Anzac Day

This past Thursday was ANZAC Day in Australia. For the weeks leading up to the public holiday (yep, another one!) all anyone was talking about was how FUN the day was, and how it usually was a last send off for summer.

It certainly stood out as a great day for a number of reasons, but if I had to break my day into three parts it would be:

1. Getting up at the crack way before the crack of dawn

2. Witnessing a bar falling silent for 5 minutes

3. Playing "Two Up"

1. Getting up insanely early--

ANZAC Day is a day of remembrance-- it commemorates the first major military action for Australia and has grown to be a day of remembrance for all Australian and New Zealand troops who have died in various battles. One of the ways people show their support is by attending a "dawn service" -- or in my instance, a pre-dawn service.

My alarm went off at 3:30 (mind you, on a day off from work this is probably about the last thing I want to have happen) and I sleepily dragged on some comfy pants and a sweatshirt and was out the door by 3:50. I live downhill from a popular party area in Sydney and forgot that I'd be traipsing through a few streets of people still going strong. Not sure how much remembering they were doing.

The service itself started at 4:30 and it was PACKED. It's pretty incredible to see all of the people, young and old, who were willing to leave their warm beds to come out for a service. The service itself was fairly basic- some prayers, a reminder for why people gather, and laying wreaths to commemorate the troops. The coolest part of the service, though, was when the organizers shut all of the lights off for a moment of silence. Before the lights came back on a trumpeter played Reveille. Equal parts creepy and cool!

In my head I thought the service would be concluding as the sun came up, but as it turns out this service ended at 5:30 and I was back in bed by sunrise. I did see friends' pictures of a service on the beach where the sun DID come up at the end of the service and I think I'll give that a go next year.

2. Witnessing a bar fall silent for 5 minutes--

The other part of ANZAC day is, not surprisingly, drinking. The Australians will use any excuse to put a beverage in hand and most bars open at 8 am on ANZAC day. My friend Ryan and I started a bit later than that, opting for an average beverage instead of an early morning one.

While we were at the bar we suddenly noticed that we were the only ones talking. Wide-eyed, we looked around at the people throwing dirty glances our way and quickly shut our mouths. Well, mine remained open in shock because you could hear a pin drop in the place.

Why? There's a huge AFL game played on each ANZAC day, and before the game starts they do a quick remembrance ceremony/singing of the national anthem- and the entire bar was quiet for the full five minutes that it took. I'm not sure I'll ever witness anything else having the power to shut down an entire bar, and honestly felt more goosebumps after that experience than at the dawn service!

3. Playing Two Up--

The only day of the year that Two Up is legal is on ANZAC Day. No one has been able to tell me why it's the only day you can legally play the game, but I'm guessing it may be because the government hasn't been able to find a way to monetize the game?

It's really quite simple-- it's just a coin flipping game, where two coins have to land on either heads or tails to produce a winner.

Before the "spinner" gets to work, the betting takes place. This was REALLY fun-- if you want to play heads, you take your money and thump your head screaming "heads" until someone screaming "tails" in the bar takes you up on your offer. The person going for heads holds the money, the coins get flipped and either the money gets pocketed or handed back to the tails person.

I ended up in a pretty big bar at Bondi, and the Two Up scene was pretty intense-- imagine the same atmosphere as a heated playground fight, with everyone jockeying to see the action and you'll have a pretty good idea of what it's like. My friends and I managed to shimmy our way up to the side of the ring so we could see all of the action, and it was super easy to get sucked in.

Before I went I told myself I'd play a couple of times, with a $5 bill, just to see what it was like. I quickly figured out that no one was playing with anything less than a $20, which made me nervous. Even though Two Up is a game of chance, it's also the only gambling game where you've got just as much chance as winning as you do losing.

I picked heads for the duration and held on for the ride-- eventually I was up $160. Unfortunately that's when I got cocky and decided to push my luck and promptly lost two games in a row. I called it a day after that, and it's the first time (and probably the last!) that I can say I've left the bar with more than I came in with.

Two Up is only legal from about midday to 6 pm, and because this was a big bar the cops showed up promptly at 6 to make sure everyone had finished playing!

What a great day!

Light Beer?

A couple of weeks ago, I got in some pretty serious trouble.

I brought light beer to a weekend away.

I'd been instructed to bring some beer for drinking games, so I did what I thought any normal, logical person would do-- I picked a light beer. I wouldn't consider myself an above average drinker or anything, but I know my way around a flip cup table pretty well. If there's one thing I learned the difficult way in college it's this: guzzling a heavy beer not only slows down your flips but makes for a pretty terrible morning after.

I'd been excited to even see a light beer in the liquor store. I'm slowing learning how to drink beer but as my general preference was "as watery or fruity as possible" in the States I'd thought I'd struck gold. I was all smiles as I walked out, thinking I'd finally found Natty Light's ozzie counterpart.

It went over like a ton of bricks. As it turns out, "light" beer in America and "light" beer in Australia don't exactly mean the same things.

Compare a Bud Heavy and a Bud Light: roughly 5% alcohol to just under 4% alcohol (although some sites said 5% to 4.2%).



*Source: Buzzfeed.com

Not really a big enough difference in my opinion to matter-- it's more about taste preference and the perception that light beer is better for you.

In Australia, that's not quite the case. There's a lot of different types of beers, with "light" being code word for "very pansy" and "worthless."

It was an honest mistake, right? How was I supposed to know there was a difference?

Let me tell you something, though. You bring beer with half the alcohol content of a normal beer and you'll leave the party with half the number of friends you started with. Very awkward.

Half the alcohol seems pretty silly to me and I'd agree pretty worthless, but I'm told some people choose to drink light beer if they want to have a few and still be ok to drive later in the night. I'd say the other option would be to nurse an actual beer or two throughout the night, but I'm guessing it's an excuse to look like you're throwing back with the rest of the crew?

I didn't live the light beer down for the rest of the weekend, especially because after we'd figured out it was the only thing left to drink (ironically we'd used the real beer for drinking games) the only liquor store was already closed for the evening. They didn't even thank me for the absence of a hangover the next morning!!!

There's also "mid" strength beer, which falls somewhere between pansy and acceptable on the range of cool factor. At a Billy Joel concert last night it was the only option at the stadium-- I guess the promoters didn't want to risk all of the middle aged people getting wild and crazy on a Sunday night.

Lesson learned: go for the real stuff, at least in Australia.

What's Next?

I have a bit of fitness ADD- I get super devoted to one thing and then get bored and decide to do something else.

After the huge letdown of the Brisbane Half I debated a couple of options:

1. Keep running and train for either the Sydney half in May (hilly, so this was quickly nixed) or the Gold Coast half marathon in July (supposed to be flat)-- debating the Gold Coast run, but after each half I go through a "but I don't want to run more than 2 miles at a time" phase

2. Join CrossFit (sadly, the closest box I could find for Sydney is fairly out of the way from my apartment/work)

3. Join a Triathlon team (still debating this, but I'm pretty out of swimming shape and don't have a bike here, so it'd kind of be just the running aspect and then it's back at number 1)

Or the winner:

4. Suck it up and get a personal trainer.

My pockets are going to hurt, and hopefully my biceps/glutes/abs/etc as well, but I'm excited about the idea of someone pushing me a bit. I don't really like spin classes, can't keep up in Zumba and am tired of fighting for space in Body Pump (seriously, they pack people in like sardines!) so I'm somewhat grasping at straws for how to vary the workout plan.

The plan is to try to do 2-3 sessions with a trainer (depending on the $ aspect of things), a run or two and at least one yoga session thrown in for good measure.

I can't give up running completely, so I did sign up for the Mini-Moss 10k in early June. If not for friends doing it, I would avoid running the "most challenging streets" in Mossman as the website says. Definitely doing this as a fun run only!

Here's to a new fitness routine!


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Two Stories-- Busted & Lost and Found

I'm currently headed out to "Adult Spring Break"--- aka celebrating the fact that Australia gives Good Friday and Easter Monday off and headed up to the beach with some friends. I've never gotten a single day off for Easter so this is really exciting!

Thought I'd share two stories from yesterday:

Busted

It's no surprise for me to say that Australia is super expensive at this point. But sometimes I just feel like businesses are trying to rip me off.

Take the gym: 3 times the cost of Gold's Gym at home AND there are no towels. In order to get a towel you have to pay $3 a visit---you can get a "towel card" in case you rock up and don't have $3 with you, and the nice folks at the front desk will hold your card until you bring back the towel at the end of your session. Kind of like insurance that you won't walk off with the towel.

Seeing as I'm headed to the beach and we have to bring our own linens, though, I had what I thought was a master plan when I headed to the gym yesterday morning. "I'll pay CASH," I thought, "and then I'll be able to borrow this towel forever and take it to the beach."

I've never stolen anything before, but surely with the amount of uses that they get out of those gym towels they wouldn't sell for more than $3 on the street anyway.

My mistake was paying with a $10 instead of paying exact change. The front desk must have seen straight through me, because as she handed me my towel she said "I'll give you your change when you bring your towel back."

THWARTED in a big way. I guess I still could have stolen it, but it would have cost me the full $10.

Next time I'll try paying the exact amount. Fitness First, I will establish a collection of your towels.

The next little story could have really put a damper on this weekend's trip. Spoiler: it didn't.

Lost and Found

I've always wanted a gay best friend. Something about having a gay best friend just seems really really cool, and really handy for gossiping about work, fashion choices etc. I'm lucky that in Sydney I've got two gay best friends-- my colleague Ryan and his partner Ceph.

Ryan's got a flair for the drama at times, which is part of the reason why it's so much fun to hang around him.

Last night after work, the three of us piled into the super economy car that we've hired for the weekend (ie, the most Ceph would agree to help pay for) and started making the rounds: Aldi, Cole's and finally the mecca of liquor stores, Dan Murphy's.

The car was already fairly packed by the time we picked up booze, and with rain pouring down as we wheeled out our purchases I instructed the boys to pack the car and then come back around to pick me up.

Minutes pass by and I begin to wonder what in the world is going on. Glancing up from my phone, I see Ryan grandly gesticulating with his arms. Uh-oh, I thought, there's an argument brewing. But it was worse than I thought. With a shriek, Ryan turned to me and yelled "he's lost the keys! he's lost the keys!"

I groaned, knowing that this meant I had to walk out in the rain to search for the car keys that had just magically disappeared after opening the door.

It's funny to see these two operate-- both getting more anxious and dramatic by the moment-- going through all of the shopping bags, searching the floor and checking under the car.

"What are we going to do?" Ryan wailed after another 15 minutes of searching. "It's a public holiday tomorrow and this is a hired car and now we won't get to go to the beach and it's all your fault Ceph and how did you lose the keys and what are we going to doooooooooooooo?"

"Give me 5 minutes to think," replies Ceph, so we climb back in the car (soaked), Ryan's anger palpable and me stifling giggles in the backseat.

Being the super rational, always levelheaded person that I am, I know we've just missed the keys somewhere and that they are, in fact, somewhere in the car.

"Scoot your seat forward all the way Ryan," I say.

"I've already checked under the seat. The keys are lost forever. We're going to have to cancel the trip. Ceph, how could you? How could you ruin our vacation?"

I interrupt-- "Ok fine, but do it anyway. Scoot forward."

And there, lying perfectly fine under the seat, are our missing keys.

Crisis averted.

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Five Awesome Things

Just a random collection of some things I've found awesome lately:

1. The Easter bunny came! I'm not sure how in the world he found out I live in Sydney now, but man it was a nice surprise to come back to the apartment to find this awesome chocolate bouquet waiting for me!



(side note: how thoughtful are my parents????) Growing up we always had Easter baskets, even through college and years we've been apart. My family is a sucker for traditions but even I was surprised that the bunny could hop this far!

2. This book:



I've been seeing this book pop up in various blogs as a must read, so last week when I was out shopping I decided to give it a whirl. Google Play keeps saying I can't purchase things with my card (I think it's something to do with my card being US and me being in AUS? gotta investigate that) and it's been awhile since I've had an actual book in hand.

I flew through this-- it's definitely an easier read but it's beautifully written and a heartbreaking story. I should have realized that any book involving a kid with cancer would be sad, but a book involving a first love between TWO cancer ridden teenagers? Definitely sobbed the entire plane ride home from Brisbane last night. Many thanks to the Mom next to me who supplied some kleenex.

3. Pinterest's updated mobile site. This is probably old news, but for awhile I thought that Pinterest's ipad/iPhone apps were pretty crappy. Not anymore! I've fallen back down the black hole that Pinterest can quickly become again and absolutely loving it. I think I've pinned more in the past 3 days than I had in the past three months!

4. Bananas! I had my first one in about a year today after I saw one and just couldn't get it out of my mind. I used to eat a banana almost every single day but after a stint of "no carbs" to get ready for a Hawaii trip last year I just had sort of written bananas off. I had one with peanut butter today-- can't believe that I've been missing out! Welcome back, bananas, I've missed you.

5. DIPS! Australia loves dips, and I love that Australia loves dips. Seriously-- there's a whole section of the grocery store devoted to different types of yummy dips. Each time I go to the grocery store I inevitably find myself "just browsing" the selections, and 9 times out of 10 find myself buying one (ok fine, two). Buying two is actually pretty crucial so you can buy one that you know you like and one that may be a gamble.




Top: gamble.
Bottom: old stand by.

I have no idea what Dukkah is, but the dip on top was on sale so I figured I'd give it a whirl. Verdict? I still have no idea what Dukkah is but it's pretty damn delicious mixed with sweet potato.

Maybe I'll start a section of this blog (since I write so frequently) and devote it to different dips in Australia. Could be huge.

What are 5 Awesome Things in your life right now?


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Race Recap: Better luck next time?

Don't get me wrong, I love a good story. I just wish this one had ended in a PR.

Sadly, the Brisbane Twilight Half Marathon didn't go exactly as planned. Things started out great: after a sweltering hot day (seriously, the three of us running were seriously debating blowing the race off to lay in the pool and eat popsicles) the temperatures finally broke around 4 pm and a cloud cover stopped the beating sun that had been so oppressing earlier in the day. Little did we know that those clouds spelled impending doom! (and yes, it looks like there is a blue sky in the background, but the other direction was all grey)


This was my first race that started at night, and will likely be my last starting so late. I wasn't really sure what to do with myself all day except for to be nervous, but by the time race time rolled around I had burned up all of my nervous energy. I didn't really like feeling like I couldn't do much during the day as I was trying to conserve energy and know that I much prefer an early morning race to "get it out of the way."

That being said, if the race had been in the morning it would have ended in the sweltering heat and that would have been pretty bad.

But as it turns out the weather in Queensland can be just as nasty when it's not hot, too.



Whoaaaaaa, how did we get from the dry picture at the start to the above?

Answer: just past the 8k mark when the sky fell open and the wind was gusting up to 100 kilometers an hour. Not fun, especially when you're trying to cross a bridge. Things just got worse after that-- the street we were running on quickly became flooded, the lights went out and plunged us into total darkness and then a tree fell on a poor runner's head. That was the final straw for the race officials, and they quickly ushered everyone off the course to the "finish."

I'm not going to lie- I was pretty bummed when the race was called as things were going really well. I was hitting a pace I was confident I could get between 1:50-1:55 with and the course (a weird out and back, out and back loop thing) was fairly flat. But, I was also pretty petrified of the howling wind the the pitch black dark and branches cracking everywhere. I had briefly flirted with the idea of pulling off at the 10k mark, but had convinced myself that because I felt so strong it would be silly to stop. Being forced to quit is not a fun feeling.



Crossing the "finish line"-- can you see all three of us?

After we were pushed through a premature finish and handed medals that I don't think we really deserved the three of us (my boss and a fellow manager) decided that the next logical thing to do would be to run home. Why? I'm not really sure. But as it was two against one, off we went into the darkness.

If you know me, you know that I hate the wind and I hate being wet. Add some running in there and you've pretty much got my recipe for Hell. We ran for another 7k, rounding out our mileage for the day to be just under 18.5k. Not a half marathon, but close enough in my book.




Our pace never dropped, which I'm going to take as a sign that I would have gone faster if it were dry and we'd kept running. Totally would have been a PR, right?

I was encouraged by the attempt though and think that it means I can train a bit harder (and more consistently than of late) and hopefully get a PR later this year.

Disappointed? Yes. Defeated? No. One lesson learned- if it ever looks like rain on race day, you'll find me snuggled up inside.

Now, off to see if I can get my sneakers to stop smelling like the swamp.

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St. Patty's Day Fun!

Sigh, I have the best blogging intentions. Every time I go somewhere I always think "take lots of pictures! Document everything! Think of something witty that you can talk about when you write!"

And then inevitably I come home and find 2 pictures on my camera. Saturday would have been a GREAT opportunity to show off some mad blogger skillz- my friends and I had a pub crawl to celebrate St. Patty's day and the original goal was to take a picture of every drink we had.

We ended up visiting The Winery, Forresters, The Clocktower, Beresford Hotel, The Local, The Gaslight Inn and Royal St. Albert's bar. What do I have to show for it?




-Lovely Rose Sangria from the Winery




-Pimms Sangria from Forresters

Awesome job, right? I don't know how real bloggers do it-- I need to start setting reminders on my phone to take pictures or something!

Regardless, it was a great evening with friends. To top it off a few of us ended up at Kareoke for late night. I haven't done Kareoke in YEARS, but when you've got your own room and only five people you can sing as many songs as your little heart desires. Proof? I was hoarse on Sunday. #worthit

There is one huge difference that I noticed from St. Patrick's day festivities here vs. Washington: no slightly flat green Bud Light to commemorate the event. Not sure how I feel about that.

Goal: actually take enough pictures to sum up a night. Include people for bonus points.

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I hate running

There. I said it. Right now, or at least for the past couple of weeks, I've hated running.

What happened? I'm not sure. One day it was clicking....the subsequent three weeks, it hasn't. Stops, starts, cutting runs short, stopping the treadmill after a few minutes. I haven't even run for a week and the thought of running wants to make me claw my eyeballs out.

Oh, and the half marathon is in less than two weeks. What am I going to do? What is there to do really?


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Sydney: Holla' for a Dolla'

Ok Sydney, I get it. You're crazy expensive. But even crazy has limits.

Take tonight for example: I've been meaning to get back into the pool for some good cross training (good for the joints, not as boring as a spin class or as awkward as a Zumba class etc etc) and this weekend I finally bit the bullet and bought a new Speedo. No, I won't show you a picture of me in a Speedo because I'm afraid Sports Illustrated would steal it for their swimsuit issue. Gotta protect the goods.

There are three pools within walking distance of my house so I decided to start with the one closet (duh, path of least resistance).

I browsed on the website ahead of time: $6.60 to swim. Ok, that seems like a lot but I get it-- it's a fancy aquatic center with multiple pools. I'm not sure why they don't round down to $6.50 or $7 but that's neither here nor there.

Anyway, I get there after work to find out it's an additional $2 for a locker. Ok. Now we're up to nearly $9 to swim. There were plenty of people who put their stuff on the side of the pool, but I wasn't quite willing to take that risk.

And then the real shocker hit--they had no towels. NO FREAKING TOWELS at an aquatic center. I can almost understand why my normal gym doesn't have towels- maybe not everyone is going to take a shower- but at an aquatic center? Where everyone is guaranteed to be wet?

The kicker is even better-- you can buy a towel for $30 or you can just do without.

As I sat there furiously drying myself off with paper towels after my swim (and smelling like chlorine because there was no soap in the showers) I texted a few Sydney friends to relay my horror.



Excuse me, am I the crazy one here?

At $9 a swim minus a towel, soap and hairdryer I'm not really sure what I paid for tonight. I'm surprised Sydney isn't trying to capitalize on other stupid swimmers like me-- I would have gladly rented a towel for another $3 like my normal gym and even put in some coinage for some shampoo (note: walking through the grocery store dripping water and smelling like a pool is really really fun and doesn't illicit stares at all).

North Sydney sounds like it's doing it right- no towels and extra for hot water? They must be printing money.

The worst part? I'll probably shell out again. Damn you Sydney, damn you.

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Two Truths and a Lie

Have you ever played two truths and a lie? It's pretty easy...guess which one of these statements isn't true:

1. In true Sydney fashion, it rained most of the weekend.
2. I had back to back great runs
3. This weekend was a blast

Hopefully you picked number 1 as the lie-- seriously, for every weekend (minus this past glorious one) since I've been back it's rained a good chunk. Not this weekend baby! Nothing but blue skies and hot sunshine.

I had a wonderfully mismatched two days of weekend and felt like I got a lot accomplished.




Early morning Park Run attempt with a few friends from work. Forty seconds faster than last time! I also was pumped that I made it up the giant hill and didn't walk at all. Score!





Fresh watermelon juice (and a baller bacon and egg roll) with the girls after our Park Run. Because what's better than undoing the exercise you just did? This juice really was fantastic, and I'm guessing they had to use the entire watermelon for that glass. So worth the $6 I paid for it. (are you choking on that price point? yeah, so did I).

Saturday afternoon was quite monumental. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of the momentous occasion, but I swam in the Australian waters for the first time.

Say what? You're asking yourself. You've been here for 8 months and haven't swum in the ocean? Um, yeah. You read Bill Bryson's book about Australia and then you go swimming. Needless to say, I survived and learned an important lesson: if you can see your feet, chances are you aren't going to die. Or if you do die, you'll at least see it coming.

I'm going to do another post about Saturday's dinner, but let's just say when the cat's away the mouse will play (meaning Ryan's partner is in Singapore so we got to go somewhere NICE!).

I ALMOST made it through Saturday night following Feb Fast, but had to have a glass of red wine with our steak dinner. I mean, c'mon, it's cruel not to have a few sips alongside a beautiful cut of meat. I was proud though because I did stop at just one glass. Guess that means I have to pony up to a charity!




I can't figure how to make this right side up? Just flip your computer. 6 miles in the early morning heat. I stopped after about 4 miles in Circular Quay and convinced someone to give me a cup of water. The lady wanted to charge me for it, but I think the sweat running off my body and the bright red face made her feel a bit charitable. Thanks lady, appreciate the free tap water.



Drag queens in the park. After a shower and a delicious brunch, some friends and I headed off to "Fair Day," otherwise known as the kick off to mardi gras here in Sydney. Mardi Gras bears no relation to Lent or anything Holy, and is best described as Gay Christmas. Let's just say that walking around the fair was quite the eye opening experience and that some things are probably best left to the imagination.

The dog show was a hoot, though, and I almost stole these little guys:



You laugh, but my mom is pretty close to getting a doggie stroller for our lazy but adorable beagle Hunter. Some days just aren't meant for walking.




Group shot! We were watching the drag show queen competition and wanted to show off our own modeling poses.

I capped off the weekend with a roommate dinner (we've got a new flatmate!), some work and an early bedtime.

Pretty perfect!

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Culturally speaking....

Last night my roommates and I got in a bit of a "discussion" over the laundry.

I'd been lazy and left my wash in the machine, and as it was nearing bed time (aka 9 pm last night as I was trying to shake a summer cold) I told Michelle I'd just throw it in the dryer when she walked out with the basket of wet clothes.

"The DRYER?" she asked me, as if the concept was completely foreign to her.

"Um, yeah," I responded. "Why wouldn't I put all my clothes in the dryer?"

Well, this set the two of them off in a tizzy. They'd never dried their clothes before, never wanted to risk ruining them. Their mothers only did laundry on good days, and hung up the wash on a clothesline in their backyard. You get used to clothes being stiff for the first 30 seconds when you put them on. And no, their fathers didn't seem to mind any sort of lacy bits hanging out on display.

I'm sorry, did I just step back to the 1950s?

We have a dryer in the apartment. It works wonderfully. It takes all of about 2 seconds to throw my load of clothes in instead of the 20 minutes it takes me to drape each item over the "clothes horse" in the living room. I do get the point about retaining quality longer and about risking potential shrinkage by hand drying, but I also like knowing that in an hour or less I can have dry clothes, as opposed to 2-3 days depending on the weather outside.

We concluded it must be purely cultural- so while I will happily convert back when I'm home, for now I've been shamed into slowly hanging out my clothes (and hoping their boyfriends don't peek at my undies).



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Week 3 Training Recap

I could sense that you were getting tired of all of my awesome runs, so I think I got a healthy dose of karma kicking ass this week.

My training from two weeks ago and from last week for the Brisbane Twilight half were night and day. If two weeks ago was characterized by "gas in the tank, felt great, tough but good" this week would be summarized simply by one word: shit.

Don't get me wrong- I know that not every run will be awesome and that's just part of the deal, but one decent run and 2 absolutely terrible ones made for a pretty low running confidence week.

Here's how they broke down:

Tuesday: 3 x 1600s at a 7:50 pace. That's a really aggressive pace for me, but I managed to hold on and get through all three intervals. I don't know if my legs were just really "trashed" (I see that as a running term on other people's blogs so I'm going to go ahead and use it) or if I was tired or what, but I skipped the Wednesday tempo and pushed it to Thursday, opting for a rest day on Wednesday.

Thursday: 5 mile tempo run at 8:25 pace. HA. If you'd seen me on Thursday morning trying to attempt this you would have laughed. I got up super early (for me that's 5:30) and was at the gym by 6 am. You know those runs where you step onto the treadmill and within 30 seconds know if it's going to be a good run or not? Yeah, first step that happened. I was determined to try to make it work, but about 1 1/2 miles in I just couldn't.

So I grabbed a cup of coffee, walked to the gym closer to work and figured I'd try again, hoping that the caffeine would provide some assistance.

Wrong. Another mile down and I was about ready to throw in the towel. I managed to do some 400 intervals to get me to 4.5 miles and then I just called it a day. Fail.

Saturday: 10 mile long run. Double HA. I woke up and it was raining again in Sydney (seems standard these days). What did I do? Download some more Mindy Project episodes, don my compression socks and make a bag of craisins for fuel. Got through just over 3 miles and wanted to die, so attempted to run 5 minutes, walk 1 1/2 minutes. After 2 more miles I quit.

And then tried to run outside in the rain. Turns out I hate running in the rain as much as I imagined I would, so after 2 more miles (7 total) I scrapped it.

After some tears (yep, that kind of girl) and some stretching and a rest day today, I'm hoping this week will be better. I'm going to do some yoga tomorrow for another semi-rest day and will plan on attacking Tuesday full steam ahead.

What goes down must go up again at some point, right?

Feb Fast

Last night, I went out with a bang.

KB and Michaela (the other girls in this pic) are doing FebFast, too!

What was I going out of? Drinking. Don't worry, not forever- just for the rest of February.

My roommate told me about FebFast and I decided it would be a great challenge for me for the month. Might help with the clothes not fitting thing, too. FebFast is an Australian charity group that essentially asks people to give up alcohol for the month of February. If you drink, you are asked to give the charity a $50 donation. It's all honor system based obviously but still a good accountability check if you ask me.

They've got a pretty nifty calculator on their site that lets you see how much money you're blowing on alcohol each month. Pretty crazy to see it all add up (and I hope you get the idea about how expensive it is to drink here in Sydney!) I'm thinking of donating 20-25% of my hypothetical alcohol spendings to the cause, because it does look like a great charity. Lord knows the Aussies probably have some drinking problems with the consuming they can do.

I didn't sign up online because it costs money to sign up online (hello, no!) but there are a number of people doing it at work as well as my roommate. We've decided that for every drink we have Feb 3-March 2 we'll have to put $10 into a kitty. At the end of this we'll take the money and buy drinks.

You must be asking yourself "so why did you drink on February 2 then?" Great question. I'm asking myself that same question at 3 pm the next day as my head pounds on and on and on. Essentially, I already had 2 birthday parties on the calendar that I just *couldn't* not drink for (insert sarcasm, of course I could have chosen not to) and my roommate had a similar situation, so we both agreed we'd do it until March 2.

So yeah, this happened:

Don't worry, those aren't all mine. Happy hour was ending in 5 minutes so we all stocked up. Part of being able to afford Sydney is knowing all of the deals. Every drink on that table is $5, and the prices go up significantly after happy hour. Gotta plan accordingly!

I'm excited to see how I do on this challenge. So far pretty much all of my social outings revolve around alcohol, so I know it will be a challenge. BUT I think it'll be pretty cool to say that I made it at the end. And I'm looking forward to not being hungover for at least a month (preferably never again).

Vent

No, not for the AC. That doesn't exist in my apartment (WTF Sydney, it's hotter than SC here...get with the program!). I just need to vent.

I guess you could say I'm in a bit of a predicament- because I moved across the country I (surprise!) don't have a lot of great friends here in Sydney, so I don't feel like I've got an outlet to vent my frustrations to. Tell me if I'm stupid or not, but somehow I think I'd scare all of them off if I launched into my current frustrations. I certainly would run off if a new friend did that-- too much work!

And on the flip side all of my great friends in the US are 16 hours behind me...meaning when I get off work and want to let something off my chest they're all sleeping. Which means I stew on things and ultimately the boy gets the brunt of whatever is giving me grief.

So I guess there's no better way to get it out than to just tell the 3 people that read this. Please, don't think I'm crazy. I know all of this is #first worldproblems. I've got a lot to be grateful for, which I am, but we've all got those days where things boil over. Or at least humor me and tell me that you do.

-I had a crappy run today. It sucked. I got up at 5:30, walked to the gym, and proceeded to struggle through 2.5 K (just about 1.5 miles). I was supposed to get through a warm up and a 5k tempo run. I beat myself up if I don't do the workout I'm supposed to do, so I walked to the gym closer to work and attempted again. And failed again. And struggled/beat myself up for another 4 k (around 2.5 miles). Still short on the 9k I was supposed to do, and no tempo work at all.

-I sweat all day long. All damn day long. I wake up sweaty. I walk 40 minutes to work sweaty. I sweat at work. And I sweat on the way home. All I want is some AC and I'd be a much happier person.

-I hate rule breakers. I think this is getting into my "I hate work right now" venting bucket, but yeah, I like rules. And I hate people who break them and get a special exception. It's happened a lot recently at work and I just don't understand. What do you want me to do, go ahead and lay down so you have an easier time walking all over me?

-I don't like that I don't feel like I have support at work. This may sound whiny, or contradictory, but while I like to work independently I like to know someone's got my back and is going to steer me away from a bad decision.

-My clothes don't fit anymore. Yeah, I think it's because I'm stressed and a tad lonely and overall debating whether I made the right decision by moving back to Sydney, but yeah, still sucks. And is annoying. And not something I can talk with people about.

Like I said, all of this is minor stuff in the grand scheme of things. But it would be really nice to be able to talk to someone about it than to just let it sit on my chest. Or to put it up on the internet for everyone to see.


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Week Two of Training

Week two of training for the Brisbane Twilight half is done! (well it was done yesterday, but I was too lazy to blog until today. Thank goodness it's been raining ALL DAY and I have no excuse not to catch up on blogging).

Overall, this week was challenging but also is making me really excited because I'm feeling strong. I'm pretty keen (what up Australian word) to see how much I can improve if I stick to the plan for the next 8 weeks.

Here's how I went. I didn't take pictures every day of the treadmill like last week as I thought that would get a bit boring, so you only have one bright red face to gaze upon. I'll try to make up for it with more creepy selfies this week.

Tuesday: 4 x 800s at a 7:32 pace. These KILLED me. I guess that's the point, right? I am trying to do a warm up (usually anywhere from 1/2 mile to mile) and cool down, but after these 4 intervals I was spent and just walked for five minutes. I can't believe most "good" runners can average that pace for an entire race!

Wednesday: 4 mile tempo run at an 8:27 pace. This was a pretty good run- I had to stop a little over half way through for a bathroom stop, but I felt strong up until about the last half mile. I again managed to do a warm up, but just walked at the end (and then had to walk nearly 2 miles home after)

Sunday: 8 mile long run. I was going to do this outside, but when I woke up and it was raining decided to be lazy and run on the treadmill. My gym is about a 1/2 mile walk away, but when I got there there was no power. Another 1/2 mile walk brought me to a further location, and 2 episodes of Modern Family and 1 of The Mindy Project helped me get through the miles.



I did one episode at a 9:05 pace, the next episode at a 8:57 pace and the final episode at a 8:44 pace. At that point I still had about 7 minutes left, so I bumped it up to a 8:34 pace to finish. I'll need to run the overall race a bit quicker than where I finished this run, so I definitely have some work to do-- but again I felt strong the entire run and felt like I had gas leftover in the tank after.

Or maybe it was just the promise of a butter toasted piece of banana bread when I finished that got me through ;)

I'm trying to put a lot of effort into preventative care as I train for this race- forcing myself to ice if I feel any aches, trying to do yoga 1-2 times a week, and doing a lot of this:



Yep, that's me, foam rolling and watching Glee. In my pajamas. Don't judge. Also, if you really want to have some fun, use a tennis ball to help get knots worked out. For me this means sitting on a tennis ball and rolling it around my hip/butt -- super painful, but feels amazing if you can grit your teeth for a bit.

This week I've got mile repeats on the docket and 10 miles for the weekend-getting serious!
-

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The Best Brownies Ever....seriously

I'm not even joking about these being the best brownies ever. They have three types of chocolate in them, they're easy to make, and they are highly addictive. Please make some and eat them for me, ok?



I know, I'm really good at food photography. See the chunks of white chocolate???

I attempted as best I could to convert all of the measurements as well, as this was my first time using an "Australian" recipe using grams instead of cups. The good news is that if you end up adding more chocolate, they won't turn out poorly- just richer!

Triple Chocolate Brownies

(from Taste.com.au, but I couldn't find the original link)

125 grams butter just over 1/2 cup
150 grams Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate (a BIG chocolate bar is about 200 grams, so I just used about 3/4 of it)
50 grams dark chocolate (using the same logic above, I used about a 1/4 of a big bar)
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon plain flour
1/4 cup self rising flour
125 grams chopped Cadbury Dream White Chocolate (I used closer to 140 grams) (almost 3/4 big bar)
125 grams chopped milk chocolate (I used closer to 140 grams) (same as above)

1. Pre heat oven to 170 degrees C (340 F).

2. Melt butter, 150 g milk chocolate and 50 g dark chocolate in large saucepan. Allow to cool 10 minutes.

3. Combine flours in a small bowl, set aside.

4. Stir sugar and eggs into chocolate/butter mixture.

5. Add flours and chopped chocolate and stir until combined. You can chop the chocolate as fine as you want-- if you want super chunky brownies, don't chop it fine. If you don't want chunks, chop it fine. Whatever floats your boat.

6. Spread into greased (I used butter) square cake pan. I used what would be close to an 8 x 8 pan so these brownies were really thick. If you wanted thinner brownies, use a bigger pan.

7. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.



Dig in!

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MS Colour Run

No, not color. We're in Australia. It wasn't the official "Color Run" that is coming to Sydney next month, but rather a fundraising effort for the MS foundation.

I was in Sydney last fall when The Color Run seemed to pop up on my Facebook feed every weekend, and I was super jealous of all of the fun that everyone seemed to be having. I missed the sign up for the race that's next month but jumped at the chance to do this event when my roommate told me about it.

The event itself was pretty disorganized- all conducted on sidewalks and through a busy tourist destination (Darling Harbour). There was no water and no "course" markings, and for a field of about 1,500 people or so there was no reason that it should take our group nearly 30 minutes to cross the Start line.




Let us go already!! We're too clean!

BUT, it was a fun 45 minutes or so. Our group chose to walk it (since there's really no point in running a non-timed, non-marked 5k) and had fun taking pictures of our colour progression.



First stop: purple. That's my roommate's sister, my roommate Es, and her boyfriend Tom.



Second stop: pink. Kind of looks the same, huh?



Blue!



Yellow!

All in all there were four color stops along the way, and a huge field at the end where you got to throw colored powder at each other. Since it was Australia day, everyone got a yellow and green packet of color to throw around. I must say-- this part was the most fun!



A few of my best friends throwing color around.



SO.MUCH.COLOR.

All in all, it was a good event. I don't think anyone took it seriously so it was fine that it really wasn't a "race" at all, or that no precautions were taken to make it appear like anything more than a morning walk. I'd be interested to see how it compares to the original event, but at the end of the day it raised money for a great cause and I got to get a little colourful on a Saturday.

Don't worry-- it mostly washes off.

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Three Hours I'll Never Get Back...

I was trying to be responsible. I really was. Seeing as I had to be up early Saturday for a Colour Run (yay!), when my roommate called early Friday evening to ask if I had any interest in seeing a play with her I hurriedly said yes.

A play -- that'd be awesome! I reckoned, and it wouldn't leave me hungover the next day for the event.

I wish I had a hangover.

We went to see "The Secret River," a play about a famous Australian book, and depicts the conflict and struggle between the English settlers and the Aboriginals in early day Australia. I had high hopes as it was at the Sydney Theatre Company, which until very recently was managed/directed by Cate Blanchett and her husband and has a reputation for being the best theatre company in Sydney.

Remember when you read "The Old Man and the Sea" for English class and wanted to fall asleep because it was so boring and drawn out? Pretty much an Australian version of that.

I'll spare you going to see it and tell you the story here. Time how long it takes you to read:

-Man steals in London, death sentenced is pardoned if he's willing to go to Australia and serve as a convict. Takes his family.
-Man gets pardoned and wants to stay because he can claim land. Wife is pissed, but agrees to 5 years in the bush with him.
-The bush life is hard. They sit around a lot. They get scared of the Aboriginals who wander onto their property. Try to explain that this is their land and to get off, but the language barrier is a bit tough.
-The son makes friends with two young Aboriginials. Gets whipped by Dad for it.
-More hard bush life.
-Aboriginals kill one of their friends.
-Man and his friends kill a bunch of Aboriginials.
-Man is remorseful but can now stay on his property without any worry or intruders.
-Symbolic end: man is now prosperous and stumbles across a homeless/down and out Aboriginal, tries to get him to move so he can help. Aboriginal says the land is his, and man gets that that's what he fought for not so long ago. End scene.

2 minutes? 3, max? That's how long the play should have been. Not three hours. After the first act (hour and a half) there had been nothing to indicate a firm story line or where the story would ultimately climax. I turned to my roommate and said "the wife's either going to die, or they're going to kill each other." Kind of like guessing an M. Night Shamalan ending after they became obvious, right?

After waiting another hour some action finally happened, but the entire play moved at such a glacial pace that I couldn't stop yawning and begging time to hurry up.

I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed the set and effects, but that's about all. I'm guessing this is a play better suited for someone more intellectual than myself?

Three hours I'll never get back......

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Virtual Training Partner and ParkRun results!

Week 1 of the Twilight Half training is in the books! How did I do?

Tuesday: 4 x 400s (with a warm up and cool down, plus some jogging in between).

Wednesday: 3 mile tempo run (with a warm up, no time for cooldown!)

Saturday: 5k ParkRun. Not on the training plan, but something "fun" to do.

Sunday: 11k of hell with the roomie. Not pictured because it was a slow painful death march to the finish.

All in all, a great week. I've found that the biggest thing with forcing myself to go "fast" is holding myself accountable to the plan. Last year I had the same goal: get a PR, but I didn't do any speedwork and as a result ended up 8 minutes off my PR in both half marathons.

But this go round? I've got a virtual training partner. Rick is a fellow manager at work and is training for the half as well. He lives in Brisbane so it's not like we could run together, but we both post our workouts to Instagram to keep each other accountable.

If you look closely, you'll notice that Rick is MUCH faster than I am, which has also been pushing me. He'll give me a call if I haven't posted my run for the day and we'll talk through paces and whatnot. The plan is for Rick to pace me to that shiny PR, on the condition that I do all of my training runs.

So yes, the speedwork kills me and today (4 x 800s at a 7:30 mile pace) I wanted to quit SO badly, but the thought of either 1) having to lie about my workout for the "world" to see or 2) having to admit that I cut it short was powerful enough to keep on trucking. Pretty? No. That's why this morning's photo wasn't even a picture of my face (follow me on jewalk85 on Instagram to see all of my workouts!!) and just my shoes. If you want to join, just add the hash tag #virtualtraining.

In other news, I got my snazzy email from ParkRun with my official results from Saturday.

How cool is that??? And how crazy is it that I was so far back and still the 19th woman? Lots of guys running I guess!

How do you keep yourself accountable for training?

Parkrun!

What was I doing at 7 am on a Saturday morning? Riding the metro out to do a 5k with a few friends, obviously.

They'd told me about Parkrun earlier in the week and it sounded like a cool idea, so I agreed. Sitting on the train this morning after a few too many drinks and some shitty sleep (thanks to the hottest day on record yesterday in Sydney--it was still over 90 well past midnight last night!) I was somewhat regretting my decision.

I'm so glad I pulled it together, though, because it's such a cool concept. Essentially Parkrun is a volunteer run organization that puts on a FREE 5k every Saturday morning. That's right-- no $30 absurd entry fee for the pleasure of running at a ridiculously early hour on the weekend.




Parkrun uses preprinted barcodes to track results. I am interested to see how their timing matches up to my Garmin, but at the end of the day if it's off a few seconds you can't really be upset. After you register on their site you get a barcode to print off, and after you cross the finish line, you are given a second barcode. A volunteer scans your finish barcode (numbered from 1-however many people run that day) and then scans your personal barcode. All of the information gets uploaded and sent to you so you can see where you ranked in the field and your time. And they track your historic results, too, so you can see if you're getting better!


You just print out the barcode before leaving your house and you're good to go!

I have 12k on the training docket for tomorrow, but I was still interested to see how fast I could run "just" a 5k. What is it about the 5k distance that makes me think I'll be able to knock out sub 8 miles all of a sudden? Yeah, keep dreaming. While the park was beautiful there were also a number of hills, including one that would rival Heartbreak Hill in Boston.

Not ashamed to say I took that puppy head on.....by walking. Mad thanks to the volunteer at the top snapping pictures. I can't wait to see myself not hustling amongst all of the people who were.

I still managed to do ok even with the big hill and another quick walking break (seriously, what? I can't remember the last time I walked TWICE in a 5k- I'm blaming the booze).



It broke down like this: 8:03 for the first mile, 9:01 for the second (big ass hill walking included), and 8:35 for the last mile. I'm still trying to figure out how to stop my watch and indicate I'm finished with the workout, so I kept starting and stopping the watch after I'd finished. Smarty pants right here.

I wanted to die when I finished, and I pretty much looked like it, too:



Don't worry, I'm working on the double chin. All in good time.

Parkrun is all over the world, but oddly enough only has one club in the US. It's in a random city in Michigan, so doubtful you've ever heard of it. I'm not sure what it takes to get one started, but there are over 2,000 clubs across the world so I'm guessing it's not too difficult to get it started.

I'm excited to go back to try to conquer the hill and I hope to start volunteering as well. It was a lot of fun, and a great way to kick off the weekend!

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Taking the Bus???

Isn't it funny how there are different cultural perceptions wherever you go?

Take riding the bus as an example-- in DC it's reserved for (mostly sketchy) areas that don't have access to the Metro system. They're dirty, they don't run on time, and you've got to watch your bag really close while you're on them.

I'll admit that I was skeptical of the buses here in Sydney based on my perceptions. It wasn't until my sister came to visit about 3 months into my trip that I took a bus. And guess what-- it was clean, efficient and got us where we need to go. Here in Sydney the metro doesn't connect a large part of the city, so EVERYONE takes the bus. It's normal.

This week there's another American in the office visiting and on our way to dinner on Wednesday I told him we had to take the bus. He stopped dead in his tracks. "The BUS? Are you serious? Do we have to?" No exaggeration, I promise.

I assured him it would be ok (and that it was the bus or a $50 cab ride) and just like I expected, he survived. So much so that he said he'd take the bus again.

Don't judge a book by a cover? I think so.

Let the training begin!

It's officially 10 weeks out until the Brisbane Twilight Half Marathon- time to get training!

The plan I picked is 10 weeks long, so this will be my third week doing week one of training. That's fine, as the first week I totally didn't make it 6 miles on the weekend and this past week I was settling back into life on the other side of the world and cut the weekday runs a bit short. Third time's a charm?

I did manage to get all 6 miles done on Sunday though, and surprised myself at the "speed" at which I finished.




Shiny new toy that I took out for the first time! I may have been flying because I purposely spent about 20 minutes figuring out a flat route to run in Sydney. Yep, I'm lazy and I hate running on even the smallest incline.

Check it out- I promise you if you come to Sydney and run this you'll be treated to 98% flat, 1% downhill and a baby 1% uphill. And yep, this is walking to the start point (my apartment is at the bottom of a hill) and finishing riiiight before a giant hill. And then walked another mile home to avoid the hills. Ain't no shame!



I just found out that one of my roomies is super fast-- by that I mean she ran a 1:46 on the HILLY Sydney half marathon course last year. She wants to go running on Sunday. I'm scared. But hopefully this new training plan and running with faster people will give me that shiny new PR?

Here's hoping!

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Strippers at Dinner

On Saturday I experienced two of my firsts in Sydney: something free, and a stripper. Both at dinner. Try and trump that combination, please.

We'll get to the stripper bit but finding something for free in Sydney really is more monumental than some sort of "fireman" dancing around.

My roommate was kind enough to invite me to a friend's birthday dinner at Cafe Pacifico, a cute little Mexican place in Darlinghurst. The interior reminded me of a Mexican place back home- LOUD, lots of colors and tons of tequila everywhere. I told my roommate I didn't like tequila before we went, and she said that was better kept a secret while we were there.

Uh oh, I'm in trouble

Thank goodness I was able to order a Sangria and stay under the radar with the tequila loving crew that was there!

Anywho, this is the first place in Sydney that I've been to that gives you something for free. Other "mexican" places in the area don't give you delicious chips and salsa, but Cafe Pacifico gives you a bowl when you sit down. Score! I tried to share with the rest of the table, but I hoovered these things pretty hard. Sadly, once you were through there wasn't even the option to get another basket

Yummy in my tummy

Cafe Pacifico is a great option for large groups- for any group over 6 people they require that you do a set menu. I don't know of any other place that requires this, but it's pretty genius. It's a flat amount per person so no haggling over split bills, and it doesn't waste time everyone trying to go through the menu. I thought $45 a person for a few appetizers and faijitas was a LITTLE steep, but I guess this is Sydney? Here's a close up of the fajita bar-- again, genius. I wonder how many of these they go through in a night?

If you've been holding your breath for my other first of the evening, you're in luck. As I said, this was a first for me. I honestly thought there was a fire emergency at first but as soon as the music came on I knew I was in for a giggle. Having recently seen Magic Mike, though, I was a bit disappointed in the "dancing" moves. Also super creeped out at the lack of body hair. Good news is that I don't feel the slightest inclination to have to see one of these guys again-- score on not having to pay to see the stripper!

If you can't see much, sorry for not standing in the front and being short.

I was able to hold off the tequila crowd for most of the night, but eventually succumbed to a shot. Check it out:

Impressive, right? And yeah, that's pre drinking it- 1/4 shot all for me! I still think I almost puked on this guy- I will leave the tequila to crazy people and stick with other things!

Seriously though, I dare you to top my Saturday night "free-dom" fest.

My Morning Commute

I am really digging not having to use public transport to get to work-- I COULD, but when you have a walk like mine why would you fork over $3.50 each way?

True, my walk each morning is about 40 minutes and contains several hills, but it's a much calmer start to the day than when I depended on WMATA for my transport.

Here are some pictures of my views along the way:

All laced up and ready to go-- I did the first day in sandals and my poor feet were not pleased with me. Definitely need the sneaks!

So many sailboats and a park kick off my walk. In the morning there are usually plenty of puppies going for walks and in the afternoon plenty of soccer teams and bootcamps going on in the park. Both give me different reasons to smile ;)

First set of stairs on the journey. These are the "baby" ones-- oof! After I'm huffing and puffing at the top of the stairs it's uphill for the next few blocks.

This sign is at the top of the uphill on the side of a building- always makes me laugh for some reason (maybe it's my lungs gasping for breath).

Around the corner and down the street to the top of the second flight of stairs- definitely need a fence here because there's a huge drop off to the road below. Not a bad view of the bridge/Opera House/Finger Wharf is it?

And in the other direction, a nice view of the city skyline. Sydney, you're pretty.

Down the steps and toward the city, strolling past the finger wharf and impressive boats. I'd really like to be able to walk out of my apartment onto my yacht, wouldn't you?

Up another flight of stairs (not pictured, because that would be boring- but they're yellow so that's a bit of sunshine while I'm puffing) and into the Domain- Sydney's gardens. 

Emerge from the gardens, hang a right and you're in the city! Just down this road and you're at the office- piece of cake.

I'm sure the commute will get old at some point, but for now I'm enjoying getting a little bit of fresh air and getting my heart rate up a bit each day.