C25K redux

I really, really, really don't like running. I tried the C25K a few weeks ago and when I couldn't move on from week one I quit. I put it down, at least in part, to MP3 problems, particularly the frequency with which the toggle would reset itself midrun despite being securely nestled between my (thank you M&S sportsbra) well-supported 42G breasts. But the truth is that was a welcome excuse, because I don't enjoy running. I don't enjoy being hot and red and sweaty. I don't enjoy being short of breath while a soundtrack tells me I should be able to talk comfortably. I don't enjoy shin splints and calf tightness and trickles of sweaty running down the small of my back, and I don't enjoy not being able to see any gains. But I'm where I am because, when given a choice between doing what I like and what's easy, or what's challenging, I plump for the first option almost every time. My home is filled with unsorted stuff because tackling it is too overwhelming; I didn't file a tax return for seven years because just starting seemed too hard; and I'm fat and unfit because sitting down and eating is easier than getting up and moving. And there are some things I don't hate about running - I'm spending time outside paying attention to the world around me, for a start. I've discovered the advantages of having an MP3 player, particularly when exercising: I can't hear my breathing, which makes me less self-conscious about it, which allows me to keep going instead of stopping because someone might give a damn about a fat, middle-aged woman (though I'm still thirty inside) puffing as she jogs at a walking pace. And that's reminded me that most people are paying way more attention to themselves than to me, something I knew but which had slipped my mind. And I quite like making progress toward my 10,000 minimum steps target - today I hit 4,945 by the time I got home. Most of all, I like that running burns more calories than walking, and brings me to my weight and fitness goals faster, including the goal of being smaller than I've been in over twenty years by the time I next see my sisters, later this year. I'm writing this still in my running outfit, fresh from run two of week one. I've learned a couple of things I must remember for my next run. The first is that waiting until 11AM to start is a bad idea, because even in autumn the Melbourne sun is warm and glaring. The second is that there's no such thing as being too short of time to pre-stretch. I start the podcast as I leave home, because between the "My name is Robert" intro and the five minute warm up I'm at the park and past the hill in time for the first run. The first two runs went fine, but between a natural inclination for calf tightness, all the walking I've been doing lately, and my decision that a stretch class two days ago was enough, by the time I got to the walk between jogs two and three my calves were too tight to keep going. I spent the next twenty minutes in the shade of a tree doing a variety of psoas, piriformus, hamstring and calf stretches, and started the audio over again. Even that wasn't enough - between every other jog I had to do a couple of stretches, and spent about half of each walking section ambulating backward, which uses different muscles and doesn't increase calf pain. I suppose the up side is that I really did ten running sections, and I'm better equipped for my walk to work tomorrow, particularly if I do more stretching tonight. I've also got a new MP3 player coming from Catch, in the same delivery as my juicer, and I hope to have a couple of weeks of my own music ready to download for the runs ahead. However little I enjoy running, I hope to have some sense of accomplishment if I persist with the program. And the creator of the C25K did it so more people would be converted to the endeavour instead of being put off by going too hard too quickly - who knows, I may even end up a convert. At the very least I hope to be able to be able to run for half an hour without needing resuscitation at the end point. And even if I never enjoy it, running may be an exercise my body likes; though not part of her review, Lynn tells me that Harper's Your Perfect Body includes the sage advice that the exercise we enjoy isn't always what works best for our bodies. My next run will be on Saturday; by the time Lynn's ready to return to the C25K (post school holidays) I may even have caught up to her and be able to join her in tackling week four. - Alex