Glutton for punishment or dedicated runner - You tell me LOL

Okay, these are things I know -

I know the forecast today is for rain and it has already been raining so if I run outside, I'm likely to get caught in the rain....

BUT

My sport watch is waterproof and rain is better than blazing heat isn't it.

If I want to avoid the rain, I can run inside on the treadmill...

BUT

To run on the road outside is MUCH more of a workout than a session on the treadmill.

I know that the reverse of my route has much more uphill on it....

BUT

I know that the uphill will give me more of a workout and therefore up the ante on my training.

Knowing all of this, guess what I did......

I RAN OUTSIDE IN THE RAIN ON THE REVERSE OF MY ROUTE. :-)

LOL I can almost see my friend Sandy shaking her head and saying "Crazy chick" hehehehe

The cherry on top - on my last stretch I ran past a random guy who said "Mooi maam, hou did so" *HUGE GRIN*

Ain't running just GRAND!!!!!!

New schedule

It was so hot on Friday night, that I couldn't sleep so I was thinking about the Spar Women's 10km and the fact that I wouldn't be able to finish my 10km training before I run it. I then had a bright idea - up till now, I have been doing training sessions on Mon/Wed/Fri and giving myself the weekends off, BUT, if I just do training every alternate day, then I can actually fit in an extra weeks training before the race :-) I decided that I was going to do that from today. So today is actually Day 1 of week 4.

Today was walk 5min, jog 8min - repeat X 3. I have to say, that the last 8min jogging stretch required a lot of willpower to get me through it, as I was jogging, I was chanting in my head "I can do this, I can do this". By hook or by crook, I was determined to not fall down on the job by not completing the session correctly. I'm very pleased to announce that the session was completed as designated by a very happy me. It was definately the most difficult session yet for me though.

Then, as I had only had a sandwich for supper last night and because I felt proud of the 'work' that I did, I treated myself to a lovely breakfast at the Fruit & Veg City where we did our veg shopping (hubby had breakfast too of course LOL).

I'm looking forward to Tuesday now so I can do the next leg of 'torture' LOL

Week 3 is now klaar, kuput, totally finished LOL

I was both looking forward to and just a lil bit dreading todays session, because it included a 10min stretch of running ( more correctly jogging I should say) and that is twice as much as I have done before so far in one stretch. I started out very excitedly, eagar to see if I could overcome the 10mins. I'm VERY, VERY proud to say, that I did overcome it and the last 5min stretch too, so day 3 of week 3 is now completed.

With my interest in running, came a lot of reading about running and all thing associate with it. I've come to the conclusion that us runners (and I include myself in that) are a rather weird bunch. We do some very weird things, like running 42kms (that won't be me at any time though), running in the most ungodly weather that ducks stay home in and some even run in the heat of the day (personally, I can't understand how that can put up with the heat) and a whole other assortement of things....

For instance, on my weekend away, I did a run - on a gravel road in the farmlands. I was more concerned about my (relatively) new asics getting dirty, than I was in looking at the beautiful scenery LOL

Another thing - those pavement oysters - Ewwwwww, GROSS. If you don't know what pavement oysters are, I don't think I even want to try and explain it, but suffice to say, a popular runners mag (Runners World) actually had an article in it explaining HOW to do such said offence. Apparently its quite common among runners, BUT, I'm not sure if I will ever be one of those types of runners, I think its totally gross and would much rather carry tissues with me *grimace*

Another article in said magazine, discussed when one becomes 'a runner' and one of the theories is that you only become a runner, when you have peed in your pants, on the run..........again EWWWWWWW, Thats another kind of runner that I DEFINATELY won't be becomming.

I can understand though that top road running athletes probably do both - in the interests of getting good times, but thank goodness I'm not a top athlete.

I've also learned that vaseline & sunblock can rapidly become my best friends, going with me to every race. Also a banana is good before a race and chocolate milk is good for recovery afterwards.

For the time being though, I'm VERY happy with the kind of runner I am and I'm feeling VERY proud of myself and what I've done so far and I'm really looking forward to continue on being a RUNNER!!!

Week 3 - Day 2, immunizations & parcel

40mins brisk walking - That was on the agenda for today and its been completed. Another day ticked off the list. Luckily it was a bit foggy/misty this morning, so at least part of my walk was done in the cool, but more than half of it was done in the heat yet again.

Before I did my walk, I went with my eldest daughter to take her 9 month old son to have his immunization. He had to have TWO injections, shame the poor lil guy, but he was very brave. The first injection obviously wasn't too bad, cause he cried for about 20 seconds, however, the second one must have been worse cause he cried quite a lot. I'm not sure who was crying more, him or my daughter. Shortly though, the crying was over and he was just like normal again.

Today was an awesome day for another reason....I collected a parcel from the Post Office which was some goodies that I ordered from a friend of mine http://www.facebook.com/reiki.by.bronwyn or http://www.reikibybronwyn.co.za/ (by the way, my details are http://www.serenehealing.co.za/ or http://www.facebook.com/reiki.by.bronwyn#!/pages/Carol-Ward-Spiritual-Advisor-Reiki-MasterTeacher/252858623666 )

In my parcel was a beautiful Goddess statue in earth colours with a Tigers Eye crystal in her belly, a wonderful Cosmic Guide Pendant and a beautiful pendulum all made with polymer clay.

Anyway, hopefully the weather will get a bit cooler in the day soon, cause I feel like I'm melting on a daily basis :-(

Week 3 - Day 1

So, I have now completed day 1 of week 3 and I have realized something which I'm going to admit......I don't know better than the experts and I'm gonna have to rethink my race goals and go back to my original race plan.

Let me explain - I've been enjoying the running so much, that I thought I would be clever and add in an extra training session, so on Saturday, while I was away, I repeated Fridays session. It seemed fine, but this morning when doing my session, I realized it was a mistake. Even the first 5min jogging session this morning was difficult with the 2nd and 3rd being even worse, BUT, I did do the whole session.

So, admitting I'm wrong, I'm NOT going to do the two 5km fun runs and the 10km UCT race that I had planned for March. I'm going back to my original (realistic) plan of my first race being the Spar Womans Race on 10 April.

Having said all that, this has definately NOT put me off running, I still love it and will definately continue, but I am going to listen to the experts and not do my usual 'want everything quickly' thing LOL

I'm looking forward to Wednesday's and Friday's sessions :-)

Week 2 - Day 2

So its now week 2 - day 2 and I'm still going strong :-) Today was 'walk 35min briskly' and I decided that I was going to walk with a 1kg dumbell in each hand. I've done that before, in Jan when I started exercising and was doing my own thing. However, my own thing wasn't as much as my Shape 10km Challenge puts me up to and walking briskly for 35mins with weights in each hand was a little too much. I didn't suffer badly, but in the last quarter of my walk my arms were aching and the enjoyment had kinda gone out of it. It was a good idea, but I think in future I'll leave the weights behind.

Because I was only walking this morning, I decided to start early as I used to and left the house about 5.45am. It was still pretty dark, but the street lights helped. One of the reasons I decided to carry the weights, was because I worry a bit about being out on my own in the semi darkness when there aren't that many people or cars around. Soon it will be too dark for me to attempt it, but hopefully by that time it will have cooled down a bit during the day, so then I can do my training at any time.

Of course, as winter comes in, my treadmill & inside will just have to do. Running in the howling wind or pouring rain just doesn't do it for me. LOL

I'm getting a bit worried about the 5km Fun run I'm planning to do on 5 March, cause I know that there's no way that I'll be able to run anywhere near 5km's, but I suppose doing a combination of running and walking will be okay. I just hope that I don't injure myself and therefore mess up my training program.

I'm looking forward to Fridays training....