Friday, January 04, 2013

beginning marathon training and the need for potassium

Morning Walk! Sunrise!
So I successfully got up early today, had a small cup of soggy Cheerios for breakfast, rested for 15 minutes and went out for my very first walk in a looooong time. I only had an hour, so it wasn't very much, but still I'm glad I got out.

The experience was wonderful though. It has been a long time since I smelled the fresh air of the park in the early morning. And observing the people up bright and early was such a wonderful experience. There were people of all ages taking part in all sorts of activities. There were the serious runners pounding the track, the aunties spending time with friends, the dog-walkers, the qi-gongers, the strength-trainers, the people watchers, and then there were the noobs (of which I probably would be classified as as well).

Nike+ really makes a difference!
The whole purpose of the walk was to mark the start of my marathon training program for my Adidas Sundown run in June! Well, actually, it was barely a kickstart (considering I covered barely 4km at a 10:30 km pace), but hey...at least I got moving. I popped into the library yesterday and grabbed a couple of books to help me along the training process. Thing is, the more I read, the scarier it gets! I don't think I really grasped what I was getting myself into! Most of the readings I've read suggested 6 months of training for a person who was used to running as a habit, and 12 months for a complete sedentarist (i.e. person who has been living a completely sedentary, no exercise lifestyle)! And me? Completely sedentarist! And with 5 months! =_= I'm going spend a month trying to get my body back into moving about and enjoying sports again, then there's a 16 week programme I'm going to try to follow. I've pretty much decided that no matter what, even if I'm not confident of completing this marathon within the 8-hour limit, I'm going to still show up. Just gotta pray that the Lord will keep me safe and that my heart will stay in there with me. :)

Still not enough food. :(
I'm really enjoying this process though! This year has started with braces, in a week I'm going for a minor surgery for my little moles, and I'm training for a marathon in June! Not to mention that I believe my family will be running together for a city race in March! Perhaps this is my "awakening". :)

After a kilometre or two, the endorphins kicked in and I was SO happy to be up and about. So much that I think I kinda decided to do this every morning from now on. I was also super sure that this was going to be a wonderfully productive day at the office.

Nope, still tastes like broccoli.
Other than that, I'm still trying to work out my caloric intake. It's really quite a struggle, and it stresses me out a lot (500 calories is probably anorexic community limits! :() but I'm trying my best. Good thing is that I don't think I'm losing anymore weight. I think my body has stagnated as it is. In fact, my skinny jeans felt a bit tighter this morning. Maybe it's water retention from all the carbs I'm trying to take...which is mainly my broccoli porridge. Today's porridge was supposed to be abalone flavoured, but yeah...the taste of broccoli is far too overpowering. At least it's high in calcium.

I had a frightening dream last night though that all my teeth were dropping out and I was spitting them out one by one as they dropped! It freaked me out SO much because I thought I could really feel them dropping out! I remember me being at a resort in the dream and running to the nearest dentist who refused to see me - even though I showed him something like five teeth that had already dropped out that I was holding in my hand - till I spat out another tooth! And worse, he tested the strength of my remaining teeth my putting a spoon into my mouth and scrapping at my remaining teeth! It hurt! :((( I do remember him telling me that it was because I lacked potassium though! Random, I know, but I remembered that! And turns out, from my research this morning, that low potassium can lead to tooth decay and tooth sensitivity! Amazing how God can speak to me huh?

This afternoon, I'm going to get me a banana shake. And a proper bunch of them that I shall start including at breakfast from tomorrow. :)


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