First Marathon: 42.195km - A DREAM COME TRUE!

I can't believe I did it. I ran my first marathon on 2nd December 2012 and am the first person in my entire family (extended family included) to have ever run the marathon. It took me 6 hrs 46 mins (slow I know) to complete. The pain between 30km and 42km was excruciating and was so happy to have made it across the line. This is one of the greatest achievements of my life as I was almost morbidly obese at one time in my life. The turnaround to my life, physique and achievements have been huge. Running a marathon was a dream for me just 2 years ago. Today it is a reality. This proves that anything can be achieved when you put your mind to it. With this life achievement under my belt, I have now set my target on gaining a ripped physique as soon as possible; and if I can run a marathon, I can definitely do this!

30 min run + 15 min workout

Yesterday I managed to do a 30 min run and a 15 min workout afterwards. The workout consisted of stretches, pushups, crunches, leg-raises and glute bridges. I'm going to see if I can do the same combination today.

Apologies for not posting: It's a been a busy few weeks

So it's been a busy couple of weeks and I've not been able to work out much at all. However, I did do a 20 min workout today and also ran a 10km run on Wednesday. The run was very good because I beat my best time for a 10km run from 53min 50 secs by 4 mins to complete it in 49 mins 56 secs.

33 mins run

Wow...today was an intense run. 33 mins of pure running. It was really intense and I was really traveling. Actually ran with a friend who was running quite fast. Although he managed to keep it up for 33 mins, I doubt he could have maintained the pace for about an hour. I'm guess we ran about 5 to 6km. Anyway the guy was an inexperienced runner and I let him control the pace. I think that I should take over next time. He was really finding it difficult towards the end mostly because he didn't pace himself well. Anyway he was a good running buddy and I'll try to convince him to join me on a another run in the near future.

Wow...super improvement

Today was great! I ran 10km in 53 mins 50 seconds. With is more than 1 min off my previous best. Anyone who runs long distances will tell you that shaving off even 30 seconds from your previous best when running long distances is a HUGE thing. My previous best was 55mins 12 seconds and I managed to beat that by 1 min 22 seconds. It seems that my training is truly paying off and I think I'm now ready for a half marathon. I'll probably try to run it within the next few months. I hope that I can maintain this stamina and speed until then. Anyway today was good. Here's hoping for more good runs in the future.

40 mins workout yesterday

As promised in my previous post, I managed to do a 40 min workout with stretches, pushups, crunches, squats, leg-lifts and supermans. The extra 10 mins really did make a difference in me. I was much more tired and it felt much more intense. I think my body had got used to the 30 mins workout and this change of 10 mins really kept it guess. It is important to keep the body guessing and I think this tactic really worked. I will have to look at different types of workouts to give it more work. I've got a few up my sleeve and will try them in the next workout. I found this website that breaks down a lot of the common exercises so that it is easier to do them. I will probably try some of them in my next workout.

40 mins run + 15 mins workout

Today I ran for 40 mins cos I hadn't run for a while and needed a cardio workout. I didn't really calculate the distance that I ran because I wanted to run for a long time. So I'm guessing the distance is around 6.5km based on my average speed. I also managed to do a 15 min workout with pushups, supermans and crunches. It wasn't a long workout, but I was feeling a little tired so I decided to stop while I was ahead. I also found this website about increasing flexibility and it does seem worth a try.

5.13km in 32 mins + Workout

Today I tried a new route which was 5.13km which I managed to do in 32 mins. It was a little slow. But that was because I slowed down at different junctions to get my bearings. Anyway, I still came back and did 15 mins of pushups, crunches, leg-lifts supermans and plank. It was a good combination of running and workouts. I think I will make this combination every time I run. It felt good.

One way I measure how far I have run is by using the distance measurement tool in google maps. This should be enabled in the labs settings of the maps and allows distances to be measured very accurately. This is a great tool for calculating distances that you have run.