45/100 - Happy New Year

Woke up to really horrible weather, but I knew it was on the cards, so nothing to do but have breakfast, drink tea, and get dressed for a very wet and windy parkrun, followed by a very wet and windy second parkrun, albeit the second one was volunteering rather than running. So I packed a change of clothes, including shoes and socks, in the car, and set off.

On the drive over, I listened to the 'Talk Ultra' podcast, because I'm determined I'm going to stay really focused on fitness and motivation this year - and also because I've always enjoyed following the exploits of the world's top class ultra distance runners. I think podcasts in the car will become a permanent feature now - certainly better than commercial radio, which is what I normally listen to in the car!! I arrived at Strathclyde Park early, which was useful because the car parks closer to the start were shut! Getting out of the car into the rain, I quickly spotted a whole load of familiar faces in the car park, and lots of New Year greeting hugs followed. I walked down to the parkrun start area with David (from Tollcross parkrun) and shortly a whole load of other friends and familiar people started arriving too. I hugged hellos to people from Strathclyde parkrun, Tollcross parkrun, Edinburgh parkrun, and Falkirk parkrun - all people that I feel grateful to for having taken me under their wing over the last couple of years, accepting me as part of their running family. Well, at least I hope, lol!!

I had stupidly left my Garmin in the car by mistake, so decided that since I really am at 'square one' just now, it didn't matter - the 5km run is timed, so that's all I needed. We set off, and as everyone ran away from me I settled into a bit of a run/walk pattern, and just hoped my average pace was coming out okay. By halfway, I knew it wasn't - I was walking a lot more than I was walking, my feet were sodden from running through puddles, and I just wanted it over. I'd been running with the tailrunner, and we'd gone the wrong way by mistake (following the usual route, not the alternate bad weather route) so it had been a total flood-fest, and each step now was squelch-squelch-squelch, lol. I knew I just needed to get round, today - I'm not after any time, I'm just wanting to start my year with a 5km run, burn some kcals, and see some friends. So, that's what I did. Crossing the line in last place, I asked what sort of time I'd got. Jon and Iain both said completely different times - one saying "about 42 mins" and one saying "probably around 44 mins" - I went with the latter, as I knew I'd walked a lot - and was surprised to notice I was "okay" with that. Not that I'm happy with a 44 minute 5km run, no - just that I accepted that that's where my current fitness level is, and i know I can improve from here. I refused to beat myself up about its- that's not what 2015 is all about. As it turned out, my time was 42:08 which equals my poorest 5km time ever, but feels like a good result!! Haha.

After, I drove across to Tollcross, where I was volunteering as timekeeper for the second parkrun of the day. We expected some people from Strathy and some from Pollok, but were still quite floored by the turnout. Thankfully there's a backup timer as well, so if I screwed up, there'd be a second set of data to use! ;-) As is happened, my hands were so cold that I didn't press the button properly for one of the early runners, and missed a time - so the backup timer became the lead timer, and I made sure to properly record everyone else after that! My fingers turned to wee blocks of ice, but I got 221 beeps on the stopwatch out of 222 runners, so I guess I did okay! The picture below shows the start line (photo courtesy of Tollcross parkrun and Leighann Butler) - I'm stood up at the front, back to the camera, in a high-vis vest and dark ponytail, lol.


It was fab catching up with people, albeit a little briefly, at the two parkruns. The weather was just too bad for hanging around. Davie Mooney ran Strathy, had his barcode scanned, then immediately ran off towards Tollcross, which is a 10 mile run. He made it to the park with a good 15-20 minutes to spare before the second parkrun started, and a huge smile on his face. Fab to see him running well again, but it was also fecking insane in the rubbish weather we were having, haha!

Today is my first day tracking food, too. I'm going to keep track of kcals, but I don't think I'll set any limits or targets or anything like that - just write everything I eat and drink down, and add it up at the end of the day. The process of writing down what I eat should be enough to help me pick the right things, and be more mindful about what I'm putting in my mouth. Breakfast today was scrambled eggs on a wholewheat bagel, and lunch was a large bowl of minestrone soup. Tonight's dinner was delicious - thick grilled pork medallions, with couscous with pesto stirred through, and carrots and cabbage alongside. The pork is a cut that naturally doesn't have a lot of fat - I definitely don't intend on cutting out fat from my diet, and I know there's nutritional advantage on keeping fats as part of what I eat, so my choice of this cut of meat wasn't intentionally low-fat, but I also have to acknowledge that I have a lot of weight to lose, and watching the type of fats I eat is probably a very good plan. That's why I'm not massively worried about kcals totals at the moment - if I want to eat an avocado, for example, the benefit I think I'd get from the 'good fats' outweigh the high number of kcals it contains. Anyway, tracking my food should enable me to do some good analysis as time goes by, of what works for me and what doesn't.

I weighed in this morning at 206.2 lbs. So that's my new start point. Ignore the fact that I was once 238 lbs, and ignore the fact I was once 155 lbs; this year is all about where I go from here, not where I've been before. x x