An unexpected break...

I am still here, in blog land!! And in real life!

It is that time of year where everyone and everything is getting cray cray busy, it's getting sunnier and hotter and we all just want to be at the beach! With my last marathon only 1 month ago, and a half almost 3 weeks ago, I have been taking an unplanned break. A break from running and blogging. I am sorry if you feel deprived of my witty and exciting stories that I post on here, but there will hopefully be plenty more where that came from in the coming months.

I have been enjoying taking walks and the odd run with the buggy, which I had forgotten just how hard that was! Yeesh! Time to stop feeding the baby!! (That was a joke, please don't report me!). I have done a couple of pump classes which pretty much put me out of action for the better part of the week after but have loved it! We've also been dabbling in a bit of social summer soccer (football). Too much fun!

It has been great to let my body have a good, relaxed recovery and now I am looking ahead to some races I want to do in the new year... Exciting!

So what have I been up to, you don't ask? Well, here are some pictures to show you...

Those beautiful eyes!

An early family Christmas present - Stand up (or sit down with the baby) paddle board

This guy keeps getting cuter and so much fun!

bird feeding

Happy hikers

A spot of golf with the wee chap

Yip, it's fun times in our household at the moment. Fletch is more and more becoming so much fun. He loves the water and the outdoors (just like his Mama) and he is very sociable. Apparently it's not cool to just hang with your Mum all day long?!

We're looking forward to our first Christmas as a family of 3 and to what the new year has in store for us. I am also beginning to plan some races for next year and I am already excited about those!

What have you been up to lately? 

Do you ever take breaks from running/sports/exercising?

What are you looking forward to the most over the holidays? 

Because I know you've been missing me!

I know it has been a little while since I have posted - a little too long for some of you... HA! So here is a bit of what I have been up to lately...

I have been working LOTS which is GREAT! For those of you who don't know, I finished my teacher training at the end of last year but haven't been able to get a full time job this year. I started off relief teaching and now I am practically full time doing that which is awesome. Still trying to get a permanent position but trusting that'll come in time - thus the reason I get excited when I have lots of work.

Loving working, getting the experience and, of course, having MONEY - BONUS!

I have also been training for and playing hockey lately - my team is doing great this season. And I am still doing bootcamp, which is awesome. We have 4 weeks left of that and then I get into my next training plan for my next marathon which will be the Adidas Auckland Marathon.

Exciting business - I know you are ALL wishing you lived a life as exhilarating as mine right now. Getting excited about having lots of work is a sure fire sign that you are not the world's most exciting person - Doh!

This weekend, however, is a long one which are always well loved in my household. Long weekends mean more time with my awesome husband, more sleep in time, more time with friends and family, and more time to spend just faffing around - who doesn't love that!?!

My wonderful husband, his father and my father (what lovely bonding time) spent Saturday building a cover over our front step while I was lunching and brunching with my girls (it's a hard life, I know). Yesterday was fun-filled church activities (I mean that too, that's not a sarcastic voice) and then today I had the pleasure of climbing this awesome mountain with my lovely friend:

Mount Manaia

View from the top of Mount Manaia - what a blessed place I live in!

This afternoon I get to spend going over plans for my next couple of weeks of work - I am excited about this as I will be in ONE classroom for TWO WHOLE WEEKS! Excitement city right there!

So don't go getting all jealous about how exciting and thrilling my life is or anything because no, I won't be toning it down anytime soon either. Sorry!

And about the running - well I know this doesn't really even cover much about that but keep posted for these majorly cool posts coming soon:
- Low mileage marathon training plans, and
- How you know you are getting serious about this running business...

I am enjoying my in-between-marathons low running training and getting to do things I can't/don't when I am in marathon training. Get amongst it - try something different :)

Enjoy your long weekend all your Kiwi and Aussie peeps!

Curious Runner Girl

Rest and recovery...

So after my big run adventure on Saturday, followed by a 5 hour car drive yesterday I thought my body was in need of a little TLC. So here's what I came up with...

After the run I felt great - nothing hurt too much, needed to be amputated, operated on, popped, numbed, or anything else you can think of. However after the car drive home the next day, sitting all squashed in the back of a car, things were starting to stiffen and tighten a little. Eek! So I started today with a 1km easy swim at the pools, very relaxing and no pressure to perform as the only people around were all over 70 and they were doing their own funky aquarobics moves to help them with their own aches and pains.

Following the swim I went and got a great 1 hour massage courtesy of my wonderful friend Kate from Revive Massage Therapy (the best sports massager in town). This got rid of a whole lot of knots and tightness and nastiness that had built up in my legs from all the running. So now I am feeling all relaxed and bendy and flexi like those bendy rubber key ring people you get... You know the ones?

How do you like to recover after a hard training session or big run?? What is the best thing for a sore body?

I then also had a wee lunch date with my husband at work which was delightful.

Starting tomorrow I am joining in on a bootcamp with some peeps from my church for a 10 week bootcamp challenge in which I will help motivate and encourage my team mates (as well as have a good go myself!). That will be fun so we'll see how the body holds up after that. My other wonderful friend Halle from this awesome personal training studio is running the bootcamp so will probably cause me to not want to be her friend anymore... Which could never happen ONLY because I happen to like the feeling of pain from doing such a great exercise. Plus, if she wasn't so good at what she does there would be no pain. And I am a firm believer that...

No pain no gain!

So for the next couple of weeks I will take a wee break from running and focus on the gritty stuff I'll be doing at STOMP! bootcamp, as well as getting back into playing some good, solid hockey. My running will start up again in a little while, but for now watch out abs chick because soon my abs will be visible (and by visible I mean with x-ray glasses)and STILL faster than yours (I hope)!!

Ciao for now,

Runner girl