Running

Summer’s here and my friend Ally has convinced me, for two consecutive weeks, to go running out about in Vancouver.

Last weekend, we went running around Stanley Park. I was there way too early and while waiting for her, ended up talking to a Romanian veteran. He had so much to tell me that he can actually write a book about it and I think it’ll sell. But I’ll save that for another post.

Anyway, I haven’t been to Stanley Park for two++ years and I haven’t ran that long for a while, so I was feeling uneasy about running an 8-10km run path. But anyhow, I prevailed, and here’s the result:

 

I didn’t like my run during this time because I was wearing my jacket, which was heavy, and during the middle of the run, the sun showed up all of a sudden. Needless to say, it was very very warm the second half of the run. Plus the fact that I didn’t put any sunblock, so there you go, I was dark right after the run.

On the other hand though, who would not enjoy running when this is the view that you see:

It was a rather tiring yet fulfilling run. I was dead tired the last 2 km, but right after I got to the finish line, and started walking instead of running, I felt better once again. Of course it helped that I gobbled up a nice breakfast of two scrambled eggs plus two toasts after! Think about it, by 9 AM, I’ve done my morning exercise and breakfast. I’m guessing on a Saturday morning, majority of Vancouver are still in bed!

It seems like I want to torture myself because this Saturday morning, once again, Ally invited me to run and I said yes once again. But this time, instead of Stanley Park, we ran via False Creek area. I think the running path of Stanley Park is much better because the path is paved. As for the False Creek path, there are some that are stone and gravel paths. Still pretty nice.

Ok, here are my results:

Compared to the previous run, it looks like I’ve improved my pace quite a bit. Not much though. I still can’t run the 10k under 1 hour. That’s my target for this year.

As usual, the view is magnificent. But the best part? Eating at Terra Breads Cafe right after. I don’t think I was just swayed by the fact that I was tired and hungry after the long run, but really, I had one of the best sandwich paninis and hot chocolate by a long mile compared to other stores. I would definitely go back here. Maybe next week again?

 

For some reason, I still ask myself why I want to run. I run during the weekdays (1-3 times) and then now on the weekends as well!

And so I’ve thought and thought about it recently, and here are some of the answers I have:

1. Running is an exercise, and exercise is something I always crave for. I feel lousy when I haven’t gone exercising for a long time.

2. Running allows me to see different places from a different view.

3. I am inspired to run more whenever I see a senior citizen still running, or a family who is running with the dad or mom pushing the baby cart (with their kid in it). When I get to have a family of my own, I’d like to bring my kids with my on my runs and exploration (even if they don’t do the running and I do the pushing).

4. Running makes me feel free. It makes me forget a lot of problems, sadness, and it makes me feel happier!

5. Whenever I get to improve my time, or maybe finish a 5 or 10 km, I feel really accomplished. And the fact that you, on your own, worked hard for it. It feels great.

6. And best of all, you look forward to reward after the run!

Maybe I’ll find more reasons next time. But for now, I still enjoy torturing myself. :)

* By the way, I am using Runkeeper app and it is fabulous. I love love the data it’s able to save, and most importantly for me, is the map and the pace (splits).

yummy!

 

Doesn’t this look yummy?

Don’t be fooled though. I only cooked the chicken, the mexican rice is actually one flavor of Sidekicks, a.k.a. easy to cook meals. :)

But last weekend, I did prepare, with the help of my Aunt – my amah’s amazing, yummy, delicious siopao! I still need to work on properly closing the buns. If you don’t close it properly, there’s a tendency that the sauce from the inside will ooze out – as we call it… “sinipon”. You’ll actually see a lot of the siopao in the pictures below that were not closed properly.

On another note, I’ve also been into making healthy fruity smoothies lately. It’s very simple to make – grab some fruits, chop it, blend it with crushed ice. Healthy and yummy! I bought a ton of mango and grapes (my favorite!!!) and instead of just eating them all the time, I just decided to make smoothies out of them as well.

The one of the left is the grape. This is my favorite so far – but I still can’t mimic the grape shake that I love from Pancake House.

The one on the right is the Mango shake. I’ve also mixed mango with banana or apple. I find the mango-banana combo much better than the mango-apple.

One thing that I find nice with my new life here in Canada is that I feel like I have more time to do things. Maybe it’s because of the lifestyle here. Kahit walang katulong, I get to do more things. Or maybe since we do everything here on our own, I’ve become less lazy.

But I’ve been thinking about it more, and I really think one of main reasons is that I have more energy to move because I’ve been sleeping pretty well here, given the “regular” work hours now and the relaxed commute. Not only that, I do get more exercise these days which gives me that extra energy boost. So even though I find myself getting sad (missing family and friends back home) every now and then, I still find the positive side of things – that I can wake up each morning to a nice place, to a great job, and to a wonderful family and friends who I am still in contact with regularly (thanks Whatsapp! and gtalk and skype).

Bike and Frame

My aunt’s friend Mike is a serious cyclist and he offered to tune up “my” bike last  Wednesday for free. He even gave me a free (according to him – very cheap) bike horn, but will still be useful nonetheless.

This is technically not my bike. My aunt won this bike 5 years ago, and unfortunately, it has never been used since. And as I’ve always wanted to bike around the area anyway so I decided to adopt the bike as my own. It’s a mountain bike and a bit heavy though.

And now that it’s passed the safety checks (though Mike, the cyclist friend, said that he’ll update my brakes next time he drops by), I finally got to use it today do some errands! I biked going to the bank, and then went straight to a framing gallery to pick up my order.

This framing gallery makes custom frames for any of your framing needs. I had this name board that I’ve been carrying around which was a gift a few months back. So instead of this name board rotting in my cabinet, I decided to go try and get it framed last week. It was the first time I got something framed and it was a nice experience. You get to pick everything from the frame type, frame color, and even the boards, what’s the size, etc. It’s a complex piece after all. The lady in the shop who would be doing the frame was really helpful. She helped me decide the design and gave me suggestions on what would be nice. In fact, when I picked up my order earlier, she remembered me and even gave me a discount from her original quotation!

And so, here’s the finished product!

And that is now properly parked in my room: