The cardiovascular system is an amazing thing....

Craighbruce

I'm sure I can't be the only one who dragged out their running gear in early January and suddenly wondered when they took their eye off the ball - I was wheezing my way around the park feeling like I was barely moving...but now ??

Well, I'll come to that in a bit, first some background...

I'm a 42yr old divorced father of 2 and I've never been mad on exercise, and have a diet high in protein and fats and an almost complete absence of the colour green. I'd never spent any time in a gym until my early 30s when I had a year or two of pretty regular exercise...but I've not been exercising at all recently.

I was made redundant in July 2010 and spent the next year at home looking for work, while still eating and drinking as I usually do. I then found a new job in July 2011 which has me working from home most of the time in front of a PC.

At 5'11" (175ish cm)based upon my target BMI I should be around 68-79kg. However I usually hover around 85-87kg, though I did get to 79kg after a period of exercise and dieting in Aug 2009. By my reckoning, when I find that 36" waist trousers are getting tight and T-shirts are plastered to me I've put on too much weight and expect to find I am 90-91kg.

I'd realised I was putting on weight and assumed I was around 90kg again...until I weighed myself for the first time in many many months. I was horrified to find I was actually pushing 97kg *now* the general feeling of being unfit made more sense

...so back to my starting comment - I got out my running gear with the intention of a short run to get back into the habit. [A couple of years back I ran a formal 10k in around 50mins which I was very pleased with, and I was used to a slow 70min pace for 10k when running for exercise] My first run on 8th Jan this year was another shock - I was barely moving faster than walking pace! I suffered all the way round a single lap of my usual route and took 45mins to cover 4.5km.

However, I persisted in an effort to get fit and ran the following over the coming days:
10th 5.7km in 44mins
12th 5.8km in 52mins
14th 4.9km in 40mins
17th 7.6km in 54mins
18th 10km in 1:12

I was very pleasantly surprised to find that my bodys cardiovascular system recovered so quickly!

At the same time I signed up to MFP and find that having it on my mobile with the barcode scanning is a godsend. Tracking to a calorie target and being able to 'trade off' exercise for treats has been great. It keeps me honest while motivating me to run more. Despite fitting in an (exercise paid for) curry and beer in my first week of exercise, here I am around 11 days since signing up and already down 3.5kg.

I need to get through the 90kg barrier soon to keep my motivation up, but I'm confident this will come within the next few days/week.

Thanks MFP - and to anyone out there who thinks they cant run or exercise...keep at it!....your body will surprise you!


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