Troy Hyde: Part 1: 100-pound milestone
Jan. 24—Editor's Note: This will be a series.
I did it. We did it.
One hundred pounds of weight loss. In a little more than a year.
I wrote in this space back in early 2021 that I had a goal of losing 100 pounds before 2022 spring break. We are taking a trip to Disney World, and I used that vacation as a place to end the first part of the journey.
This series will involve plenty of information I would like to share. For this first edition, I want to explain how far a person can come when it comes to cardiovascular training.
When I started the journey I weighed 294 pounds. And this past Monday, the number on the scale was 193.8.
I charted every single mile I ran and/or walked. The final mileage total for the year was 723.
In January of 2021, I covered 37.64 miles but not a single one of my workouts included a full-on run. There was a lot of walking/running combos and the longest I went was 3.8 miles.
It was a good start to the journey. But not anywhere close to where I wanted to be. It was good enough to lose 11 pounds in the second week of the process though.
The mileage grew to 42.21 in February and the farthest walk/run covered 4.13 miles.
March was a pretty good month. I went 64.18 miles and began my first official runs of the year. That's also when the outdoor runs began and I ran 1.03 miles at an 8:28 pace. My three-mile runs on the treadmill improved from 29:15 to 28:22 to 28:17 to 27:49 to 27:23.
As someone who enjoys a little competition — mostly with myself — I got great pleasure in setting a PR for the year every time I ran.
April, May and June were consistent months from a mileage standpoint but not great in the overall numbers. I went 33.15 in April, 36.31 in May and 36.48 in June.
I improved the three-mile runs in April to 26:12. And my first five-mile run was clocked in 49 minutes.
In May, I went 4.25 miles in 40 minutes, ran 3.52 miles outside at a 9:43 pace and finished 2.6 miles outside in 24:24.
The month of June featured a lot of one-mile runs. There's a route to Anytime Fitness from my house that is just more than one mile in distance. So I often ran to the gym, worked out and then walked or ran back home. In June, the best pace for the mile runs was 8:03.
The month of June was spectacular. I went 68.41 miles and my two-mile treadmill PR was 16:31 and the three-mile treadmill PR was 24:57.
I got the outdoor mile run to 7:38 and began a walk/run combo on the treadmill that covered 60 minutes. I started this workout by walking for five minutes and jogging for five at an incline. The best time for this workout in July was 5.02 miles in 62:49.
In August, I went 76.6 miles. The incline walk/run improved to 5.25 miles in 60 minutes. And I started consistently running outside routes that covered 3.16 miles and those times improved from 26:03 to 25:45 to 25:14.
The month of September saw me go 68 miles. The run/walk incline treadmill workout improved to 5.33 miles in 60 minutes and my best run covered 2.14 miles in 18:03.
The final three or four months of the year saw tremendous growth and time drops.
In October, I went 57.91 miles. The workouts started trending towards mostly runs and fewer walks.
I went two miles in 16:11 in October. And my three-mile time got down to 25:01.
My best two months mileage wise was November and December.
I ran or walked a total of 100.92 miles in November. The run/walk combo treadmill workout improved to 6.23 miles in 60 minutes and I turned in PRs for four miles (31:22), five miles (41:54) and three miles (23:07).
I nearly went 100 more miles in December and the top times fell to 30:13 for four miles, 21:55 for three miles, 14:54 for two miles and 7:40 for one mile. I also started running 10Ks on the treadmill and my first run was clocked at 51:03.
The main point of this column is to show anyone who has doubts about themselves that stuff like this is possible no matter who you are and where you start from.
We all start at different spots but the finish line can be much different if you work hard enough.
Contact Troy Hyde at thyde@shawmedia.com
