I marshaled my forces this morning, and made myself go to the Running Room for the first time in months. Since it was my first run in so long for so early in the morning, I had to carefully choose what to wear: my long winter running pants, an undershirt, my long sleeve half-marathon shirt, and my running jacket. For -1C, I felt a touch chilly, because the wind was pretty cold.
Getting there with a few minutes to spare gave me enough time to kick myself for having missed out on great social opportunities, to reacquaint myself with old friends, and to figure out which group was where. With a new manager, the style of sending groups out has changed, but I still got the same warm feeling of being among friends.
Since the half-marathon group was scheduled to do 6km today, I joined them. They were going a bit longer than I had wanted to, but I knew the run path very well. I dropped back a bit, as the pace leader was faster than I wanted to go, and started talking with the half-marathon clinic leader. I'm delighted that we talked, because she's leading the marathon clinic at the Slater St. store, where I'll be taking my half-marathon clinic in February.
My run, while thoroughly enjoyable with conversation, was cut to about 5.5km, because both my knees and my right Achilles tendon were aching. I know I'll have to start my knee-strengthening exercises, and sooner or later, I should consult with my athletic therapist.
Another race I am thinking of partaking in is the St. Patrick's Day 5k/10k on March 15th. I don't honestly know what distance I'll do; if it was on a Sunday, I would do the 10k as a long-run, but since it's a Saturday, I may just do the 5k for fun.
Now, I am warming up at home, as I never do well with cold winds and exercise. Stay warm out there!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
One Year
Holy cannoli, this blog is almost one year old. That is twelve months of running or thinking I should be running, twelve months of running magazines, and almost 365 days of asking myself why I'm doing this.
But that's not why I'm posting. I did four kilometers today, down a path that I'm pretty familiar with. I didn't have music with me, but I found myself thinking nonsense thoughts anyhow - from singing along to weird tunes to pondering if I was passing a friend's house or not to... well, whatever happened to cross my mind. While I like being accompanied by music on my runs, it's not necessary.
The clothing was easy: skin layer, warm layer, insulating layer on top, my warm running pants on bottom. However, if it had been any colder than -5C, I would have needed an extra layer. That's what I get for missing the descent-into-winter runs.
The first ten minutes of the run, my calves were tight and a bit painful, but after the first walk, they loosened up. I made it past my apartment and found I was at 2.75km, and still wanted to try for four, so I soldiered on. My knees started to ache a bit around the 3.75km mark, and with 100 meters to go, my Garmin told me to walk, so the last 100 were spent cooling down.
When I got in, I knew I would need some stretching, and boy, did I! It's so easy to lose elasticity in the muscles, but oh, stretching out my hamstrings felt good. Women's Running magazine had an article on quick post-run yoga, and going through the poses, while not a cake-walk, were not too challenging. I like that there had been thought put into the flow of moves, and how one position could transition into the other. For a post-race yoga work-out, I think I'll keep this one up.
I'm glad I did my run outside tonight. It re-established for me the fun of running out-doors. And to think, this time last year, I didn't know if I would even enjoy myself, and now, I'm jumping back into running 10-and-1s, though slower and fewer than when I stopped running in October, but I think I'll be good to start running in my up-coming clinic, and eventually, the Ottawa Race Weekend half-marathon.
But that's not why I'm posting. I did four kilometers today, down a path that I'm pretty familiar with. I didn't have music with me, but I found myself thinking nonsense thoughts anyhow - from singing along to weird tunes to pondering if I was passing a friend's house or not to... well, whatever happened to cross my mind. While I like being accompanied by music on my runs, it's not necessary.
The clothing was easy: skin layer, warm layer, insulating layer on top, my warm running pants on bottom. However, if it had been any colder than -5C, I would have needed an extra layer. That's what I get for missing the descent-into-winter runs.
The first ten minutes of the run, my calves were tight and a bit painful, but after the first walk, they loosened up. I made it past my apartment and found I was at 2.75km, and still wanted to try for four, so I soldiered on. My knees started to ache a bit around the 3.75km mark, and with 100 meters to go, my Garmin told me to walk, so the last 100 were spent cooling down.
When I got in, I knew I would need some stretching, and boy, did I! It's so easy to lose elasticity in the muscles, but oh, stretching out my hamstrings felt good. Women's Running magazine had an article on quick post-run yoga, and going through the poses, while not a cake-walk, were not too challenging. I like that there had been thought put into the flow of moves, and how one position could transition into the other. For a post-race yoga work-out, I think I'll keep this one up.
I'm glad I did my run outside tonight. It re-established for me the fun of running out-doors. And to think, this time last year, I didn't know if I would even enjoy myself, and now, I'm jumping back into running 10-and-1s, though slower and fewer than when I stopped running in October, but I think I'll be good to start running in my up-coming clinic, and eventually, the Ottawa Race Weekend half-marathon.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
A New Year, a New Run
A new year has come, and after being lazy for three months, I have decided to take up the torch again. I did my first run yesterday, 3km.
I picked a great time to do it, of course: it's snowed almost successively for about 10 days, to the point where going out even in Yaktrax would be risking an ankle. I used the treadmill in my building's workout room, and tried to think of nothing for about 30 minutes.
Some of the things I noticed while taking my 'break' was that I started looking at myself like I used to, before I started running. I'm sure I put back on the previous weight stores: my cheeks filled out, and I got cellulite on my thighs again. I also saw that I was measuring myself more critically, almost as if I knew I didn't have to put this back on, I could be out running but oh no... Of course, this style of beating myself up actually didn't help get me back out there, until yesterday.
Something new that I am trying, if not in the new year, at least for a while, is a more pescetarian diet. Pescetarian means fish and vegetables, but no beef or chicken. While I don't plan to totally cut out land-based meat, I'm trying to reduce it from my diet. It sounds like a grand idea, but it means a lot more planning: eggplant and tofu cook and taste very differently from their meaty counterparts, and I need to find ways to replace the protein. Finding new recipes for this self-imposed diet is a bit of a hunt.
I have signed up for the Ottawa Race Weekend half-marathon, and the training clinic at the Running Room again, and in light of that, I figure I had better be able to go more than a few steps! Therefore, this blog is active again, and I'll be posting more often.
In other news, I would like to put forth the blog of an enterprising young man, Travis Weeks, who has gone and lost 124lbs in less than a year. I found a news story about him on CNN and followed the link to his own blog, 344 Pounds, a reference to the top weight he hit.
I find his blog to be upfront and honest: he makes no bones about where his weight was, and how he felt about it. He talks about a variety of topics in his search; I liked his entry about loose skin, personally, because I always wondered what would happen in a case like that, and he explores the different options available to him on how to get rid of that skin (though the term 'get rid of' seems to imply fast results like surgery, Mr. Weeks doesn't seem to consider plastic surgery to be a very safe way of going about it).
Mr Weeks also considers diet, personal incentives, timings of work-outs, and so on.
All in all, I'm interested in following Mr. Weeks' efforts through his blog, and I will definitely be cheering for him from afar on his first 10K run.
I picked a great time to do it, of course: it's snowed almost successively for about 10 days, to the point where going out even in Yaktrax would be risking an ankle. I used the treadmill in my building's workout room, and tried to think of nothing for about 30 minutes.
Some of the things I noticed while taking my 'break' was that I started looking at myself like I used to, before I started running. I'm sure I put back on the previous weight stores: my cheeks filled out, and I got cellulite on my thighs again. I also saw that I was measuring myself more critically, almost as if I knew I didn't have to put this back on, I could be out running but oh no... Of course, this style of beating myself up actually didn't help get me back out there, until yesterday.
Something new that I am trying, if not in the new year, at least for a while, is a more pescetarian diet. Pescetarian means fish and vegetables, but no beef or chicken. While I don't plan to totally cut out land-based meat, I'm trying to reduce it from my diet. It sounds like a grand idea, but it means a lot more planning: eggplant and tofu cook and taste very differently from their meaty counterparts, and I need to find ways to replace the protein. Finding new recipes for this self-imposed diet is a bit of a hunt.
I have signed up for the Ottawa Race Weekend half-marathon, and the training clinic at the Running Room again, and in light of that, I figure I had better be able to go more than a few steps! Therefore, this blog is active again, and I'll be posting more often.
In other news, I would like to put forth the blog of an enterprising young man, Travis Weeks, who has gone and lost 124lbs in less than a year. I found a news story about him on CNN and followed the link to his own blog, 344 Pounds, a reference to the top weight he hit.
I find his blog to be upfront and honest: he makes no bones about where his weight was, and how he felt about it. He talks about a variety of topics in his search; I liked his entry about loose skin, personally, because I always wondered what would happen in a case like that, and he explores the different options available to him on how to get rid of that skin (though the term 'get rid of' seems to imply fast results like surgery, Mr. Weeks doesn't seem to consider plastic surgery to be a very safe way of going about it).
Mr Weeks also considers diet, personal incentives, timings of work-outs, and so on.
All in all, I'm interested in following Mr. Weeks' efforts through his blog, and I will definitely be cheering for him from afar on his first 10K run.
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