Goals for the New Year

The Running Raw Project,

a grand experiment in diet and athletic performance. It was started by Tim VanOrden in November of 2005 as a simple question: Can one be an athlete while eating a 100% raw vegan diet. That curiosity was quickly answered with a resounding YES!

The 5K came and went and afterwards it got pretty cold here in Austin. Everything being relative, the fact that it was cold was not as much a big deal as it was difficult to adjust to. With cold fronts and warming temperatures mixed in for the last month or so, it makes it hard for me to acclimatize to the (colder) temperatures.

Since the TOL 5K on December 8th, nothing much has been going on work-out wise. With families having kids at home for the holidays to the actual holidays, my working out has been on the back burner. I do have bragging rights (alongside Katie, a new Team Zenner Linda, and Greg) for showing up at the training last week Saturday when it was around freezing near Town Lake, literally. Poor Greg was wearing shorts, freezing the family jewels no doubt (hehe) and he had to beg off. As we were sent off to walk/jog along the Hike and Bike trails around Townlake, the colder air seeping in from the water didn't help his condition. I'm not blaming him because how often does it get that cold here?
At any rate, Patrick our trainer had another commitment to tend to that morning so the three of us just walked around the lake for about 4-5 miles.

My goals for the New Year is to take better and more conscious care of myself. I will turn 44 on the 14th (happy birthday to me!) and when I get my annual physical I will ask the good doctor about nutritional and core training references. When I went in for bloodwork this morning, I found out that (I suppose) '44' is the time you start having to have an EKG so since I don't want to be that fit-looking runner who all of the sudden keels over, I'll ask him about women and heart issues as well.

Eating better is always a goal I suppose, but since I've mostly eaten when I felt like it my whole life (sorry, never had to diet), I figure I have to eat smarter now that I am going to be more serious on running. YES AND..getting older. Women's dietary requirements are always more of a challenge I think. How much of what and when. I felt good when I ate a good portion of broiled salmon a few hours before the race but salmon is my comfort and body and brain food. I do not intend to use special drinks or protein bars, I just want to eat 'normal', whatever that is.


So speaking of walking, I will be doing an hour long guided hike at McKinney Falls with the family instead of my morning training. The times are too close to each other and I am not going to sweat it going from one to the other. Plus, taking the kids out for a long hike is good for them and gets them moving. The love that kind of thing anyway.

I figure that most running blogs might have goals of improved time etc. Mine are (thank goodness) much more simple and yet enough of a challenge for me; eating better, find a good core-training routine and finding a way to work out throughout the week. Not in terms of finding time, but finding the 'oomph' to do so. I still hate running. Oh well. At least I feel great afterwards!

Some more Trail of Lights 5K race pics

Greg, attired in Santa hat, snuffing up some well-deserved Zen food. Adam, to the right is giving us his official offer of commitment.


Adam and Carlos, cooking like crazy, simple wok-style. I could eat some of it now!


From left to right; Chris, Katie, Lizzie, In the back to the left; James and Drew. You might not be able to tell from Drew, but they were ALL very happy to be done!


Christi and Chris, fianceed to be married in '08. Since they came as a pair, the Club Chronicle ended up consisting of 11 instead of 10.

Thanks to Erin from the Chronicle for taking all these pics. She was not only happy that we all finished, but obviously snap-happy too. Plus she's in great shape 'cause she ran the 5K as well.

Trail of Lights 5K 2007 finished, Phew!!

The big Zilker tree, if you stand underneath when it's lit and look up, talk about psychedelic man!




I am in the back, to my left is James (from my Club Chronicle Challenge)in front of him, looking sideways is Christine (my non profit compadre, we're crossing our fingers). The other three ladies I know from the training but not their names except for Jeanette who's next to Christine.


Yesterday, the race was set to start at 6pm. At around 3, I was hungry for protein and made myself a broiled salmon with sauteed vegetables. I had James drop me off around 5sh and found a few people from Team Zen. It was much warmer than expected too. As last year's event was cold and people were wearing hats and mittens, this year's events the speedo 'santas' were probably the most comfortable. And you know, there were people dressed up for instance the couple dressed up as two Christmas present boxes, a guy with lights wrapped around him, the speedo santas (benefitting the non profit Out Youth, services for young gay and lesbian, bisexual and transgender and 'questioning' youths from 12-19)and naturally, the beautiful light displays in the park. HowEVER...as I was running and fighting fatigue and feeling parched (breathing through my mouth, I know, it's not good but this being my first 'RUNNING' running event, I had to figure things out..)I did not want to be bothered in reaching into my fanny pack for my camera. I was trying to make TIME!

Close to the starting line





Going through the entrance of the trail of lights, it was a long arched lit up part with all the red, green and other colours. Man it was psychedelic! There was such a throng in the beginning before we even got into the actual trail (the race starts a mile beforehand) that it was easy to run more because you couldn't even get to a faster pace. Which suited me fine because I do just a very paced jog. If you speedwalk well you could keep up with me easily! lol

James, soaked to the bone but he did it! I took this after the 3mile mark when I backed out to see where he was. He was the only one on our Club Chronicle team that had to walk it.




Anyhow, I took some pictures before the race and afterwards. Unfortunately, I did not get shots of all my team mates (was too exhausted and exhillerated after the race) and the lights on the trail but I'll try to be better next time. I'll bring my camera to the next training so you can get an idea of our Team Zen group. Erin from the Chronicle was out to cheer us on (remember the contest??)

Adam Weisberg, owner of the Zen restaurents here in Austin is our sponsor and every Saturday morning for 8am, he gets there and provides 'Tokyo breakfast' for those who want it after the training. I never do because when I eat brown rice, I eat it with something saucy plus I'm not good with the spice that comes with it. Also, like last night when Adam sauteed Chicken teriyaki, I totally don't feel like eating after a workout. Saturday mornings, I relax and drink coffee while some of the others eat and we just chat. Last night, I had some water (there wasn't enough water for some reason) and that's it. When I got home I ate a tuna sandwhich.
Cassandra from my team with her boyfriend who supported her by coming out and joining her (and to think I told 'my' James that I didn't want him to run with me "It's my time to shine, no way!")

Another one of Cassandra in case she thinks the other picture didn't look good enough. She's pretty photogenic so she'll look good regardless!

I felt really proud of myself. I raced what I thought was a 34minute race. It was not a timed event, then I thought I did it in 37minutes, but now I figured I did it in 43 minutes and 43 seconds! Well ha! Still good!

I will definitely have to do a timed event next. No ifs and buts about that. It's good to get your first running race out of the way. What would I do different next time?

Next time, I'd rather run in the morning than in the evening. Plenty of time during the day to re-hydrate and feed your face with much needed protein! Also, training a known trail gives you a different and easier perspective on how far you've been running. They had big mile markers out during the race, but it's still difficult to pace yourself. I think you might need to acquire a built-in navigational 'feel' of sorts that you can only get through experience. Also, eating a good protein meal a few hours beforehand helps. Naturally, being the nervous nelly that I am, it 'affects' my stomach. Where other people eat, I don't. Or can't rather.

NOW I feel more committed to eat not necessarily 'right' but the right way for working out. After a long yak with my sister in law, I figured I might like to get a heart monitor. That, plus finding someone to help me with personalized cross training exercises and/or core body exercises. I'm pretty weak with all that. A light bulb went off, and I think today I finally figured out what it would take to be committed for training. Of course, Adam's offer really helped!

cross posted at Bloggerroundtable

Postscript..

I forgot to explain Adam's offer. After the race, Adam rounded us up and offered a commitment (or committed an offer, take your pick! lol) on his part that IF we stuck with the Saturday morning trainings throughout the year, that he would pay for us doing 5K races next year. That is pretty generous and from now on, I'll promote ZEN till Nirvana Come!

Talk about exercising.. aka, how to channel a kid with ADHD.

Orrr.. somewhere in Europe...

or...how to train for a movie stuntman, or....

The Upcoming 5K

Backstage, or rather, 'side'stage with the Killers at the Austin City Limits Music festival, unrelated to the post.


The upcoming Trail of Lights 5K will be happening next Saturday, December 8th. As much as I have felt guilty to not have worked out enough in between the Saturday AM trainings, I did manage to do a 2 mile jog/walk in about 29 minutes. For the seasoned runner that means diddly squat, but considering that before I could walk 5K in 50 minutes to an hour, that makes me hopeful that I will be below the 50 minutes at least. Hey, it's some form of progress and since I do not really like to run, I'll take anything that will encourage me to hang in there.

Our Club Chronicle group is still going strong even though Ian, who's been fighting lung cancer with chemo, has not always been able to show up at the trainings. We are all rooting for him to show up for the 5K and anyone in the group, especially the walkers, want to push him in the wheelchair over the finishing line.

Voting has begun, but I am not really in this for the grand prize or even the other prices that come with it. I have found an opportunity to promote an idea I have fostered over the last couple of months. It's too long right now for me to write about, I'm not in the mood right now. I worked out this morning, the cobwebs are out of my head and now I feel contemplative, ready to read and think and develop this idea a little further.
Chris (Christine), one of my team mates, offered to volunteer for me and we're going to be hashing out the details later this week.Having taken charge of my health by way of exercising has turned out to be a boost in more than just the physical aspect. More reason for me not to stop after this race.

One Million Voices Campaign October 18

Hat tip to Lirun!
Embed this on your blog too.

Just wondering.. has there ever been a running event for peace?

Using Sport Psychology for learning to run a 5K

Go Team!



One of the reasons I decided to do this blog as an aside to the blog we're supposed to be writing in for the Chronicle is that I'm a blogger and I love writing. Most importantly, with the added tools of links and abilities to post pics etc, blogger just gives you more flexibility. I wanted to delph (sp) into this whole enterprise from different angles PLUS trying to connect with other sports and exercise minded bloggers.

Anyhow, I was thinking about all my team mates' different goals for the upcoming 5K in December. Click HERE to see everyone's video and learn about these goals. So far, we're focussing on the training schedule during the week and the training we do together on Saturdays. However, the feeling I get from almost all of them is that it's more than just about this competition and this upcoming 5K. It's about making a concerted effort to change our current lifestyle. To be physically healthier, to challenge ourselves in a group so we can't wimp out, to mentally refocus from an all consuming illness that's being battled.
What is the common denominator? Motivation perhaps. And then I remembered an old friend in college telling me about sports psychology. So I checked it out.
Click on the title to go to the site and peruse through to see what could help you mentally to strenghten your resolve to keep at it, or to help doing it regardless. To put mental discipline on ourselves for something physical is a whole lot different than what most of us need to do in life. In this technological world, most of the discipline comes from the mind, to learn, to absorb, to recall.

But how about the physical? How much are we used to that kind of discipline? I sure could use some tools for that.
What is your plan for the mental aspect of your challenge?