Run Fatboy, Run!

Ha ha can you believe, one day into the blog thing, it's now lunch break - the time I'd designated to compose another entry, and here I sit with apparent writers block. I've got a few full-feature topics I'll cover in detailed dedicated blog articles as time marches on, but today I don't have time or inclination to think that hard, so for now you'll have to bear with what little news of interest I can suck up.

For starters, I'm air-drumming like an idiot at my desk along with Halestorm. This band is really awesome, I dare you to have a listen, if you like good female-fronted rock you'll dig this! This track, "I Miss the Misery", is one of the best:



Anyway, now that I've figured out how stupidly easy it is to embed YouTube videos into my blog posts...

My big news of the day, as many of you have seen on Facebook today (judging by the 54 "likes" to my status update when I last checked), this morning my terrified bathroom scale told me with relief that my bulbous ass has lost 10kg of lard since this current mission to lose weight and get fit started on the 3rd August (this year). I'm embarrassed to say what I weigh now but I will say I'm only 13kg away from reaching my current goal of 85kg... (um, facepalm on the obvious there de Klerk!). It is 2 weeks later than planned, I was optimistically hoping to lose 10kg by the end of August, but I s'pose those cheats on the weekends did make a difference after all. That said, I'm feeling great! Lighter, healthier, stronger and more alive! Much as it's hard work to get from a point of dirty obesity, filling the body with all manner of deadly poisons, to being healthy, fit and clean, is definitely worth it! The trick is to change the mindset away from whatever ridiculous excuses we convince ourselves that we need to smoke, drink too much, and eat junk food that contains very little useful nutrition and has us spending collectively many more hours per month on the loo expelling tons of digested carbs!

On the topic, I may as well bulk up this article with the story of how this mission started. As I mentioned yesterday, my ADD piqued brain gets an idea and gets all crazy excited and has me obsessed very quickly. I tell you, it's a major distraction to regular life, this ADD thing. No I didn't get clinically diagnosed but I did the research and I have all the symptoms, strongly, and I did an online assessment, answering honestly, and my score was through the clouds... I don't mind being like this, it makes life interesting, but the "normal" people out there often can't handle it. I'm known to get quite hectic at times, apparently I can be controversial, obsessive, opinionated, annoying, and often say the wrong things without meaning to upset whoever it is that misunderstands my meaning at the time.

See how it works, I started waffling off on a tangent!

So around the last week of July I saw an advert on Facebook for one of these "free" 4 week bootcamps and decided it was it was a great idea to kick start a fitness routine. Because, you know when you've not seen the inside of the gym in so long the motivation to go back becomes incredibly weak, especially with the prospect huffing and sweating to pump a weightless barbell while the fit dolled-up little Barbies are rocking the super circuit while the buff young jocks bench-press 15 tonnes with their chest hairs; or gasping for breath 3 minutes into a brisk walk on the treadmill while the old toppie next to you is motoring along for 15 minutes already without breaking a sweat... you get the idea. The plan was to join the bootcamp as a structured 3 times a week compulsory workout for a month to get into the routine then continue at the gym when the confidence had hopefully increased.

If only life was that simple!

Besides the fact that the bootcamp was unpleasant, I mean who wants to do push-ups in a parking lot in winter in the dark, it also turned out to be little more than a marketing ploy for the local Herbalife sellers, or "life coaches" as they call themselves. Now when we realised (Liezel was doing it with me) it was a Herbalife thing I didn't have a problem with that, we've used the products and quite like them. The bootcamp was free and they said we have no obligation to buy products, so we went anyway, prepared to put up with the marketing pitches. BUT, then it came out that Liezel is already a Herbalife consultant and the chick who signed us up said that under their rules people are not allowed to join these programs under their "lifestyle coaches" as existing members / consultants / associates / coaches / distributors / whatever. Our choice was that she'd have to renounce her existing membership and pay R900 for a new membership that falls under this new lifestyle coach who would then get the commission on any products that Liezel buys or sells, losing the discount she gets with the existing membership, or bugger off! Of course we chose to ditch the whole thing. It was so stupid, we went there for a free workout and ended up getting caught in the greed of a Herbalife consultant trying to screw us for profit.

This development actually turned into a blessing for us, because firstly it saved us from planking in a dark parking lot with a bunch of fatties to house music playing from a cell phone, and secondly it served it's purpose of kick-starting a healthier change of lifestyle. The next day I hit the gym and have been about 20 times since then. I do spinning at least once a week, and over the last 3 weeks I've taken part in 3 organised trail runs, and I've purchased some gym equipment (adjustable dumbells, a workout bench, ab roller, etc) to
have a quick workout in the mornings before work, which I've been doing most mornings. That Ab roller is fantastic, when the blubber belly finally drops off there will be a sexy sixpack, which I will expose. I'll be the hottest drummer in town!

{Ok I've snapped out of dreamland now!}

This coming weekend I'm doing the Sanlam Cape Town 10km Peace Run. My first 10km since before Two Oceans, and those two I did as training for Oceans were a disaster, I walked most of the way, fat lazy smokers lungs slob that I was back then. Oceans wasn't much better, I did the 21.1km with minutes to spare for the 3 hour cut-off and spent the next week in absolute agony, barely able to walk! In fairness to my damaged ego, I also had a few choice blisters on my feet from a new pair of running shoes I bought a days earlier. Not one of my smarter achievements

Look below at fatboy charging up to the finish line like a champion, surrounded by the old and hefties finishing at the same time! It's somewhat embarrassing! Compared to the pic below, my 2013 finish when I was considerably fitter, finished around 2.5 hours.

Big lesson learned, next year I will be ready to do it properly, with a plan to do a sub two hour finish, in which case I'll then go for the Ultra (56km) in 2017 and maybe throw in the Comrades just to spice things up! Those two are definitely on my life's bucket list. I don't know WHY I actually WANT to do something that stupid! I suppose the same reason people jump out of earoplanes and climb enormous cliff faces (neither of which I'll ever do, my debilitating fear of heights will forever keep my feet planted firmly on terra firma!)

Other events coming up which I'm entered for are the Chappies 10km on 4 Oct, running from Hout Bay for 5km up Chapmans Peak and back down again; The KFM Gun Run 10km on 11 Oct, and the really awesome one I'm super stoked for is the Impi Challenge on 18 Oct. The Impi is a 12km trail run with about 20 challenging obstacle courses along the way. It's apparently quite tough but loads of fun. You cross the line very dirty! I'm part of a team of 15. It's going to be awesomesauce!
Well that's enough boring blabbering for today, my work beckons! Tomorrow I promise I'll think of something to make it more interesting.