Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Have I ever mentioned …

how much I love to run?

Yes, I suck at it, and yes, I sometimes feel the aches and pains you'd expect a 56-year-old fat lady to feel.

But I do love to run.

Yesterday morning I did four miles in 50:52. That's 40 seconds per mile slower than my – ahem – race pace at the half-marathon.

I'm cracking myself up! I am slower than slow, and yet I call myself a runner.

The shoes I bought in Nashville are the best so far. It's hard to rotate with the other recently bought pair; that's how much difference there is. I feel like stocking up before they discontinue this particular style.

My quest to lose a few pounds before I start training for the next half hasn't been very successful. When I started losing weight and blogging about it, I searched other blogs for success. I found it in lots of places. I was inspired and motivated and rewarded with pounds dropped and fitness gained. I know I inspired and motivated others during that first year, but I'm surprised at how many of you are still here through all these months of staying-the-same. Thanks for hanging in there.

I'm still hanging in there, as well. There's no quitting! As always, the missing link is probably weight training, something I simply cannot or will not put into the regular rotation. You weightlifters – you and you, especially – are my heroes. But unless you come to my house and stand over me with a whip, I'm probably always going to find an excuse not to hoist the dumbbells.

I'm pathetic.

Despite being pathetic, I'm in a good mood and am Getting Things Done.

I dreamed last night that I was offered a job creating advertising for a power company in Columbus, Ohio, where I used to live. I've been out of the job loop for so long now that I'm pretty sure no one would hire me, let alone a major utility. I have a couple little volunteer graphic design gigs on the horizon, and that's as much as I want right now. I wonder why my dreams want me to get a job?

8 comments:

Jennette Fulda said...

Man, I'm a 26-year-old, not-that-fat lady and I get aches and pains too. I wish I'd taken better care of my body in my teens are early twenties because my knees sure do feel it now. We won't even talk about the state of my teeth.

365 Dresses said...

Would you consider no longer referring to yourself as "fat lady" and removing "broken metabolism" from your vocabulary? I just know those terms aren't helping you.

Just sign me 'butinsky.'

LOL---the word verification for this post is 'fattibm!'

Jeanette Johnson said...

You aren't going to lose us readers because we are all going through somewhat of the same thing. I battled the "good-enough-itis" during the month of May. I have a changed attitude now and am battling my way on.

Another thing that helped me realize, is that most people have an easier time losing weight but regain it within a year. So if I've been working on losing weight for the past 18 months, then not losing wieght and NOT gaining it back is a HUGE accomplishment. I cannot become complacent because I do not want to become that person I was before January 2006.

The life you have now - as is mine - is so much better. And if further weight loss will accompany me, then I will take it. But in the meantime, all of my training to jog is my new lifestyle.

All the best!
Jeanette in chicago
100 pounds gone so far

Jess said...

If there's one thing I've learned in the past two years of running and blogging, it's that runners come in all shapes, sizes, ages, gender, colors, etc. I used to have a very narrow image of a runner, but now that I've seen just about every variety of runner, I know that a runner cannot be pingeon-holed by what we "think" a runner should look like -- or how fast we think a runner should be.

You ran 4 miles. A lot of people -- skinny and young -- can't do that. Call yourself a runner: you deserve the moniker!

ws said...

Umm, I didn't know you sucked at running, seeing as you did run a half marathon a few months ago and plan to do a few more races in the fall. Besides, training slower than race pace is totally normal.

I'm in the same boat as you regarding the pre-training weight loss. I'm giving this program until next week and then I'm back to running. Maybe I'll drop a few pounds when I bump back up to @ 40 miles per week. We'll see. Even with a younger and supposedly faster metabolism I've been staying the same for 8 months now - reading about other people in the same place is reassuring that I'm not just insane.

Should you ever want work to do, I can certainly send over some projects I don't feel like working on...

Laura N said...

Shoes make such a difference. I think your pace--with hills! outside!--is excellent. I'm 37 and can only run a little over 2 miles at a time on a treadmill (much easier than outside, with my iPod anyway) at 5.0 mph. So, don't belittle your accomplishments, woman! I know you want to run faster. Don't ALL runners want to run faster? But, HEY! YOU ARE A RUNNER! And you've got the kick @ss shoes to prove it and you're putting them on the pavement. And that's what counts. =)

Shauna said...

oh debbi, you are a runner! who could forget that whole HALF MARATHON saga! :) anyway. we're all here amd thinking of you comrade xx

elasticwaist said...

i love the camaraderie among runners and the special pride we all feel doing what we love -- no matter what the pace!