Yesterday I went for my second physio appointment and Graham stretched me out good to prepare me for my run right afterwards. The temperature here was insane! It was about 13 degrees Celsius by the time I headed out with Brett to run NINE hills. Yep. I ran up and down a 400 meter hill nine times in a row. Crazy you say? You would be right. Crazy but endurance building. And confidence building too. Ten and a half months ago I struggled to run for 1 minute straight. Now I'm running 45K a week up and down hills! I never thought I would commit to any form of exercise, let alone a sport. And become an athlete in the process. But here I am. Sometimes I manage to amaze myself. And even though losing the weight was an accomplishment in itself, the running surprises me the most. Remember me? I'm the former morbidly obese woman who rejected any form of exercise.
Not only am I running, but I'm doing what I need to in order to keep running. I'm faithfully stretching and doing my physio exercises even though it annoys me because it takes up even more of my time. But I can't not run, so there you have it. I don't have a choice and I look forward to the day (in the near future I'm sure) when I will run pain free.
Tonight was a crazy night. My clinic was slated to run 8K after a clinic talk on speed training, which we begin next week. The talk was less than informative. Not one Back of the Rat Pack girls showed up to run with me. One, who shall remain nameless, showed up for the clinic talk wearing jeans! She was not going to run because it was too cold. I will admit, the temperature was a bit frigid, but I've run in colder weather with her. Luckily someone I just met did run with me. And I was very thankful for it because there was an area of the route that was not lit and I would have been a bit freaked running it by myself. I ran 7K at a 6:32 pace. Not too shabby! I'd been running a 7:00 or more pace for the past three weeks due to my hamstring. At the 7K point, I had to stop running all together because my knee felt like it was going to buckle beneath me. I walked it out for a few hundred meters, then had to run again because I was freezing cold. The feeling didn't come back and it scared me a bit. Something new I have to keep my eye on now.
I'm surprised I ran so well tonight. I went for a massage this morning and my massage dude stripped my left calf. There was a very noticeable muscle knot in it. Believe me when I say that I have never felt anything more painful in my life. And yes that includes labor. It made me scream A LOT. I was on my stomach at the time and almost came up off the massage table. I wanted to kick him, mostly because he was laughing while he was torturing me. I didn't cry, because there is no crying in running. But my eyes teared up real good. There is a good side to this story. The knot is gone and maybe that is why I ran so well tonight.
My food has been the same. Same boring breakfast, lunch and dinner. Well now, that's not completely true. Dinners are usually different, but this week, lunch has been the same. Oh, and have I mentioned that I still don't care? I read Myra's post on Tuesday about burning calories and how it's easy to misjudge the amount of calories we burn at the gym working out. I don't reward myself with food after a run. I don't reward myself with food ever. I don't eat any different on days that I run versus days that I rest. The only difference is I eat a couple of tablespoons of natural peanut butter before I run on my long run days and I eat energy chews or Gu during my long run. That's it. Everything else stays the same. I run because it releases endorphins that make me feel good. Food fuels me so I can run. I don't run so I can eat whatever I want. I eat so I can run.
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| Love this! Penned by Mary Margaret:) |