Here is the first post of my journey to becoming a fitter, healthier, more confident, capable, strong willed and happy young woman.
- Fitter to deal with life’s challenges physically and make the most out of every day.
- Healthier in terms of nutrition to fuel my body for those physical challenges.
- More confident in the body that I have knowing that I work hard for it.
- Capable of handling situations of stress by using exercise as a daily stress reliever.
- Strong willed in the knowledge that if I can conquer my physical challenges and goals related to fitness and being healthier then I have the power to conquer any emotional or psychological problems I might come across.
- Happy that I am making the most of those opportunities I have to live and love life to the fullest.
Hi my name is Sam and above is a summary of my reasons for taking up running. Through many weightloss and fitness journeys I have seen people gain power and control over their lives. To take direction and guide their paths to where they want to be. I am hoping to achieve the same through running and taking more interest in fuelling my body with nutrition rather than junk. I am beginning from the lowest possible fitness level and will build from there. I have started this blog to record my progress, give me something to look back on for motivation in difficult times, a place of accountability and way of splurging any thoughts related to running and life.
Please bear with me in terms of the posts, I have faith that in time they will improve in readability and interest factor. *fingers crossed* J They will also undoubtedly be much shorter than this one most of the time.
I might come up with a range of short term goals and long term goals in the near future but in the meantime my one and only goal is to be able to run non-stop for 30 minutes. To achieve this goal I am taking the view of “slow and easy” to help me form good habits of running frequently and to make them gradual improvements to not put extreme stress on my body. The following program is what I will be following over the next 10 weeks…
10-WEEK TRAINING SCHEDULE
Week 1
Run 2 minutes,walk 4 minutes. Repeat 5 times.
Week 2
Run 3 minutes,walk 3 minutes. Repeat five times.
Week 3
Run 5 minutes,walk 2.5 minutes. Repeat four times.
Week 4
Run 7 minutes,walk 3 minutes. Repeat three times.
Week 5
Run 8 minutes,walk 2 minutes. Repeat three times.
Week 6
Run 9 minutes,walk 2 minutes. Repeat twice, then run 8 minutes.
Week 7
Run 9 minutes,walk 1 minute. Repeat three times
Week 8
Run 13 minutes,walk 2 minutes. Repeat twice.
Week 9
Run 14 minutes,walk 1 minute. Repeat twice.
Week 10
Run 30 minutes.
As for frequency four workouts a week is the aim. Preferably Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. The above workouts do not include a 5 minute warm-up and cool down.
My First Run
This afternoon/evening has started the lessons already. My area isn’t really the safest so lesson one is…
1. Run while it is still light should your neighbourhood be even slightly comparable to some scenes from the film “Dangerous Minds”.
I discovered this after beginning my run just on dusk and kindly yet nervously greeting 3 separate groups of young (but dodgy looking) youths. They all replied unthreateningly but this seemed to have little impact on my legs moving just that little bit faster each time I came across a group. It was at this point that I became thankful for my decision to run on the side of a main road (SH1 none the less) so that there would be plenty of people driving past should anything happen. What I didn’t realise is that running directly next to a road that is currently undergoing re-surfacing makes for a lingering taste of dirt in the mouth. Lesson number two is…
2. Running next to roads that are being re-surfaced will result in a taste in the mouth that is reminiscent of your two year old garden slug eating days.
And finally with this running thing being a new experience with new sights and sounds I found myself constantly looking around. I suspect that I provided much amusement to those drivers passing by as I tried to look at one of these sights and nearly ended up face planting it into the ground. I’m sure all those drivers were just a little bit disappointed when I not-so-gracefully recovered.
3. Though something may be interesting to crane your neck to look at as you pass by it won’t nearly be as interesting as the gravel that will be in contact with your face should you forget to look where you are going.
Despite having discovered these nifty little insider tips on my first run I am very pleased with how it went. Beginning motivation is high and it was easy to just put my clothes on and walk out the door. Some runners say this is half the battle it wasn’t for me today but I’m sure there will be days where it will be nearly all the battle for me. The two minutes running was rather easy and four minutes to recover was more than enough. I really pushed myself in my last run to do a speed that I never thought I would be able to maintain for 30 seconds let alone a whole two minutes but found a rhythm in that two minutes that I just zoned into and focused on. Loved this feeling! A total disregard for everything around and only thinking about my body moving through the dust of the air, over the lumps and bumps waiting to trip me and past those youths that I think are just as scared of the short chubby friendly girl as she is of them.Labels: lessons, training schedule |
Samantha,
Thank you for such a kind comment on my blog! I'm so glad you let me know you're reading (I knew I had a reader in New Zealand, but didn't know who it was)!
Your new blog looks beautiful... and I'm jealous of the title. ;-) Best of luck to you with your new adventure. Becoming a runner was the absolute best thing I've ever done for myself. I look forward to reading about your own journey!