Linita&i Posted January 25, 2016 Report Share Posted January 25, 2016 Hello everyone, when I start doing something I know little of, or think I will struggle achieving, it really helps me to find motivation in success stories so here goes one, I hope it gets a few arses off the couches.. I'm going to start telling you that I've never really stuck to anything, I am not very patient and I get demotivated quite quickly, I'm also a very proud person so these all in combination make me a rubbish candidate for success in any resolution I take up. I never liked sports, never mind running, I wouldn't understand why people did it really, I thought it was purely fitness obsession, to look good, I didn't realise anyone could enjoy it. And my kind of joy was in food rather than sports... So back in the summer I met up with a woman probably at least 15 years older than me, she told me about this app, she told me she does 5ks, 10ks.. she told me it was really fun, she assured me "hell yes, you can do it!" When I told her I could not control my breathing when I run, she told me I'd love it, she explained how The app worked (easy peasy), motivated me to try it, I thought "well, if she can do a 10k, really I should be able to do one too" but didn't do anything about that for months, later on in September we adopted a dog, I walk my Lina (Linita&i comes from there) 3x a day, I try for one of the walks to be long, In the mountains (we are surrounded by), I let her free, she loves it, she is a 12mth old German Shepherd (she is full of energy and it makes her the best pet ever when it is drained from her), so during those hour, two hour-walks I thought a lot and I realised I could actually try the app I heard about, wouldn't it be fun to run with my dog in the middle of the mountains? Lose some weight? (That's all I thought, honestly, i am frank when I say I DID NOT FORSEE THE POSSIBILITY OF JOY). I started from step one, the first few weeks were very hard, my breathing was really heavy, my legs were aching all over, shin splints.. The lot! Then I did that 20 minute run in week 5, I think I didn't nail it first time, but second and third and that's when I realised this could actually be achieved, my breathing started to get better by the run, my legs too, I started to get that "high" and feel awesome after running for the rest of the day (I even made better food choices on running day), and I started to understand why people run, It has been actually a very good tool for eliminating stress and frustration (I have two boys 7 and 2, the dog, a four floor house to clean on my own and a husband that works a lot) and at this point I can tell you I feel great, I've done my 10k yesterday with two friends, they had not done it before, I pushed them both to it, we left our kids with the hubbies in the morning and went for a run, the weather was amazing, so was the route so I insisted we run those 10k, we were all so proud of our selfs! But the best part of all of this is that thanks to running I am happy, and honestly no longer caring about losing weight, believe me, it's better to lose the bad mood than a few kilos, which i did as well by the way.. I have signed my two year old baby to go to nursery for three and a half hours per day, I'm looking forward to becoming a better, faster runner when he is there, it's awesome, please try it, please take it up to week 5, even I you don't do it three times a week because you don't have the time, even if you have to repeat sessions as you struggled to get thorough them, it gets better and fun-er as the weeks go by! Kisses and hugs to all you! Start! Believe in yourself! If I did it, anyone will do it! Speedingsloth, Linita&i and torus_ot 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janegb Posted January 25, 2016 Report Share Posted January 25, 2016 Good job! I'm so happy for you. Just goes to show that when you put your mind to something its achievable. Keep us posted on your journey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob129 Posted January 26, 2016 Report Share Posted January 26, 2016 That is fabulous. You should be really proud of yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linita&i Posted January 26, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2016 Thanks Jane and Rob, I feel this is the beginning of an amazing journey. My poor spoiled baby is going to have to go to nursery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djplong Posted January 26, 2016 Report Share Posted January 26, 2016 There are certainly a lot of stories out here.. A year ago, I was 'on the couch'. I didn't think much about it as I was told years ago that I'd never walk again and I proved that false very quickly. I was happy with that accomplishment and the fact that I could pretty much walk wherever I wanted for as long as I wanted. A picture my stepdaughter took of me while I was sleeping on a plane woke me up - I looked pregnant. When I bought a new iPhone a little over a year ago, I saw it recording my steps and mileage and I occasionally started trying to 'up the numbers'. I looked around to see what I could do and, truth be told, it was pictures of participation medals that really got me started in this direction. Being crippled got me off to a late start so I was NEVER very good athletically and, hence, always picked last for teams in school. Getting a medal for doing something like this had a LOT of appeal to me ("Will Run For Bling"). Then I found this and I started the C25K program. Right afterwards, 9 feet of snow in 3 weeks made it impossible to continue (unsafe running conditions). Fortunately, I picked the baton back up when things thawed out a bit in March and re-started it. An injury in July taught me a lot about what I was doing wrong and I wasn't able to re-start running until October - though I took up bike-riding in the meantime. Long story short (there's a thread here with all the details) I was still able to make my goals. Earlier this month I ran the Walt Disney World 5K and 10K races on consecutive days. Now I'm setting new goals - a half marathon. I have my eye on the Rock 'N Roll Half Marathons in Philadelphia (where my kids live) and Montreal (a favorite city of mine just 4 hours away by car). I just ran in the Freeze Your Buns 5K series here in New Hampshire and will be running the remaining 3 races in that series. I'm just looking to fill in the calendar with a good half marathon in late spring or early summer so I can try one of the many training schedules out there. Until then, I'm just keeping one foot going in front of the other.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linita&i Posted January 26, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2016 Hello djplong. That's a hell of a story, thank you for sharing it, put me in a pretty bad light tho, I was just lazy, you... You are an inspiration to me! Your effort was a lot harder than the one I put.. im very happy for you though, I hope that you continue, make good progress and feel happy, where can I find the full thread you mentioned? I'd like to know more about it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedingsloth Posted January 27, 2016 Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 Great work Linita&i! That's just what I needed to hear (albeit still slightly apprehensive) as I'm just coming off a 2 week rest due to my sore knees. I'm Continue from week 10 where I last left off, which I'm slightly afraid that I'll struggle with tomorrow. So much easier to make excuses! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linita&i Posted January 27, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 Speeding sloth, I have to tell you: don't give up but do slow down, if both your knees are hurting, take a few more days until pain is gone, it won't do you any good to run like this. That's exactly what I have done thorough out this program, I began running x3 a week, then when my legs were sore I reduced it to x2 or sometimes even just x1 run a week when required due to soreness, listen to your body, give it a rest, this is all new for our bodies, too fast too soon and you'll have to stop all together, and you'll regret it, I stopped at week 9 of the app as I found that stopping for a minute walk didn't do any good for me, and from then on I just worked by kilometres, did a few 6 km runs , 7 km, 7 km where half the route was going up and the other half down, and then 10k! So much fun! Have you heard of a tape that runners put on their knees? Speedingsloth 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djplong Posted January 30, 2016 Report Share Posted January 30, 2016 Linita&I - no one single thing I did was extraordinary. I was lazy - still am, to a degree. Each little thing built upon the previous one and that's how this started to become 'a thing'. I mean, the list is a bunch of baby steps... - the picture from my stepdaughter (July 2014) putting something in my head. - buying new phones that tracked my steps (November 2014). - seeing that data and start to subconsciously want to 'up my numbers' - nothing serious (December 2014). - mapping out a 5K neighborhood walk to see if I could do it. - doing it. - wondering if I could run 5K someday. - seeing finisher medals for 5K races while surfing the net on running programs. - discovering the C25K system. - doing that first session (January 2015) - resuming C25K after being snowed out for 3 months (March 2015) - Setting a goal of running the Walt Disney World 5K and 10K races (in Jan 2016) and signing up for them (April 2015). - Struggling through various sessions but still making progress. - Failing sessions but, because I was tracking myself with an app (MapMyRun+), I could still see improvement from previous sessions. - Repeating sessions until I succeeded. - Getting a hip/leg injury (July 2015) that restricted my movements. - Getting a bike to ride around since I could still do that (August 2015) - Getting cleared to start running again (October 2015) and almost completely restarting the program from the beginning. - Not failing a single session and skipping a few as I felt almost too strong at times. - Doing the 30-minute run and continuing on to the C10K program. - Doing my first 60-minute run (more like a jog, as are ALL my 'running' intervals) a week before my plane left for Florida. - Running the races (Jan 2016). - Running three times a week to keep my legs going. There's no single "big step" in all of that. They were all baby steps. Tentatively, if my body will let me, I want to do half marathons this year. If I can, maybe stretch that out to a marathon next year. And then, in January 2018, maybe "do the Dopey" - the Dopey Challenge where you run the WDW 5K, 10K, Half Marathon and Marathon races on consecutive days. I'm not trying to be competitive - not with anyone but myself. The goal is to finish. I'm only proving things to myself. And with the support I get form my wife, well, that makes it all the more easy. I know I sound like so many other people.. But if *I* can do it, well, most people can do it. yolanda chaisemartin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobugi Posted February 19, 2016 Report Share Posted February 19, 2016 Wow! Congratulations! This is so inspiring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yolanda chaisemartin Posted February 19, 2016 Report Share Posted February 19, 2016 Djplong, all very logic and rationalised reasons to back up the idea that nothing big really happened, just baby steps, though it's still pretty inspiring, and I'm sure I'm not the only impressed one! Have you done any half marathons so far? It was a few months ago when you replied. I've been running about twice a week, I'm so in love with it now! Looking forward to do my 12k tomorrow (in a very cold place, I'm going to my dads tomorrow it's freezing there and there is plenty of snow, opposite to where I live, quite a big change). In my last run I managed to do a 10k in one hour exactly and that was my fastest, I am so bloody thrilled! That was in the mountains though, so a lot of ascending and descending hills, I'm curious to see how will I do in a straight and plain terrain.. I guess I'll find that out tomorrow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yolanda chaisemartin Posted February 19, 2016 Report Share Posted February 19, 2016 Sorry, I logged on with Facebook and didn't realised it wasn't the way I've done it before, it's Linita&i again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djplong Posted February 20, 2016 Report Share Posted February 20, 2016 Yolanda - I keep my status updated in "Progress log from the Granite State". I've been checking the calendar for half-marathons and I'll key my training plan to whatever the first one is that I run. There are four or five that I'm looking at right now and I'll have to start upping my training in April to make the first of them (Currently I'm doing about 12+ miles per week - 4+miles/day, 3 times a week). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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