The Runner:
- Name: Joy Duling
- Age: 37
- Hometown: Peoria, IL
Previous PR's
Joy started working with the RunnersConnect team a little over a year ago. When she joined the team she was struggling with a variety of health issues, including:
- Being 55 pounds overweight
- 3 different medications for her health
- Had blood pressure and cholesterol numbers through the roof
- Had never finished a race - and really wasn't even running at this point
Joy knew she needed to make a change in her health, so she signed up for a local half marathon just hoping to walk it.
But, as the race date kept getting closer, she was increasingly nervous about her ability to finish and was becoming frustrated with a lack of results.
Joy's Problems:
- Joy started by simply walking (and covering a good amount of distance per day - 60 minutes or more) but was losing motivation quickly due to lack of progress. The problem was that while walking started out feeling like a good achievement, it quickly wasn't giving her the physical rush that she wanted to see after investing so much time. She wanted to push herself more to get back that sense of accomplishment.
- Likewise, Joy wasn't seeing the improvements in her overall health that would keep her motivated. She was losing some weight, but not as much as she liked, and she still felt like she relied too heavily on medications to keep her healthy.
- Joy was also starting to get cold feet about being able to actually walk the half marathon I signed up for, which was causing a lot of anxiety and trying to find ways not to do the race or get in her daily training.
How RunnersConnect Helped Her:
- The first step we took with Joy was building her a very gradual run-walk plan that slowly transitioned her into running full-time. Joy started with 9 minutes walking and 1 minute running. Each week we worked to increase the ratio of running to walking.
The progression was slow enough that Joy never felt like she was taking too big of a jump. More importantly, because the plan was structured to her current fitness level each week was a challenging, yet comfortable step forward.
"By having a structured plan in place, it helped me avoid the temptation to do too much, too soon. I also felt a lot more confident. Previously, I would visit running message boards and solicit advice from other runners, but everyone had a different take on what I should be doing and I lost motivation seeing the rapid progress some runners seemed to be making. But, with a plan in place, it was a huge weight off my shoulders."
- We kept the focus of the training on a 3-4 week blocks and periodically reviewed her progress for motivation.
By keeping the focus on the training for that week, it prevented Joy from getting overwhelmed and believing the training plan was too daunting.
Also, each month we conducted a review by looking at her logs on our training platform. This helped her see how far she had come during that time. It can be easy to lose sight of how much progress you've made.
- Joy had countless bad days and tough weeks like every runner (even experienced runners) do. I tried to go back and count exactly how many and when they occurred, but over the past year there have been too many examples.
We helped Joy battle through the inevitable rough patches by teaching her the secret of the "reset button". She stayed very consistent and bounced back quickly from every training interruption that occurred.
Joy's Results:
- Lost 55 pounds
Through our time working with her, Joy lost 55 pounds and is getting fitter every week. I will be the first to admit that Joy's weight loss isn't all directly related to running. Weight loss also requires hard work and dedication nutritionally.
However, I think the consistency running added to Joy's daily routine helped her stay more disciplined when it came to nutrition and prevented the peaks and valleys that often accompany weight loss.
- Blood pressure and cholesterol numbers back under control - without medication
Joy was able to wean herself, under a doctor's orders, off all her medications. Her blood pressure and cholesterol numbers were now in check naturally.
Not only does this improve Joy's quality of life and overall health, but I noticed it also had a dramatic impact on what she believed possible. Rather than accepting the status quo, Joy's outlook and self-belief is overwhelmingly positive.
- Finished her first HM - running
Finally, Joy was able to finish her first HM - running almost the entire way. Even better, she's excited about tackling the next one, improving her time, and even training for a marathon next! You can hear what Joy was able to accomplish, in her own words, in this great video she sent us.