Hello day off!!!
I love my job, don't get me wrong, but it's nice to have a random extra day off. It's never really a day of relaxation but instead a day of playing catch-up. It's a day of cleaning, running errands and doing other things that simply get put on the back burner while Hulk's stays the priority.
Coincidentally enough, today it snowed a ton which meant I got to resume my winter training too on my day off. I was so ecstatic over the fresh fallen snow. I absolutely love running in the snow. It's a hell of a lot harder and it makes for an automatic uncomfortable run but come spring when the snow is gone and I'm minus the extra layers needed for winter training, I am going to fly on the paths. Hard time now, easy time later. Anyways, I figured I'd do all my errands and whatnot first, then run.
It was perfect winter running weather -- unplowed and unsalted roads with uncleared paths. Winter running always means slower runs but the lack of speed is surely due to Mother Nature's increase in difficulty. My goal for my winter runs are to keep it under 6min/km and do no shorter than a 10km run with each training session -- the focus is on distance and not pacing. Am hoping next year to participate in another half marathon and possibly a first full marathon so I'm working on building up my mileage.
Do I like running? No, not particularly. I used to but now I don't.
Why the change? Well, it's simple, I don't run "comfortably" anymore.
I used to run comfortably, as in my comfort zone, at a pace I could cruise through the kilometers at and maintain. But training comfortably isn't productive. For the past couple of months I have been really trying to run outside of my comfort zone, particularly because of my "Next Time" 10km race I was training for. I knew I had to change up my training if I was going to beat my usual time and part of changing it up meant stop training in my comfort zone. Using my phone app MapMyRun to aid me, I was quite successful and so I've continued to use it. Every kilometer it tells me my total time and my pacing. Training within my comfort zone means I run at around 5:20km/min so I try to always aim to be closer to the 5 minute mark with my pacing. I ran my "Next Time" 10km race at 4:47km/min -- 33 seconds than my comfort zone runs and 13 seconds faster than my harder runs. Needless to say, running that race was not comfortable at all.
I love run but while out running I don't actually enjoy it. I run faster than I used to and more frequently but it's still hard work now more than ever actually because I don't run in my comfort zone anymore. Instead, it's the feeling I get after the run that I love. After a good run, after any good work out for that matter, there's that rush of self satisfaction, knowing that I pushed my body to it's max, to an extreme, and really gave it all I had. Training is no more easier for me than it is for the next person, regardless of if they're a beginner or not, because the intensity at which we both train at is relevant to our own personal fitness levels. Their 10 on their intensity scale may be much lower or much higher than it is on my scale but we're both working out at our own level 10, there is no denying that. I couldn't help of think of a quote from Muhammad Ali as I struggled through the snow-covered path at Dankook tonight.
"I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion."
I could totally relate to that -- the pain of training so hard. As I came around to do yet another lap around the Dankook lake, my legs started to feel like chunks of ice. I could see the ice building up on my shoe laces, the mask around my face forming little icicles around where I was breathing out, and my whole body felt weighted down from the extra winter training layers. It was a rough run. Mother Nature was surely kicking my butt royally.
Ended up doing a 13km run at 5:49min/km and my goal was to keep it under 6 minutes a kilometer so I felt quite happy with tonight's training. I arrived home absolutely soaked under my outer layer. It was a mix of pure sweat and the snow that I had collected via running through an ankle-deep, uncleared path of snow out by Dankook.
Next on my agenda, EAT!!!
I've always believed that the two most important meals of the day are breakfast and your post-training meal. I've mastered the art of making a mean, lean, protein-packed breakfast that is as much loaded with grade A goodness as it is delish. As for my post-training meal, I usually opt for a homemade protein smoothie and tonight was no different. One unflavoured protein powder scoop, mixed with two handfuls of spinach, two small bananas and a scoop of homemade peanut butter. Hello delish!!! No sooner did I scarf down my meal but then a friend texted me to tell me he was outside my window and wanted me to come down. He had showed up with a surprise gift -- ice cream. Now just because I try to be health-conscious and try hard to maintain a healthy lifestyle doesn't mean I don't indulge in some sinful eating every once in awhile -- everything in moderation, that's what I always say. I have two cheat meals a week and, because today is typically my cheat meal day, my friend had shown up with what I typically cheat on my clean eating with. Yup, it's true. Every Wednesday I enjoy a nice cold ice cream drumstick. Sunday is my other cheat meal of the week and it's usually enjoyed via eating a bit too much at a restaurant of my choice. It's usually some kind of meat meal I eat and it's not so much that it's unhealthy food as it is the quantity at which I enjoy it. I eat six meals a day but on Sunday's cheat meal, the food equivalency is equal to that of maybe two or three of my meals but in one shot.
Cheat meals are exactly that -- a cheat on my clean eating -- but they're just as necessary to eating clean as eating clean is because of the psychological/emotional benefits and also the physical benefits they pose. I eat fairly clean -- I rarely use sauces, I don't add salt or sugar, besides tuna I never eat canned food, and I always make sure to get in my greens and protein. But now my body is comfortable with eating clean so how do I twek it more? I crash it, that's what I do. Wednesday and Sunday cheat meals are a kind of "rebooting" of my system -- a much-needed shock to my body that helps keeps it guessing and not plateauing.
But I ate ice cream yesterday -- I cheated on my cheat meal, hahaha -- so no ice cream for me today.
My friend insisted I at least sit with him while he ate a late dinner. He wanted McDonalds and he knows how I feel about the golden arches -- it's not real food. The place smells like cheap grease and serves heart attacks in between buns so I don't care to step foot into such a place. He then asked me if I at least crave McDonalds once in awhile. My answer, hell no! In the past 10 years I've only been to McDonalds maybe three times -- once because I wanted to see if Korea's McDonald's burgers tasted like Canada's (which they don't by the way) and two other times when I attended a church out in Suwon and some of them ate breakfast together before the service.
I've never been one to count calories, I'm all about portion control, but him wanting to eat at McDonalds got me thinking. We never did end up going to McDonalds but my curiosity got the best of me and I started to look up some of the calorie counts and nutrition facts on its' food. I was totally disgusted to find out that a double quarter pound with cheese had almost the same calorie count as my 13km run tonight. It was ONLY 22 calories short --- can you say N-A-S-T-Y?!
And to think, most people who go in to order a burger usually also order French fries and maybe even a pop to go with it. Holy calorie overload!!! Can you say "clogged arteries" and "cellulite"?!!! Sure that cheeseburger may taste good, at first bite, but is it worth having to run 13km to try to balance out? That's a definite no. Doesn't taste so good anymore, right? Right. Nothing tastes as feeling fit feels and ain't that the clean eating truth!!!
Whoever put the "s" in "fast food" was a smart little bugger because fast food IS fat food.
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