New Blog :(

Hi,

It’s been a long time since I posted here. Mostly because I have been busy having a rad life and enjoying myself immensely!

But sadly I have started a new blog. Because I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Boo.

If you are one bit interested in what has been happening for me, you can read about it over here:

https://cancerinthetropics.wordpress.com

Cheers

Clair

Bad Blogger. Good PhD Student.

Tags

health, PhD, Running, Student

I’m still here. I have been pouring all my words and energy into my PhD. Four weeks till submission. Four weeks.

Haven’t run. Have put on weight. Am so close to finishing this crazy thing. Just. Want. To. Finish.

Hungry

Tags

healthy-living, Jillian Michael, Running

Is it just me or do all the ladies out there get ravenously hungry before Lady Time??

All I wanted today was something salty. I stayed away from junk and made a killer beef and black bean dish with steamed veg and rice for dinner. It totally solved my cravings. I’m planning to have a peppermint tea and some strawberries with yoghurt for dessert. Strawberries are in season here at the moment and they are stupidly cheap. We cannot get enough 🙂

So in my quest to get back into running, I did a quick Jillian Michaels workout this morning with husband. It feels good to have done some strength training as its been ages since I worked out properly. There was enough leg work to feel the burn but not enough to blow out my legs. Good thing as I cannot wait for tomorrow’s run……

 

Running, not running, and life

Tags

Hal Higdon, Running

So, since I bought my treadmill, I have barely been on here. Life has been mental. Working full time is hard enough without a phd thesis that is still not written hanging over my head. Getting time to blog has been near impossible.

But I am still here.

On the running front, I have been very haphazard with my kms this year. I started off with big ambitions, and then a series of excuses got in my way. I know I could have run more, I just didn’t feel like it. The runs I did weren’t great, they didn’t suck either. I just didn’t have my running mojo. Till I had to do one of my races….

Yeah, remember me bragging about my race calendar last year ? Well, so far I have done 2 of my 5km races.

Twilight Run

Here is my first ever race bib. Cute!

Twilight run was an event at St Lucia, where you could register for 5km, 10km or a half marathon. I sensibly chose the 5km. I met up with a friend there and we went for it. 41 sweaty exhausted minutes later I had completed my first official race. My time was crap (because I had not been training) but I was elated! I even got a medal.

Participation medal anyone?

Tragically, as the half marathon was about to start, a huge storm was bearing down on Brisbane. Without knowing the details fully, all I can say is that the race continued despite extreme weather alerts, and sadly a man lost his life. He was hit by a falling tree and could not be revived. I am sure that everybody who ran that day feels sick in their stomach like I do that this could have happened. Absolutely terrible.

Team Pinkie

Team Pinkie is an organisation that, in order to raise money for breast cancer research, hold fun runs and triathlons. Again, I chose the 5km. Went slower than the twilight run. In my defence, there were hills, which you all know are my nemesis. And lets not forget the lack of training. Ahem…..

This is what they look like hanging in my living room. Yep, I am that proud of them!

So yes I have been running but no I have not been running. Its weird.

Last week I started a nifty little running program I found to prepare for my upcoming 14km. Don’t forget I have never ever ever run further than 5km and with the freakishly slow race times I am pulling, this 14km could take half a day. So, after a mini freakout, I sought advice from Hal Higdon and commenced a training plan. Everything was going swimmingly till this week (I do realise this is week 2 – SO LAME!) when I was struck down with a nasty head cold that kept me out of action all week. I am so bummed. Next week, I need to smash it. Seriously there is like 8 weeks till I have to do 14km and right now I am struggling with 5….. YIKES!!

In other news. My new job is a royal pain in the ass. I love my job but one of the people I work with is doing my head in. Its gotten so bad, I had to seek advice from a manager and now its a HR issue. Poo. I really hate being in this situation. And the PhD is like a bad dream that I just cant wake up from. I am going to see my supervisor soon and see if I can change the format to publications only. Im desperate about it. Ugh. But really, these things are just things I have to deal with, the rest of my life is going well, I really look forwards to my weekends and chilling out with husband. We have been a bit lazy with all my dramas going on, but it has been awesome to take time out and talk things over with him – he is my best friend after all 🙂

Husband and I are going to Melbourne next week. Its a gorgeous city in the south of Australia, which means it will be colder than here. Good for fashion! Im excited!

So, tell me, what do you do when you really need to train and everything is getting in your way? Any Tips? Suggestions?

 

 

At a Marathon? Really????

Tags

Boston Marathon, Marathon, Running

Yesterday, I woke up and did what I always do, check the news.

Unbelievable. A bomb. At a marathon. What kind of fucked up is that?

My first thought was, who would target runners? Then I realised, the injured and killed were spectators (correct me if I am wrong….). Friends and family supporting people finishing one of life’s big achievements.  It’s so many kinds of awful.

There are already much more eloquent words out there expressing the thoughts we all have inside: our pain, our shock, our disbelief, our anger, our bewilderment.

All I can say, is: Look after one another.

Life is telling me to slow down.

Tags

health, healthy-living, Running

I hurt my back. AGAIN. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to do this. It was my fault and I am pissed cos I have been in agony for days. I went to see a massage therapist and got some acupuncture which always helps so much. I have been eating Voltaren like lollies. I AM SO OVER HURTING MY BACK.  I feel like my body is telling me to chill out, take some rest and recuperation. So I am bonding with my new heatpack and chilling out.

I make this promise to myself here and now. I will do my strengthening exercises every day to prevent this from happening again. There, its a wordpress promise now – you can’t break a wordpress promise …..

In very excellent news, I got my blood test results back and I am not celiac nor do I have any other issues. I got a clean bill of health and am pretty stoked. Cholesterol, kidney function, liver function, all great. I can thank my cleaner living lifestyle for that. Thanks healthy eating.

No running cos of stupid back pain. I am going to try some deep water running on Saturday to get some exercise in without aggravating it. Then another massage on Tues.

I can’t wait to have a post where I am not complaining. It feels like all my recent musings have been negative. I have to say, its been a weird month for the first part of 2013. I know it is just a phase, but I want to see some “YAY” get back into my life.

Is anybody else having a weird 2013??

RB.

An Ex Cyclone, A Flood, A PhD Meltdown and A Run

Tags

Ex Cyclone, Flood, Meltdown, PhD, Running

So remember my last post. I was relatively optimistic that the ex cyclone bearing down on us was no big deal. How naive.

Turns out we got smashed. Sideways rain for a day and a half. Winds up to 120km an hour, minor flooding in our living room, trees breaking in our backyard. The neighbourhood looks demented even now, even one week on. There is so much dead tree vegetation everywhere, trees fallen over, huge branches everywhere. It needs a massive cleanup.

To add insult to injury, our city and neighbouring city Ipswich flooded again. In 2011 there was a big flood that damaged thousands of homes and in comparison, this one was small. But a flood is a flood and lots of businesses on the river front in Brisbane city were badly damaged. There is nothing like that weird waiting to see how high it will go. Eery.

Our fellow Queenslanders north of us in Bundaberg, Rockhampton and all the small outback communities have really borne the brunt of this. Bundaberg north has only today allowed citizens in to inspect the damage, Rockhampton is bracing for a 8.7m flood. Its so heartbreaking to see all these people in evacuation centres and the frightening images of homes swept away by floodwaters. Literally floating away. So sad.

Its the same up and down the east coast of Australia, and many places have been damaged. This type of weather event is super weird and it really took everybody by surprise; in intensity, duration and reach. In my opinion, these weird events confirm that Climate Change is real, happening now and inescapable. My hope is that world governments can agree on mitigation strategies for communities that will suffer the most from rising sea levels and unpredictable extreme weather events.

In other news, I experienced a ‘rite of passage’ this week concerning my PhD. I got feedback on my first two chapters. Not bad, but not great. I completely lost my shit for a day. Bawling my eyes out. Major self doubt. Felt like giving up and running away from it all. My darling husband talked me down. I recognise now the classic symptoms of a meltdown but yesterday as it was happening it felt too real, too raw and too huge to enable me to calm the fuck down. My eyes puffed up and I looked and felt like shit by the time I crawled into bed last night.

My standard advice to anybody feeling bleh is to go for a run. So I took my own advice and hit the streets this morning, dodging tree debris and just running for the sake of it. It has been weeks since I last ran due to bad weather and flooding so it was not fast, nor lovely to watch but it was so cathartic. I needed to sweat it out, have some time for myself and to recognise that a PhD crises is a very unique first world problem and I need to get a grip. I feel much better now. Much better.

So in all, a mental week. I am happy it is over – for me at least.

I hope you all kicked some goals this week and had fun:) That is going to be my motto for next week….

Over and out: Runninbear

PS There is going to be a Color Run here! You know I am going to enter. Yes I am!!

There’s an ex cyclone in our backyard.

Tags

Archaeology, outdoors, ParkRun, Running

Well, lots to tell.

I was out in the wild this week. Like no phone reception, using a GPS to get around “in the wild”. It was super fun. Lots of walking, lots of flies, a bit of interesting archaeology and tons of laughs with some of the traditional owners of the land we were working on. No running as we were working early to finish early as the temps were up around 41 degrees Celcius at 11am. I was totally exhausted by the time we got back. Fell into bed super early. Yay!

I did get out for a parkrun last Saturday, it was mediocre. Not the event, but me. I have to learn to run without music, as I stuffed around for ages trying to fix my tunes – first I could not hear anything, then it was skipping and carrying on. I ended up bailing on the last km as I was dripping in sweat and was over it.

This weekend, there is an ex tropical cylcone north of us. We are unlikely to get too much drama down here in Brisbane, but it has been wet for 2 days now. The rain is going to be nutso tonight and then keep raining till Tuesday. I need to get out there and smash a run. Maybe there will be a break in the weather that I can sneak out. Or just suck it up and run in the rain. Poo. I really don’t like getting rained on.

It is Australia day here today, so we are heading to a bbq. Thats a Barbecue for my non aussie readers. Its basically a day where people get super drunk and forget our colonial beginnings. It is often called Survival Day or Invasion day by Indigenous Australians. Check out Twitter for some alternative voices about what Australia Day means for Indigenous people over here…. @LukePearson and @AnitaHeiss are a good place to start.

Well, not much else to report, hopefully a run will be the main star of my next post. Hope all of you had an awesome week, and get out for a run this weekend

Cheers

Runninbear

Sick Part 2

Tags

health, healthy-living, ParkRun, Running

You know, I thought I had nailed it. Took the antibiotic bomb, got back to normal then boom. Back to sick and in a theatrical and spectacular way. Gastro is evil. EVIL.

Went to the doctors on Wednesday, got more antibiotics and he asked lots of q’s about how my body responds to different foods. He thought I might have coeliac disease, which I freaking hope not as I love love love my pasta, although it often makes me feel blah.

Waiting for the blood tests to come back. Not overly concerned unless it is true, THEN I WILL FREAK OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Till then, its thesis and hopefully a parkrun on Saturday. Its been tooooo looooonnnnnggggg…..

A nutso week

Tags

health, PhD, Running, Sleep

Well, its been ages. Sorry. Life is super crazy at the moment. Where do I start?

Last week, I was working like crazy. Trying to burn both ends of the candle and then wondering why I was not sleeping well. Backstory – I am a natural sleeper, I can sleep for 10 hours straight and still feel like a bit more snoozing. As a teenager my Mum would have to bribe me to get out of bed. Weekends – she didn’t stand a chance.

So getting 3-4 hours on average for the first part of last week was killing me. I was having trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. Booo. I was in a fog all Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before I decided to do the sensible thing and tucked myself into bed at the grandmotherly time of 7:40pm on Wed night. Things are getting back to normal as far as sleeping is going although last night I had Nicki Minaj in my mind when I was going to sleep. What is that about??????

Barbie Minaj (Source)

To top off my mental week, I caught a tummy bug off someone and started feeling sick on Thursday. By Sunday, I was feeling terrible so I took an antibiotic bomb and am now starting to feel better.

You can guess what has happened with my running schedule. Zip, nada, nuthin. I am BUSTING to get out there and run. No matter what, tomorrow am is my time to shine!

In other news, husband and I have bought a new car. The old one was dying a slow painful death. We bought a Ford Focus. We are pretty excited. Hoping to pick it up sometime this week. Ah I love new car smell…..

Well, that is all I got right now. Hope everybody is happy out there and that your new year is bringing what you hoped for….