5 Sleeps to Chrissy and a dreadful 5k

Christmas Day falling on a Tuesday seems perfect in the office world especially when an extra day will almost be definitely off.  It's rather typical to close the office for a week in almost all offices here.  An enforced holiday period and folks are already winding down at least 2 weeks before.  State schools are finishing this week whereas private and independent schools ended their terms on the first December week.  Mine are just hibernating for a while homewise as I've started on a bit of part-time work since last month.  Pays pittance but it's distracting.  Since I 'retired' from office work for almost 9 years, it is never easy to get back to work force especially in my 40s and with the work economy on a slide.

In any case, let's focus on the positive side of the festive season.  There's gonna be a bit of Christmas parties happening here.  Saturday is the club's party and I haven't decided if I should go.  Sunday is a big music night with a party for the old and young kids www.musicinyouth.com

Eve will be delighting in a little gourmet feast for the kids.  Baby back ribs, swedish meatballs, apple strudel and icecream.

Christmas morning starts with an easy run at Jells with a couple of runners then I'll be heading to an arvo party at a friend's place with a 25m heated pool to indulge.  Weather forecasted for that day is 20deg so the barbie is going to be a little cool. 

I may pop into Myer on Boxing Day to get an item which I hope will be on sale.  

My Tuesday's 5k handicapped run was awfully slow at 25.25mins.  Damn the long gradients to and back which I started a bit too fast trying to keep up with Kathy who did a 22mins.  Too fast too soon.  Having said that, I'm so happy to see the end of the summer 5k.  Another scheduled is in winter.  The 2 big 5k trials for our weekday group.

Brought my specialty - curried egg sandwiches - for the party do after the run.  A long table of feasting and some catching up with other runners. With long daylight, many of us didn't leave till about 9pm with a bellyful of yummos.

Summer and Christmas Ho Hum

The build-up to Chrissie is just about the only thing folks are so much drawn to.  Gone are the days when you get blasted with Christmas jingles and songs all through the malls and radio.  I'm still counting with my fingers the number of Christmas songs I hear when shopping.  The caveat is I do not shop much.  Fair enough. Spending a bit more time on the road with the radio didn't keep me in the Christmas mood.  Seems like the festivity of Christimas has paled this year.  Or that I'm just not exactly in the celebratory mood.  

The whole of last summer was spent outside of Melbourne with the best being a Parisian Christmas and New Year.  What more can one ask ?

Had a great ride on the Ducati yesterday morning, in time to avoid the searing 37C heat at its peak in the arvo.  Wearing leather at 28C was still as comfortably warm to Warburton and at the same time, the adductors had a great workout.  Hot days are the best bike days on country roads.  

Ran a lazy 11k this perfectly cool and sunny morning with bestie.  Chatted bits more than noticed the pace we're in.  Did 5 laps while catching up with her adventures on The Ghan from Adelaide to Darwin.  Two nights of luxurious buffet speads, the cardinal sin of any calories watcher, she ate more than she would seriously wanted to.  Payback time is working out with more running and pump classes to keep the flab in check.

Signed up (finally!) for the King Island 32K handicapped race in March just to keep the Early Bird fee.  Another confirmed event is Lorne's Mountain to Surf in mid January.  The world's biggest open water swim is also being held the same weekend.  It's the busiest summer event in this coastal town, next being the Great Ocean Road Marathon in May talking of which my running mates have all booked their accommodation which is the first to go months in advance.

With just the wind as your friend

Awesome Owlet

Miss Owlet has once again surpassed her academic expectations when I received the letter from the school weeks before the awards night on Monday.  Her first year in high school saw her comfortably adjusted to the new environment and making new friends in addition to upping her academic pace.

She never knew what the award was for and underplayed the importance with her reluctance to attend. Until that very night, we were kept in suspense and when she sauntered up the stage with the rest of the recipients, she might have then realised the significance of the night.  It was like a school Oscar night without the glam and blink blink.

Miss Owlet has and will be growing into a wonderful unassuming young woman in this school environment where she excels.  We're happy to have made the right single-sex school choice.

Brumby Run 2012

Brumby Run is named after the horse that the host runners have in their stable of 5 horses.  I was quite eager to run the half marathon distance this year with the fantastic dry weather.  Last year's inaugural run was reduced to a mere 10k due to the creek flooding.

Feeding the Rosellas before heading out.

This is one run that no money can buy as the start is just in the bush valley where their property sits.  In the six years they have lived there, Bruce reckoned he has 84 trees fallen into his multi-acred land.  That's how I reckon he's gotten those muscular arms!  

The property sits on the left lower edge of the RJ Chambers Fauna reserve.  

There were 4 drinks and gummies stops either at bus stops or at a corner of a property.  As remote as the run was, no one will give a second look at the drinks and food left unattended.  That's one of the many luxuries in the bush.  Of course not to be confused with leaving food stuff in the native animals vicinity.  The sugar fixes helped powered my legs up those treacherous gradients.  I surprised myself with overcoming the long hills after so many hilly runs for months before.  The fruits are just bearing well.  Absolutely delighted with my form.

The runners were all rewarded with a good spread of brekkie of sorts.  Excellent homemade swiss bircher muesli (with and without nuts), platters of fruits, homemade raspberry white choc muffins, American cheese eggs, gingerbread, asparagus broccoli quiche, leek and chives quiche.  No junk food other than the chocolates for dessert.

I'm already looking forward to next Brumby run and it wasn't the food.
Brumby Photos

Spring of 2012

This Spring has eroded my body system with hay fever symptoms, runny nose, itchy eyes and palate.  Unusual is these annoying moments tend to stay away when I'm running.  

It's an odd feeling that I know something is not right about my internal system while running on Saturday.  The darn thing was that Linda and Sam rode up the hills so easily when I could swiftly catch up on downhills.  For one, Linda nursed her bad cold a week before marathon and Sam was crook with his injured calf.  Me..?! I was absolutely injury free and running like Hell's Angel.  Still I know I was not strong.

Had a call from the chiropractor's yesterday about making it there in 15mins!  Of course I flew at the chance since my appointment was not until 16th.  Mainly to see my crook big toe.  It was painful when I cocked it out and had been bearing with this for months.  Sometimes, I don't get bothered checking it out till it was painful during some act of motions.

And Yes, the phalange was twisted on top and bottom in different directions.  It must have been one of those moments when I kicked into some solid object unknowingly and brushed the incident aside.  She fixed that quickly.  I am all good again!

And whilst there, I shared my body 'heaviness' feeling with her as she's also a kinesiologist.  Checked all connected parts and finally found my ileocaecal valves were acting up.  These are connectors from big to small intestines.  Instead of 'open and close' action, one valve was opened and the other was closed.  My digestive system was going funny though I might not felt the full impact, these were slowly affecting other areas.  I couldn't tilt my head left without feeling the whole world is moving.  And when I lay on the bed, the head was like a ton crashing onto the pillow.  There were also other related symptoms, such as heavy legs, etc.

I must lay off spicy food, coffee/tea for a week.  Damn, can't remember the other two.

This is my long explanation of my speed lagging behind the two runners.

My first hay fever in 4 springs and I think I fared very well!

Temperature today is 30deg and my evening training session has just been changed by coach late last night to running in the shade.  800m x 6  

The heat of 30deg doesn't feel as hot in Asia as here due to the low humidity.  I'm usually thirsty by the end of a warm up!  Thank goodness there are taps in the park.  

After today and tomorrow's 30s, the mercury is dipping to teens again.  This is what Melbourne Spring is about, never know what we're getting.  And I like the unpredictability of the mercury as I'm just like one.  I spring to do one thing and may not touch another for a while.  Another runner mentioned that we are pre-determined to weather a particular season better.  She was born in July thus, summer is never her liking being too hot.  I'm in September, I'm cool.... haha.

Happy As

After weeks of mind-curdling freeze, I finally got this working and the blog exportation from Multiply.  Just happy to be blogging again except that the photo albums are still sitting in Multiply.  Darn!  They have to be copied or brought over individually and I have no idea now what to do.  

Anyway, words are my creative craft so they do mean more than graphics.

Blog soon....