Running

I've started running again, and can feel the hit my fitness took from being home where I ate Harvey's burgers and Gino's pizza as much as possible. I did supplement this diet with a vigourous almost daily shoveling regimen though. It's OK, because if I stick with my running I'll be back in the game in a week or two.

My run today was good. I did hill reps on the "mountain" inside the compound. It takes me about 3:30 if I push to the top, the road having a length of just over 530m. It's a good interval workout if I choose to treat it like that. I know the length because I brought my GPS watch back with me from Canada, and it's great! I couldn't find my cable to download my workouts on the computer but that's OK. I still get to recall run distances, pace times and other neat stuff from the watch's memory. The watch also has an altimeter function, so it'll be neat to see how high the mountain really is. I don't think it'll be high enough to be super impressive, but that's OK. I ran 6K today, just on the mountain. It felt good to be back out there. It rained all night last night and some of the day today, so everything was wet and smelled fresh.

I have an attainable goal now as well. My aim is to be ultra fit for my Indo surfing safari (some people say "surfari" but I think that's ultra dorky) in July. I'm a beginner, but want to improve and don't want poor fitness to hold me back. Plus I don't see myself being back in Bali, arguably the world's number one surfing destination, very often. I am also entertaining the idea of swimming on my 2.5hr lunch breaks. The hotel's pool is only a 3 minute walk from my room, and it's big enough to get some laps in. Core strength is important in surfing because to catch a wave you have to be fast in transitioning from paddling your board to standing on it.

I bought some goggles to help myself get into the water. I was in a random store this weekend and found some goggles that are my prescription! They're not perfect, but I think they're like drug store reading glasses in that you're happy to take what you can get for the low price. The sticker says -2.50, which is pretty close to what my contacts and glasses are. I was wearing my glasses when I bought them, so I took them off and looked around with no eyewear, and then looked around with the goggles on. In comparison, my vision was definitely better with the goggles on, but not as good as with my glasses. While I could just swim with my contacts under my goggles, it's not as convenient because I wear my glasses all the time unless I'm going for a run or if I'm dressing up. With these new goggles, I won't have to put my contacts in to go for a swim. Now I guess I can say that I have three types of corrective lenses; glasses, contacts, and swimming goggles. I hope this means I can legally drive with the goggles on if I forget both my contacts and glasses!