Guitaronin

My athletic output is pretty good, but I seem to have plateaued with about 20 lbs of extra belly fat. By all accounts, I also eat a very healthy diet – mostly raw fruits and vegetables, no junk.

At this point, I’m suspecting that achieving this goal takes some extreme dieting.

I’m working on this program: http://hundredpushups.com/

So far, I don’t think it’s working for me. There are such big leaps from week to week that no amount of repeating one week seems to get me prepared for the next. I’ll give it a few more weeks, and then maybe try to adapt it if I haven’t made any more progress.

I added this goal this morning after already completing it. But, it really was already a goal in my mind. I guess I just forgot to add it to my 43 things.

Anywho, I started getting back in shape (after 18 months layoff), at around the beginning of the year (2011). I was running two days per week – one day interval training, and one day distance training. All running was on a treadmill. I mostly made up my schedule as I went along, judging from the way I felt before and after runs. I was also doing a variety of other forms of exercise – weight lifting, yoga, martial arts, etc.

After about 4-5 months, I was able to run up to 10 miles in 90 minutes on a distance day, and I could sustain 10 miles/hour for four minutes on an interval day. I was determined to extend that pace for a couple more minutes and get to a six minute mile. However, every time I tried, my legs would start to give out on me at about 3.5-4 minutes.

Around the end of May I was starting to feel a little beat up from over training, so I decided to take a week off and come back easier, and more focused on specific athletic goals. I stopped running and focused more on pushups (for upper body and core) and martial arts (because I like it).

A couple weeks ago my buddy gave me Born to Run, by Chris McDougall for my birthday. It’s informative and unbelievably inspirational. After tearing through it, I couldn’t wait to get back to running (I know, I’m a sucker for that sort of thing)! Today I decided to ease back in with 20 minute jog. I felt so good after 10 minutes, I decided to push the pace to 10mi/hr and see how far I could go. To my surprise, I easily kept pace for six minutes!

Part of it was inspiration, and I think another part was an improvement in my running form. I strive for good form already, but throughout reading Born to Run, I was visualizing good form (as it is frequently depicted in the book).

I doubt this story could possibly be helpful to anyone. I would say the key take-aways should be: 1.) get in some running shape; 2.) read Born to Run for inspiration; 3.) learn, practice, and implement solid efficient running form.

Have fun, and good luck!