TTFN

The only good thing about a 40-degree day is that washing dries almost instantly.

I hibernated inside once the temperature got to 30°C, and re-read a couple of "diet" books: "Fat or Fiction" by Donna Aston, and "Fattitude" by Craig Harper. I think perhaps that my currently lethargy is caused by not enough protein in my diet. I'm a pseudo-vegetarian - I don't cook meat at home, so I only have it in takeaways. Yeah - good quality stuff, haha. And I'm not dedicated enough to make sure I get enough non-animal proteins. Anyway, between the 2 books, I've roughed out a menu plan that has 5-6 small meals each day, with no processed crap. Now I just have to be ORGANISED and STICK TO IT. As Harper says, Finish what you start.

I also bought an iron supplement ("Floravital") which I took over the weekend, and will finish off when I get home again.

Weight	72.5 kg
Walk	22.9 kms
Run	5.4 kms
Cycle	0 kms

I'm off to visit family for a couple of weeks. I may or may not post while I'm away.

The Gang-Gangs are Back

What's a Gang-Gang?, I hear you ask. One of these...


(photo from last year)

I walked up to the shops this morning (for bananas), and heard familiar crunching sounds coming from the side of the road. Sure enough, a family of gang-gangs were eating berries on a tree low down by the road - completely unconcerned about me or the traffic that sped by.

Street-O @ Eltham Parklands

Warm, muggy night with thunderclouds overhead and lightning flashes in the distance. But the rain held off during the event, thankfully. I dithered badly at the start, heading up to #16, then changing my mind and heading back down again to #9. It made sense at the time.

Walking well through the rest of the hilly course, but lost a control at #2 - several of us were looking for it under a light pole, when Tina waltzes past and punches it. Oh, that light pole. Onwards and upwards with a last-minute gamble to #18 (a 5-pointer), but didn't make it back in time and lost 3 points for being 41 seconds late.

6.6 km in 9:24/km

As this is my last Street-O for a couple of weeks (I'm going on holiday), I said goodbye to a few people. Geoff asked if I'd been ill - yeah, sorta, I guess. He's a subtle/polite chap, so I put him out of his misery and admitted that yes, my running has been crap. He suggested that it might be low iron levels; apparently one of the A-Course girls had a similar slump in energy a few years ago, and it was traced to a low iron count. An interesting idea, and one that I might follow up when I get back. Along with eating better, and going to the gym, and... what was the other thing?

Also walked this morning, 5.2 km.

Street-O @ Mullauna

Score course tonight so I had 45 minutes to get as many controls as I could. I started off plodding like a lead brick and never really got out of plod mode. After 20 minutes (when I've usually warmed up and running well) I was starting to flag. Plotted a short route back to the finish, on the theory that if I went for #18 near the edge of the map, I was going to die in the arse and be late back. As it was, I came in 5 minutes early, so I probably could have got it.

5.4 km in 6:36/km

My RSVP date last night was okay - the guy is nearly 50yo, but he's an "old 50" rather than a "young 50". He's interesting, but he's an old man already (unlike some very cute 50yo's on CR!). Fit and active (he says), but about 30kg overweight. We went to the same secondary school FFS! Lived within walking distance of each other - twice. Sheesh... I know New Zealand is a small place, but.

See, that's the problem when Kiwis get together - all we talk about is where we lived and who we know!

Spent a couple of hours this morning shovelling the mulch that was delivered yesterday. One of my neighbours came over to see what progress I'd made, and offered his services as a renovation jack-of-all-trades for $20/hr. Hell, yes! Got a sledgehammer?! He's also a building inspector and a qualified carpenter, so I can make good use of him. :-)

Dead Ant...

There are dozens of dead ants all over my table... charming. But hey, they're dead!

No playing in the garden today - I have some mulch being delivered (for the herb and drystone gardens) but I have an RSVP date tonight, so won't be shovelling anything until tomorrow.

Walk this morning, 5.3 km

An Ant's Life

There are ants in my study again. But they're all swarming around the ant bait that I put on the desk last time, and they appear to have left the laptop alone. So I'm resisting the urge to squash them while the bait does its work. Die, little bastards, die...

Walk this morning, 5.8 km.

I skipped Street-O again tonight, and spent a couple of hours shovelling a cube of newly-delivered topsoil into the vege garden, topping up the drystone garden, and sculpting the herb patch.

Another Quiet One

I didn't run or cycle this weekend; instead I read a lot (Snare, by Katherine Kerr) , finished the drystone wall, and prepped the walkway and a herb garden for mulch.

The backs of my legs are really stiff - I guess from all the digging and lifting I've done. I really need to get back into yoga. And weights. And more cardio. And to stop eating takeaways in front of The Biggest Loser. :-)

Weight	72.0 kg
Walk	22.9 kms
Run	9.47 kms
Cycle	0 kms

Ewen, they've been selling easter eggs since Christmas!

Street-O @ Bulleen

Power Walk: good energy (see, pizza works!), striding up the hills with no problems; even had time for a last-minute dash to #4.

6.8 km in 8:56/km

I'm tempted to go for a run tomorrow morning "just to see"... but that wouldn't be giving myself a week off now, would it.

Mmmmm, pizza

I didn't go to Street-O last night; instead I curled up in front of The Biggest Loser with pizza and FOUR chocolate easter eggs.

Walk this morning, 5.1 km. Feeling slightly more energetic.

Wednesday

Scheduled appointment with the Myo last night. The body is looking good (his words!). We discussed my meltdown on Monday, and decided it was either diet or a virus. I'm going with the virus theory as I certainly consume enough calories!

We decided that I should take a week off running, and then to design a program which included weights and yoga (I told him about my gym idea too). "Program?" Hah... yeah, I've heard of those. Anyway, I'm going to leave it until I get back from my holiday later this month.

Walk this morning - 5.8 km. I wasn't working very fast but I felt weary once I got back home. Not sure what to do about tonight's Street-O yet.

Street-O @ Mulgrave Heights

Complete crap. I made it though maybe the first 5 km, then suffered a meltdown. No energy; sweating buckets; and couldn't run for more than 500m before gasping to a halt. WeatherZone tells me it was 27 degrees in Mulgrave, but still...

9.5 km in 6:53/km

I'm wondering if I need a break from running, or whether I need to do more other stuff. I was flicking through my running log recently (the exercise book, not the blog) adding up previous year's mileages, and couldn't help but notice that I used to do Pump and Yoga classes, and I was running well. Coincidence?

The 2-month Special at the local Lilydale gym has long since expired, but it's still a cheap gym. I picked up a class timetable today, and there are classes I could do at 10:45 every morning. Hmmm, work from home until then, take a class, then head into the office. Do-able, I think. I'd be there with all the yummy mummies, judging by the hoard of 4WD monsters in the carpark.

There are f---ing ANTS in my laptop!

My house has been overrun by ants. They appear in the kitchen whenever I'm a bit slack in keeping the bench clear. Fair enough, I suppose. I have laid out more ant baits than I can count, and I squash the little bastards whenever I see one.

The other day, there was a trail of them marching across the bathroom window sill. So I drowned them.

And now, they're in the office - INSIDE my laptop! As I start to type, they come scurrying out from somewhere beneath the keyboard. I've squashed about a hundred in just a few minutes. I watched one run round and round the serial port at the back, and I can see them running around under the keys. It's not like it's cold or anything, so what's the interest in my computer FFS?! (and no, I've never spilt Coke on the keyboard)

Apart from the Ant Wars, I had a quiet weekend. I had one of my headaches on Friday which I kept at bay with drugs. It was no better on Saturday, and without the drugs I felt quite nauseous and dizzy just moving around. After attempting to sweat it out by shovelling mulch for an hour, I retired inside, and alternated between snoozing on the bed and the beanbag.

I assumed it might have been dehydration from Thursday's hot run, especially as my throat was constantly dry and whatever I drank just passed straight through, barely touching the sides. (skip to the next paragraph if you don't want to read about bodily functions...) But late Saturday evening, I passed a particularly vile bowel motion. Really black and smelling acrid and poisonous. About 10 minutes later the headache was gone.

So I don't know if it was something I ate recently, or something detoxing itself from my body. Either way, better out than in, and I'm just relieved to get my head back.

I was alert enough on Sunday to start a drystone wall along the east fence. The bottom of the fence is about 2 ft higher than my ground level where it runs along the house, and there's an ugly clay bank making up the difference. I want to put various mint plants in there, and it needs something to hold the dirt in. After pricing up various "professional" options, I decided to DIY it and recycle the rocks that have been accumulating in a pile at the bottom of the garden. I got about half done before the heat sent me inside.

Weight	71.7 kgs
Walk	0 kms
Run	12.9 kms
Cycle	0 kms

lazy week!

Street-O @ Greensborough

Another hilly run – seems to be the theme this week. I decided to run tonight, instead of walking, as I missed my run last night. I had many second thoughts on the way around, but managed to run a fair chunk of it – giving my quads another thrashing on the downhills. Uphills were walked/climbed, accompanied by gasping and silent cursing.

David had set an interesting course on this map with a tight cluster of controls in the park areas and making good use of the myriad of walkways in the area. The rough track from #8 to #14 was a real killer. Thanks David! *waves*

5.5 km

And if I’d read the map a bit better (twice) I could have saved myself some contours and got back earlier. Never mind – hopefully there’ll be some flat areas in the schedule next week.

edit: I got last!! oh dear...