the wonderful world of veena.

11 June 2013

is 10k tuesday back? you never know...

I am always hesitant to start writing about my running habits again, because I'm afraid that as soon as I do, I'll fall out of the habit again, and it will have been a wasted effort.

But here I am, jinxing fate once again, in the hopes that this time it will spur me on. So wish me luck.

I've been running on-and-off since I returned from India, mostly around my parents' neighbourhood. I ran once while I was in Little Rock, but running on Markham near UAMS was such a traumatic experience that I couldn't bring myself to do it again. Not to mention those 1am bedtimes made it difficult to get up early enough to run before it became too hot.

I've had better luck in Memphis of late; generally when I stay at my parents' house I am in bed by 11pm, so I've been getting up around 5 / 5.30am to lace up my shoes and explore the neighbourhood. Their 'hood has its pros and cons - on the plus side, there are a number of different routes I can take, depending on the distance I want to run, so I'm constantly changing up my route; on the negative side, there are a number of inclines - including one right at the beginning - which tend to zap me of my energy and my motivation.

So far <knock on wood> I have been doing alright, running a few times a week in the early mornings. Just this morning I ran 4.61km [my phone is still on the metric system, and I kind of like it], which is by far the longest I've run since I got back in April and probably the longest since last October. I know I've lost a few seconds on my time, and I know I'm carrying a bit extra weight compared to then [the two go hand-in-hand], but I'm slowly finding my groove again.

One of my original goals, back when I was freshly-turned 29 and seeing the world - and myself - through rose-coloured glasses, was to run a half-marathon before I turned 30. Well, that clearly did not happen, for a number of reasons. First and foremost, I never got into the running groove in India. While in Nepal I walked regularly, and Rob and I ran regularly in Lodhi Gardens during the 2 weeks we were together in Delhi, but I hit Bangalore, and my motivation hit zero. I was in and out of town for a month, Shonu and I regularly stayed up watching New Girl or Criminal Minds until 2am, and then I suddenly found myself in Bombay and completely distracted.

Bombay was also bad for my motivation; between meeting all my friends, people in and out of town, irregular work timings, shifting houses every 6 weeks, eating out every day because we didn't have gas or a fridge in our house, and the stifling heat, I did zero proper exercise. I did a lot of walking, but I was usually loaded down with my backpack [containing laptop, notebook, water bottle, etc.], so I wasn't necessarily moving at a good pace. And it definitely was not enough to make up for the vada pav I had every morning at the station or the Shang's dinner I had every night. Not to mention the Toto's, the Woodside, the Bora Bora, the Cafe Zoe, or any of those other places where I stuffed my face for 4.5 months.

When I got back to the States, I was determined to get back into the running groove, and I'm slowly getting there, but there is still a long way to go. I'm going to be in and out of town the next 4 weekends, which means my schedule is going to be a bit all over the place, but this is something I want to do. So I am going to utilize this space to keep people updated on my progress, but in all honesty it will mostly be used to motivate myself.

I'm also going to include a little stats section, so I can keep track of my progress. I'm hoping that seeing it up here week-to-week will provide a little motivation as well.

Run[s] this week: 2 [Sunday and Tuesday]
Distance[s]: 2.59km + 4.61km = 7.2km
Goal for next Tuesday: 8.5km*

Back on the running train? I guess only time will tell...
xx

*I'm going to be out of town Wednesday-Sunday, hence the low goal for next week's update.

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