Wow...the last blog post was back in April! Right around when I decided I needed to get moving. As you can see from the Snow Days post, I had taken the boys up to Bass Lake near Yosemite to get a few days of playing in the snow. As an aside, this was Jason's first time in the snow! Things went down hill when I got the flu (not stomach actual influenza; fever, chills, aches and pains). Alone with two rambunctious boys and incapacitated I was literally hating life.
Right then I had a conversation with myself (in a fever induced daze):
Me: Why are you so unhealthy? You can't even take your boys to the snow without getting sick.
Me2: Because I'm fat.
Me: Why are you fat?
Me2: Well it started back in 1992 when I worked at Nestle where candy was plentiful and the cafeteria was cheap and...
Me: Dude that was almost 20 years ago why are you fat now ding-a-ling?
Me2: Oh, well all the hockey guys stopped playing at lunch twice a week a year ago.
Me: So it's someone else's fault? BTW you were still fat and unhealthy back then...
Me2: That's harsh.
Me: It's true.
Me2: I know...
Thus started the internal conversation that roiled on even after the trip. Finally it led me to realize I needed to get moving. I finally stopped pouting about pick-up hockey being over and decided to find something that wouldn't be reliant on other people. The only criteria? It would have to not be running...I HATE running.
That criteria got blown away within 30 seconds in the continuing saga of the conversation going on in my head. Really what else could I do that had better time to cardio benefit ratio? I finally wore myself down and decided to give it a try.
First, I had to get some shoes. EVERYONE says, "Get some good shoes!" Which means go to a store that films your stride on a treadmill so they can sell you $100+ shoes. I mean the pronation angle of the fourth and first metatarsal and my arch action depend on it right? So I took that advice went to Costco and threw down $35 bucks for a pair of addidas running shoes (and I didn't even try them on...oh the horror!).
I had no idea at the time if I would even get into this whole running thing. I just needed to give it a try and I wasn't going to do it in my Wilson tennis shoes or my Vans. For all I knew at the time I would be doing 30 second intervals of walk/running for the rest of my life! Plus I figured God created the foot without a pair of $5,000 Nikes attached so anything light weight that keeps the bottom of my foot from hitting pavement would work. (I also googled a lot and found out a high percentage of folks use neutral shoes so I probably didn't need a special shoe.)
Anyways, that controversy aside I put my shoes on May 19th, 2011 and went for a "run". The running part didn't last long as it gave way to lots and lots of walking. My stats? 2.07 miles in 32:11 minutes giving me a whopping 15:30 min/mile pace. Suffice it to say it was sad and I was a bit frustrated, but not undaunted.
The daunting part was not being able to run for extended periods of time. In came the advice; "Run landing on your forefoot rather than your heels it's more efficient." and "When starting out you gotta go slow...slow enough to not be out of breath enough to sing a song understandably." Oh. The forefoot thing I'm still kinda figuring out, I do land more flatfooted than on my heel, but that breathing thing really helped me! Right away I was able to run a mile without walking, then 1.5 then 2 miles. It was literally a breakthrough in my life! I mean I'm 40 just starting to run...
Suffice it to say so far it has been great for my health. My blood pressure is way down and I feel like I have much more energy. As far as my weight...that's a whole 'nother story. I'm still trying to figure that one out, but the internal conversation in my head is saying bad nutrition and eating habits have a great deal to do with it not changing very much.
Am I still motivated to move after a lifestyle/life long habit of being sedentary? So far yes. The above picture is me running in a 5K race where I posted a personal best of 11:19 min/mile pace. I'm finding motivation in doing races and contemplating a 10K run. Beyond that I'm not sure, but I feel like I am too ADD to do a half or whole marathon. Sprint Triathlon might be my next deal, but I'm trying to take it slow to allow my body to get used to all this activity so there aren't any stress injuries.
For now, I'm just glad to be moving and getting healthier so I can stop calling myself fat...
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