One year ago I was frustrated with my body. I had let my weight creep up until it was approaching my pre-delivery pregnancy weight. I decided to make a change, and one year ago today, I joined Weight Watchers.
I'm sure that if anyone would have told that "Michelle" of early 2011 what this Michelle is doing, she would have laughed and said, "No way".
One year ago, I could barely run for a few minutes at a time.
Today, I ran 9 miles. I ran for 94 minutes -without stopping (for those calculating...that's a 10:30 pace).
To be fair, it's taken a year for all of these changes to be fully realized. I started out with the weight loss. I had always exercised, but I was going through the motions at the gym, and not really challenging my routine. It wasn't until I had lost 30+ lbs that I really became inspired to push myself to a new fitness level to go along with the weight loss. I challenged myself to train for a triathlon, and set forth on this course in the summer. It was frustrating, agonizing, and frankly, annoying at times. But I kept going. By the fall, I had reached a nice routine. Bike 1x a week, swim 1x a week, and run a couple of times a week. The run was my biggest challenge - both a physical and mental obstacle to over come. I know I'm not alone when I say that I've never liked to run. Even now that I've become a regular runner, I'm still not in love with it. But I can see and feel the benefit to my body, and I do love the sense of accomplishment that I get when I push myself to a new distance.
I set myself a mini-goal of running in at least three 5K races in the fall, and I accomplished that goal. I had an average finish time of ~ 28:30 for all three races - not too bad. After getting so comfortable with the 3.5 mile distance, I decided to push and try to run further. A month later I was running 5-6 miles at a time. I always wondered how runners could easily go for such long distances, but after doing it for a while, I began to see that pushing myself just one more mile was getting easier. By early December I had made it up to 8 miles, and I decided to set myself a new goal. To run a 1/2 marathon in the spring. But I also started to feel a few aches and pains associated with pushing my body to lengths it had never been pushed before. I had never followed a training guide - I just put some gear on and went for a run. But the nagging ache in my knee told me that I needed to get some advice before I pushed myself into an injury. Luckily my neighbor is a super-athlete and trainer - she competed in the Ironman in Florida this past November. She gave me some great advice, as well as a training guide and schedule. I've also been spending more time reading at Runner's World, picking up some tips here and there. I learned what a Fartlek is, and I've been trying to use them to improve my pace.
And I've followed through with my goal. I'm registered to compete in the Tobacco Road 1/2 Marathon on March 18 (http://www.tobaccoroadmarathon.com/). I'm following the training guide, and hope to be at 14 miles a few weeks before the race, so I should be well prepared for it. I haven't given up my original goal of competing in a triathlon - there are two sprint triathlons in the spring, the Granite Falls Triathlon (http://www.setupevents.com/?fuseaction=event_detail&eventID=2065) and the Ramblin Rose event for women only (http://www.endurancemag.com/raleigh-home). I'm actually leaning towards doing both tri's this spring, so I'm really planning on punishing myself.
All of this has led me to a new goal. In only 6 months time I've gone from running for only 5 minutes at a time, to training to run a half marathon. If I can push myself that far within in a few months, than by the age of 40, I would like to compete in a full marathon (FYI - I've got 2 yrs until the big 4-0). Maybe next year I'll do the full marathon at the Tobacco Road event - a full 11 months before that big birthday. I do feel empowered to set myself these goals and know that I can reach them - it's not a lofty dream. I suppose at this point I should consider myself a runner, because it is the discipline that I spend the most time working on. I still don't feel like a runner - I don't feel like I'm a good runner yet, but I'm working at it.
I know I don't have a lot of readers, but I hope that those of you who do see this and have struggled with weight or fitness or just want to do something new this year understand that you can do it. Start with little goals, the accomplishment you get from them will propel you towards even bigger ones.
Finally, I want to apologize for not posting much the last few months. I've actually written about 100 posts in my mind while running or biking, but I never got around to typing them out once I got home. I resolve to be better about blogging, and hope that I have a lot of great new experiences to share in the coming months.
