My achievements this calendar year....so far

Boom_Bap · 08-05-2015 10:38am #1

Throughout my life I have never been a strong runner. I would occasionally dip in and out of jogging, sometimes to injury I would pick up in football, or just not enjoying running and seeing it as a chore. I mention football, I could chase a ball around all day, but running I found is a totally different discipline.

When I was in the gym many years ago, I would always do a 10 minute run with a 1 minute walk around the 6 minute mark. That's all I could manage.

At the start of this year, I went out for a run with a friend, it was about 4 km and we ended up walking a great deal of it because that's all I could manage. The few months previous to that had sporadic runs, about 4km, but with plenty of short walks mid run.
After the first run on this year with the friend, I decided to make a change as I seen how easy it was for my friend. The first goal I set was to do the same 4km run, but run a little bit extra before stopping for my walk. That eventually led to running 4km with no walking breaks. I though that was the best I would be able to do. Throughout all this, I wasn't focused on time, it was more on completing a distance.
The thing that I equate with finding the ability to run the 4km was to find a rhythm, I'm not sure how I found it, but it just came.

Now here's the really encouraging bit, 5km was easy to reach after that, I was really surprised by that. 6km was a little more difficult to get to, and I got stuck there for about a month of not being able to go further. A little tweak to my diet (I'm not very diet focused) and I broke the 6km barrier and got up 8km (running in a small group), but then had a dip and dropped back to being able to manage around 7km.

Last Friday, to my amazement, I managed to run 9.11km in 1 hour. I was very proud, but a little disappointed because I felt I could have broken 10 given how easy the last kilometre was.

Last night, I done the same run again, but decided to keep going a bit further so that I wouldn't have the same remorse that I had last Friday. I ran 10.75k last night in 1 hour and 9 minutes.

I'm way too proud of myself today. This is a massive achievement for me. I'm 6ft and last weighin a few weeks ago was over 16 stone, and not what you would call a natural athlete.

That was all from January to the start of May. The plan for me now is to stay at this distance, maybe even a little shorter, but try to focus more on improving my speeds a bit.

I guess my words of encouragement for other new runners, or people thinking that they will struggle to find a rhythm, or be able to complete a distance goal, keep on pushing through, your body will surprise you at just how good it is. I went into this very casually, tracking myself with the Nike app on my iPod. I'm still very casual about it and loving it.

kit3 · 08-05-2015 10:57am

Good for you - you should ask the mods to move this to the training logs section & log your runs & progress.

Boom_Bap · 08-05-2015 12:17pm

To be honest, this is more of a motivational post for anyone thinking about running rather than tracking.
Basically, if I can get to 10k, pretty much any one can. You just need to ride the speedbumps.

A few other notes about me...I'm a smoker, I don't watch my diet too much but...

I've seen many more positive things in my life recently.
- Weight loss. On my last check up a few weeks ago, I was still classified as overweight although I don't look it. I was told to get down another 10kg, I would say that I am nearly there. Also toning up a bit which is pleasing to see in the mirror.

- Energy. I've so much more energy to burn now. I'm nearing my mid thirties with 2 kids and have much more time to be running around with them now. I also want to be outdoors more doing erm outdoorsy things.

- Waking up. Getting up in the morning is much easier. My sleep is much deeper now, so the 7 hours I get each night is much less light and disturbed than what it used to be.

- My Diet has changed a bit, as noted, I'm not the best at looking after my diet. I'll eat like a pig at times. I take far too much joy from food than to cut out certain foods. But, i have become more disciplined. Like I won't order a Domino's if I'm running the next day, or i'll watch my portion size before running, and try to eat something that will give me a bit of good energy. I'm even thinking about what I will eat post run noadays as well.

-Smoking. On the days I run, I have cut down the number of ciggies I would have before running. So instead of 5 or 6 throughout the day before a run in the evening, it would be 2 or 3. I also wouldn't really smoke after a run.

The one con - the amount of new gear I am buying is ridiculous!

Itziger · 09-05-2015 8:45am

Boom_Bap wrote: »

To be honest, this is more of a motivational post for anyone thinking about running rather than tracking.
Basically, if I can get to 10k, pretty much any one can. You just need to ride the speedbumps.

A few other notes about me...I'm a smoker, I don't watch my diet too much but...

I've seen many more positive things in my life recently.
- Weight loss. On my last check up a few weeks ago, I was still classified as overweight although I don't look it. I was told to get down another 10kg, I would say that I am nearly there. Also toning up a bit which is pleasing to see in the mirror.

- Energy. I've so much more energy to burn now. I'm nearing my mid thirties with 2 kids and have much more time to be running around with them now. I also want to be outdoors more doing erm outdoorsy things.

- Waking up. Getting up in the morning is much easier. My sleep is much deeper now, so the 7 hours I get each night is much less light and disturbed than what it used to be.

- My Diet has changed a bit, as noted, I'm not the best at looking after my diet. I'll eat like a pig at times. I take far too much joy from food than to cut out certain foods. But, i have become more disciplined. Like I won't order a Domino's if I'm running the next day, or i'll watch my portion size before running, and try to eat something that will give me a bit of good energy. I'm even thinking about what I will eat post run noadays as well.

-Smoking. On the days I run, I have cut down the number of ciggies I would have before running. So instead of 5 or 6 throughout the day before a run in the evening, it would be 2 or 3. I also wouldn't really smoke after a run.

The one con - the amount of new gear I am buying is ridiculous!

Good stuff, well done. I hope you stick with it. As you have seen the key is just that, consistency. Consistency beats everything else. I hope you improve the old diet as you get fitter and quicker and that you drop the fags. If you keep training (I still wouldn't worry too much about time yet), the weight will fall but then probably plateau.

As for all the gear, take it easy. But having spent all the dosh you'll feel stupid and guilty if you stop running now so it might be a good investment. Best of luck anyway. I remember when I first went from zero to 10k in training. 10k felt stupendous. Then I read somewhere that 10 miles really was the 'last' double figure distance. Once you get to that, there's no looking back.

What do family/friends/work colleagues say about the new Boom Bap?

Boom_Bap · 09-05-2015 5:24pm

Thanks for the words of encouragement. The justification for the gear is that I'll be more comfortable running

And now that you have it in my mind that I have to get to 10 miles I'll need it.

The family are quite proud of me thankfully, and are complimentary about my appearance. I don't really speak to my friends about it, I have mentioned that I'm doing a bit of running but they take no interest....that doesn't bother me, I don't expect any sort of fuss from them as its not the dynamic that we have as friends. As for work colleagues, I get a bit annoyed about them talking to me about fitness and looking for advice! I do try to help, but I've only picked up on bits and pieces about how to look after myself and tried implementing those, so try to just convey that such & such works for me. The guy that sits at the desk beside me is a bit of a fitness freak, but not running, so he's asking alot of questions about pacing that I can't answer.

Boom_Bap · 20-05-2015 3:13pm

Just a little update on this. I've done 10k in bang on 1 hour on Sunday.
Today at lunch I knocked out 8k in 50 minutes.

Well chuffed.

Chivito550 · 20-05-2015 5:24pm

Boom_Bap wrote: »

Just a little update on this. I've done 10k in bang on 1 hour on Sunday.
Today at lunch I knocked out 8k in 50 minutes.

Well chuffed.

May be better setting up a training log on the training log forum.

My achievements this calendar year....so far

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