Not a morning person

I don't think anyone who knows me would disagree when I say that I am not a morning person.

Until a few weeks ago, we had been doing our long runs once a week after work. As in, not in the morning. However, we wanted to switch to road running, and to a weekend day, so we switched to morning runs.

Let me tell you, it is RIDICULOUS how much worse I am at running in the mornings. I am ACTUALLY NOTICEABLY SLOWER on our morning runs than I am in the evenings. And you know what? Having been the person who has breath to spare to jolly other people along, it is NOT HELPFUL to have cheerful people running alongside you at the butt-crack of dawn.

This is some bullshit, because as it turns, the race itself is - unfortunately for me - at too-damn-early o'clock on a Sunday morning.

I have two weeks to become a morning person. As my too-chirpy running buddy would say, I may perish.

We are fundraising for the Little Heroes Foundation. You can donate to the early-morning cause here.

Goal

I strongly believe that if you have a goal you should tell someone, because the act of saying it out loud and putting it out in the universe means that you can now be held accountable by the universe. That's huge.

And oh yes, we are talking about running goals. This has become a fitness blog. Sorry about that, and don't worry, I don't recognise myself either.

My goal for the City to Bay is to complete the race in under one hour and fifteen minutes. Also to not stop for walking breaks. This means we have to run each kilometer in six minutes and fifteen seconds.

We have thus far been doing the long runs each week on grass, in cleats, but I thought it would be a good idea to get used to doing it on road, in runners. This week is the fifty minute one (it goes up by five each week) and so we calculated that we had to run eight ks in that time.

According to my yes-I'm-totally-a-running-app-person-now running app, we ran 7.66 kilometers (so our route planning was a bit out, but that's ok, blame Google maps).

According to the app, it took us 48:51, but according to my stop watch, which I paused whenever we had to stop at intersections, we did it in 46:10. That is 6:01 per kilometer! Even if you listen to the app, we did it in 6:22 which is pretty close to 6:15 kinda not really but the point is our goal of 1 hour 15 minutes is totally doable! Right? I hope.

Challenge Accepted... Reluctantly

Here is a pro tip for you: do not express dissatisfaction with your lack of six-pack abs within earshot of your boyfriend.

He will try to "help"/torture you by suggesting/forcing you to do the 30 Day Ab Challenge. This month of good times culminates in me allegedly being able to perform 125 sit-ups, 200 crunches, 65 leg raises, and a two-minute plank.

Of these, the only thing I think I would currently have even the slightest hope of performing is the two-minute plank. (As an aside, did I tell you about the time I watched this girl do a four-minute plank? It was awesome.) But that would certainly not be on a day that I also had to do sit-ups, crunches, leg raises, or anything else apart from lying very, very still.

I will be honest and say I am slighting interested in doing this Challenge. I would like a six pack, my belly having been genetically programmed to be unsatisfactory to me. If core work is going to make me a better runner, bring it on. And let's face it, anything he can do...

We start tomorrow. First rest day is Thursday. Thursday can't come fast enough.

Who wants to join me?

Happy Birthday!

As I predicted, despite all the hassles and worry beforehand, my wine tour birthday party was totally awesome on the day.

Wine tasting is serious business.

I nominated a rounder-upper so that I didn't have to stress about moving people along on schedule.

The herder of people

We did have a few non-drinkers along, but they all had a great time as well, so I didn't have to stress about that.

 

We went to four wineries altogether, including the one where we had lunch, and had a good time at all of them, but you really need to visit this one: 

The winery itself is gorgeous, the people were lovely, and the presentation (by the winemaker himself!) was fun and educational and delicious.

Artistic photo of the cellar where we were plied with wine.

They even gave me a cake and birthday card!

Love these guys.

And this guy.