learning to run

I’m learning to run.

Usually this statement gets one of two responses: 1) You’re crazy. Why bother? or 2) Oh. You have to learn to run? Huh.

I should preface this by saying that I was one of those sad little junior high girls whose worst day of school was the day you ran The Mile. It was The Mile with capital letters because it was the once or twice a year when we ran in gym class. Other than that, we played “sports games” or learned the mechanics of other sports I had never really played before and had no interest in.

At the time, gym class taught me that exercise and fitness meant team sports. The mechanics of which I was not and am not coordinated enough to deal with. The only B I ever got in school (until a B+ in Anatomy my junior year in college) was actually in 6th grade gym class. I cried about it. It was traumatic.

As were sports. And also The Mile. I’d sweat through those terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad four laps around a dusty dirt track sure my lungs were going to explode or that I might drop dead from the sheer humiliation of being one of the last to finish. Then it was over and I’d promise myself that next year I would surely plan an illness/gym-destroying meteor the next time The Mile came around.

Then I grew up a little bit and learned that exercise and fitness does not have to involve any sort of special equipment, fancy shmancy coordination, or the stress and terror that having a team depending on your performance brings. I found that I actually liked working out. I discovered yoga, Pilates, weight training, flexibility exercises, dance aerobics, workout DVD’s, and going walking with my mom.

Exercise=Great                     Team Sports=the death of me.

I’ve been toying with the idea of running for a while. I even started trying last summer before I went back to work and let it fizzle out. You see, I just kept having visions of The Mile.

So I decided to start small. Very, very small. I knew if I went too hard or too fast that I would certainly give up in a sweaty heap and assure myself that running was just not for me. I just know how great running can be for you mentally and physically, and I really wanted to take things to the next level.

So. I adapted the famous Couch to 5k running plan (which slowly phases in more running and less walking) and I’ve been going strong for two months. I’ve been set back a little bit since being sick, but I’m really seeing progress and it feels great! So, as soon as I hit 30 minutes of running at a time (which may not sound like much, but is great progress for me), I plan on making a printable running plan that shows what I’ve been doing and what you can do too as a beginner.

Let me know if you’re interested. If not, I guess I just wanted to say, hooray for meeting a goal!