Onward To The Next 5 Kg

As of this week, I've completed 8 weeks in the gym. I've always felt I'm terrible with exercise & that no matter how hard I try, it just doesn't work for me. It's amazing how a change in mindset can have such tremendous effects. I started wanting to lose weight without it being the sole focus. I told myself that fitness is what I should be aiming for & not to be disheartened if my weight remains the same. I've just lost my 1st 5 kg from gym-ing, with a 1.8% muscle gain & 3.9% fat loss. Based on the stats, I guess it's safe to say that the entire 5 kg loss came from fats alone. When I 1st started, jogging 2 km was a struggle. Now, 3 km is my norm & something I aim for every gym session.

Since this is a milestone for me, I decided to go celebrating by trying out for my 1st 5 km jog in 1.5 years. It was before I got my job. Right smack in winter, it was 8 am & 4°c outside. It was very hard & my muscles were already aching even before I completed the 5 km. Of course, that was also the 1 & only time I went jogging until the recent weeks. So all along, I knew I can do a 5 km jog becoz if I could do it back then without training, I can do it again now. I just didn't want to do it too soon but rather slowly learn to enjoy jogging. I made it in 40 mins, shaved 9 mins off from the timing 1.5 years ago. It wasn't super hard but it did require a fair bit of mental pap talk. I started counting down right from the beginning. One fifth down, four fifths to go (at 1 km mark), two fifths down (2 km mark), 50% there (2.5 km mark), you've just completed your usual distance (3 km mark), just 1 more km to go (4 km mark) & then it was counting down by the 100 meters. 我既然没有要死的感觉。So that's really good.

I don't know if I'm going to ache tomorrow since I've pushed myself beyond my routine. I did some resistance training for my arms before I left the gym. I wonder if I can do 5 km jog for my Ironman training next week. That will be awesome. That will also mean I'm left with additional 10 km of cycling to pick up. I'll see how I feel when I get there. My knee is still purple from the fall last Wed. It doesn't hurt as much anymore but I'm not too sure if I can get on my knees for yoga this Sat though. 

My manager shared with me her experiences with marathons. My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when she told me she could finish a 42 km run in 4 hours. From FB, all my friends are clocking 3+ hours for the 21 km run which could only mean that my manager is really really fast. She also did ultra marathons where she had to run 56 km & she could do it in 5+ hours. She also took part in the 1000 km challenge which she had to complete within a year. During the year, she had to run 3 marathons a month so she could complete it. I had to pick my jaw from the ground. She told me that 5 mins per km is a good pace. But she wasn't fast compared to the others. The Africans (she came from South Africa) can do 3 mins per km. That's literally sprinting from start to end, isn't it? That's more than half of my 8 mins per km.

My motto these days is "Some day I'll get there". So yeah, some day I'll get there. Maybe not 42 km. That's way too far out. My aim is currently for 10 km. But 1st, let me get to the stage where 5 km is a comfortable distance.