playing tour guide - and who said running was boring?!

Well this afternoon's run started out like many others...I really couldn't be bothered with it at all. Indeed, a nap before hitting the pub sounded like a much better idea. However I tricked myself into it by bringing my running gear to work and slipped as inconspicuously into them as is possible when you're parked in the middle of a carpark on a Saturday afternoon.

Sneakers on, Queen blasting through the head phones, I set off at a snail-like jog towards the railway station. After a km I'd had enough. My legs hurt. There was a lot of traffic (forgot the semi-final was on at the stadium tonight) and the brazen sunlight did nothing to hide the bouncing up and down of my substantial muffin top. Running is so much easier in the dark. At least then, the few people out can barely make out your silhouette and you can't see your ultimate destination far far far away in the distance.

I made a deal with myself that if I could make it just to the railway station non-stop then I could walk the rest of the way AND still deserve the sassy red or 3 I'll be ordering at the pub tonight.
Made it to the railway station. Stitch. Traffic light is a welcome rest. Then I notice a man next to me also in running gear. However he's turning a map around every which way and looks more than slightly confused. And so I pull out my headphones and ask if he needs any help.

He's in town for only one night and wanting a break from the hop off, see the sight, hop back on, see another sight, drag that is tour bus travel and thus wanted to see a bit of the city while pounding the pavement. I recommended he run around the waterfront to oriental bay and maybe up Mt Victoria since the view's spectacular up there on a day like today. I then assured him that I'm an exceptionally slow jogger and to go on ahead. However 200m later I caught him up after he's stopped for photos and we carry on around the waterfront together.

What a fun way to run. You barely notice the pain while you're chatting away to a complete stranger about travel and pointing out to him all the sights. We happened to stumble across the Canterbury (new navy ship) berthed at Queen's Wharf which was truely awesome to see (I'm a bit of a military geek - and no, it's not JUST about the men in uniform). Turns out this guy was involved in the british military and it showed. Not a shabby runner. And it did me a world of good trying to keep up with him.

At Waitangi Park we shook hands, exhanged names and ran off on our separate ways.
Think the big guy upstairs may be sick of my moaning about muffin tops, beer guts and excuses not to run - gave me no excuses but to do a proper work out this evening - damn him cashing in on my unwavering abiltiy to adopt pommy waifs and strays, anywhere, anytime.

5km non-stop (entirely running) - for the first time ever!

I just ran, for the first time ever, 5 kilometres without stopping. Without walking. And without cursing and hating every moment of it.

This suprised me, as my life recently has been leaning more towards the sedentary side. The slothenly side. Or to put it bluntly - I've been pretty darn lazy lately.

So it amazes me that one tub of orange chocolate chip icecream, a good few packets of bikkies, much lying in bed watching outrageous fortune dvds, and the odd walk to/from work = being able to run further than I've ever run before. This is definately my kind of training!

It would have been so easy not to go for a run after work when you finish at 4.30am. I knew this, and so I packed my running gear; walked to work so I had no alternative transport home; didn't carry an eftpos card or money in any form thus eliminating any other means of getting home, besides on foot; and told everyone at work that I was indeed intending to run home, and hoped like hell they would hold me to it.

I got the stitch before I even finished by 3 minute or so warm up walk across the carpark. Oh f**k I said to myself - this doesn't bode well at all! So I cranked up Queen on the ipod and set off - there's something about that music that just lifts you up. Well that and the way it's easy to keep running when every second lyric is reminding you of your own fat bottom. And though Queen don't seem to mind a cushy rump, I'm not convinced all men feel the same.

I know they say that you shouldn't run with your ipod in - particularly on dark streets in the middle of the night when there aren't too many others about - but hey, it's not really a choice is it - likelyhood of being attacked (I hope) is rather slim versus the likelyhood of going crazy/giving up/hating every moment of the run if I don't have bohemian rhapsody to rhapsodise to is 100% likely. Not a tough choice. Plus the music distracts me from all the other noises you don't notice during the day. Like those flags they hang from street lamps to advertise things. Those things flapping in the wind sound exactly like footsteps pounding down the pavement behind you (in the wellington wind, obviously). And the street lights casting shadows in every which way has me puzzling, in a more than slightly anxious way, whether that third silhouette is just another of mine, or of some creepy stalker with less than honorable intentions. So music it was, and shall be!

I set the goal of running at least the first 2 km. And then I could walk the rest. Those 2 km came and went and I wasn't dead. So, a bit like forrest, but minus the excessive facial hair, I just kept on running. All the way to my door.

So proud. And tired. Time for bed!

Raiding the pantry

My, it has been an exceptionally long time between posts. I wish I could say it's because I've been so busy out running every evening, doing crunchies every spare moment I get etc etc, but sadly no. Mainly it's been because I've been rather lazy, and when I have exercised it's not been that exciting that I could write anything about it other than, "I went for a jog/walk/toddle down to the pub today, got soaked by the rain, blown over by the wind, and it was not fun at all!".

Switching back and forward to night shifts hasn't helped much either - walked the 5km home in the rain at 4am once and got so many sermons about the dangers of this blah blah blah by some old codgers at work, that I decided it was for the greater good that I don't give them a coronary by letting them see me do this again...no...this week I'll sneak off home and NOT wear my fluorescent orange vest - in the interest of avoiding safety lectures, though possibly not the trucks that tear out of the port in the wee hours of the morning.

Things are going much better on the budget front. I've finished my christmas shopping already (new record, even for me!) and just have to post off a parcel to the motherland that will probably cost me more than all the other presents put together!

Also trying to save some money on groceries this month and while I'm at it, eat most of the contents of my pantry to save carting it to the new flat when I move (I'm lazy like that). So I did a bit of a stocktake of the cupboard, which suprisingly is nowhere near as bare as I remembered it being, and so with a bit of thought and a quick stop at the supermarket, should yield some much more exciting recipes than the cottage cheese and potato mash, potato wedges and french toast I've managed to rustle up in the last 2 days...

So on the menu this week we have...drum roll...

Humble pie (think cottage pie but with lentils and no meat)
Chickpeas cooked in tomato and coconut sauce
Carrot and coriander soup with croutons or garlic bread
and anzac bikkies (because I can)

And I need to buy only 6 things from the supermarket to make all that this week! Well 5 actually; the milk is just for tea - which I just cannot live without.

What I would do without my subscription to Healthy Food Guide, I have no idea!

Pretty boring post, sorry. But off to chop off my hair tomorrow, and if the weather's better, then a walk around the coast to follow...so something interesting may very well happen