Lights of Las vegas

WARNING: this post has absolutely nothing to do with running.

I am in Las Vegas for work, not a bad place to wait out the week until L-Day :-) I am staying "on the strip", at the Monte Carlo. The hotel is lovely but my room overlooks some major construction and it is going on 24/7. Think I need to ask to be moved - it is so noisy!

Las Vegas is even bigger and brighter than I imagined. I leave for work at 8am and there are people in the Casino just getting warmed up from the night before. Crazy days. I have also discovered a previously hidden talent for Blackjack which I plan to test tonight.

I have been going to the gym here, at the bargain price of $19 per day - total rip off!!!!! The gym is usually empty which is great so I have been doing some jogging, cross training and weights. Need to do some cycling as well (as we have our first tri soon after we get back) but I find cycling so boring at the gym.

I have seen the Bellagio, the MGM Grand, Caesars, New York New York, Excalibur, the Venetian and Circus Circus. I played Blackjack last weekend, still learning when to stay, hit and double down but came away about $40 up which was sweet!! The hotels are amazing, the Bellagio is my favourite I think, it is just beautiful and has a gorgeous garden inside.

So.... I have 7 sleeps until I see NTR again in London - OMG I can't wait!! So exciting, I still have travel between Paris - Venice and Venice - Florence to organise but otherwise we are set! More to come shortly, hopefully I will have made my millions at the Blackjack tables ;-) (Not really sure if this is possible playing with $60 maximum but we shall see, hehe).

hot running...NTR

It was another hot day at Parra Park Runners yesterday. However, it was handicap race day, i saw some familiar faces ( Andre from PPR, Terry "the talker" who also runs at SMC, and Thomo from CR ) so it was an enjoyable run. I did the 8.33~km in 41:15 - i was happy with that, although i was secretly hoping for a sub 40...again i keep hoping! I have done it twice in 16 attempts!

Despite craziness at work and home ( hosting two birthday parties in one weekend is not recommended people...), i managed a few runs since the last post..a 21.1km run in 1:55:00, with about 10km of it with BB ( thanks for the run Ray), and a 10km run on the new parkland trails and M7, in 0:55:00 ( something about runs ending in 55mins there! )

I may squeeze in a swim this weekend, as Rach and I are doing a tri ( me the enticer, she the Sprint ) on December 2 with our tri club,the aptly named Hills Tri Club and i need some more swimming practice!

Yes...its only 6 days till i leave for London!!! yay! rach and i both arrive in heathrow about 40mins apart...our embrace might last 6 days!! sigh....nothing more to be said except i can't wait!

feeling good...chocolate and holidays does that...

It’s Saturday night, and I am home alone, and feeling quite good. No single reason...I spent this morning at BRICK - once again it lived up to its name. I find I have no idea of the effort on the bike - I blow my "asthma seal" every week - with running I have more control and can build up to a pace, I need to learn that on a bike ( that is not saying my pace is fast, its just hard for me! ) . I spent the rest of the day shopping for little G's birthday - rach and I have got her a cool present...cant say what it is...even 6 year olds surf the web!! After that, started painting the mid-renovation pergola, and then made a mountain of seafood marinara with tomato sauce and pasta.

I also spoke to rach about three times today - which is great - I love phone cards!! Some days we talk more then if we are both in Sydney - I guess you don’t take someone’s presence for granted when you know they wont be home for a while...anyway, it was great. Less then 3 weeks till London!! - All the kids asked me to bring them back a souvenir from London - "the London look"!! I think it’s like a Magnum...

Back to running...not a lot done. I spent a few days with the kids and Basil at Anna Bay - just perfect. So relaxing - not that i went anywhere near the water - it is still too cold! I am planning a run tomorrow morning for the World Wide Half Marathon event before breakfast and painting. Just really going for a run with the ipod, junk miles perhaps, but I will enjoy it knowing there is not set pace to run at - I have chosen a run like that over the Striders half tomorrow - somehow I don’t think I am up the pace required at these events at the moment. So instead, somewhere down the M7 I will go....I have some French lessons on the ipod I might listen to, and a podcast from the Zen Runner show, who is in London for this episode, so I hope to pick up some running routes from it too...

Signing off from a low mileage week, but finishing it on a happy high note!

it seems funny now...

a few days is all it took for a bad run to become a funny one!

Despite feeling a little under the weather ( hayfever, cold, tired ) i thought it would be a great idea to not only run home from work ( about 15km ) but do a few laps of parra park before i did that, just for good measure. And my route home would be on the new transit lanes/paths along Old Windsor Rd to the M7 - something i have been thinking of using for long runs in the future. Hey, I have done a marathon, surely i can do this! well.....

The parra park 8km part was fine. The next 2km was fine, but then, as i discovered the cycle path from westmead which meets the M7, it all became a chore. I walked. I stopped. I ran. I cussed. Repeat. It really got messy when i started dry reaching on the last 8km or so. Could it get any worse? Well...about 500metres from home, 8:30pm ( 1 hour over due! ) i was rounding a corner on the M7 cycleway, and had to dodge a Motorbike taking shortcuts on the pedestrian path! That was the final straw! I hated running that night!

Dragged myself home, exhausted. Collapsed on the lounge, only dragging myself to the shower in time to vomit lunch and Gatorade and watch it circle the drain hole! ( sorry for the imagery this might invoke! )

Rach was severely non-impressed by my stupidity, when i was not 100% fit or healthy! It was a silly move!

But just like my nan used to say, its only 2 days between a bad and good haircut, its only a few days between a bad and good run - i can see it was stupid, but now i know a new route home from work , i know not to bother with the extra laps at parra park first, and aso, even though i am pulling out of FFFT marathon, it is much better the bombing it totally, and being a wreck for the holiday in 28 days!!! ( but whos counting hey!!)