Friday, July 6, 2012

NYC, what is it about you?

Ah... home.

It's been about 9 months since I've been home in NYC for more than 3 days, and I'm liking it.  It's a little weird because I'm crashing at my old apartment, however my room is currently occupied by a subletter.  So, I've been the main inhabitant of the couch and living area.  But, it's been great because I'm getting to spend so much time with my roommate and her wonderful dog, Wylie.  (Hi Beth!)

Since I've been here, my eating hasn't been that horrible.  Yes, I had a turkey burger and tater tots yesterday (um, hello!  There were TATER TOTS!  How can you say no to TATER TOTS??) but that pretty much filled me up for the majority of the day and then after my run I had a Clif Bar essentially for dinner.

A run, did you say?

That's right!  I've been back out and running in Central Park since I've been home and it's been great!  I have run two of my old routes, and even though they were kind of a struggle to finish, I am able to report that I ran 3 miles on Tuesday and 4 miles last night.  WOOHOO!!!  I'm not completely back, but I'm well on my way!  The 3 mile route was just twice around the Central Park Reservoir path but the 4 mile route was my old hilly route that most definitely put me to the test.  The other great news?  Even though I felt like I was going SO SLOW, when I looked at my watch?  I realized that for the first mile, on both runs, I was FLYING! (Or, at least flying for me...) but then I had to slow down and pace myself for the rest of the run so that I could finish.  All in all, I finished both runs at a 13:45 mile.  I'm insanely happy with that.

Why?  I mean, by everyone's standards, that's really slow.  I'm extremely happy with that, because when I took my break from running last year the fastest pace I recorded was 13:30, and that was after MONTHS of training and running!  I put in hours upon hours and miles upon miles to get myself down to that speed.  If I'm starting out at this speed, after a couple of months of C210K training, I'm very excited to see what I am going to be able to accomplish come next February.

And what's next February, you ask?

Why, the Walt Disney World Princess Half Marathon, that's what!

I know, I've said this before but this time, it's gonna happen!  Registration opens next week, the timing is pretty perfect with the tour, and I've talking with my roommate's fiance and she has agreed to run it with me.  I was worried about this week's runs actually because I wanted to be able to run a decent distance again before I made this commitment.  I was worried that I wouldn't be able to run 3 miles consistently, which is what they say you should be able to do before you start training for a half marathon.  Well, I've run 7 miles thus far this week and I'm going to go out again tonight and put in at least another 3.  By the time that my official training schedule starts in the fall I should be good and ready for it.

I'm so excited.  Things are starting to look up for me fitness wise.  I've received several compliments since I've been home about how I look and I do have to say that I do feel better about myself when I look in the mirror.  Even though the scale doesn't reflect a weight loss, I do think that I've lost some inches.

The thing is that I've never felt more physically challenged than when I'm running.  I sweat more, I get my heart pumping and my muscles ache.  I push myself more than I ever do when I'm on an elliptical or exercise bike.  I don't know why, maybe its because I could never run before as a child, but it's a total mental block.  When I run, I am always striving to be better than I was the day before.

Anyway, that's what is happening with me in the Big Apple.  I head to Toronto next week for three weeks.  I'm hoping that there are some good running trails nearby.  Now that I'm back to running outside, I don't want to get back on a treadmill!  It's just so boring!

I probably won't post again from NYC.  I left my scale with my tour stuff, so it's well on its way to Toronto right now.

Catch you guys from the other side of the border!

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