Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Just an Ordinary Tuesday, Or Was it?

Today was just an ordinary Tuesday.

OK, not really because....I went for a run!

I LOVE SAYING THAT! Any day that I get to run now will be anything but ordinary.

I had sunshine, the water and a nice breeze...it was pretty much perfect. I didn't even mind the sweat getting in my eyes.


But let me back up a bit.

mrC got home from his trip in the middle of the night. While he slept in, I did my daily yoga session - you guessed it, more vinyasa flow. Does anyone else feel strange wearing shorts to do yoga or is it just me?


Since I was nice and warmed up (and feeling motivated) I got day 2 of 30 burpees out of the way. I've decided to track my time to see if there is any change over the 30 days. For the record: 2:28 and I burned 15 calories.


By this time, mrC was up and moving, so we headed out for our run. We mixed up our route a bit to do more on the flat promenade along the water. We did a couple of out and backs before heading up the big hill to our apartment for a total of 3.58 miles.

It's getting warmer around here, so I made sure to bring along some water and I love that I don't have to carry my Simple Hydration Water Bottle. See how nicely it hooks onto my shorts? Even this pair from Lululemon that has a no dig waist band can hold the bottle.


After our run, we took a cool down walk to pick up a full length mirror that I found on Discovery Bay's Facebook Moving & Selling page. It even has a nice little shelf on the bottom for the VIP shoes. I'm wearing the J.Crew finds from yesterday. This tee and these shorts. Plus my favorite recovery flip flops from Oofos.  PS - all my links are affiliate links and if you click on them I earn a few pennies, and you are not obligated in any way. I promise.


Later, I received a delivery from FedEx ---> I'm a Wearsafe Running Ambassador. I'm super excited to share this safety technology with everyone as I hike, bike and run around Hong Kong.


Before dinner we went for a walk and picked up dessert. I'm happy mrC likes these gluten free brownies as much as I do.


For dinner it was Taco Tuesday!!



What are your perfect running conditions?
Anything making your day extraordinary?
Are you a Taco Tuesday fan?




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Monday, April 3, 2017

Fitness, Shopping, and Hanging out at Fenwick Pier

Today was a busy day and I loved it.

My morning started with a little at home yoga session. I really love how flow yoga makes me feel. PS - what do you think of that teeny tiny ottoman our landlady picked out when furnishing the apartment? I think it's perfect for my laptop ;)


On my way to my morning fitness class I did day 1 of 30 burpees. I thought about doing them in our apartment, but it was just so pretty outside that I thought it would be fun to get a photo doing them on the promenade.


So, the photo was a fail, but I did all 30 burpees. I did them in three sets of 10 with a little break between each set. BTW ---> Facebook group here for anyone who wants to join in and might need/want support or want to give it. You can join and start your 30 days at any time.

Bodystep was another awesome sweat session. This class started off a little slower than the usual, but once Pam cranked it up, it was as intense as always.


After quickly getting showered and eating some lunch, I headed over to Central for a meeting at Fenwick Pier. I've been working on a committee for the American Women's Association called Hong Kong Hosts. HKH supports US military ships entering Hong Kong with volunteers to host activities for the servicemen and servicewomen.

Fenwick Pier is a place for the sailors to meet up and hang out, shop, dine, rest, receive free wifi, free sim cards, use free lockers, and use laundry services. It's kind of in the middle of construction chaos right now, but it's still great inside.


I had made time before my meeting to do a little more shopping at J.Crew (without dragging mrC along and making him wait) and picked up another super soft long sleeve (this time in baby blue). I also grabbed this super cute lady bug tee and these updated chinos that are seriously comfy. (Affiliate links - if you click, I make pennies. Seriously pennies. Click away!)

It's Opening Day in baseball land in the good, ole US of A. Good luck to my Cincinnati Reds. Hopefully the game is not rained out. Here's my last Opening Day in 2015, just days before leaving the country for China.



Working out today or watching baseball (or both?)




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Sunday, April 2, 2017

Go With the Flow and My Weekly Wrap

Today I woke up with a lot of energy.

I had a quick cup of coffee with my morning reading and then jumped right into day 2 of my month of yoga flow. There are a lot of different types of yoga (described well in this article), but flow or vinyasa is my favorite type of yoga. Which is probably why I like Yoga with Adriene so much.

Today's video class focused on some of the vinyasa basics. It was short and sweet. Perfect for a Sunday morning.



After yoga, I went out to hike Lookout Point Loop because it was an absolutely beautiful day to do it.


The hike can take under an hour to do if you don't stop for pictures or pause at the top to enjoy the view ---> I don't know why people would want to skip that part, but they do. I shared my hike on my Instagram story, posting as I went, but I also kept moving at a pretty good pace (which is why you can hear my heavy breathing in the videos). Since I was hitting up the grocery after the hike, I stopped my watch before returning to my apartment but I hiked the 1.67 mile loop with 676 feet elevation gain in 46 minutes.

This week I'm trying something new and linking up with Tricia and Holly for the Weekly Wrap!

Monday - Super fun bike ride with a group of AWA members on the outskirts of Hong Kong. It was a great activity.

 Tuesday - I had a meeting in Central for an AWA committee that I'm working on and then mrC and I ran errands. Running errands in Hong Kong means a ton of walking even when we take the ferry and the MTR. Days like these that mentally feel like I didn't do much are actually pretty good LISS days. 

 Wednesday - I had another awesome interval run with mrC around the neighborhood. I'm so happy that I can get out and run/walk. It's looks different than it used to a couple of years ago, but at least I can do it. Doing it makes me happy!

 Thursday - mrC had a trip, it was still gray and icky out, so I took a great big rest day. I did unpack and put away the groceries that were delivered from our shopping on Tuesday. And I also rearranged the furniture just for fun. So I guess it wasn't a great big rest day after all.

 Friday - Worked off as many calories as I could at Bodystep: 597 calories GONE. My body craves this class every week. If I'm lucky I can go twice, but since it is only offered on Monday and Fridays, I often have conflicting activities. 

 Saturday - My second run of the week ---> so cool that I can do this again ---> and the best run of the week: 4.72 miles. I finally had a sunny day for running and I'm pretty sure I was smiling the whole time. It turned out to be my longest run so far this year. In fact, the last time I ran anything close was in December 2015, the last time I ran a race, in Shenzhen.

Total miles for the week - 8.86

Tomorrow is the big day. I'll be starting my bad ass burpee challenge: 30 burpees a day for 30 days. There's still time to join me and then we can be bad ass together (or crazy)! Downloadable calendar here. If you join, give me a shout out @runningescapade #30for30burpees



And that's a wrap!

What was your favorite workout of the week? Mine was definitely my runs ;)



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Saturday, April 1, 2017

Sweaty Saturday, Funny Stuff and a BIG Challenge

Welcome to April!

Since I've been running A LOT more lately, it feels appropriate to talk about my stats up until now.

January - 3 runs 4.30 miles

February - 4 runs 9.80 miles

March - 8 runs 27.18 miles

Whoa, March! I like the way you look!!

I'm starting April feeling positive and healthy and I'm super excited to find a 5K to enter sometime soon. Oh, and I ran today.

Today's run was fantabulous! I finally got to run on a sunny day and I ran more than 4 miles ---> 4.73 to be exact. My longest run in 2017.


I ran the same route that I did with mrC a couple days ago, except today I also did an out and back on the promenade. My intervals were the same 90:60 seconds run/walk and everything felt really good. I think I'm going to stick with this interval for another week before increasing the run time again.

A funny thing happened in the beginning of my run. My phone rang. It was mrC calling from Thailand and since we hadn't spoken since yesterday, I had to answer. I love FaceTime. If you have it, feel free to call me 😍

After my run I did my 5 essential stretches for happy legs. I must not have stayed in my glute stretch long enough after Bodystep class yesterday because my butt was really sore when I got up this morning and it's only gotten worse since my run.


I'm really happy with today's run. The only thing that could have made it better is a running partner.

If you've followed this blog for more than a couple of years (first a BIG thank you for that!), then you know that I loved running with my dog, Booney. And boy, did he like to run, too.


I saw this on Twitter today and it made me think of him. He would have loved his own pair of running shoes. It's so nice of Brooks to think of our furry running buddies, don't you think?


In other (serious) news, I'm thinking of doing a burpee challenge. 30 burpees a day for 30 days. Seriously. This is not a joke. Want to join me??? I'm going to start on Monday. I could probably start today, but then I might be ahead of you. ;) 


I made a calendar that you can download to mark off each day you do your 30 burpees with me. We should probably have a hashtag because all challenges have one. So share your progress with me on Instagram or Twitter and tag me @runningescapade #30for30burpees ---> I promise to cheer you on.


I'm also doing 30 days of April yoga with Adriene and her awesome videos. You can find all the details on this website or just go right to the video playlist here.

Here's a glimpse of day 1: 58 minutes of Shakti Power Flow. This is goddess pose near the end of the session and my quads were SCREAMING! I'm pretty sure my arms/hands are wrong because I couldn't hear over the pain in my legs, haha.


April is going to be a fun month, right?


Do you like April Fool's Day jokes?
What are your sweaty Saturday plans?
Goals/plans for April?









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Thursday, March 30, 2017

5 Essential Stretches for Happy Legs

After having a meniscectomy on my left knee (after two ACLs a lifetime ago), I rehabbed and returned to running and other fitness activities a little happy camper. About a year later, that same knee became very unhappy and for the longest time, I didn't know why. I could hike, run, yoga...and then out of the blue my knee would hurt. It got so bad that I stopped running.

It took many visits with my chiropractor and an osteopath to figure out what I should have known all along: Stretching is essential for happy legs (and knees)!

The muscles in my left leg are weaker because of my knee injury and therefore work harder. Working harder causes the muscles to tighten putting a strain on my joints ---> in my case my knee feels this directly. If I take the time to stretch the muscles, the tightness is reduced and the strain removed.


If you are like me and struggling to solve a pain issue and are not stretching enough, please try these 5 Essential Stretches for Happy Legs.

Here's how they look after a warmup walk to the plaza in my neighborhood.

Quad stretch - Standing upright I pull my leg behind me with the same side hand. While pulling my foot toward my butt and keeping my knee pointed down, I focus on keeping my hips forward. It is not my goal to touch my foot to my butt, but to feel the stretch on the front of my leg.


Hamstring stretch - Standing with the leg to be stretched a little ahead of me, I keep that leg straight while bending the other knee slowly. At the same time I lean forward at the hip keeping my chest up. While in the stretch I focus on keeping my hips back ---> when I make this adjustment, I instantly feel the difference in the stretch. This stretch can also be done with the leg elevated or better yet, laying down.


Glute stretch - While standing upright, I raise one leg and pull it toward my chest with both hands. While keeping my body still and hips forward, I pull my leg across my body until I feel the stretch. I try not to allow my upper body to twist.


Hip & glute stretch (aka standing pigeon pose) - I place my ankle just above the opposite knee and then sit back slowly. I try to sink as low as I can, keep my hips square and top knee flat to increase the stretch.


Calf stretches - There are two sets of calf muscles to stretch. The first stretch is most common. While standing I step one leg back and bend forward with the other. I keep the back leg straight and the foot on the ground for the entire stretch.


The second stretch is similar. I bring the same leg in a little closer and bend the knee to feel a little different stretch.

What I'm wearing: top, capris, shoes

These are the stretches that are working for me and helped get me back in my running shoes. I do them after every workout and sometimes in the middle of a workout.

PS -Always warm up your muscles before performing any type of stretching.

PPS - I am not a doctor. I am only sharing what has worked for me personally.


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Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Running Feels Good + Random Discounts I Found on Twitter

After a day of not doing much beyond going to a meeting and walking around Central, it felt good to get up and run today. On Sunday I increased my intervals to 90:60 seconds run:walk and everything went smoothly, so I did the same today. Except...today I also switched up my route and brought mrC with me.


We live in the middle of the two main parts of Discovery Bay. We walked down the big hill from our apartment (we'll call it a warmup) and as soon as it was flat enough (my knee is not fond of downhills and this is a really big one), we started running intervals.


For the first time, I ran along the beach. I've been watching other runners do this since we moved here in November and it made me so happy to finally join the party. I imagine that one day I might be able to end my run at the beach and jump in to cool off. That would be fun!

Chatting with a friend who happened to walk by

While I ran, I thought about how awesome it felt. I was relaxed, well about 80% relaxed, but that's HUGE. It's been a long time since I was able to relax and not think about every single step I was making. It was nice to be able to just let my mind wander. I found myself thinking of all the ways my run felt good.

It felt good --->

to get up and run
to say I'm going for a run
to plan new running routes
to aim for longer distances
to enjoy running more often
to be drenched in post run sweat


When you're a runner, you are always on the lookout for deals and sales, am I right? For you ---> Random discounts I found on Twitter:

Oh, and can't forget my own!

Fill in the blank: the last time I ran, it felt good  _____________




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Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Biking in Hong Kong: Tai Wai to Tai Mei Tuk

I love a good bike ride (like this and this), but it's even better on a gorgeous day with a gorgeous group of fellow expats from the American Women's Association. 

I joined a group of 15 women for a 21 km bike tour on the outskirts of Hong Kong. When I say outskirts, I mean just a 30 minute ride on the MTR from Central, but it feels like your a million miles away from the city.


I started my day with a couple of scrambled eggs ---> needed that protein for a bike ride! I also packed some light snacks and plenty of water for the trip. It's best to be prepared, even when lunch is planned at the end.

 
We picked up our bikes in Tai Wai. Only $60HKD to rent the bikes! There are lots of bike shops, but this was one that we could pick up and drop off at different locations. I wasn't expecting a mountain bike, but it worked fine. Our AWA coordinator, Regine, recommended that we take the bike for a spin near the shop before leaving to make sure everything worked.

Trekkie joggers and a linen tank were perfect for this bike ride

Our bike tour was not the Tour de France, but an enjoyable ride along the Tolo Harbour. It was simply lovely riding along the water, seeing the mountains rise behind the apartment buildings, and soak up the sunshine. 



At Science Park we made a water stop and took in the views of Wong Leng and the Pat Sin Leng mountain range across the harbour and where we would end our bike ride. A week ago I had been on top of that range looking down at the Guan Yin Statue.  


In Tai Po, we stopped to see the Tai Wong Yeh Temple located basically right on the bike path. It was a pretty place for another water stop.


In some places the path veered away from the water, but offered a very pleasant bit of shade. It was so peaceful riding along under the trees.


Eventually we arrived in the village of Tai Mei Tuk. This part of the ride was much busier with cars and pedestrians on a much narrower path, but we reached our destination without harm to anyone. You know you have arrived when you see all the bikes lining the path and an assortment of restaurants lining the parallel side street.


After returning our bikes, we walked a little way to a very friendly Italian restaurant, Jack's Terrazza, that offered an affordable set lunches menu. Clearly, I was at the party table. Tall glasses of Carlsberg for (almost) everyone. I'm not a beer drinker.


It was a long, but fun day.

Today I had another meeting in Central, but this time mrC came along so we could run some errands after. 

Like, getting acai bowls from Be-Juiced on Peel Street. What's in my bowl? peanut butter, apple granola, and kiwi. SO GOOD! mrC had blueberries, banana, and honey. He loved it.


After our light lunch, we hit up A&M (the US groceries store) and J Crew (where I snagged this awesomely soft long sleeve tee) before heading back on the ferry. We had a 30 minute wait, so it was a good thing I brought the YPPs with me.


It was an early Taco Tuesday for dinner at our house. How about you?


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Sunday, March 26, 2017

Simple Sunday and Workout Recap

I feel like I waited all day for the big rain that never came. The rain that I was text alerted to last night. The alert that made me anxious about getting my run in. Anxious because of the whole knee situation and the last thing I needed was to slip and fall.

No worries. I ran while the street lights were still on. It started to drizzle right as I was finishing my first loop and over-cautious me went left to my building instead of right to start another loop. I was thinking, keep it nice and simple.

Even though the drizzle never turned into a down pour and I wanted to repeat what we did on Thursday (see below), I feel good about my decision. Better safe than sorry! On another positive note, I changed up my intervals: run 90 seconds (increased +30) recover 60. I set the timer to do 15 intervals, but after the 10th one I kept going another minute to finish at our building. Total 2.24 miles.

OOTD: shorts (Athleta) similar here / tank (Athleta) exact here /
hat (Athleta) similar here / shoes (Mizuno) exact here

I also did my five favorite stretches (post coming soon) and some planks.


It's all good, I ran today! ---> I'm so happy to be wearing this shirt again (I picked it up the first time I ran ZOOMA Cape Cod and met Dimity and Sarah from Another Mother Runner). When I wasn't running, it didn't feel right to wear it. Kind of like wearing a race shirt for a race you didn't run. Am I right?

For lunch I made some buffalo chicken quinoa which I have been craving and let's be honest I will have it for dinner too. It's one of my favorite quinoa recipes and so easy.


Here's what the rest of my week looked like:

Monday - I went on a REALLY BIG hike with my friends from Shenzhen and mrC came along too. I recapped it here.


Tuesday - We recovered from Monday's hike. Smoothies were involved.


Wednesday - I would have gone for a run, but I had a meeting in Central for a committee I'm going to be working on.

Thursday - mrC and I went for an interval run: 23 x 1 minute run with 1 minute recovery. The number 23 was based on the 2 loop route we did last time. It was just as good this time plus we added the promenade for a grand total of 4.65 miles! Another long run PB for year. And I played around some more with our GoPro.


Friday - Last Friday's class was cancelled because the instructor was sick and Monday I hiked, so I was really looking forward to Bodystep. It was a crowded class but that didn't stop me from burning over 600 calories!

I love this drawstring bag because of the pockets on the outside - really comes in handy!

Saturday - I was feeling a little under-motivated. I thought I would go to the Fitness Center but instead I went for a walk. It's nice to see the flowers popping color again, but it's been gray and overcast most days around here. I'm over it the way the Northeast is over snow in the US.


Speaking of the Northeast...the Boston Marathon is just three weeks away and I saw this floating around social media. I hope there is a way to see it online.





Do you run in the rain? 
What do you do after you run?
Do you plan to see BOSTON?



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