Mark Me Down For 50

Well I passed by my first month this past weekend and I never really looked back. When I started I couldn't run. It took six days of walking before I could even think of putting in some running. On that seventh day that I finally ran I managed a whole two minutes out of 30. Fast forward to today, a little over a month, and I ran 17 minutes out of 30. I no longer have to stretch my shirts out for them to fit. I just put them on and they fit. I have been stretching my t-shirts out for years to feel comfortable in them. Not stretching my shirts is crazy. My pants feel a lot more loose, like I should probably wear a belt. I've slimmed down into size XL shorts from 2 or 3 X's depending on brand. I have a lot more energy. My wife has noticed me helping out more around the house. According to my jury-rigged scale that I assume is still 12 lbs off, I have lost a total of 25 lbs so far. Last but not least, today I passed the 50 mile mark.

The actual workout today felt good. I had a slight pain above my right ankle as I left work. It went away a couple minutes in, so that was a relief. The foot pain I've been having was almost non-existent, but my legs hurt a little. I finally figured out how to progress my workouts without killing myself. My plan is to just augment the 90 second walk, 90 second run routine. Today my first 4 run segments I ran 2 minutes and the following walks were 1 minute. I will just keep converting an extra run/walk every couple of days or so. That should keep me from advancing too fast. Then once I am all two minute running segments and one minute walk breaks and feeling good, I will eliminate one walk break at a time until I can run the whole 30 minutes. If by some miracle I can continue on this pace then somewhere near the end of the month I should be able to run the whole thing.

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately to derive inspiration and to see how other people have come from being sedentary to active. One of my favorites is Pat's Note to Self. One of the many things I've found while perusing his pages is the book The Courage To Start. I am only about 80 pages in right now, but it's definitely an excellent first book to read. A lot of useful information on how to deal with wrapping your head around the fact that you are a runner if you run. I probably need to reread the part about progress not being linear after I've gone and written the second paragraph today.

The plan is to head to the running store after work this afternoon. with any luck my run tonight should be more comfortable.