Wednesday, October 6

We've been running… yes, running

When I first moved to Alameda 5 years ago, I had this fantasy that I would become a runner. I was living alone on this lovely island that's completely flat, has a really nice running path alongside a beach with a view of the San Francisco skyline, and where cars don't generally go over the maddeningly tame speed of 25MPH. The running idea also appealed to me because, at the time, I was spending upwards of $150/mo on yoga classes in Berkeley and I liked that running is basically free and you don't have to drive anywhere. You just step out your front door, and off you go, keeping fit, enjoying the scenery, all independent-like.

So, one weekend I threw on my sneakers and shorts and off I went… fast. 2 blocks away from home, I was huffing and puffing, feeling my face turning red, and my only thought was "fuck this." I gave up on my romantic idea of island running.

Then, last summer, 2.5 years and 15 lbs into our relationship, Liz and I decided to revisit the whole running idea, inspired by our friends Britta and Emily and their talk of "wogging" around Lake Merritt. We started slowly, doing 1 min walk/jog intervals with Liz pacing me since I tend to want to run too fast (possibly to make up for my freakishly short legs)—wogging. The wogs felt pretty good even though there were some lessons learned right away such as: 1) good running shoes are important, and 2) pavement hurts 37-year-old knees not used to running.

Since then, we kept up the wogging, making tiny bits of progress (up to 2 min intervals), but only in fits and starts for a variety of reasons/excuses: swine flu, Liz being crazy jumping off the bar at work and injuring her foot, brutal bay area winter weather, Battlestar Galactica, moving, and so on.

Until…

Liz came across a training program called Couch-to-5K AND discovered that there's an app for it. Basically, it's a 9-week program of interval training that you do 3 times a week for 30 mins, and at the end of it, you've worked up to running a 5K! The iPhone strapped to your arm does all the planning and timing for you in the form of a bell and a bland, not-very-coachlike voice that tells you when to run, walk, and (our favorite part) when you've reached the halfway mark so you can turn around and head home. It's a simple pleasure, I know, but somehow, this silly bit of technology is working for both of us.

This past Saturday, we finished Week 5 with a 20-minute (2 mile!) run between 5 min warmup and cooldown walks. We even entered a smiley face in the record the app keeps of how your run feels. My goofy fantasy of being a runner on Alameda took 5 years to work itself out, but it's actually taking shape. This shape, actually:


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3 comments:

  1. you are an inspiration. i want to like running, but i don't. maybe i will try this approach, rather than the run-2 miles-really-fast-and-then-never-again-for-a-year approach that i am so fond of.

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  2. thanks, marcy. you know we do it so that we can eat and drink as we wish, so our motivation is not quite pure. 25 min run this morning, though! who'd have thought?

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