G'day Mates! First PWW Post from Oz

It has been five days since very-soon-to-be Mrs. PWW and I arrived in Australia, and after a harrowing first morning in the country thanks to a combination of long queues and inadequate transfer time which led to a missed flight, we and our overweight luggage have made it to the town of Stanthorpe. We've transplanted ourselves from hot and humid Manila straight to frosty winter mornings, so I now subscribe to the "layered" look for my daily wear not for fashion but for survival.

Much has changed aside from our everyday costumes: my body clock is still two hours behind, so while I think I'm waking up at six o'clock, it's actually already 8 AM here. When I do manage to wake up at six to go for a run, it's still too dark and I find many, convincing reasons to retreat back to the warmth of an electric blanket. Two days ago, we did succeed in getting out the door, jacket on top of my running shirt and hands wrapped in gloves, to run to the border of New South Wales (about 2.8 kilometers). I learned three things during my first ever winter run:

1. I run much faster in the cold - it's either my body wanted to get warmed up much faster or I wasn't overheating because of the weather. Either way, whenever I glanced at my watch I was clocking in a sub 5 pace.
2. The air here is incredibly pristine - this isn't really something new, but my lungs immediately noticed the stark contrast to the air quality of Manila. They were very thankful.
3. I love the motorists here - while running on the side of the road, against traffic, motorists veered away to give me more space. And they even give you a friendly wave! It certainly made me feel much safer.

All My Bikes Are Packed, I'm Ready To Go...

My bike is packed and ready to be shipped, and I'm still thinking about how to get all of my running shoes and outdoor gear across the ocean. It's tough trying to fit your entire life within a 23-kilo allowance, and packing light isn't really an option for an expedition of these proportions.

In a few hours, I'll be boarding a flight to Australia where I'll be spending the next I'm-not-really-sure-how-many years. The magnitude of this move is something I'm still trying to wrap my head around, and I doubt it'll sink in anytime soon because I'm still too excited about all this change. I mean, I'm moving to Australia--one of the most incredible countries for an avid outdoorsman to be in, and I'm thinking this is the right direction to be heading towards in my pursuit to live a fulfilling life in the outdoors.

So, the next time I publish on Pinoy Weekend Warrior, it'll be from Down Under. I'm sure the new adventures will make for a very interesting time. Until then, g'day mates!

You Say You Want a Rawvolution

About a month ago, soon-to-be Mrs. PWW went on a trip to Palawan and stayed at Bahay Kalipay, "a self-sustainable community of healers, artists, gardeners, teachers, and earth-conscious people from around the world." Aside from all of the wonderful stories and experiences from her stay, she brought something else home as pasalubong--a Raw Food Diet.

Prior to her departure, I posted this, and later on, she shared that it somehow helped inspire her to pursue the diet (and now uses it as leverage to try and get me on the Raw Food wagon). My best friend Wiki describes Raw Foodism as "a lifestyle promoting the consumption of uncooked, unprocessed, and often organic foods as a large percentage of the diet." But of course, in this world of ours where everything and everyone must be categorized in neat little boxes, there are various types of Raw Food Diets. The one soon-to-be Mrs. PWW subscribes to sounds like Raw Veganism, which, according to Wiki, "consists of unprocessed, raw plant foods that have not been heated above 46 °C (115 °F). Raw vegans believe that foods cooked above this temperature have lost much of their nutritional value and are less healthy or even harmful to the body. Typical foods include fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and sprouted grains and legumes."

While I'm not calling myself a Raw Fooder (or is it Raw Foodist?) I have certainly been getting some of that action, especially for breakfast. For instance, this is what we often start our day with:

Pic of the Day: Bicycle Rights Now

A poster calling for Bike Rights in Manila, seen at the shop of Manila Fixed Gear, local makers and advocates of fixie bikes in the Philippines.

Inspired Twice Over

While I've clocked a big fat zero on my running log for the week, I've been doing catch-up marathons with friends and running errands around town. One of those tasks, which I did happily and without complaining, is to get my gait analyzed before picking up some new running shoes. Together with the soon-to-be Mrs. Pinoy Weekend Warrior (I've been told it'd be cooler to assign her a moniker), we went to the Ortigas branch of Second Wind Running Store. The first running specialty store in the Philippines, I promised myself to give them my business when the time came for me to relegate my NB 805 to "Training Shoe" status.

Hector Yuzon was there to personally oversee the analysis. In my head, I imagine myself running smoothly and gracefully, until Hec showed me my footage. He paid painstaking attention to the video and explained that I tend to strike with my heel, and that my right foot points outwards when I run, which makes it overpronate. So basically, when I run, my feet look like this:

I exaggerated this a bit for show

Wanted: Training Buddy

It's tough to think about my most recent half mary without feeling a bit forlorn, and it's not because I missed my sub-two hour target.

The Nature Valley Run held last Sunday is most probably my last race in the Philippines for a long time because, as some of you already know, I'm moving. Very soon. This occupied my thoughts days prior to the race and a text message from my cousin Alvin the evening before race day only made me feel even more melancholic. After answering his final queries about race preparation, I asked him how he was feeling. He replied, "I'm a bit nervous. This is our final race together and I want it to be a solid run." It was then I realized I'm also losing my closest, most constant training buddy.