Feeling discouraged :(

This is not a contest. If you compare yourself to others you will always find fault in yourself. We have a tendency to down ourselves. This is trying to get healthy and stay healthy.

If you are keeping a journal of your progress you can go back and see how far you've come. Celebrate your achievements.

Glad he is supportive and willing to help you meet your goals, that's a great husband you have there it seems!

Unfortunately, it's very difficult not to compare ourselves to others. BUT, our journey is just that, OURS. Don't worry about what you can't do, remember what can do and have done!

Also, men are generally built to run/walk faster than women, so don't beat yourself up too much

Lastly, CONGRATS on kicking butt with your running/walking achievements!

I've also been feeling discouraged lately...but I've been feeling discouraged because I've been having a lot of leg pains. I've been to doctor visits, had all sorts of scans done, been told I have a bone lesion, but I have to wait another month now for another doctor to tell me exactly what that means for me to have a bone lesion. I don't even know if that's the source of the pains or just what they happen to see on the scans - no one will tell me. The thought of limping around for another month after months of being in pain and not being given a boot or crutches or anything is devastating to me. I would consider myself somewhat athletic and now I can't so much as go for a five minute walk without ending up in excruciating pain.

So, be grateful that you're able to go for your walks, even if you're not as fast as one other person, you're still faster than the you of a month ago. And at least you have the ability to do the exercise you want. Quite frankly, I'm jealous!

He's a DUUUUDE. Dudes run faster than women, on average. Don't compare yourself to anyone - especially not a guy!!!

If you're going to make comparisons, think of how YOU have progressed. This is about you - no one else.

My best mate is 6' 1" and one of my original goals was to be able to walk as fast as he can. We're both male, he is 7 inches taller than me, he has low body fat (I'm working on that), but I do have powerful legs. Will I ever be able to walk at 6 mph? Extremely unlikely but I am up to averaging 3.9 mph (up from 2.4 mph*) and I can keep up with him at 4.4 mph unless it is over a long distance (but not at that crazy speed he was going at last Friday - thank God for window shoppers getting in his way).

* Edit: Up from 2.4 mph rather than 2.8 mph, just double-checked my log.

Compare yourself to you. Losing excess fat and regularly pushing yourself will, as you have seen, increase your speed. Some things might not be physiologically or genetically possible, but as long as improvements are possible (e.g. can lose some fat, increase power of legs, continue to work on improving endurance and speed, etc.) you don't know it is impossible nor how close to it you can get. With training he could probably increase his speed too - unless you are comparing yourself to your identical twin/triplet/quadruplet/etc focus on personal bests (in fact, comparing yourself to someone genetically identical to you might even hold you back).

I assume if you started doing some sprint work you wouldn't feel discouraged after comparing your time to Bolt's? Susan Armenta's 50 km racewalking personal record is 4:39:39 - good for her, but "fastest female racewalker on the planet" is not one of my goals and, without knowing her, "do my best"/"beat my personal record" are probably more important than "come first"/"beat Curt Clausen's personal record of 3:48:04".

Don't be discouraged. You are doing great!!! The fact that he supports you is fantastic. Keep at it and you''ll get faster and be healthier.

I agree with everyone, I think it is great that your hubby is supportive. Remember he might beat your time because he has been active longer, you don't have to feel discouraged because of his time keep focusing on what you have done so far and the changes that you have made. I know it can be frustrating but the key is to stick through it and give yourself personal goals. Instead of comparing yourself with others and feeling down look at it as a motivation on where you can get one day. Don't give up, keep your head up high because you are doing great. I bet you might have some friends that are not able to do what you have done.

I have had the same thing happen. I'll be running for weeks or months regularly and my bf won't even be working out. Then when we decide to run together he'll say "You'll probably beat me today, I haven't worked out in forever." And he'll end up beating me and have to keep coming back for me. I think part of it is because he's taller and his stride is longer. But at least I'm glad he went running with me!