Run #3

Decided to wake up earlier so I could give myself an hour to digest beforehand, but at the same as last time: banana, raspberries and an egg. Half an hour later I was already hungry and starting to feel nauseated but I went ahead and walked over to Susan's...except was still in bed so I had some more time to digest. The route for today (2.6km): 

I made it almost to the end of the trail this time! Well the intention was to make it to the end but three quarters of the way in my body gave in and threw up what little was left of my breakfast...gross. We covered less distance in the end but at least I didn't stop (and ran a little faster in Susan's opinion). Next run will probably be next week - road trip this weekend so food posts will be coming...

Mini Pizzas

Mum bought some mini pizza bases today, so I threw together some toppings for a quick and delicious lunch. 

Makes 8
Pizza base sauce
1 small brown onion, diced
1 Truss tomato, diced
1 small avocado
8 slices of ham
Basil
Pepper
Shredded cheese of choice (I used tasty cheese)

I baked it at at 200°C fan forced for 15 minutes, but the burnt bits of ham tell me that 15 minutes was a bit too long...definitely overestimated the time seeing as these things are so small. Nevertheless, this was yum! 

Run #2

MUCH less exhausting this time, even with a week-long gap. Made it about 400m further (total of 2.8km), but still couldn't run all the way home:

Probably only 2 mild waves of nausea this time - not sure if it's because my breakfast was different or if I was just getting more tolerant to running (ate a handful of raspberries & strawberries, a banana and an egg prior to the run). I think I need to start waking up earlier so I can have enough time to digest...yeah that's probably the issue: I like to sleep.

The Color Run™

Even though this was a charity run, Lisa and I walked the entire 5km so we could enjoy the all the colour being thrown at us! The route:

Walking did stop us from being extremely exhausted at the end of it though...probably a combination of the early start and the preexisting muscle soreness from the gym. We were so tired we couldn't be bothered with the afterparty, so we just enjoyed the brief sun whilst watching coloured explosions from afar. Despite rolling on a floor of pink and practically diving into a barrel of blue powder, all it took was a bit of dusting and I came out looking completely clean. 

Lisa and I finished the afternoon with a well deserved bowl of pho from Pho House, which was super delicious and perfect for a gloomy day. Went home to clean myself off, and turns out I was pink from sunburn and not pink from the pink powder I thought I couldn't rub off...oops. Note to self for next year - wear sunscreen!

Current goals for the gym

1. 60kg deadlift - I made it to 30kg tonight, but still working on that feeling comfortable!
2. 10 pushups - sounds pathetic but never in my life have I been able to do 1 real pushup. Starting to think I genuinely lack a muscle or something...
3. 50 situps - let's turn this whale into a dolphin shall we?

Dark chocolate and Orange Cake

With the help of Julia and Mel, we decided to surprise Lisa for her 21st birthday by baking a cake. We made a dark chocolate and orange cake based on this recipe, but altered the recipe to suit the ingredients we had

Ingredients

Cake

1 small navel orange

1 lemon

100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces

3 eggs

1 cup caster sugar

240ml vegetable oil

2 cups plain flour

1½ tsp baking powder

Ganache

200g dark chocolate

½ cup cream

Caramelised orange slices

1 Navel orange

Dash of honey

Caster sugar

We followed the original recipe for the method, but we found that the ganache curdled REALLY QUICKLY. One minute it was perfect and smooth, and suddenly it became totally lumpy and ugly. We also reduced the given amount of sugar (original recipe asked for 2.5 cups...why, just...why) and removed the 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder (wasn't worth buying an entire pack of cocoa powder just for 1 tablespoon). Since my cake tin is also really old and no amount of greasing prevents the cake from sticking, we had to line the tin with baking paper. This basically made the cake really ugly on the sides, and since our ganache was a bit of a failure, we didn't have enough to hide the sides of the cake. Julia is responsible for the caramelised oranges so I don't actually have a clue how to make them - but they were definitely my favourite part of the cake!

Here's the final product:

The birthday girl ate like a third of the cake on her own so I'm guessing it was really good...I had a few bites and it definitely wasn't very sweet but I guess if you're gonna eat a third of a cake that's probably a good thing. Overall an ugly success!

Run #1

Kicked off the beginning of my fitness journey with a 2.4km run! Since I absolutely dread running, I needed all the encouragement I could get from none other than the wonderful Susan. We decided together that by the end of our summer holidays we'd like to be able to run 10km without stopping. 

Here's our route for today:

We ran from A to B, turned around and ended at C (walked back from C to A)

Not gonna lie, if Susan wasn't around telling me to keep going, I would've given up at the end of her road. Went through multiple waves of nausea, a stitch on my bottom left and upper right side, and my legs/ankles were feeling really weak and inflexible towards the end. When I began to feel too exhausted and started walking, it only made the nausea even worse, so I kept up the slow jogging until we finished. I had milk and Belvita breakfast biscuits beforehand, so I'm thinking the milk wasn't a good idea...I guess I should just experiment with pre-running food for the next few weeks until I get it right.

Here's to feeling less terrible next time!