A half marathon soon, March Goals & April Plans

Do you guys remember this post - where I declared that I had whimsically signed up for a half marathon? Yikes!!! A half marathon! What in the world was I thinking? With my weight, running a 10k is a bad enough challenge. A half marathon? Like 21.1kms, dear reader, I must have momentarily been out of my mind!

 

I've got just about 3 months. And then there is this event in mid May. But I shall atempt the half. And please note that my voice is feeble. I have absolutely no confidence, I fear I will screw up my knees  and I am simply going to train on my own. Because I want to try. And I know that running that much is going to take a lot from me. Hello, early morning runs.

 

I am also  trying to focus on spending enough time with Chittu for I fear he is getting way too attached to Maami. I have moments of maternal instinct where I want to quit the job and stay home with my son, but I know such hasty decisions are never a good thing! But yes, I want to ensure that  when my son wakes up in the morning either the Scientist or I are at home. So I have modified my work out schedule for the month of April. I will instead take advantage of my new found exercise at home joy and mix and match with other workouts that will give me a good combination of cardio, strength, core and stretching!

 

My aim for this month will be to seriously up the running mileage and down the weight. I am trying.  I am also making small changes to my eating style. If I make any headway with weight loss, you know I will be sure to share.

Goals for April:

• Be able run 8k comfortably
• Hope to see 75 or lower on the scale
• Spend time with Chittu
• Continue to exercise in the evenings!
• I am expecting some serious stress at work and home this month - hope I will tide over without resorting to food!

For March, I got in a total of 26 work out days!!! Thats like my highest ever I guess, and mostly because I began to exercise at home! Weight wise I am almost exactly the same as I was the start of March or should I say I have weighed around the same for a long while now - atleast 3-4 months.

Celebrating four years of marriage with a small vacation

Hey guys!Brace yourself for a long exciting post with pictures and all!

I have got so much to tell you. I had a great weekend celebrating four years of marriage at a remote beach in Kannur, Kerela. It was exactly what we needed, fit into a decent or shall I say low budget and also smuggled into the three day weekend. I came back to work, rejuvenated, even despite the humid uncomfortable train journey back where we realised the second class train berths were not designed to accomodate a parent and a toddler.

We celebrated our marriage anniversary at the Taj, Kovalam, last year and while that was doubtlessly a splendid experience, the budget of holidaying at the Taj did not exactly suit our pockets, this year! I simply love beaches and while I was scouting for the closest beach holiday we could get from Bangalore, chanced upon Kannur as an increasing popular international beach destination. The virgin beaches of Kannur are simply pristine that obviously the term God's own country for Kerela is totally  justified. Sometimes sitting on the breezy shore I wondered if there was indeed a life beyond this small town where the politics and economics of the world were at logger heads. But the beauty in there was sufficient to let me forget about it for the short three days that we were there.

We had booked ourseves at a splendid homestay that offered us good kerelan food, was comfortable though simple and was gave a breathtaking view of our smallness when compared with the massive ocean ahead and even muted the million voices in the sound of the crashing waves.

Ofcourse we were excited, even though we travelled by sleeper class train and the tickets were not confirmed till the last moment:

Chittu was pretty scared of the ocean and only wanted to be carried on the first day:

Ofcourse there was some hammock fun:

We also made it to a Theyyam performance, and I'd say we were too lucky. The costumes were awesome:

I finally fulfilled my dream of running along the beach. I ran along the waves on the first day. On the second day I ran along the village trail path! Ofcourse the voice in my head kept wondering what people watching me might think about the size of my butt, but in the big picture, even the size of my butt is pretty miniscule, no? And that was the FIRST time I exercised on vacation EVER!

I also got an ayuvedic massage done, while the kind Scientist watched Chittu and kept him entertained.

Since Kannur is the land of the looms, we ventured on a super crowded bus into the city armed with only my extremely poor malayalam speaking skills. But the handloom stores were shut because of the closing of the financial year! Bummer on that!

And we also hiked along some paths to a secluded cove. We tried to teach Chittu the joy of playing in the sand and also got some great views of the ocean ahead!

I could not help but think that I did not look fat. Even at 77 kilos of weight! Whatever!

Despite al the fun we had I am glad to be back home and back to being in charge of the kitchen! From a weight watchers perpective:

• I did not overeat! there was little opportunity to!Ofcouse I OD'd on the cookies I carried for Chittu. But nothing too massive!
• I took a 30 minute run on both days! And stayed pretty active too!
• My weight showed 77.8 kg this morning! Oh well! Shall we just say I seem to have mastered the maintaining act!

That was our weekend! Hope you guys had a good one too!