Race your way to fitness
In recent years, has your weight increased steadily? Wondering where that skinny teenager who could eat and drink anything without gaining a pound has gone? Has “maybe tomorrow” become your mantra when you think about acting? Or have you sadly accepted that I am now and that you are too busy to change?
Let me tell you that with the right decisions, this is not you. It is not easy and if you want to feel successful, nothing is. There are many promises about the key diet or just do this exercise and you will look like in the picture, it is not true. I’m sorry to tell you that it takes time, effort and above all mental discipline.
Six years ago I hit 83.5kg, the heaviest I had ever weighed and at 44 it was getting harder to change weight. I searched for a good gym deal and found a good deal. The only problem was that I found it difficult to motivate myself to go. Yes it was easy at first after induction, you rarely go but after a few weeks I just wanted to be home after work and mornings were too rushed. How much extra money did I waste before I decided to cancel? Does that story sound familiar to you?
Why don’t you try running? One of the first things I discovered that helped me was the Couch-to-5k app. It’s very encouraging and starts by splitting the run and the walk until you reach the 5K finish line. With 3 scheduled runs a week, increase running time over walking.
The next step is the 5K Park Run, a worldwide organization to get people moving. At 7am on a Saturday morning, people of all ages, sizes, and abilities gather at the starting line. They track your progress and post the results later that morning. You can keep track of PBs and how you are doing against the competition.
After running Park Run for a while, the next step is to enter an organized event. These are well organized and there are different distances to sign up. This is an ideal opportunity to attempt a 10K race. You have a set date to aim for and you can improve your training accordingly. The feeling you have after over 10km is phenomenal.
Whats Next? You can participate in more events trying to beat your best 10K time, but what about the half marathon? As you do these events, you’ll see half marathon runners walk in and think “I can do that.” And you can, it’s another target to aim for. It will take a little more training, but you will get there.
Remember that the only person you are competing against is you, and you didn’t go this far just to go this far.
