Painful Resolution Run

Happy New Year and all that shit!   As usual I missed another New Year countdown crashing at 11:35 pm.  I could have made it but really didn't care.  I think New Year's Eve is the biggest over hyped night of the year.  Of all the nights, it is the worst excuse to go out, get drunk and act like a fool.  Lord knows I've done it enough times myself.   We did have our neighbours drop over for a couple of drinks but left just after 11:00 pm as the kids (ours and theirs) were really begin to get whinny.

The last couple of days, the temperature has been absolutely balmy.  In fact, right now on January 1st at 3:53 pm, the temperature is a ridiculously +12 degrees Celsius.  I ran this morning but debated what to wear.  Because of my "late" night, I didn't leave until 7:30 am which the temperature was 7 degrees.  I thought about wearing shorts but it was a little to cold but I did opt to wear a t-shirt with a sleeveless vest and pants.  As punishment for my two pound weight gain and the seven beers I consumed (yes I'm a light weight compared to Payne) I actually ran at the prescribed pace which was to keep the heart rate around 150 bps.  This resulted in running at about 5:00 minutes per km and ended up going about 15.5 km in 80 minutes.  At times, I wanted to barf but kept on going.  I was pretty thirsty as well and in fact I drank 1.6 litres of water before I left and drained my water bottle on the run.  Overall I was pretty happy to finish the run but more importantly, I burned 1,043 calories.  Whoo hoo!!!  I guess that covers some of the beer I drank but I still gained two pounds overnight

In fact, here is my bizarre weight over the last couple of days.  Up down, up down, up down.........

Date	Weight	Trend
	2011-01-01	179.80	178.84
	2010-12-31	177.80	178.66
	2010-12-30	179.80	178.66
	2010-12-29	177.40	178.46
	2010-12-28	179.40	178.58
	2010-12-27	178.80	178.48
	2010-12-26	177.40	178.24

I did another outdoor ride on Thursday but made the mistake of leaving in the late afternoon around 3:45 pm. The light was ok until I reached the half way point when I noticed it was getting quite dark.  I boogied home as fast as I could and headed along eastbound Elgin Mills Road as I normally do but this time I was in rush hour traffic and it was quite busy for a two lane road.  That was not fun.

Yesterday I talked to the coach (first time in six weeks).  We discussed January's schedule and while the total training time doesn't really increase, the intensity ramps up considerably as I prepare for Around The Bay in late March.  Lots of tempo runs, hill repeats and flat out sprints for both riding and running.  Any extra weight gain I've put on during the off season will begin to disappear by the end of January assuming I follow the schedule.  I think today was a good start...running until you feel like puking.

I'm still working on 2010 season review