Things I've Learnt This Week

Here I am, plummeting headfirst towards fifty and I'm still learning. This week's been particularly educational and I'd like to share what I've learnt with you.

1. You'll never have your best runs when you've only had four hours sleep. No, there's not a newborn in our house (thank goodness) and I'm not having my previous 2am anxiety attacks (again, thank goodness). I just haven't been sleeping well and unfortunately I can't even blame Iven's snoring.

I had a shocker on Friday night. It was a mere three and a half hours before I had to get up and run. I didn't run very well - surprise, surprise! And that's after my awe-inspiring run on Thursday. That really did my head in for Sunday's run. I hummed and hawed about doing it and in the end lay in bed till it was quite late. Then I had breakfast - a sure sign that I've decided not to run. But that voice in my head tends to nag at me until I've done what I'd planned (and sometimes it can say really mean words) and I ended up heading out. My intention was to do a route I could cut short if I was feeling the blahs. It was after 9am, I had a full stomach and it was hot and humid and I was virtually setting myself up for failure BUT I had a really good run. I think that the 9 hours sleep I'd had the night before was the deciding factor.

I had another bad night's sleep last night. A whopping four hours! Today's speed session was not fun!

2. Giving up thirty minutes of your favourite TV program to help your son look for his nipple rings is never wasted time. I bet you weren't expecting that one! Yes, Josh has nipple piercings. Actually he only had one until a couple of weeks ago when he decided that the pierced nipple looked bigger than the other and he needed to balance them out. I think he was worried that he might end up with a huge-nipple-induced scoliosis. A new piercing needs pretty sparkly jewellery and his couldn't be found anywhere so I lent my super-power of finding the unfindable (all mothers have this super-power). Unfortunately we didn't find them. But we spent some quality time together. And the other day when I couldn't get my earring in, Josh came to my rescue.

3. Dogs have an uncanny ability to sniff out dickheads. I'm sorry about the language but after quite some time pondering a suitable synonym, I gave up. Toby was barking in the back yard today. Not hysterical barking, just the odd bark which said he was a unsettled. When I looked out the window I saw a workman in the back neighbour's yard. He took exception to Toby telling him that he wasn't welcome in our yard, yelled at him then took a swing at him with his shovel. I called Toby in and then 'had words' with the Neanderthal who doesn't understand that a bark is a lot different to barking  with hackles up and teeth bared. He told me that Toby had barked all day at him the other day - which was funny because I was at home working under the house and Toby was with me and we didn't hear a thing (actually I heard a bit of snoring from Toby who was asleep on the floor.) He'd barked once or twice at him earlier in the day but had lost interest. I suggested that next time he might like to pat Toby to befriend him rather than threaten him with a shovel. I don't know what he was afraid of - Toby wouldn't hurt a fly! And if it was the noise that was bothering him, tough! We had to listen to his dreadful taste in music and we didn't threaten his radio with a shovel.

Toby might not hurt a fly but beetles are another thing all together.

4. If you try to teach a dog to bring an egg up from the chicken's pen you might end up with a lot of eggshell and a dog that now has a taste for raw eggs. Yes, Josh tried it and now Toby is a little egg-obsessed.

5. The cupcakes on Pinterest are evil and addictive. That's to make not to eat. I leave the eating up to my boys. I may have over-done it a little on the weekend. There's over 2 dozen cupcakes in my kitchen after a couple of days of eating.

Snickers Cupcakes with a snickers and caramel filling and caramel butter cream.

Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes. 

That's the total of my 'learnings' for the week. Has anyone else learnt something interesting that they'd like to share?

Righteous Indignation

I'm a bit of a rule-follower. Maybe because I've always been a timid little mouse who liked to do the right thing. Maybe because I didn't have to think too hard if I was following the rules. And definitely because I knew that rules were there for the good of everyone.

I've only gotten a speeding fine once in my 31 years of driving. I've never cheated on tests (until a couple of weeks ago and I had to cheat to be pronounced crazy enough). I've always walked my dog on a lead and picked up his poops (this dog, anyway).

And walking dogs on the lead is what this post is about. I have a bit of a problem with some people's choice of leads. I hate/despise/detest/abhor those extendible leads that some people use. To me a lead is a tool that you use to control a dog with. An extendible lead is basically a way for dogs to have a wander where ever they please with the owner pretending that they're doing the right thing. Usually I see the owner meandering around totally oblivious to what their dog is doing about five meters away from them.

Our last dog wasn't very sociable so we would keep him away from other dogs when out walking. That was really hard when other dogs had free rein and could come over whenever they wanted. I had one woman be quite upset when our dog started snapping and snarling at hers (on a long extendible lead) when we'd been doing everything in our power to try and get away from it.

On Thursday I got to see another incident involving one of these leads which just left me shaking my head. An elderly lady was walking her dog in the same direction I was running. A middle aged man was walking towards her in the opposite direction. The dog was meandering across the path and the lady was oblivious - in her own little world. It got to the point where the man had to come to a complete stop before she became aware of her surroundings and the position of her dog. And it was only then she decided to pull in her dog.

I'd watched the whole thing as I got closer and closer and could see what was going to happen. And I was becoming righteously indignant for the poor man who was just trying to have a mice morning walk.so when I ran past the tangle of dog and humans, I 'muttered' quite loudly and in my most withering tone "seriously!", just to let the woman know how inconsiderate and rude she really was. I kept running but there was a little more fire in my step to match the fire in my belly. It was the the last kilometre of a 16k run where I'd pushed myself a bit. The fire lasted until I'd run enough around the corner that I was out of sight. Then I had to stop and walk to catch my indignant breath. Righteous indignation can be exhausting!!

Another Awesome Thursday

Thursday is fast becoming my favourite day of the week. Last Thursday it was the 'Free Scone' incident that made it extra special. Yesterday was great more because of what didn't happen than what did.

Did someone say Thursday? We LOVE Thursdays!

But first I'll back up to 'stupid' o'clock, when my day started. I woke at 4:00am and managed to stay in bed till 4:30. I was a little excited about my run. And I was really excited about being a little excited. It hasn't happened much this year and it means that I'm not expecting it to be a torturous, hard slog.

I was out of the door at 4:45 and already it was light. But there wasn't a soul around and that's just how I like it - me, myself and nature. I headed towards the city and the river. My first kilometre clicked over in 5:22. Talk about confused. I haven't run that sort of pace feeling that easy for such a long time. I actually had to check my Garmin to see if I'd somehow set  up my distance beeps incorrectly. I hadn't.

I kept running and kept feeling good and the kilometres kept beeping off at under 6:00 min pace (except for the one where I forgot to stop my watch when I got a drink). I actually felt a bit more like I used to before the wheels fell off. And it felt REALLY good.

I got home one and a half hours and 16 and a half kilometres later, checked my watch and compared the data with how I've been running. Two minutes faster than I ran the same route two weeks ago. Same speed as I ran a 12k a little while back but this run was at a way lower average heart rate. Yes, it was as good a run as it had felt.

I had an appointment yesterday with a gastroenterologist (who will henceforth be referred to as Dr Fart). It was at 10am and I wasn't sure if I would be able to get my groceries before I went to the appointment. But after the run I felt invincible so I decided to risk it. But leaving the shopping centre, I realised I didn't have quite as much time as I would have liked. After all the appointment was at a hospital and I had to find a park, walk to the medical centre, allow myself time to get lost, allow myself time to find someone who could point me in the right direction and then actually get to Dr Fart's office.


I didn't actually break any road rules getting there but I did say a few unpleasant things about other people's driving abilities. I made it to the parking lot with 10 minutes to spare. No parks until I hit the 6th level. Lots of sweating until I hit the 6th level. More sweating while I tried to find access across to the hospital (it wasn't just nervous tension - it was a hot day). Glorious air-conditioning which snap froze the sweat beads on my upper lip. Easy to follow signs meant that I was in the elevator with two minutes to spare. I hit his office at 10:01. Winning!!

And I didn't even have to wait long. I'd barely settled onto my seat and sent a text before I'd been called in. It was such an enlightening visit.

I learnt - that I am gullible and easily lead by dodgy nutritional fads
           - that you can have too much of a good thing, in my case fibre.
           - that stress will be manifest in the form of explosive gas for some people.
           - that some people think that the amount I run borders on lunacy and that running in the rain
             crosses that border.
           - that if you have worked at a world-renowned hospital, you will want to slip that fact into the
             conversation at least ten times (don't worry, Dr Fart, I was impressed the first time you
             mentioned your ground-breaking study into the comparison of gas production by intestinal
             microbes on both a white rice and baked bean diet at the Mayo Clinic)      
           - that very few WASPs have lactose intolerance.

So the verdict? I am probably not lactose intolerant. I most likely have irritable bowel syndrome (quite possibly going to the psychologist has been the best thing I could do to help my fart situation because it's gotten my anxiety under control ... for the moment.) He wants me to have a blood test to check on the possibility of Coeliacs but he doesn't really think it is - it's more to rule it out. He DIDN'T need me to have a gastroscopy or a colonoscopy. Relief! I really didn't want to have either - yet.

He wants me to make a few dietary changes. Cut down on baked beans (not an issue - I don't eat them). Cut down on cruciferous vegies  (bummer - broccoli is one of my favourite and I like cabbage but I'm indifferent to Brussels sprout so no loss there). Cut down on wheat products (Damn!! I really like a good loaf of bread but have bought some rye bread on his recommendation. My muesli is in the 'can have' group and I've swapped wheat bran for oat bran. At least he didn't say cut wheat out altogether so I'm hoping if I make some modifications I can keep the things that I really LOVE in.)

And I'm allowed to go back on dairy. Yay! I can have cheese again. And a really good ice cream after a race (yes, that's my post-race treat of choice). I can ditch the soy cappuccinos - wasn't a huge fan of soy but any coffee is better than no coffee. My coffees will be cheaper again, another plus.

The appointment took about 30 minutes and when I went to pay I realised why you should encourage your children to do medicine and become a specialist. $250.00 for thirty minutes work is pretty good money. The receptionist offered to put my Medicare card through for my refund and that's when I found out that I'd reached some magic number for the year and that I was getting more back per visit. $225.00 back on a $250.00 visit - winning again!! And because Dr Fart was running on time my parking was only another $8.00.

When I got home I got my first business call of the week from a school wanting over 50 leotards. Another reason to cheer - I have work again!!

I'm starting to really look forward to next Thursday. I wonder just how much greater it can get.

Snoring and a Toby Update.

A few dozen years ago I made a promise before my family, friends and God. It went something along the lines of loving, honouring and obeying (I feel like I was conning no one when I said obey). There were also words mentioned about sickness, health, richer, poorer and death. But not once was any contingency given about snoring.

Iven is a snorer.

Because we did not do the whole 'try before you buy' thing before we got married, the snoring was a bit of a surprise that I wished one of his college room-mates had let me in on. Thanks guys!!

I'm a light sleeper. And the whole light-sleeper/snorer combo is not working for me especially now that I'm contemplating another marathon. All that extra training means that I HAVE to get good quality sleep. I already sleep with ear plugs but for the past few nights even they've not been enough.

He only snores when he's on his back so my tried and true method of stopping the snoring has been to poke him and tell him to roll over. He hasn't always taken this well. And sometimes has told me that he wasn't snoring because he was awake. Obviously! I go out of my way to screw with his head at 2am just for the fun of it. But because he doesn't always react well to being poked (I'm assuming he's in the middle of some amazing dream) I've been less inclined to tell him it's time to roll. And I lie there festering in resentment that I'm awake for no good reason, dreaming up ways of stopping the noise. At 2am the best solution that consistently comes to mind involves some form of bloodshed and a prison term - unless torture by sleep deprivation is considered justifiable homicide.

My favourite daytime solution involves one of my sons leaving home, sound-proofing and blackout curtains. But until then I'm going to have to pluck up my nerve and just poke away. Unless anyone has any other bright ideas??

Toby is much better - thank you all for your concern. The vomiting was only a 24hr thing and seemed to stop once the higher fence had been put around the chicken run. He had lots of company and pats while he was under the weather and I'm sure that helped lift his spirits.

It's so nice not to have to deprive him of food any more. Those sad brown eyes looking at you when you eat are tough to resist. And having him out of action as the pre-wash rinse cycle for our dishwasher has meant that our plates aren't getting that nice sparkle that they usually have.

And for all of you who asked about cupcake decorating tips. My best one is You Tube. I haven't done any classes. I've just looked up stuff that I wanted to try and almost invariably it's there. Don't you just love technology?!!

Puking, Piping and Perspiration

Toby's sick.

Before I get inundated with get-well gifts and cards for him (but if you feel compelled to send gifts, he's quite fond of almond M&Ms and always shares some with me ... or is it the other way around?), I'd like to say that it's totally self-inflicted. His greed has given him a little bout of mild gastritis. And by greed, I mean him eating anything and everything. Dog food, human food, compost, chicken food, sticks, chicken poo and possum poo. This is not a dog that you want licking your face.

He puked his dinner up last night. And this morning I had to clean up four more piles of slightly digested solids of unknown aetiology. I managed to rush him outside before he produced a fifth so I'm counting that as a win. Apart from the vomiting there's really no other symptoms. He's alert, happy, hungry and energetic so I'm not worrying. A day off food will hopefully have him better again.

I think, though that the gastritis is a bit my fault. I let my son dress him as a superhero for fun.

Toby liked his new status and started to believe that the mask gave him super powers. He believed he could fly. Which is the only explanation I could come up with when I found him in the chicken run eating all kinds of unmentionable things. When I told him off I saw that the three foot high fence was no longer a barrier between him and what he really wanted. He didn't even need a run up to bound over it.

The chicken fence now is five foot high.

As I sit typing this I'm having to pause to yell at him out the window. He's lying down next to this morning's big success (the one that didn't soil my carpet) having a second go. Ughh! Hopefully, being already partially digested, this time it will stay down.

***

I got some new nozzles last week. For piping! It nearly killed me to have to wait till the weekend to use them. But the wait was worth it. I got a medium petal nozzle and a medium leaf one. The first is a daisy-type flower.

This next one is supposed to be a rose but I think horticulturists would argue with me on that so I've decided to call it a camellia.

And we can't forget that Christmas is just around the corner.

Yep, I got hours of fun out of those two nozzles.

***

And last, but not least I had a pretty great weekend of running. Saturday was hot and humid and Coach Chris decided to add another H word to make my trifecta of dread. Hills! We went out along Hillside Terrace. Next time I might need a sea-sickness tablet before I go. Up and down, up and down. But I made it - 16k. Apart from the hills, and the heat, and the humidity I quite enjoyed it. Especially the finishing part. I had some great company and she didn't even complain when I walked the last little bit of the last hill.

And then Sunday I went out on another run to wrap up my fourth for the week. I was a little worried that the previous day's effort might have left me drained but not so - 11k @ 5:45 pace. That made a 53k week all up. That's two weeks where I've run over 50k so I'm a happy little runner.

Bad, Good or Awesome?

I've been trying to weigh up whether yesterday was a bad, good or awesome day.

Let's start at the very beginning (a very good place to start). I had a pretty ordinary night's sleep. You know the sort - where you wake up at 1am busting to go to the loo, then argue with yourself about getting out of bed and by the time you finally give in to the inevitable you're fully awake. Then when you get back into bed you can't settle for ages and by the time you finally drift off you're asleep almost no time and the alarm goes off and in your befuddled state you can't seem to find it and your poor husband is forced to wake up at 4:45am with you. BAD!

With all my thoughts being on my B.A.D. (big, audacious, dream) which has morphed into a B.A.G. (big, audacious, goal), I had planned on getting some good base kilometres under my belt. (A little aside here - I realised how appropriate my acronyms are for marathon training. As the training progresses the badder the bags under the eyes become). I'd decided to do a route that I haven't done since I was training for the marathon in 2010. It's a lovely route - over the bridge to Chelmer, along the river to the tennis centre, back to the university over another bridge then back home. It's quiet and pretty and there's a lot of water.

As I was running along I got quite nostalgic. There was the park that I had to take a toilet break behind a tree in. There was the beautiful, low canopied tree that I hid under to, ahem, relieve myself and where I lost my red, flashy light because I'd turned it off so no one could see me disappear under the tree and when I pulled my tights down the light flipped off the waistband and I didn't really want to feel around in the dark to find it. There was the petrol station that turned me away in my hour of need so I had to use yet another tree in yet another park. It was about this point that I remembered why I'd stopped running this way. There is a distinct lack of available toilets! Luckily this was not a run where I needed one so I finished the 16.5k without any surreptitious tree activity. So I'll count the run as GOOD!

It was Thursday and Thursday is always grocery shopping day. I met Mum for a coffee after shopping and because of the 16.5k (almost 1200 calorie deficit) I felt that a scone was justifiable. But I'd had a scone just last week that purported to be a fruit scone. In my opinion two sultanas don't really justify that tag. I mentioned this to the owner and he gave me a freebie. And it was filled with sultanas. AWESOME!

And then it was time for Part 2 with my psychologist. I felt a bit of a fraud fronting up because things have been SO MUCH BETTER lately. But we've decided on a few things that I can work on so anxiety will be less impacting on my life. We both agreed that I am a control freak - a little like Clare Dunphy on Modern Family. BAD!

My therapist is also a runner and wanted to know how Melbourne went. She seemed impressed with my time and, being a competitive, control freak with some paranoid tendencies (look how many new words I've learnt since starting therapy) I didn't know if she was being patronising or not. So when I got home I Googled her and her two half marathon times were way worse than mine. Winning! Even with my really slow time. That's another for the AWESOME column.

I have NO work on my books at the moment (BAD) but I've decided to make some rhythmic costumes up for sale for the times next year when I'm too busy to take orders. This means I get to make some stuff I like and I finished one yesterday.

I'd like to thank Andrea for all her photos of the fall leaves in Vermont for the inspiration here.  Back to AWESOME!

And then there was time for an afternoon nap. Not just a quick lie down. It was a full-on dribble on the pillow type nap. AWESOME!

Dinner was just Iven and I sitting on the couch and watching the news. GOOD. He went to bed early (maybe because MY alarm had woken him up at 4:45). BETTER. And I got to watch what I like without knowing that he was not enjoying my choice. AWESOME!

When I finally made it to bed I found Iven wrapped like a mummy in all the bedding, snoring. BAD! But in extricating some of the sheets I got him to roll onto his side and the snoring stopped. GOOD! And then I had a really good night's sleep. AWESOME!

So adding them up I'd say that yesterday was pretty awesome really. How was yours?

Vermin!

I've spent a lot of time in the last couple of days admiring my achievements of last week. My lovely new medal (which looks a lot like my Melbourne medal from last year apart from a new ribbon) and my shining, clean pantry. It's been so fun that I've almost thought of putting a hook on the pantry door to hang my medal and I can kill two birds with one stone.

But a s great as it is to dwell on past glories, it's important to keep moving forward. So I tackled another job that I'd been putting off for a long time. Actually, I'd been putting my head in the sand about it hoping it would just go away.

A few years back Sam was given a beautiful set of knives for his 21st birthday. And, wanting to take good care of them, he bought a knife block. This way they wouldn't have to mingle with the inferior knives in my cutlery draw. But this knife block has been the bane of my existence. Every time I clean the kitchen bench I find gritty black bits under it. I'd wipe them away and the very next day they'd be back. And I really didn't give any thought as to what could be causing those bits of grit ... until Monday.

On Monday I decided to take action. I saw a cockroach disappear under the knife block and finally worked out what those bits of grit were. I had some insecticide and I wasn't afraid to use it. That cockroach's days were numbered.

I pulled out the knives and sprayed up the knife holes and what I discovered still makes me shiver with disgust. There was a whole village of cockroaches living in that knife block and I'd effectively performed genocide. Cockroaches of all shapes and sizes crawled gasping from their previously safe haven only to be sprayed directly and die an ugly, painful death in my kitchen sink.

Another successful mission completed. Maybe I should mount one of the cockroach corpses next to my medal on the pantry door - as a reminder to me of a very good week and a warning to all cockroaches.

Yes, this is the same kitchen that all my baking gets done in but before you gag in revulsion, I have some very stringent rules in place so no vermin ever gets baked into a cupcake. Firstly I upturn all of my cake pans so any little bits of grit all out and then I do a visual check to make sure. And really, when people see my cupcakes, cockroaches are the last thing they're thinking of.

I found a really great icing recipe on Pinterest the other week and had to give it a go. It claimed to be the smoothest, creamiest buttercream ever. And it really was so I'm going to share it with all of you.

340g butter (room temperature)

4 1/2 cups of powdered/icing sugar

3 tbsp heavy cream

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Beat the butter until it's white. This will take 7-10 minutes. Then mix in the other ingredients in two batches. And beat until fully combined and creamy. Simple and easy.

I used the one batch to decorate 30 cupcakes and two other cakes so it makes quite a lot. And I stored some of it in the fridge for a couple of days before bringing it out to decorate the other cakes. Once I'd beaten it up again  it was just as good as it had been fresh.  

            

My mission to do another marathon started yesterday at speed. Coach Chris has been starting the session 10 minutes earlier and it's amazing just how much extra torture he can fit in those additional ten minutes. It was 800m reps yesterday. Oh joy of joys!! The only nice thing I can say is that I like them better than 1500m reps. I managed 8 reps in the time frame all in a fairly even pace of between 4:44 and 4:49/k.

I still haven't had my chat with him but I'm leaning towards the Canberra marathon. Not least because I can enter the marathon but drop down to the half if things aren't going well. One of my squad-mates has sworn that the hills aren't too bad. But he did Comrades so I don't know if he has the same perspective on hills as me. Needless to say - hills will be included on some of my training routes.

I'm just a little excited.