Running

I am not a runner. My body is simply not built to run. My bones are too heavy to have a good relationship with the ground at high velocity.

However, running is a very good way to get aerobic exercise. And I can get the exercise at the level I need most efficiently if I run. It is therefore, perhaps, a necessary torture.

It has been pointed out to me that the best time to exercise is in the morning, before your body has a chance to figure out what's going on and initiate shut down. I have to get up at 5 all this week to take Jon to BART (we've had some...transportation related issues of late), so, I figured I would take the opportunity to trick my body into figuring out running again.

"Again"?

I had to run every day in middle school. It was part of our daily PE program to run for 8 to 12 minutes at the beginning of each PE class. Even on the hottest days of the year, we still did the 8 minutes. Now, I was never fast. I was always at the back. There were only a couple people slower than me. When I graduated 8th grade, my mother told me that she had a discussion with the PE teacher, and that he had said that I had done an amazing job keeping up with it, even though I was just not built to run. If we had a swimming pool, I would have been doing that instead, and pretty much everyone who ever taught me PE knew it. I knew it. I am an evolutionary swimmer (though, being of general northern European decent, I can only guess at where my ancestors needed that skill). So, I have a swimming pool, why am I choosing to run?

The pool we have is small, not open (really) until 8 or 9, and is in the middle of the other half of my apartment complex. That doesn't make it far away, but it does make it public, and therefore deters me from using it. Also, when I come home from work everyday, it's filled with screaming children. No good for the kind of intense aerobic exercise I need. For running, all I have to do is work up the guts to run the whole way around the block and not die of hyperventilation.It doesn't take long, though it may seem like eternal suffering.

I went on my first run this morning. It was...interesting. Aside from the body over heating, ragged/ difficult breathing upon return to the apartment (both quelled by an immediate cold shower), it wasn't too bad. Though, I either need a hardier sports bra or I need to tape my chest down, because there's a lot of force involved and it makes it hard to breathe while running. Any ideas?

The only long term/ day of effects I have experienced are increased tiredness, hunger and a sort of confused "I exercised earlier..." feeling. I say confused because it's not entirely as pleasant as I would prefer, but it's not bad. I imagine the fatigue is mostly because I'm not used to it, and the hunger partly because I still skipped breakfast. I need to figure out a way not to do that... hmm to be contemplated.

Update: I've been sitting at my desk all day. My hip joints are displeased. Unsure if this is related


In terms of last week:

I did exercise 3 times. I did a whole lot of Jackknifes against the Wii Fit Yoga Trainer. I did 40 of them last time. I'm working on making that the main exercise on Wii Fit, along with general yoga stretches and the Advanced Step.

So. Success! Hurray! 10 dollars for me! Thats a grand total of... 10 so far. Wow I'm awesome at this (sarcasm).

Anyway. This week's goals are a little bit late in coming, but:

Run Wednesday and Friday. Wii Fit Thursday and sometime on the weekend. If I manage the run on Friday, I get the 10 bucks, if not, no 10 bucks. Wii Fit is worth an extra 5. So, if I manage all of that I get 15.

Preemptive goals for next week:
Jon goes back to working a little bit later, so it will make it a little tougher to get the run and a shower in, but I think I can still do it.

So run twice. However best fits my sleep, determination and confidence levels. It must happen twice to earn money though, otherwise no success.

Onwards!
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