Jogging

Jogging has been a real sore spot for me for quite some time (no pun intended). I can remember back to grade school (2nd grade or earlier, since that's as long as I was in school), during the Presidential Fitness Test having to "run" a mile, with the coaches timing us, and even then it was torture to me. I would start off running like everyone, but 1/2 way into my first lap, I'd have to slow down to walk. Miserable.

When I was a dancer and in good shape, jogging carried this warning: "it will shorten your muscles!," so I steered clear. And then in college, even during "Concepts of Fitness and Health" (blarg), I was so out of shape at the time that the best I could do was speed walk around the track. Although there have been periods of decent fitness over the course of my life, including when I was in grad school, working out almost every night, jogging was never a part of my routine.

In addition to getting winded after even 20 seconds of jogging, a big part of my problem has been my calves, the problems with which I've talked about a lot. Jogging, or hell, even walking sometimes, would throw them into a tail-spin of soreness, tightness, pain; so I tried to steer clear of tracks and treadmill, opting instead for an elliptical machine. I think this developed within me a fear of the treadmill: of falling off, of it going to fast for me to handle, of it being so steeply banked that my feet go out from under me and I break my face on the handle bars... you know, the normal rational fears ;)

At the beginning of this year, before I started training with Peggy, I thought I would push myself to do a couch-to-5k plan when my small group from church decided to register for a 5k together. Despite the cold weather at the time, I really wanted to get myself into shape, so whenever possible, I would go to a small track around the corner from my house and "train" there. Whenever there was inclement weather, I would walk/jog/run in place at my house, hoping to at least up my cardio-endurance (nevermind the creaking and shuddering from the timbers under my feet, which were obviously not designed for indoor marching). But however often I marched at home, or walked at that track, my calves would be killing me. So I eventually gave up.

When I started training with Peggy, I told her one of my goals for my time with her would be to run a 5k, or even a mile. I told her I'd like to have a post-training workout plan, which would include running or something I could do on my own, after my year with her is up. At the beginning, she would put me the treadmill (fear! trepidation!) to walk carefully, being very mindful of my shin splints / calf issues. She would put me on a steep hill, to take the strain off my shins, and then I would go for 10 minutes or so, resisting the urge to grip the handles the entire time. This would happen every couple of weeks or so, and I was always relieved when I didn't have to get on the treadmill.

Instead Peggy would put me on the stair stepper or the elliptical machine. She puts those machines on programs (Hill, Interval, Random), at a level just high enough to challenge me, and get me thinking "I'm not going to make it up until 15 minutes." This goes to another point, which is to remember that my challenges in working out have been mostly mental. Usually, I can do it, regardless of fatigue, soreness, difficulty, etc.; I just have to focus on my breathing and keep pushing forward instead of psyching myself out over the challenge. I need to remember this after my training sessions with Peggy end, and I hope I can be as tough on myself as she has been with me.

Anyway, the stair stepper, and the elliptical, and the random bouts of jogging back and forth on the gym floor, and the jumping with ropes of all types (ah, sigh, the rubber-hose rope that hits me in the head every time) have served to get my cardio-endurance closer to where it should be (right now, I'm "Average!"). So the other day, one sunny Sunday afternoon, I decided to go on a walk, at the trail across the street from Samford. I decided early on to stay out for an hour - the length of my workouts - so I set off to walk 30 minutes in one direction, 30 minutes back. After about five minutes of walking, I realized that my heart was still plodding along at a pretty low rate, so I excitedly upped my pace to a good medium jog. After a minute or two, my heart still wasn't about to explode, and I could still breathe easily, but my legs were starting to burn, so I slowed back down to a walk. For the rest of my time out there, I alternated between jogging and walking, and made it back to my car in just over an hour. It wasn't until I slowed down to get in the car that I realized my legs felt like noodles, and it wasn't until I later googlemaps-ed my route that I discovered I had walked/jogged about 3.8 miles. On one hand, I felt very proud of myself, but even my feeling of accomplishment was eclipsed by the dread of the impending soreness I was sure to feel the next day.

Yeap, sure enough the next day, and in fact the next five days, were some of the sorest I have been in a VERY long time. I could barely stand upright, walk without limping, or keep my mouth shut about how sore I was. And it was my own fault. Peggy was not pleased with me having taken matters into my own hands in a way that inhibited her from putting me through my normal rigors at the gym. I spent 2 full workouts in recovery mode, and a third workout with a substitute trainer, trying to get past the soreness. So my bout with "Jogging" continued...

That was at the beginning of November, but since then, Peggy has started putting me on the treadmill more often, usually at the end of my workouts. On the 11th and the 18th, I was proud to report that I had jogged on the treadmill (at speed 4.5, and incline 0.0) for FIVE STRAIGHT minutes (up till then, the longest I'd ever jogged?). Lame, I know. But, stop the presses! Yesterday, after my weigh-in and fitness test, Peggy put me on the treadmill. I warmed up walking (speed 3.5) for two minutes, and then she put me up to 4.5 to jog. And jog I did, for ONE FULL MILE (what what!?). This is officially my most exciting milestone so far. I know for a fact that I've never jogged that far, and I didn't even have to stop to pant along the way. I did the mile in 13:20 minutes, and then cooled down for five or so.

So the lesson learned here, is that even when I didn't realize its happening, I was getting in MUCH better shape, not only cardio-wise, but in terms what my legs will tolerate. My calves are a little sore today, but its not hard to walk or anything. I guess it is all mental, because I am slowly overcoming my fear of the treadmill, and loving the transformation into "jogger."