So… about running..

If you recall from my goal setting discussion below; I had set my sights on starting running January 1st.

So, as with every type of new activity you should CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR PRIOR TO STARTING ANY EXERCISE REGIME.  I followed the advice of my lovely wife and met with Dr. Pohlman to talk about my fitness goals and to get his feelings about when would be an appropriate time to start running.  At that point in my fitness journey, I had been working out for 2 months on the elliptical, was 60 pounds less than when I started and was feeling pretty good about how far I had come. I  met with Dr. Pohlman and had a long list of questions about his thoughts on next steps and to get an outsider perspective on progress and how I can be successful.  I let him know that I was planning on starting jogging on January 1st.  He did encourage me to listen to my body and to slow down if I felt pain and to not push it too fast too soon.

Now, you all know me by now and I’m not going to let simple pain get in the way of achieving my goals.  I had to be smart about it.  I had never done any type of running at all in my life… short of making sure that I was not dead last while running for football.   I hadn’t been chased by bears in a while; so I was really worried about actually failing to be able to run.  I just didn’t get the joy that every running that I knew would share about how great they felt while running and after running.  But, I knew that if I wanted to maximize my fitness and weight loss that I would have to give it a shot.  I took Michelle’s advice, and started a a couch to 5k program.  I found the one at coolrunning.com to be flexible and easy to follow and they had an app that I could use on my iphone to track my progress.

Running started pretty slowly, as you would imagine with no experience. I followed the program and was committed to not stopping.  I would finish each treadmill session no matter what.  Interestingly, C25K program starts out very slowly; with only a job for a minute or so.  The idea is to build very slowly and make lots of small increments.  The first few weeks were pretty easy.  I was able to finish and feel like I wasn’t going to die.  I upped the pace a bit to push myself.  I felt pretty confident that I would be able to actually make this thing work and complete it.

Then, I had an injury.  I was on the treadmill just jogging away.. I think, at the time, I was working on a 5 minute jog or something along those lines and my left calf just completely seized up and I couldn’t even bear weight on it.  It was bad.  It has been the only time since I started exercising that I actually thought about going to see the doctor about one of my minor aches and pains.  Needless to say, I didn’t bother; I just took a week off entirely from cardio exercise; then added back in the elliptical for another week; before I went back to the treadmill.

It was last night, when I was on the treadmill and I was able to run a full 30 minutes at a slow pace; but I was ABLE TO DO IT.  I finished and it didn’t kill me.  I still don’t get the “runners high” or feel awesome when I’m done because of the running.. I feel awesome when I’m done because I’m done and I did something that I didn’t think I could do.  Yeah, thats right; I can run.  HAH.  Take that universe.    I’m thinking that I might actually try running outside once the weather warms up a bit.  I’m slightly terrified of it and the pressure on my knees; but hey… only one way to find out.

Maybe I should register for a 5K?  Could be worth getting a t-shirt…. and an opportunity to run with Michelle.

Wish me luck!