Willpower

[jayfurr]

Okay, I did think of one thing worth writing about:

I am INCREDIBLY impressed by Maggie Haworth -- someone I haven't seen in years but who I used to know pretty well, and who served as Matron of Honor at my wedding. She's going to be doing a 50-mile run in West Virginia soon and has been doing marathons without batting an eye.

And here I was all impressed with myself for walking 45 miles in a single day a few weeks back. She's going to RUN that much.

I'm so lame.

As I said in a comment on her Facebook status where she announced her plans, I've never been much of a runner. After about a mile, I'm winded and slow to a walk. I can't blame it entirely on my anemia (hereditary) -- my sister (who served as a captain in the U.S. Army) runs miles after work and SHE has the same thalassemia trait blood that I have. It's not that I'm in absurdly bad shape -- my doctor told me that I have the resting heart rate of an athlete. I think it's largely a matter of willpower, or lack thereof. I had the willpower to lose all that weight; I had the willpower to walk 45 miles. I simply need to focus that willpower on running, if that's a goal I want to work on.

Wintry Vermont weather is coming, but I do belong to a gym with a banked 1/8 mile indoor track. I spent a lot of last winter walking four to five miles an hour on said track. I just need to step it up and set some goals -- running two miles without stopping, running three, etcetera. It'd help build cardio fitness and help build muscle as well, and muscle is something that, as I lose weight, I'm becoming ever more acutely aware that I lack.

Comments

[marith.livejournal.com]

It is always possible to point to someone else and say "OMG they're so much better than me I suck." I do it, everyone does it, Mother Theresa and Ghandi probably did it.

Not real useful though :) You're doing awesomely, and I admire your willpower. Keep at it!

[jayfurr.livejournal.com]

Well, I do need some sort of goal to work on or I just feel confounded and bored and frustrated. Without a big goal to aim toward my willpower sort of flops around listlessly.

[mr-mediocre.livejournal.com]

If you want to increase muscle, some resistance work (usually weights) is a good idea. Cardio is good, but kind of incomplete, at least as I understand it.

Your remarks about easing into running sound familiar. Long ago I decided to start running for exercise and went to a local track. The first few weeks I alternated running and walking, increasing the proportion of running until I could basically go 5k at a decent trot.

[jayfurr.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping to start just such a plan sometime this week at the gym. Thanks for the reinforcement!

[mr-mediocre.livejournal.com]

Oh, and by the way. Forty-five miles on foot is awesome. I can't remember the last time I did the equivalent distance in a week.

[jayfurr.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

I've been thinking about trying to do sixty in one day -- starting at midnight, walking 30 miles in one direction, then turning around and trying to get home again by midnight.

I'd need to train up for it. Nice weather, not too hot, would help as well.