33 Week Challenge Week 18: Run the Bridge to Brisbane

Spoliers

Well, fuck. I just ran 10km.

Last year I would have told you I was allergic to exercise, now I’m an orange belt in karate and just ran the Bridge to Brisbane. It’s an identity shift of epic proportions.

This is actually one of my biggest challenges, because far from being a weekly thing, I have spent considerable time training for this one. I’ve endured shin splints (one of the worst pains of my life) and I’ve run in a storm. I’ve become psychologically connected to the same 90 minutes of music to the point where I’m not sure I can run to anything else. More to the point, when I hear those songs in other contexts, I can’t be sure I won’t just drop what I’m doing and run away. Sometimes, that’s all I want to do.

I actually enjoy it. Well, that’s a stretch. I enjoy the feeling you get afterwards, and the feeling you get after certain little wins along the way. A few weeks ago I was aiming to beat 5km without stopping. I was running through New Farm, exhausted, and had just about given up. I was only a block from home and I honestly didn’t think I could go any further. Then, the little voice in my ear said “Time: 35 minutes, Distance: 5.05 kilometers” – I literally whooped. If that feeling wasn’t good enough, the look on the face of the jogger passing me the other way made it totally worth it. Sort of stunned understanding. I’m pretty sure that was the day I then proceeded to run another 1.5km.

I apologise if this is boring you. It would have bored me last year. Lots of things have changed about me this year. I’m more spontaneous, I say ‘no’ less often. I make more time for myself, but I often spend that time doing more interesting things than incessantly scrolling my twitter feed. I mean I still do that too, but not always.

I’ve never been a competitive person, I mean, I’ll get shitty if I lose at monopoly just like anyone else, but I can drop it easily. But this year, mostly due to karate, I’ve been all about pushing myself to be better. Sometimes this means I get really angry in a karate class because I’m not as good as I think I should be. But then it means I try harder, run faster, or further, kick higher. It means I actually put in the hard yards and practice at home (unheard of… piano lessons, cello lessons, singing lessons, drama lessons, physical theatre classes, a short lived string of high-jump successes in primary school – they can all attest to that). Now I’m competitive with myself.

And yesterday, I beat my only Personal Best. I ran the Bridge to Brisbane in 1 hour and 12 minutes.

I have to say, I did get a little bit competitive… there was this guy dressed as Darth Maul a couple of meters ahead of me for the entire length of the course. He was wearing a plastic mask over his entire head, a full, black costume and knee length boots. Oh yeah, and a double light sabre. I was thoroughly impressed with him, but I kept thinking “if he can do this dressed like that, the least I can do is beat him over the line”. I just couldn’t catch him though. Every time I saw him, he was just that little bit too far ahead. And then, in the last 500m, I pulled something else out, and I practically sprinted. You bet your ass I beat Darth Maul.

 Using the wifi at work, hello river!

Completing this challenge also draws to a close another one, raise money for charity. I raised $300 for the Red Cross – thanks so much to everyone who donated. I’m now going to add my own contribution and send it off to them, I do hope they buy themselves something special, a new dress, or those special earrings they’ve had their eye on for a while. Or you know, foreign aid and needles… one of them.

33 Week Challenge Week 7: Exercise every day for a week

 Oh my god, how boring are exercise freaks? It’s all “look how many kilos I lost” and “honestly, once you start you’ll love it” and “the first 5kms are the hardest, but then you don’t even notice you’ve cycled 50!” Urgh, right? I’m *sure* they’re not trying to rub it in, but it feels as though they know I don’t own a pair of joggers, and are judging me for the block of chocolate I ate yesterday.

So, uh, given all of this…. This blog is about to get mighty awkward. Because guess what? I’m an exercise freak. I did eat a block of chocolate yesterday, but I also bought a pair of joggers. Why? Because I started to get sore shins during the 2KM JOG I WENT FOR ON FRIDAY. That’s right humans, this week’s challenge was no. 26 - Exercise Every Day for a Week.

I’m going to do my darndest to make sure that this blog isn’t any of the things I just listed. And I guess the only way I can do that is to try and make it clear to you that 6 months ago, I would 1. Never have been able to do what I did this week, 2. Never have wanted to do what I did this week and 3. Never have even considered doing what I did this week. Seriously. Go back and read this blog that I wrote when I made the decision to start karate. I still have no idea why I made that decision, because I have always been unfit and, most importantly, uninterested in getting fit. The point is though, I did, and it was a great choice. Because unlike going to the gym, or running or cycling, karate is a skill I wouldn’t usually use (ultimately, jogging is just putting one foot in front of the other) and therefore I am somehow able to see it as a thing to get better at, whereas I couldn’t give a shit about getting better at exercise. UNTIL NOW.

Karate has made me naturally a bit fitter, as I discovered last week when, it being a bit cold, I decided to jog on the way to class. I started… and then realised I could keep going, and jogged all the way there. Google maps tells me that’s 1.4km. Now, some people may not be very impressed with that distance but it was pretty amazing for me, particularly because I wasn’t that tired at the end and then did a 1 hour karate class. BAM.

So, for this week, I did up an exercise plan:

This is a frightening look into how organised I can be sometimes. I mean it’s colour-coded for crying out loud. Was that necessary? No, no it was not. For reference, the grey just means when I was at work or otherwise engaged.

Now, every time it says “flexibility”, I want you to imagine it says “have a little nap” – because that’s what I did. I just couldn’t bring myself to be exercising every day AND get up early and stretch. This is a blog, not a lifestyle choice, jeezus. Also, you should know that I ended up working for my second job on Thursday and Friday, and therefore couldn’t bring myself to do anything on Thursday (I did manage to jog on Friday though, success). This means I didn’t quite finish the challenge, because I skipped a day. But quite frankly, if anyone wants to fight me on this, I know karate now. The challenge is done ok? It’s done *flexes bicep*.

Let me take you through some of the things I did, because I know you’re dying to know.

Yoga

I’ve never done yoga before, and this week I did it thrice. It’s been a really interesting experience. You’d think it wouldn’t do much, given that it’s all breathing and poses, but it’s really very energising, and certainly helping my flexibility and core strength. Plus, I love breathing, don’t knock it. I found it quite difficult to get past what I have dubbed the “third eye” stuff. There’s a lot of phrases like “open through the heart” and “breathe into yourself, cleansing your organs naturally”, which I have to restrain myself from snorting at - really disturbing my calm demeanor. Ultimately though, it’s an exercise practice based in spirituality, I always knew that, and I had to get over myself a bit to properly enjoy it. Besides, karate is spiritual too – it’s just that we get to hit each other in between mediations.

I have a favourite yoga pose. It’s called the pigeon. Thankfully, it looks nothing like a pigeon, which is one of the reasons I love it.

Karate

Fuck, I love karate. I’ve been doing it since February and am stronger, fitter, healthier and more confident for it. I also know how to get out of most holds a rapist would try on me, which is useful. Sometimes, when I’m wearing my steel-capped boots, and I’m walking through the valley, I almost want someone to try something, so that I can get out of their hold, kick them with my steel-caps and then run like hell with my new found running ability.*

Running

Segue! Ok, it’s jogging not running. But still, this is genuinely something I have never been good at and am very, very surprised to find myself doing. I went for two jogs this week, one with mates and one alone, and both were quite successful. I have now gone out and bought proper shoes and clothes though, because I didn’t really own anything appropriate and went for a jog wearing my “Property of the Half-Blood Prince” shirt, awkward/awesome.

Core Strength

This is basically just pushups, situps and other general ab muscle death. I did this once with my friends after our jog and made up for skipping it on Thursday by being forced to do it by a Japanese-shouting Venezuelan woman (my karate sensei… she’s amazing)

So that’s it, bloggeroos; my week of exercising. I was about to say “and I’m never doing it again!” but I’m actually going to for a jog tonight with some peeps from karate and I’m planning to go to yoga tomorrow morning, so there goes that. Seriously, who am I?

Also, the big news? I’m registered for the Bridge to Brisbane, which is now challenge number 27, and will also cover challenge 19 – raise money for charity. More on those later. But for real, I am going to run 10km in September, you watch.

*Dear mum, I don’t really want that. I might die, I know.