Here's the skinny: I've been near 300 lbs. for years and need to lose weight. I'm married to a wonderful lady, and we have a family. One of our boys often asks if I'll run with him. I've always had to tell him, "No." In August of '09, my wife learned about a couch-to-5k running program, and I agreed to try it with her. This blog chronicles our progress on that training program. I hope I'll soon be able to surprise my son by telling him, "Yes, I'll go running with you!"

Sunday, July 4, 2010

How fast can you go?

Today was slated to be a rest day for me. The weather dawned nice and warm and by 10 am, it was already 81 degrees. I thought -- you know Im kinda glad to not be running today.

Mr. F had gone out earlier in the morning, Ill let him chime in on his run later. Suffice to say though -- he did fabulous!

While chatting online with a friend -- a fellow runner-- she challenged me to run a mile as fast as i could. She guessed that Id do an 8:48. If you havent figured out by now, Im a bit competetive. I took that challenge and ran with it. I suited up in a tank top and shorts, strapped on my garmin and ran.

The first two tenths I was able to run between the pace of 6-8 minutes per mile. That quickly led to some serious huffing and puffing. I ended up doing the middle part of the run around 9-9:20 pace. At various points I was able to speed up a bit but not like the beginning. It was hot!

I ran a mile in 8:41, beating my friends guess by 7 whole seconds! Way to go me! :)
I seriously felt like I might just collapse right there in my driveway though. I was breathing really really hard. Ive wanted to run a mile as fast as I could go for awhile. I havent though wanted to give up a larger calorie burn to do that single mile run. So it worked out well that I snuck it in on a rest day. I wasnt feeling too sore from my 7 mile run yesterday and felt overall good.

As I sit typing tonight -- I feel great -- muscle wise at least.

On another note, eating today wasnt so well. I just felt hungry most of the day and kept eating and eating and eating. I think I ended the night 200 calories over and that already included 120 calorie burn for the run! Oh well ... tommorrow is a new day and its good to remember that. Part of me wonders though, if it could have been from undereating the day before. I ended up eating 1850 for the day, burned 823 on my long run, so only netting just over 1000 for the day. Hmmm ....

Switching back to a more fun topic -- I got a new dress today. Its really exciting to buy a dress in a much smaller size than I was 10 months ago! Im feeling really good about myself and Im really enjoying that. I even bought some toenail polish to go with my new sandals and dress.

I find myself talking bout couch to 5k everywhere. I mentioned to the fitting room clerk that I have lost almost 28 lbs. And she asked how I did it. It was exciting to talk about couch to 5k. The even more cool part was when she was skeptical about being able to do it herself. Thats when Mr. F chimed in and told her that he was over 300 lbs when he started and did this! I dont know if she will look it up or start it or anything but it was good to share a bit of our success.

I really should get to bed. For some reason, I stayed up late tonight. Usually its the opposite -- Mr. F is the night owl and IM usually the first asleep.

Keep on running,
Mrs. F

1 comment:

  1. That is an awesome pace for your mile! Congrats! I also have been touting the Couch to 5K and recently got 6 adventurous ladies to try it. They have been doing 2 runs a week on their own, and then we have been meeting on Thursday evenings for a group run. They are currently in week 3. It has been phenomenal to see people who thought they would never even try it, excited about how they are progressing! We will be finished up just in time to do a 5K for a local crisis pregnancy center in town.

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