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It’s here. Racing season is here! All those 5K’s last year are framed and on the wall. This is going to be my year of medals! 10K’s! 15K’s! MY FIRST HALF MARATHON!!!!! Yeah right……instead of training and getting ready and lifting weights to avoid a pear body…..
I’ve got a torn rotator cuff
and a fractured bone in my foot (I got the pedi before the doctor’s visit). I am permanently sat down until mid-April. No walking, running, weights, nothing.
Have you ever heard that it only takes 21 days to break a habit? I have but does that mean that 21 days of the same behavior is that creates habit? So by doing something different than before you’re simply creating a new habit? Or does it take 21 days for you to have the willpower to stop? I have been given the opportunity to read, review, and experience The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal thanks to BlogHer. This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own. I was struck by the description of the book and the information sheet that came along with it: How Self Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It. Why was I struck? Well first of all I need self control in my life. Struggling with mental and emotional ups and downs is draining and I’d like to be more balanced. The truth is I NEED to be more balanced. The other reason (if you tell anyone I’ll disown you) is that I’ve been sucking my thumb since I was a baby and at 36 when I get stressed I find myself resorting back to it. Yeah yeah judge me but I don’t smoke and have healthy lungs so there! Anyway back to the book. Kelly McGonigal combines the newest insights from phsychology, economics, neuroscience, and medicine to explain what exactly willpower is, how it works, and why it matters. “The book not only explains how self control works and why it’s important (it’s actually a mind-body response that eveolved to support our survivial, much like the stress response), but it also provide life-changing prescriptive advice for how to develop stronger willpower.” I’m all about stronger willpower! The book is broken into 10 chapters and the author’s desire is that you focus on a chapter a week. That’s what I’m going to do. I’ll be honest with you though. I found the first chapter too technical to simply easily grasp and move forward. I ended up reading it a couple of times and still coming back to it. To the extent that I’m not yet comfortable telling you to rush out and buy your own copy. I’ll keep going though so stay tuned. And in the meantime, join us over at BlogHer to discuss willpower. Where to start….I had some serious goals for myself with The Tulsa Run. The first was to run the entire thing instead of my run/walk combination. The second was to finish around 44 minutes. I had been training and pushing myself harder and farther so a 14 minute mile could definitely be in my foreseeable future. I’ve learned that when you wear a larger size you run the risk of not receiving a t-shirt if you register late for a race. That’s not something I’ve ever experienced though because I register early. So imagine my disappointment when I got to the Runner’s Expo and was told that the printer didn’t deliver any shirts larger than a large. By the way, I’ve lost weight and no longer order the 2x…now I get the XL. They didn’t have any. Between you and me though I think they were lying because I saw plenty of people at the race in shirts that were larger than a large. So I’ve paid my money and I don’t get a shirt until HOPEFULLY 3 weeks from now. I’m not happy about that. And while I’m on the topic of disappointment, the expo was held at the Hyatta downtown and parking was $2/half hour. Y’all couldn’t validate parking for picking up runner’s packets? SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?!? On race day it was coooooooold outside!
WAIT….I forgot to tell you about my first runner’s expo experience. IT WAS AWESOME!!!!! Check me out in the gear I bought (doing my typical pre-race pose in the bathroom full length mirror LOL)
Wow…I can really see the weight I’ve lost in this picture. My shirt saysRun like a girl….STRONG FIERCE & SASSY! I also bought this headband that is made out of the same material as swimsuits. It covered my ears and soaked up all the sweat. It worked fabulously. I regret not buying more than one. I found a great parking spot near the starting line and wandered around downtown trying to stay warm until go time. My RBS homegirl showed up early to give me a boost before starting her 15K and kept me hype.
Once the gun sounded I didn’t expect the crowd to be so slow. It was like 5:00 traffic…stop and go all the way to the actual start line. (I gathered in my 13+ per mile section to avoid getting run over). It was horrible. Here I was ready to go and tackle the pavement and I had to navigate my way around so many people. My playlist was right on point. The night before I lined up the songs the way I figured I would need them and I was right. We Ready – Archie (Time to go…time to move…time to get started….I’m ready!) And they announced your name as you crossed the finish line. I felt like a doggone superstar! And I realized today that when I finished I didn’t feel like I was dying. It was like “Okay that’s done. Good job.” Now let’s address these hills at the end. There was a sign that said What goes up must come down. THEY LIED. That hill went up and up and up forever and instead of going down it just leveled off….AND THEN WENT UP AGAIN! It did that 3 times all the way to the finish line. It was like torture. But I did it. My official time was 52:55 but I’m positive that was wrong. That is a pace of 17:04 and according to my app I was at a 15:38 at mile 2. There’s no way it took me 19 minutes to do the last mile. I don’t care how many hills there were. So I stuck around and partied and ran into old friends while I waited on my team mate to finish. I saw the elite runners finish and they were total rockstars. I saw a 12 year old finish and a 75 year old man. AMAZING. When she finished we ate more food and stretched and made our way to our cars. After comparing notes I feel good saying that I can check the Tulsa Run off my list but I don’t anticipate doing it again. I won’t even tell you about the lack of crowd support out there. My racing season is over. To celebrate I had this head of mine snatched straight an hour after the race
And I’m planning a wine tasting party in 2 weeks. I set out to kick butt and I kicked it. YAY ME! In October I’m going to be doing a 15k. That’s 9.3 miles. In November I’m doing a half marathon. That’s 13.1 miles. The most I’ve ever done was 7 and that was a leisurely hike. Typically the goal is simply not to be the last person to finish. I’ve decided for that not to happen in October I need to finish in 2 hours and 27 minutes or less. That’s a 45 minute 5k. My best time ever was 43 minutes and my current time is 51 minutes. In addition to the time I also need to build up my endurance so that I don’t get to mile 8 and collapse. Obviously that means that I need to take training seriously. So my goal for this week (July 15-21) is to walk/run at least 15 miles total. I’m not really a runner. I’m in shape enough to steadily power walk and then I throw some running into that mix. My goal is to build up to running an entire race (but right now these boobs bouncing up and down are restricting my doggone pace). I am having a blast “competing” in these races. I say competing because I’m always trying to do something better than the last one. And I only participate in races for a cause because it gives me a chance to talk about the organization and bring some attention to it. So I was super excited to sign up for Ready…Set…Run! sponsored by the Autism Center of Tulsa.
I see Keyalus do run reports and I thought it would be cool to do my own…..because y’all won’t believe what happened to me at this doggone race! This was my first race without my walking/running partner Penny and I was half super excited and half super nervous. I had that same constant fear as always…What if I’m the last one to finish the race? But after I saw the park where the course was I was okay with that idea because 1) the trail wasn’t wide enough for a police car to be on trailing behind me, 2) it was for autism and 3) the fun run would start after the 5k so I could always blend in. Penny showed up to cheer me on and as the gun sounded I took off running. That’s where it got screwy. The trail was like a freaking maze! We passed through the finish line probably about 4 times in this loop. Then we launched off into the wooded portion of the trail. There were hills and loops and all kinds of madness and the signs to guide you were soooooooo confusing. Some of them said 5K and some said fun run but the path was NEVER clear. I tried my best to just follow the people in front of me to stay on course. Did I mention that I forgot the inhaler the doctor told me to use and ran out of breath at the time of one of the hills and had to sit down and catch my breath? Yeah I did. 4K into the race I come upon a crossroads. Since I’d stopped to rest there wasn’t anyone directly in front of me (and the people behind me before turned around at about the 3k mark and headed back….cheaters!). Remember those confusing signs I mentioned?
I saw a sign that said fun run in one direction and the finish line in the other. So I headed towards the finish line. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out why people were crowded around it and blocking it. Maybe I was so far behind that they were getting ready for the fun run. But I squeezed through and around people and crossed the line. Then I started looking for Penny. While I was doing that I started hearing cheering and turned to see people crossing the finish line IN THE OTHER DIRECTION. Apparently I was supposed to follow the sign that said fun run and do another half mile that would circle back to the finish line……in the direction opposite of what I did. You’re hearing me right? I CROSSED THE FINISH LINE IN THE WRONG DIRECTION AND ONLY DID 4K! So now that I’m fully embarrassed I get a text from Penny saying “I’m right in front of the finish line with my camera. Did I miss you?” I wanted to just go sit in the car and be ashamed. I felt like not only did my time suck (based on what it would have been) but I had cheated the Autism Center because I didn’t do all 5 of the k’s. Penny laughed at me and my husband and father both said “You did more than most people did cause most people are sitting on the couch at home at 7am on a Saturday morning.” But I was upset and tired of setting goals and not meeting them. I haven’t completed a race in my planned time yet and I’m still not able to run an entire race yet. I left the park deciding to just quit racing altogether. But something just won’t let me quit. And I DID promise Penny that we’d do the Tulsa Run together this year. As I looked around for registration info I discovered that the Tulsa Run has a 15K…..hmmmmm. I did a little math calculating in my head and confirmed that 15K is 9.3 miles and I texted Penny. WE CAN DO IT! So we’re doing it. We have a 16 week training schedule printed out and we start tomorrow after work. WISH ME LUCK!!!!!! |
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