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This is a guest post from my stick thin wife, Pam. The one who makes excellent food choices all the time.
Mac is preaching (and practicing!) the get fit slowly point of view. It is a very sensible plan, one the doctor in me whole-heartedly supports,but one the rest of me has a big problem with. I am more of an all or nothing kind of person, and so I am trying to get on the fast track to fitness.
I have been whining to Mac recently about being out of shape, needing to run, blah, blah, blah. But New year’s came and went without serving as an inspiration to get moving. But two recent conversations with friends served as the push that I needed.
First, my good friend Debbie told me she was planning to do the Honolulu marathon this year (Dec. ‘08). Debbie had her son five months after I had mine, so it seemed like I should be able to get back in to shape five months before her.
And then, I tried to convince J.D. to do the Portland marathon. I figured if he committed to it, it would become a priority and he would do it and feel good about it. It all sounded like good advice, so I decided to heed it.
And so on Tuesday, I ran two miles. And then Saturday I ran three. And since I was running again, I thought I might as well do a 10K today and so I did.
It is probably not advisable to run a race when all of your total training mileage put together is less than the actual race distance (6.25 miles), and so it should come as no surprise that I ran my slowest time ever, by a long shot. My unofficial time of 55:30 is a time that I hope to be able to run when I am 55. But I ran the whole thing. The last mile was very painful, as all last miles are. Afterward, I was tired and quite sore - sore enough to curse our two-story house and its thigh-searing staircase- but I also felt great. I had that exhausted exhilaration that I remember so well, the runner’s high, one could say.
This has helped motivate me to get running again and I hope I stay motivated. Especially, since at this accelerated training pace, I should be ready to run the Vancouver (WA) half marathon in two weeks. 
J.D.
9 responses so far ↓
1 James Lemoine II // Jan 21, 2008 at 9:01 am
Having specific goals to achieve will always yield better results than those trying to get healthy without a specific goal.
In the case of a race, there is a specific date in which you must be prepared. For those that are chronically unmotivated, it would help to pay the entry fees for the race as far in advance as possible, so there is financial incentive to get ready as well.
When simply trying to lose weight, make sure to have specific targets you will reach each month… and a reward if the goal is reached.
Good article Pam!
-James
2 Angela // Jan 21, 2008 at 10:07 am
For me, the get fit slowly concept is really about the baby steps you do to get to your goal in a healthy way. My husband and I try to do small things that eventually become routine without putting pressure on ourselves to the point we become injured or discouraged.
One thing we do each year is participate in a walk that asks you to try and walk 30 minutes each day. Not too hard? When you finish the span of the walk, you would have completed approximately 1049 minutes. That seems like an odd number, right?
It is comparative to the 1049 miles the Iditarod covers in Alaska. Since we are no where to the point of competing in the Iditarod (dog sled racing), here is our way to support the youth of the area by doing what we can and we greatly benefit as well.
If you are interested in more, please see
http://www.idita-walk.com. Good luck on your training, and I enjoy what you have done with this site!
3 metroknow // Jan 21, 2008 at 1:10 pm
My wife and I did the Team in Training thing, which enabled me to do a half marathon for the first time in my life. It was a good experience for me and allowed me to do something I never thought possible, but the aggressive nature of the training led to quite a few injuries in the long run.
My wife fits a similar physical description to yours, makes good choices by nature, and does not face the same struggle I do. Unfortunately for her however, the TNT training led to a repetitive injury in her knee that prevented her from running for months (and from running in the marathon she was training for), and she really hasn’t been able to resume since. I spoke privately with one of the trainers, and he said that he estimates that 70% of those who enter such aggressive training (going from zero fitness to a marathon in 3-4 months) wind up with injuries.
So just a word of friendly caution on not taking it too quickly, despite it “feeling” good. It was extremely frustrating to her because she LOVED running, but the injury really made it impossible.
4 kazari // Jan 21, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I’ve discovered (the hard way) that a dress size, or a weight is not a goal I can get excited about. And mostly, I won’t achieve it (not even to fit into a wedding dress!).
marathons and trekking are better goals, but to me they still don’t sound FUN. just a hard slog. so my new goal is to not just climb the wall at the indoor climbing gym - but make it all the way across the ceiling!! this is way cool. and there’s lots of babysteps.
good luck with Vancouver!
5 Early Retirement Extreme // Jan 21, 2008 at 9:35 pm
I also have an all or nothing approach to fitness. Ideally one would exercise every day with a couple of breaks. Time and effort dedication is the part that should not be done slowly. Building up tendons and muscles should. I did a half marathon after about two weeks of prep time (basically running 6 miles 3 or 4 times), so I think it is possible (if you already have the cardio foundation to build on).
6 Brigid // Jan 22, 2008 at 8:43 am
I think it’s great that you jumped and did your first race, but you really need to be careful. If you injure yourself, you won’t be able to run at all.
7 Hexar // Jan 22, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Maybe I’m reading the post wrong, but it sounds like you went from not running at all, to running 2 miles, to 3, to 6.2, all in one week! While I admire your ambition, there’s no such thing as a “fast track” to training for a half-marathon.
From what I understand, it’s only safe to increase the distance of your longest run of the week by about 10%. Even if you can comfortably run 6.2 miles with no injuries, it will take eight weeks to reach 13.3 miles at that rate.
You have to ask yourself, what’s more conducive to fitness? Attempting a half-marathon with a near-certainty of injury? Or slowly, methodically increasing your mileage until you know your body can handle it?
The only reason I’m saying all of this is that last January, I ran my first half-marathon, and because of an overly aggressive training schedule and a grueling, painful 13 miles, I developed IT Band Syndrome like you wouldn’t believe. I couldn’t run for months, and even when I tried to start up again in August I still developed symptoms. I’m still nowhere near as fit as I was before I started training for my half-marathon.
I think you should probably consult a running trainer to come up with a training schedule and find a race that will match your training (not the other way around).
Good luck, and be careful (:
8 arg // Jan 23, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Way to go! Very inspiring. Good luck with the half in Vancouver. There’s a half marathon in early April in Portland too. Check it out: http://www.race4theroses.org.
9 Ryan Collins // Jan 27, 2008 at 9:18 am
When I trained for my first marathon last spring, I started following Hal Higdon’s running plan:
http://www.halhigdon.com/
He has training schedules for all sorts of run distances, and after following the beginning plan for a marathon, I was able to do my first marathon in 4:28. And I felt totally prepared. For my second marathon I followed the Intermediate II plan and was able to get my time to 3:59.
I found that following a schedule was a lot easier and motivated me more than just making up my own running schedule.
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