I'm a first-year student in college. The past four or so months of junk food and booze have begun to take a serious toll on my body. I'm in the worst shape of my life, which still isn't horrible, but I can only see things getting worse for myself. I'm really not completely unhappy with my body, in fact, I know I should be grateful for my, up to this point, fantastic metabolism and slender figure. But I've been drastically putting on weight, not just weight, fat, from my lifestyle. So, I'm going to bite this problem in the ass before things get even worse.
I've been trying to begin running for probably a year now. I do go to the gym regularly (or I had been), but my cardio activities have been sub-par at best and I end up just pretending (seriously lying to myself) that I got a good workout when I leave the gym. Strength training had been all fine and dandy for me for the first two months, but the past two months I've been slacking. Laziness, time consumption and well, more laziness, are the culprits. But I've always wanted to run and I know I'll accomplish much more if I do. Yet, I am completely unable to do it. I've always started to "ease myself into it" but thus far have been completely unsuccessful. I have a general motivation problem in my life, so of course this is no different than with running.
The purpose of this blog is my motivation. When I started looking up running resources, especially those for beginners, I found the complete running network and started reading blogs. Not only did I feel totally useless as I am barely able to run for 9 minutes and most of these people can run for over 20 miles, I also felt like there is a chance in hell I can do it too. My immediate goal right now is to be able to run for 30 minutes straight, in the next 6 weeks. Ultimately, I'd like to prove to myself that I can stick to something. I'd like to become a running addict.
I started yesterday, woohoo! I didn't do poorly, I was on the treadmill for 23 minutes, which is long for me, felt really good. Re-reading that sentence, I feel super accomplished. I repeated this sequence twice: 90 seconds running, 90 seconds walking, 3 minutes running, 3 minutes walking. I felt damn proud, gotta start somewhere. I'm heading out to the gym right now to do it again, and do some strength training. Hopefully I don't poop out, I never go to the gym this late in the day.
4 comments:
Oh my! So long, I'm so sorry! Not very interesting
Hi J, don't be too hard on yourself! We all started somewhere. I was not really into running at all when I started - just trying to find a way to stay in shape. It really helps to get in touch with other people who like to run and make realistic step by step goals. You're on the right track. Remember, they have to be YOUR goals - don't compare yourself to others, which I know can be hard to do. I didn't really get excited about running until I skeptically and somewhat grudgingly signed up for a local race. That and joining a running group really got me hooked. You're awesome in my eyes if you can do 23 minutes on a treadmill (I liked another blogger's term dreadmill better.) Good luck!!
Hey - 23 minutes is not completely unsuccessful. You gotta start somewhere. As do I - I'm just getting started, too. Check out my blog for my schedule to get to 30 minutes in 10 weeks with minimal pain.
Today is only the first day - you can do it! I recommend the Couch to 5k program - it took me from where you are to (currently) training for my first marathon.
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