Running was not what I started out to do.

by Steve L.
(Austin, TX)

I didn't start out with the intention of running. I am 51, and have a 12 year-old son who had been taking Kung-Fu lessons for about a year, and after watching me take him to class three times a week for that first year, the instructors finally talked me into joining in. I hadn't really exercised much in over twenty years, and weighed 198 pounds, which was heavy for 5'9". What a shock. I started right in with the Kung-Fu, and found I couldn't even get through the warm-ups (stretches, situps, pushups, etc.) much less the lessons, so after about 6 weeks of that, I started walking to increase my stamina. I only walked about a mile a day, slowing increasing my daily walks by a half mile to a mile each week, and after about two months, I was walking 5-6 miles a day, six or seven days a week. I started speed walking to get my time down, and found I was walking as fast as ten-minute miles. I got to walking so fast that I couldn't go any faster without running, so I would run a little, maybe a quarter mile at a time. I would walk a mile, run a quarter mile, walk another mile, run another quarter mile, etc. Soon I was running up to two miles at a time, walking a half mile, running another two miles, etc. After a couple of months of that, I was running the full 6 mile route. I found that I could not run two days in a row, or my knees would be sore, so I now run three-four times a week, usually 8 to 10 miles at a time. The other day I ran 8 miles under 64 minutes, and I have run 6 under 46 minutes, but I usually run 9 to 10 minute miles. My final mile of my faster runs in always under 7 minutes. I have run up to 15 miles at one time, and will try to run a marathon next year. It has now been 6 months since I started running, and I lost 45 pounds. The weight just came off, one to two pounds per week. I did decrease my eating, but nothing severe. You get more motivated to eat better when you exercise. And I am now a brown belt in Kung-Fu. I have another year before I will test for black belt, but I think I will make it.