Touque

Even though it's raining the giant maple tree outside my window is still reflecting golden light into my room; it's almost enough to trick me into thinking there is sun outside. Every so often movement catches my eye outside my window and I look over in time to see another golden (and now rather soggy) leaf falling to the ground :(

So far it's not actually all that cold outside and I hope the 'Brrrrr' holds off - at least for a couple of weeks so Likalia and I can get ourselves firmly ensconced in our walk/run routine. Not that we will stop if it's cold, just that it would be nice not to have the after dinner darkness, and rain, and cold ganging up on us all at once. Neither of us do mornings so I guess technically speaking the evening dark isn't all that dissuading; however, the desire to go outside seems to decrease exponentially everytime you add a wind or rain or cold in with darkness.

Right, walk/run routine...what is this you ask? Well, I havn't been running. Quite frankly I'm disappointed in myself for that as I was almost beginning to consistently enjoy it...I don't consider myself a runner but more of a 'person who runs'. That's not to say I couldn't ever be a runner, just that I have not hit that point yet; when I get as 'high' from a good run as I do from a good two hours of Friday night dance practice then I will consider myself a runner. I run (er, did run) because I was tired of being inactive and mostly because dancing had become an exercise in frustration instead of an enjoyable and rewarding obsession. I'm even more disappointed in myself because Sarah's ELM Need for Speed clinic is starting next week and I'm not at a fitness level where I feel I can take part. Why would I want to do that clinic if I don't even consider myself a runner? For something to do? To get out and run with people? To see improvement (if I'm going to do something active for the sake of being active then I ought to push myself)? Just because I am (should be) capable of it? Because despite what my lack of commitment to running might imply I don't want to be in the middle of the pack? Because my secret wish is not to run a marathon or even a 1/2 marathon but to do the likes of MOMAR and not just finish but feel good about the effort I put in and I think that any sort of strength and speed training would be helpful for that? Maybe some other reason that I havn't covered here or even thought of yet?

Whoa, tangent...ok, back to the walk/run. Right, so like me, Likalia is also tired of being inactive. We often talk about things and got as far as registering for a bootcamp, which was unfortunately cancelled due to lack of participants (and that, I think, is very cruel of Fate - you would think Fate would support attempts to get fit instead of thwart them. Mind you I'm getting used to Fate's cruel sense of humour-though I won't bore you with the details about trying to take ballet or the outcome of a kayaking trip to the Broken Group. All I will say is "Grrr at you fate-I bite my thumb at thee!). So instead of talking about this that and the other we decided to go for a run. That, of course, started some research into how exactly one starts to run safely, and from there we settled on starting with a week of 30 min outings of 4 mins of walking to 1 min of running. Better to start to easy than too hard. And then....we actually went out and did it. Lol, this is good. This is very good. Oh, and we even have a goal; the CVRR Jingle Bell run in December. I think it's a good goal to start with because it's only 6wks away and has a nice 3km option and is more of a fun event than a race. And I know that if we don't actually keep this up we won't go and do that (even though we are both perfectly capable of getting through 3km in a reasonable amount of time by walking).

Er, that's a lot of rambling isn't it?

Funny what comes of looking at the rain outside and hoping Likalia has a touque.