Holiday tales

Burleigh Heads (Monday)

We're staying across the road from the beach. From our balcony we can see people running and walking along the esplanade. There are gym stations all along the path. My parents and sister have been here for a couple of weeks now, and they tell me that people are out there at all times of the day, regardless of the weather.

I went for a brisk walk along the path, about 4 km in total. It was a lovely morning. After the chilly mornings in Canberra it was lovely to be out there in shorts and t-shirt. It doesn't look like autumn at all. I grew up in Queensland, but I'd forgotten that autumn was something that I'd only read about before my family moved to Victoria.

When I got back to the apartment, Lynda and I went for a swim in the salt water pool. There's a pool in my apartment complex in Canberra, but it always seems to be too cold for me to go swimming there. Today, I was really enjoying myself. Again, swimming is something I grew up doing, but I pretty much stopped once we moved south. I've been thinking about taking it up again, especially now that I'm riding my bike. The pool seems so much closer to home now.

We went to Surfer's Paradise for coffee and window shopping, and later in the day we headed off to Pacific Fair to wander around the shops, so it was a pretty relaxing day.

Tomorrow I'm planning to go for a run in the morning, before heading up to Brisbane to meet up with Sarah. I'm really looking forward to that.

Brisbane (Tuesday)

I met Sarah, Max and Maeve today at Southbank today. It was lovely to meet Sarah. She's just as lovely in person as she is in her blog. We walked along the Arbour Path at Southbank, and chatted running and blogging while Max and Maeve played in one of the playgrounds. I saw "the beach", complete with lifeguard, and the children's water activity area. After meeting Sarah I wandered around Southbank for a little longer before heading back to Burleigh Heads.

I had quite an active day today. I was up early and went for a run along the Esplanade. I made myself warm up with a five minute walk. I find it quite difficult not to start running as soon as I am outside, but I tell myself that Vicky (MAR) always does a warm up and cool down, and so should I. I'm glad Vicky writes it down in her blog, as I'd probably be skipping my own warm up and cool down otherwise.

I ran for just under half an hour, walked for another five minutes and then did some pushups at one of the activity stations. I did 40 pushups all up, which is 10 more than usual. I was thinking about the test at the end of the group outdoor fitness challenge. I had been going to practise my plank as well, but the area around the activity station was kind of gravelly, so I skipped it. I am such a princess sometimes. I rounded my run off with a walk to get the paper for my Dad.

While I was in Brisbane meeting Sarah, I walked for about an hour and a half, then came back to Burleigh Heads and walked along the beach for another half an hour. I didn't stay out too long because of the sun. When I got back to the apartment I swam 20 laps of the pool. It's about 15 m long so it's not as impressive as it sounds, but it's still pretty good for me. After a shower, I walked down to the Burleigh Heads shopping centre with my sister and let her buy me coffee.

Tomorrow we're off to Australia Zoo. We're going on a coach tour. It should be fun. We're leaving pretty early so I won't be going for a run tomorrow morning. I'm planning a long steady run on Thursday, as Krissi told me I'd be missing the long run while I was away. We head back to Melbourne on Saturday. I'm thinking of seeing whether or not my nephew wants to go for a run on Sunday morning. I'd like to have a look at the course for the Run to the G. I haven't entered yet. My next fun run is on Thursday, 24 May. That's the first day of the walking challenge, so a 7.3 km fun run seemed like a good way to get my step count off to a flying start.