Tuesday, March 20, 2012

An Experiment in Commitment

After months years too long spending my time making excuses for my health and fitness rather than actually doing something about it, my desperation to no longer be in the same weight class as hippos and small airplanes has finally overtaken my lack of inertia to get my butt moving.  I started the Couch-to-5k running program this week.  I am going to get into some kind of manageable physical condition if it kills me, although I sincerely hope it doesn't.

After week-one-day-one, my first time running for any extended length of time since being on the track team in middle school, I was surprised at how quickly my lungs were able to rebound after each little burst of running.  I used to have a lot of respiration problems, and I would tire out my lungs (burning) a long time before my muscles would ever feel it. 

That is definitely not the case anymore.

I woke up Tuesday morning incredibly sore along my lower calves, with a little bit of a shin splint, and with some pain and tenderness along the top of my foot and ankle.  I definitely don't mind the calves or the shins, although they make me hobble a little bit, because I used to be a very fit person.  It's not super comfortable, but there is a part of me that loves the bite of lactic acid.  I know I worked, I know I moved, and I know I pushed my muscles to their limit.

The foot and ankle pain did bother me because I wasn't able to stretch it out over the course of the day and it felt like it was in the bones.  After a bit of google searching, I found out that any long-term or serious damage to that area is usually called extensor tendonitis, and can be caused by a number of different things.  Step one is going to be much looser lacing when I go on day two, and step two is being mindful of my feet to make sure I'm not keeping my toes pointed too high.

Right now I'm still excited for this to keep going.  Let's see how long I can stay committed. 

As far as stats go (using MyTracks):
Time: 28:50
Distance: 1.82 miles
Max speed: 8.52 mph
Avg speed: 3.85 mph

No comments:

Post a Comment