Think positive

Knock, knock....anyone home.  Sorry I have not been around lately, it has been crazy with family, work and training...training for the Goofy is tough.   

It has been an interesting time in my brain lately, lots of smack talk and self doubt and I am working my way through it.  When you are overweight, you think once you lose a certain amount of weight and hit into that magical size life would be wonderful and it should be but sometimes it is not.  For some reason when I lost my latest bit of weight this summer, I became dissatisfied with my body.  Instead of seeing a strong confident women I saw stretch marks, lose skin and a jelly belly; I should have been happy but instead I was miserable.  I know it does not sound logical but it is the truth, my truth and I have to work through it.  I think that learning to love myself is a process, work in progress and I am not afraid of hard work. I need to love the new me, jelly belly and all because I do not have the spare money for a tummy tuck and bust lift and I really don't want one.   A friend challenged us to find a positive body intention for  the week, this is mine.  

I choose to embrace my body, this body is mine, I earned every wrinkle, stretch mark and sag. This body is the vehicle that allows me to do amazing things and as such, I will honor it, without reservations, judgement or disclaimers.  

A few weeks ago I went to a fitness assessment at the gym I joined.  While I did not lie, I was not forthcoming with the consultant since I wanted to see how much of a sales pitch it was.  At the end of the hour she had decided I was a middle aged women who was not active and had put on weight recently and needed someone to push her to achieve her goals.  She also said I needed to lose 5-8 lbs and a few % of body fat.  I think it messed with my head a bit, I wondered if  that was what other saw as well.  I have decided it does not matter what she thought, I know the truth...now I have to live it.  

Running for a Cause

Sorry I missed a post last week, it has been crazy.  On Nov 2nd I did a 5K fun run for a cause.  I was away for the weekend scrapbooking and found out there was a run in memory of a young girl in the area.  All I knew at the time was the name of the event, the Healther Salltink Memorial run, that it was free and it was timed.  They were asking for donations to Arrive Alive so I figure there was a connection there but I did not know what it was at the time.  

I headed out for my weekend of fun and was happy to pack my running gear, I wanted to see how much my 5K time had improved over the summer.  While scrapbooking I met people who knew the family and I found out the story behind the run.  Heather and her father where driving home from Ottawa to Cornwall and they were hit by a drunk driver and Heather was killed.  The irony was that Heather was driving because her father had a few drinks and knew better then to drive.  The family was a member of the Cornwall Multisport Club and avid runners.  I was really glad I was running now and even the bad weather was not going to keep me away.  It was wet and cold, not ideal running conditions but I did not care, my discomfort was nothing.  

The run started on a nice flat road, I had no idea what the course looked like but I soon heard it was 4k of rolling hills, great not what I wanted to hear.  I had an idea of what time I was aiming for, I had a OMG, I can't believe I did it goal of 27:30, a I am really happy goal of 27:45 and an it's OK goal of 28:00.  At this point I was thinking 28:00 is likely good enough for today.   I had warmed up so my first K was at my goal pace of 5:30 and my second was 5:16 and then the hills started to kick my butt, just past the turnaround I turned my watch to time, I did not want to see my pace and found someone to follow, a young girl who was running a good pace.  I was still running fast and breathing hard as I enter the last flat section. I kept up to my pace buddy until the last 200m where she sprinted away and I had no extra gear, oh to be young again.

my pace buddy sprinting away...bye bye

see I can take a bad race photo

I had a rough idea of my time at the finish but even though I thought I turned off my Garmin (see photo above), I did not and it was showing 35:34 when I finally turned it off.  I was thrilled to find out my time was 27:25, more then 2 mins off May's time and faster them my OMG goal.  I had a great time, met some new running friends and helped a great cause.  I headed back my scrapbooking with a warm heart, wet feet and a new 5K PB.  

End of season Wrap up Part 2

So I finally have time to sit down to finish this post, it has been a busy week.  So where did I leave off...right, what worked and I was going to move on to what did not work and what's next.

So what did not work.  In April I contacted a local company for VO2Max testing for zone training, what a disaster.  I was suppose to run my slow runs really slowly, almost walking in order to increase my zone 1.  In my opinion, it made me a worse runner, I felt sluggish and s l o w.  I gave this up after 2 months and joined the marathon clinic at my local Running Room.   

Something else that did not work was my biking, I am a terrible cyclist.  I really really need to work on this during the winter.  Biking is the longest part of a Triathlon so not being a good cyclist really hurts your performance and time.  I will work on my strength and do some hill training on the spin bike this winter, I am an OK runner and swimmer, next year is all about the biking.

So this leads nicely to whats next.  This year was about growth, doing new distances and pushing myself to prove I could do it...and I did.  Next year is about speed and constancy. I am working on strength and speed during the winter, in all three disciplines.  Next year is about building on this year, I can go the distance so now its about time and endurance, doing it better, faster, stronger then before.

Ironman: the final frontier. These are the blogs of the athlete Allyson. Whose three-year mission: to explore strange new races, to seek out new PB's and new distances , to boldly go where she has not gone before!...... whoop my Star Trek geek is showing.

So I have 2 fun runs left for this year, a 5K tomorrow and a 10k on New Years Eve.  I am looking forward to these races, to run with abandon and enjoy the run and the runners beside me.  After that is the Goofy, I am running that with my friends Barbara and Lori. This is for fun, time is not even in the conversation.  We are sorting out costumes and planning on taking photos along the way.  I then start the speed portion of my year, I have aggressive time goals for Around the Bay (30K) and my Half Marathon in May here in Ottawa.  The summer is Triathlon, a summer that will be book-ended by 70.3 Ironman events, with a few shorter ones in the middle and a late fall marathon will finish off my year. 

I have a solid plan, goals and a great coach, I also have a secret dream/goal for next summer not running or triathlon related, crazy I know. I am looking forward to the journey and what it will teach me about myself. To me the race is the icing on the cake, the exclamation point at the end of the sentence, its the training I really love. Who would have thought I would say that, me the confirmed couch potato who though those who did these things were crazy.  I could not have done these things without a community of runners and triathletes who train and motivate me, my awesome coach and my family, especially my marathon man, who love me unconditionally and put up with all this training and expense.