Shopping for exercise, morning run

After a day spent in a meeting on Wednesday, it was good to get to the hotel and check in. I went up to the hotel gym, which had a few pieces of cardio equipment and a handful of weight machines. Nothing flash, but perfectly respectable. As I was meeting up with my work colleague for dinner in Chinatown at 6 pm, I decided that I'd save the gym for later in the evening and headed off to go for a walk after parking the car.

On the way to the car park I realised I was right beside the new DFO, so I decided to do my walking there instead of down by the river. It was interesting to see what shops were there, and I was able to combine two of my hobbies, shopping and exercise. I had about an hour there, before walking across the city to Chinatown. I got there too early, so I detoured through Myers and then spent some time browsing in the Adidas store. It's good to check out the styles and prices as it makes it easier to work out if the deals on eBay are any good.

I was wishing I had a camera when my dinner arrived. I ordered sliced pork with chilli. The dish was made of beans, bamboo shoots, pork and chilli. It looked like a Christmas decoration with the green beans and the red chillis all over the plate. It was slathered in chilli seeds. I love hot food but I was awfully worried that I had made a huge mistake ordering this meal. I decided to give it a go, and I fished out a piece of something I didn't recognise. It was pork fat. You guessed it. As well as containing more chilli than I'd ever seen on a single plate before, the sliced pork was mainly fat not meat.

While it was an absolute diet disaster it was incredibly tasty. I was glad we were sharing our dishes, as the other dish, duck and bean shoots, was quite bland and balanced the burn out nicely. I was a little worried that I'd be ill later that evening from all the fat, but my cast iron stomach kicked in and I didn't suffer any unpleasant after effects.

After dinner, my workmate wanted to go to the Casino, so I walked there with them and then headed back to the hotel. I didn't head up to the gym when I got back, as I figured the shopping and walking counted as a relaxed workout. I also wasn't sure what the effect of exercising on top of that meal would be, so I decided discretion was the better part of valour.

This morning I managed to make it out of bed to go running. Hearing that it was 13 degrees outside at 6:30 am certainly helped. I headed out toward the docklands. I expected to see a few people out and about running along the waterfront, but I only passed one other runner. There were quite a few people going to work though, particularly when I ran past the railway station.

It was a great run. I really enjoyed myself, especially down at New Quay. I just relaxed into it and let my feet carry me along as I enjoyed the scenery. The lights on the Bolte Bridge looked great as I ran towards them. When I got to Telstra Dome I ran up the stairs, slowly, but I was running. I felt a bit selfconscious in my running gear when I got near the station. It's not exactly flattering and I felt 'fat'. I gave myself a stern talking to, telling myself that the people I was running past really didn't care what I looked like, and I really didn't care what they thought. Unfortunately, I forgot to tell myself what great legs I have. My butt is showing the benefit of all those squats and lunges too. I'm sure remembering that would have helped to cancel out the 'Oh my God, I hope nobody's actually looking at me' feelings I was experiencing as I negotiated my way through the crush of people who'd just poured across Spencer Street to Collins Street.

I'm so glad I went running. We were stuck in another meeting all day today, and two days of sitting has me feeling stiff and sore. We also had a bumpy flight back, which had me thinking of Em! Fortunately it doesn't happen all that often.

Tomorrow morning I'm planning to head to the gym to do my weights program and I hope to get there after work to do Body Balance. I aim to do a long run over the weekend too, probably a few laps of the creek. It's a while since I've run that, so it will be a good measure of my progress.

Oh, I'm sure I'm going to sleep well tonight! It will be so good to be in my own bed.