Race Report: Denning's Point 5K

Today was the perfect day for a race, and Denning's Point, in Beacon, NY, is the perfect spot. It's mostly trail, through the woods along the waterfront on the Hudson River, so it's shady, flat and gorgeous. A very well-run event, too. There were probably nearly 150 runners, a third or so of whom were from The Marathon Project. I decided to try a new plan: run 2, walk 1, with the idea that the 2 would be a harder run than I usually can manage. It worked - I was able to stick with it the whole way, and ran in 39 minutes. (Comparable to my first race this season, faster than the last 2.) I thought my speed might be helped by the fact that I've lost 8 pounds since I started the no-flour no-sugar plan, though I did have a plate of pasta last night figuring I'd need the carbs for energy.

I know losing 8 pounds in about a week sounds crazy, and I also know I can't keep that up. (and it can't really be 8 pounds of fat- some of it must be water and general bloat.) But I feel good! My energy is great, I'm eating plenty of other food (peanut butter when I'm hungry, wine at dinner...) and I'm not craving things. I love the simplicity of it. A rule is a rule - there's no "I'll just have one taste" which always leads to another and another. (For example, last night when I relaxed the rule pre-race, one taste of Nutella led to five more! Back to "No Choice" as the Beck Diet Solution puts it. I cannot be trusted with treats!)

It's very noticeable - people are complimenting me, and clothes fit that haven't in a long time. Now the trick is to use the CBT techniques to avoid falling into the mental traps that always have derailed me before. (It is easy, too easy, to start dreaming - 'hmm, I could weigh x by x date, and x by x date..." and forget about what I have to do TODAY. Or to go a few days or a week without a loss and decide it's hopeless. Or to slip a little, see no gain on the scale, and start to believe that I can do that every day and still lose weight. The ways to delude myself are endless!) The book emphasizes you can't skip any of their steps -- you have to do all the techniques, and though I'm resistant to anyone telling me I HAVE to do it their way, I take the point that, while you may not need it now, it's good to have practiced it for the day that you start to falter and need more arrows in your quiver. (I find I'm using a smorgasbord of techniques - ones from the book, AA-type sayings like "just for today," and one I read in some women's magazine where the writer tells herself "I can have that brownie tomorrow, it will still be there" and is able to convince herself not to eat it today.

I'm going away for various short vacations for the rest of the month so will miss some of the group runs that are so important including the "time trial" leading up to the Dutchess County Classic half-marathon. I'll miss that race too as I have a full-day meeting that day. Next weekend on my own I want to run 8 miles (at my mom's - she lives near a lovely trail along a canal) and 9 the following weeked at my dad's in Michigan. His area is very hilly so I'm not quite sure what route to choose. The weekend after that is Labor Day - I'm thinking of the Mad Dash 10K in Rhinebeck. That's a good goal and milestone to work towards!

One more topic for today. I took my 9-year-old daughter swimming at the pool yesterday. She just learned to really swim this year - last year she was still just doggy paddling. We had a race doing breast stroke and she beat me by a LOT! How can that be? I thought fat was supposed to make me more bouyant? It must be offset by the fact that she's shaped like an arrow and must just fly through the water! We did freestyle and backstroke and even though she can barely do either of them correctly she still kept up with me! And that's after 2 years of steady swimming using TI technique. Unfair! Though I'm delighted that she's so effortlessly athletic. She's a soccer queen, skiing speed demon, has a helluva throw in softball (and always got a solid hit, though she is built like a twig - no power!) - I am in awe of her! She's giving up piano lessons and ballet, both of which break my heart, especially because she's so talented in both - but she is very clear where her passion lies and it's on the field of athletic competition!