No, I’m not talking paintball here this time… The Warrior Dash, aka “The Craziest Fricken’ Day Of Your Life!”. I’ve talked bout this before, but I’m officially signed up for the Minnesota one for Sunday, July 24th – thanks to the folks at BariatricTV.com – they’re sponsoring my registration fee for the dash.

Basically, it’s like a 5k race, with obstacles. The obstacles I’ll be tackling include the: Petrifying Plunge, Tunnels of Terror, Warrior Wall, Cliffhanger, Hayfever, Junk Yard Jam, Hayfever, Hell’s Hill, Cargo Climb, Satan’s Slope, Warrior Roast, and Muddy Mayhem (which includes barbed wire). Hit the link up there to check out the route map. (check out these other photos from Google for an idea of the fun and mayhem involved in this event.)

I plan on turning this in to a fundraiser for the Weight Loss Surgery Foundation of America (WLSFA) and/or the Obesity Action Coalition (OAC). Basically, the plan is to get together a pool of prizes of different sorts and do it like a raffle. For every $x (likely either $5 or $10) someone donates, they get a chance at winning one of the prizes in a random drawing style fashion. I’m waiting until after the WLSFA event in May out in Vegas before really kicking this in to great, that will give me about 6 weeks in June and July to really promote this and give folks a chance to recover from all the fund raising that’s been going on so far this year.

In the meantime, while this isn’t a “race” per se, I do want to do well at this. I’ve been trying to step up my jogging on the track at the gym. I had sort of hit this wall. Two years ago at this time, ..  I was just a week out of surgery, so getting around the block was a challenge. But even that summer, I was biking and walking, but not jogging. I’ve slowly been getting jogging in while doing the track by walking X laps, then jogging Y laps and repeating.

In the beginning we were talking walk 4, jog 1. then it was 3 and 1, then 4 and 2, then 3 and 2 and for the longest time I was wavering back and forth between 3 and 2 and 3 and 3. I just couldn’t break that wall. By the end of the 3rd lap of jogging I was just too out of breath.

Well, yesterday I did 3 laps walking, then .. get this.. 6 laps jogging. Then I did the same 3-6 again. And then a third time. This is all successive mind you… once I start, I keep going. And I did.. then after that third set I did a 3 walk, 3 jog, 3 walk to cool down to get my 3 miles in.

So what suddenly changed? I slowed down my jogging pace quite a bit. It’s not like I was sprinting before, but see where I can walk a lap in about 70-75 seconds, my jogging pace was closer to 40 seconds. Kind of brisk. I slowed this down to about 55seconds a lap I think.. and that made a huge difference. I don’t know all the technical ins and outs of this, but maybe that’s what I need to do for now… slow it down a bit and maybe that will build that endurance up for me.

I have no illusion that I’m going to be running the entire 3 mile course when I do this thing… nor do I have plans to start doing 5k or 10k racing, but I do want to build up my endurance to help me out in general, and especially for times I’m on the paintball field and biking and such. Heck, if I finish this thing in under an hour I’ll be happy. If I can push it under 45minutes, that would be major.

Anyways, I’ll maybe throw up another couple updates between here and June, but keep it in the back of your mind, cause I’m really hoping to make some good connections to come up with some decent prizes for the fund-raising part of this… and heck, if you have something you’d like to donate for the “raffle”, let me know!

On, and just because this is what I was thinking of when I came up with the post headline.. here’s a lil flashback of a treat for ya…

photo credit: All Over Albany

A common theme in the various WLS forums again and again is someone posting about being unhappy with their progress… how they know someone who had surgery the same time as them that’s doing better… that they thought the weight could come off easier… etc…

I have two words for those folks… STOP IT!

Ok, I have more than two words… but seriously, I know it’s hard, but stop it. This isn’t a race – there is no finish line, this is the rest of your life!

No two people are the same, at all. You can’t compare how you do to anyone else, period. You need to have faith in your tool, be it RNY, band, sleeve, or whatever. It may not happen as quickly as you would like. It may not happen as fast as it did for anyone else (tho odds are there is someone out there wishing they could lose as much and as fast as YOU just did), but if you do what you are supposed to, bariatric surgery is about as close as you will ever come to a guaranteed way to lose weight – and more importantly, keep it off.

So unless you’re prepping for that 5K this summer, take off the running shoes, kick back, and enjoy the ride!