New Lessons to Learn

Whee to running 9km today! Only one more kilometer and we've made the race! Next week, 13km, into Gatineau and back. Like we're putting it all together.

I learned a few things in the past few weeks:

1. It doesn't look like I'll be doing without the help of my athletic therapist anytime soon. Admittedly, I did make it almost a month without needing a visit, but after the try-out, my left knee started to hurt. After a check-in, she said it was some muscles that attach to the knee being aggravated. The cure is lots of stretching and not doing try-outs again.

2. Eating even half a bagel in under an hour before I run is a bad idea. I slept in this morning, and suddenly woke up with about 10 minutes to spare before I had to catch the bus. On my way out the door, I grabbed half of a bagel and munched on most of that. The results were sadly predictable: cramps and stitches!

3. Ice is my friend, and I need more cold compresses. I noticed today that my knees felt almost tired and achy; the feeling is hard to describe. I asked my running coach and he said ice them. The only problem being that I only have one ice pack, but I have the standard two knees. Oooh, maybe I can get the ice version of those heat-wraps.

Those are my lessons for this week.

In other news, I have decided that I want to slim down. Admitting this on a blog is kind of big for me, because of the cognitive dissonance and guilt I feel over this idea: Do I really need to slim down? Am I setting myself up for disappointment? Am I allowing myself to buy into silly Hollywood ideals and images? Am I betraying my younger self who swore she would never buy in to weight loss if she wasn't badly overweight?
I had a brief talk with my sister about this. We agreed that losing some extra pounds for running was beneficial (my knees might thank me), and vanity is not the best reason. I figure at least I have two reasons.
It's been hard to even say to my friends. I don't want them to say, "But Jelly, you're fabulous as you are; you may carry some extra pounds, but you carry it well!" I want them to say, "Okay, you'll look awesome when you're done."
However, I realize that I had most of these worries, in one way, with running. The best I can do is go for it, set my goal, be informed, and to keep at it.

Look at where it's got me so far.