The Story So Far
I have been floating around the halfway mark to my first goal for a couple of weeks now so i figure its safe to say that im half way there
My first goal was to lose 20kg (to be down to 143 pounds, or 65kg), since then i have realised i will probably want to lose closer to 30 (to be down to 121 pounds, or 55 kg). So now i am half way towards my first goal
It all started at New Years. Yes, i made a new years resolution, very corney. But this time i was determined. I was going to make a plan, and i was going to do it. I had family over at that time, so i didnt start my weight loss programme until February, when i was able to make a clean start and devote a lot of time and (wo)man power to it
I started out controlling my portions and exercising more. I was horrified at my level of fitness. I set goals for each work out, and at first my goal was just to survive 45mins of exercise, at
any pace. I started cycling, running and using the cross trainer at my gym. I remember very distinctly not lasting even half an hour on the cross trainer. It was very upsetting, and the task ahead of me felt enourmous and impossible. Slowly but surely i got more fit, and was able to survive those 45mins. I started setting goals in terms of distances, i wanted to cycle x km each work out, run x km and so on. I gradually built it up from the very bottom, adding about 10m each time, so i became faster and continuously challenged myself.
It hurt! I remember going to a weight lifting class (which i have always loved) and getting the scales afterwards, and wondering how it was
possible that after all that work in the past hour nothing had changed at all! Of course, i knew that was how weight loss worked. But i was still expecting some sort of tiny instant gratification. That idea was rather abruptly snuffed out. The only instant gratification you get is knowing you did an awesome work out that day. You have to be self gratifying
I have a little red hardback notebook i take to the gym with me. In it there is the planned workouts for the week, my goals and my progress. Looking back to the first week i ran 4.78km (2.97 miles) in 48mins. That same week, i only lasted 30mins on the cross trainer.
Today I ran my first adidas auckland quarter marathon. It was 10.55km (6.56 miles), and i said to the organisers my estimated time would be 2 hours. I really aimed to do it in an hour and 30 mins. I got up at 5:30am this morning to get to the start line at 7am. It was cold. At first i found it hard to get into a pace, everyone running past you makes you feel the need to speed up. Eventually i found my pace however and kept going. It was hard going. The second half went pretty quick but the last half hour was hard. Looking for the finish line continuously wears you out. I finally got to the finish, it was so awesome running in the lane with people all around, coming up to the the arch with the big timer clock marking the end.
I saw the timer. It didnt say 1 hour 30 mins.
It said 1:25:22
I came 1824th out of 2754 finishers.
Here are my before and now pictures. The picture on the left of each is from February, the picture on the right of each is from a few days ago. I should have photos of my marathon coming soon
Half way to first goal! 10kg down
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