Keeping the fire burning

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, if you want to succeed in something, you must enjoy doing it. When I finally decided to start exercising half a decade ago, I told myself that I was never going to stop. Over the years I’ve been telling myself that I’ll probably die on the road running or in the gym because I have come to really enjoy this fitness journey. And that’s exactly what people need to understand, fitness is really not a destination, it’s a journey, just like life.

I remember a few years back when I used to run three times a week; a friend of mine came to me and said that he wanted to join me. I was more than happy to accept the request. Within a period of less than two weeks however, he no longer wanted to do it, needless to say he had given up. It was pretty sad but what could I do?

The above scenario clearly shows lack of will. Maybe after those few days of running my friend realized that he was not progressing as he had planned and probably grew to hate exercising as a whole. It is important to understand that Rome was not built in a day. You have to be ready to put in the work both on the days you feel all psyched up and on those you feel like giving up: exercise consistency it’s called.

As I have said on a previous post, don’t get into exercising wanting to lose weight and nothing else because you won’t last long. The best goal to set is that of improving your health because this you can easily achieve after the first few sessions. I remember how torturous my first run and gym workout were, I was all sore but after the third session, I knew that this was something I could do for the rest of my life.

It really doesn’t matter how heavy you are; don’t think too much about the weight loss issue at least not for the first few months of exercising. Aim to increase your endurance, improve your breathing and generally feel good about yourself. I have seen people who weigh more than 110 kilos skipping rope like boxers and sprinting like they were born for it. Clearly for such people, weight is not an issue; in fact they are much healthier than some people half their weight. 

In summary, learn to love the fitness journey. Weight loss will come but much later on so don’t focus on it too much. Appreciate the small achievements you make for example if you manage to run 1 kilometer today and a few days back you could only do 700M; that’s an improvement. If after a few weeks of exercising you realize that climbing a flight of stair is no longer causing you to puff and pant then you have definitely bettered yourself. Appreciating these seemingly minor improvements will go a long way in keeping you motivated and as result you will be able to keep the fire burning.

Why you need a training partner

I consider myself a loner; I don't know why, I just love doing things in the presence of well......no one! When I seriously started exercising a little over five years ago, this particular trait proved to be quite a bitch. You see, when you are doing something strenuous all by yourself, it is going to be quite difficult to keep pushing when things get really tough.

Picture this: there you are on the road running, a few kilometers later; lactic acid and general fatigue rear their ugly heads. Now obviously, everyone has a certain level of endurance and as such most are likely to keep pushing despite the discomfort. If you are alone, you may manage to keep running for a few more kilometers once the pain sets in but you can bet that eventually it will prove too hard and as a result you may have to stop to take a breath.

Enter the training partner: when you go out running with a friend, acquaintance etc, you will be able to ride through the associated discomfort for much longer than you would if you were all alone. Here's what's likely to happen; your training partner will see you puffing and panting; while he or she might be tired as well, chances are that he/she will encourage you to keep going and since you may not want to look like the weaker athlete, you will keep going. Here's a fact worth noting: it is easier to set a personal best when you are running with someone else than when you are alone.

The same thing happens in the gym and I am talking from experience here. Now I don't exactly have an official training partner; I just train with pretty much anyone who's willing. I have come to realize that on the days I work out with someone else, I am able to do more sets and reps and best of all, lift more. This again is because of the motivation factor. The great thing is that legitimate gym goers aren't jealous; we (yes we) go to the gym to better ourselves and are more than willing to help someone else achieve their fitness goals. When I go the gym, I want to see the guy next to me get the best out of their workout. If you enter the gym on your leg workout day and find someone else doing the same thing - join them. From my experience most people are more than willing to co-workout (is there such a word...anyway you get the point). In fact, I have never come across someone who had a problem working out with someone else.

So simply put, if you want to reach new heights whether at the gym, on the track/road, in the pool/ river :-) or wherever else it is that you get your daily dose of exercise then get a training partner

Achieving Newer Heights

So in my last post I told you how I was able to increase my running speed but with time started associating my new hobby with pain. As I said, I decided to reduce the frequency with which I ran every week and soon enough the pain was no more.

I also told you why I decided to start running in the evening as opposed to mornings. I do have to say that this was a pretty good decision, probably one of the best I have ever made with regard to running. The first time I went for my evening run, I managed 10 laps which is about 4KM. I felt great probably because my body was not stiff and cold ( a problem I had had to endure on my morning runs).

Now 4 KM to me was a new achievement and it was at that point that I discovered I was capable of great things. Over the following few months, I was able to increase my running distance quite significantly. However, I soon came to the realization that doing laps was just not presenting me with a good enough challenge. You see, this is the thing about us human beings, we always want something different every now and then. We just weren't designed for monotonous living.

My running distance as mentioned had significantly increased. I had to do almost 20 laps in order to feel that I had achieved something meaningful. Anyone who has ever run track before will tell you that the act of going round and round can get very monotonous and boring; this is exactly what I was feeling. I had to find a way out of this soon or else I would start associating running with boredom.

I decided to leave track running and instead venture out - literally. The next time I went running - after this decision - was outside the school compound. There was this nice 5KM stretch from my University to a shopping mall, that offered pretty wonderful views. In fact the stretch was right next to the Nairobi National Park and so most of the times I would come across warthogs and Baboons. One time I almost got hit by a warthog but that is a story for another day.

So I would get out of campus at around 5:30 or 6 PM and run all the way to the mall and back. This was approximately 10KM. The great thing about the stretch is that it presented me with challenges - yes that is a good thing when it comes to running. There were about three significant uphill stretches that forced me to work harder and over time, this made me a better runner and improved my running distance further.

Over the past five years, I have run well over 1000 KM and I do have to say that it has been a wonderful journey. I have also participated in a number charity runs including three Nairobi Marathon events (one 10 KM race and two half marathons). Of course I never did win anything but that has never been my aim. I enjoy each race and this is what has enabled me get to where I am today. I plan on doing a full marathon in the next few years and probably even a super marathon - what can I say, our bodies were made to be challenged and I intend to push mine to the limits!

Facing Goliath head on

So there I was on day one all woken up at five in the morning ready to get on the track and do some laps. It was Monday and the month was July I remember very well. I was all psyched I tell you, my legs were itching to run.

I got to the college stadium and started stretching my entire body to extents that I had never attempted before and boy did it feel wrong on so many levels. You see, when you decide to engage your body in a strenuous activity when it is in a state of rest; the body’s natural predisposition is to maintain the status quo.

I tried as hard as I could to at least get my muscles ready for the hard work ahead and when I felt my body was ready, I hit the road running-literally. I did not dare strain myself and therefore for the first 400M I had a fairly easy time. A short while later at about the 700 metre mark all hell broke loose; my back started aching, my calf muscles accumulated lactic acid hence making it very hard for me to move

I had heard of this kind of occurrence before, where athletes hit what is referred to as the wall. Simply put, the wall is a state during strenuous activity in which the body simply cannot continue working at its current rate. For real athletes who run marathons however, this ‘wall’ usually manifests after the 30 KM mark; the next time you are watching a marathon just pay close attention and you will see that it is after this mark that a good number drop out. It takes a great deal of will power to complete the race after hitting the wall: so I guess that we Kenyans are very strong-willed since we win pretty much all the marathons the world over.

So there I was, having hit the wall at the 600M mark! If that is not the epitome of unfitness then I don’t know what is. At that point I knew that if I succumbed to exhaustion I would have a hard time going past that mark the next time I ran and so I pushed on. I went beyond the 1KM mark and kept on pushing until I cleared three good laps which is basically 1.2KM.

I have to tell you it was not a pleasant feeling; I was coughing hard and sweating profusely despite the cold morning temperatures. My legs and lower back were in pain; to say the least, I was spent. 3 laps (1.2KM) that is all I could do on my first day. I did some stretching and went back to my room, took a shower and went for breakfast; it was really hard getting anything into my stomach because of what my unfit body had just undergone.

I still remember exactly what the next day felt like; my legs and back were all sore and I wondered if it was going to be possible to run the next day. When I went to bed that day I knew that come Wednesday morning, I was going to have one heck of hard time psyching myself to even get out of bed.

When the alarm rang I got up said a short prayer changed into my running gear and off I was.  My body was still aching all over from the ‘beating’ it had taken two days earlier but I knew I had to rise above pain. After stretching, I got right to it. I pushed myself and this time round I am happy to say that I did a clean four laps (1 Mile); nothing to write home about but an improvement nonetheless.

I continued on with this regimen religiously; by the end of the first month, I was doing 8 laps (3.2KM); a far cry from where I started. At this point I decided to stop concentrating on increasing the distance and rather focus my energy on going faster. The very first time I managed to complete 8 laps I took around 20 minutes ; one and a half months later I had lowered that time to 16:42, not exactly a world beating time but something that I could be damn proud of considering where I was barely three months ago.

By the end of October which was 3 months after I had started running I had lost about five kilos; however as I have mentioned before, that was not exactly my goal; all I wanted was to achieve fitness. I always had this desire of being a battle tank with a Ferrari engine and so I never really cared much about what I ate provided I could move swiftly.

After about six months of three-days a week running, I loved where I was; my breathing was awesome and my heart rate was just where it needed to be. There was a slight problem however; my shins were taking a beating every time I ran and as time went by it was increasingly becoming difficult to run.....problems again!

After every run I would experience a lot of pain and I slowly started associating my healthy habit with pain; this is the worst thing that can ever happen. In order for you to succeed in whatever you engage in- leave alone exercising, you need to enjoy it. Here I was slowly growing to despise something that I had grown to love?!

I had to come up with a solution fast to avoid giving up my new passion. I decided to reduce the frequency with which I ran from thrice to twice weekly. Running in the morning was also starting to bore me (I have never been a morning person) and so I decided to do it in the evening after a long day of studying among other things

The next step was to increase my endurance and the only way I could do this was by increasing the distance I ran. I now had new goals.............; I am going to tell you how I went about achieving them on my next post in this series so STAY TUNED…………………….

A wonderful discovery

As I promised, here's the follow up to my first post

So a few months later I joined college and within the first month I became aware of the inconvenience of my weight. I was not exactly a pig but I did have a few problems here and there more so due to the fact that the distance I had to cover on a daily basis from my hostel to the class and then to the cafeteria was quite significant. Going upstairs was becoming a task and so was running after girls (I am just joking). Some unsightly flab had also found a home around my waist and this is when it hit me; I seriously needed to get in shape.

Here is the thing for me; I don't really care how much I weigh, provided am fit. So the first thing that came to mind was not to lose weight but rather to get in the best shape possible. I have never had any problem with being a big guy; in fact I enjoy it. I actually got my college nickname - which has withstood the test of time - as a result. A friend of mine started calling me ‘Beast’ and within a few months every person in college knew me by that name. Some people never knew my real name in my three years of college! I liked and still like that name.

I am digressing here; so what am I trying to say; most people get into exercising with only one end in their minds and that is to lose weight. Trust me; if the only reason you decide to exercise is because you want to shed off those extra kilos then my friend you will not go far. Let me let you in on a little secret; losing weight takes time and if you do not enjoy the journey to that destination then you will definitely fall by the roadside. This is what most people do not understand about exercising. When you decide to go into exercising, you should have a few goals in mind such that if you feel you are not achieving one goal then you have a few others to focus on.

The main goals you should aim to achieve include: attaining a certain level of fitness; improving your health, feeling good about yourself and lastly, losing weight. Yes, losing weight should be the last thing in your list of exercise goals to achieve.

Let me tell you of a wonderful discovery I made during my journey towards fitness and better health. I came to find out that for you to achieve anything in life it is very important that you enjoy the process of getting to that achievement. I think I have moved so far from my original line of story but here is what happened after I discovered that I needed to get in shape; I got myself a good pair of running shoes and decided to wake up very early every morning, three times a week to go jogging. I was determined; I had goals that I needed to achieve…………..

Getting Started

Who am I? I am the fitness guru! Okay maybe I am not the best there is out there but I can assure you that I know a few things about heath and fitness. Actually not a few things, I know quite a lot really. But enough about my bragging let's get right down to it.

First and foremost, this is my first posting and I think it would be a good idea to share my story. Of course I can't exhaust everything in a single posting because that would be like writing a whole bible in one go.

So where do we start? Hmm, let's see, how about when it all began right about five years ago, in fact it's almost exactly half a decade ago today when my health and fitness journey commenced. what am I talking about? Well, you are about to find out soon enough.

Okay so five years ago, right after being admitted to college for a course I will not mention because it is not in any way related to this post, I decided to really take my health and fitness seriously. You see, before getting into college, right after high school, I had decided that it was my time to eat and I mean that literally. I was tired of being Mr skinny a condition that made me look really bad what with my big head and all. In the months that followed (after high school). I gained more than 25 kilos and as far as I was concerned health and fitness could kiss my behind.

I managed to get from a mere 63 kilos to a whooping 88 kilos and I was damn proud of my 'achievement'. Not too long after getting to this point, I realized that things were starting to go down hill. I used to play some soccer in High School but suddenly I could barely jog a few hundred meters. It was getting increasingly difficult to play a decent game of basketball with my friends. One day while sitting on the edge of the bathtub my eyes happened to fall upon my middle section where unsightly layers of fat had accumulated.

It was at that very moment that it hit me, if I continued with my unhealthy ways, things would not turn out  very well for me. Like most people out there however, I eventually forgot all about it and life continued as usual. As I mentioned earlier, it was only after joining college a while later that I decided enough was enough - this time for real and I made the decision to start taking my health and fitness seriously. On my next blog posting I will let you know exactly how I embarked on that all important journey.