Fatty Blue Tongue

The Fattest Blue Tongue Lizard Ever!!!

shetland pony vs gazelle

Kept my pact (with myself) to get up early and run up and down Old Bathurst Road.  Ran down feeling like a gazelle, the run back up had me feeling a bit like a small, overweight Shetland Pony - in fact the run back up was really a brisk walk - interspersed with a few little jogs.  Man that is one steep hill!  Ended up adding another loop onto the run - feeling good (once up the hill) and lets face it, after the crap I have eaten (what was I thinking?  I actually ATE a Krispy Kreme Donut?! Yeuchhhhh!!!) I needed to. 


Spent the rest of the day hiking in the Blue Mountains with Sam and Karina.  Man it was cold but perfect weather for a four hour hike. We stood out on a rock in the middle of nowhere and giggled and laughed and probably seriously annoyed the people who had come to seek tranquility and peace, but good times, good company, except next time we go bushwalking I am going to ask Sam very nicely not to spray her old hiking jacket with el cheapo perfume because she stank all day of something gross, in an effort to hide the fact that her jacket had been in a cupboard for 2 years covered in  mothballs. 


Checking out the maps I now know where Grand Canyon is and that is top of my list for a day out walking - although I think it might be sensible to take someone with me who has done it before - otherwise could be a very loooooong day with perhaps even a free ride in a helicopter.

So - everyone is starting to talk about goals for 2011.  Mine are to try really hard not to cut my fringe, to run the Mt Solitary Marathon (FECK!) and to drink less.  Oh and to stop buying frocks.  And maybe roll over my super.  Also to keep up with the Personal Training as well as get my running back on track (by back on track I mean consistently run) and stop freaking out about snakes. 


 

Excess

Excess - it's really ugly.  EVERYONE in our house displayed a bit this Christmas. 

Firstly - Stone.  Stone is not long for this world.  She has lost 600g since she had her ear amputated and won't eat much except if she think it might belong to her nemesis - Buffy.

Anyway today I realised she hadn't eaten much all holidays so I went to the IGA and bought her some prawns.  Which she literally SNORFED up.  Cue large pile of cat puke complete with undigested prawns an hour later.

Sorting out the clean washing in the spare room and came across a big rind of pork chop fat amongst my clean undies.  Clearly Buffy had put this by for a rainy day.  Both Buffy and Stone are not overweight or overindulged.  In fact, everyone in our house is at their correct BMI except me and the Blue Tongue.  Our Blue Tongue is so fat, it has trouble walking, its little hands and feet protrude from the most enormous belly you have ever seen on a reptile. Except that internet picture of the big snake in Africa that ate a donkey.  But that's photoshopped.

Anyway, picture of Blue Tongue impossible because you can't add photos to these blogs any more ARRRGHHHH. 

So I got on the scale today and thanks to Christmas over indulgence, they said I have put on two kilos since the start of December.  Two kilos on a five foot woman is like ten on a normal person! 

So starting tomorrow, when I will rise NO MATTER WHAT THE WEATHER IS DOING at 6am to run down Old Bathurst Road and back up again, it is unofficial boot camp again at my place.  Well, the road is closed to traffic and except that time we were drunk and jumped out of the taxi at 2am in the morning, I have never run up Old Bathurst and man, that'll be some hill training session. 

Tomorrow day is a girls day out bushwalking - cue more leeches.  I will resist the urge to wear my very beautiful and very white new kayanos, even though they "look nice".  But I will try and take them somewhere with a heap of stairs.

Wednesday night and Thursday night are PT nights, Friday morning is a long run with Monica, so that should get the fatty bits shook up a bit.

That's more like it

First run tonight since Thursday, how lazy have I been?  Actually been feeling crappy, hamstring dodgy and I sat and poked and prodded at my middle toe on Saturday night and mentioned to John I thought it might be broken, to which he replied it was highly unlikely as I was able to bend it right back and do lots of poking and prodding - but I do like a little drama.  Actually the pad of my foot is still sore and it is funny because it is in the fatty pad bit at the front where it joins the toe.  Strange.  May have been some ferocious wearing of stilletoes over the last few weeks rather than anything energetic! 

So tonights run.  Well what can I say?  I wish every single run could be like tonights.  I didn't wear a watch and I ran places where I was pretty sure there wouldn't be any serpents, and was rewarded by many sticks but no wriggling ones.  I took myself to Mt Sion (named because it has a hill) and I ran the whole way up it - yahoooooooo!!!  And then down it.  And then up it again.  And I didn't die.  And then on the way back up Old Bathurst Road the punked up version of "Eye of the Tiger" came on and I SPRINTED up Old Bathurst and it was bloody brilliant.  And it was just a training run!  Why can't I do this in races????  Ah well.  It left me full of fuzzy feel good endorphins, which has been something that has been distinctly lacking the last week or so.  How can a time that it supposed to be for families and great fun make me so sad?  Happens every year.  The only good thing about Christmas is mangoes and days off.  And days off equal time to train.  So I should have a great week of running, jumping, climbing trees and putting on makeup. Awesome!

More Stuff

On account of the additional two kilos I appear to have collected around my arsal region, I have decided to do something else other than running to try and make it go away.  So tonight I went and signed up for three months of group personal training sessions with my friend Sam.  I ran there, which was 3.5km, did the hour workout then ran home.  Feeling rather smug now.  The workout itself was GOOD!!  Nothing like Darren from Shalvey my old PT who talked about himself a lot and only managed to fit in three sets each session, and I always walked away feeling somehow ripped off.  Tonight was an upper body weights type sessiony thing and I swear my bingo wings are still trembling as I write this.  I fully expect to be sore tomorrow.  PT man was nice but not condescending, other participants all seemed normal, and it was nice to be outside in the fresh air doing something different.  Still focusing on running, more trail running and getting out in the mornings but I really have to do something a bit more if I am ever going to shift my alarmingly growing behind.   Have to say, have felt like utter shite on all runs this week.  Sore hamstring on one side, feeling lethargic and not getting that feeling of being ABLE to do this.  I am guessing this will pass so for now I am keeping at it and getting out there and running even if I don't feel like it.  46km so far this week, which is reasonable, but there have been lots of slow kms in there, the plan is another PT session tomorrow night, 8km Friday morning, which should bring the weekly total to 61km which should make the dial on the damned scale MOVE!!! 

Sore legs

This weekend I ramped up the training after the realisation that running 6km three or four times a week was not going to help my endurance, get me fit, or make me lose weight.  So Saturday we hit the Oaks Trail and ran Woodford to Glenbrook.  At the 20km mark it became glaringly obvious that I have lost a significant amount of fitness and can't just knock out long runs anymore, but it is ok, because spending Saturdays and Sundays on the trails always makes me happy, so I am looking forward to many active weekends ahead. 

Sunday, I caught up with Ray, Alison, Paul and others for the Social Run on the M7 - lets face it, it's not trail running, but it's not flat either, and my legs were really not very happy at about the 8km mark where there were some stairs.  Was great though to be out with everyone, actually that is a lie, it was great to have BREAKFAST with everyone, but the run hurt!! 

My morning running partner has been MIA for a few weeks but sent a text to say he has entered Six Foot, and will be back in training this week - yay!!  It's nice to have company on the early morning runs and also nice to be pushed along by someone faster (afterwards, not always at the time!!).  So now that I have all these plans for getting fit and fabulous, I need to find something challenging to enter and keep me motivated.  Hmmmm....I have a wild plan.  Very wild!

Mud, Leeches, Views, Stairs, Rocks, more Mud, more Leeches....

Little "Girls Own" adventure today with a group of like minded (read, mad, willing to go out in the pissing rain for a mountain hike with views - only visible in good weather) girls and one boy who kindly volunteered for course marking duty. 

What a FAB day!!!

There was mud, and waterfalls where there should have been steps.  There were hundreds upon hundreds of leeches and all very keen to hitchhike along the trail with us.  There was screaming at the first leech sightings and resigned flicking of leeches later into the day.  There was a little bit of feeling right on top of the world when we got up the top of Mt Solitary (great spot to pick off your leeches) and there was a very pissed off looking spider, complete with hairy legs blocking the path.  There was mud and steps and more mud and more steps and all in all, a brilliant four and a half hours in the pouring rain on the trails in the Blue Mountains. 

Tomorrows planned 10km loop incorporating the Lovers Walk steps will finish off what has been a much more satisfying weeks running.  Times they are a-changing and anything I can do to keep the head clear and the mind focussed will help - and nothing helps me sort out my jumbled thoughts better than a good run.