About Bo

Dog lover. Runner. Although very slowly. Keeping up with the stresses of running and life...

When do you stop keeping up and just move forward?

Posted on July 26, 2015 by Bo

I received notification that my blog has turned 4 years old. Wow! 4 wonderful years of sharing my running ups and downs, my race stories, my work stresses, the joys of my weekends and sometimes, my inner most thoughts.

Reading my very first blog post made me quite teary-eyed. I started a blog to share my frustrations with being such a slow runner. The more I hated my slow pace, the more I loved blogging about it. With each and every race, I was learning more and more about myself. My running forced me to step back and look at what it all meant to me and what was important in life.

But looking back and reminiscing about some of my favourite blog posts, something has started to niggle me…

This was me crossing the finish line at the 2008 Two Oceans 8km fun run.

During the 4 years of blogging so much has changed, not only in my life but with my running too. In fact, my running has improved. Dramatically.

What started out as being a frustration and the source of many (many, many) blog posts, I’m not that slow runner anymore. I can confidentially say that I can now run a half marathon in under 3 hours. Comfortably. In fact, my next goal is to run it in under 2:40.

Running with Comrades green number runner Tanya Kovarsky at this year’s Sarens half marathon. My time: 2:44

So then what’s been niggling at me you ask? Well, it’s what I say about my running. It’s how I talk about my blog. And it’s how I introduce myself on the various social media profiles.

I use words like “slow” and “trying to run faster than 8 minutes per km”. I keep saying I’m a 3 hour half marathon runner. Really? I keep holding onto something that I’ve grown out of and it’s holding me back. “I am what I speak” and I need to stop harping on about my so-called slow pace. I need to change the way I speak, because I’m most certainly not acting like that anymore. And if I’m going to achieve my next goal, I need to speak it into being.

I need to start telling people that I’m —“this close”— to running a half marathon in under 2:40. Because I am. I can feel it, it will happen. Soon!

I will never move forward and reach my goals if I continue to hang out in my past with all my failures.

I love the name of my blog and won’t change it. Keeping up with the Walkers and managing the stresses of life is still very much part of me. And no matter what my pace is, running continues to teach me so much about just that! But I need to listen to my gut and start being proud of my achievements. I am a great runner and yes, I can run in under 8 mins/km!

I haven’t updated any bio’s just yet. Watch this space.

Eat here

Posted on July 24, 2015 by Bo

Lately, KK and I have been trying some new and exciting restaurants in Jo’burg. We started to get really tired of the same old restaurants every weekend so we started to make a real effort to try new ones. When you start to look, you find that Jozi is packed with trendy places!

Craft – Parkhurst

We decided to give Craft a go after hearing so many rave reviews. They don’t take bookings, but as I was told when I phoned, ‘If I arrive before 7pm, I was sure to get a table’. We did. And boy, after 7pm, the place was packed with many people putting their names down on a waiting list. Brilliant selection of Craft beers, loads to choose from, including many banting options such as cauliflower rice and ‘less-bread burger’ which is what I had. Tables are squeezed a little too tight, but come Summer when they are able to open the stacker doors, the place will be a winner!

Knead – Michaelangelo Towers, Sandton

Breakfasts are difficult for me. Due to the fact that I follow a low-carb high fat way of eating, I don’t eat bread, or jam, or flapjacks or scones or any other divine invention made with lashings of syrup and sugar. So when we found Knead, I was overjoyed to find that they had LCHF options on the menu. And I’m not just talking about scrambled eggs but a breakfast pizza on low-carb base. It was divine! The service is excellent and the whole place feels clean, fresh and inviting.

I’ll keep you posted on some more places as we find them. Any recommendations on restaurants you like? Let me know!

*This is an unsponsored review of restaurants*

To be honest, not every long run is long

Posted on July 21, 2015 by Bo

I’ve been slacking. I’ve been slacking on my training schedule and on Sunday, I felt it. It hurt.

According to my training schedule from my Coach, my Sunday long runs need to be between 15kms and 18kms. But I’ve only been running a maximum of 10kms on Sundays. In my head, I’ve been telling myself that 10kms is still pretty good. I mean, it’s Winter and I’m out there, running, way more than I typically run during Winter. I was doing good, right?

There are a couple of half marathon races coming up in August so I decided to do a proper long run on Sunday. The plan was 15kms. Off I trekked with the Randburg Harriers Sunday running group, route map in hand, fresh legs, big smile. It went well until we hit the 13kms mark. Then it started to hurt. Big time!

Regardless of the weekday track sessions and Thursday 8km time trials, I knew in my head that I had not run that far in ages. And I felt it. I dawned on me that I had not been following my training schedule properly and that even though 10kms was a great distance, it wasn’t helping my goals of running my 21km races any faster. I was so not prepared for the distance.

My legs felt tired for the rest of the day (such an awesome feeling though) and I could feel the run had been some good training on my whole body. But no more short runs. I need to get back into it and be more disciplined. Spring is coming! Thank goodness too because things are so much easier in the Summer. Especially running.

School holiday fun

Posted on July 19, 2015 by Bo

My niece loves visiting us during the school holidays and we make sure we spoil her rotten! With no kids of our own, we squash as much as we can into the time she’s with us – movies, eating out, Box Office, junk food; you name it! (okay, so maybe we’re the ones who enjoy it more!)

I took a couple of days off work during the July holidays so that I could spend some quality time with her and it was really great! We had such fun! She’s 13 years old and makes me laugh with her views of the world around her. I seriously can’t remember having such big opinions about world events as she does. But it’s awesome for me to be able to chat to her, to watch her grow and to spend some really ‘girlie time’ together.

Some of my favourite moments …

Breakfast at Knead – I love this place! And so did Dom with the biggest* strawberry milkshake. It didn’t stop her from ordering a large slush 30 mins later at the movies!

Fun at Bounce, Waterfall Estate (and yes, even I put my socks on & gave it a try!) We were both bushed afterwards and headed to my mom for some afternoon relaxing and lunch.