My Journey With Weight Loss – A Training Milestone

Yesterday I was walking the beach after lunch and ran into a long time friend. Last year during the beach walking season we would often run into each other and he would compliment me on how much weight I was down. Yesterday he saw me and I was down about 30 lbs since he last saw me. He said I couldn’t afford to lose anymore weight and I explained I’m not trying to lose weight at this point but instead I am training to run a 10k. He seemed concerned and asked if I was eating properly and not starving myself. I assured him I eat 3 meals a day, I just make really healthy choices. As we parted he congratulated me and told me I look great. Really makes you feel good when a friend says those type of things to you.

Yesterday I also had a training milestone. Friday is my new additional training day and it is the one where I do hill training in preparation to do the Grouse Grind. I do 4 intervals where I spend 3:30 minutes running up the hill then ‘gently’ walking back down. I already know that 3:30 minutes gets me to about 1 3/4 blocks and yesterday I decided to push it a bit and get to the 2 block mark. Then I thought, if you do another 2 block run you will be at the top of the hill so I kept going. When I got to the top of the hill I thought, hmm, if you keep going maybe you can do another 4 blocks and get to the 1 mile mark so I kept going. I RAN 1 MILE! When I reached the 1 mile marker I wasn’t even winded and my legs felt strong. However, I also realized I was likely really pushing it and the overall goal is to be injury free from my training so I slowed it down and just continued on a long walk.

Now any of you who are reading this that are runners probably think what, it’s only a mile. For me, it is a major accomplishment. I remember when I was in high school a couple times a month the PE teacher would decide we should go for a mile run. Not once did I make it through that run without stopping. Of course back then PE was a lot different than it is now and there was no ‘training’ or building endurance, doing a mile run was just part of the curriculum. Apparently my coach’s method of slowly building endurance and strength is the better method because really, 55 years old and decades of being a couch potato but I RAN 1 MILE!

I admit I am so excited by this accomplishment that I can’t wait to do more training next week. That 10k is still a ways off but all of a sudden I am full of anticipation. I am just waiting to hear from my coach to see what changes we will make in next week’s training but I know I’ll be able to do it. Oh and yes, I am really starting to enjoy this running thing.