YawningDodo
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2014
- Messages
- 2,080
June 5, 2018: Hello, my name is Kathryn and I've decided as of yesterday that I'm going to go from zero to marathon by 2020. Or at least half marathon. Not sure yet. Most of my best life decisions have come very suddenly like this, so it's all good. I've been on the Disboards for a while but haven't really ventured into this forum until yesterday, so hello and thank you to everyone who's already been welcoming to me!
I'm 31 years old and I've never run a full mile in my life. I hated all forms of exercise as a kid, and even as an adult most of my hobbies are sedentary (I'm big into tabletop gaming and I do a lot of reading and knitting). I've tried running a few times and actually really liked it, though! I like that I don't have to go to a gym, or rely on someone else's schedule, or do a bunch of complicated dance moves (I might as well have two left feet)--I just have to get dressed and start from my own front door. Love that. I also love road races. I got turned on to the idea of them in high school when my whole family would volunteer together to prep food and hand out water at the Cherry Creek Sneak down in Denver; there's just something really magical about getting up before dawn and going out into the world on a brisk morning with hundreds or thousands of people who are all there to run together.
I walked my first 5K late in high school, then didn't really do any running for most of a decade. In the early 2010s I decided to start running 5Ks several times per year, but didn't really do any training or have any idea how to pace myself. One summer I ran a 5K every month, but because I didn't prepare myself for them I'd walk more than half the distance and still feel like I was dying by the end. But I kept doing them! In 2016 I decided to get a little more serious and do a Couch to 5K program (I chose the Zombies Run! program because I like a good story), and I got through 3.75 of the 8 weeks program. My home life got a bit derailed that summer when my current housemate and I moved out of the home we'd been renting with two other women and bought a house of our own; while that was overall a change for the better, the stress caused me to stop running and stop eating well, and I basically regained the entire 80 lbs I'd previously lost via dieting in 2013, plus I lost all the running endurance I'd built up in my brief training stint. 2017 was a big year of nothing for me in terms of health-related goals, but 2018 is going to be my year to get back on track. I've come to the decision that I'm not going to seek weight loss for the sake of weight loss anymore...that worked for me once, five years ago, but I just got thin without really getting into good shape, and it didn't stick because it was all about creating a calorie deficit instead of about doing something I actually enjoyed. This time around I'm not looking at my weight as a metric for how healthy I am--this time it's going to be about pushing myself to be faster and have better endurance, and whatever other physical changes come of that will come of it.
Oh, and I live in Montana, where it gets crazy cold in the winter. There are probably five months out of the year when I'm not going to want to run outside (and some of that will go beyond not wanting to and into the territory of it just plain not being safe), which is a challenge I'm going to have to address this coming fall.
About me:
A nerd and proud of it
A nerd and proud of it
I'm 31 years old and I've never run a full mile in my life. I hated all forms of exercise as a kid, and even as an adult most of my hobbies are sedentary (I'm big into tabletop gaming and I do a lot of reading and knitting). I've tried running a few times and actually really liked it, though! I like that I don't have to go to a gym, or rely on someone else's schedule, or do a bunch of complicated dance moves (I might as well have two left feet)--I just have to get dressed and start from my own front door. Love that. I also love road races. I got turned on to the idea of them in high school when my whole family would volunteer together to prep food and hand out water at the Cherry Creek Sneak down in Denver; there's just something really magical about getting up before dawn and going out into the world on a brisk morning with hundreds or thousands of people who are all there to run together.
I walked my first 5K late in high school, then didn't really do any running for most of a decade. In the early 2010s I decided to start running 5Ks several times per year, but didn't really do any training or have any idea how to pace myself. One summer I ran a 5K every month, but because I didn't prepare myself for them I'd walk more than half the distance and still feel like I was dying by the end. But I kept doing them! In 2016 I decided to get a little more serious and do a Couch to 5K program (I chose the Zombies Run! program because I like a good story), and I got through 3.75 of the 8 weeks program. My home life got a bit derailed that summer when my current housemate and I moved out of the home we'd been renting with two other women and bought a house of our own; while that was overall a change for the better, the stress caused me to stop running and stop eating well, and I basically regained the entire 80 lbs I'd previously lost via dieting in 2013, plus I lost all the running endurance I'd built up in my brief training stint. 2017 was a big year of nothing for me in terms of health-related goals, but 2018 is going to be my year to get back on track. I've come to the decision that I'm not going to seek weight loss for the sake of weight loss anymore...that worked for me once, five years ago, but I just got thin without really getting into good shape, and it didn't stick because it was all about creating a calorie deficit instead of about doing something I actually enjoyed. This time around I'm not looking at my weight as a metric for how healthy I am--this time it's going to be about pushing myself to be faster and have better endurance, and whatever other physical changes come of that will come of it.
Oh, and I live in Montana, where it gets crazy cold in the winter. There are probably five months out of the year when I'm not going to want to run outside (and some of that will go beyond not wanting to and into the territory of it just plain not being safe), which is a challenge I'm going to have to address this coming fall.
(yeah, that's my fault). She'd be too distracting when I'm actually running, so I'm thinking on my off days I'll plan on doing a 20 to 30 minute walk with her and focusing on teaching her to walk more nicely on the leash, since I won't have to worry about my own time or distance on those mornings. She'll just have to stay home when I run for now. 
I know if I don't do any "official" runs on that trip I should be at a point where I'll at least want to do the 5K, so it's good that the free one's an option for those who didn't do marathon weekend. But...too-practical thoughts out of the way, clearly the thing to do is to just run the dang HM or marathon and the timed Challenge so I can get all the bling and all the feeling of accomplishment. 
