Train For It!
Today I ran my last long run before the Victoria half marathon. It was 20 km, which required me to run from the New West Quay, which is near my place, all the way to Vancouver and back!
20 km is a lot of kms.
As you may recall, I decided back in June that I was sick of my rampant weight gain1 resulting from not doing any sort of physical activity whatsoever, and so I therefore decided that I would train for the Victoria half marathon. For me, races seem to be the only way to get me motivated to hit the pavement. If I’m just like “I should go for a run,” I rarely do. But if I have a race I’m training for and, more importantly, a training plan to tell me when to run and how far to run2, I tend to get out there. I originally vowed “I will at least do all the long runs in my training program and at least another run or two per week.” The first part of that statement turned out to be true, but the second part – not so much. But no matter – deciding to do the Victoria half resulting in me doing 21 runs during which I ran 205 km since the time I made that decision. And that’s 21 runs and 205 km that I’m pretty sure I would not have run otherwise. And I’ve managed to keep up with my school work, because I really do think more clearly and work more efficiently when I’m well exercised! The bathroom scale remains stubbornly on the same number as it did before I started my training, but happily (a) I have at least halted the weight gain, and (b) I’m getting more toned3.
Not wanting to lose the keeping-exercise-in-my-life momentum, I’m contemplating whether I should look for a fall race to train for4 or if I should activate the Groupon I got for the yoga place that is about a 30 second walk from my building. I also have the hockey seasons having started, so that will help keep me fit too!
- Not to mention how bad it is for my health to be highly stressed with no exercise. [↩]
- Because I am indecisive and need someone to just tell me what to do. [↩]
- So I think that the bit of fat weight I’ve lost is being balanced out by the muscle that I’m building. [↩]
- Not another half marathon, but maybe a nice 8 or 10 km race. [↩]
Comments |5|
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Have you checked out the Central Valley Greenway yet? It goes from basically your place right to Victoria & Broadway in Vancouver, on a mix of side-streets and off-road paths, and follows the route of the Northern loop of the SkyTrain so you can bail and get on the train at any point. I’ve only done it on a bike (usually as the second part of this loop – NB do NOT attempt the River Road portion of this route on foot! – although I have also cycled it in both directions) so I don’t know how it would be as a running route. If you’d like to scope it out on a bike first, let me know! I haven’t been on a long bike ride in ages!
I’ve biked and run along the CVP (as well as the BC Parkway), but they are a bit too hilly for my liking. It was running along the BC Parkway that was the straw that broke the camel’s IT band and I think the CVP is the same. That’s the trouble with living next to the river – everything is uphill from here!
Also, I don’t want to be tempted by the option to get on Skytrain! In fact, I purposely do not bring my bus pass with me when I go out for a run so that I won’t wuss out!
If you are looking for an amazing year round workout which I will bet will not only get you in the best shape of your life but can also be a team activity and a social one as well. Rowing! To be honest, if you can play the longest hockey game ever you will excel and rowing.
A co-worker of mine is a rower and she is in really good shape. The other appealing thing about rowing is that it’s more of an upper body workout compared to everything else I do (hockey, running, biking, hiking), which are all legs!