kjp

Some bits of travel advice from M, W (comment in previous entry), and thoughts from me to think about:

* India is cheap
* Probably go to India over Pakistan: gotten a taste of the Muslim side of things in western China
* Travel in the best season for the destination - worth waiting 3 or 6 months
* Visa costs in Eastern Europe can add a fair bit
* Consider travelling to South America via Los Angeles - more popular routes and better air fares.

I think at this stage it's unlikely that I'll be travelling overseas this year.

So we went to the UQ Brass Ensemble and Wind Ensemble concert earlier today. It was pretty good, the highlight being Mutations from Bach (Samuel Barber) (as brass band piece). Main problem I had with it was that it was a bit loud for the venue: in particular the brass and percussion for the wind ensemble. It was Customs House - looks like a pretty nice old building.

Last Monday on my RDO I went to a travel agent to talk about my travel plans to South America, and to get an idea of the costs involved. Below is the plans that I had, along with approximate costs (all in Australian dollars, inclusive of charges, taxes, etc):

Fly to Lima (Peru) from Brisbane (mid August), and return from Quito (Ecuador) ~6 weeks later - $3489

Tour for 3 weeks from Lima to La Paz - $2,260

Backpacking for about 1 week in Bolivia - $500 (very rough estimate)

Flight from La Paz (Bolivia) to Quito (Ecuador) - $714

Backpacking for about 1 week in Ecuador - $500 (very rough estimate)

Galapagos Islands tour – 6 days - $2,200

Travel insurance - $284 (although maybe able to get free if I get a different credit card?)

Medical shots - $300 (estimate)

So, this is a total of $10,247 as a rough estimate…

… which, for me, is probably a bit much for a 6 week holiday. If I was super keen on South America, then it would probably be ok: but I’m not. It’s more that I need a bit of a trip overseas somewhere.

So it seems I have a couple of options:
* do the South East Asia thing
* go somewhere else a bit different to where most people go (Jordan, Egypt, India, Pakistan, Africa)??
* Make a good show of it: do the round the world think, take more time off work. Flights would be more expensive, but the cost to time away ratio would be better. This depends on work, and where I can / want to go.

Some things for me to think about.

So the other day I entered into the Brisbane Half Marathon (21km) – being held on Sunday 20th April – at 6 am (!). It’s a grand total of 3 ½ weeks between finding out about if from some friends at band to the race day. Before last Tuesday (when I found out about it) I wasn’t exactly fit (at all) – having done hardly any running in the past quite a few months (count them on one hand – and only for a couple of km). Walking, yes, but not jogging.

Since last Tuesday I’ve been trying to concentrate on three aspects: rhythm / steadiness, speed (slowing down), and fitness. The first run I did – Wednesday last week – I could only last for 2 and a bit km… although it was fairly quick for a long run, and, possibly more importantly – unsteady – fast then slow, speeding up / slowing down. Since then I’ve been trying to jog slower – around 5m15s per km or so – and steadily. I try and keep my breathing steady, which kind of means that my pace is steady.

I’m hoping that I’ll be at a reasonable fitness level – but I suspect it’s the endurance (a reasonable strength of mine) of that will be more important.

So far most of my jogs have been 4km. With a 5.7km, 8km and 9.3km yesterday. Yesterday evening was social (with the two band friends who are running it) – going around UQ St Lucia, but good fun. I ended up with a blister on one of my toes – not happy about that. I also ended up with sore knees – still slightly sore. This afternoon I’ll go and get some new running shoes – this should make things a bit easier. My current ones are past it – quite a while back. I was planning a long run tomorrow morning, but not sure about this, as I’m a bit hesitant to push it straight away with my new shoes.

For reference, there’s some information about the event here, and a course route here. Avid Canberra readers of this blog would recognise that they’ve walked around parts of the course near South Bank and Botanic Gardens, and seen the rest of the course on a CityCat ride.

There’s going to be pace setters on the course – people who run a steady pace to get to the end at a particular time. At the moment my strategy I’m thinking of is to try to stick with the group ending at 1hour 55 minutes – i.e.: 5min 29s / km – well, stick with them for as long as possible.

If I don’t get any injuries or blisters, I think I’ll be happy if I jog it the whole way, or complete it under 2 hours – ie: 5m 43 s / km. These aren’t particular demanding specs, but at them moment I’m not sure how I’ll go after the 12 km mark or so.

I need to think about whether I should were my contact lenses on the race. I’ve been wearing them again because I prefer them when jogging. They’re a bit sharper vision, don’t get all sweaty, and good peripheral vision – good for crossing busy roads when everyone’s coming home from work. Anyhow, I usually only wear them on routes I know, because if something happens and I need to take them out, I still know my way around reasonably. The issue is if I wear them on a course I don’t know and have to take them out – then I’m at risk of tripping over stuff, bumping into people, etc. Hmmm, but I should be ok though given that I haven’t had any problems with them recently (or for ages for that matter).

I’ll also get some running shorts this afternoon: my current ones are maroon high school PE shorts vintage (purchased 1993, I think). The stitches are coming out in some places that might be embarrassing…