The settling in of winter?

Things have turned into a winter wonderland once again. Such a pity, because I hate running indoors on a treadmill, lol, and at the same time I am not prepared to risk slipping and breaking something on a rouge piece of ice or snow.

I'm pretty sure this downfall is going to thaw though. The temps are meant to rise again in a day or two, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that it might not all be over just yet...

winter wonderland again...

A random street shot, lol.

from the front door of my flat...

Atleast it feels Christmasy though! :-)

The putrid pond

I can't believe how warm it has got here again. It is almost the middle of November and it is still in the high 70's! Pretty fantastic, except for the fact that I have been bundling up all nice and warm for my early morning jogs. It is so hard to tell. Sometimes it really IS cold first thing, but today I nearly passed out from heat stroke, which did not come from the sun. :-)

This week the Council cleared out the pond that I use to run circles around. Oh my god. I thought I was going to gag! A putrid smell wafted out of the pond. Well, I guess it does contain stagnant water for, like, a year, but I figured they must surely put some chlorine in it every now and then, you'd think? Obviously, whatever they do is NOT enough!!!

Yesterday I managed two rounds of the empty concrete pit without puking, before cutting my losses and quietly bidding goodbye to the "pond". I re-routed my run to the streets.

I noticed this morning that they are starting to fill it up again. Hopefully they have cleaned the bottom thoroughly...

The "stressful" workout?

I seem to be getting my *exercise* care of College at the moment. You know that kind of stress where you metabolic system revs into overdrive, your heart pounds in your chest, and your sweating like there is no tomorrow...? Does THAT count as exercise??? LOL.

The symptoms are certainly the same as a good workout....

I am feeling ridiculously stressed at the moment. Every day this week I have sat in class asking myself: "Am I really meant to be doing this?? Is Law School really for me??" Then I think: "God, if not, I have just gone and wasted the last 5 years of my life, aaaaargh!"

This is the first semester ever that I have felt sick in class. But, if anything, it is actually putting me OFF of food, rather than inciting my usual stress response ... "WHERE'S THE CHOCOLATE?!" Ha.

Hopefully things will subside soon...

Playing with my pulse

I have been sitting here this morning playing with my pulse. :-) This might sound funny, but I have been marvelling lately at the wonders of having a resting heart rate in the low 50's.

This is what it should be of course, but for some reason I've been having flashbacks lately to my high school days where the horrible P.E. teacher (lol) made us record our pulse every term.

Even back then, I knew it wasn't GOOD to have a resting heart rate in the 80's!!! Weirdly enough, the P.E. dude never said anything to me about it. You'd think that since he was going to all that trouble testing us, he would at least have had a quiet word at some point to a student who clearly needed to do something about it? (Or at least to their parents??)

Yes, I was one of those unhealthy, overweight, and 100% sedentary teenagers who would celebrate madly if any test came back with a pulse in the 70's ... 78 was seriously good stuff, LOL. :-)

Back then, over a decade ago now, I never dreamed that I could get my pulse down into the 50's. How silly, huh? It seems totally bizarre now to think that 86 was "normal" and 70 ... well, 70 was something to aspire to!!

Water woes

Cinergy came knocking on the door early this morning to turn the hot water off in all the apartment buildings. Great. :-S I had planned to go for a run before breakfast, but hastily decided to shift it to the end of this afternoon when it dawned on me I would not be able to shower until then anyway!

I just got home again to all the diggers and machinery creating a massive hole right over my driveway. Not entirely sure where I am going to park tonight, because it certainly ain't gonna be in the parking lot!!

Secret basement to hidden treasure

I couldn't resist ... I had to take my camera along with me and show you all what this newly discovered gym in the basement looks like!

It is definitely my hidden treasure find for the year, LOL. :-)

....not to mention that it is completely empty. Again. HELLO???!!

From Wow to Ow

I was so excited about the new local gym discovery that I went in there for the first time last night, did a killer work out ... and gave myself an injury. I have been lying horizontal with the little bottle of Advil all day. :-(

I have one of those temperamental backs that can be 'tweaked' the wrong way very easily. It seems to happen approximately every 6 months. I just slip up ever so slightly on my form, and WHAM. Insane nerve pain ensues for at least the next 48 hours. Ugh. Such a pain (hmph - literally).

So, hopefully by Tuesday I will be back to normal. Fingers crossed...