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.

Success is 1 hour, 7 minutes, and 45 seconds

I ran the 10K yesterday evening, and got in at a very satisfactory 67 minutes and 45 seconds.
I had been hoping for 60 minutes, but due to some oversights, I'm happy that I made it through the whole course still standing.

The race was fun for a lot of reasons. For example, all the people who like to dress up for the race - someone was wearing a pair of shorts with buttocks, advertising a rendition of the Full Monty. Another thing was, as we were passing underneath the Queensway, everyone let out yells to echo through. That was fun.
I am also extremely thankful to everyone who lined up to watch the 10k'ers go by. All the adults with signs, the children with their pots and pans, and the people who would read my name off my race bib and encourage me to keep going. Even if I didn't know them, it was like each of them were cheering at least in part for me.

I did learn a few good lessons from this, though:
1. Keep water with you: I had decided not to bring my water bottle with me, because I dislike wearing it while running. However, the water stations were set so far apart that, from kilometer 4 to kilometer 8, there was nothing. I was reduced to walk two minutes, run two minutes. By the time I got to the 8km water station, I was knocking back about 2.5 cups. The sun was punishing, and I think I would have gotten a much better time had I had a constant source of water. I'm lucky I didn't seize up or faint!

2. They're not joking when they say hydrate before the run: if I had maintained my hydration level on the day of that I had the day before, lesson #1 wouldn't have been quite as much a problem.

3. If you have blisters from another sport, make sure they're cushioned: I took care of them and while they didn't really cause me that much trouble during the race, I did feel them.

And then the two things that I had known before, through common sense: who cares if everyone else is wearing the race day shirt? If it's hot and sunny, wear white; and, ice your knees after.

I do wish John Stanton's book had a bit more detail of post-race recovery. For me, I did what felt natural. I had a steak dinner, drank water, and went to bed.