How a Fatty learned to pace himself

I've been running now for almost two weeks with just 1 rest day for my legs and 2 semi-rest days which were just walking. Last night I was disappointed in the distance but proud that I made the muscles burn. I woke up today knowing that tonight would be equally as rough, possibly rougher. It was.

Tonight I did 1.5 miles and I ran with my old new balance shoes on to give my feet a rest after last nights barefoot run. My calves were screaming. I really am trying to focus hard on proper running form and so since I am starting from scratch it literally feels like I am taking a million baby steps to run just 50 yards or so. The best way I can describe it is, well it feels exactly like running in place but then you just lean forward a little bit and BOOM forward motion. My legs are definitely not used to it. I've heard that it can take a long time to build the muscle strength up and it is frustrating because my chest now feels like I can go farther, I am getting out of breath much more seldom and my head wants to go all the way but my legs just aren't there yet. There are so many people who push harder than they should too fast and I don't want to be one of them so 1.5 miles of wogging was a good place for me to stop tonight.

A cool thing happened though, as we were running past an older couple taking out their trash, we said hello in labored breath and the man said "Good job guys! Keep it up!" I turned as we ran past and said "Thanks! fattygoesrunning.com!" My friend than made fun of me the rest of the run for promoting the blog but it was really cool of that guy to be supportive. I think a lot of us fatties are scared of running because of people seeing us and mocking us. We've got low self-esteem, it comes with the territory but the truth of the matter is people are kind. If you're sitting at an all-you-can-eat buffet stuffing your cheeks, then it's open season, I get that. I'll make fun of me when I do that too but when people see you trying and working hard, I think they get it. I think they know that you're not truly a fatty in your mind anymore, food isn't what you desire and they can support that.

After the shortish wog, we decided to hit the bowflex and do some upper body cross training. We set the weights pretty low and did sets of 40lbs on each arm and then a few more sets of 30lbs, doing press, butterfly  and inverted curls with sets of crunches thrown in. It feels good to work the upper body too, I like the idea of building lean muscle mass.

Tomorrow I think I will cross train, maybe jump on the bike I've been neglecting for years and put in a few miles.