You would think that a nice long week off work would result in a lot of running and maybe some swimming or cycling or other fun fun outdoor active activities.
Scratch that. I knew what this week would involve. Food, computer games, lots of movies and not a lot of moving at all. And maybe some baking. So I guess this has been a successful holiday, because that’s what I’ve been doing.
I have been intending to get out there and do some running for the last couple of mornings. Sunday was Christmas, so I gave myself the day off. Monday was Boxing Day, a day of dubious purpose to be sure, but I didn’t think it involved running. Tuesday, I think I may have had a late night. Wednesday, pretty much the same. I set my alarm for 5am, but I couldn’t manage to drag myself out of bed until half past, and then I had a stomachache. Thursday morning I only got home at just before 1am, so waking up four hours later didn’t appeal to me.
Today, I got up at 6am. Finally managed to get out there on the road. It was a gorgeous morning, not a cloud in the sky. I didn’t even negotiate with myself the way I usually do, like “Maybe you can just run TO the lake, and if you don’t feel like running around it, you can turn up College Street. At least that’s six kilometres. If you just do one lap around Gininderra, hey, that’s fourteen kilometres. Even better! Maybe if you feel okay after that, you can press on for the half.” I just went for it, and even though it wasn’t an easy one later on (I was really hurting by the 18k mark) I managed to get home in 2 hours, 11 minutes.
This is a massive win, because my half marathon personal best is 2 hours 16 minutes or thereabouts. Five minutes off my PB, and I wasn’t going particularly fast.
Happyface.
I fell asleep as soon as I came home, though. It was pretty warm out there, and I sorta crashed as soon as I came in the door. The tendons at the back of my ankles are really tight right now. I think I should start stretching.
Should I make that one of my new year’s resolutions? I need to stretch more.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
You spin me right round baby, right round
Helluva crazy weekend. I really wanted to manage 21 kilometres on Saturday, and I did. So I win. Hooray! These long runs are really starting to screw me around, though. I get low blood sugar, I eat more sugar to literally keep myself awake, I get a headache, I crash, I fall asleep in the middle of the day... After yesterday’s run, I wasn’t much good for the rest of the day. Irritable. Unable to focus. I’m thinking there might be a diet issue, but I have no idea what it is.
So when I was running, I was trying to get Siri to play me some music. Exchange follows:
Me: Play my marathon endurance playlist.
Siri: (long pause) I’m sorry Cupcake, I didn’t catch that.
Me: Play my marathon endurance playlist.
Siri: (even longer pause) You don’t have a playlist named ‘Maritime Insurance’, Cupcake.
See, I made Siri call me Cupcake. It sounds so condescending when she says it in her little robot-y voice. I tried to get her to call me ‘asshat’, but she just paused for a moment and said “Could you please repeat that, Cupcake?”
I got cranky today for a variety of reasons, and rather than sit in my room and wallow in my shitty mood I put some clothes on, strapped on my running shoes and went out for a six kilometre jog. It kind of helped. Apart from the fact that I ate a whole bunch of fruit before I went running, and that didn’t do my stomach any favours.
One more week of work and then we’re shutting down over the Christmas holidays. Looking forward to a bit of a break.
So when I was running, I was trying to get Siri to play me some music. Exchange follows:
Me: Play my marathon endurance playlist.
Siri: (long pause) I’m sorry Cupcake, I didn’t catch that.
Me: Play my marathon endurance playlist.
Siri: (even longer pause) You don’t have a playlist named ‘Maritime Insurance’, Cupcake.
See, I made Siri call me Cupcake. It sounds so condescending when she says it in her little robot-y voice. I tried to get her to call me ‘asshat’, but she just paused for a moment and said “Could you please repeat that, Cupcake?”
I got cranky today for a variety of reasons, and rather than sit in my room and wallow in my shitty mood I put some clothes on, strapped on my running shoes and went out for a six kilometre jog. It kind of helped. Apart from the fact that I ate a whole bunch of fruit before I went running, and that didn’t do my stomach any favours.
One more week of work and then we’re shutting down over the Christmas holidays. Looking forward to a bit of a break.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
I know she's my PA but I get the feeling that Siri hates me.
Just going to be a quick post this morning because I got up late, took a run for almost two hours and now I’ve got to go to a dance class. Yeah, after a 16.5km run. THAT’S AN AWESOME IDEA. You would have thought I’d learned my lesson after the swimming debacle last month. I’m expecting some agony. But if I didn’t take any risks, I’d never get anywhere.
It was a nice run this morning. The weather seemed a little cool to begin with but I figured it wouldn’t be a problem... Until I saw that I was running toward a wall of ominous black clouds. Within a few minutes, it was raining pretty heavily. I got paranoid that taking my iPhone out of my bumbag would result in a dead iPhone 4s and a really unhappy me, as water damage isn’t covered under the warranty. I laboured under my hastily chosen music playlist for about five or six kilometres, before I remembered Siri. Now, I’ve had a bad history with Siri because she never seems to understand a word I say. I still keep trying because apparently she’s supposed to learn and improve over time. We’ve come to blows in the past because she flatly refuses to play Eye of the Tiger. Every time I ask, she plays the Black Eyed Peas. I don’t question why, although I do question why there’s a Black Eyed Peas song on my iPhone. I just figure that she hates me and this is her attempt at defiance.
Today Siri was behaving, at least to begin with. I’d ask her for some Bush, or Queen, or Talking Heads, and she’d play it. I’d say “Play my newest junk.”, and she’d play my newest junk. After a while, I think the microphone may have gotten a little wet, because I was trying to get her to play some Foo Fighters and she just wouldn’t do it. She said “I’m sorry, I don’t understand semicolon hash A four...” etc. I’m not sure exactly what it was she said, as I cut her off mid-sentence, but it certainly didn’t have anything to do with the Foo Fighters. There was nobody around at the time to see me running along at full steam, screaming PLAY! FOO! FIGHTERS! seemingly to myself. That’s a good thing. Ah, technology.
So the Cadbury Half is only four weeks away, give or take. I really wanted to do 21km this morning, but I slept through my alarm and I can’t miss the dress rehearsal today for the ball performance. I haven’t been training all that well (as evidenced by my lack of bloggage) but I think I’m in good shape for the half marathon all the same. I’m really looking forward to it. New scenery, as I’ve never been to Tasmania. I ran to work one and a half times over the last three weeks (second time I had to give up halfway as I messed up my knee. No lasting damage, though). So yeah, all in all, things are going to be fine. Positivity!
Man, I wish I was somewhere else right now. Somewhere warmer. With an ocean, and sand.
It was a nice run this morning. The weather seemed a little cool to begin with but I figured it wouldn’t be a problem... Until I saw that I was running toward a wall of ominous black clouds. Within a few minutes, it was raining pretty heavily. I got paranoid that taking my iPhone out of my bumbag would result in a dead iPhone 4s and a really unhappy me, as water damage isn’t covered under the warranty. I laboured under my hastily chosen music playlist for about five or six kilometres, before I remembered Siri. Now, I’ve had a bad history with Siri because she never seems to understand a word I say. I still keep trying because apparently she’s supposed to learn and improve over time. We’ve come to blows in the past because she flatly refuses to play Eye of the Tiger. Every time I ask, she plays the Black Eyed Peas. I don’t question why, although I do question why there’s a Black Eyed Peas song on my iPhone. I just figure that she hates me and this is her attempt at defiance.
Today Siri was behaving, at least to begin with. I’d ask her for some Bush, or Queen, or Talking Heads, and she’d play it. I’d say “Play my newest junk.”, and she’d play my newest junk. After a while, I think the microphone may have gotten a little wet, because I was trying to get her to play some Foo Fighters and she just wouldn’t do it. She said “I’m sorry, I don’t understand semicolon hash A four...” etc. I’m not sure exactly what it was she said, as I cut her off mid-sentence, but it certainly didn’t have anything to do with the Foo Fighters. There was nobody around at the time to see me running along at full steam, screaming PLAY! FOO! FIGHTERS! seemingly to myself. That’s a good thing. Ah, technology.
So the Cadbury Half is only four weeks away, give or take. I really wanted to do 21km this morning, but I slept through my alarm and I can’t miss the dress rehearsal today for the ball performance. I haven’t been training all that well (as evidenced by my lack of bloggage) but I think I’m in good shape for the half marathon all the same. I’m really looking forward to it. New scenery, as I’ve never been to Tasmania. I ran to work one and a half times over the last three weeks (second time I had to give up halfway as I messed up my knee. No lasting damage, though). So yeah, all in all, things are going to be fine. Positivity!
Man, I wish I was somewhere else right now. Somewhere warmer. With an ocean, and sand.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)