Go Cats!

I’m starting to resent the grand final – I want to go to the Lululemon shop on Chapel St today but realised I can’t cos of the traffic.  Damn you again Punt Rd.  I have never lived anywhere in Melbourne where I haven’t had a footy ground interfere with me getting around.  What was wrong with Waverley, dudes?

I’ve been productive this morning, making a half marathon mega mix playlist.  I took a leaf from Andrew’s book and put in some slower songs.  How wacky is this?  I just slapped random songs into the file and it came out at 2.5 hours – my goal time.  Is that a sign?  Well it’s a sign that I can’t skip any songs on my list, that’s for sure.  I’ll post it so you can all say “golly you are so cool with your music taste, Kathryn”.

Thursday

I ran home from the gym today – nothing unusual about that esp since it’s only 1-2 km from home – except that it’s the first time I’ve ever ran with a bag.  I had this idea that I couldn’t run while I was carrying anything.  I think I could this idea because Simon said he couldn’t.  Curse him, he thinks he can boss everyone just because Simon Says.

I thought I’d try it out for myself and challenge my preconceived limitation, and I can totally do it.  That rocks.  I had my sling style gym bag so I had to stop and adjust the velcro strap so it didn’t move around so much but other than that, it wasn’t a problem.  Sure it’s easier to run without it but it’s no biggie.  Now if I have to go into the city or if I start working closer to home (cos I sure as hell aint running 30 kms to work), I know I can run with a bag.

Okay, I have a big decision to make about this weekend – where to go to watch the grand final.  We’ve been interviewing a few pubs, seeing what they have on offer, but have yet to settle on one.  The bar around the corner has a huge screen TV but they are charging $1 for sausages – good luck with that when every other pub has a free bbq – and the staff are surly.  Two pubs up the road have free bbqs and good beer specials but one of them is always filled with Collingwood supporters and I’m not sure what the TV is like at the other one.  I’m sure last year some of the pubs had half time footy trivia quizzes – I’d put good money on my sister in that.

I’m off to yoga now – so much for taking an easy week.

Wednesday

So today I was going through my diary and realised that the half marathon is NEXT WEEKEND!  Oh my dog!  When I read that I had an unfamiliar feeling in my gut so I pulled it out and examined it (not literally because yuck).  It wasn’t fear or trepidation or panic.  Nope, it was excitement.  Who’d have thought?  I’ve been so busy thinking about all the things that are going wrong and all the things that could possibly go wrong between now and next weekend that I’d forgotten the fun part of it.

I’m going to buy a new running top this weekend so I have time to try it out beforehand.  I’m particularly motivated cos I saw the photos of me from the Spring into Shape run.  I look like a dog.  A big, fat dog.  Seriously.  A big, fat red-faced dog.  I’m not linking to them cos I LOOK LIKE A DOG.  I’m also getting a massage on the weekend – fitting it in before the grand final.

Other than that, things are normal.  My contract at work is never going to end.  I’m never going to get to Apollo Bay.  If I don’t finish soon, I’ll have to start looking for another job the minute my contract ends because if I’m not working by November then I’ll not get any work until Feburary — no one puts on contractors over Christmas.  Although 3 months off work could be okay… mmm… sun, beach, lolling around…

Yahs!

Just a quick update cos I went for my run – at Princes Park – and did an easy 9 kms   Yes, easy… prolly the best run I’ve had in the past 2-3 weeks.  It’s a real confidence boost.

Running Pains

Tonight I’m going for a run with my running buddy, Simon.  Every week we have the same argument – he wants to go to the Tan and I want to go to Princes Park.  The Tan is on his way home from work so it’s easier for him but, since I finish work earlier than he does, I have to go home then drive to the Tan… down Punt Rd.  I’d rather stick rusty needles in my eyes than drive down Punt Rd.  I’d rather eat rancid custard, I’d rather… you get the drift.  It is the most insane road in the world.  I’d go via the backstreets and avoid it altogether if I thought my car could jump, Dukes of Hazzard style, across the Yarra.

We really, really need to find somewhere else to go running.  Like Princes Park

Monday

Went to the gym tonight then the supermarket so I have food – yahs!  I’d cut my gym time down cos my landlord was coming over (not my actual landlord, the daughter who collects the rent – I call her the rent girl).  She cracked the shits about me being late – cos you know I should order my life around her, and about other stuff so I cracked it about this house being a hovel and told her to STFU and if she wanted to do shit, she could go through the legal channels.  What a ho, making us miss the Brownlow.

Okay so we would have been home on time if we’d not hung around the gym watching the skanks arrive for the Brownlow, but who can resist badly dressed skanks?  This is my fashion tip just in case you are ever  invited to the Brownlow medal count – if the only chance you have of being seen is when you are walking down the red carpet, don’t wear a red dress.  That goes doubly when your bleached blonde hair is the same colour as the wood behind you.  Oh and Chelsea Sheedy, your outfit would shame Britney.  Rebecca looked lovely though.

I can’t believe I even watched the Brownlow.  Or cared.  Football, it’s awfully addictive.

Thanks for all the supportive comments re the half.  It really helps.

I’m not sure about going to Iron Maiden now – the tickets are $150.  That’s a lot of money.

Sunday

Went for a run today – not 14 km like I intended, more like 6-7 km.  Simon and I were both weak today.  Me from just general weakness and Simon because he was very naughty last night.  It didn’t help that I kept collapsing from laughter at Simon’s stories about his naughtiness!

When we started running, I’d almost convinced myself that I’m going to only do 10 km instead of the half marathon, almost talked myself into it, then I had flash - I CAN do the half.  I think most of my worries stem from negative thinking – my own plus my physio then other people telling me to be careful – blah, blah, blah.  The more I’ve been thinking I can’t do it, the worse my running has become over the past few weeks.

It was crazy, busy at Princes Park today because of the VFL grand final (and yikes, I not only knew it was on but knew who was playing – my increasing football knowledge scares me.  I don’t yet know who won though).  After the run, I wanted to pick up my PS2 from Andrew then go to the supermarket.  Well, that proved impossible – and this will only make sense if you know the Northern suburbs of Melbourne – since there was a music festival on in High St and the Bell St-Plenty Rd intersection was closed.  I got to Andrew’s okay, albeit slowly but the only supermarkets I could get near were the ones in Preston.  Since the Northern footy league had their grand final (I’m assuming since it was so insane), you couldn’t park anywhere near those supermarkets.

My only option was the one on Smith St and I refuse to go there so the supermarketing can wait for another day.  What kind of morons agree to having 2 footy grand finals, a music festival blocking a major street and some other crap blocking a major intersection on the same day?  It makes my head explode.

Plans?

Last night I’d planned to go for a run after work, but ended up at my fave cafe for a coffee and not getting home for 6 hours (when they chucked us out so they could close — well actually they had closed, they kicked us out so they could go to bed).   We’d also planned to go see Stardust at the movies but obviously didn’t make it.

I did manage a run this morning, a lousy awful run of 4 kms (and had to walk some of that).  I decided to ditch my usual 5 km around the block run cos I’m bored shitless with it and go along the Merri Creek trail instead and, since it’s all concrete bike paths, I really didn’t want to push it and hurt my leg/glute any more.

After that, I went out for brunch (well I had to get away from the horribly addictive music quiz on facebook) at the same cafe.  Then we had a plan – into the city to buy my dress from Target (I’ve been to two suburban stores this week and neither had it), buy a book I wanted from Borders and go to the movies.

Well the dress looked all kinds of shit – it was that horrible, cheap, thin t-shirt fabric and clung in the wrong places; Borders didn’t have the book I wanted and my sister felt really sick so we skipped the movie.  I thought I could salvage something out of the trip by buying Singstar but EB had their EFTPOS machine down and I didn’t have enough cash on me!

Oh well, we got a few chuckles out of it and things have to start going to plan tomorrow

My Baby’s So Vain…

Sometimes I think that despite losing weight, I’ve not changed at all in the important things – how I perceive myself and my whole self-image, then something happens that makes me realise that I’ve definitely had some healthy shifts in attitude.

The other day we passed a sign for a gym in my area and their big selling point was “No Mirrors”.  The old me would have been all – “yahs!  gym with no mirrors.”  On certain days, when the moon is right and the stars align, I might even have thought ‘No, how can I check out my makeup*/hair/legs?’  But instead of all these appearance-focussed thoughts, my initial reaction was ‘OMG, that’s so wrong!  How can you do weights properly if you can’t check your form?  That’s just plain dangerous.’

A small but pivotal change, I think.

 * I NEVER wear makeup to the gym, well not on purpose anyways.  Sometimes I have incidental work makeup and that’s embarassing enough.

***

I’m going to see Stardust tonight (after a run cos I was too lazy to go before work).  The rest of the weekend – well I’ve decided the month of ME needs to focus on creating a better living space this weekend. 

• I’m getting rid of all the stuff I don’t need – either throwing things out or taking them to my storage space – and rearranging furniture. 
• I want to create a really nice area for doing weights & yoga at home.  I’ve finally got my dvd player working on my laptop so I can use my yoga dvds.
• I’m going to “Spring” things up – make the room more open and breezy.  I put nice summery bed linen on the bed last week and that made me very happy, a few weeks ago I ruthlessly weeded out my underwear drawer.  This weekend I’m going to put more time into doing stuff like that.  I really need to go through my wardrobe.  Hell, I might even clean out the fridge.

After that, I want to focus the rest of my month of ME on making me beautiful.  Does anyone know anything about tattoo makeup?  I have sparse spots on my eyebrows and have been considering it to save drawing them on (I’m not, as a certain friend suggested, thinking of anchors or love hearts – not on the brows anyway).

Rocks

You know what is awesome?  My son is giving me his PS2 for my birthday.  He loaned it to me a while ago and I got hooked on Guitar Hero and then he took it back and I was very sad, but now he’s giving it to me for keeps.  I’m going to get Singstar on the weekend.  Ha ha, my housemates are going to suffer!

He also told me that Rage Against the Machine have announced their tour.  Since they are playing Jan 30th, it’s almost certain they will play the Big Day Out so I’ll go see them there rather than their side show.  I can’t wait — what am I going to wear?

I feel sick from eating too much today.  I’ve been on a bit of a carb bender, god knows why.  I haven’t even wanted to eat but just hit that wall and broke through it… well eaten through it, I guess.

I got home from work tonight and went straight to bed, suffering from exhaustion.  There is something definitely wrong with me – all I want to do is sleep.  I woke up in time to go to yoga though.  I did think about skipping it but I missed the class last week due to going to dinner.  My yoga teacher does some kind of Bowen therapy to fix up muscle imbalances and stuff like that so I talked to her about it.  She said to definitely wait until after the half marathon, which makes sense.

Tomorrow I can go for a short run – woohoo!