Anyhow, I hope this post finds the world doing well. I myself am doing... well... myself... Sunday I completed my first week of the Frank to 5k Real World Challenge. If you haven't read before, I did one full run of the Couch to 5k program on an elliptical last summer. As daunting as the task felt like it would be, I completed it with very little resistance. The beautiful thing about getting in shape is that the battles are won and lost but the overall war never ceases. My next step in the process was to do the program again on the treadmill but life changes and obstacles are brought up that are difficult to overcome. I dropped off for quite a bit but now I'm back and I'm taking to the streets. Literally.
Life post juice fast was kind of like a victory tour. I had this new, sleek body that was really nice and much lighter than the older model. I took it out and about on speaking tours and made trips back to Ohio. It was all the rage. Talking about how much healthier I was was way more interesting than getting into good habits. I wouldn't say I relapsed into old eating habits, but I got really really lazy. I didn't go to the stairs. I didn't try to be active outside of playing dodgeball (Which was negated by the beer afterwards). All this lead up to a stunning 24 pound weight gain. After month one I was at 320. In my defense, at my heaviest I was the victim of food and water weight. I worked myself down to 308 during month two but that was stalled by two trips to Ohio for graduations and old habits. While here in California, I'd eat healthy. I'd just take in more than I put out. So at the nice weight of 316 I decided to dust off the Frank to 5k program and give it another go while dusting off the even dustier MyFitnessPal app to figure out where to start cutting again.
I love week one. It's a breeze. One minute jog followed by one minute walking. Seems easy enough. Tuesday morning I woke up at 5 and hit the dusty trail. The block I live on is a one mile trip so I got around one and a quarter times then for the five minute cool down (Closer to 7 but who's counting) I made it back to the pad. Wednesday I did it again. No problems. Except one... My iPod (on it's last leg since about September) finally broke so on Saturday I bought a cheap Sansa Clip to jam some tunes while jogging. Sunday comes around and I was met with adversity out the yin yang.
I've had Sansa music players before and they've always been cool but I've never learned how to transfer playlists before. A fact I had forgotten until about nine in the morning. I had spent the previous 45 minutes editing songs to one minute long so that I could run without having to watch the clock all the time. Problem was when I would load the songs onto the player, it wouldn't put them in the order they needed to be to walk and run. After an hour and a half I finally get that ordeal figured out. Time to get dressed.
......
Where's my shoe?
*Notice how I say shoe. Not shoes. At this point I feel like someone really has it out for me.
Nothing is more frustrating than having one of something when you need two. Try skiing with one pole. Or eating Chinese food with one chopstick. After five minute's you charging to the back to find out which Chinese person has a vendetta against you to slug them in the face (this is the case for both examples). Nonetheless it takes over an hour to find the other shoe. At this point I'm built up with so much inner anger and rage that I'm ready to run and get out some aggression. Lap one around the block goes quite well. I'm going to time myself soon to see what my mile time is. The last time I did that was gym class in the year 2000. (My mile time was 18 minutes I believe.) I'm pretty sure on this program I'm running at about a 14 minute clip. I get to the end of the block the second time and I glance up to see an old friend looming in the background. So I make like Donna Noble and turn left at the corner rather than right** and pace myself over to the stairs.
With about a quarter mile left I finish my last running portion and walk over to the bottom of the stairs. I had no hopes to beat my previous time since I had just completed running but I figured timing myself is always good so I have something to build on. I climb the first flight and take a breather for roughly a minute. I climb the second one without stopping and pause briefly at that landing to catch wind then keep on pushing. I take another short break halfway up that flight and I realize I'm really kicking ass. So I keep telling myself "One more step. One more step." After several "one more steps" I reached the top of the hill. I hit the stop button (Which was actually the lap button) and I gazed at the time staring back at me. Eight minutes and thirty eight seconds. Two months ago I was at 14 minutes and change. In the two month period I did nothing to further myself physically.
My thoughts are this. I've dropped so much weight since the beginning of the year that somewhere deep inside a change came about. I challenged myself to not eat food for 60 days and was successful. There were times when I felt like quitting but I didn't. The end result was rewarding. The feeling of tiredness used to be where I stopped when being physically active. I was tired as balls climbing those stairs but I pushed through the tiredness to keep going. At no point was I near the brink of collapse or exhaustion. I was just determined to continue on. I didn't run or jog up those steps this time round. I kept the same pace as I normally do but I put my head down and forced myself to excel at the task at hand. It's a proud moment for me and I look forward to more moments just like that.
I am off now to play dodgeball so this is all for now. Day one of week two will be on Wednesday. I'll be running for 1:30 and walking for 2:00. I look forward to more adventures and sharing them with anyone who cares to read! I'll catch you later!
Until the next episode!
**Kudos and fifty points to Gryffindor if you got that Doctor Who reference!