The Good and the Ugly

The good:

• Seven and a half lunchtime kilometres yesterday around the waterfront on a gorgeous Wellington winter day. I ran Garmin-free and used the distance markers to monitor my progress. I have no idea how fast I was going but I know I felt strong. The biggest hurdle on Sunday will be mentally forcing myself to keep pushing for three times as long. I know I'm likely to start to feel a little bit nasty within the first five kilometres. Tough. The problem's mental, not physical. Keep pushing and it will get better within the next couple of kilometres. If it never starts feeling bad then I want to go hard. I don't want to have any reasons for regret.
• Feeling like half of Wellington is running Sunday's race, and being excited about having so many friends out there on the course.
  
• Duck yanking me off an exercycle this morning and forcing me to go downstairs and take part in the Les Mills wall sit competition. Uh, I ran yesterday and I'd just spent half an hour on a bike and I'm running a race on Sunday. My personal trainer was crazy! Duck, however, insisted and I was dragged down to reception, where a little audience of gym staff amused themselves watching me. The leader had managed to hold a wall sit for seven and a half minutes, the second place holder had sat for seven. There was no way I was beating either of those times! One minute into my sit, however, it was announced that I would win a bottle of wine if I made it to five minutes. The wine was pulled from under reception and placed in front of me. Right then, five minutes it was! Chatting to Duck got me through the first two minutes. From four minutes my legs started shaking. Talking helped. Breathing helped. However by five minutes the pain was intense to say the least. The third-place holder sat for 5.06. Duck counted me to 5.10, and I officially threw in the towel at 5.13. The wine, and third place, were mine. I'm going back next week to break six minutes! Thankfully, although I could barely walk up the stairs back to the gym floor, my quads freed up completely after a copule of good strong quad stretches. Amazing!
  
• Doing so many pull-ups and one-legged push-ups that I lost count. Doing pull-ups suspended with my body parallel to the floor (legs on a bar), definitely a test of faith in my body-strength. Pulling myself up from the floor into a pull-up without jumping to help myself? Gratifying!
  
• Getting my hair cut for the first time in months and months. It was shoulder-length, it's now back to chin-length. Plus I have a fringe! Well, kinda. After months of frizz my hair now looks so shiny and thick. The shampoo was miraculous and I even look like I have highlights now. I'm not sure why I ever left my hairdresser to go elsewhere. Oh yes, the cost.
  

The Ugly:

• The forecast for Sunday is for showers and strong winds, gale-force at times. Gaaahhhhhhh!