I thought I’d write a little bit about where I’m at with my fitness right now, because I’m at the point now where I’m the most fit I’ve been in two years. I’ve been running regularly, I’m getting up to 9km long runs now, which are truly awesome. There’s nothing like setting out for a run that you know is going to take you over an hour, and really settling into it. No matter what you do, it’s you and the road for at least an hour, so I just relax and let the kilometres melt away.
Other than running twice a week, I’ve been going to a group workout class in the city (pictured above). It’s actually a dog obedience class/fitness class, where we do 20 minutes of obedience, and then 40 minutes of cardio and strength training. It’s super fun and right up my alley. I’ve been going for four weeks now and I’m sad there are only two weeks left of the session.
I’ve also been walking Molly off leash quite a bit thanks to her Dogtra collar. I love walking down a trail with her off leash, I’ve been trying to squeeze in a walk on every rest day.
I’ve also been cycling a bit, because my husband and I bought a bike rack for our car, so now we’re mobile! It’s so freeing to load the bikes up and go for a ride somewhere that isn’t our immediate neighbourhood. I mean, I love the country an all, but between running, walking, and cycling, this neighbourhood is getting awfully boring.
Finally, I’ve been trying to incorporate at least one workout a week where it’s just me and my yoga mat. I do lunges, squats, sit ups, push ups, planks, leg lifts and bicycle crunches. It usually takes about half an hour and I’m absolutely streaming sweat at the end of it, plus it’s totally free, which is a great frugal bonus.
All of this exercise combined means I’m spending about four and a half hours exercising every week, which is a significant amount of time! I usually reserve my runs for weekends, doing a short speedy run on Saturday and my long run on Sundays. I’ve fallen into this routine out of sheer convenience, it’s tough to get up the motivation for a fast run on a weekday after work, and I literally don’t have time for a long run on a week day.
On Saturday, I set out for what I thought was going to be a hard and fast 6km run. I’ve been trying to push it on these shorter runs a bit to get myself ready for my 10k race at the end of October, and I definitely had a goal pace in mind when I started my run that morning. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned. This run just wasn’t meant to be.
Knowing When to Call It Quits
I’ve had three instances in my life where I’ve quit part way through a run. Once it was March two years ago and I was supposed to do a 5k, but it was freezing and windy, and my equipment malfunctioned three times in the first 100 metres. After the third time stopping and adjusting, I turned around and went home. The second time was this summer. I’d planned on doing 7km, but it was so hot and I was so overheated that I couldn’t even do the basic math to figure out how far I had to run before turning around. So I called it quits at 4km and called my husband to come pick me up.
The third time was on Saturday. It was overcast and windy, so I dressed for cool weather. NOPE! It was so humid I felt like I was running through a marshmellow. I was way overdressed and was bathed in sweat within the first ten minutes. It was also windy, but not a cool refreshing wind. It was a hot, wet wind that felt like I was being hit with a wet blanket.
My hat kept blowing off, my feet were on fire (a symptom of overheating) and I keep burping up coffee flavoured burps (over share?). There were so many things wrong with this run, that I dreaded the idea of struggling through a whole 6km. So, instead of making a left turn at 2km, I ran back to the house and called it quits just 2.37km and 17 minutes.
Sometimes, it’s just not going to happen.
I’ve been pretty diligent with my exercising, so I didn’t too bad about cutting the run short. I did lug my yoga mat out and do 20 minutes of exercises to get rid of any lingering guilt though. I had vague thoughts about redeeming myself that evening, of doing the other 3.5km, when it was cooler. That’s the great thing about running, no matter how bad your run goes, you can redeem yourself the next time out.
It rained that night and that horrible humid weather broke. The next day I ran my planned 9km long run and it was awesome. Consider myself redeemed.
When was the last time you called it quits? Did you regret it? I want to know!