Hi!

Hope everyone is in good health.

I just wanted to tell everyone that I am back on the forum ;-)

To keep a long story short, I fell off the wagon due to work. I had to juggle that, keeping the house liveable and an active and very wilful 2 yo plus my running (less than five weeks to my first marathon!). I am exhausted by the time I am done for the day...

Thank God for the Thermie... Or else I'd be feeding my family junk! Although I have to confess we have been living on stir fries and curries (and the occasional muffin).

I have some more breathing space now and I want to experiment more with my Thermie. Ten minutes on here and I am already bookmarking recipes. This forum is amazing! But you all know that already, right? ;-)

xo,
Dhitri

Help!

I have had great success making pizza dough up until last week. My last two batches didn't rise properly (gave me the worst tummy ache) and now this is taking forever... Could it be the yeast? I use premium instant yeast (bought at woolies) and I kept it in the fridge. Has it gone bad? Should I toss it? What yeast do you use for bread and pizza dough?

CatchoftheDay.com haul - love free stuff (paid shipping only)!

Sluggish 5k run yesterday pushing a cranky toddler! Got an awesome workour picking up hat, shoes and toys off the ground while running... NOT! The heat didn't help either. Pace was abysmally slow. Oh well. At least I could tick it off the plan.

This morning I got up early for my workout. But because this is my firat day at work, I was a little hesitant about going for a run - what is I don't have enough time to get ready for work? What if I feel too tired for work? The demons in my head kept telling me to stay put and move my run to the afternoon. But eventually I managed to silence them and have not regretted my decision to lace up and head out.

I smashed a 10k hills workout in perfect running weather: cool but sunny. I ran around the base of Mt Ainslie, maintained a slow but even pace throughout and only stopped for a couple of drinks and to marvel the group (gang? herd?) of kangaroos crossing my path. They move so gracefully, I think spotting them gave my run a bit of a boost, too.

The only downside of this fantastic morning is that I may have pulled a muscle charging downhill. I wanted to give my quads a workout, instead felt pain in my right buttock. Oh well, time to get that foam roller (or book that massage). Tomorrow is rest day!

Closed off the year with cruisey, 14km run around the Inner North part of Canberra. Took my time, enjoyed the scenery and even stopped to take pics.

Bit of a set-back DD17 back in hospital with bleeding - hopefully out tomorrow!

Hope she is ok, DG!

So I made porridge for Miss 2 and wanted to be creative so added cocoa but tipped too much in!!! Ended up with a bitter dark choc sludge and any effort to sweeten it up (used honey) failed miserably. I also tipped it into a bowl with frozen blueberries, hoping to hide then in there (Miss is not very fond of blueberries). Well, should I say, breakfast ended in tears as she a) found the chocolate a little too much and b) discovered the blueberries in her bowl. 

Almost tipped out the leftover but then decided to keep it. After my workout, I whizzed it up with yogurt, honey and ice and voila! I hate my perfect post-run drink! Very refreshing, especially in this heat.

TL the training plan looks great. This is probably a stupid question or I've misunderstood but if you are on week 16 now do you repeat the plan again for the build up to the marathon in March?

Hi Wonder, I just started the training, week 16 is actually weeks 1 (I am counting backwards to race day, just like what it says on the plan). But yoi're right, it's easier to say Week 1.

5k done and dusted this morning - did ut on my own (without pram), thereby didn't have to deal with any toddler tantrums! I have actually raced pushing the pram before (4k and 6k fun runs), and more effort have gone into keeping miss 2 happy than into the running. Pram is very light yet sturdy; it's designed specifically for running. This is how it looks like:



I am the one with the short hair and purple jacket. This was a few months ago at a local fun run.

Actually, just realized that I was supposed to do 8k today. The 5k is for tomorrow *slaps forehead*.

I also wanted to share this running-themed inspiration board for 2013 that I had just made this morning out of magazine scraps. It started out as a craft project for Miss 2, but she quickly lost interest... So I kinda took over and made this for me instead. It is now hanging over the bathroom mirror! I am pretty proud of this as I am not a crafty person... Hope this will keep me motivated in the next 16 weeks.



Sorry for the novel!