So, it seems if you hang around the streets of Glenbrook long enough, your health care professional will turn up out of the blue, and you can get a consult in the street, free of charge, no medicare card required, and there's not that two hour wait in the surgery....

Well, as luck would have it I bumped into Dr Norm today who had a feel of my cheekbone.  And he recommended Hirudoid for it.  Hirudoid - which is manufactured for haemorrhoids.  Noice.  He tells me I have a haematoma there and if I don't do something about it, I will have it for ever.  I came home and had a good look at it in the mirror and have realised I also have a dent in my face there now, and a strange black mark.  I don't want to have lumps, bumps and holes in my face for ever!!


I also hate my hair.  Why oh why did I get it cut?  I now cannot tie it back and look like a total moron when I am out running with hair going everywhere.  And to top it all off, I am covered in zits.  So zitty face, crappy hair and lumpy bumpy face - it all adds up to rather depressing really.  I have been looking at hats as a means of disguising hair (and zitty forehead).  


However, running has been ok.  Monday I tried to kick off the week with a speed session.  I know feck all about speed sessions though.  So I just ran really fast until I couldn't run any more.  Then I had to walk a bit.  Then I decided rather than run like the clappers for a few minutes and then die on my arse, it would be better to try and maintain a pace I could hold on to, so I did this, admittedly I did speed up on the last km, I was secretly hoping to better any previous times.  I don't really enjoy that kind of running, when you finish feeling like spewing,  but I guess I am not going to get faster by plodding along at my dire speed.  


Tues and Wed were busy due to impending Board meeting, and I just need to accept that there are going to be times when I cannot run.  Thursday I decided to make up for it by running 10km around the lake, and again, tried to see if I could beat my PB.  I was 2 minutes off, but I felt it was a nice honest 10km.  By Friday afternoon I could not wait to get out the door and get running, so did the river run at 4pm pretty much on the dot.  I really enjoyed it.  I OVERTOOK someone!  First time ever in my life I have done this on the river run.  


Yesterday I ran in the rainy misty morning and loved it, and finally today Marie and I did the river run again.  I feel like a big fat porker because I have eaten out with family and friends so much this weekend, I almost feel that I have been "slacking off" on everything now that North Face is over.  I need to clean up my act and knuckle down - whether I am ready for M7 marathon remains to be seen, but I have Woodford to Glenbrook and Willy to Billy coming up, maybe even another half marathon.  I guess I just don't feel committed to anything.  Maybe I should just enter that bloody marathon even though I am not really ready.  It would certainly scare the knickers off me and get me out training with a renewed sense of purpose.  Trouble is, it is not far enough away for me to go, ahhh that is AGES away, stop worrying.....WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEED.  I knew I blogged for a reason!!!!

Frizz ball

I spent months nd months cultivating a very long fringe.

She said...."what do we do with your fringe?".

I said leave the length and just cut into it.

And now it's gone!!!  Gone to cheeky fringe heaven in the sky.  All I am left with is face.  Exposed face.

RIP long fringe that was almost good enough to blend into my bob.  RIP old friend. 

Bringing the Bob Back Baby.....

I got my hair cut!  I have the bob back.

Apart from my sticky out black and blue jawline and my sticky out lump on my cheekbone, I look like ME again!! 

Oh God

We were just talking today about Christians.  I don't trust them.  As a child I was dragged around Faith Healing Crusades (where people throw fifty pound notes into buckets and fat Americans preach and people "see the light" and claim to be cured of any number of bizarre diseases or have a clap on the head moment where God talks to them - my entire family embarrassingly enough included), Baptist Churches (once again, my entire family saw the light, but a different light this time, a bathing light in a large swimming pool bath thing where they were pushed backwards wearing a robe into a lukewarm swimming pool on the alter on a Sunday night in February - brrr - and once again, slightly embarrassing), Ian Paisleys church, Presbyterian Churches (before my God fearing family fell out with the Presbo's because they wouldn't let Mum and Dad have a drink of their Holy Communion Wine on a Sunday, because they had not yet "Taken Christ Into Their Lives" ("seen the light")....and despite all this kerfuffle related to god, Sunday School, seeing lights and being bathed in large expanses of Holy Water, I am not convinced.  Not not convinced by God Himself, or his existence.  I accept that and talk to him quite frequently about various matters.  But I quite like the Buddhist point of view.  Just be kind.  Sort of.  Not that I have researched Buddhism in any great depth mind you.  I always thought all this going to church carry on was people just feeling smug about themselves - doing good and being kind was more of a Christian lifestyle.  Anyway, I was the black sheep because I never saw any light or pretended to, or got bathed in a pale blue robe but I was in the Brownies and the Bunnies, so that must count for something.  Mind you, Catherine Carrol,  my twin Nicola and I WERE known as the Three Bad Brownies....but that is beside the point....

Anyway, they say (we are back to running now, keep up!!) that you should not do Junk Miles.  Research into Junk Miles indicate that this is running with no purpose.  So your purpose for running should be hills, speed or long distance.  I think they forgot the mental health runs and the runs because you got a new running skirt, or just applied new fake tan, or have this FANTASTIC play list of Metallica and Muse and Tool and Plan B and you can't WAIT to play it, or you need to drop three kilos PRONTO runs, or just maintenance (of the three kilos returning) runs.

So anyway I did a "speed" session today.  I thought I would start off with a warm up (bludge) and then run as fast as I could for 200 metres, then slow down to a jog for one minute and then run as fast as I could etc etc etc.  It sort of ended up running as fast as I could when I got my breath back and sort of slower jogging just to survive, but on the last km I "fanged" it (well, by my standards) and I nearly lost my breakfast.

BUT I did ALMOST beat my 5km PB, I was about 5 seconds shy of it.  So that's not bad, and surely to God or whoever (see above rant) this counts as speed.  So, I have a hill / strength session to do and a long run and I can do as many mental heath runs as I bloody fancy once I have these essential ingredients in my running week.  :)

It is quite nice to have no running stresses (because I haven't entered anything stressful yet, i.e. the M7 Marathon) and just to be training for fun.  Sort of.  I tell myself that anyway. 

Well I did it!!  I finished the race!  Primary objective was to survive, not let the blood sugar go berserk, not let the head decide it was time to go home prior to 54kms, and stretch target was to finish smiling. 

Well I got my stretch target!  In fact I smiled ALL day.  Well, most of the day....

And smiled...

and there were some big hills that made the smile only on the inside.....

I always get a laugh when I look at that photo....

Reminds me of this one....

So, in summary, I had a brilliant day, there were highs and there were lows.  There was scenery that would have taken my breath away, if I had any breath that is.

There were bits that reminded me that "remote" is not the little black plastic box that sits on the sofa.

There were the most amazing views of valleys and trees and cliffs and we saw a very very young cow, so young his coat was all white and shiny and clean. 

We had perfect weather and all my gear worked properly, I had no wardrobe malfunctions and didn't run out of anything, get lost or break anything.

Well, except a cheekbone. 

I loved this run so much, I am going up there next weekend with a friend just to enjoy some of the course again.  I have also just spent this morning entering things.  City To Surf - never done it, Willy To Billy,  couldn't do it last year because of Swine Flu, and Woodford to Glenbrook - my favourite run of the year.

I have been reading Colins "Outer Edge" magazine - which appears to have every single dangerous sport in the world in there.  There is a picture of Colins brother BASE jumping off a cliff in Sydney.  Not planning on taking up BASE jumping but wouldn't mind a few kayaking lessons and then doing some adventure races.  And the Mud Run.  Anything in fact that involves a day out on the trails.

Maybe some climbing, canoeing, I promised myself so many things after I'd done this race, I gotta get onto them all!!!

Bwwwwwaghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Jesus, Mary, Joseph and all the Saints...I am TERRIFIED!

Sitting here in bed with a coffee and contemplating that it is less than 24 hours until the race starts.  In fact, this time tomorrow I will have been running for two hours.  Running, walking, eating cheese sandwiches, hopefully feeling positive (hopefully fuelled by V and a few strong coffees) and hopefully being able to hold a reasonable pace! 

I can't believe how scared / excited / expectant / jumpy I am. 

One of the local runners organised a get together for all the mountains folk who are doing the race last night.  It was a good way to take the mind off the nerves and just be nervous about chatting with a crowd of people, most of whom I had never met before.  They were all really lovely and making running the first half sound so easy, I was happily lulled into a false sense of security until someone talked about how he climbed on his hands and knees up to Ironpot Ridge.  Ironpot is the bit that you can't train on before the race because it is private property, so no matter what, I wouldn't have been able to see if for myself anyway.  Too late now to start worrying!!  Feck, I could Worry for Ireland the way I am going.

Anyway, a bit of rock climbing can be fun, said she, reminding herself of her first venture down Tarro's Ladder and the abject fear that ensued.....

So, checklist:

• Clip toenails
• Try not to panic
• Find all the painkillers I can get my hands on
• Again, no panicking
• Charge phone and iPod.  Learn the words to Tools "Forty Six and Two"
• Relax
• Don't even think about having a glass of red
• Fake tan those thighs baby!
• Put heart rate monitor on and find resting heart rate, just for a laugh
• Go to bathroom fifty million times
• Check gear.  Panic.  Check gear again.  Panic.

I wish I could show people inside my tummy.  My tummy has been in a state of turmoil all week and has churned and churned with a mixture of excitement, apprehension and fear.

However, next time I write, it will all be over....so I need to enjoy the build up, immerse myself in the moment and savour every little drop of this crazy, exciting, foolish, horrible journey.

Courage vs Fear

What makes people courageous?  Is it life experience?  Is it not really courage at all, but just getting on with the job at hand?  Is it a desire to do the right thing, no matter what?

I got to thinking about courage this morning because I appear to be lacking in this vital quality.

I get scared about all sorts of silly things.

Like this 54km race I am doing this weekend.

But why?  So I was justifying it to myself this morning like this.....

I am not going to be strapping 10 kilos of heroin to my stomach and get on a flight to Bali.  Repercussions of such behaviour could be:

a) death
b) a long time in a Balinese Prison

Both frightening options.

I am not planning to cycle up the freeway in a pack, clipped into those funny cycling shoes.  Repercussions of this could be:

a) death
b) serious injury

I am not planning to abseil down a cliff then climb through a cave filled with water, swim through said cave, where a rock falls behind me and I go to my watery grave.  Repercussions of this could be:

a)  watery grave
b)  a very scary few minutes dying

I am doing a long bushwalk in the most beautiful part of the countryside and to make it go quicker, I will run the bits that I can.  I will be with friends.  Madzer nutcase friends with freaky feet shoes with open minds and a sense of adventure. The weather is going to be perfect.  And I am going to have a mad sense of achievement afterwards.  I have trained for this, I know I can do it, and I know it will be hard at times. 

Not a frightening option, or scary consequence in sight.

So snap out of it Missus, and get on with it.

Greetings!

A new blog.  Where nobody knows me.  Licence to talk the biggest load of shit ever imaginable.

Lets start with....what I do when I am not here.....

Well, I make funny faces at my web cam and I paint my face and I run a bit and like dressing up in nice clothes and wearing perfume and listening to Very Heavy Metal and I think about stuff to write here.  Simple.

I daydream a lot and in my head I am very different to the real me.  I think this leads to a lot of confusion within. 

But we'll get to that.

I sometimes read the death notices in the local paper.  Tonight there were lots of deaths and lot of people were 65 when they died and if that is the average then I only have 22 years to go.  I better get on with it.