Jogging My Memory

A couple of years ago I took up jogging. I challenged myself to complete the Couch to 5K program and was well on my way to running (OK, jogging slowly, but jogging nonetheless) for 30 minutes straight. A cruise, a cold that didn't want to go away and some creaky knee joints derailed my efforts and before I knew it I'd given up on the idea of becoming A Jogger.

Face it, I told myself, you weren't meant to run. Remember when you were on the soccer team in junior high and you could barely make it around the field once? Don't you remember how hard it was for you to walk/run a mile for those Presidential Fitness Tests they made you do in gym class? You're just not a runner. Why even try?

I convinced myself that running wasn't my thing and happily went back to walking, yoga and elliptical-ing. But for some reason, I just couldn't get the idea of me jogging with ease on the treadmill or running gracefully along a wooded path out of my head. Another voice was reminding me of how much I liked that feeling of being able to run. The accomplishment of making it just a little longer before having to walk, the excitement of knowing that my body was able to do something I had convinced myself it couldn't do, made me want to keep trying.And so I'm jogging again. Slowly, in spurts, with rest days in between for my knees which are already protesting slightly.

I can't seem to find a link for it, but I saw a report on CNN a week or so ago that said the best way to start running is very gradually, as in very short intervals of jogging (about 30 seconds) and walking (about 1 minute). Apparently too many people jump in full tilt and end up injured, exhausted or burnt out because they worked too hard, too fast. The shorter intervals give the lungs and joints time to adjust to the change in movement, intensity and impact. I've seen evidence of this myself. I started my own jogging routine three weeks ago with intervals of 2 minutes jogging and 3 minutes walking, and that seemed to be going well. When I tried a Self program to increase my endurance and speed after just two weeks of my 2 to 3 intervals, my knees started creaking and clicking like crazy. Maybe that guy on CNN was right. I'm going back to my 2:3 jogging to walking ratio and I'll stay there until I'm good and ready to move on. My goal is still a 30 minute jog, but there's no hurry. After all, it's taken me 32 years to get this far, what's a few more months?