Day Six (and onward ‘round the bend)

Progress!

Finally, progress. Today I managed to run the whole thing without stopping, other than when I was supposed to. But it gets better--

We started out as usual, and within the first minute I was HATING life. My side hurt, I was thinking how bad it sucked, my head was sooo not in it… yada yada. But I didn’t stop, kept on. First two minutes were up, we start the walking portion. I get my breath back and then some, and then we start running again. The second set wasn’t so bad. I still hated it, I wanted to stop, but I kept going. The second two minutes ended, and we started walking again. By this time we had looped The Lake once. We ARE running faster.

Then we start on the third set. I picked up the pace a teeny bit, and didn’t hate it for once, just disliked it. Yes, that is progress for me mentally, but not the Progress! I was referring to…

The fourth set we start out, and there’s this incline that I normally walk up midway. Well. Today, instead of walking up it, not only did I run it, I RAN up it. As in, shifted gears, dug in deeper, and RAN. Legs pumping and everything. It hurt. It was hard. I wasn’t loving it. But godsdammit, I DID IT.

That little thing was huge for me.

We start on the fifth and final set, and The Man takes off. He likes to push himself a bit the first minute to gage where he’s at, but he slows down and waits for me. And then a strange thing happened… I shifted gears again, picked up the pace again, and fairly booked it to catch up with him. I mean, for me, that was major. I ran as hard as I felt that I could without really thinking about it. I felt it so deep in my lungs, my legs were so tired, my whole body was fighting it, but I was doing it!

So yeah, today was a big day for me, a day where I finally saw some improvement. I am so relieved. This week had been so hard for me, mentally and physically, and if it weren’t for The Man, I probably would have given up by now.

I’m so glad to see some self-improvement. I still really dislike running, because it’s hard and it hurts, but I lalalaLOVE that we’re doing it. I know that it’ll get easier. I mean, I’ve been sedentary for a long, long time; this isn’t going to be an easy process, or an enjoyable one (yet). But that’s the goal, the whole point. To get to a place where I like it, where it’s easier, where it doesn’t hurt like this.

We’re taking tomorrow off, because it’ll be seven days in a row for The Man and he needs a break. I’ll probably go and at least walk around The Lake a few times, though. And Saturday, we’re going to start Week Two. However, instead of moving on with run three, walk three, we’re going to repeat run two, walk four. I really feel like I need to do that again before I can advance. At first I was thinking, don’t be a wuss, just do it! However, I don’t think my bod is ready yet. I have to keep reminding myself that this isn’t a sprint, but a marathon, and it isn’t about how fast I do it, but that I finish it. It’s been years since I actively exercised, and it’s not something recoverable in just a few days. Patience is key. I don’t want to push too hard and quit because I get discouraged, so we’re going to repeat this cycle and THEN advance.

And that is today. Not bad, I say, not bad at all!

Peace.