Week Four - Three days no running.

What a shit week iv had so far. I started the week with a few two minute runs and one minute walks and that was going good, even threw in a few three minutes every now and then. It felt good and I could see that I was improving.

Then came Wednesday I got up and went for a run and felt a little sluggish. I always feel like shit on the morning runs but in the afternoon I feel much better for some reason. That night I had planned to go out for another run like I always do after work, however I had this really sharp pain in my back. Low down on my right hand side. I don’t know what caused this as for the past few weeks nothing really has changed. I thought maybe this would pass and I would be ok the next day.

Well I was wrong. I got up the next morning and this time it felt even worse. Now no matter what I did walk, sit or anything it hurt. It didn’t go away until today Sunday, but I can still feel it a little. So thats three days that I have not done any running and I’m a little annoyed to say the least. So I thought why not, Im going out tonight for a run and hopefully I can run this pain out of me.

Week Three

So week three has almost ended and I can say I really don’t like missing a day. It just feels wrong for some reason now. I also have been really looking at what iv been eating and reading the labels more and more. I really don’t like eating unhealthy foods any more, and if for some reason I do (like this week out of my hands) I feel really bad about it. But on a good note iv lost 5kg in the past 3 weeks, so thats a plus.

Iv noticed that my one minute run and one minute walk is starting to get a bit easy. So this week I have been throwing in a few 2 minute runs which have felt really good. Iv also been doing this at the end of my runs to really push myself through the last part. Next week I’ll be upping all my 1 min runs to 2 min. I think it’s going to be the same as my first week feeling sore and out of breath, but I need to progress and so iv planned to keep that up for 2 weeks and then up it again, when I feel like I do now.

Spider Webs

I just wanted to bring this useless point up. I have one gripe with running and its not the pain of the early morning starts dragging myself out of bed. Or even feeling sore after a long run. Its the spider webs. Now at this point you might be laughing. But these things are bad, really bad. Don’t get me wrong they look great and I think they are amazing structures. But when its dark and you can hardly see in front of you the last thing you want is to look like some crazy person trying to get rid of something that others can not see.

I live in an area that is full of trees and the path I usually run on has many overhanging branches. So after a number of these encounters and looking like a mad man, I decided to move my running to the road. Or should I say I was forced out. 

Im not too worried about it, but I just find it funny how something so small can change what you do everyday.

Week Two - I think I'm becoming addicted

So week two has ended and its getting better. On monday morning (after I took sunday off as a break) I felt really sluggish and didn't really want to get out of bed. The run was not to good. I don't know if this was because I took a day off or what. But that night I went out for another run and it felt much better.

Halfway through the week I decide to start a couch to 5km. Its not one that I'm following rather one I'm making up myself. I started to run for 1 minute and then walk for 1 minute(all up 23-24 minutes). I started this on thursday so ill be doing this until the end of next week. Then ill be upping it to running 1.30 minutes and walking 1 minute.  

I decided to do it this way so I can see how much further I am running and how its all going. Rather then just guessing if I had run more from day to day like i had been. Im feeling better every day and I have started to notice that my clothes are fitting better. My body is not feeling as bad as it did that first week and iv also keep my diet up. Iv lost over 4kg in the last 2 weeks so thats also been win.

This running thing is starting to catch on. I think I'm becoming slowly addicted.

The First Week

So I decided to start running on the 24 January, and lets just say this was not such a smart move on my part. I could not have picked a hotter or more humid part of the year. It was 34 degrees and the humidity level was high.
I was at work all day in the city and during lunch I went and picked up some Nike Lunar Eclipse+ running shoes. These shoes are fantastic. They fit well and so far have not hurt me one bit on any of my runs. I got some dryfit shorts and shirts and I was ready.

A few days before I had been on the nike running site and had created an account. I looked up some runs around my area and decided that I would take on a 3.1km run. I thought this run would be easy, but I found out soon enough that I was in over my head.

The bus ride home that night was horrible. It was an old bus with no aircon and took over an hour until I got to my stop. I was sweating and not to happy. Once home I put on the shoes, linked it to my iphone, put on some music, thought to myself 'this should not be that bad', and then started the run.

Well I ran only for about 1min or less and then I started walking. My heart was racing, my legs hurt and my lungs where sucking in air at an uncontrollable rate. To be honest I felt like shit and this was a huge wakeup call. I walked for a few more minutes and then sucked it up and decided to run again. I was not going to give up. This went on for 28 minutes, 28 minutes stopping starting until final I was home again. I was dejected. My whole body hurt. Am I really that unfit? Well I was. But I didn't give up.

I continued running (or should I say walking and running) 2 times a day (morning and night) for that first week. Come saturday I was down to 23 minutes. Still not a good time but much better than 28. I also found my body not hurting as much and found myself running more and more every day. I took sunday off for a rest day where I relaxed and thought about what the last week had been like.

This was my first week of running and I have to say that I changed a lot over that week. I also started to eat better and found myself with more energy. All up it was a good first week.

Why I started this running blog.

For the past 3 years iv been getting more unfit and unhealthy. Doing practically no physical exercise for those years has seen me go from someone that could play a game of soccer and not feel to bad after it, to someone that can't run for more than 1 minute at a time.

Clothes where getting tighter and my self esteem was taking a huge hit. I was eating whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted and not caring about what this was doing to me, and how many years this was taking off my life. It really came to a head when I stared to notice myself getting out of breath while walking up a hill to work. The hill was not to steep and not that long so this was a huge wakeup call for me.So I told myself that enough was enough. I was going to lose weight and get healthy. So I decided to take up running and start eating healthy.

Thats why I created this blog. To keep a record of how I'm going week by week, to keep me accountable and to let other people, that have no running experience or want to get back into running, know that you can do it and maybe get that little bit of inspiration that will motivate you. All it takes is a commitment and some dedication.