My Journey With Weight Loss – I’m Starting to Enjoy Running

After my last blog a former colleague reached out with a message. She is a runner and wanted to make sure someone had talked to me about changing out my shoes. She apologized if I had already had this discussion but also provided a tip to buy 2 pairs of shoes and alternate them to get more mileage out of them. I thanked her profusely and let her know before I even started my training my coach had me go buy a pair of good running shoes and let me know how often to replace them. I also noted that I am very open to any tips and advice from experienced runners and that it would always be appreciated.

This week my coach really bumped things up. For my regular training this week I was to do 10 sets of 5:00 minutes running with 1:00 minute walking and for my hill training 6 intervals of 5:00 minutes running up hill. The hill part was the real increase since last week it was 5 intervals at 4:00 but I told my coach this didn’t even intimidate me anymore, my head now tells me I can do this.

So yesterday was my hill training day. I walked down to the bottom of the hill, looked up and thought ok, this could be tough. But, I started running up the hill reminding myself it is just one foot in front of the other and you will get there. Now I admit, the first 2 intervals were hard but then I got through the 3rd one and thought ok, your halfway there. I got through the 4th interval and it was, hey only 2 more to go. By time I was done I just had a big grin on my face knowing that I had done it.

Today I was doing my final day of run training for the week and ran past a long time friend who I often see walking on the promenade in the mornings. As I ran by I shouted out it’s training day. His response was good job girl! I kept running and realized something had changed. When I started this training every interval I ran I had to keep chanting positive mantras in my head to keep me going. I had to tell myself this was going to get me to a 10k or that I could do this. Today while I was doing 50 minutes in total running I was instead listening to a book and taking in the beautiful scenery around me. I wasn’t in anyway thinking that I was training, I was more focused on saying good morning to everyone I met along the promenade. I also realized it has been like this for a few weeks, the training is no longer a chore, it is enjoyable especially in this wonderful weather we are having.

I ran the rest of my training with a smile on my face, I am becoming a runner. Even my last interval which is up a hill felt great to do today because I know I have come such a long way. Back in January it was almost torture to do 30 seconds of running and 3:30 minutes of walking for 8 intervals but look at me now. While patience is required to do this slow and steady, I recognize this is a lot of progress physically and now mentally I seem to have caught up. Again, apparently I am a runner.

Oh and 2 very expensive pairs of runners were bought today.