Training Day

Weigh In: 289.5 (new low)

First off, I got my first glimpse of the sub 290's.. that was pretty cool. Let's see if it sticks. It's interesting - instead of that 'happy' feeling I used to get when I hit a new big number, it's not 'all business'. I got under 290, and I stepped off, said "hell yes", and started making plans for the 270s. I've got 5 days to keep up with my goals that I set, so it's still a race to the finish. Not too worried about hitting it, but I'd like to stay close.

That being said, I'm pretty proud of myself today, for another reason.

As I mentioned, I'm doing the Komen Race for the Cure benefiting Breast Cancer awareness this coming weekend. So, I was on the elliptical today running and thinking about how I've got this race in a week. I'm coasting through the elliptical run, and about 7 minutes in, I think to myself, "If I'm going to run a 5k in a week, I should probably do the closest thing to running".

I hate treadmills. Let's just get that out of the way first.

So, I jump on one. I figured I'd go a little bit, and see what I could do. I did a mile set at the 4.5 setting, and I felt pretty wiped out. But, after a mile, I thought "what the hell, let's see how far I could go". So, I kept going, and bumped it up to 5.0. About a quarter mile further, I'm starting to get wiped out even more, so I jumped it down to 3.5 and went about 2 minutes. By now, I'm at around 1.7 miles - so I think to myself...

"I'm halfway through a 5k".

So, I went for it.

I'm alternating between 5.5 and 3.9 - probably about 50/50, and when I get to the 3 mile point, I'm pretty much done. Throughout the last mile, all I could think of is Billy and Beck. You both kept talking about how when you were running, you felt like you couldn't give anymore, yet you did. All I could think about through the last mile was that if my FAT Coalition partners could do it, then I could do it too.

So I did.

When I got literally to the 3.13 mile point (3.2 miles is 5k), I saw that I was getting close to 40 minutes - and I really wanted to get under 40. So I just cranked it. I'm talking, I set it to around 7.2 setting. I went balls out, and hit the 3.2 mile point literally 2 seconds before 40.

So, my first treadmill 5k was 39:58. I'm going to do 1 or 2 more this week, and see what happens.

When the Race for the Cure comes out, this fat guy's going to be prepared.