1 Small Step for Man, 1 Huge Leap for the Shrinking Man

“What is he carrying on about and why is he comparing anything about himself to the landing on the moon”, I hear you say.  Well the last few days have seen some huge and significant steps forward for me in my journey and fitness level and achievements.   Whilst this can never be compared to a moon landing, in my life it seems just as significant and proves that if you believe, you can achieve.

Where is all this heading you might wonder.  Well one thing I am proud of so far in this 12 week program is the fact that I have now built exercise into my routine to such a point that I feel guilty if I have missed it.  Now I had not missed a session in the first 3 weeks and I was on track with 6 days of exercise each week.  Last Wednesday I was not feeling well and decided that I would miss that night and make it up on Sunday.  Well circumstances changed and I was not able to do Sunday's session and I was then 1 session behind.  The guilt crept in and I was feeling as though I had let myself down and also not been true to the program, as we have been asked to workout 6 days a week.  My wife and I have said that we will go through this program attempting to stick to it as much as possible, no excuses.

With this in mind the only option I saw was to make up for the lost session with a double workout and that meant burning at least 1000 calories on Monday and covering the extra workout.  Now anyone following this program knows we are expected to burn at least 500 calories per day Monday to Friday and then 1000 on Saturday.  This would have meant I would have done 2x 1000+ calorie burns in 3 days.  Oh well, suck it up was my message to myself as I headed to the gym.  I had no idea what the session had in store for me or how I was going to burn these calories, just knowing that I had to get it done and it would be a cardio workout.

Now the initial part of the session started out with a gentle warm up on the exercise bike, followed by a run on the treadmill for 1.5 kilometres, then a little bit of weights on the machines.  This was a mixture of legs and arms just to mix it up during the session.  I then returned to the bike for another 30 minutes to get a little more time in my legs in preparation for my bike ride.  Having done all this I was still feeling good and decided to do a little more on the weights and some of Michelle Bridges wonderful static lunges with some 5kg dumbbells in my hands.  Now these certainly sort out the glutes and had me feeling a little tight.  Having completed all of this I had now burnt an amazing 1175 calories, which meant I had made up for my missed session.  I could hve stopped there and been happy that I had made up for the day missed, but I was still feeling okay and decided that I might get on the treadmill and try to work out some of the stiffness and try a gentle run.  “Are you mad?” I can hear you saying.  Well to be honest, I was probably delirious at that point, not mad, but it gets better.

I hopped on the treadmill and started out at a leisurely pace walking at 6km per hour.  This is not hard at all and perfect for a warm up or down, but after 160 metres I decided to up the ante.  I increased the speed and decided to go for a little jog.  Actually it was more of a joffle, half jog, half shuffle, which is all you will probably do at 7.5km per hour.  I thought that I might get a kilometre out before I felt stuffed and then call it quits.  I got to 1km and then felt okay so decided to go to 2km if I could and then stop. 

If you have read the last post, you will remember I only made it to 3kms last week which was a milestone for me and I was not expecting or contemplating getting there today after a pretty decent session already.    Well the 2km mark came and I was still feeling okay, next came the 3km mark and I was still going okay.  At this point I was heading into unchartered territory.. The words “Should I stay or Should I go Now” come to mind as I was not sure how far this could go but something Michelle has previously said sticks with me regularly when I am working out.  She says that you need to push yourself and that the human body can do extraordinary things, it is our mind that holds us back.  

Well there is nothing to lose and why not see if I can get to 4km. Surely that will be enough and I can go home happy that I have stretched myself that little bit further and added to my best in under 5 weeks.  This is exactly what I did however the 4km mark also came up and I was still feeling okay.  Now saying I was okay only means I was not a dribbling mess, I have felt better but I was comfortable enough that I thought I could try to go on.  Well when the treadmill display finally showed that I had managed to run for over 40 minutes (something that I have NEVER done before) and I had managed to complete 5kms I thought it was just about perfect and a great way to end my session.  Looking at my heart rate monitor it showed me that I had been working out for a total of 2 hours, 31 mins and burnt and amazing 1872 calories.  Holy Cow, this is more than my daily intake in food.  This is huge for me and I was over the moon to think that prior to this I would have struggled to run 500 metres, nor would I have tried to be honest.  

Funniest part is that I mentioned to my wife that I was thinking about doing the 10K training program next round to see if I can manage that, but I think I will be able to do that within the next 7 weeks.  Well I hope so anyway.  Having achieved this huge milestone for me, I am now working on reducing my 1km time trial time from the 6 mins 17 to under the 5 mins 30 I need to be classed in the advanced run section.  What a goal to achieve for me.  It does mean that I will need to run for 5:29 or better at 11kms per hour or faster.  Looks like some interval training coming up for me.  Who wants to join me?