Jogging Haiku 43: First New Year Jog

First jog of the year
After over-indulgence,
Come on little heart.

(9km, at an easy and sustained pace)

Happy New Years!

I'm not going to make any resolutions, especially about running. When you want something, just do it. None of the big changes in my life were the result of a New Year resolutions. I think that if you really want to do something, you don't need to wait to the start of a new year to get on with it.

For the last few days I wanted to go out for a jog, but always found excuses not to: woke up too late, too cold, etc. But after exchanging emails and reading the blog (in French only) of a real runner, I decided last night to set my alarm for 7am. Of course getting out of the warmth of my futon was a little difficult, but as always once on the road, it felt nice to be jogging, even if I only went once in over a month, after the Sanjurokumine race.

It wasn't that cold actually, certainly less than in Canada where my new jogging internet friend has to train. And the sky was very beautiful, fantastic winter morning skies. I was wearing some new clothes I got in a New Year 'surprise' bag (not much of a surprise, the contents were advertised in a flyer!) on January 1st after lining up for 45 minutes or so and waiting for the people who grabbed the bags without looking and then returned them (numbers were limited). I got an Under Armor bag, which contained tights, two 'compression undershirts, a hoodie and a beanie for ¥10,000. This morning I wore the beanie [quite useful considering my (lack of) mane], the thin undershirt (which will probably change shape in the future considering my belly) and tights, in addition to a fleece. The shirt felt nice, and it seems to have helped with posture a little, the tights were OK, and I didn't feel the beanie, which is good. At regular price, I don't know if any of the items would have been worth it, but with the special, they certainly were.

Now, I previously said I wouldn't take any resolutions, and I won't, but I would like to run more this year, and to this end, I may do the unthinkable and join more races. There's a nice 36k trail one coming up in April and I think I'll try to enter it. If I start training again now, judging from my performance last month I think I could do it relatively easily and enjoy it. The race is located southeast of Osaka, going over the Kongo mountain, and its main challenge is that there is only one aid station to fill up with water along the course, so participants need to carry more water than usual. This is an important issue for me as I tend to drink and sweat quite a bit while exercising. And if that goes well, I may even be tempted in trying a 50k, but we'll see then.

Happy trails, folks.