In May 2010, I started running. Well, maybe more like jogging. Ok, walking in a strange fat-man gyration that emulated jogging. Anyway! I woke up one day and was 297 lbs (pics from a year before when I was 286lbs) and only in vague notions did I realize how I had gotten to that point. I knew I was out of shape, and getting worse. I had spurts of trying to get fit and I never lasted longer than a month. I am a creature of habit and jumping full force into something while the rest of my life pulled at me just was unsustainable.
I started again. So what makes it different? Small changes and removing myself from the equation. Strange as it sounds it is not about my waist-line or what I think I should be doing. Granted, looking back I am happier with how I look and what I've been doing, but really it's been about achieving something. i.e. Today I will run at least half a mile, and walk the rest of the mile. Today I will try to run a full mile. Today I will try to run as much of two miles as I can. Today I will just see how fast and how far I can go, up to a mile.
Interestingly enough, I attended a project management seminar a little over a week ago and one of the key factors for success is setting aggressive but achievable goals. My goal in May of 2010 was to be able to survive a 3.1 mile race in August. Is that achievable? Absolutely. Is that aggressive? You may not think so, but when I started I couldn't run 50 yards (no exaggeration) without getting winded. The hill from the parking garage to the office could get me breathing hard, and my heart rate up. For me, that was aggressive.
Fast forward 11 months. This morning I woke up and I weighed in at 259 lbs. I ran 5.02 miles last Sunday in an hour. I have a list of 5ks, Triathlons and even a 10k or two that I'm itching to compete in. I love this sport. It gives me something to clear my head on, something to incrementally improve on, and the culture of runners, and of race day is something that excites me.
Today I will run 3 miles, focusing on forefoot striking.
2 comments:
People laugh when I say I never learned how to run correctly - that video illustrates EXACTLY how I run. Thanks for including it; I want to try to focus on not hitting with my heel!
that's pretty awesome, I don't heelstrike at all, and I always thought it was wrong that i didn't.
sweet
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