Motiva-what?

Sigh. Lately motivation has waxed and waned. It just seems so much easier to allow life to get in the way. Like yummy Indian dinners out with my husband followed by newly discovered cider.

However, I’ve signed up for the Toronto Women’s 5K race and my aim is to PB this run at a sub 30 minute time, officially – natch.

So, that means I’m going to have to get off of my butt.

Train (if you will).

Set a schedule for runs.

This is my plan:

One weeknight run (about all I typically fit in). This must be 5-7k

One weekend run (again, typical). The goal for this should be 10k (har, NOT typical)

One morning run on the treadmill (30 minutes of the hill program). This is net new. This can be done on Tuesday’s or Thursday’s when I don’t have to take my kid to my parents house for care.

Curves visits 2-3x a week (I’m a wee bit over Curves)

Baseball as scheduled

This is the two week plan. Revisions to come July 30th.

I will keep you updated.

I will follow it.

I will PB.

The Comradery of Runners

I ran 5k (outside, started around 20:35, ran the entire thing, took about 33 mins) last night and noticed something.

Runners love to see other runners, well running.

I realize that this is a pretty bold statement for me to make and assumes that I consider myself a runner; however the truth is in the smiling!

Of course, you must understand my community. Milton is a smaller suburb of Toronto at the very western end of the GTA. It is a growing bedroom community (for the most part) and it is filled with young couples settling down as they grown their families and fulfill their dreams. It is also at the foot of the Niagara Escarpment which allows for all kinds of outdoor activities. Drive along any 2-lane road on a Saturday or Sunday in Milton and you will notice the plethora of road bikers and many, many yakima bike racks on cars. The community is active and this extends to recreational runners.

As I ran my normal 5k route last night, I passed half a dozen other runners. We all nodded and smiled. There is an inherent feeling of, Oh, you’re out here too! Good! when seeing others push themselves as you are.

That is another thing I love about runners: inclusion. It doesn’t matter is you’re a beginner or a Boston Marathoner, the running community is full of welcoming souls who all encourage you to… become a better runner. From advice to understanding (everyone hits a wall, no water what distance they run) the people I’ve found since beginning this running journey have all been wonderful.

Who knew that a bit of exercise would improve my view on people in general?

In case you’ve been wondering…

Yep, I haven’t run since Jun 16th. I had a small medical thing, so common that it is not worth going into here; suffice to say that it kept me from running. Now that I’m over all of that, I can rejoin the world of running once again.

And so, I did.

I did about 5.5km outside yesterday through my neighborhood in a big loop and quite enjoyed myself despite the heat. It is hard to judge distance without a Garmin and MapMyRun doesn’t have all of the new streets in place yet. As I said to the hubs upon my return, there were + and – to the run:

+ I ran
- I walked a whole heck of a lot of it
+ I remembered my hat
- I forgot my sun screen (not too bad – no burns, just more colour on my arms that I should have)
+ I ran with my water belt thing
- It still bumps around
+ I discovered if the water is only ¾ full and at my hip, it doesn’t bump so much
+ New route
- I had to run through construction and almost killed myself on some stones
+ my last song of the run came up as Neil Diamond!
- The run/walk took me 50 mins!
+ I got back out there!

The plan for the week includes the following:

M: Baseball
T: Curves, Baseball
W: Curves, Run (likely 5km treadmill as Hubs is out)
TH: Curves
F: Run (short – 5km?)
Sa: Long run (as in 7km?)

I’m debating signing up for another race as well to keep me focused.