"Prohibition makes you want to cry into your beer and denies you the beer to cry into". Don Marquis - Day 14

It has been a few days since my blog and Sunday has come around far too quickly.

Friday evening, which usually would have included a couple of beers, a cocktail or two and a decent bottle of wine, either at home over a lovely home cooked supper or out in one of my favourite restaurants, was spent in the gym pumping iron.

It was strangely satisfying!

Although I have to admit it was hard work walking past the busy bars and pubs on my way home.

In earlier circumstances, I would have popped into one of them to enjoy a couple of cold beers and what was left of the afternoon sun.

There has been a surprising change this week: cravings for sweet/ sugary foods!

I cannot ever recall having these (except as a teenage stoner). A quick internet search confirmed my assumptions. Alcohol is full of simple sugars, so it's a normal side effect. Double whammy, I am now having to resist the siren call of a cold beer and sugary junk food.

And “useful” online advice is to employ regular exercise and mindful eating. Triple and quadruple whammy. Do these “dietitians/ naturopaths” not know that the best thing ever after sport is a cold beer or three and junk food (as a food snob that means a good burger and fries)!

Despite the cravings for both booze/ sugar, it has been very good week for running.

It felt like the right time to do a 5km time trial in Centennial Park.

One, it is good to set the training speeds for the City2Surf training block that is a few weeks away (Brain Training for Runners -By Matt Fitzgerald) and two, I’ll do another trial a couple of weeks into my training block with a third and final one 3 weeks out from race day. I expect to see progress across all three sessions.

Whilst my time was quite far off my best, I wrapped the session into a 10km run that included a 1km warm up and a comfortable/ cool down pace for the last 4km. I knocked out the 10kms in a pleasing/ surprising 51 mins (fastest was a heady 47 mins).

A promise to myself and integral to this project was to make the most of the hangover free weekends to use the early mornings to get out into the many National Parks that are within a 45 mins drive from home.

Saturday came around, and after a quick walk to the local coffee shop with the dog to pick up a high carb/ high caffeine breakfast, I drove to Lane Cove National Park to run a 10km loop with my wife (who incidentally is also and without fanfare going 21 weeks without booze).

We started a little later than planned, and it was already warm and humid. Nevertheless, it was loads of fun and a great start to my/ our “trail running season”, and a good benchmark for tougher sessions that are planned in the Blue Mountains in a couple of weeks (as in go easy).

Sunday plans had included brunch/ lunch and a gallery in Surry Hills (on recommendations of a dear friend). That will have to wait for another time. Lazy-itis and the warm weather got the better of us, and we settled for mooching around Bondi Beach with the dog.

This post closes week 2. Only 19 to go…

Here’s also hoping the sugar cravings fuck off. Note to self, Messina ice cream is still sickly sweet so the cravings could be worse!

North Bondi 14/4/2024