I wanna be like Mike

I've decided that a 5K is in my future. That's 3.1 miles for those who can't/don't want to convert.

I was watching The Biggest Loser last night - and if you don't WHY THE HELL NOT?? - when the contestants traveled to Texas to take part in a 5K with radio contest winners. Last week, my main man Michael completed a 5K on the treadmill at the ranch. First time ever. Let me mention that Mike weighed 372 pounds at the time. Michael Ventrella showed up on the show at 526 pounds, the heaviest contestant ever. I felt a kinship to him right away, as I usually do with the bigger people on the show. But I've grown to love his personality, his drive and pretty much everything about him. The fact that he's becoming quite handsome doesn't hurt, either. LOL!

Mike has a long way to go but he's already accomplished so much. He's such an inspiration to me and makes me push myself harder in my workouts. I've said for a while now that my goal was to run. And the way I see it, if Mike can do that then so can I. The show is really awesome for that - you see people there that could be YOU. The very first time I ran, I did it because I saw Ron, a contestant two seasons ago, jog just a tiny bit. Ron arrived on the ranch weighing well over 400 pounds. Damn it, if he can run - and Mike can run - then I can, too.

And so can you.

I've been doing quite a bit of walking/running outside lately. When I say run, I mean I run sprints. Short bursts, then I walk. I'm getting better than I used to be but progress is slower than I'd like because of my knees. I read in a magazine a few weeks ago about a jogging chart of sorts. It said to start off walking four minutes and jogging one then repeat that pattern over and over. Then increase jogging time each week. When I saw Mike hit that 5K on the treadmill then the 5K in Texas this week I said 'That's it. I'm going to actually train to do this.'

So tonight I started out on the treadmill at the gym doing just that. Walking four minutes and jogging for one. It wasn't as bad as I thought but by the last one-minute jog, my legs were feeling pretty heavy! I went 2 miles in 32 minutes. Not great, still some work to do. But man...a year ago that would've been a faraway dream of some kind. I'm going to work on it. I'll let you know how it goes. I may not run the whole 5K, but I'll complete it. Mike didn't run the whole thing in Texas, either. In fact, he said it hadn't been long since he could run a mile without stopping. Hell, I think that's amazing! I'll be glad when I can do that much.

Since I've been exercising outdoors, I've run into my Jogging Idol a few times. I blogged about seeing her running alongside the road with her blonde ponytail bobbing up and down, looking like she totally had her shit together. Usually she's off in the distance but once she was on the other side of the street. AND, I was doing one of my sprints when we passed each other. I jogged past my Jogging Idol!! She totally has no clue but I was thrilled. It's the little things....LOL!

A couple random things about losing weight that I haven't mentioned before:

- Erich rebuilt my desk chair years ago to accommodate my hips. He literally took the arms off, added steel extensions and reattached them. A while back, he removed them. I sat down and I look down at the chair then over at him. 'You took off the extensions, didn't you?' He just smiled. 'Yep. You don't need them anymore.' And so I don't. I have a normal chair now.

- For the first time, Erich and I now need different adjustments on the car seats and mirrors. When he drives my car on the weekend, he has to adjust everything. I was laughing at him last weekend. 'That's new, huh?' I said. Indeed! I didn't get shorter; I just lost weight. But now I want the seat closer to the wheel and the mirrors have to be turned down. Odd about the mirrors! I also want to tilt the wheel down, too. One of the reasons I bought that car was because I could fit into it...with the seat all the way back and the tilt wheel all the way up. Next car I buy, I don't think I'll have to worry so much about that.

- I went to upstate New York a couple weeks ago to visit with friends and rode in my good friend Lecia's Toyota. Toyotas are notoriously small and I've never been able to get a seat belt on in one. My BFF in Ohio, Katrina, used to have a Rav4 that was always uncomfortable for me to ride in. When I got into Lecia's car, I put the belt on, no problem. Lots of room. Very cool.