lightenupleslie
Lighten Up, Leslie
A run of the (tread)mill blog
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Post-Covid Restart
Alrighty pals, here's the scoop.
About a month ago (when I last posted) I started and successfully completed my first week of half marathon training in the Nike Run Club app. I was raring to go, starting off on a great foot, and I had even run a PB on my 5k long run that week! But of course, as all good intentions seem to go in my life, it all came to a grinding halt when my girlfriend brought Covid into the house. Of course I caught it and, long story short I had to take 3 1/2 weeks off of running.
When I started this initially, I had intended to run an actual race. There is one scheduled on October 9th that takes place in this cute little town outside of Ottawa. The course is run on a mix of trails and road, so you get to run through all the beautiful fall foliage and historic buildings (think the town aesthetic from Hocus Pocus). However, now that I am a month behind, I am out of season for running an organized race.
While I am mildly upset about this, I'll be honest and say that I am mostly just relieved. That race would have been the first one I've ever entered, and would have been at a very challenging distance that I would have never gone before. Now that a race is not an option, I no longer have to debate with myself whether I should or should not register. Now, I can just go with the second option, which is to run it by myself, for myself. I am fortunate that here in Ottawa there is a paved pathway that leads all the way parallel the Ottawa River, so I can do a beautiful out-and-back route along there with the Nike Run Club guided half marathon run, which should help. Also, I want to be finished the program before we go to England to visit my partner's friends/family so that I can brag to them about being a Half Marathon Runner™ (haha).
So, today was day 2 of week 1 (again), and I'll be cramming all 3 runs scheduled for this week in by tomorrow (Sunday) so that on Monday I can begin week 2 and be on track for my new goal. So far, shit is hard because I've lost a lot of my cardio endurance, but hopefully that should get back to where it was soon.
This is me, trying to remind myself that it is a HOT run, not a bad run.
Alrighty. Until Later,
Leslie xx
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Welcome to the blog!
I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Leslie, and I am a regular, average, everyday woman living in Ottawa, Canada (aspiring to one day live in England) who has decided to start a blog to document my foray into the world of running.
(That’s me up there!)
For context, I started running about 5 years ago at the same time I decided to start losing weight. I was 26, 245lbs, and I needed to make a change. I had been interested in running for years, but I was always too embarrassed to actually get into it (I had done small amounts here and there, but as a teenager with no access to a gym and a lifetime of humiliation built up from being a fat kid, running outside where unexpecting strangers could see or (god forbid) hear me was too mortifying to ever keep up). But I was older now, and I decided that once and for all I had to finally live up to that dream I had been holding onto for so long. So, on one fateful day in November of 2017, I went to the nearby Fit4Less and signed up for the $10 a month membership--with access to a treadmill.
This would be the start of several years of beginning and subsequently quitting running. For the first couple of years, I would start C25k, get to about week 6, and then quit there because it would just be too hard. Finally after a couple years I was able to finish C25k, but I would end up getting bored without a plan and slowly the running would once again stop. Last year was the first year I got really determined to actually go further with my running, and decided I wanted to train for a half marathon. However, I had gotten a late start in my training (Started C25K in late September), and by the time I got finished with that the weather was getting to be icy and frigid, and with my sad amount of training and a mild case of exercise-induced asthma, I wasn't sure my body was really prepared for winter training. I once again joined the nearby Fit4Less, but the treadmill was so dreadfully boring I only ended up going one time before leaving my fitness to perish once again.
Now, all of this was closely linked with my weight loss journey. In the first year, 2018, I was able to lose 10lbs mostly just through a change of diet, . The following year in 2019, I made a new year's resolution to lose 50lbs by the end of the year, and I ended up losing something like 45lbs by December (I actually have an Instagram page where I documented this, @lightenupleslie). The following year I made another resolution to lose another 40lbs, I had no doubt I would be able to accomplish it. I was in the best shape of my life, I had a great relationship with food, and I was on a roll. And I'm sure that would have happened, but as I'm sure you've pieced together, it was now 2020. I was doing absolutely great until March hit, and sh*t hit the fan. By April I was working from home, and by May my contract at that job had expired and I was unemployed, and would stay that way for 6 months while I waited for the new contract--which was supposed to start in April that year--to begin. During this time, I actually did ok, surprisingly. I got really into running (this was the first year I was able to actually finish C25K), I got really strict about my diet, and despite my ever-declining mental state, I managed to lose another 20lbs that year. For the first time in my whole life, my BMI read as "normal". I had finally reached a healthy weight. As happy as I was with this, I really wanted to get to that initial goal weight, which was still another 20lbs away. So, in 2021, tired but hopeful, I set what I believed would be my final weight loss resolution of getting to that UGW (Ultimate Goal Weight). Remember when I said about my declining mental state? Yeah, well I found out the hard way that you can really only outrun (pun intended) that for so long. So that plus buying a house (long story short: we got the house, but it was a nightmare-rollercoaster-train wreck. Word of advice, don't use an online broker) meant that I was suddenly dealing with a binge eating problem that I couldn't get rid of.
I'll spare you all the gory details, but the outcome of that has been that I have an extra 25lbs that I have been working--unsuccessfully--to get rid of (also available for viewing on that Instagram page lol). And honestly, at this point, I'm not convince I ever will. But this is where the running comes back in. At the beginning of this year, I decided that I wanted to run a half marathon by the end of the year. While I was initially hoping that this would lead to weight loss, I am now in a place where--although weight loss would be nice--it is more important to me that I complete this lofty 21.1K/13.1M goal, even if I end up doing so a bit chunkier than anticipated.
So, I guess that brings us to the question, what exactly is the goal of this blog? Well, I suppose my goals would be
Mostly to document my running journey as a complete beginner who also happens to be overweight. I have never been athletic, I have never received any kind of formal coaching, and I believe that holds some value in a space that is dominated by those types of people.
To document any significant weight loss changes, should they happen, or even should they not. The sport of running is filled to the brim with lithe, gazelle-like figures, and while that obviously has some value in the sport, I don't think it's absolutely necessary for the average runner, and I am here to test that theory.
The most cringe-worthy of all, I hope to inspire someone else to run. When I first started (though in many ways I am still just starting), I was always looking for this variety of content, and there just wasn't any available. In fact, I would still like to find this content now, and it's just not something I've seen. So, hopefully I can fill in the space, and someone else will find some value in it.
So that's it. I just started with the Nike Running Club Half-Marathon training, and did the first run from it today (an easy 15 minute recovery run). It's 14 weeks long, it's more running and longer distances than I've ever done, so there will be lots to document over the next 3.5 months.
Until next time,
Leslie xx
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I’m Working on Getting This All Together. Stay Tuned!
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