“I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” – Muhammad Ali

Today marks another milestone for me in my quest for my target weight. I planned to do an 8km run before the end of June and I did! I did it today. I ran 8km (5 miles) from home on a route I had carefully measured the distance with my car, and walked back 8km to get home. It took a total of 2 hours, 41 minutes and 27 seconds. The last mile was the hardest as I literally dragged myself home. Prior to this run, the farthest distance I had covered was 10km running and walking, so I pushed it this time and it was awesome! I also weighed 75.3kg this morning, just 300 grams away from my target weight.

For the past 2 months, I worked hard to lose 5kg and it has been an undulating process constantly moving between 79 and 78 for the most part. This past week though, I lost 2kg. Yay! So I am close, very close to the target. One thing that got me going this morning was the quote attributed to the late Muhammad Ali, the Greatest! This is probably the most inspiring of his quotes for me because I can totally relate with it.

I would say I trained a little for today. For the past two weeks, I had been psyching myself to do the run because I anticipated it was not going to be a small feat. The most I had done before today was 5km, so I felt the need to constantly psyche myself that I could do 60% more. I decided about two weeks ago to explore running around my estate in the morning before work at least three times a week.The first time, I was able to do the run twice, once from my estate to another estate 5km away and back, and the second time was last Sunday at the stadium from package B to A and back (3.84km). Last Saturday, I decided to climb the stairs again instead of running, but pushed myself and completed 26 sets of the 75-stair climb, 10 more than before.This week, I succeeded in running twice in the morning, 5.5km total distance on Tuesday, and 10km total distance on Friday. I had aimed to do more, but it rained constantly on Wednesday and Thursday, so it was impossible to run outdoors in the morning. Turns out the rain was a very good thing because it afforded me the opportunity to rest my aching and tired muscles. By the time I ran on Friday morning, I knew my body was fueled and fired up, and the run was pretty much easy to complete. 24 hours later, I was back on the road, with the intention of running 2 extra miles farther, but with slightly tired muscles from the day before and a mental picture of the actual distance I had to cover which made it seem a daunting task.

So today, I ran and kept running.I ran 5 miles non-stop and finally activated my Nike running app for today’s feat. Each mile had its peculiarities, but I kept going at it.

As you can see from my mile tracker, my pace was mixed, dwindling after the second mile into the third and picking up again in the 5th mile. In fact, by the time I knew I was in my last mile, somewhere in my head, I could hear myself saying “You should try to go an extra mile”. Lol! Not yet. I like to keep to my word and targets. 5 miles was the plan so 5 miles it was, but I did have energy to go a little longer if I wanted to. That was surprising I must confess. I guess it also has to do with having an adrenaline rush when you finally accomplish something that was a challenge and the human mind is wired to push for more. So I cautioned myself to stick with the plan knowing full well the effect this current push was going to bring with it in a couple of hours. But I ran with pain and pleasure. Each mile meant one mile less and brought me closer to my goal. With each mile, I also replayed the Ali quote in my head and thought of the fact that in my case, if I didn’t complete the distance this time, I was going to have to do it again until I had completed it, so I chose which was easier – Do it now and get it out of the way, or postpone it for another day, but still have to do it? You guessed right. I chose to do it now and get that out of the way.

Nothing comes easy, and as the common saying goes, “No pain, No Gain”. The feeling of accomplishing set goals is liberating, and comes with inspiration to do more, be more, achieve more. As I have mentioned before, I don’t wake up at 5.30am super excited about running any distance. It’s not like going for a swim or ice-cream. It is work, but work that you know you must do because it is good for you, so you get out there and just do it. If someone like Ali with all the wins in his career, and his mouthiness did not enjoy training, then what about those of us that are not doing it for any particular competition or prize? Well, we do it for the results, we do it for the joy of knowing you can do anything you set your mind to do, we do it because we know that each milestone completed is a stepping stone to something bigger, we do it because we know it makes us stronger, we do it for the future, we do it to prevent unwanted, unpleasant consequences of not having done it. So yes, we work out, we run, we train, to lose weight, to stay trim, to stay beautiful, and to stay healthy.

I know you’re probably thinking, “So what next?”  You have run 8km, you are almost at your target weight, what will you do next? That is very easy to answer. I have just started. 6 months now into my weight loss journey, and I have met all my targets and feel really great, while at it too. Remember this is a lifestyle change, so I will keep at it. I still have 300 grams to knock off, and I have my beautiful thighs, glutes and tummy to sculpt. So I will keep running, playing tennis, working out and changing my routine from time to time. You know how these things are; you want to push the limits further, so I am not ruling out extending my non-stop run to 7 miles and 10 miles at some point. A half-marathon doesn’t seem so impossible now, so I just might aim to complete one soon, hopefully in 2016. Trust me, anything with Marathon in it was never and has, until today, never been on my radar. But after that run this morning, I think I can take on the challenge. As noted in an old post of mine, it’s all in the mind, and it all starts with the first step. I would also intensify my weight training. A colleague of mine in Boston shared a book that gives tips on how to burn fat and build muscle with weight training. According to the book, weight training actually prolongs the increased metabolism of the muscles post-exercise thereby making the fat burning process last longer, compared to cardio exercises and running. I am strongly considering adding swimming into my routine, at least once a week. I think I will settle with swimming at the Hilton for now since it is the closest thing to a half-Olympic sized swimming pool.

So there you have it, I have a whole list of things lined up to do to keep me busy and focused on my new size and raised fitness level.  Of course, the diet remains an important factor in all of this, and I am now conditioned to eat just what I need to fuel my body and provide the needed nutrients for healthy functioning. I do need to ensure I don’t get carried away and revert back to eating with reckless abandon. I think those days are long gone though. So y’all watch out. Six months from now, when I take stock of the journey through one year, there should be and will be loads of milestones to report against! Thanks for always reading and for the comments. They make writing and sharing my experience worthwhile. *Muah*