Monday, September 12, 2011

"Things I learned About Running: Week 1" And Other News!

Hey team. So lots of new and exciting stuff going on in this chilly Cowtown as of late. First, however, let me regail you with the findings of a week's worth of 5k training (read: two whole runs...)

Running requires diligent toe nail maintenance. It didn't dawn on me when the woman at the Running Room told me that most people buy their running shoes almost a full size larger that the reason was "because otherwise your toenails will fall off." Don't worry - that didn't happen! But after my first run, my second (or middle?) toe ached for days (yes, I am one of those blessed with second toes longer than their big toe). Clip clip clip.

Everyone in Calgary waters their sidewalks at 8:30 am. After making the mistake of running too late in the morning and subjecting myself to the blaring 30 degree heat, I opted for an early morning run. Well everyone in my community uses the same logic when it comes to lawn watering. Except their automatic spinklers aren't aimed wholly at their lawns. I had to dip, dodge, and eventually just subject myself to a face-full of cold water.

Mind over matter. I received what would be runner-up for the worst wax of my life this week. The girl (Ria at Frilly Lilly, if you're curious) was lovely and sweet, and we chatted up a storm, but this apparently distracted her from the task at hand, explaining why she ripped off some 2-inch square layers of epidermis from my legs. And not just my legs. Leaving it there. What does this have to do with running? Well Ria was telling me that she is training for a half-marathon, and spoke about how running was just so much mind over matter. Well, while panting and making plans to stop early, or walk longer on my second training run, I thought "my mind has GOT to be stronger than this chick's." And I shaved 7 minutes off my first 5k time. Thanks Ria.

Nurse Injuries. So if you were thinking "2 runs in one week?" I know. I skipped Saturday's run. I had opted to have Friday as my day off, but was lured back to yoga. I figured it would be recooperative! But alas, I left with a rather wobbly right knee, which, if you remember correctly, I had torn the miniscus of pretty much exactly a year ago. So I took the advice of one and all (nope - could not find a single person who thought I should push through it) and took Saturday's run off. I hit the gym yesterday, did the bike and performed my inaugural T Band stretch, bought a brace, and will be hitting the pavement later today.

Ok, so in addition to these running revelations of mine, I have an exciting announcement: The Sexual Cynic has graduated into its own blog! Now, my last foray into blog-juggling didn't turn out so well (Being and Burgs, alas, never really took off), however, I have high hopes. And for those of you who check here periodically hoping to mock sex positions only to see me complaining about running or my parents or pining over shoes, well, bookmark the new site baby!

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