Karen In-Progress Running

Welcome to Karen’s Running Pounds Off Program!

Well, I have gotten several emails asking me about my running program. Running is not always in athrower's vocabulary. I thought that long distance running was a lap—that was how bad it was. We never got to do any running at Florida—and if we did, it wasn’t much at all. L With just throwing and not much conditioning—the pounds kept on coming on! So, I decided to do the most terrifying thing for a thrower to do—and that is the “R” word—RUNNING!!!!!!!!!!!!

Running is a great way to lose weight, but you have to make sure that you have the right shoe and not to go overboard in terms of distance. You have to start easy and work yourself up to where you want to be. When I started just a few months ago—I thought I was going to die! I was convinced that you had to be absolutely crazy to run! But now I really enjoy it! J

Also, from talking to some of my friends—there seem to be people who like to run on the track and then others who like to run courses. For me, I prefer to run courses because it is a change of scenery and I am not sure what the reaction would be if I was on the track. From what happened a while ago—who knows! Better to be safe than sorry.

Here are some updates of my progress since started to run:

Since I started, I have lost over 20 lbs (well actually more...I haven't weighed myself for a while!) and continuing to drop rapidly
My pant size has dropped over 6 pant sizes
I am able to run consistently 30-45 minutes a day where I couldn’t before
I have had no injuries or back problems since June

Monday and Friday:

This day would be the day to get everything started! Today is my off day in terms of weightlifting, so I usually do two running workouts. The first one is before classes and usually I go out for about 30-45 minutes. The goal that I have is to make sure that I feel like I’ve done a workout without anything dying on me! I have noticed it is a great way to wake up and be alert for the rest of the day!

The afternoon is mostly what I call a “Karen-burnout Run”. I take the same approach to my running as I do with my lifting—see how long I last. I measure how I feel when I am running and determine then what I want to do. Some days it is a longer run than in the morning, and sometimes it is a jog. The point for me is to keep moving and exercising, since my Swedish genes want to make sure that I do not lose any weight! So far—it’s been working!

Tuesday and Thursday:

Since my first class starts at 8:30 am, I go out pretty early to run. I try to run a course around campus for about 25 minutes. I feel like that I am running at night since it is so dark, and I make sure that our mascots are not around Lake Alice when I run! One of the aspects that I look forward to when I run this early is seeing the sunrise. It just looks spectacular and it reminds of California’s sunrises. What a great thing to see!

Wednesday:

This day is a little different than others. I don’t have class until 12:30 and that gives me a lot of time to workout! I start with running to the REC center from my dorm. It is a little over a mile—so it is a great warmup. I do my weightlifting workout and then I run back to my dorm and maybe run around campus a bit. If you guys see a map of Florida, it is a pretty big campus!! But I feel great afterwards, so that is good!

On days that I feel extra energetic—I go for another run before my tutoring sessions. One other thing that I do sometimes is run stadiums. There have been some days where I have wondered how I can stay awake to do my school work? It is a killer workout, yet I think that it has really helped me!

Saturday and Sunday:

I love these days—they are my heaviest days in terms of my lifting and also for my conditioning. It is great to get the heavier work done over the weekend so you don’t have to worry about falling asleep in your classes! I usually do a big run on these days.

For me, I am usually out for over an hour but it does depend on how I feel. I usually come back to my room pretty dead after these workouts. Like this weekend, I ran all over campus and went to the football stadium and ran some more and then ran back to my dorm room! I was out for about an hour and a half. I was so tired that I slept for about two hours afterwards!!!

Suggestions

The suggestions that I have for throwers or people making the transition from being an athlete and losing weight is as follows:

Make sure that you do something everyday! Each activity will add up!
WALK!!!!!!! This is the biggest thing that I would suggest—walking is almost the same as running! I have barely used my car this year since I walk almost everywhere now. If you are on a big campus (like Florida), don’t take a bus to class. Ride a bike or walk!! You would be surprised at how much you can lose by just walking
Abs are always good to do in your spare time (ex: watching a movie, hanging out, etc)
Make sure that you are burning more calories than you are eating
Have a diet that you can follow and stick to (sorry, the days of ice cream are over!)

Thank you to all your emails and if you have any more questions, you can email me at kfreberg@hotmail.com. Thanks and have a great day! J

Best Wishes,

Karen

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