Fat Girl Trains For a Marathon!

I know I've mentioned it before, but I figured that since I haven't had a hell of a lot else to blog about recently, and considering that this whole weight loss and fitness thing has become the main focus in my life recently, I might as well make it the focus of my blog for a while.

The idea to walk a marathon wasn't mine. It was suggested by a couple of the girls on the nin.com forums, and although their idea was to do a half marathon, I'm one of those people who always shoots slightly beyond what most people would consider a reasonable goal. And when they said "maybe we should get together for a marathon" I assumed we were all thinking about the whole 26.2 miles.

So I did a little research, and found marathonwalking.com. The more I read, the more reasonable it seemed to expect to get my flabby 235-pound ass in good enough shape to walk 26.2 miles by the end of February.

You may wonder why not a 5k? Or a 10k? Or at least a half marathon? Why jump all the way to the whole damn marathon?

Well, I already knew that I could walk 3 miles at a time, no sweat. Last summer I got into the habit of walking back and forth from Fashioned By Jaye to the convenience store, which is 3 miles round trip. And a 5k is 3.1 miles. So that wouldn't really be much of a challenge unless I went for speed. And a 10k? I actually did one of those in college with no prior training and came through just fine. Not to mention, it's not like I never had a reason to walk the 3 mile trip to and from the convenience store twice in the same day. So neither of those seem very epic to me. I may weigh well over 200 pounds, but I'm not incapable of sustained movement. I just figured that if the beginner marathon training plan takes six months and I have seven months, why stop at a half marathon?

There's a park in the area that we've previously used for fitness walking that has a nicely paved 1.5 mile trail, conveniently marked off in 1/4 mile increments, so that seemed the logical place to start training. If you go in the direction they recommend (as indicated by the sign marked "start" with an arrow), you get one fairly steep hill to climb right before the first 1/4 mile marker, one very short but very steep incline right before the trail comes back around to the starting point, and the rest is nearly flat.

(Yes, I can hear all of you math geeks out there -- the rest of the trail averages a slight downward slope, because since the circuit is continuous the total elevation change has to equal zero. Duh. Doesn't feel that way when you walk it, though.)

A lot of people walk it in the "easy" direction, but I decided not to. If I'm going to really commit to training, I shouldn't look for the easy way. I better learn to climb the hills.

So, I planned out my training schedule (rounding all the distances to 1.5 mile increments so I could do whole laps) and gathered the best gear I have. I have a pair of walking shoes, but not good-quality, properly fitted ones. I don't have a stopwatch, so I time my laps on my cell phone (not like it's not a good idea to keep my phone on me anyway, since I do sometimes walk alone after dark). I pawned my own iPod a while back in a fit of financial panic, so I have to borrow Kourt's. And cell phone + iPod + car keys + large water bottle = need to have some way to carry it all. So I've been using a little sling purse so I don't have to juggle it all -- the big pocket holds the water bottle, and the iPod slips into the small pocket on the front. It's not the best solution (especially since with a full water bottle the strap gets a little uncomfortable), but it's what works for now.

I've now been following my training regimen for four and a half weeks. I'm another 9 pounds down since I started, and I'm up to 6 mile long walks. In a couple of weeks it will jump up to 9 miles. Pretty soon I'm going to have to invest in some better gear -- a better solution for holding water, good quality shoes, and some good non-cotton socks.

The one big problem? My feet FUCKING HURT!

They hurt before I started this whole thing -- I spend all my time at the convenience store on my feet, and at my weight that means foot pain no matter how much cushion I put in my shoes. In fact, I'm fairly sure I now have plantar fasciitis. Plus, my ankles aren't super strong due to a lot of things, not the least of which was all the abuse they took when I was a cheerleader in high school. Add to that the fact that my shoes aren't really up to par, and the training walks aren't exactly helping my feet out any. They feel fine while I'm walking, but after I get done and the muscles tighten up it's hell. I've started wearing ankle braces at work and during my walks since that seems to help some, and there are some exercises and stretches to do for both ankle strength and the plantar fasciitis, but mostly I think I'm going to have to get some good shoes and keep losing weight. They say every pound you lose takes 4 pounds of pressure off your knees, and that can't be too much different than for your feet and ankles. Better to get it under control now while I'm walking fairly short distances so I'm not in agony when I increase my mileage.

Overall, though, I'm feeling really good about the whole process. My speed is getting better, and even the 6 mile walks are pretty easy. The first time I had to walk 6 miles it totally wiped me out, but last Saturday I worked my store all afternoon, came home and changed, did my 6 mile walk, came home and showered, and then worked a whole shift at the convenience store without either falling asleep or being stiff and sore all night!