Monday, November 17, 2008

Running is my drug of choice

I never thought that I would enjoy running. All throughout high school, while I danced a lot and was cardivascularly fit, or so I believe, I never was good at running. The school run was a torture. 1.3km or so, around the school. We had to do it for PE, a lot. So I never thought that running would be fun.
I can't remember when I started doing it. Maybe it was about 2 or 3 years ago when I was at the gym and thought that it might make a bit of a difference from cycling. In any case, I started and kinda enjoyed the endorphin kick I got from it.
In recent times, I decided to start the Couch to 5K program again. I had tried it on a treadmill in the gym before and had gotten to about week 3 (of 9) and then due to various different things like stress and illness didn't manage to get any further. Recently I wrote about the next thing to happen to me while trying to run, the ankle spraining. That turned into about 6 weeks of pain. I was on crutches for 2 weeks, not able to walk at all. I had an ultrasound, and an x-ray and a bit of physio. Turns out that torn ligaments really do take a long time to heal. But now I'm done with physio and my ankle is stable and strong. It still aches a little in the evenings if I've done a lot of activity. But it's pretty much healed. So I've started the program again. Last Monday I did a week 1 run again. I was supposed to run again on Wednesday, but due to the 35 degree day, I decided it was just too hot. Thursday was also hot and Friday it rained all day. Though I could have those days mixed up. In any case, no running was done then. But Saturday morning, I was determined. I got up early and did another week 1 run.
Now, the program says to run 3 times each week. But I figured as I had gotten through most of week 1 previously that I could get away with running week 2 today, rather than waiting until Wed. So this evening about 7.30pm I went out and did that run. And it was relatively easy. I was doing intervals of 90 seconds jogging/running with 2 mins of walking and I didn't completely exhaust myself. It was good to feel as though I'd gotten somewhere. A little fitter. So, the plan is as follows, run again on Wed and Friday this week. Get myself to week 3, and then week 4,5,6 etc. Don't get injured again! Fortunately, or unfortunately considering I just bought cross trainers to help support sideways motion of the feet, soccer is not on this season as they couldn't get enough people together for a team.
Okay, enough procrastination, let's write some thesis!

3 problems with our house

We've had a series of interesting problems arise with our current house. The first was that there was the pipe that took the water from the laundry sink outside. It was broken, before we even moved in, and would leak a lot of water down the side of the house. We were promised a plumber for a long time. This weekend, we finally got one. It only took 3 and a half months. But it was fixed! And in the meantime, while waiting for the plumber to eventuate, the bathroom sink was clogged and draino hadn't fixed the problem. The plumber fixed that too. Huzzah!

The second problem was the possum/s in the roof/wall of our bedroom. We called the real estate agents and after much harassment got them to send out a possum man. They were almost impossible to get hold of and I'm not sure they were convinced that the problem was really all that big. Mind you, they weren't getting woken at 5.30am by the little bastards returning from a night of frolicking.
Anthony, the possum man, came and looked around, found where they were getting in and set up a one-way exit. But we were still having problems, being woken at 5.30am every morning by the returning beast/s, hearing noise in the wall during the day. Anthony suggested that it may not be a possum. It was probably rats. After absorbing this more disgusting news, he put a non-lethal trap in the roof to have a look to see whether it was a possum or a rat. Possums are native and protected by law. So if we had both possums and rats, we'd have to get rid of the possums first, then bait the rats. The trap was set off the first night and whatever it was escaped. This pretty much confirmed rats. So Anthony has now baited them and we should start to find that they don't make any noise anymore. At one level, I cannot wait for them to be gone. We've been sleeping in the spare room because the noise is annoying, and we have a visitor coming this weekend to stay. We'd like to be back in our own room. At a different level, I feel bad for killing the rats in such a horrible way. Rat baits work by the use of an anti-coagulant, meaning their blood is very thin and doesn't clot properly. It also, I believe, includes something to ensure they start bleeding, like glass shards. So the little buggers bleed internally and aren't able to stop it. It sounds like a horrible way to go. Oh well, at least they won't be waking us up anymore.

The third problem is our lawn. The house is a on a really big block. The lawn hasn't been mown since we moved in, in August. Spring has been great for the growth of the grass and it's very high now. The possum man said it was a good idea to get it mown. No-one I know has a mower, so we've had to find someone to do it for us. You would think that would be simple. It is not. I initially called the guy who mows my parent's lawn. He's not doing lawns anymore and instead is doing a much more honourable and possibly more interesting job working with a charity that helps the homeless. The next port of call was one of those chain services, VIP. The guy rang me. He had injured himself in a pretty bad way, that might need surgery. He wasn't able to do our lawn. The third option was a guy I found in the yellowpages from the local area. He came this afternoon to look at the job and apparently will be here to do it 'sometime this week'. So I'm hopeful of this problem being solved too. Mind you, with my experience of the plumber (he called once, promised to call again to sort out a time and then never tried again. We had to call the estate agents to get his number, which should have been the case in the first place), I am skeptical of the mowing dude turning up at a sensible time or at all really. If it gets really bad, and he doesn't turn up, I have plans to be nice to our neighbours and borrowing their mower. They use it enough.

So soon our house should be going well and have little or no problems with it. Mind you, we only have a lease until the 3rd of January, so there won't be a heap of time to enjoy it.

Next post will be about bottling wine, growing herbs and veges and should include pictures of one of those things. But for now, I'm tired and the thesis work has been minimal today. I'm going to go and do some work on the discussion for my 'this worked' chapter of my thesis. I've got a fair idea what I'm going to write, but I have to get it down on paper first and then try and get it into the computer. Don't know why, but it's just how the brain sometimes works.