[Well,
hello, sports fans! I know it’s been,
oh, dear, soooo long since I've written. What
can I say? I’ve been BUSY! Anyway, here I am again, and I’ll try to be
more assiduous or at least less lazy.
Enjoy!]
I
stand at the window, and I stare out moodily.
It’s cold, the snow is coming down like a bear, and that makes me mad. I never minded the cold in previous
winters, but last fall I began the Couch to 5K program, and now I’m losing it,
I’m losing it all.
Couch
to 5K is a program of incremental training designed to get your tushie off the
couch and work you up to running five kilometers. Five K is not as far as it sounds, a kilometer
being rather shorter than a mile, so it
comes to about three miles. Now, I never
thought of myself as a runner. In fact,
I’m not a runner now. I go for what I
euphemistically call “a run,” but I wouldn’t strictly even call it much of a
jog. Let’s be honest, I go for a
shuffle.
The
program begins by having you run for 60 seconds. Heck, I thought, I can do that. And I could!
I could run for 60 seconds, then walk for 60 seconds repeating for 20
minutes (with a 5 minute warm-up walk).
I did it! I got excited!
I
began “running” in old leggings and older shoes, but the conventional wisdom is
true: you need good shoes to jog. After two sessions of shin splints, I hit
Neiman Marcus’ Rack and came home with well-cushioned Nikes wide enough for my
feet. That triggered the understanding of what the program is all about. Like ballet, it’s about having a reason to
buy cute exercise clothes. I bought
fleece leggings and two jogging shirts that make me look like I’m going fast
even when I’m standing still, breathing hard.
My
son kindly told a friend that “Mom and I are doing Couch to 5 K.” This is such a lie. David is doing Couch to 5 K. He goes to the gym in inclement weather. He runs for a full 25 minutes (the maximum
programmed time), and is working on increasing his speed. He DOES Couch to 5K. I shuffle along in my spiffy outfits, intermittently jogging and walking for a total of 25 minutes. I
think I make about a mile and a half.
I
thought jogging would be the perfect complement to ballet. I dance three days a week, and, I thought,
those days I don’t have class I can just pop out the door for a little sunny exercise. I steeled myself to tough it out through the
cold. I was thinking 40 degrees, but the
weather witches had it in for me this year.
We hit teens and single digits here in the DC area. The temperature was parallel to the popularity of
Congress. We‘ve had either wind or rain
or ungodly cold almost every day. I’ve
made it out once a week most weeks, but this week is going to be a bust, and
that makes me mad.
After
half a summer, all fall and most of the winter of hitting the pavement
(remember, I shuffle; there’s very little chance of damage to the knees), I was
running for two minutes at a shot. TWO
MINUTES! Scoff, if you will, but those
are two hard won minutes. I’m proud of
those minutes. The thought of having to
go backwards, to go back to running 90 seconds at a time is HORRIBLE!
The
thing is, running makes me feel good. I
don’t know if it’s endorphins or sun on my skin or just the feeling that, yes, I’m
off the couch. On days like today, I glare
out the window thinking of the two minutes I’m surely losing. So,
yeah, I’m cranky. Wanna make something
of it? I’m ready to fight, and I can run two minutes to catch you.
