ikilledit

This is me guilting myself back into running that run that I skipped yesterday. I blamed it on my knee but really it was my head. I was worried about immigration stuff with regard to grad school which starts tomorrow. Lots of life changes and sometimes I take it out on my running. Sometimes this works in favour of running (increased stress runs, letting myself not think while running etc,) and other times it makes running more difficult (skipped runs, doing things half-assed, not keeping my head in my training program). 

But running has always been an up and down game for me. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it. One thing is for sure, it’ll always be there and you can always pick yourself back up. 

Skipped a work out because my knee was sore. 

OR

I made up a story about my knee to convince myself that it was ok to skip a workout. 

Probably. 

Ran my first ever fartlek today. It felt good and all of the training has paid off thus far. I am already seeing results. Body is able to run at a much more intense speed for a much longer amount of time. 

Killed it. 

Rest days drive me crazy. 

Let’s get it out of the way. It looks like I only have four toes. I know, I know, make fun all you like. They simply combined the two smallest toes into one slot. Ok, have you had your chuckle. 

I picked these Fila Skele-Toes on the cheap from w00t.com. For $20 (originally $75) I figured they were worth trying. If I like them I’ll consider investing in some premium Vibrams. 

I obviously cannot compare to other barefoot runners but thus far I’m enjoying these. I went for an 8 km run today and while they’re still a bit stiff, they’re new and still need some time to be properly broken in. I like to give it a week before I make up my mind as to whether or not these shoes are the right shoes for me. And at $20 it is no big loss if they end up being “around the house” shoes. 

They look ridiculous but they feel good. So whatever. 

…mood.

I’ve been making steady progress training towards my second half-marathon but this past weekend I hit a bit of a wall and I found myself unmotivated and just tired. 

I almost flaked on a few workouts but I managed to force myself to complete them. Who cares and why bother, it’s just a workout…

I know its just a mood and it’ll pass but it makes for some difficult running. 

One foot in front of another…

Tumblr and Twitter have been talking quite a bit about an interview from 7 years ago in which Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jefferies mentions that he is not interested in selling clothing to overweight women and the “not so cool” kids crowd. 

“Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely,” 

It is a fairly reprehensible thing to say but it’s also not surprising. This is how fashion works. Are you really that shocked that a clothing company is trying to market itself to a specific demographic? Have you looked at a typical mannequin recently? All of this is to say that there is a much larger discussion about health and body image that we should be having.

When I lost all my weight a few years ago I noticed many changes, not just my body and the types of clothing I was wearing but in behaviour. The way I was treated and if I’m brutally honest, the way I treated others. On example: I noticed that I received more store help and attention while shopping for clothing once I lost the weight. It’s a small thing but it was noticeable.  

I was talking with S. about this recently and we both affirmed as formerly chubby/fat people we’re hyper-aware of body image and it’s mostly because we have this fear of letting the demons of our formerly non-healthy selves take over. 

I am not saying that one needs to be skinny, but one does need to be healthy and I’ve stressed that on this blog quite a bit. To find your thing: yoga, running, swimming, cycling, climbing, etc. Find that thing and just do it. You can be big or large and still healthy. The flip-side being that one can also be skinny and unhealthy. The one thing we should all avoid being is lazy and inactive. Eat right and get outside more. 

I struggle with my own sense of vanity and arrogance when it comes to my active lifestyle. I have to keep reminding myself that for 10 years I was lazy and inactive myself. I only found my “thing” at the age of 30. So it is a rather foolish and ignorant thing to immediately judge someone as I have no way of knowing their own personal circumstances. I don’t know how active someone is just by looking at them.

But still I find myself shaking my head or thinking a bad thought from time to time when I am confronted with a person who is heavy or fat. I don’t like this part of myself but I’m a human and I’m trying to be better about how I judge people. 

As far as the business practices of Abercrombie & Fitch go, they’re certainly allowed to do whatever they want to do. They invest their money in a product they want to sell. They get to decide on that product as long as it is safe and legal. They don’t need anyone else’s permission, including yours or mine before they do so. If you don’t like it or them, shop elsewhere. I do. Use your dollars democratically. 

Just some thoughts. Feel free to agree or disagree with me. 

Ran a 20 minute tempo run today. I was a little nervous about running as hard as I could without any pacing or slowing down. Turns out I like running like this. It felt good to push myself to that limit. Almost to the point of wanting to throw up. There’s something inspiring about running at this level, you feel invincible. You recognize that your body is working hard and you’re the one that’s doing it, that makes that possible. Mind and body working together. A beautiful machine. 

Rest days are important too. Let your feet rest. Let your mind rest. Look forward to tomorrow. 

That is all. 

Anonymous Asked: “Why do you run?”

Why do you breathe?

I haven’t been blogging about running because I’ve been in training mode and there’s not much to say. I’m focused on increasing my speed with intervals and hitting those longer distance runs. 

I’ve already run a half-marathon so running beyond 10 km is not a big deal but I started this program as if I were a novice and so we’re only up to the third week of training. That being said, we’re only just now starting to increase the distances. I hit 8 km today and it felt good. I’m looking forward to those 10-15 km runs that will be coming the next few weeks. It feels good to train. It feels good to have a target to work towards. That’s the main reason why I’m doing this. It keeps me focused and motivated. 

Cheers. 

Run more. That is all. 

Some runs start out terrible and end up feeling good. Sometimes the reverse. 

• Great run.
• Bad run. 
• Shit run. 
• Amazing run. 
• Sick run. 
• Injured run.
• Hungry run. 
• Inspired run. 
• Tired run.
• Happy run.
• Depressed run.
• Funny run.
• Random run.
• Scared run.
• Morning run.
• Day run.
• Evening run.
• Night run.
• Chased by dog run.
• Almost killed run.
• Weird run.
• Run.

There are all kinds of runs. Just get to the next one.