What Was I Thinking?

It’s no secret I’ve been dealing with several (okay, more than several) extra pounds on my small 5 ft. 3 1/2 frame for most of my life. But my first two pregnancies I lost what I gained. Then I gained 60 with my 3rd! Definitely too much McDonald’s drive thru. I lost 40 of it but then got pregnant with my 4th. I eventually lost the weight I gained with my daughter, but those 20 extra pounds left over from my 3rd pregnancy didn’t want to go.

Then I started homeschooling and I didn’t have time to exercise…for 3 years! When I turned 37, I got an elliptical and worked out several days a week, but found I wasn’t losing weight. I blamed it on my slowing metabolism. Fast forward several years, I’ve been consistently doing the elliptical trainer in my home for about four years with no significant weight loss. It was only when I started counting calories at sparkpeople.com and busting my butt twice a week at a two hour weight and step class at the gym (in addition to elliptical training) that I started to see some progress. So I’m down about 8-10 pounds from last year (those pounds I gained the year before) but I’m not seeing the results I want. It’s only by the Grace of God and that I didn’t gain any weight these last four weeks when I only managed to get to the gym twice due to recitals and plays and my eating habits have included more snacking then ever.

So now we come to the “what was I thinking” part? I’ve been noticing my friends, yes several, have been slimming down in the last couple of years. They’ve all hit the 40 mark and maybe that has something to do with it, or maybe their kids are older now and they can devote more time to themselves. I’ve also been watching season after season of Biggest Loser and marvel at the transformations. Granted, I don’t have the time to workout for hours every day, but if I just worked a little harder it could help, right? One of the things my “thin” friends have in common is that they run. I hate running and said I would NEVER do that. (I said that about homeschooling also!) But I’m tired of working and not seeing results. Still, running? I’d rather do three hours of aerobics than that, but a few weeks back I arrived late to class and decided to try running.

Whenever I ran through the neigborhood in the past I couldn’t last more than five minutes, but I thought I’d give it a go on the treadmill. And I did. And it wasn’t too bad the first five minutes. In fact, it was easy. Of course, I was only on speed 4 and I vacillated from a 3 to 4 the entire time, but I ran for 30 mintues and could have done more but my next class was starting. I couldn’t believe I ran 2 miles in 30 minutes. No laughing all you runners! It was a big deal for me and got me wondering, maybe I could do this running thing.

The downside to running was that I didn’t burn as many calories as I did on the elliptical. In fact, I burned twice us much on the elliptical than the treadmill and when I ran, I couldn’t read. Plus, all the pounding. So why run on a treadmill? Really, I want your thoughts.

All my friends who have slimmed down run. So I did more digging. Many of them run marathons or 5ks. But after my 30 minute run on the treadmill, I was open to exploring the option, though thought a triathlon would be easier than even a half marathon!

So today, after church, since the weather was mild and I didn’t have a lot of time, I put on my jogging shoes and headed out into my hilly neighborhood. I thought I’d see how far I could run and then see how long it took. I didn’t have a watch so I left at 12:52ish and ran. The first hill was a killer and I remembered why I didn’t like to run. It wasn’t so much my legs hurting, it was my lungs. But I pushed my way up the first steep hill like the little engine that could, and rounded the corner to the first straight away. Okay, not so bad. Not so good, but I headed toward the next steep hill. Did I mention these hills are about a 45 degree incline some closer to 55 and they go on forever, okay, well half a block. Before I got to the top of the second hill I knew I couldn’t turn right toward the pond, so I turned left and headed home, and up two more steep hills. The last one nearly killed me and I really wanted to walk but my house was close so I jogged slowly and when I reached the house and checked the time only 11 minutes had passed!

11 minutes! What was I thinking? Why did I think I could jog through my neighborhood for 30 minutes and feel good at the end. At the end of 11 mintues my chest was burning! I knew running on a treadmill wasn’t the same as running outside so why would I even attempt it. Because I’m ready to press on and do hard things to get the results I want.

Seems like the opposite is true in my writing life, but that’s another story for another day.

All you runners out there, how do you train for a marathon? I’m NOT saying I”m going to run one, but a 5 K is looking possible!