Getting in a chocolate mood...

I had a wonderful sleep in today. I usually have Fridays off but to be able to sleep in on this  public holiday was just what I needed.

It has been very quiet around here so I ironed, washed, cleaned and baked.

I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies for Easter using these new (for us) caramel flavoured chocolate chips.

I thought they would be more of a caramel colour

They are a bit different but still very yummy.

The Big Run...

Yesterday finally the day of the big run came.

The day we had been training for, working towards, planning and been consumed by.

It was a perfect morning for a race but with 35,000 competitors it was very busy. It was a bit hard to fully appreciate the views as we negotiated our way through the course. The sea of bobbing bodies in front of us was quite mesmorising.

Our Garmin watches couldn't quite cope with the tunnel under the river so I'm not sure of the accuracy of its timing. Mine said I only did 14.59k in 1:43:34. I will check it against the timing tag when those results are published.



I only feel a little sore in the hip flexors today and a swim this morning was a great way to iron out the kinks. I was pretty wiped out last night and fell asleep on the couch watching TV. Running Buddy went back into the city to watch her Iron Man brother finish his Iron Man competition in St Kilda. His race took just 12 hours to complete, he deserves a sleep in today!

Now what will be the next goal???

Last minute training...

The weather has turned making training runs a bit easier and while we wished for cooler weather with it came the rain.

Running buddy has never run in the rain. I have but prefer not to. It is much cooler when it is raining but when your feet are wet and the rain is in your eyes it's not much fun. The Run 4 Kids is next Sunday and we had to get in one last long run in preparation. Yesterday the clouds loomed and she had doubts, I asked her what will she do if it is raining on race day. So we went on a half planned 13 km run which turned into 14.7k by the time we got home.

Dumping rain fell just as we assembled and studied the clouds. We went anyway and got wet along the way but we survived, we ran a long way and now Running Buddy has a wet one under her belt. She didn't give in and now knows we can do it in any conditions.

I am a bit sore in the hips today and am hoping for a massage. My yoga instructor uses foam rollers to work out those sore spots, I might have to improvise with a rolling pin or something. After the crappy run last week I went out and bought new shoes. The old ones had no tread left on the ball part and definitely needed replacing, two years of pounding the pavement was good value in the end. My new New Balance feel wonderful and will see me over the finish line well.

Happy St Patricks Day everyone, not that we celebrate it particularly, but we will be tinking of Duncan and his Irish band fiddling tunes and jigs in 4 gigs in Brisvagas and the Gold Coast this weekend.

Hot day with New York style...

Today did not start out well.

Our running group had decided to do our run at 9am before it got too hot. As our record breaking stretch of hot weather and hot nights continues, it wasn't that cool even in the morning. We had planned to do 12km in preparation for the Kids run which is just 2 weeks away, but after about 4km I hit a wall. Figuratively not literally. I was overheated, super sweaty, thirsty and a bit nauseated. The others kept plugging away at the hill but I caved in to the internal voices telling me  I couldn't go on.

I tried, after a walk break, to keep running but the remaining 5 km were not pretty. Each running step reinforced how miserable I felt. I came home feeling pretty despondant about todays effort.

The afternoon was much more pleasant as Hayley & I ventured over to Chadstone Shopping Centre to see the New York Style Exhibition. Some of the dresses from Sex & the City are on display and Hayley knowing how much I loved the fashion from the show suggested we go and have a look. We enjoyed the display and each picked a different favourite.

A troop around the shops and a nice lunch topped off a really nice outing.


 

An idiot...

Chris has been chuckling at this series on DVD which we got him for his birthday

I just have to find the 3rd series for him to keep him laffing...

February is gone...

and March is marching on with a monotonous sameness that in some ways is reassurring and repetitive.

Hot weather is interspersed with rain, washing out our opportunity to play tennis and giving us another chance to talk it over.

Work goes ahead daily with the same treatments on different faces.

Even an event like the Zoo run or Chris's birthday barely break the routine.

I need something to really spark things up around here...

but I am quite content without any drama thank you very much.

It's a good life albeit a quiet one.

Busy being active...

Tennis is back on with a vengeance, I've been playing 3 or 4 times a week. Poor Chris has become a sport widow and doesn't he just love hearing about good/bad runs & splits and the miss hits and winning shots!!!

Monday nights is Ladies Doubles and I am in a team called the 'Hippos' but those other zoo animal named teams can smirk all they like we are on top of the ladder. I'm playing as a number 2 and our team is strong. The evenings have been beautiful, balmy and pleasant. The setting sun is a problem til about 8pm but after that there is no advantage on either end. Some of the older courts have bull ants on them, this keeps you on your toes, the coach is happy we are not standing flat footed!

Thursday nights the Mixed Double comp is played and last night was the first night they needed a fill in. We played in a thunderstorm watching the lightning around us. The storm skirted around the Marsh so we played on dodging the fat drops of rain. By the end of the first set we were soaked in a mixture of rain and sweat. The humid stormy weather did little to cool us off and we weren't deterred by the rain or the lightning. At one point I was trying to serve and had the setting sun and rain blinding me.

Friday mornings is Cardio Tennis, a mixture of a cardio workout with tennis drills. I am getting lots of pointers from the coach and I think it is really helping my game. Burning off 400 odd calories is a bonus. Down side to all this tennis is my forearm has started to ache and I really noticed the soreness when carrying the groceries. I will have to start wearing my tennis elbow strap again.

I told Chris I wouldn't play Saturday being the 4th time this week but they are short & need another player. Saturdays are a lot of fun, being very social. I am making new friends and enjoying the welcoming atmosphere.

Training for the Kids Run is coming along nicely but we struggle sometimes in this hot humid weather. Even when the  thundery clouds roll in in the afternoons, the temperature doesn't drop much and it takes a lot of effort. Wednesday night we  ran at the Melbourne Zoo at 715pm.

Running Buddy and I went into Melbourne to run in a twilight race. Not really a fun run as there were many runners there who were out for a PB time. Originally advertised as 8km around and through the Zoo, the course was shortened to 7.2km because of the Meerkat exhibit works. Buddy and I ran a great time for us. The course was hilly, shady and just beautiful.

We've learned that our Pharmacist is also a competitive runner and she met us at the start but then sprinted off on her long legs bettering our time by 9 minutes! We've been comparing Garmin times & encouraging each other with our training.

The selfies aren't getting any better, not like the running!

Hot report...

Normally when the weather is hot for days on end, like it has been this February, I hibernate in a cool place, draw the shades and only venture from one air conditioned place to the next. But I have been venturing out, running, playing tennis and the like. I am tolerating the heat much better this year, its not like me at all.
I have been furtively looking to the cloudy thundery skies for rain but it has been as dry as dry.

And yet I am calm.

Busy with life and exercising and working and not much blogging.

I was reminded today that 30 years ago on this day that a huge dust storm rolled over Melbourne on a 43 degree day.

I remember sitting up in a classroom on the third floor of the Alfred Hospital School of Nursing as a brand new nursing student, watching in horror & amazement as the dark cloud darkened the sky.

 

 

 

It was both amazing and frightening at the same time.

A week later the state was ravaged by the Ash Wednesday fires.

This reminder sparked the 'where were you when the dust storm hit' conversation. Chris remembers that he was working at RSA in Sth Melbourne on that afternoon.

Where were you? Do you remember that day?

So there it is, another anniversary. 30 years since I was one of these students embarking on a career in nursing. I wonder how many of group 1/83B are still nursing. I only know of 2 others from this snap for sure.

We certainly don't dress like this any more and all of us don't look like this either.

Run...

squeezed in a 10km run this afternoon & am trying to link this with the Garmin



and reminiscing over this photo