I conquered my nemesis

Soooooo, week 7 day 3 is now DONE!!! I amost died doing it, but its done, finished, kaput, klaar....

This session was REALLY hard. During the last minute of the 3rd and 4th 4min runs, I found it increasingly difficult to physically draw breath into my lungs, but luckily my beathing quickly recovered during the 4min walk between the runs. After the session, my legs really felt like jelly and in fact still feel a little jellyish even now, many hours later, my feet were also really sore/burning and still feel a bit sore. In fact this session was so difficult, I'm really beginning to wonder how I'm going to manage from now on as the sessions just get more and more difficult. There's a possiblity that I might end up repeating certain weeks, untill I can manage a bit more easily, but I'll see how it goes.

As this gets more difficult, I'm really beginning to be nervous about my upcoming races. I know I CAN definately finish them, because if worse comes to worse, I can walk most of the way, but I really want to do the best I can and that means running as much of the race as I physically can.

However, giving up is NOT an option so I will keep on going even if I adjust the schedule a bit.

I'm so disappointed, I want to cry :(

Today is Day 3 of week 7 of the Shape 10km Challenge. The session for today is: Walk 5 min, jog 5 min (4 x 4 min run at faster than usual speed, with 4 min walk inbetween). 10 min walk to finish....

I started off well with the 5min walk and then went on to the 5min jog. With the jog, I struggled right from the word go, but as usual, pushed my way through it. I walked for 4 min, then started the first 4 min run at faster than usual speed. I got about 2 min into it and just could not do it anymore. My legs were aching and wobbling like jelly and my chest was burning and I was puffing like a steam train. I stopped and walked for about a 1 min and tried again. I ran at faster speed for about another 1 min with the same result as before, but maybe a bit worse. I decided that there was NO WAY I was going to be able to do this, but rather than a total loss, I decided to walk for 4 min, then jog (at my normal speed) for 5 min, then walk home. I walked for the 4 min, but only got about 3 min into the jog and I just couldn't go on. At that point I totally gave up and decided to just walk home and call it a day.

I felt like crying I was so disappointed. This is the first time since I started this challenge that I haven't completed a session. Although I'm not making any excuses, I flaked and thats all there is to it, I decided that I needed to try figure out why I couldn't manage this session, when I have managed all the others. This is what I came up with as possible reasons:

1) On our camping trips, I never sleep very well. Sometimes because of noisy campers and also because I don't sleep that well out of my bed (and I don't sleep well at the best of times anyway *sigh*). So I was probably pretty tired.

2) The session I did when I was camping, I ended up (as explained in my last blog) running up and down quite a few hills. Admittedly they weren't very long or very steep hills, but for me they might as well have been.

3) We did quite a bit of walking on the beach in the sand and that is definately killing on the muscles. We also did some rock hopping which I'm sure also added to the 'damage'.

Add those three things together and I'm pretty sure thats what happened today. HOWEVER, I'm not giving up totally. I'm going to give myself a day or two of rest, catch up on some sleep and then try Day 3, Week 7 again and see how it goes.

So from a very disappointed 'Carol on the go' until next time......Cheerio

Camping at Palmiet & week 7 - day 2

We went camping at Palmiet this weekend. Palmiet is our fav camping spot for various reasons. We haven't been for a while so were really looking forward to it. Luckily, because we got there early on Friday, we got our fav camping spot too. We had recently bought a 2nd hand camping fridge and were using it for the first time. At first, we couldn't figure out how it worked on gas (there was no manual with it), but phoned my daughter to find out. We got it working but there was a strong smell of gas all the time, which really worried me, so before we went to bed on the friday night, we switched it off. Hubby discovered that part of the regulator was chipped and thats why gas was leaking out. When the shops opened on Saturday morning we had to go and get a new regulator - luckily we did find on and with that on, the fridge worked great.

(note our new camping cupboard next to our tent - it made things around camp much easier. We also used for the first time our new - but secondhand - camping fridge (behind the cupboard, so you can't see it). It works on gas as well as elec & car battery which is great, cause we don't camp on the sites with elec. You can also see, between the trailer and the camping cupboard, our washing station which my hubby very kindly made for us)

Talking about Friday night *SIGH*, there were some VERY  LOUD, & VERY NOISY people on the top level of the campsite. The TALKED LOUD, they LAUGHED LOUD and the SWORE LOUD. I couldn't sleep and the last time I looked at my watch it was about 2.30am and they were STILL at it GRRRRRRRRRR

 One of the first things we noticed when we went down to the beach on Saturday, is that the channel from the river to the sea wasn't there anymore!!!! The beach just continued to the other side leaving the lagoon/river mouth totally cut off. The nice thing about that, is that the water in the lagoon was lovely, so nice that I even swam a lot and normally I don't swim much at Palmiet cause the sea coming into the lagoon usually makes it very cold.

(My hubby in the lagoon, you can see in the background how badly burnt the mountain is from a recent fire there)



While I was swimming there was a very pretty, very tiny crab swimming in the water and I caught him for a while just to admire him :-)  Lots of lovely little fishies too. We saw a lot of birdlife and also the mongoose that we usually see at least once during our weekend camps. The bats at night are awesome too, although my son's girlfriend didn't think so cause she's scared of flying things.

(Luckily my son's girlfriend wasn't here when I took this. These gulls are BIG ones LOL)

It was a wonderful and relaxing weekend, well most of it anyway, here comes the not so relaxing part. One of my Shape Challenge running sessions was on the weekend. Walk 15mins briskly. 2 x (13min jog, 2 min walk). Walk 10mins briskly to finish. There is a nice boardwalk near the campsite, so I decided it might be nice to do my session on the boardwalk. I started off about 7.30am and went to the boardwalk. I soon discovered that for two reasons, the boardwalk wasn't suitable for my run. 1) It was rickety in places, and broken in places 2) The boardwalk was sporadic with places inbetween with sandy, rocky path. I was worried I could twist my ankle. So, as soon as I saw a part going back up to the road I took it, thinking it would be much better running on the road. All good and well, EXCEPT for the fact that it seems that EVERY road in Kleinmond has hills on them *SIGH*. I ran up hill and I ran down hills and no matter where I ran there were hills *PHEW*. However, I did get my session done, so I'm now one more day closer to completing the challenge.

Packing up again of course wasn't fun, but at least we had a nice bacon, egg, mushroom & fried tomato breakfast to fortify us for the task. On the ride home I actually fell asleep in the car I was so tired and then of course came the unpacking of the car and now over the next day or two, I have to wash and repack all the camping stuff again and wash all the dirty camp clothes - BUT ITS ALL WORTH IT!!!!!

Cirque du Soleil and day 1 of week 7

Last night my hubby and I went to see Cirque du Soleil, courtesy of our children who gave us the tickets for Christmas. What an AWESOME show. I had never had the inclination to go and see the show, but boy am I glad I did.

There is so much going on in every minute. There is the 'main' act doing various different types of 'tricks' but at the same time there are always a few other performers doing all sorts of funny thing around the edges, you almost don't know who you want to watch - scared you might miss something LOL

The acrobatics were fantastic and the performers must have absolutely amazing upper body strength and just strength and fitness in general. I can't imagine how tiring it must be to go through that performance every day. There were so many fantastic acts, but I have to say, two things in the show really stick out for me. One was when there were 4 poles and various performers were doing all sorts of acrobatics on them, then a guy came in, went to a pole, held it with his arms straight and body totally away from the pole and climbed up this long pole using ONLY HIS HANDS/ARMS!!!!! It was spectacular, I couldn't believe he actually did it.

At various times in the show, they got the audience to participate in various ways, which brings me to the second 'stick out' performance. The 'funny' character in the show, after checking out various audience members, chose an older, rather big (not fat, just tall and big built) guy and got him up on stage. He made this poor guy copy him in quite a few ridiculous moves and it was totally hilarious. The guy was very game I must say and got into the swing of it and gave a really good performance himself. *Take a bow, whoever you were - good job*

My mind was totally changed about Cirque du Soleil and I'm VERY glad we got to see the show.

Now, on to day 1 week 7: PHEW, what a workout....

I was pretty worried about this session cause it seemed really hectic - walk 5 mins. 4 x (9min jog, 2 min walk). Walk 5 mins to finish.

Boy, it was hectic AND MORE!!! I'm sure I lost my legs somewhere along the route, cause when I got home I couldn't feel them anymore. My stamina was fine, energywise I could have sailed through the session, but my legs really didn't want to take part. On my FIRST 9 min jog, I was already thinking that I would have to give up, that I wouldn't be able to do this session, but as usual, SOMEHOW, I forced my way through it. Only one slight alteration, after the 3rd 9 min jog, I walked for 3 mins instead of 2, but that was so minor I still consider myself as having DONE the session fully and completely. It REALLY was difficult though and I am seriously worried about how I'm going to get through the remaining sessions, which only get more and more difficult. I SHALL perseve though and hopefully somehow, someway, I'll force my way through it all.

I must say though, that within an hour of completing my session, I'm feeling just fine again, although my legs are feeling a bit uncomfortable. I just hope they won't feel too stiff tomorrow :-(

Wish my luck as I carry on....

My scare for the day - yesterday

I had quite a big scare yesterday. In our home, if we don't know who is at the door or it looks like a bergie or someone looking for work (we can't afford to hire) etc, then we often just don't answer the door, or we use the phone interkom to ask what they want.

Yesterday, I was busy on the computer from where I can see the front door and through the front window right next to the door. I saw a guy (coloured or black, I'm not sure, in a bright blue T-shirt with NOKIA in white on the front of it - at least I think it was Nokia LOL and he was wearing a light coloured camo cap) come up onto our stoep and scratch in our bin. I ignored it, but kept a look out. Next thing, he rings our doorbell - I ignore it. He waits a while, then goes back to the bin (which by the way, is on our front stoep, quite close to the door). I then hear the bin move and wonder what he's doing. I go closer to the front door but can't see the bin or him, so I look out our side window, which looks into the lane at the side of the house. I see through the gate that the bin is now in front of the gate, so I keep watching. Next thing, I see a hand on top of the gate and can see that he's going to use the bin to climb up and jump over the gate into our backyard.

I rushed to the front door opened it (we do have a safety gate which was locked)  and yelled "Hey, what the hell are you doing". He jumped down and ran toward the door, I shouted, "I'm phoning the police" and slammed the door in his face.

According to my daughter who looked out the upstairs window, he walked off down our road. I immediately went to the phone and phoned the police to tell them. When I got off the phone with the police, I heard my son come back home on his bike, so I told him what happened quickly and he went on his bike to see if he could see the guy. My daughter also phoned her friend who turned up in his bakkie and went looking. Two police vans turned up and one drove down the road and the other came to me and I told them quickly what happened and where the guy went, then they drove off too.

I assume the guy probably went down our street, into the school grounds and then to the highway and gone.....

The even more scary thing about all of this, is that the guy who did this was the same guy I mentioned in my "Glutton for punishment" blog yesterday who spoke to me when I was on my run..... I'm sure he will have recognized me at the door and now knows that I sometimes go out jogging in the morning and when I do, there's probably no one at home.

Of course later I got moaned at by hubby and son for doing something dangerous like going to the door  and I was given a list of all the things I SHOULD have done. Problem is, when something like that happens, you just react, you don't think about the list of things you SHOULD be doing *SIGH*

Anyway, the gist of it is that now my hubby - at my request - has cut down the bushes and trees which looked so nice near our front door. I'm sorry they are gone, but at least now anyone who walks down our road can see exactly what is going on at our side gate. I am also going to get a whopping big taser and heaven help any other pleb who tries to hassle me.....

Glutton for punishment or dedicated runner - You tell me LOL

Okay, these are things I know -

I know the forecast today is for rain and it has already been raining so if I run outside, I'm likely to get caught in the rain....

BUT

My sport watch is waterproof and rain is better than blazing heat isn't it.

If I want to avoid the rain, I can run inside on the treadmill...

BUT

To run on the road outside is MUCH more of a workout than a session on the treadmill.

I know that the reverse of my route has much more uphill on it....

BUT

I know that the uphill will give me more of a workout and therefore up the ante on my training.

Knowing all of this, guess what I did......

I RAN OUTSIDE IN THE RAIN ON THE REVERSE OF MY ROUTE. :-)

LOL I can almost see my friend Sandy shaking her head and saying "Crazy chick" hehehehe

The cherry on top - on my last stretch I ran past a random guy who said "Mooi maam, hou did so" *HUGE GRIN*

Ain't running just GRAND!!!!!!

Snoring, mosquitoes and other annoying things *SIGH*

This is going to be a big rant, because I'm feeling really ratty and irritable because of severe lack of sleep....

I don't think I have slept well since my hubby and I started sharing a bed, because he snores and I'm a light sleeper. Because he snores (and makes other annoying sleeping noises), I struggle to fall asleep and stay asleep the whole night. Not only does he snore and make funny blowing noises, but he hogs not only the duvet, but the whole bed as well, leaving me with a tiny sliver on my side which makes me fall out of the bed when I turn over. Add to that, the fact that my cat sleeps on the little bit of my side of the bed that I have left. We have endless arguments about these things, but it makes no difference *sigh*

Last night was exceptionally bad, because not only was hubby a snoring, bed hogging monster, but there was a mosquito flying around and dive bombing me every few seconds AND, annoying little showers of rain making a noise on our roof, PLUS the odd thunder and lightning. I LOVE storms, but when they are as annoying as the one last night and when they come when I'm very sleep deprived, then they aren't much fun.

Arrrrggg, if I could get hold of that mosquito, I would become of torturer or note, because thats what she (I believe the ones that buzz and bite are she's) did to me last night. Reminds me of a poem I learnt at school:

Misketejag

Jou vabond, wag, ek sal you kry en jy sal net a bloedkol bly hier op my kamer mure. Deur jou vervlukste gonsery, deur jou gebyt en plaery kon ek nie slaap vir uure. Wag, laat ek my voorstel voor ons skei, voor jy die doodslag van my kry, My naam is van der Merwe.

I'm not sure if there's any more of it and please excuse my afrikaans spelling etc, but this was going back to junior school (and my afrikaans isn't that good) hehehehe

Anyway, at the moment I'm like a dry powderkeg, ready to totally explode at the slightest spark. I could rip people's heads off today if they get on my wrong side and to make matters worse, its an exercise day today, Day 3 of week 6 - I have no idea how I'm going to get through it - and the rest of the day for that matter *SIGH* Yaaaaawwwwwwwwwn

Dead runner blogging *SIGH*

For FLIPS SAKE!!!!! (censored for public consumption - those weren't that actual words I used) Todays session almost killed me, I have no idea how I motivated myself through it exactly as specified but somehow I did. I just thank the Goddess that yesterday I bought myself a USN sport drink to drink after todays session (I actually bought it because I wanted a bottle like that, not because I thought I would need it). I need every calorie, carbs, magnesium, sodium, potassium and any other elements that are in there to recover.

Specs for today (week 6 - day 1) were as follows: Walk 5 mins, 4 x (8min jog/3min walk). Walk 5 mins to finish. Doesn't sound too bad does it but BOY WAS IT!!!

This is where I think I went wrong: First mistake -  yesterday I walked up and down our stairs twice (those of you who have seen our stairs, know they are pretty scarey). The walking down, had me carrying heavy ackward things from my daughters room. Also, our stairs are cluttered with said daughters 'stuff' so its very ackward to walk up and own them at the best of times. After I had done that, I could feel a quite intense pulling in the front of my thighs. It worried me a lot cause I thought it might affect todays session, but during the day it wore off (mostly). This morning my legs seemed okay.

Second mistake - I decided to do my route the other way around, because its said that the camber of the road can affect you if you do the route the same way every time. However, what I didn't realize, is that when done the other way around, part of the route is a quite long, but very gentle incline. Doesn't sound too bad you say, maybe not, but when you're not that fit and jogging, boy it seemed like everest.

Third mistake - on my second walking session, I saw 5c in the road. Now, I have this philosophy that if you see money lying in the road or elsewhere, you should pick it up, because by picking it up, you are telling the universe that you want money to come into your life. Flip, I swear that 5c pieced weighed a TON by the time I had finished my session. On my second round of the route, I saw another 5c and later a 10c and I thought WTF!!! There's no way I'm adding more weight and anyway I don't think I was capable of bending down to pick them up and I think if I had stopped to do that, I probably wouldn't have been able to get myself to start moving again.

Fourth mistake - okay, this one isn't really a mistake, just the luck of nature. There was a bit of a wind today and part of my route I had to run into the wind and it just so happens that that part of the route also happened to be the same part of the route with that flipping gentle incline *SIGH*

I just thank the Goddess yet again, that Sundays session is simply a brisk 30 min walk and I shall cherish every walking 30mins of it.

BUT, I am still living (if only just LOL) and my legs do appear to still be moving (for the time being - lets see if they're gonna stiffen up). I don't think I am yet capable of standing up in the shower LOL so I'll give myself another few stinky minutes before I attempt that one.

Week 5 completed

Today I completed week 5 of the Shape 10km Challenge. I decided to do it on the treadmill for two reasons. Firstly, it was quite windy this morning still and secondly, it involved doing 4 x 4min run at faster than usual speed. On the road its difficult to judge speed and be sure you're keeping your speed constant, but on the treadmill, its easy to keep track. I normally jog on the treadmil at 5.4kph and for my faster speed, I did 6kph. I'm very happy and pleased with how my training is going. Thanks Shape Magazine for an awesome training program.

On another note, I went to my second meeting at my club last night. They are putting on a race on 16 April, the Pro Sano 10km Challenge. I had NO IDEA how much WORK actually goes into putting on a race and the amount of club members and helpers it takes. When you go to a race, you just do your thing, but you don't think about what had to go on behind the scenes to make it all happen. Believe me, a LOT goes on behind the scenes for months in advance to make a sucessful race happen. It takes a lot of time and dedication on the part of the club who's hosting it. My hat off to all those who make it happen.

Today's challenge session and a new peanut butter biscuit recipe

Todays session: 20mins brisk walking - 15min jogging - 10min brisk walking. All done and dusted. I must say though, that the last 5mins of the 15mins jogging was pretty hard and my last 10min brisk walk wasn't all that brisk LOL but I DID IT!!!

Now, as promised to some of my friends, the new peanut butter biscuit recipe that I tried yesterday and declared VERY YUMMY!!! A word of warning though, its makes quite a lot of biscuits so if you only want a few, you might want to halve or quarter the recipe. What I like about this recipe, is that its quite healthy, because it has oats, coconut and cornflakes in it. When I try making it again, I might use all bran flakes instead of the cornflakes or even museli instead of the cornflakes. It might be nice with crunchy or honyey crunch peanut butter instead of smooth peanut butter too.

Peanut Butter Biscuits

250g butter/marge

500ml sugar

2 eggs, whisked

125ml smooth peanut butter

10ml bicarbonate of soda

25ml milk

5ml vanilla essence

500ml flour

500ml Jungle Oats instant

500ml coconut

500ml cornflakes

Preheat the oven to 180 deg C

1.       Cream butter and sugar

2.       Add whisked egg

3.       Add peanut butter and mix well

4.       Dissolve the bicarb in the milk. Add essence. Add to the butter mixture and blend well.

5.       Mix the rest of the ingredients. Add to the peanut butter mixture. Mix

6.       Form walnut-sized balls. Place on a greased baking tray and flatten slightly with a fork

7.       Bake or 10 – 15 mins until golden brown and done

8.       Turn out onto a cooling rack. Allow to cool and store in an airtight container.

MAKES APPROX 8 DOZEN BISCUITS

Another day of running and weekend boredom

Hmmm, didn't get around to doing yesterdays blog *sigh*. Yesterday,Week 5 day 1 now completed with no problems. Done on treadmill again because of wind.

Today is one of those days when I don't really feel like doing anything, but I'm so bored that I want to do something - I just don't know what. Sitting at home on weekends is very demotivating, especially if all you're gonna do is veg out in front of the mindless stuff thats on our tv (we don't have DSTV).

I actually feel like going out and taking photos, but I've been everywhere nearby that we can go to and I'm struggling to find new places without driving for hours (and using lots of expensive petrol *sigh*). I also need to 'get back to work' making stuff to sell from my business - luckily, I had an awesome idea of something to make as a gift for someone and so thats got me back into the swing of things :-)

While on the subject of my business, I am over and over again, blessed by all the wonderful people that my 'work' brings me in contact with. How lucky am I to be doing something I love that helps me support my family AND lets me meet great people all the time. http://www.serenehealing.co.za/

Oh well, hopefully something will come to mind that we can do to keep ourselves occupied today, otherwise its us and whatever boring stuff is on tv I guess.....

Facebook,the internet and the fickleness of human nature

Okay, I admit it, this is a bit of a rant as well as some musings on stuff.

The internet is great, but has big drawbacks. We can 'see' what people are saying but cannot 'see' them, so nuances in tone and voice and facial movements are lost. Someone can 'say' LOL but in actual fact be scowling as they 'say' it. It so easy to say things to other people all over the world and stories can spead as quick as wildfire, its a dangerous business.

Facebook (or any forums out there) are the same, they're wonderful, because we get to meet people from all over the world and communicate with them easily and instantly, but the same problems apply as mentioned above. Do you REALLY know who you are comminicating with??? The 16yr old boy that your 16yr old daughter is 'talking' to, could be a 65yr old paedophile - it can be really worrying.

Why is it, that people are so quick to just believe what they are being told about someone, if its something bad, especially if it is someone they're pretty sure they know. They won't go to that person and ask them about it.....NO, they'll just blindly believe it. They know the person isn't really like that, but what the hell.......

Also, people are quick to blame someone for doing something, but the next thing you know, they turn round and do exactly what they accused that someone else of doing - IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE - DOES IT!!!!

I like facebook, its a great way to meet some AWESOME people, but its also a way to see subtle indications that someone is speaking against you. eg: You suddenly notice that a certain person is no longer a friend of yours.....WHY? Then you start putting two and two together and figure someone has told them something that they just blindly believed. When the people doing the telling, are people that you care about (not blood family), then its very hurtful. You check here and you check there and some other things come to light........Ahhhhhh, the penny drops even more.....suddenly you are persona non gratia to some people and you can do nothing about it, because nobody will tell you to your face what is going on and they are not at all interested in the truth, because the fiction is so much jucier.

Truth or fiction - YOU decide................

Week 4 completed

Wow, the wind is howling today and I knew as soon as I woke up this morning that running outside wouldn't be an option *SIGH*. So it was me and my trusty treadmill for my day 3 of week 4.

In my opinion, there are pro's and con's in connection with the treadmill. On the plus side, I like the idea that I can 'see' the speed and distance that I do but on the negative side, I don't like the 'sealegs' feeling I get when I step off the treadmill after working on it. Also, working on the treadmill is really hot work, whereas outside you sometimes get a bit of a breeze to cool you down.

The funny thing about my treadmill is, that I actually bought it years ago with the intention of using it to get fit, but I never did, it just sat around gathering dust (as I'm sure a lot of exercise equiment does in a lot of other houses). Eventually I tried selling it and I'm now really glad that it didn't get sold.

BUT, I did do my final day of week 4 and it went off really well. In fact on each of the 'legs' of this session, I actually upped the speed, so my last stretch was done at a faster speed than the first stretch.

I'm thrilled with the progress that I'm making and to think that when I first started, I could barely run at all LOL Whats also great is that even though the sessions are getting more strenuous, I'm dealing with them easier. When I started off with this exercise junket in Jan, I was walking around the block - about 12 minutes exercise, now I can easily work for 40minutes. At this point, I could probably do more, but would rather stick to the schedule than risk getting injured and have to put everything on hold.

So 4 weeks down, 8 weeks to go :-)

Week 4 - Day 2

Today was - brisk walk 20mins - jog 10mins - brisk walk 10mins. All completed. I have to say though, that my sessions are getting more tough now and the sweat production is picking up, especially as I now can only get out at about 8am to do my sessions.

I'm still really enjoying the running, but I have to say being so HOT and SWEATY and STINKY after my session is not so much fun LOL Oh wait, sorry, I was always told by my mom that LADIES don't sweat, they glisten LOL well if thats the case then all I can say is that I must be glistening more than Edward (and if you don't know who I'm talking about - where have you been living?????) on a sunny day hehehe Oh, by the way, GO TEAM JACOB!!!!! Geez, talking about that, I wouldn't mind seeing Jacob all hot and sweaty *Carol dreams whistfully*  Okay, okay, enough with the perving now :-)

I'm really starting to get excited about my race in April, but also a bit nervous about it. I'm not nervous about finishing or anything, I know I'll do that, even if I walk some of the way, I'm more nervous about going the wrong way or something stupid like that LOL Oh and of course there is the dreaded "What if I need the loo on the way" problem - but we won't go there...That reminds me of a funny story I heard this weekend involving my two sil's (sister-in-law's) and a race hehehehe (Don't worry Glenda, your secret is safe with me :-)

Oh well, I guess now that my training is over I need to get on with the rest of my day. Have a good one peeps

New schedule

It was so hot on Friday night, that I couldn't sleep so I was thinking about the Spar Women's 10km and the fact that I wouldn't be able to finish my 10km training before I run it. I then had a bright idea - up till now, I have been doing training sessions on Mon/Wed/Fri and giving myself the weekends off, BUT, if I just do training every alternate day, then I can actually fit in an extra weeks training before the race :-) I decided that I was going to do that from today. So today is actually Day 1 of week 4.

Today was walk 5min, jog 8min - repeat X 3. I have to say, that the last 8min jogging stretch required a lot of willpower to get me through it, as I was jogging, I was chanting in my head "I can do this, I can do this". By hook or by crook, I was determined to not fall down on the job by not completing the session correctly. I'm very pleased to announce that the session was completed as designated by a very happy me. It was definately the most difficult session yet for me though.

Then, as I had only had a sandwich for supper last night and because I felt proud of the 'work' that I did, I treated myself to a lovely breakfast at the Fruit & Veg City where we did our veg shopping (hubby had breakfast too of course LOL).

I'm looking forward to Tuesday now so I can do the next leg of 'torture' LOL

Week 3 is now klaar, kuput, totally finished LOL

I was both looking forward to and just a lil bit dreading todays session, because it included a 10min stretch of running ( more correctly jogging I should say) and that is twice as much as I have done before so far in one stretch. I started out very excitedly, eagar to see if I could overcome the 10mins. I'm VERY, VERY proud to say, that I did overcome it and the last 5min stretch too, so day 3 of week 3 is now completed.

With my interest in running, came a lot of reading about running and all thing associate with it. I've come to the conclusion that us runners (and I include myself in that) are a rather weird bunch. We do some very weird things, like running 42kms (that won't be me at any time though), running in the most ungodly weather that ducks stay home in and some even run in the heat of the day (personally, I can't understand how that can put up with the heat) and a whole other assortement of things....

For instance, on my weekend away, I did a run - on a gravel road in the farmlands. I was more concerned about my (relatively) new asics getting dirty, than I was in looking at the beautiful scenery LOL

Another thing - those pavement oysters - Ewwwwww, GROSS. If you don't know what pavement oysters are, I don't think I even want to try and explain it, but suffice to say, a popular runners mag (Runners World) actually had an article in it explaining HOW to do such said offence. Apparently its quite common among runners, BUT, I'm not sure if I will ever be one of those types of runners, I think its totally gross and would much rather carry tissues with me *grimace*

Another article in said magazine, discussed when one becomes 'a runner' and one of the theories is that you only become a runner, when you have peed in your pants, on the run..........again EWWWWWWW, Thats another kind of runner that I DEFINATELY won't be becomming.

I can understand though that top road running athletes probably do both - in the interests of getting good times, but thank goodness I'm not a top athlete.

I've also learned that vaseline & sunblock can rapidly become my best friends, going with me to every race. Also a banana is good before a race and chocolate milk is good for recovery afterwards.

For the time being though, I'm VERY happy with the kind of runner I am and I'm feeling VERY proud of myself and what I've done so far and I'm really looking forward to continue on being a RUNNER!!!

Migraine, cancellations & dentist

I didn't have a great day today. I was supposed to do a distant Master Reiki attunement for someone at 9am and about 8.45am I started developing a migraine. I used to get them quite often YEARS ago, but haven't had one for ages. I waited a while in case I was mistaken, but I wasn't :( so I had to phone my student and postpone her attunement which didn't make me very happy.

Things developed quickly after that with blank spots in my vision and squiggly lines in the rest of it, then the nausea, garbled speech and wonky mind started with the headache shortly after that. I took two neurofen (I had no migraine medication cause I haven't had one in forever) asked my friends on FB and another forum to please send healing and thankfully many of them did, cause my youngest daughter had a dentist appointment at 11am and I had to go with her.

I went to sleep for a while, cause thats about all I can do when I get a migraine. By the time I had to take my daughter to the dentist, luckily some of the vision & mind/speech problems were over and just the nausea and headache was left - so I got to the dentist with her and back again okay.

I'm feeling pretty much okay now, just a bit out of sorts still though. I just hope it isn't going to affect my training session tomorrow.

Week 3 - Day 2, immunizations & parcel

40mins brisk walking - That was on the agenda for today and its been completed. Another day ticked off the list. Luckily it was a bit foggy/misty this morning, so at least part of my walk was done in the cool, but more than half of it was done in the heat yet again.

Before I did my walk, I went with my eldest daughter to take her 9 month old son to have his immunization. He had to have TWO injections, shame the poor lil guy, but he was very brave. The first injection obviously wasn't too bad, cause he cried for about 20 seconds, however, the second one must have been worse cause he cried quite a lot. I'm not sure who was crying more, him or my daughter. Shortly though, the crying was over and he was just like normal again.

Today was an awesome day for another reason....I collected a parcel from the Post Office which was some goodies that I ordered from a friend of mine http://www.facebook.com/reiki.by.bronwyn or http://www.reikibybronwyn.co.za/ (by the way, my details are http://www.serenehealing.co.za/ or http://www.facebook.com/reiki.by.bronwyn#!/pages/Carol-Ward-Spiritual-Advisor-Reiki-MasterTeacher/252858623666 )

In my parcel was a beautiful Goddess statue in earth colours with a Tigers Eye crystal in her belly, a wonderful Cosmic Guide Pendant and a beautiful pendulum all made with polymer clay.

Anyway, hopefully the weather will get a bit cooler in the day soon, cause I feel like I'm melting on a daily basis :-(