Long, loooong weekend and stuff

Oops, it's Thursday. How did it get to Thursday?

Life has been a fabulous, exhausting whirlwind of late. One week ago today I was getting ready to head to Geelong to visit A, one of my oldest and best friends. It was to be one of the longest day's travel (domestic travel that is) of my life, except the two day coach trip to Perth from Bathurst ... but I was a uni student and didn't care so much. Rivalled only by the return trip. I won't go into the details, except that I left home at 10am to get to the airport by midday (did it easily with time to spare) and my flight was supposed to be at 1pm. SUPPOSED to be ... ha ha, fog had caused all sorts of delays at the airport so my flight was delayed by about an hour. Wasn't too bad. Wandered around, tried not to buy things I don't really need. Got to Avalon airport and caught a shuttle into Geelong city centre where my friend lives. So, left home around 10am, arrived at about 4.30pm! Argh. Similar story on the way home, left in airport shuttle bus at 10.15am and arrived home at about 4.30pm.

Had a great time up there, although we both overdid it in a major way on the first night ... we drank over four litres of white wine (argh) and ate a heap of cheese and ... yeah, just cheese. The next day I felt like utter rubbish. Managed to go for two hour-long runs around Geelong Bay, which were AMAZING but also freezing. On my Monday morning run I saw two black swans, swimming along the water's edge together, feeding etc and it was just sooo cute and perfect. Also did a Pump class on Tuesday morning ... which was quite interesting, although I felt a bit disgusted by the instructor. She had NO IDEA what the moves were, she was referring to a piece of paper with the instructions on it, constantly, and still getting it wrong. She also looked like she had just got out of bed and been dragged backwards through a hedge. I felt slightly ridiculous in my gym gear (which is nothing flash I can tell you) while she was in her faux-denim leggings and grey hoodie. I must admit that I was probably a bit rude, as I just kept doing the moves (which I know front to back as I do about three Pump classes a week) while she was fumbling with her cheat sheet. At the end of the class she actually came up and asked me if I was an instructor. Ha ha. Although I have been thinking about it.

Anyway, I am home now and kinda freaking out as it's only four weeks to the Gold Coast half-marathon. I have decided I have to let go of my 1hr55min target as I am just going to disappoint myself if I go for that. Instead just going to take it easy, will run it in whatever I run it in. Just looking forward to going up the coast with some friends.

That said, I am refocussing in a big way. The next CanToo program starts next week, thank god, I really need the group atmosphere to help me keep on track. Have kinda relaxed on the big runs in the last three weeks, and eating has definitely relaxed in a big way ... I shudder to remember what I ate over the weekend. So going to write down what I eat for the next week or so, just so that I'm a bit more aware of what I'm shoving into my mouth.

It's just a hideous cycle I seem to have to go through about once a year, slide down for a few weeks, gain an extra kg or two, feel horrible about everything and realise that I feel so much better when I eat in a more controlled fashion and keep a more structured approach to exercise, especially running.

Oh well, I feel a bit rubbish for going backwards a bit ... but can't do anything to change that! Just going to keep moving forwards and looking ahead. Besides, have holiday in Hawaii to think about - hellooooo bikini!