Half-Marathon: Losing weight, finding it again, repeat

So this happened. Yes, after 2 weeks of "training" and one kind of jog, I set off to complete a half-marathon. The 33rd Vienna Half-Marathon, to be precise. In, you know, Vienna. Austria. So not the cheapest of decisions, as ever. Never knowingly under-spent...

As a quite, quite mad decision, I have to say, Vienna was a good choice. If only because as flat courses go, I've not been on any flatter. Which undoubtedly helped with completing it (just!) within the time limit.

The thing is, I had company this time. An event rare enough that, er, it's never actually happened before... G&T, having been (again!) the cause of this madness, duly arrived at the start line with me and off we went. Now, as you know, I'm all about the jogging and then walking and then jogging. G&T is more about the consistent jogging pace. Put these 2 things together and what you actually get, from past experience, is G&T runs faster and I run more. Can't speak to the first (we were enjoying the sights rather than looking to break records. My excuse, sticking to it.), but the second definitely occurred. For someone who hasn't approached running since last October, I did a credible job of jogging my way through 13.1 miles.

I'll admit, it was a surprise to me too... God bless the flatness of Vienna!

And after that, I found I'd lost 2 pounds in weight and was once more en route to my target weight. To celebrate - and, ok, to recover from the folly of randomly just doing a half-marathon - I took a week off from the exercise thingamabob and enjoyed a bit of a rest and cake. Quite a lot of cake. Oddly, after this week, I have found the missing 2 pounds once more. I suspect that I am still struggling to understand the weight-loss thing. It would probably be motivational if it made any rational sort of sense, but it's never linear and that just confuses me.

And so now I'm back. There may even be running (there probably should be, let's face it, this is allegedly a running blog...). There will probably have to be soon, to be honest. But not today. Which I find inordinately comforting...

:o)

Stats, Sunday 10th April
Running time/distance: 2 hrs 57 mins 26 secs, 13.1 miles (not bad on 2 weeks training...!)

5x50: I'm sure there was something...

Ah, yes, take a bit of time off, then come back fitter, fresher, stronger, full of the lessons learnt throughout the year... That was October 2015.

And now it's April 2016...

So what delights of regular training activities have I denied you by not blogging? Well, now that you ask... None. At all. For fully 6 months. And whilst I will publicly express shame and contrition for this sudden absence of exercise, you should (certainly if you're a regular reader) be aware that I feel no such thing. How I have enjoyed the loafing and the doughnuts and the general lack of running in my life: however, the fun's over now. All over. *sob*

Which brings us to what I actually learnt from last year's Challenge:
1) I would appear to be a Spring-Autumn exerciser, with Winter being a time for reflection (and lots and lots of carb-loading).
2) There is some evidence from last year that, within reason, the more often you "run" the faster you get. Only some though, as quite often I also post a faster time after a week of inactivity... However, this randomness is likely to just be me.
3) Event selection should be done carefully - all events will say that they are friendly and open to anyone, but this is not always entirely true. Oh, and events in America tend to, oddly, take more seriously the "it's about the taking part and having fun" bit than other places I've tried (to date).
4) Endlessly attending events on one's own when one would much rather stay in bed is, at best, quite tiring.
5) Motivation and I are not friends. In fact, pretty much the only thing that motivates me is fear (in no particular order: fear of failure; fear of being seen as a failure; fear of not "earning" charitable donations made in support of my random activities). Realistically, this is not a sound basis upon which to base a long-lasting relationship...

There are probably other lessons... But it was 6 months ago and that's all I can be bothered to remember now.

Anyway, this brings us to this year's Challenge. It's an odd one, Challenge 7 (!). The Challenge this year to is to investigate the dark art that is motivation with a view to, maybe, one day, finding some... Trust me, it's going to be a lot more fun than it sounds: and, crucially, does not actually involve me spending huge amounts of money to attend sporting events I'd rather not even spectate at...!!

Stats, Today
Cross-trainer: 31 mins, 4 miles (training still very weather-dependent, no rain!)


Stats, Sunday 20th Sept
Running time/distance: 42 mins, 3.31 miles (your traditional jo-walk, slanted towards the "walk")