Running Out of Excuses...and a Short Update

Running Woman @ Freedigitalphotos.net

It's high time I go back to running.  Yep, you read that right, and from someone who has advocated running since she started blogging on this site. My bad! It's really shameful to admit that, but I have to be honest.  Even some health and fitness enthusiasts get lazy sometimes.  I'm speaking mostly for myself so you fitness fiends, don't throw running shoes and dumbbells at me.  I am just saying, we're all human here.  I'll stop right there before I get clobbered lol!

So what happened to me and my affair with running?  If my memory serves me well, my last official run was six months ago, during the Condura Skyway Marathon.  I actually loved that run.  It was my first time to run on the Skyway.  The wind was chilly and my throat dried instantly.  But I was able to make it to the first drinking station which took 48 years years or so.  Seriously, it felt like that, but my guess is that, it was after running maybe 2 kilometers.  Two kilometers!  Dry throat, chilly weather...and then at the water station I was internally saying "Oh come on!"  Why?  They had water....water!  It was the next drinking station I think where they have Gatorade drinks.  I don't like drinking plain water on my runs, that is if I have a choice.  Why?  I'm pretty sure I'll need a toilet break within the next 20 minutes.  So anyway, what choice have I got but to take water?  Or I could just torture myself and go on and maybe pass out before the next water station hahaha!  

Starting line @ the tunnel

Anyway, as I have said, I loved that run.  I love the feel of the wind on my face and even if I sweat heavily, it dries up faster and I feel cooler.  At the U-turn, I don't know why it was suddenly easier to run.  I have this sudden burst of energy and I can go running on and on and on, almost never walking.  My running buddies experienced that as well.  And there I thought I was getting to be a better runner.  In my analysis, it turns out it may be the effect of gravity that propels us to run...The Skyway on the way back must be angled downwards in small degrees.

So if I loved that run, why did I break up with running for the past six months?  I guess the obvious answer would be that I got lazy hehehe.  Seriously, I wanted to take a break from joining fun runs and without that, I kind of gotten lazy doing practice runs as well.  I meant to take a short hiatus that turned longer than I planned.  

Along the way were other distractions.  The weather for instance.  We've all experience the intense heat last summer, right?  And we still feel remnants of those hot, humid days at present.  So I had a perfectly good excuse to shun running during those sweltering days.  I'd probably be running out of breath the first 10 minutes.  And I don't intend to have a heat stroke as well, so I had to put my foot down and refuse to go with my running buddies.  Seriously, they're the running fiends and it's my fault because I dragged them along  at first.  I created monsters!  Hahaha!  And now I have "deserted" them.  

Plopping on the grass after the run

I wasn't  a hundred percent couch potato during my hiatus.  Summer months gave me time to do some practice swims.  And then most times doing actual couch potato stuff lol!  Work stuff also got crazy.  Early to work and then going home later than usual.  It's a daily routine of getting up before the sun rises and going home when the sun has already long gone down.  There were days when I'd just plop on my office chair out of sheer exhaustion and wishing my bed would appear if I just concentrate hard enough.

So much for that.  I have decided to break from the stupor of laziness and excuses and just lace up and run.  I'll start this Sunday.  I kind of missed Luneta Park and running on an early Sunday morning.  

I'm running out of excuses....so I'll do some real running soon.