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. 

Tips for the Long Haul

I made it! Back in Sydney after about 30 hours of travel. I've done a "long haul" flight 8 times in the past 7 months (I'm not sure what the airlines classify as long haul, but I'm guessing anything over about 10 hours?). From DC to the west coast to Sydney it's about 20 hours of flying all told, with the bulk (15ish hours) coming in the "haul" from the west coast to Oz.

I don't have enough miles yet to even qualify to LOOK at first class and can't imagine how many long hauls you'd need to take to be automatically bumped up, so I've had to come to terms with the long travel day, stale airplane air and gross airport food. No, it's not the best day of your life but it can be bearable.

Here are some of my tips for making the long haul more your friend:

1. Mentally prepare. I kind of tell myself that the flights are just like parking my butt on the couch for a Saturday and watching TV/dozing/eating crappy food all day long. It kind of works, especially because most airlines (cough, cough United and your in-aisle TVs) have individual TV sets that have hundreds of choices between movies, TV shows, podcasts etc. Since I'm not a huge movie buff it always means I get to hang out and watch some "new" releases and chick flicks. If you go into these trips anxious and thinking you'll hate sitting long enough to develop bed sores, you're going to fail at the long haul. Long live laziness!

2. Stay up late the night before you fly. Not insanely late, but late enough so your body is a bit cranky at you the next day. This will help you get to sleep when you finally get past the west coast.

3. The morning of your long day of flying drink a big ass cup of coffee. Again, you can't sleep before you're over the Pacific (I'm mean, I'm sure you could but that would be really really stupid) so might as well be charged up so you don't accidentally snooze early.

4. Chug water like it's your business the days before you fly as well as the day of and during. Seriously, act like a camel and pack it in-- I try to get one of those giant Smart Waters and will refill as often as I can. Ask the stewardesses to fill up your water bottle instead of those small cups. They usually will roll their eyes but will give in. The more you drink, the less crappy you'll feel after landing.

5. When you get to the west coast east something substantial. I don't care if you ate a Big Mac before you boarded in Atlanta, you don't want to be woken up by your stomach growling on the plane. And a full stomach makes me real sleepy, so it's kind of like a mini sleeping pill.

6. For goodness sake, STAND while you can. I don't get the people sitting down before boarding a 15 hour flight. I'm sorry- do you not realize you're going to be trapped for quite some time? Let those legs stretch out while you can, and if you're not embarrassed do some stretching at the gate.

7. Get a sleeping pill. Doesn't have to be prescription, just something that will do the trick. Sleeping pills affect everyone differently and it's taken me awhile to figure out what works for me-- I've come to the conclusion that if the box says take 1-2 pills, 1 is for sleeping in a bed and 2 has to be for uncomfortable situations like an airplane. Has to be (or maybe for a large overweight man). If you can figure out the appropriate dosage you will be looking at cutting off 8-9 hours of the flight time. That only leaves you time for 2 new releases!

8. When you get on the long haul, they'll serve "dinner" about 1 1/2 hours after take off. If you don't get to sleep before dinner you're looking at another hour or so of hearing the dishes clang and smelling whatever unappetizing tinfoil box they're putting in front of you. Get on the plane, get comfy, start a movie, and pop your sleeping pills.

The time passed pretty quickly this go round for me, mainly because I had Wi-Fi from the east to west coast and because I slept for 9-10 hours of the long haul. Easy peasy, right?


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My First Two Real Runs

I've been a "runner" for more than 10 years now-- I've run two marathons, a handful of half marathons and done countless runs on the treadmill, around the track and on various trails.

But I've never done a real workout, or adopted a training plan that isn't purely "run x miles." In keeping with one of my resolutions for 2013 to set a new PR, I decided to tackle my upcoming half marathon a little bit differently (I signed up for the Twilight Half in Brisbane).

I had two requirements when I was searching for a plan: I only want to run 3 days a week and I wanted to find a plan that incorporated more speedwork. I stumbled across this plan from Runner's World and really liked that not only did it fit both requirements but that it also spelled out how to tackle all of the workouts and with what speed for me. Had I had to figure out how fast to attempt my 4 x 400s yesterday they for SURE would have been a lot slower.

Image Source

To figure out your pace for the workouts, you simply look at the chart Runner's World has provided to know how fast you'll need to run each mile on race day. Using that, you then base the speed work and tempo runs around that number. Now, I haven't run three consecutive miles in quite awhile (I've been doing more interval type runs) so I used the chart as a guideline-- ideally I'd like to run the half in under 1:50, but I used the 1:53:38 mile pace as my guide yesterday and today. I figure I can always get faster as training progresses?

Image Source

Let me tell you......both runs were tough. I guess that's the idea, right? 

Yesterday's "real" run: Five minute warm up at 6.5 MPH, 4 x 400 at 8.1 MPH with 2 minutes walking at 4.0 between each interval, 5 minute cool down

Today's "real" run: Five minute warm up at 6.0 MPH, 3 miles at 7.1 MPH, 5 minute cool down at 6.0

The first 10 minutes of today's run were great.....the rest of it was a struggle. I just kept telling myself "you don't want to have to blog that you walked" and that seemed to work! 

I'm excited that this plan will give me enough time to cross train with Body Pump and yoga, and hopefully push me enough to get close to or break my previous PR.

What training plan do you use to train? How have you shaved time off your mile?

Happy 2013!

Happy 2013! I rang in the new year with a few close friends last night at one of my friend's chocolate shop in Alexandria.

It was a pretty perfect night- sparkly dresses, best friends from college, Cards Against Humanity (best game ever) and a last minute scramble to find the Times Square countdown online. Am I the only person who really likes watching all of the performers and commentary going on in Times Square? If I don't see an official countdown and the ball dropping it's hard for me to say Happy New Year.

I find the transition from one year to the next to be fairly non-significant. It is just another day, although it is nice to think that you've got a clean slate each January. 2012 was both a great and frustrating year, and who knows what 2013 will bring. Kind of fun to guess at where things will be this time next year?

Anywho, I do have a few goals for this year- a mix of silly and serious and a few that won't really make a difference if I don't accomplish them. It's the first time I've put my resolutions/goals out there for the world to see, so here's hoping that makes me stick to them better!

1. Save. A lot. I'd really really like to buy a place in the next two years, but saving for the down payment in DC for the type of place that I want (nice and not in a crummy part of town) has been a bit of a marathon attempt. I'm SO close to having enough saved to begin looking seriously when I get back from Australia, and I don't want to be disappointed next year and feeling like I have to save for another full year.

2. Make a budget and stick to it. This ties closely to number one. Sydney is an EXPENSIVE city, so if I don't budget I have a feeling I won't be able to save much at all. I'm actually pretty excited for the challenge of writing down all of my expenses and what I think I can comfortably live on each week and to see how closely I can stick to it. I'll be posting my budget when I finalize it and giving a weekly update-- knowing that the internet will be able to check up on me is going to be a powerful incentive to stick to it!

3. Take five trips. I know I want to go to New Zealand, Great Barrier Reef, Uluru, and somewhere in Asia while I'm living in Australia. The fifth trip can be anywhere else, but I think I'll really kick myself if I don't carve out time to experience everything living down under has to offer. I'd REALLY like to go on a trip into the Outback, but every time I propose this I just get a bunch of laughs???

4. Wear heels at least once a month. I hate heels. More specifically I hate how they make my knees feel the next morning. But I love how they make my legs look. Narcissistic? Yep. I figure I wore heels maybe 5-6 times in 2012 so once a month seems pretty reasonable.

5. Do a handstand. This has been on my "to-do" list for a few years. No clue why I want to do one, and no clue how you go about trying to learn how to do one, but I'm making 2013 the year I'll finally get it done.

6. Set a new PR. I don't care what distance, but I want to do more races this year and I want to do them faster. My "personal bests" are all from about 3-4 years ago when I was running a lot more so I'm thinking this may be my toughest goal for the year. My first race is at the end of March and is a half marathon-- based on what I did at the Brooklyn half in May in 2012, I'd have to run 9 minutes faster to get a PR. I have a problem of not pushing myself hard enough, so I'm excited to try a new running group in Sydney and to hopefully find some fast friends to help me push myself further.

7. Eat organic meat. Yes, it's more expensive, but as I read and watch more about the various meat industries and get more and more grossed out I know it's better for me to commit to not eating the gross stuff. Based on what I think my grocery budget's going to be, I think this means eating more of a vegetarian diet with the occasional "meat splurge." Am I going to refuse meat that's not organic? No. Do I think that I'll realistically be able to stick to this 100%? No, but I am going to bite the bullet as often as I can to only buy organic meat.

8. Say yes more. My friend Kelly and I were talking last night, and she brought this up- the idea of saying yes to friends, yes to families, yes to experiences over a set schedule or plan. I'm terrible at this-- if I've got something in my mind that I need to do or want to do and someone asks me to do something I'll usually say no in favor of my plan. So I want to say yes more, especially in a new city where saying yes can lead to making friends and making sure I don't regret missing out when I leave.

There you have it- my goals for making sure that 2013 is the best year yet.

What are yours?