The Windy City

Well thankfully Chicago didn't live up to its nickname on my run this morning because the wind combined with the cold would have done me in!

So far we have shopped along the magnificent mile, found a little jazz restaurant and did the 'Stopher Walking Tour' of Chicago (which basically means mum researched where we'd walked yesterday and then realised what we hadn't seen!).

Recommendations: eat at Bandera's. this was upstairs above a bank and we just happened across it. It was a really nice meal with a good atmosphere. They have live jazz on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Getting up to run this morning was a little weird as it was my first run over 12km without Karin. It was also still dark when my alarm went off at 6:30am! I discovered that bagels are an awesome pre-run meal (finally an excuse to eat bagels!) and that layers are no help at all in the cold!

Thanks to my 800 down Lululemon pullover my arms and torso were toasty warm once I got going. My ears were protected nicely by my head band but even with two layers (full length compressions and non-fleecy track pants) my legs were like frozen blocks of ice for most of the run! Anyone who says its only cold if you are standing still is lying! So see those who say the cold makes you go faster - it doesn't. It was a beautiful run despite the cold, and I'm glad I got out and did it. Running an extra 10km on Saturday will be interesting but the sun is supposed to be out!

The conference starts tomorrow which means no more sleep ins until New York next week! Looking forward to catching up with some friends from Uni who will be at the conference as they are studying in the US.

Waiting for news of my baby niece or nephew which should come any day now!

And we're off!

Well, 1 flight down and 2 to go!

A very early start this morning after only a few hours sleep meant I slept for most of the flight to Sydney. Now we're in the Qantas Lounge in Sydney having some lunch before our looooooong flight to Dallas this afternoon.

Highlight of the trip so far - the automatic pancake machine in Qantas Club Perth! What a great way to start the day. Now I'm relaxing with a glass of wine (so thankful to be off the antibiotics) and contemplating what to choose for lunch.

Looking forward to getting to Chicago and kinda looking forward to running in cooler weather - I just hope the 'windy city' doesn't live up to its name! Lots of posts coming in the next few weeks so I hope you enjoy!

Photos are:
1. Being being the 'embarrassing child' wearing my panda hat in QC Perth
2. Pancakes. Enough said.
3. Lunch in QC Sydney

Lesson 2

Considering I'm heading to Disney World for a marathon I think this is a pretty good quote! The next lesson I've learned is about the people who will come alongside you when you have a dream.

Lesson No. 2: Surround yourself with people who have your back. Remove yourself from those who don't.

I have an amazing group of friends, some closer than others but within the Perth Crew especially there are some phenomenal women who I'm so grateful to have had in my life over the past six months.

Natalie Campbell - my running partner since November 2011.
Nat and I have run a number of events together this year and while we always start together, the only event we finished together was the City to surf (which was spent on a golf cart!). When Petina got injured and had to pull out of the half marathon training course, Natalie just started doing my long runs with me!

Petina Weggelaar - my city to surf training partner
Petina and I signed up for the Half Marathon Training course run by The Running Centre and were so nervous before our first session! Our last long run together during the course (before I went to Greece and Petina got injured) was 10km which we managed to do while keeping up a nice conversation.

Karin Smith - there are no words...
Karin has been an AMAZING support for me, both in managing anxiety and just being there for my long runs. She will run at my pace and keep talking at me so that I keep running. I know that I will be able to re-run conversations in my head during my training sessions in the USA.

There are a number of other women who are just amazing but I can't mention them all in fear of forgetting someone!

But what about those who threaten to burst your bubble???

 

Source: sunshineandpearls.tumblr.com via Olivia on Pinterest

I believe that it is important to listen to the experts (such as my physio and coach at The Running Centre) but the people who are just negative about goals or dreams are not good people to spend time with. They drain your energy, motivation and willpower.

And finally,

Source: meggielynne.tumblr.com via Kristen on Pinterest

35 days and counting...

Disney World here I come!

In 35 days I'm going to be running my first marathon at Disney World in Florida. The past few months have proved to be very challenging with injury, illness and just 'stuff'. Along the way I have learnt a few important lessons that I wanted to share with you all over the next week.

Lesson 1: The voice in your head that says you can't do this is a lying slut.
In October I travelled to Melbourne for the Marathon weekend. I was originally supposed to be doing the half-marathon in preparation for the full marathon in January. However, for those who have read my blog before you will know that I was injured at the Perth City 2 Surf and so I was sidelined for awhile. The process coming back to running was much slower than I would have liked but I had amazing people supporting me along the way.

My amazing friend Karin was running her first marathon in Melbourne (you can read her story here) and she was struggling with anxiety in the week before so I put together a selection of pictures I found online for her. One that really resonated with both of us is this one:

The inner dialogue that goes on in my head when I'm running is ridiculous! In Melbourne, I was running the 5.7km event and even though I ran a PB I knew I could have gone faster. I was scared. Scared of injuring myself more than I had been or just completely failing. Logically, I knew I was in good condition to run, but the voice in my head doesn't deal in logic.

Anyway, the past two weeks have dealt me another blow to my training: an infection coming off a cold (which itself had me sleeping for 3 1/2 days) which had me being sent for chest x-rays and on antibiotics. Let's just say that the 18km run last weekend (before the visit to the doctor) wasn't pretty or much fun.

Yesterday was a big turning point for me. A 20km run in less time than the 18km took last weekend and a much better run than the Perth Half Marathon back in August. It was one of those great runs....for the first 10km. After that it got a little bit interesting, in part because of the voice and in part because I've been on antibiotics so was getting dehydrated - but at least this week I didn't have a coughing fit every time I had a drink!

So, I leave for the USA in 6 days. In those 6 days I have 3 training sessions (Wednesday being a 23km run), Graduation evening at school, my dad's final Speech night at his school followed by a retirement function, doctors appointments and my school Christmas lunch. So it's going to be a busy week to say the least!

My plan while I'm away is to blog my training sessions and 12WBT challenges - I won't have access to scales for 5 weeks so there are no weigh ins (just my trusty measuring tape) and I will be navigating my way through eating out for nearly every meal. I think the past year doing 12WBT has prepared me for this challenge and I'm looking forward to sharing it with all of you!

Zucchini Fritters...posted from the road

So Nat and I are sitting at Settlers Roadhouse on our way to Margaret River and we saw the cyclists on the Ride for Elliot.

As I've had requests since posting a picture at lunchtime, here is the recipe for my zucchini fritters.

Ingredients
100 g zucchini, grated
30 g grated cheese
30 g ham, sliced into thin strips
1 egg, lightly whisked

Directions
Mix together the ingredients and using egg rings on a fry pan coated with cooking spray, divide into four fritters.

Cook for 2-3 minutes per side on medium heat until golden brown.

Each fritter is approximately 52 calories.

A great big can of whoop-ass

That's right - I'm back! This week has been great in parts and frustrating in others BUT I have been reminded so many times that life is a gift and I want to celebrate that. I decided today (while running on the treadmill in spite of DOMS from my 80 pushups, squats and medicine ball sit ups yesterday) that I am going to OWN this round - I am opening up a great big can of whoop-ass so watch out!!!

This post is coming from my phone as I am drinking my coffee while cooking up pesto chicken for tomorrows lunch. I just put a challenge out to the NOR Perth crew girls to tell the group what they have done to set themselves up for success this week. For me, that includes being organised tonight so I can get up and train tomorrow morning before I start work at 7:30am.

So - here's the plan:
Organisation - make lunch and breakfast the night before so that I can get up at 5am to train.

Training - running intervals, butt exercises, two weights sessions

Planking challenge - starting at 30 seconds on my toes tonight, I'm going to try and add to that each day this week - even if it is only 1-2 seconds longer.

BALANCE - I need to leave work at work and not overload myself! I have my business to worry about at home and if it means I stay a little longer at work in order to not bring anything home then that is what I'll do.

This week is mini milestone week for all the 12WBTers and I don't know what I'll be doing yet - but I challenge you all to join in my planking challenge for the week and let me know how you go!

Life Happens...

Okay, so it has taken me a week to work up to this post. Mainly because I didn't know what to say about the funny little turn my life took last weekend.

Sunday morning was the Perth City to Surf and Nat and I had signed up for the Half Marathon. I had done the 10 week training course with The Running Centre and come through it fine, really enjoyed the course and didn't get injured. I ran in the Perth Half Marathon during this training time, and while it was a crappy run (I still haven't looked at my Garmin data for that run because I'm sure the last 6km have me getting slower and slower!) and I got rained on for 10km, I FINISHED. That was the goal that day.

Well, last weekend Nat and I had decided to finish the race together. We train together but when it comes to a fun run we generally run our own race and end up splitting up at some point. Well we did finish the race - but under some very amusing (and painful) circumstances.

As we approached the start line everything seemed to be fine but as soon as we started running I knew something was off...and then the pain came. My right glute and hip had an almost stabbing pain going through it and I had to stop running. At first I thought that I would be fine and I could walk it off, so we walked up the first hill (which was annoying because we had run it twice in one of our training sessions and didn't have any trouble getting to the top) and headed into Kings Park. I stopped to stretch a few times, tried running a bit but before we reached the 2km mark I wasn't even walking properly and I knew I had to stop. Nat, being the awesome friend that she is, made sure I wasn't just letting the head games get to me but this was the first run that I started that I knew my body wasn't able to finish.

This is where it gets funny. We found an ambo crew and had a chat with them and they decided the best thing would be to get to a physio. Because I couldn't walk (and we had stuff at the finish line in the bag drop) we got a lift in the 4WD following the last marathon runner with the ambulance and medic buggy. When I say marathon runner, I mean a fairly young guy who was walking most of the time. I felt a bit bad for him because every so often he would turn around and look at the three vehicles following him. We picked up another couple of passengers (one who looked devastated and another who complained the whole way how slow it was) and off we went.

Nat and I spent the trip in the 4WD playing words with friends (as you do) and every so often the driver would ask if anyone wanted to change vehicles into the bus that was following (I was in the front and it took so much effort to get into the car that I didn't want to try and get out) and finally when we got to Railway Parade we got told that another vehicle was coming to take us to the finish line, because they could get us there faster. It was a golf buggy. With no restraints on the backseat where Nat and I sat...so we just started laughing! It was a very funny trip from there to City Beach and we got to cheer and wave at a Perth Crew girl when we saw the shirt going up the last hill. Getting to the finish line, we were dropped off just before the line, so I ended up getting an email saying I could purchase the video of my finish...which was me hobbling across the line! I don't think I'll be spending $10 on that!

So what's next for me? In January I am running the Disney World Marathon which is having its 20th anniversary which is awesome. Starting at EPCOT, I will be running through all four theme parks - Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex and Disney's Hollywood Studios. Once I'm able to run (well, first I'll take walking without limping!) then I'll be back to training with my partner in crime, Nat in preparation for these events. Check out the course map below for the Disney marathon :)