Whoever suggested that exercise curbed your appetite was either anorexic or had never run a day in their life. My appetite has been gigantic since taking up the running gig. Strangely enough though, all this pushing my body to it’s limits has developed a new respect for it ... I want to look after it, nurture it and thank it for all it does for me. I have been fueling my body with good quality food as frequently as it demands. Which, at the moment, is every 2 hours. Not exactly the recommendations Bandsters are advised to follow … but what the hey. I am trying to listen and become more attuned to my body. I am going to try to take the focus off the scales for a little while.
And now, let me bang on about the actual running thing. I know. You lucky, lucky devils! On Sunday I ran/walked a 5km circuit. The time? 45 minutes exactly. Okay, not a pocket rocket time but that did include walking the hill sections and the pedestrian footbridge over the train line with 45 stairs each side. At times, the running was not always comfortable but I persisted … and although the time was slow, I was pretty proud of myself. Think about it, folks ... in spite of my weight loss, I am still 15-20kgs overweight (depending on whether you want to follow my recommended BMI or a weight range like WW) and I have a severe congential scoliosis. So, to drag my partially disabled bulk around the full circuit at all is amazing. I hope to get my run/walk down to 35-38 mins by race day in July. Here's hoping.
I have already devoured the two books I bought on running. They will now be my bible, the sacred reference books on all things running. Both books were interesting, informative reads and quite inspiring. It was through reading these books that I learnt that I should only tackle one running element at a time ie. build up endurance before running hills or speed workouts, that is unless I fancy sustaining an injury or experiencing physical burn out. So that was the primary reason for not running the hills on my Sunday run … not because I didn’t want to try but I because I don’t really want a whacking big injury before I’ve barely beguan!
I really do believe that running is going to change me – not only physically but mentally and emotionally as well. Weird you say? Have a read of what John Bingham writes in “Marathon Running for Mortals”:
“Crossing the starting line may be an act of courage, but crossing the finishing line is an act of faith. And faith is one of the most powerful emotions you can experience. Faith is what keeps us going when nothing else will. Faith is the emotion that conquers fear. Faith is the emotion that will give you victory over your past, the demons in your soul and all of those voices that tell you what you can and cannot do and can and cannot be.”
How can you not be inspired to run after reading that?
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