That year, Lifehacker’s senior health editor Beth Skwarecki opened her regularLifehacker Fitness Challenge”To all of the staff. We could pick a month at a time and achieve a personal fitness goal to take our readers on our path to physical and mental improvement. In the brainstorming meeting we had on the subject, I said something I may regret: “I’ve always wanted to run.”
Running and I have had a close relationship since my junior high and high school days when physical education teachers made us all run a mile every year as if our ability to do so meant they were somehow successful at their jobs. I was always among the last to cross the finish line and I was always miserable and bright red in the face (thank you, fair skin) when I finally crossed the finish line.
As an older teenager, I tried to run regularly and I hated it. As a student, I ran the track at our student recreation center and I still hated it.
The thing is – I like to exercise. Drop me off at the bottom of a mountain and I’ll hike it. Give me a tennis racket and a ball and I’ll serve. I “run” on an elliptical trainer or ride my bike several times a week. But being able to just pull on a pair of sneakers and hit the sidewalk seems like something that could be so liberating, if only I could overcome the mental barrier that seems to lie in front of me.
I’ve heard of people who used to hate running and now they love running and I want to be one of those people. So I picked the month of May – not too cold, not too rainy, not too hot – to give myself the best shot for success and here we are.
G / O Media can receive a commission
Beth asked me last week what my “plan” was for the month (I didn’t have one) and what obstacles, if any, I had foreseen. I told her that overcoming my fear of people who would see me running was a great fear, as I’m pretty sure I look weird when I run – to which she replied, “You probably do. Everyone looks weird when they run, running is weird, we’re built for it anyway. “
Then she sent me this training plan for “beginners” That had a nice mix of 1.5 mile runs, 3 mile runs, and some walks. “I like that,” I told her. “It seems super feasible.” I intended to write this post about all of my hopes and dreams for transitioning to the great runner lady with a workout plan, but at the last minute I decided to take a short run just to get a base for where I was. So I put on my sneakers and left home around 1:04 pm. When I got back at 1:17 pm, I was in pretty good shape.
Everyone looks weird when they run, running is weird, we’re built for it anyway.
So those 13 minutes went on: I walked a block or so (until I was pretty sure no one was there to see me), and then I started running. Or rather, I tried to run but my ankles weren’t giving me the full range of motion, so my movement can be more accurately described as “clumsy”. I trampled a block and a half before coming down for a slow, panting walk. I did this exactly two more times, achieving slightly better range of motion in my ankles and trampling a little further each time before declaring the situation “absolutely hellish” and coming home.
When I wondered why I hadn’t chosen a “fitness challenge” like Lifehacker’s senior technology editor David Murphy did drink some water Beth talked me off the edge for a month. She told me this was not a failure, it was a win! She told me to put a sticker on my calendar today because I wanted to run and then I ran. And she gave me a plan for the next time: walk a full five minutes, accelerate over time and bend my ankles, and then run – slowly – until I start puffing and puffing. Then go a little. Rinse and repeat for 10-15 minutes. All of my intermittent walking also counts as “running time,” she said, which I was delighted to hear.
The good news is it couldn’t have gotten much worse (without hurting myself, which at first seemed like a definite possibility). And that means, things can only get better from here. I’ll let you know how it goes next week – and if any of you have been as pathetic as me and managed to get over the mountain, please drop your best advice for me in the comments.
