Alright, some of you might be thinking, “No Cas, you’ve always been a little crazy.” If that’s the case, then kudos to you because there is truth in that statement.
Last week though I looked in the mirror and was just sad. I was sad my body didn’t resemble at all what it used to look like between 2002-2007. It should come as no surprise–I miss running track every morning I wake up. There’s something to be said about intensive sprint workouts and lacing up those yellow and black spikes I swear by before pounding out a 400. Some of my best friendships were forged during 300 repeats or 4-2-2-4-2-2 (ouch).
What I also miss from track is how incredibly in shape I was. I miss having the body of an athlete. In high school cross country I slimmed down to 125 pounds at 5’10″, yet I was eating at least a pound of pasta every night. During track season I would reach 145 max from the weight training and sprint workouts. Northeastern track, well, I think I topped out at 165 by the end of the season. I put on muscle I didn’t even know was possible and I honestly think my thighs could take out most of the men in Kerr Hall. Didn’t matter–I was still rock solid and knew I could easily put out a 22:00 5K without even blinking.
Now….not so much. Ever since my knee surgery I’ve been hesitant to train competitively again. I ran a lot in Paris because it was so serene. Running has always been a fantastic way for me to process my thoughts and organize my feelings and Paris was no exception. It all came to a tumbling halt though when I had that unfortunate incident October 2008 and was mentally afraid of being pushed in front of a car again on the left bank.
In an attempt to stay physical but not face my running demons, I picked up Bikram over the summer and fall. Sporadically that is. Bikram is an amazing form of hot yoga consisting of the same 26 poses completed over the course of 90 minutes in a room that hovers around 107 degrees. Sounds horrifying but I’m addicted. Running and yoga are two polar opposites where running contracts your body and yoga stretches it out. I’ve always been notorious for not stretching properly so putting my body in a heated room automatically forces my muscles to stretch. Since getting my unlimited membership for March I’ve been going at least 3 times a week and have certainly slowly seen some results. Okay well that’s a lie…some weeks I’ve gone 3 times, other weeks I’ve been hanging out with Relyt and partaking in activities that result in vertical trainwrecks.
That being said, when i looked in the mirror I was finally mentally ready to make the decision to transform my body, like I have so many seasons past. I don’t have a coach and I’m not going to train towards a competitive goal at this moment in time, but rather, have the self satisfaction that i could go out there at any time and run a 23:00 5K without blinking (I say 23 because without a coach sub 22 is out of the question right now).
After a weekend of running 4 straight days and purchasing dixie cups so I can ice my shins (I forgot about that unfortunate side effect), yesterday I started my 8 weeks of dedication to transforming my body. I’m going to try and get in double workouts at least 3 times a week, maybe even more as I feel the strength in my body increase and can handle double cardio in a day (ie long morning runs and hi/lo tempos in the evening).
Yesterday consisted of: 9am Bikram class, running errands, 4:30 run of 4 miles (including running up Wait St on Mission Hill) in the monsoon followed by an ab circuit when I got home. What I found incredible (other than I consciously chose to run in the pouring rain again) was how great it felt to run in the rain. I felt amazing to run by people who expressed horror on their face walking to class, and here I was running by them completely drenched by choice. What’s more perplexing is that even though my legs felt so heavy and exhausted from bikram earlier in the morning (and the weather) I actually shaved 15 seconds off my overall time on this run, compared to the last time I ran it a week ago. <—WOW. Did not see that coming.
Off to bikram round II then running this evening around 7pm. Send out good thoughts please!
