I’ve just registered for the Disneyland 5K in September. I was reticent about signing up because they have a pacing requirement that you be able to maintain a 16 minute mile, and I’m doing something closer to 20 minute miles at this point. However, with encouragement and participation from the same folks that are making my crazy idea of riding a bicycle 30 miles to cure diabetes a reality, I’m convinced I can do it. To cement that resolve, I’ve registered AND booked a non-refundable hotel room at Disneyland. In for a penny, in for a pound, right?
Speaking of crazy, my training for the 30 mile Tour de Cure bike ride on May 7 continues. Sunday afternoon featured a 13 mile ride in some pretty cold/blustery conditions. This week the schedule says 13.5 (last week’s was only supposed to be 12 miles), but the weather is supposed to be warm and sunny, so that will be nice. My backside hurts almost the entire time, even with padded bike shorts, but I suppose that’s to be expected when you’re morbidly obese and sit your big backside on a little, tiny bike seat.
And then there are times when I stop – mentally, not physically – in wonderment as I realize that I am challenging my own ideas about what I am capable of when I’m fat. I’ve always challenged myself physically as part of a weight loss effort or when trying to maintain a loss, but I’ve never managed to push myself while not dieting. I’ve been saying for a while now that what I really want is to lead an active lifestyle, to be active physically, and that’s what I’m doing. Fat and all. Not because I want to lose weight or because I’m punishing myself for being fat, just because I want to see what I’m capable of and maybe, just maybe, to make others who judge fat people as being lazy stop and re-think their prejudices. (And maybe I’m in that category, too.)
Oh you can totally do that!!! SO excited for you that you signed up.
You know, I'm technically obese. And I exercise more than almost anybody I know. And I can bang out an hour on the elliptical, no sweat (literally), and run 5 miles… and I'm still fat. So something I've started doing recently is not think of exercise even as a weight loss tactic or something I do that is in any way related to my weight — it is something I do because I enjoy it, I'm good at it, and it is good for me, both mentally and physically (mostly mentally!)
For me, weight loss is much more about the food anyway — I mean, I can put away 500 calories in mere minutes, but it takes me more than an hour to work that off… I think I tend to over estimate how many more calories I can eat when I'm exercising. So now I'm not factoring that in at all.
Just doing WW. Counting my points. Tracking exercise points for the sheer gratification of knowing how much I worked out, but not as a means to eat more.
Good luck! Can't wait to follow your training stories!