Various things have been prying me away from my running time recently; working throughout daylight hours 5 days a week; body building at the gym; and the all-important social life. My beloved blog is looking a bit lack-lustre at the minute. I need to pull my bloody finger out! Cue me getting injured.

Winter in Queenstown has brought yet another active pursuit to my table: snowboarding! It’s something I had never tried before Sunday, but round here if you ain’t boarding, you must be boring. I’m not always one to follow the hoards, but in this case I’m happy to. So far on my travels I’ve trekked, cycled, kayaked and surfed among others. Adding snowboarding to the list is the natural progression now I’m in the snowy mountains of the South. 

With between us less knowledge than a novice, a friend and I headed up the mountain with the kit I could scrape together through friends and local rental shops. We took to the baby slopes and I, well, took to my arse. It was great fun but a little frustrating to say the least. And given my propensity to injure myself, a little scary. After many bumps, twists and falls we called it a day as a blizzard whipped up and reduced the visibility to less than a teenager’s hot-box. 

The following day I woke feeling alright, albeit a bit sore all over. With another day of fitness ahead, I hit the gym early to make some muscle. Maybe not the best idea. Mid-dead lift I realised my lower back wasn’t feeling great. And after a few heavy squats it was feeling even worse. By afternoon my ambitious running plans were reduced to a feeble waddle around the house popping painkillers. I’m pretty sure it’s just a muscular injury and I hope to return to running away by the weekend. When I have 2 more days of snowboarding arranged. Lesson learned?!