Monday, September 01, 2008


This is a reply to my dear friend 'Zach's' posting to 'run/walk update Saturday 30th Aug' 

Zach said...

I get so impatient with myself (with everything really) I used to walk all the time (and there are tones of great places to walk here) but I wanted to be some sort of 'olympic style' runner over nigtht (which is just not going to happen) so I gave up. But I miss it.

My reply...

I know where your coming from, although I never saw myself as an Olympic sports person I had when I was younger been in the jr Olympic team for swimming and I swam about 2 miles a day 7 days a week, so I had always been very competitive in everything I did. It was very much all or nothing with me, and as I got older I slowed down and just found I had other things to think about so very soon I couldn't keep up with my team mates and I started to come second in competitions. For me that was enough to stop me from taking part.

Now some 21 years later and more than 8 stone in weight heavier winning is so far away. But the only thing now a days I have to win at is life its self. By not doing what I'm doing I'm giving up on myself, the weight will keep on coming on and I will be unable to be healthy and live a normal life.

Every morning I wake up and think 'I can't be asked doin this' but then I think 'well just put your running shoes on and get to the door'. Once outside I think 'well your here now so why not warm up by walking a bit?' and soon as my legs have warmed up I find now that my speed gets faster and I start to think about time and how much distance I've covered. I know I'm not running yet and that really frustrates me no end but I know I will be soon and I know when I get there to start off with I will be crap at it, but by setting myself small goals that I can achieve will help me become a winner to my self. 

I will never win a award for running but I'm not sure I have to any more. I get so much back from different things like, being able to walk up the stairs at work, having lost 28 lbs, sleeping better and a host of other things I may not have don't even know yet.

I do want to do a 5k run as soon as I'm ready, and one of the reasons for that is I will use it to work out if I am getting fitter but I'm not aiming to win it just to win my battle with myself.

So 'Zach' why not get yourself a good pair of running shoes and get over to Map My Run and start plotting out routes that differ in length and time and start your own program. At the moment you need to work out what is doable for you and set yourself a goal length to walk within two weeks, don't think about running to start with just the first two weeks. Then you can move onto the next two and so on. I'm sure very soon you will be able to make bigger running plans with bigger goals. 

You can e-mail me at veganrunners@me.com and I will send you a PDF of my tracker so you can start to keep a record if you would like. It would be great to know I'm not the only person trying to do this out there and maybe one day we could even run together?

Bear. X


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are so encouraging!

I will have to keep this in mind. It will snow here soon (in about a month...then I will be hard pressed to get out) but I love the fall...so I should give it a go.

Vegan Bear said...

A friend of mine lives up north here and when the weather gets bad here she has a jump rope and skips for 30 minuets a day to keep fit till the weather gets better. She always drops loads of weight over the winter from doing it.

I'm going to use a tread mill this year I think.

Anonymous said...

Jump rope!

great idea!

Vegan Bear said...

why thank you. x