I’ve never been athletic. I was very much the stereotypical nerd weakling in school. In a lot of ways, I still am. I’ll never be good at baseball, or basketball, or what-have-you.
I’m still not athletic. But I’d say I am, legitimately, in the best shape of my life as far as activity goes. For the last eight months or so, and for a bit in 2023 as well, I’ve taken up running. At first, it was painful–I had no idea what I was doing, and getting through 5 kilometers (Or 3.1 miles), a very popular road race distance, took me close to 40 minutes while alternating running and walking.
Over the last year and a half, I’ve worked to get that down. And this past weekend, I unofficially ran my first ever sub-30-minute 5K, in 29:28. That’s roughly a 9:29/mile pace over 3.1 miles. While it’s not blazingly fast, it’s something I’m proud of. It’s faster than I thought I was capable of, particularly as I’m now over 40 (Me, every day). And I want to get even faster.
Besides getting faster, I’ve also lost some weight. At my absolute heaviest near the end of 2022, I was 171.4 lbs (77.9 KG). I’m now 158.4 lbs (Exactly 72KG), 13 pounds lighter.
So what’s next? I mentioned wanting to get faster. But before that, I’d like to get a little lighter. I’m generously listed as 5-foot-4 on my driver’s license, so 158 is still a bit heavy. Part of this is a vanity thing, though I’ve accepted at this point that I’ll always have “love handles” around my stomach.
My true prime, in-college, “fighting fitness” weight is probably in the 140-145 lb range (63.6-65.9 KG). But I don’t think that’s realistic at this point in my life. If I could get down to the 150-pound range (68.1 KG), I’d be happy with that.
If I can do that, some part of “getting faster” will take care of itself without my having to change much about my training. That’s physics–it’s easier to move ~150 lbs than it is to move ~160 lbs. If you don’t believe me, run a short distance. Then when you’ve recovered, grab a full gallon jug and run that same distance. Let me know how you do.
To help me, I’m more closely tracking my calories than I have in the past. I find it helps with keeping me accountable with what I eat, and how much. With the running I’m already doing, 1800-2000 calories a day total seems right, with a bit more on Saturdays (My long run days).
Having recently gotten the sub-30-minute 5K, I’m excited to push my running more. I enjoy training for 5 and 10Ks. Those are enough to keep me fit and in shape without requiring I make training my effective second job just to finish a race like training for a half-marathon or marathon would.
More generally, with the demise of Cohost, I do want to start occasionally posting things here. This will likely be writing, though if I ever get back to working with RPG Maker, I may put updates from that project in here as well.
We’ll see what the future holds!
-EE
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