So… let’s take a moment to be very real with each other. I’m not physically fit.
Once I hit 22 my body started giving me warning signs about my physical fitness, or lack thereof, with the tiniest bits of extra weight tucked here and there. Then I hit 23 and my body hit me. I started noticing bigger tucks and it made me a little worried. I’m not trying to be Adriana Lima, and I’m in no way making any negative comments about my body appearance or striving for weight loss (my weight is a perfect amount for my 5’8″ frame), but I’d like to maintain a relatively healthy lifestyle! Since every passing year proves my likelihood of becoming a vampire, and therefore immortal, is getting smaller and smaller, I figured I might as well try other ways of extending this life I’ve been gifted. Being an all-around healthier person seems to lend to that.
Individual exercise was never my thing but it’s been a while since I played competitive sports in any capacity to make up for that. The last time I was habitually physically active was in high school when I played soccer, a sport I’ve played since I could walk. I’ve done the odd yoga class or elliptical session in college, but even those clock in at maybe a few times a year. A couple weeks back I went to see my doctor for my first physical since those very high school soccer years and she told me that people my age should be doing at least 2 and a half hours of cardiac training per week. And no, getting your heart rate up over Pride and Prejudice (2005) does not count.
My baby step decision was to start running a mile a day. My friend Allison is the person that put that idea into my head in the first place. She runs an incredible health and fitness blog over at Fit For Real and a few months ago she posted about how she runs a mile every day. Even throughout my months of not exercising, I couldn’t get that post out of my head. It always felt like that would be something I’d start on if I ever decided to get into exercise and as soon as I started my recent panic about my physical fitness her words kept coming back.
A few days after my doctor’s appointment it was time to face the actual event: my first run in… at least 6 months but probably closer to a year. I was excited, I felt motivated, I laced up my sneaks and hit the pavement… only to barely make it to the bottom of my street before my body realized what I was doing and started trying to shut me down with a vengeance. Shins started aching, lungs beat back against my rib cage, feet grew leaden, legs trudged and dragged like a tantruming toddler’s.
My inner monologue really took off faster than I was running with a million things my brain thought about my getting back into the cardiac swing of things, and therefore I decided to turn them around to share with you in case you’re trying to get into that habit too. Here are some notes from my first mile in a while.
First, you don’t need to like exercise. I freaking hate exercise. People ask me what my favorite thing to do to work out is and I say stretching. Running was never for me. I marvel at the fact that I ever even made it through as many soccer seasons as I did, but I also acknowledge the fact that I played defensive positions which required more of a quick sprint than the constant stamina needed from the midfielders. But running a single mile? That seems like such an insignificant amount! I’ve seen quite a few websites that say running a 10 minute mile is a decent pace for beginning runners with moderate health levels so that became my first step goal.
When I run I listen to Steady130 mixes because they’re just all around ideal and they’re long enough (about an hour) to be a constant beat rather than listening to a playlist I made myself with breaks in between the songs that don’t even really match up well in the first place. If you choose to listen to these as well a tip from me to you is to start the mix before you start running. I press play as soon as I’m ready to get dressed and let the tempo get into my head as I lace up my sneaks and take one last sip of water. I assume it puts some kind of psychological pace into my head so that starting to physically run isn’t so much of a shock to the system but who knows.
Motivation is hard to find for me, as I’m sure it is for many other people out there in the world, so I make it competitive. I’m literally the most competitive person I know and I’m pretty happy to be that way because I like to think it’s more of a personal, inside quality than an annoying, outside one. I’m constantly striving for a personal best and what makes me get up and move to achieve that is when I see things, or people, I want to incorporate in that. Take Allison. She’s a motivator, she’s an inspiration, she is not in any way shape or form being factored as someone I need to best. I need to best myself, and my competitive streak tells me that in order to do that I need to take a page out of her book. Allison is only one example here. Trust me, there are many athletes and personal connections and total strangers that I add into my internal competitiveness.
Pace is also a big problem for me. Back to those soccer influences, I would rather sprint than pace myself. I’m a long-legged girl with a big stride, but that means that I happen to outstride the pace my cardiac system can actually maintain. My legs want to leap and bound themselves up and down the street but my lungs and heart can’t keep up so the biggest challenge I have is reining myself in. Eventually I’ll work my way through the 10 minute mile goal to get to 9 minutes and 8 minutes and ideally 7 minute miles (fingers crossed) but for now I’ve got to remember to pace myself because the important thing is to just make it to the finish line.
At the end of my first run, crawling up the stairs all red in the face, my neighbors were probably looking at me thinking I just finished a marathon rather than a mile. Quick side note: I’d like to say thank you to all of the people I went to high school with for moving out of the neighborhood so I could make less of a fool of myself in front of people who actually recognize me. But I had done it! I finished a mile! And it felt supremely miserable and painful in the physical sense but kind of rewarding in the mental / emotional sense. I’m not 100% sure I agree with the runner’s high thing, but I guess I have to concede that accomplishing a run definitely boosts my dopamine. Or serotonin. Or whatever it is that makes me happy and proud of myself.
Because a mile is hardly anything! And yet it’s so much! If Allison can, I can and if I can, you can. Probably. Most likely. Let me know how it goes regardless.