AMI Round the Bays

Ages ago, I blogged saying I had started running, then that I had decided to run Wellington Round the Bays and become a Heart Racer.  I left you here, with my C25k graduation.

Well, today was Round the Bays day.  And I did it!!!  I've officially done my first running race, and I loved it.  That's not entirely true, during the run, I hated every second.  But when I (finally) arrived at the finish line, I was very very happy.  All that hard work I have done for the last few months has paid off, and now, I can really RUN!

There really were times that I doubted that I could ever do it, and I've finally proven that I can actually be a runner.  Yeah, that's a pretty scary admission; I might become one of them - you know, the ones who get up at 6am on a Sunday to run up mountains?

I've learned some things in the last few months:

• despite being fat and lazy, there is actually an athletic person inside me trying to get out.  I am just one of those people who need to exercise, or I go crazy.  I have more energy when I exercise, and my mental health is much more stable.
• I can be a runner, and actually enjoy running.
• No one's laughing at me.  Today, I saw people of all shapes and sizes, and there was not one person I looked at and thought 'gosh, that person looks silly'.  Not ONE.  I bet no one looked at me like that either.
• Even if there are people laughing at me, I don't give a shit.  Running makes me feel good, and who cares if I look like I've been attacked by a bear when I've finished?  So do most other people!
• Running with music is okay.  Running listening to podcasts is okay.  Running listening to nothing is the most peaceful thing ever.
• Running up hills does actually make you stronger.  It sucks at the time, but my legs are much stronger now that they would have been if I never did the hill thing.
• Running isn't a good way to lose weight, you'll actually have to stop eating crap if you want to lose weight.  But running will make you (or me, at least) want to eat better.  What you put in is what you get out, and I'm not talking poop.
• Running, for me, is selfish.  I do it for me, and I do it to make me feel good about myself.  It's okay to do selfish things, it's okay to take time away from others to spend it doing something good for yourself.
• Doing something that you find difficult is more rewarding that achieving something that you don't find as much of a challenge.  I am more proud of running 7km than I was when I set swimming records or swam 20km.  Running is hard fucking work.  I've never found swimming such a mental or physical challenge.  It's nice having a challenge and achieving something that was hard for you.

So, what's happening next?

This period of the last 12 months or so is the first time in my life where I really haven't been training for something or being competitive.  I started ballet when I was 3 years old, and I did it until I was about 16. I used to have ballet 6 days a week.  I started competitive swimming when I was 7, and did that until I started playing underwater hockey competitively when I was 14.  I kept squad swimming until I was 17. I stopped doing races and stuff when I started doing representing Wellington in underwater hockey at 14.  

When I was playing underwater hockey competitively, I was training for between 10 and 20 hours a week, depending on when it was in the season.

Now I do nothing.  Well, I run 5-ish days a week, for 30m to an hour.  But comparatively, that's nothing.  I'm going to start training again.  I want to represent NZ at underwater hockey and underwater rugby.  And I want to run a marathon.  I'd also like to swim the cook straight, but that's probably realistically 8 years away.

To be able to do this, I need to start training at least 5 times a week for UWH/UWR, plus play twice a week (UWH) and once for UWR.  I also need to run at least 5 times a week.  I'm going to do the bridge to 10k program, then when I've done that, I'll start looking for a 1/2 marathon program.  I'd like to be able to do a 10k in June, and a 1/2 marathon at the end of the year, as well as the 1/2 marathon for round the bays next year.  Then I guess I'll start looking for a marathon to do.

Yes, I know this is 13 trainings a week and it probably sounds insane, but it's actually less that what I was doing when I was in peak underwater hockey training.  Granted, I have less free time now and it will mean that I'll have less of a social life, but I think the end result will be worth it.

What this will mean though is that I have to start running in the morning.  I am not a morning person at all, but UWH and UWR are at night, so that's not going to work out.  I'm not sure how I'm going to convince myself to get up in the morning and run, but I'm doing to try.  Tomorrow, I'm having a day off after my 7km run, 5km run and hard training session.  All I'm doing tomorrow is underwater rugby training, and that's only for an hour and 1/2.  On Tuesday I'll start a morning run (maybe) and also go for a swim in the afternoon.  I'm ready, and excited.  Let's fucking go.