A change will do me good

I hope, at least.

Instead of running or yoga, I went to the gym today. A few years ago I signed up for Planet Fitness and have never gotten rid of the membership. It's only $10. At my physical, my doc told me I had to do some type of cardio regularly.

I want to run. But over the summer my joints started to ache. I'd go running and then the next morning I would barely be able to walk. So I had to take a break. I hated it. I just got back up to almost 30 minutes with no walk breaks. I was so close. I was going to look for 5Ks.

School started in August, and then it was September, October, and well, here we are.

After my doc told me the news-- also that I need to seek a rheumatology specialist for the joint pain -- I made a plan. For the month of November-- the shortest month of the year-- I must go to Planet Fitness 12 times.

I made a schedule and a plan, and I promised myself that if I reach my goal, I am allowed to drop some coin on a cool new gym bag.

I dreaded it all day.

But I did it, which was the point. I tried a new form of cardio, the rowing machine. I didn't want to do the treadmill because the temptation to run would be too great. So I rowed and rowed and it was hard. Then I made the rounds on the machines. Then another 10 of cardio, this time on the stationary bike.

There is not a comfortable bike seat in existance. It's the worst.

I wonder about people who spend time at the gym, like how it's their happy place. I've spoken with people who work their aggression out and even knew a guy who was a 3 hour gym person. His body was banging. And there are some parts of me who's like, "what if you did that?" I watch The Biggest Loser and see those people in the gym all day. I know it's not "healthy". That's not the point. The point is you get what you put into something.

But my overall goal is strengthening my nonexistent core so I can put less pressure on my knees, and hopefully be able to run again.

Today was the first step to that.

Cussin and blowing (Aug 30 stats)

It was rough out there today.

My plan was, since I was trying to get back to where I was when I was sidelined, to level up to a 12 minute interval today. And it was hard… not going to lie.

Again, the abs. My stomach muscles were clenched for the last interval and a half.

First interval was good. Had to look at my watch, but not until the last 20 seconds, so good.

Second interval was fine until the turnaround. As always— and you would think I would learn from this repeated mistake— I timed it so I was finishing my interval going uphill. I had three minutes left and I couldn’t do it. Had to walk it.

By the time the third interval triggered, I was spent. Spent so much, I had to just stand on the side of the road and think about my life choices. I walked and jogged it the rest of the way in as needed.

I tried not to allow myself to be thrown off by outside distractions. The landscapers who mowed the right of ways would pause and allow me to pass. Super nice of them, right? But passing someone makes me kick it into a faster speed and that burned through my energy. I avoided the walking fitness moms by jogging in the bike lane. Again, passing people. I hate passing people. Sometimes I walk just to avoid passing people. But that’s a different hang up.

My speed was pretty good. When running, I was trotting under 15:00 mins per mile, which is fast for me. But it could have been all the passing.

All in all— some fitness is always better that sitting around on my butt. I’ll head back out soon and try the 12 again.

August was a rough month

August was tough. I went back and looked at my calendar and the last time I went running was Aug 1. It was a good run. I was feeling good about my schedule. The my knee started feeling weird. It didn’t hurt, but I wore a brace for a few days to let it rest.

Then my kid brought home a cold. We all ended up with bad coughs — deep in the chest, cough until you pee yourself coughs. Running was impossible until I recovered.

Yesterday I felt well enough to give it a shot. Honestly before I walked out the door, I told my husband I wasn’t even going to run. I planned to just go for a walk. But when I reached the spot where I normally started my intervals, I decided to change my plan.

I figured 10 minute intervals would be a good starting place.

First interval, great. Didn’t even look at my watch. Second interval, good. I slow jogged up the big hill. Third interval, not so great. Had to slow to a walk a few times.

After I was done, I felt all jacked up on endorphins and glad I went. I remembered to stretch, which is one of the things that screws up my knee more often than not.

My knee feels fine.

Now that my semester has begun and I am teaching again, I am shoving more person errands and appointments in smaller open windows of time. Sometimes that is overlapping my running time. I gotta make sure I honor my fitness times.