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My Story So Far
Posted by
Vilante
,
17 October 2011
·
71 views
When I was young I was very active, I played cricket from a very young age and was an avid swimmer. Being an asthmatic with a very caring set of parents they always encouraged me to swim and keep active for my healths sake.
In my younger years I was a sprinter and was pretty quick but long distance stuff never took my interest, my lungs didn't like it and I was fast so I stuck to the short stuff.
Over the years I tried my hand at a wide range of sports, tennis/basketball/baseball/indoor cricket etc etc until I hit that age I like to call beer. From mid to late beer my sports went from many to zero, I did what could only be descrbied as insane and started smoking. 13 years I smoked and drank and basically used my body as an amusement park. It was fun but boy it took its toll.
When I decided I should get back on the bike so to speak I could only jog, very slowly, on a treadmill for 60 seconds before I had to stop. 60 seconds!!
I was overweight, nearly 95km's for my medium height. I'd gone through a bit of an ordinary time in my personal life but this started to turn around about 3 years ago now (I'm 35 now) and my want to get fit again turned as well.
At the end of 2009 I started on the treadmill, walking in the beginning (enough to keep my heart rate in the weight loss zone!) then running/walking, slowly building up over many months to 10 minute runs with 5 minute walks between. With a better (but not perfect) diet my weight came down to about 87.
Not much happened for a while, maintained the weight and life was good. I got back into baseball and cricket, which was excellent. At the end of 2010 I decided to have another go at the weight loss and was really keen to shift a lot more. I'd been up and down since my first effort and just really wanted to get well below 80kg.
I got onto the CSIRO diet, cut back a bit on the beer, walk/ran every day and hit the weights room. I got really serious, not having any diet splurges. I lost 13kg's in 3 months, down to 74kg. I was feeling better than ever!!
Over Christmas that year I backed off on the training a little and at the start of this year pondered what I wanted to do next. I was convinced I wanted to be a little thinnner but my main focus was to become fit, properly fit like I haven't been since I was young.
So, I started running outside off the treadmill. I decided my first aim was to compete in a 10km race. I ran 5km's 3-4 times per week. I read a lot and started posting here on Coolrunnings, after as much info as possible.
I started to really enjoy it, the freedom, being out in the world, the challenge. I think seeing improvements is part of the addiction, with each little improvement you get spurred on, you can't wait to get back out there, resting becomse annoying.
I increased one run a week, eventually getting my long run up to 10km's. I had a couple of small injuries which set me back mid year and stopped me attending 2 x 10k's I'd entered but by the time the Sydney Running Festival rolled around my long run was up to 12km's so I was confident. I could do the distance but I had a strong head cold in the week leading up to the race so my confidence wavered......
In my younger years I was a sprinter and was pretty quick but long distance stuff never took my interest, my lungs didn't like it and I was fast so I stuck to the short stuff.
Over the years I tried my hand at a wide range of sports, tennis/basketball/baseball/indoor cricket etc etc until I hit that age I like to call beer. From mid to late beer my sports went from many to zero, I did what could only be descrbied as insane and started smoking. 13 years I smoked and drank and basically used my body as an amusement park. It was fun but boy it took its toll.
When I decided I should get back on the bike so to speak I could only jog, very slowly, on a treadmill for 60 seconds before I had to stop. 60 seconds!!
I was overweight, nearly 95km's for my medium height. I'd gone through a bit of an ordinary time in my personal life but this started to turn around about 3 years ago now (I'm 35 now) and my want to get fit again turned as well.
At the end of 2009 I started on the treadmill, walking in the beginning (enough to keep my heart rate in the weight loss zone!) then running/walking, slowly building up over many months to 10 minute runs with 5 minute walks between. With a better (but not perfect) diet my weight came down to about 87.
Not much happened for a while, maintained the weight and life was good. I got back into baseball and cricket, which was excellent. At the end of 2010 I decided to have another go at the weight loss and was really keen to shift a lot more. I'd been up and down since my first effort and just really wanted to get well below 80kg.
I got onto the CSIRO diet, cut back a bit on the beer, walk/ran every day and hit the weights room. I got really serious, not having any diet splurges. I lost 13kg's in 3 months, down to 74kg. I was feeling better than ever!!
Over Christmas that year I backed off on the training a little and at the start of this year pondered what I wanted to do next. I was convinced I wanted to be a little thinnner but my main focus was to become fit, properly fit like I haven't been since I was young.
So, I started running outside off the treadmill. I decided my first aim was to compete in a 10km race. I ran 5km's 3-4 times per week. I read a lot and started posting here on Coolrunnings, after as much info as possible.
I started to really enjoy it, the freedom, being out in the world, the challenge. I think seeing improvements is part of the addiction, with each little improvement you get spurred on, you can't wait to get back out there, resting becomse annoying.
I increased one run a week, eventually getting my long run up to 10km's. I had a couple of small injuries which set me back mid year and stopped me attending 2 x 10k's I'd entered but by the time the Sydney Running Festival rolled around my long run was up to 12km's so I was confident. I could do the distance but I had a strong head cold in the week leading up to the race so my confidence wavered......
