoga thing with lots of groaning, moaning, and concerned Two-Two love-snuffles.

In other news, it rained all Friday and Saturday.

This is a picture of the Dirt Sponge's paw after a wet walk.

If you can't tell, the grass is threaded into her hair. *sigh*

The Olympics have tired me out. Just the thought of a 2:08 marathon, a 1:46 10K open water swim, and throwing javelins (in today's world, a very necessary life skill), I needed to carb load.

This is a picture of my cravings-come-to-life.

The green stuff on the bottom is spinach (a.k.a. guilt). 

Now I sit, the neon-orange chemicals permeating my skin, plunging my body into a toxic carb coma of preservatives and pseudo-cheese sauce.

I am satisfied.

Goal of the week: MORE ASHTANGA!