I wouldn’t call myself athletic. I’m a bit of a klutz and a weenie which is a
combination that doesn’t usually equal athletic prowess. I’m not a thrill seeker but more of a control
freak. The idea of doing anything fast,
epic, “balls to the wall” is not something I’m attracted to. Give me something methodical, slow and repetitive
and we might have a winner.
I’m also a total pear shaped person – thinner on the top and
thicker on the bottom. This means that my
body was built to use my muscular legs for things like walking (which I
naturally do pretty fast, ask my family – I leave them in the dust when we’re
walking around anywhere), biking and as I’ve recently learned,
snowshoeing. I’m great at climbing and
using all those thigh muscles for what they were meant to do.
Ironically, though I’m a natural walker, I’ve always hated
running. This hasn’t been helped by shin
splints and trying to keep up with people who are more proficient then I
am. I like the idea of running –
covering more ground than walking in the same time and giving your body more of
a cardio and muscular workout. I’ve just
always been bad at the execution. I
think I’ve just gone out too fast or too hard without a plan on how to
correctly acclimate myself to something new.
Recently, I’ve been working on being more active and have
found some things that I enjoy doing (thankfully) but usually I’m only exercising
on the weekends. I know that to really
see the benefits of activity and to embrace a lifestyle where exercise is important,
I need to commit to workouts throughout the week.
So I’m so happy now that I’ve found a great running program,
Couch to 5K. There are several training
programs out there with the similar aim of helping couch potatoes or weekend
warriors like me get in to running. It’s
a 10 week program that gets your body into running shape with run/walk cycles and
then increases your running until you can complete a full 5K. I must say, it’s one of the best apps I’ve
spent money on (and I’m stingy so there aren’t many apps I actually spend money
on).
I’ve made it through week one and must say it’s easier than
I thought it would be and I actually enjoy the half hour I spend
run/walking. Things at work are getting
really busy and a bit stressful and it’s been great to have some time to myself
after work to let out some of the stress from the day. I still wouldn’t call myself a runner (yet)
but I can see myself becoming one by the end of the program.
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