My Journey With Weight Loss – Things I Focus on While Training

What a glorious day to do my training today. I hit the road at 5:30am and was at the beach by 6:00am. I ran into my long time friend Al who does a brisk walk along the promenade every morning. His pace of course matched my running speed so we chatted as we headed to the pier. I realized when we went our different directions that I had done 2 intervals of running while we chatted and I was pretty comfortable. But it was the bay itself that was so phenomenal today. The temperature was perfect for training and the water was calm. It just seemed so peaceful and made my training a real treat.

When I run I focus on my body, neck and shoulders relaxed, abs tight, butt tucked in, walking evenly on both feet and wait crap that’s a lot to think about. I’m pretty good at multi-tasking but even for me that’s a lot to have do think about all at once so I don’t, instead I break it all down throughout each interval. During my rest periods I concentrate on my neck and shoulders making sure that they are relaxed and that my shoulders are lowered (for some reason I tense up while running). While running I will start with touching my abs (ok, vanity here but I have become pretty fascinated with my increasing defined abs) to remind myself to keep them tight. When I do that I also remember to tuck in my butt. These two things are important as they help keep my core strong. The one thing I always think about is having a steady pace and landing evenly on each foot. This come pretty naturally to me as I have for decades been conscious of my gait and keeping myself from limping. I am hoping one day that all the other stuff will be just as natural but time will tell.

What I really focus on, however, is, as one of my favourite country singers says, stay humble and kind. That means that every single person that I walk/run past gets a big smile and a greeting. Occasionally I will get someone who is not impressed with this (last week a man actually snarled at me) and it is really fun to watch some people be completely surprised as they stop in their tracks and respond in turn but most people smile back and return the greeting. If I pass them again as I head back towards home I smile and wish them a good day. I have to confess, this just makes me feel good. Even when I started increasing my intervals and the training felt more difficult I kept this up. It is really hard to be in a bad mood when you focus on being a friendly person. As I have been doing so much of my training on the promenade lately I’ve met several of the regulars out on their morning walks. They are now very encouraging when they see me doing my intervals and frankly that just makes things so much easier.

So, figure out what you need to focus on and then just be kind.