Twelve Floors Up

I landed in Kuwait a full 3 days ago. I haven't been sleeping much (it seems), at I wake up around 8/9 everyday, having gone to bed at 3am the night before. Perhaps this will require an increase in caffeine consumption, but at least I can resort to Starbucks here, and delicious iced-coffee at that!

My first night, I went running around campus with my sister. Sure, we did more talking than actually jogging, but it was good times. I ended up running in my Vibrams, and they were great. Weird bones in my ankle are still a bit sore, so I'm thankful I've brought my Minuzo's as well.
That same night, I ran up the stairs (12 floors, and back down) twice. The next day, I'm sure you can appreciate that my legs hurt.

The evening after that, I went running with my mum. This has never happened before, and I was truly excited!! When I went to high-school here, she would always take the dog on long walks. I walked with her a few times - and she walks FAST! Well, the time has finally come where she went running with me, and she did better than my sister! We did 1:3 intervals, about, and it was lots of fun.
I decided to skip the stairs that night.


I went to the movies yesterday, as it's 1.5KD instead of the normal 3KD, every Monday. We were supposed to watch a couple movies, but they were sold out and we had to watch a late showing of Blitz (not impressed). Got home quite late, and decided to just take some time off.

My computer is quite silly in the way that it despises the internet, and only loads slowly. It's frustrating enough that I only log on to check Facebook and my email, a couple times a day. With the time-distance, I can only talk to my friends in real time if they are up late, of if I am, so I am missing them a bit.

In other news, I may get a new phone and the competition for best 6-pack by the end of the summer is ON! (Thanks, roomie) I am hoping to run everyday, run stairs every other day and go swimming whenever I am able to. I left my goggles behind and refuse to swim laps without them, because as much as I like to see halos around lights due to the chlorine, it's probably not a good thing. Will table-tennis help me get muscle-y? Because I am really looking forward to playing some smashing games :D

Hope everyone is enjoying the last of May!

Summer travels

I woke up at 11:30 this morning, and the first thing I did was to check the mail.
I opened the mailbox to find.... a soggy envelope containing my passport - it's back from the consulate of India!!!!

This set off a chain of events - calling my travel agent to book my tickets, yelling excitedly to my sister that I will see her in a little over 24hours, and washing the dishes.

Yes, dishes. Because when I leave for a holiday, I like to come back to a clean house.
So the rest of today will be spent:
-taking the last dose of my oral cholera vaccine
-packing all my meds
-packing all my clothes
-updating my Sony Ereader for books for the (long) long flight
-rushing around trying to find Canada-themed playing cards
-calling the credit card company to let them know that I will be leaving the country
-desperately looking for things in my room, until I realise it would be faster to CLEAN room, then pack.
-try and ressucitate my ipod, in case it will work for the trip :)
-pack my camera gently so it won't break on the trip.
-pack ALL my shorts and clothes appropriate for 50C degree heat!! :)


YAAAAYYYYY

Being Slow

I used to be fast. I have two medals from my grade school - 70m hurdles and 70m sprint. I would always start slow (and look ridiculous - I've seen pictures) but I could always concentrate and push fast at the end.
I used to find that easy, because I could see the end in sight, after all - it was only 70m away!
[I still find it easier to sprint at the end of a race - provided I can see the finish line]

At age 20 21, I'm pretty slow. I have probably never run more than a half mile at anything faster than 10:00 pace. And I am okay with that.

In fact, I am so okay with it, that during my short (2k) and slow (10:33 mile pace - 6:33 km pace) run today, I came up with a few perks for being slow.

1. You will enjoy the scenery more than a faster runner, as you will obviously have more time to soak it in :)
2. (Some could argue) it is less effort going slow, and your mind can wonder instead of focus all your energy on moving forwards.
3. You can say you ran for 2 hours and people will be impressed because that seems like SUCH A LONG TIME (when in fact you may have only run/walking/combo-ed 12km)
4. I've heard it said that the same distance burns the same amount of calories despite how fast you cover it. So... same calories burned with less impact.
5. Do slow people get stress fractures? I'm just wondering on this one (I would like mileage with this one, not necessarily speed.)
6. You can run slowly with your friends! Have you ever heard of 'conversational pace'? Well, you can't carry a conversation if you're sprinting the 200m! Bonus: more people will be convinced to run with you if you tell them you're going slowly - newbies will be able to keep up :)
7. Slow running = your body can supply enough O2 = aerobic running = no creepy panting noises.

21 life goals

As I'll be celebrating my birthday tomorrow, I have realised that it is time for a post of life goals.

Off the top of my head, I already have 2:

#1 Run a full marathon
#2 Celebrate New Year's Eve on a rooftop

As 21 is a milestone, it would be nice to stop and think about where I'd like my life to be. I am pleased to say that at 21, I am the person I had always imagined I would be at 21: happy, dedicated (to school), fit and healthy. I always wanted to feel as if nothing was holding me back, and to be surrounded by good friends. Check, and check :)

As I have just come up with these last 19, I am not 100% committed to them...  I may not even be able to list 19 more (not sure yet).

Perhaps I'll look at these a few months from now, and re-evaluate their importance. But for now, these are a few things I would like to experience, or accomplish:

4 - be a person who keeps in touch with HS friends, and university friends. (and AIESEC friends?)
5 - learn to make carrot cake.
6 - get a job in Canada
7 - spend a year in a poor country.
8 - rely on a bike as my main means of transport.
9 - have super short hair again.
10 - maintain my vegetarian lifestyle.
11 - always grow things on my window-sill ~ tomatoes, squash, avocado, etc
12 - Read at least 5 non-fiction books a year.
13 - subscribe to an academic journal (social work-related?)
14 - de-clutter (my personal things) and live a cleaner life (less junk).
15 - run an official race without shoes on.
16 - Have 50+ followers on the blog... hehe
17 - participate in a triathlon (maybe).
18 - Go on a century (miles) bike ride.
19 - participate in an adventure race with close friends (this september?!!!)
20 - adopt a pet dog.
21- adopt my children.




Okay, that wasn't too hard. I'm curious to see what I will keep a year from now, and what else I find to be important in life. Have a great Saturday everyone!

This picture is a present from my friend MJ. :)

Happy Hour

I have come to realise that 8-9pm in my most favourite time of the day! There is this amazing soft light, and it feels like the world is sleepy... a few people are out, but most seem to be waiting for night to settle in.
It's my favourite time to go for a run - it's cool not cold yet, and it's not too hot either. It's calm, but it's different from the morning because you haven't just given up a warm bed for a run.

Ahhh can't wait for my run tomorrow.
Ran 2km yesterday, and 1km today. I didn't mean for these runs to be so short. Yesterday I had tummy issues and today I ran into friends. I'm taking it as a sign to take things slow - I have the rest of my life to run uninjured, if I take the time to be careful now!


I love summer <3 

My second Half Marathon... finishing in the rain

Races

I'm still waiting for my official race pictures before I write down the story of my second half marathon.

In the meantime, I was bored while on the train, so I made a table of all the races I have run.
I originally thought there was only 5, because I forgot about the trail 5k this year, and the virtual race in January!
So I've managed to impress myself today :)

It seems like my times are decreasing... right?!

32

Hey everyone.
I'm on a train to Ottawa for my very first AIESEC conference.
I'm really excited, yet nervous.

Even though Canadian trains are more expensive than the buses, they are worth it for the FREE INTERNET! :)

So here is a funny comic for my 32 followers to enjoy :)


Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

In other news, my legs are feeling a lot better after the race. I will take another 5 days off from running to try and heal my knee. (I'll be too busy anyway :) )
However, with my trip fast approaching, I went to the travel clinic yesterday. We went through all my immunizations and the dangerous diseases that are found in India and I got 4 shots, and a drink.
I received the meningitus, polio, Hep A and typhoid. My left arm hurts a lot :(

Forest City Road Race - Half Marathon

Half marathon #2 has been recorded!
I finished almost exactly an hour after the boys. This makes me happy, as I wanted to finish in less than twice their time (they are super fast).

Mike Faul, Steve, Me!, Mike M.

I'm very pleased with this race.
I didn't train properly, because I took time off to zap my knee with electricity. I also took time off because I went for a too-much-too-soon run in Vibrams. My longest run was probably 8k, back when it was snowing.
But I stood at the START line mostly un-injured.
By the end of it, my quads hurt, I had blisters, the soles of my feet hurt, my lungs hurt, my arms were numb, and I was soaked. Talk about an exciting race! ;)

Let's look at my goals:
1) Finish - I did this!! No DNF for me :)
2) I TOTALLY beat the cut-off time (by 15 mins). Haha, 2:45 has a nice ring to it, eh?
3) I BEAT MY OLD TIME - by about 4 mins.
4) I wanted to beat 2:30, but I wasn't expecting to. Perhaps this will be my next goal! :D


I will write a full recap in a couple days, when I get the fancy pictures back.
I also want some time to forget how numb my arms got and hurt whenever I ran. How embarrassed I felt at needing to do 1:1 intervals for most of the race... And how uncomfortable the forming blisters felt, that I took off my shoes. And then running on roads with only socks on... ouch.


PS: I LOVE MY NEWEST MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!